The President is Being Shameless Again Chapter 118 - It Has Always Been Yours, Even Though Years Ha

Chapter 118: It Has Always Been Yours, Even Though Years Have Passed Since Then

Yan Beicheng humd in agreent and released her to reach for his back pockets. Lin Chu realized that he brought a short-handled shovel with him.

“When did you take this with you?” she asked with surprise. This man was really a little unorthodox.

“When I went to the study for the photo, I rembered that we’ll have to dig sothing out, so I brought it with ,” Yan Beicheng explained, and he pulled Lin Chu along until they were underneath the shade of the old poplar tree.

They started digging when they found the spot.

When the two of them were younger, Yan Beicheng had also sneaked in through the wall to et Lin Chu in secret, so they had only a toy shovel that Lin Chu found for them when they wanted to bury sothing.

With only such a flimsy tool, the two of them had dug for an entire afternoon non-stop, but the result was not that deep a hole. Although the shovel Yan Beicheng brought was not big, it was enough.

After a while, they unearthed a hard, tal box.

Lin Chu took it out. The box was one of those tal containers for fruity drops a decade ago. Those sweets were not that tasty in truth, but people back then, back when most people were not well off liked them because they could only eat them during the Chinese New Year. This tal box looked old-fashioned, with a picture of a starlet printed on top — she was astronomically popular back then, but now she was buried under the sands of ti.

The box was rusty after so long. Lin Chu could not pry the box open so after a long ti, she thrusted it onto Yan Beicheng’s hands. “Quick, open it.”

Yan Beicheng had to try a few tis before he succeeded in opening it, teeth gritted.

Lin Chu took out her phone and turned on the flashlight on the back.

There were two small bags in the box — one was hers while the other belonged to Yan Beicheng.

The two of them had agreed to pack their things into small cloth bags so that the other could not see what they had packed, put them into the box and buried it.

Lin Chu took her bag out first and opened it, revealing two hand-holding dolls.

“So this is what you buried,” Yan Beicheng’s lodic voice, one suffused with mirth and warmth, said.

Lin Chu nodded. “I rember that the arts and crafts classes from back then taught us to make these dolls out of gloves. It’s simple, even kids our age can also learn it.”

The dolls in Lin Chu’s hands were made from white yarn gloves that had now turned yellowish.

Cotton was stuffed into the gloves, and the part where the palm would be in was tied into two parts, the upper part being the heads and the lower part bodies. The thumb was cut off, the forefinger and middle finger repurposed as arms and the other two fingers as legs.

Two curvy lines and a small dot — eyes and the mouth, respectively — were drawn on with black watercolor paint, but then they faded after years weathered under the soil.

“I sewed the two dolls’ hands together because in my mind this was like holding hands with the older boy,” Lin Chu said with a smile.

In retrospect, the two dolls were simple and crudely made, shape barely recognizable, but she had thought that these were good.

Yan Beicheng lifted his brow. These dolls were a little too simple; there was not anything that resembled hair or clothes when she could have drawn them on.

“Which one are you? Which one is ?” Yan Beicheng asked, scooting closer.

“This smaller one is , and the bigger one you.” Lin Chu picked up the dolls with her fingertips and shook them towards Yan Beicheng.

“You were quite ingenious when you were little,” said Yan Beicheng with a smile, “You cut corners while making those, so now we can only rely on size to tell them apart.”

“I was only six! This is already quite impressive,” Lin Chu said exasperatedly. She looked at the dolls with affection; these ntos bore a significant aning.

The old principal kept all her stuff she had left in the orphanage for her. There were not many, nothing that could be preserved. After she went to the Lin ho, there were even fewer things worth keeping.

“Take these ho and put them in the room,” Yan Beicheng said, “This is a symbol of our young love.”

Lin Chu, “...”

She had only wanted to keep this as a nto; she did not even think of such shaless implications.

“Open yours and see,” Lin Chu pestered, hugging her dolls.

Yan Beicheng looked at her before he smiled and opened his bag.

In it was a red velvet box, revealing the ring lying inside when opened. It was a very simple, unornanted circle of tal.

