novelTunes Like This, I Have Only Heard Them in the Likes of Nightclubs
| ← Ch.264 | Ch.266 → |
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As he sized her up from top to bottom, it was obvious that she certainly could not have come out by herself since she had difficulty moving about. It was also not very likely that she came with a friend.
Do not forget about what he did for a living. With all said and done, he might know Yan Zhiqing better than she knew herself.
She did not know many people when she first arrived at B City, regarding only Lu Weining as her close sister. This was likely due to the fact that Yan Zhiqing was naturally a reserved person. Not only was she was bad at keeping friends, but she was also rather unwilling to make friends with strangers. It was enough as long as she had one friend; she was reluctant to go out and meet more people. Furthermore, with that mouth of hers, she would make people so angry that they would often leave before she could even befriend them. Hence, she only had one friend in the form of Lu Weining for the longest time.
This was also the reason why Wei Wucai thought that Yan Zhiqing was daft. Though he had not met her before this, he had actually found her more stupid than he had initially thought after meeting her in person.
All this came together to mean that in Yan Zhiqing's current state, it was impossible that she had come here with friends. Thus, she could only be here with her family.
"I'm with my brother, Yan Huaian and the others." Yan Zhiqing replied subconsciously.
Only after replying did Yan Zhiqing suddenly realize that she had indirectly answered Wei Wucai's question. Her whole body instantly felt sick.
The corner of Wei Wucai's lips twitched, he wanted to grin but restrained himself from doing so. This was the first time he had met such an oblivious young woman. She was living proof that being stupid had its advantages; after all, they were all simple-minded.
She clearly knew that he had a venomous tongue that sought to infuriate her, but in that brief moment, she had forgotten about and had replied him. She regretted it the moment the words left her mouth, a look of horror ruining her good looking face. On the other hand, for the first time, Wei Wucai thought that this woman's face did not look particularly ugly once it became distorted.
Thus, he said, "Since they've come over, I'll go and meet them as well."
Yan Zhiqing's expression instantly changed She looked as though she was having a toothache, yet she clearly did not intend to obstruct him as she told him, "If that's the case, then you can push me."
Subsequently, Wei Wucai repeated the same words as Liang Wenyin, "Isn't it electric-powered?"
Once Yan Zhiqing heard what he said, her blood boiled. She felt that Wei Wucai and Liang Wenyi were simply too well matched as neither of them were good people!
"My hand hurts!" Yan Zhiqing could not care less about whether she appeared poised or not as she raised her voice and howled with rage.
Wei Wucai recalled that she had fallen a little while ago, yet he did not really care about whether or not her hand was genuinely injured. He found it pretty interesting to talk with this young lady, so he agreed to push her from behind as they walked away.
People would often become enraged and leave once he spoke, but this did not mean that he did not want to get along well with people. Rather, it was simply that not many people could tolerate his spiteful mouth.
Besides those at Lanshan Institution, even a good deal of his own family, the Wei Family, could not stand him. Therefore, Wei Wucai decided that he could still tolerate Yan Zhiqing ⸺ who was a newly-appeared young woman that had quite the ability to endure ⸺ when she was not being stupid.
Yan Beicheng and others were startled when they saw Yan Zhiqing returning with a man after using the toilet. This was even more so when they realized that this person was Wei Wucai.
Wei Wucai was Wei Ziqian's cousin who had been sent to the Lanshan Institution by the Wei Family when he was young.
The Wei Family was different from the other families. Once the heir to family was established, and the Master of the House had appeared from amongst his peers, the others would no longer have the opportunity to compete for the title of Master of the House, even if they had been up to standard from the very beginning. To guard against the unexpected and prevent the future possibility of a child growing up with large aspirations that might cause him to vie with his brothers, they would immediately find ways to advance the other children separately in order to avoid them from contending with the heir of the Master of the House for the title.
When Wei Ziqian arose as the Master of the House, Wei Wucai was five years old. After this, the Wei Family had sent Wei Wucai to the Lanshan Institution where he had worked with Wen Ren ever since.
Wei Wucai was slightly younger than Wen Ren and was only 28 years old this year. When he had first arrived at the Lanshan Institution to receive training, he went through stages upon stages of examination and elimination. In the end, he became the leader of the Shadowless of the Dark Shadows, a position he had held until now.
