The Stain on My Life

If this had been more than half a year ago, and a woman had burst into tears in front of Yang Chen, he would have only assumed she had been affected by an enemy’s smoke bomb, or that she was putting on an act to lower his guard, or even that she was trying to seduce him by looking pitiful... But now, the beautiful woman who had spent one night with him was obviously crying because his words had truly hurt her.

Without thinking, Yang Chen felt a rush of guilt in his heart. Although he felt that much of what he said was not wrong, for a modern woman who had kept her chastity for more than twenty years, it really was cruel.

"All right, stop crying... Do I have to apologize to you?" Yang Chen said irritably as he reached into his coat pocket, only to find it empty. Then he remembered he had been trying to quit smoking lately, so he had not bought any cigarettes to carry with him.

Lin Ruoxi’s tear-streaked face was heartbreaking to look at, but this woman was stubborn too. After shedding two lines of clear tears, she pulled out a tissue and wiped her face, then forced herself to hold back her sobs. With reddened eyes, she stared at Yang Chen and said, "I’ll ask you one more time. Will you marry me or not?"

"Miss Lin, what kind of era do you think this is, when a beautiful woman just insists on dragging a man home to be her husband? I’ve made myself very clear. I’m not going to play some boring three-year game with you." Yang Chen sighed and stood up, preparing to leave.

This time Lin Ruoxi did not say anything more. Instead, a few traces of despair appeared in her eyes, and with a blank, numb expression she also stood up and walked first toward the café’s second-floor terrace.

The café terrace was fairly spacious, with several exquisite little tables under sun umbrellas. Various potted plants lined the terrace, giving it a fresh, pleasant feel.

When Yang Chen saw this, his pupils contracted and he sucked in a sharp breath. "Miss Lin, you’re not planning to jump off the terrace because I won’t marry you, are you...?"

Lin Ruoxi acted as if she had not heard him and kept walking without a word. She slowly approached the edge of the terrace, casually pulled over a chair, then stepped onto it and moved closer to the railing at the edge of the wall.

Now Yang Chen hesitated. This woman wouldn’t really be that fierce, would she? He knew that if she jumped from here and hit the hard stone pavement below, she might not die, but she would definitely be crippled...

However, Lin Ruoxi’s actions immediately told Yang Chen just how terrifying her resolve really was...

Coldly, Lin Ruoxi turned back to look at Yang Chen. Her eyes were filled with determination, disgust, pain, and bitterness, as if her soul were suffering inside that breathtaking body and she wanted nothing more than release...

Their eyes met, and Yang Chen felt his heart twitch. He was too familiar with that look. It was exactly like an image buried deep in his memory, an image that had once made him break free six months ago from the bloody shackles of more than ten years overseas and return to the country where he had been born...

But now, looking into Lin Ruoxi’s eyes, Yang Chen once again remembered too many things he had tried to forget but could never truly let go of. In that instant, Yang Chen lost himself.

Seeing Yang Chen standing there dumbly, as if he had no intention of saying anything at all, Lin Ruoxi felt a wave of misery. Even if she jumped, that man would still be indifferent.

Thinking of the pain of losing herself to him, the pressure and tangled problems in life, at work, and at home, Lin Ruoxi felt as if she were truly about to break down... What was the point of living?

Maybe death would end everything...

Just then, a young male waiter who had finished preparing the coffee and was carrying a tray up the stairs reached the landing, and the first thing he saw was Lin Ruoxi’s graceful figure poised to leap from the floor above.

"M-Miss Lin! What are you doing? It’s dangerous!"

As soon as the waiter’s voice fell, a figure suddenly flashed past his eyes, leaving only a blur of motion, fast enough to look like movie special effects!

The instant Lin Ruoxi, tears in her eyes, was about to jump, a pair of strong arms suddenly wrapped around her slender waist and stopped her leap.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. The waiter at the stairs did not even see what had happened clearly; he only saw that on the terrace, the rough-looking man was holding the beauty around the waist, the two of them standing silently and motionless...

Sunlight spilled over the terrace’s green plants, casting a faint green glow across the young man and woman. The atmosphere was peaceful and faintly seductive.