Yan Beicheng took the ring out and said, “I bought this with all my savings. My father had just passed away, and my mo...mother brought up the topic of my marriage again. It never gained montum after the massive tantrum I threw and my grandparents’ support for . I thought, back then, that I wanted to look for girls that I like by myself. My marriage should not be controlled by other people, they shouldn’t tell who I should marry. No one can control my life and achieve their ulterior motives from it. Right then, I thought of you.”

“You were still a little girl, but your face appeared in my mind. Maybe it’s because I felt carefree when I was spending ti with you — I didn’t think of stuff that made unhappy, and my heart was filled with undiluted happiness. My mother made unhappy, so I automatically thought of you to cheer up.”

Yan Beicheng continued with a warm smile, “You were so young back then. I was mystified, too, how could I possibly feel that towards you? Also, how our futures would turn out and if fate would make our orbits collide — those are questions that no one could answer. We both had to embark on our own paths, paths that no one knew when they would diverge. No one knew if we would still stay in contact. Maybe we would have grown apart after a few years due to circumstances beyond our control, and we would be nothing more than strangers. Maybe we would forget that the other ever existed.”

“When you told that we should bury our treasures and unearth them after we grew up, I emptied my savings and went to a jewelry store. My allowance was not that much back then, so I could only afford the cheapest ring. I thought if we were so lucky as to have the chance to unearth this together when we grew older and were the sa people as before, you becoming my girlfriend was definitely inevitable, and so was giving this ring to you.”

“I think it’s ti for this to return to its owner,” Yan Beicheng said, holding up the ring with his fingertips.

“So, is this ring for ? If you did not find after you had buried this, you wouldn’t dig out this and gift this to soone else, would you?” Lin Chu looked down at the ring pinched in Yan Beicheng’s fingers.

This ring was a simple one. Its design was outdated by two decades, and the patterns carved on the tal could not compare to modern designs. Its making did not involve complex techniques.

Lin Chu still thought it was beautiful, though, even more so than more expensive rings.

This was the ring that Yan Beicheng had bought with all his savings. It was most valuable; any other ring now could not compare to this.

Lin Chu thought of wearing this as her wedding ring if she got married in the future.

She did not say this to Yan Beicheng in this mont, though, as he may laugh at her.

Saying that would make her look desperate to be his bride.

Yan Beicheng chuckled, his low, rich baritone resonating in the darkness. “Yes. This has always been yours, even though years have passed since then. This ring will always be yours.”

He never had any fiancée. If there had to be one, it would be her. Her, who he had been engaged to years ago.

He did not expect to find the girl from back then again and take her here to recover the treasures that they had buried together — those treasures that he had thought would stay underground forever.

Yan Beicheng held Lin Chu’s left hand up lightly and slipped the ring onto her middle finger.

Her pale, slender fingers were beautiful. The silvery-white ring looked elegant and delicate worn on her finger.

He looked at her, the smaller girl from then, wearing the ring that he had bought for her, a gesture that felt like a symbol that he had tied her down for good. Yan Beicheng beca inexplicably emotional at the gesture, feeling like he had successfully finished a massive task.

He held her hand and kissed the knuckle of her ring-wearing finger.

Lin Chu assud that the ring was all that he had buried. She had wanted to stand up, but then she saw Yan Beicheng remove the cushion inside the box. She shone her flashlight towards it and noticed that a piece of paper was hidden under the cushion.

The piece of paper, folded four tis, was miraculously whole and undamaged from the multiple layers of protection it was under — it was hidden well under the cushion in the ring box, which was wrapped by a layer of cloth, which in turn was put inside a tal box.

Yan Beicheng handed the ring box to her so that she could remove the piece of paper herself.

Curious, Lin Chu removed it gingerly and opened it, only to reveal two characters written on it: Ji Yan.

The penmanship was grand — it was evident that the writer practiced calligraphy since young and poise bled out of every single stroke — in a style which was obviously Yan Beicheng’s but was less defined due to his young age. It also had a feel of overt brazenness when compared to his current handwriting, which had llowed out into strong, sure strokes as reservedly composed as the person who wrote them.