However, due to the significance and uniqueness of Wei Wucai's position in the Lanshan Institution, the so-called Dark Shadows was located in a dark place. However, this was not taken to the extent whereby not even a single ray of light could be seen all day long - his normal life was not affected, it was just so people would not be able to discover his identity.
Therefore, few people from the outside world knew that he was attached to the Wei Family. Even if they did know this, they would have no clue about what exactly he was doing for the Wen Family.
People like Yan Beicheng and others were just a few on the in-the-knows.
Hence, Yan Zhiqing was totally oblivious to this. She was not aware of Wei Wucai's work at the Lanshan Institution, let alone the fact that he was Wei Ziqian's cousin.
This was why it did not occur to them that the two of them would actually end up bumping into each other, hanging out for a while, before returning together.
Since Wei Wucai was familiar with them, he greeted them and roughly explained to them what had happened earlier. However, Wei Wucai also knew that girls normally wanted to make a good impression in front of others. This was especially so for Yan Zhiqing, who had a rather strong desire for this. Thus, he merely explained that Yan Zhiqing had bumped into someone and fell. Although he had a habit of bad-mouthing others, in this instance, he did not mention anything about her being in an unfavorable situation while in the hands of the other party.
"I come to say hi as I know you guys were around." Wei Wucai explained.
Nevertheless, how could Lin Chu let Wei Wucai leave so casually after saying hi? Almost immediately, she hurriedly asked Wei Wucai take a seat. Since there was not a lot of them in the group, and Yan Zhiqing was sitting in a wheelchair, an extra chair beside Yan Zhiqing just so happened to be vacant.
"Have you eaten yet?" Lin Chu asked while calling for a waiter to pass them a new set of cutlery first without waiting for Wei Wucai's reply.
Wei Wucai smiled and said, "Not yet."
When one of the dishes was served a moment ago, Yang Yunmeng had angrily left before anyone had even gotten a bite.
"That's a coincidence, we've just arrived as well. Let's eat together then." Lin Chu said while smiling.
Yan Zhiqing grimaced as she did not really want to sit together with Wei Wucai, but she did not feel good chasing Wei Wucai away upon seeing others treating him politely. Therefore, she could only shoot him a glare secretly.
What an actor!
He pretended to be someone refined with a good temper in front of her family, yet he would put her down viciously when they were not around. Right there and then, Yan Zhiqing resolved to complain about this to Yan Beicheng once she returned!
She grunted in frustration as she did not want to sit at her original seat, which was next to Wei Wucai. Therefore, Yan Zhiqing controlled the wheelchair and tried to seize the opportunity to sit by Wei Zilin's side.
Her only solace today was the fact that Wei Zilin was sitting in between Yan Beicheng and Yu Zi, so it just so happened to separate the two families. Wei Zilin may or may not have sensed what Liang Wenyin had in mind, but in either case, sitting in the middle was the safest option.
However, they had always been close, so it was not awkward for them to sit together. On the contrary, Liang Wenyin was forced into the corner.
When Yan Zhiqing pushed the controller to try to move the wheelchair, she could hear the sound of mobilizing but saw that the wheelchair was not moving. This meant that there was obviously a very large resistive force stopping it from moving.
As Yan Zhiqing stopped trying to move the wheelchair and was about to turn her head, the wheelchair was suddenly pulled back. Only then could Yan Zhiqing see that Wei Wucai was the one who was using one hand to pull her wheelchair back.
How much strength did he need to do that? The wheelchair was electric-powered, and although it did not move very quickly, the average person should not have been able to drag it with one hand, right?
"What are you doing?" Yan Zhiqing asked, irritated.
Wei Wucai pointed at the dishes Yan Zhiqing had used just now in which a bone was still on the plate."This is your seat, I presume."
Yan Zhiqing, "..."
"Yep, it's her seat." Liang Wenyin realized Yan Zhiqing's intention and took advantage of the situation to say.
Yan Zhiqing, "..."
Nosy!
She was referring to both Liang Wenyin as well as Wei Wucai.
From Yan Zhiqing's wonderful expression, how could Wei Wucai not have known that she was scolding him in her heart?
For some unknown reason, he would be amused whenever he saw Yan Zhiqing turn hostile toward him, as if he was teasing and playing with a child. It could be that he truly considered her a kid since Yan Zhiqing was so young.
This was what Wei Wucai was thinking at the moment.