The waiter let out a breath of relief, while secretly envying the fact that this man could have such contact with a great beauty like Miss Lin. Quietly setting down the coffee, he retreated downstairs.

Lin Ruoxi felt as if she had gone from hell straight back to heaven. She did not know how Yang Chen had managed to appear behind her in that split second, and she no longer had the heart to think about it. All she could feel was a pair of hot arms locked tightly around her waist, so tight that it hurt a little.

And the man’s rough breathing was slowly brushing against her sensitive back.

"Let go of me. Even if you stop me now, I’ll still go kill myself later," Lin Ruoxi said stubbornly, her face flushed red.

Yang Chen took a deep breath, as if savoring the seductive fragrance coming from Lin Ruoxi’s body. Her scent carried a faint jasmine note. Having smelled far too many top-tier perfumes, Yang Chen felt that this natural fragrance surpassed them all.

"Lin Ruoxi, I lose. I’ll marry you," Yang Chen said softly with a sigh.

Lin Ruoxi’s delicate body trembled all at once, then she fell silent.

Had she won?

Then why did she not feel the slightest joy?

Right. This was only a man she intended to use as a shield. He had also taken her virginity while her mind was muddled. She hated him, so how could she love him? If she did not love him, how could she possibly be happy marrying him?

At the same time, quite a few passersby in the square had seen the pair on the terrace, and many of them began pointing and talking with great interest.

"Honey, what do you think they’re doing?" a girl asked as she clung to a man’s arm.

"Can’t you tell? They’re imitating Titanic. Pretty romantic, actually..."

Unable to bear the scorching gazes from below, Lin Ruoxi finally realized how ambiguous their posture was. She hurriedly stepped down from the chair, broke free of Yang Chen’s arms, and walked back into the café.

By the time the two sat down again, the matter had already been settled. However, both of them fell silent and simply drank their coffee.

After a long while, Lin Ruoxi set down her cup, took two sheets of paper and a pen from her small LV bag, and handed one sheet to Yang Chen.

"What is this?" Yang Chen asked, snapping back from his distant thoughts.

"An agreement. A marriage agreement," Lin Ruoxi said, turning her face away again and no longer looking at Yang Chen, returning to her original cold expression.

Yang Chen smiled faintly, took the pen, and without even looking at the paper, wrote his name in the signature line with a flourish.

"You sign without even looking at what it says?" Lin Ruoxi frowned.

Yang Chen shook his head and laughed. "I don’t need to look. It’s nothing more than: I can’t enter your room, I can’t touch you, we don’t interfere in each other’s private lives, I have to do a proper act when other people are around, and after three years you pay me. Right?"

Lin Ruoxi pressed her lips together and muttered, "Pretty much. Since you’ve signed, you have to follow it from now on."

"Heh, but little Ruoxi, if you come asking to do that with me... what am I supposed to do?" Yang Chen asked with a shameless grin.

"You..." Lin Ruoxi flushed red with embarrassment. "Hmph! That won’t happen. One life stain like that is enough..."

A life stain?

To Yang Chen, that thing half the people in the world did every day was apparently a life stain, and he could only smile helplessly. He drained the rest of his coffee in one gulp, slapped his backside as he stood up, and said, "All right, I still need to go eat at a friend’s place later. Let’s put the registration off until tomorrow..."

"Wait, how am I supposed to contact you? What’s your phone number?" Lin Ruoxi said unhappily.

Yang Chen scratched his head and said awkwardly, "Didn’t you already investigate me? I don’t have a phone. If I buy one, I’d still have to pay the bill, and I don’t have the money. Come to my place tomorrow and look for me. Just call out downstairs and that’ll do." With that, he turned to leave.

"Hey!"

"What is it now?" Yang Chen looked back.

"You... you’re not allowed to call me that," Lin Ruoxi said, too embarrassed to even say the title herself. It was far too mushy.

Yang Chen suddenly understood, then put on a solemn expression and said, "As you command, my dear wife."

Lin Ruoxi instantly felt the world spin around her... How was she supposed to get along with such a rogue in the future?"