“The fact that everyone in the Eight Dominant Families has a second na is quite widely known. The Yans are descendants of the Emperor of the Yan kingdom, who once had the last na Ji. When the royal family deserted the country and went under the radar, they did not dare to retain their last na, so they hid it in their second na. This is mine; I’ll only reveal it to my wife,” Yan Beicheng said quietly, his smile warm and pure in the moonlight, his irises illuminated under the ray of gentle light.

Lin Chu had wanted to ask him why he had said it so ambiguously when this was not a proposal — why he told her his second na when he had said before that he would only share it with his wife.

What was really his intentions? He might as well give her a direct answer!

But then the corners of her mouth were involuntarily rising until she was at the brink of losing control over her expression, and she gave up on resisting and laughed, clear and loud. She folded the piece of paper and stored it in her pocket carefully, feeling as it was burning hot inside.

Yan Beicheng observed her series of actions and asked with a smile, “Are you cold?”

Lin Chu shook her head, and she heard him say, “Should we sit here for a while, then?”

Lin Chu nodded and saw Yan Beicheng sit down on the ground, with nothing cushioning him and back resting on the old poplar tree, looking relaxed.

The ground was cold. Lin Chu was bunching up her coat and getting ready to settle on the ground when Yan Beicheng pulled her into his lap, her back reclining on his chest.

“The ground’s cold. I’ll be your cushion,” Yan Beicheng said, his slender fingers brushing her hair to the side and revealing the back of her pale neck, on which he lowered his head and planted a kiss on.

The kiss felt warm when his wet, tender lips landed on her skin, but the area was left damp and cool when they departed; she shuddered.

Afraid that she felt cold, Yan Beicheng opened his coat wider and wrapped her in it tightly.

“That picture of us might be taken here.” Yan Beicheng scooted closer to her ear and directed his gaze below to see her earlobe flush red gradually. He could not resist landing a kiss there.

Lin Chu humd softly.

Who would have thought?

When she had first taken that picture with Yan Beicheng, the two of them were naive and did not harbor any other thoughts. She was still little and did not know of feelings of affection between different genders; Yan Beicheng, on the other hand, would definitely not have such feelings towards a little girl. Their relationship back then, depicted in the picture of them, was more similar to one between siblings.

The difference between their ages seed big then, but that difference seems aningless now.

Yan Beicheng looked down at Lin Chu. The little, milk-scented child who once had fit in his arms now grew up to be a beautiful young lady.

A lady that he, after painstakingly devising and deploying various plans and strategies, had managed to abduct into his bed and then his ho, beca his girlfriend and the woman that he wanted to marry in the future.

This was sothing he definitely did not think would happen at the age of fifteen.

Who would have thought that the child from back then would now be tightly held in his arms, exchanging kisses and touches and sharing close and intimate gestures with him?

Even soone like Yan Beicheng was a little guilty when he thought of how she had looked like at the age of six.

Looking down at Lin Chu, face flushed red, Yan Beicheng, too, felt that destiny was really a mysterious being. The child from his mories had grown up into a woman; the little girl he had seen as a sister beca his girlfriend who ended up locked in his arms.

His heart was nearly bursting with affection. Lin Chu’s beatific face was re inches from his, and he succumbed to his increasing hunger by sucking on her neck until a red mark appeared and kissing it gently a few tis.

Lin Chu retracted her neck and burrowed into his arms, still feeling surreal.

Surreal that she had t him when he snuck into the orphanage from up the wall, and that she had ended up with him after eighteen years of various circumstances.

If he had not pursued her with resolve, their paths would have diverged forever.

Lin Chu had felt lucky and also fearful of the alternative possibilities at the sa ti. She tucked herself closer to him.

As if he knew what she was thinking, Yan Beicheng kissed her forehead tenderly. He took his phone out from his coat pocket.

Lin Chu saw him turn on his cara and open night mode. Yan Beicheng’s rich, slightly hoarse baritone sounded from the top of her head, saying, “We were posed exactly like this in the photo. How about we take a photo of us now?”

His voice, deeper than a rich, full-bodied wine in this freezing winter night, ward her from head to toe.

Lin Chu nodded, and Yan Beicheng stretched his arm forward, raising his phone. Although the night was dark, the image of the two of them was clear under the night mode.

He set up a tir, and the cara shuttered a few tis after three seconds, taking a few pictures.