Not only he was in a good mood, but his appetite was quite hearty too. He was showing absolutely none of the dejection that is normally associated with a failed blind date. In reality, Ms. Yang did not leave even the slightest impression on him from the start. It was like meeting an irrelevant stranger who one would forget immediately after their first encounter, with little to no chance of ever meeting again in the future.
Meanwhile, Yan Zhiqing did not have much of an appetite. She would see Liang Wenyin sitting across from her every time she lifted her gaze; unsurprisingly, Liang Wenyin always seemed to be able to find topics to discuss with Wei Zilin. Yan Zhiqinig was too weak in this aspect as she was young and had little experience. In reality, she had learned how to perform well at school, but she did not have much real-world experience. Since she was injured now and was stuck at home, she did not have anything interesting to talk about.
On the contrary, Liang Wenyin often got in touch with professors from her college. Although it was a college of fine arts, fine arts were not the only thing they were taught as there were various other courses as well. Visiting professors also often came to give lecturers, often from a wide variety of fields such as psychology, marketing, and public relations. These topics alone were enough to fuel Liang Wenyin's conversation with Wei Zilin.
In addition to this, she had also met many executives from varied industries after she had returned, and also whenever she organized art exhibitions. Now that she had an interest in collaborating with Lin Yi, both of them soon drifted to discuss work-related matters a short while later. Because of this, Yan Zhiqing struggled even more to get her say in.
Yan Zhiqing gnashed her teeth in indignation. She could not help but vent her anger by shooting a glance at Yan Beicheng. 'What's the point of inviting Liang Wenyi when you don't interact with her?!'
Yan Beicheng was baffled by her gaze but did not pay any attention to her. Instead, he concentrated on tending to his wife.
Every so often while Yan Zhiqing lowered her head and ate, she would accidentally bump into Wei Wucai's elbow when she was not paying attention. Almost instantly, she had a toothache.
The one sitting across her was a love rival whereas the one beside her was someone who only ever said mean things to her.
Yan Zhiqing could not put up with it any longer, so she smiled particularly sweetly and asked, "Big Brother Zilin, could you help pass me the juice?"
Seeing that the juice was just so happened to be in front of him, Wei Zilin turned the table for her.
Yan Zhiqing thanked him sweetly once again.
Wei Wucai tutted and told Yan Zhiqing in a hushed tone, "That voice of yours is really making my throat feel uncomfortable due to its excessive sweetness."
"..." Yan Zhiqing was so angry that she gritted her teeth; she was itching to stitch Wei Wucai's mouth close. Thus, she extended her hand to fill up his tea for him."Well, you ought to drink more tea and talk lesser."
"Oh! That's a pretty big change in your voice." Wei Wucai said with a low voice in an enigmatic fashion. He was not used to women talking in a cutesy tone, so he replied, "I've only ever heard of people using such a tone at the nightclub and whatnot before."
Yan Zhiqing almost threw the chopsticks at Wei Wucai's feminine face. 'Is he saying that I'm that type of woman?'
She knew that he had the tendency to insult others, but she did not expect his mouth to be so venomous.
"Oh! Well, you're rather capable yourself. I'm sure you always go to those shady places to look for those kinds of women, right?" Yan Zhiqing said in an equally mysterious manner. Her eyes sized Wei Wucai up from his face to his pants.
The word "dirty" was distinctly written in her eyes.
"I detest indecent people like you who go to these kinds of places to look for a girlfriend and hang out with dubious women. When I first saw you, you looked like a normal person, yet I didn't expect you to have such a dirty private life. Since you know my brother and others, why don't you learn from them? They're all single too. Big Brother Zilin never goes to those places to look for women." As Yan Zhiqing continued to look at Wei Wucai, she felt more and more disgusted.
However, her expression became especially conceited once she mentioned Wei Zilin.
Wei Wucai's expression became stern as he silently criticized her in his mind. Fortunately, she had not done anything with Wei Zilin yet. Nevertheless, she would put on a proud face whenever she mentioned Wei Zilin, as if Wei Zilin really belonged to her family.
"I go to those places to handle cases, not to have fun." Wei Wucai said with gritted teeth.
Yan Zhiqing chuckled. Despite the fact that she believed him, she acted as if she did not so as to not allow Wei Wucai the satisfaction.
For some unknown reason, she felt better after jibing Wei Wucai twice. Now, she did not really find seeing Liang Wenyi - who was sitting across her - unpleasant to look at anymore. Now in a good mood, she extended her chopsticks to take a piece of roast duck in front of her when suddenly, an extra pair of chopsticks suddenly appeared at the tip of her chopsticks right as she was about to grab it.
A second later, Wei Wucai swiftly snatched a piece of roast duck before turning the table away quickly.
Yan Zhiqing, "..."
Seeing the roast duck being rotated away, she gritted her teeth. However, moments later, the fried burdock appeared in front of her. Yan Zhiqing really liked having fried burdock as a side dish while having alcoholic drinks or as a snack due to its fragrance and crispiness. Thus, she extended her chopsticks to take some. However, as she did this, a pair of chopsticks appeared in front of her yet again. Wei Wucai picked up some off the plate once before speedily rotating the plate of fried burdock away.
As Yan Zhiqing turned her head and glanced at him, she saw that the roast duck he had taken earlier had not even been eaten yet!
Gritting her teeth, Yan Zhiqing simply rotated the turntable for a bit before the nine-turn large intestine appeared in front of her by chance. (TN: The nine-turn large intestine was originally called braised large intestine and is a traditional dish in Jinan City, Shandong Province. If interested, you can read more here www. chihuoclub. com/food/jiuzhuandachang. html)
The nine-turn large intestine was served based on the number of people present, in which each individual was given one piece. You could not eat more than one piece as it would be greasy to enjoy.
When Yan Zhiqing went out just now, everyone had already taken a piece when the dish was first served, and so now the last piece coincidentally remained on the plate. Wei Wucai was an unexpected guest; no one knew that an additional person would appear when they previously ordered the dishes. Since Wei Wucai had not yet arrived when the nine-turn large intestine was ordered, he did not have a portion.
Yan Zhiqing was wary of Wei Wucai this time around as it revolved before stopping right in front of her. As it had happened twice in a row, she felt that Wei Wucai was doing this on purpose. She was confused and did not know how whether she had offended him for him to act like this.
Nevertheless, he was so petty to retaliate with such tactics after just a bit of bickering!
Therefore, Yan Zhiqing's movements were especially fast this time. She did not hesitate in the slightest as the blur of her chopsticks flashed across the table.
The people at the table had already noticed both of their petty maneuvers. Ever since Wei Wucai's had first suddenly rotated the lazy Susan on the table, it had caught everyone's attention.
The dining etiquette of these people was excellent whereas Wei Wucai had never forgotten the etiquette of the Wei Family despite receiving training at the Wen Family's house ever since he was young. Besides this, he had also hidden as an undercover agent and infiltrated organizations both in public and in secret using various identities during the numerous occasions as required by the Intelligence Department of the Lanshan Institution. Therefore, it was fair to say that he was not one to get overwhelmed with protocol.
Hence, everyone remained silent and looked over as this went on for a while. They also could roughly make out the sharp exchange that was occasionally shared between Wei Wucai and Yan Zhiqing.
Despite this, they did not stop them. Rather, they were all captivated by the matter.
Lin Chu and Yu Zi could not suppress the smile on their faces anymore, even going so far as to exchange glances with each other.
Men were always quite slow in this regard, but the two of them had very quickly noticed the electric atmosphere between Wei Wucai and Yan Zhiqing.
Who cares about what caused the atmosphere? They were currently quarreling, but it was still a form of blazing emotion shared between a man and a woman, no? It was hard to say that this would not develop into something else later on.
Yan Zhiqing's attention was focused on how to defend against Wei Wucai so she naturally did not notice this. Wei Wucai, on the other hand, actually noticed it, but he did not think much about it.
Someone with such malicious mouth did not have a very high EQ.
When he noticed Yan Zhiqing's movement, he acted. Yan Zhiqing was fast, but he was faster.
Thus, Yan Zhiqing saw the nine-turn large intestine vanished before her very eyes!
She thought that she had been quick enough!
Without giving it much thought, her first reaction was to turn her head to look at Wei Wucai's plate.
Wei Wucai had snatched it from her despite his plate being full. At this moment, was that not the piece of nine-turn large intestine placing on top of the crunchy fried burdock!?
What made Yan Zhiqing angry was not the fact that she was craving the piece of nine-turn large intestine, but that she could not tolerate such bullying.