Yan Beicheng retracted his arm, and he, together with Lin Chu entwined in his arms, chose the best one and saved it.

“The little lady from back then has grown up,” Yan Beicheng said warmly while looking at the photo.

Lin Chu’s mind had wandered while looking at the photo, but then she imdiately blushed when she heard his words.

The sentence had sounded pretty normal, but she heard the ambiguity in his words.

His warm words scattered on her like rays of sunlight while she was wrapped tightly by his arms, his coat an impenetrable fortress protecting her from the wind and giving her warmth. His embrace was like an oven.

Lin Chu embarrassedly hid her impossibly reddened face in his arms. Rembering that her current lover was the older boy from years ago felt sowhat weird.

It was like realizing that your lover was also your sibling — weirdly mortifying.

Yan Beicheng chuckled, and his chest vibrated with his mirth. He looked at the woman in his arms, and spikes of lust surged up his spine. He lowered to kiss her on the lips and wrapped her even tighter in his coat.

Under the moonlight, a lean, charming man, reclined on the tree’s trunk and stretched his long legs. The woman in his arms seed more diminutive to him as he held her tight in his arms, covering everything up, even her face, except for so tendrils of her long hair.

Everything was serene and beautiful.

Suddenly, a piercing light shone at them and a shrill voice shouted, “Who’s there?”

Lin Chu regained her senses from her position in Yan Beicheng’s arms, and she, together with Yan Beicheng, turned their heads towards the direction of the voice and was faced with the blinding ray of light from a flashlight.

Lin Chu could not open her eyes under the strong light, and she blocked it with her arm, eyes half-open. Yan Beicheng hoisted her up together with him, and she pushed for him to let her down onto the ground.

The person took a good look at them, and he said, “Lin Chu? It’s past midnight, what are you —”

What are you two doing, coming to the orphanage to make out in the middle of the night?

Are all couples doing sothing so outlandish?

Lin Chu recognized the person. He was Mr. Wang, a teacher in the orphanage, who was in his forties and had a strong physique.

Under Mr. Wang’s flashlight, Lin Chu was so embarrassed that she did not know what to say.

Barring the fact that they had trespassed the orphanage by climbing up the wall from outside, they had also been caught red-handed making out. It was so embarrassing.

Mr. Wang turned off the flashlight. He noted that there was a hole under the poplar tree. Yan Beicheng piped up, “I was chatting with Lin Chu this night, and we rembered that we had buried sothing under this tree. We ca here to dig them up on impulse, like a midnight treasure hunt.”

Mr. Wang broke out a smile. He thought, “How did these two start making out when they were digging stuff up?”

He was less surprised, though, after he understood how affectionate young people were when they dated.

He still glared at them. “You, really! You could just give us a call if you’ve wanted to co, and I’ll open the door for you. What are you doing, climbing up the wall? I went out for so water and I saw silhouettes in the window. I was almost shocked to death!”

“Little Wang, what’s happening? Is there anyone outside?” The old principal ca out wearing her pajamas and an overcoat. She started when she saw Lin Chu and Yan Beicheng, “Why did you co in the middle of the night?”

Lin Chu, Yan Beicheng, “...”

Yan Beicheng repeated what he had told Mr. Wang to her. She was skeptical but did not pursue the matter.

These two, as close as they were, had probably devised another ga of theirs.

“You’re here anyway, so don’t go back when it’s already so late into the night. I’ve saved your room for you, so you can just stay here for the night,” the old principal yawned and said.

They had been unperturbed by the temperature outdoors, what with them being entwined with each other and their old mories warming them up, but they started feeling as if they were frozen solid. They did not want to bother driving all the way back ho, too, so they agreed to stay; the next day was a Saturday so they did not need to work anyway.

After they returned to their room, Yan Beicheng went to shower first, while Lin Chu stared at the ring on her finger.

When Yan Beicheng returned, freshly showered, he saw Lin Chu daydreaming while staring at the ring and hoisted her onto his lap. “The ring is going to break into halves from your stare.”

“I just think that it’s miraculous. Who would have thought that we would end up together after we’ve grown up?” Lin Chu hugged his waist.

Their first eting was really a work of fate.