Wei Wucai looked at her from the corner of his eye, he was extremely pleased with Yan Zhiqing's facial expression. He picked up the piece of nine-turn large intestine and placed it into his mouth in a calm and unhurried manner. He looked totally contented as he ate it slowly.
Not even the tiniest sound could be heard while he was chewing. His table manners were impeccable, making the sound of Yan Zhiqing who was sitting beside and gnashing her teeth particularly clear.
Wei Wucai immediately felt his appetite become better. As she held the chopsticks and grinded her teeth, Yan Zhiqing had to urge to poke him in the eye upon seeing him like this. At this moment, a steaming hot clay pot that was still emitting a strong fragrance stopped in front of her.
"Zhiqing, try this. I think it tastes delicious." Yan Zhiqing did not expect Wei Zilin to have been the one to say this.
In reality, this was the first time Wei Zilin had taken the initiative to talk to her ever since Yan Zhiqing had first come to B City and met with him.
This certainly made Yan Zhiqing utterly happy. She did not even bother to act reserved as her eyes squinted from smiling so hard while her mouth nearly split up to her ears. Meanwhile, she extended her chopsticks to grab it and simultaneously guard against Wei Wucai. Wei Zilin had actually rotated this for her and asked her to eat it. In Yan Zhiqing's heart, this action was similar to Wei Zilin personally taking food for her with his chopsticks. Both of them were currently seated far from one another, but if they were seating nearby, Wei Zilin might have really personally taken the food for her.
As she was lost in her thoughts, Yan Zhiqing's mouth was filled with the fragrance from the dish despite the fact that she had not eaten it yet. She would even have been able taste the sweet and sour flavor of the air if Wei Zilin had just suggested that it had this taste.
Wei Wucai pursed his lips, wanting to turn the clay pot away. He did not think about why he wanted to do so, he just could not stand looking at Yan Zhiqings stupid expression.
However, Wei Wucai could not do so this time around.
Yan Zhiqing saw that Wei Wucai's hand was placed on the turntable, so she was wary of him this time. She hurriedly supported it with her hand to stop him from spinning it, well aware that her strength could not compare with him but still feeling that she had to try to resist no matter what.
However, she unexpectedly noticed that she did not feel the turntable moving much. She turned her head to look at Wei Wucai but quickly saw that Wei Wucai's eyes were fixed on Wei Zilin.
As Yan Zhiqing's gaze shifted to his brother, she discovered that Wei Zilin's fingers were pressing on the turntable at the same time. He looked calm and unruffled in the midst of this chaos.
In an instant, Yan Zhiqing's heart melted into a puddle. She ladled out two scoops for herself and then let go of the table.
After tasting a mouthful of it, she felt her mouth get overwhelmed with sweetness. How could she still be able to taste the authentic flavor of the dish itself was her mouth was like this? In any case, what Wei Zilin recommended would surely be delicious to her.
Yan Zhiqing ate with her eyes squinted and grunted in an exaggerated fashion. Her voice bent here and there as if it winded through the air after spilling out of her mouth; It stuck to the wall, spiraled to the ceiling and then fell back down.
As Wei Wucai listened to her, goosebumps appeared all over his body, spreading from head to toe as he tutted yet again.
"Big Brother Zilin, it's really tasty." Yan Zhiqing said sweetly. However, even she was surprised at herself after she had finished speaking. Her voice sounded extremely lovey-dovey.
She found it slightly embarrassing, so she hurriedly coughed and collected herself, trying to pretend that nothing happened.
Yan Beicheng and Wei Zilin sat in between Lin Chu and Yu Zi, so even though both Lin Chu and Yu Zi did not have issue exchanging looks, they could not communicate with words. Thus, they simply picked up their phones to talk in WeChat.
Since Yan Beicheng was sitting beside Lin Chu, he watched their conversation through the phone. Lin Chu did not have the intention of hiding things from his anyway, so she just took her phone and held it between the two of them beneath the table so that he would be able to see the screen. Once Yu Zi replied to the message and they had read the message, she took the phone back to type her reply.
Seeing the two of them teasing Wei Wucai in WeChat, Yan Beicheng guessed what Wei Wucai had in mind. He found it interesting as well as he looked over casually. He always felt that Yan Zhiqing was more suited to Wei Wucai than Wei Zilin.
| ← Ch. 264 | Ch. 266 → |