I See Roses

I See Roses – Chapter 20

Upon hearing this, Ming Si vaguely felt that there was something off with that statement— it seemed like it could be understood in a twisted way. It could even be interpreted as a response to her previous remark.

Miss Ming was someone who always did as she pleased and had no habit of beating around the bush. She put down her spoon and propped her chin on her hand as she looked at him, “Liang Xian, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you for a long time.”

“En, go ahead and ask,” he leaned back, casually resting his hand on the edge of the table, glancing at her.

“When you first found out we were getting married, how did you feel?” Ming Si remembered it clearly; it was a spring day in Berlin, the brilliant cherry blossoms blooming along the streets after a long and cold winter.

In stark contrast to that, after receiving a call from Cen Xinyan, she felt as if her heart was about to explode with anger.

Liang Xian withdrew his hand and adjusted his sitting posture slightly.

He didn’t expect her to ask this question.

Regarding the marriage alliance with the Ming family, he actually knew about it a little earlier than Ming Si.

His initial reaction was that it was extremely ridiculous. His marriage was not up to the Liang family to decide, so he flatly refused. However, he didn’t expect Liang Zhihong to personally come find him overseas.

“I know you don’t care about the Liang family’s inheritance,” Liang Zhihong paused and placed a stack of documents on the table, slowly pushing them toward him, “But you should at least consider the friend who grew up with you.”

His expression was resolute and his tone seemed to have a hundred percent certainty. Liang Xian vaguely felt an ominous premonition.

The documents appeared to be thick, but they were actually only about two men; one from the Zheng family in Shanghai and the other from the Zhao family in Nanjing.

The reason why it took such a thick stack to bind them was that one of the men had a rich dating history. In the past two years alone, he had dated more than ten known individuals, and he had just been released from drug rehabilitation.

The other one wasn’t as outrageous, he was a Harvard graduate, took over the family business at a young age, and showed exceptional abilities with a strong and forceful approach. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call him a young talent.

However, over the years, his sexual orientation had always been a topic of discussion in the public eye, and even the names of several of his former boyfriends were widely known.

These two individuals, due to their prominent families, were among the candidates to become Ming Si’s husband.

Liang Xian’s face turned cold.

Liang Zhihong noticed it and smiled slowly, “You know what Ming Zhengyuan is to Ming Si.”

Of course, Liang Xian was clear.

Business alliances were based on interests. Faced with immense benefits, even biological parents might not fully investigate the character of the prospective in-laws, let alone Ming Zhengyuan, who was merely Ming Si’s stepfather.

Apart from being a stepfather, he was, first and foremost, a businessman.

……

“Is this question so difficult?” Ming Si had no idea that she narrowly escaped a potential disaster and reached out to wave her hand in front of him, “Liang Xian, answer the question.”

Liang Xian finally realized he had been absent-minded and glanced at her, chuckling softly, “I guess it’s because of fate?”

Ming Si glanced at him, displeased, and said, “What kind of answer is that?”

“It’s not like you won’t have other suitors, and I have no specific requirements for a partner,” Liang Xian sat up straight, propping his head with his hand, and casually said, “So, I might as well go for someone familiar.”

This idea coincidentally aligned with her thoughts from earlier.

However, the casual tone in which he said it made Ming Si even more unhappy.

What did he mean by no specific requirements for a partner? It sounded like he reluctantly agreed to the marriage alliance because he had no requirements. Moreover, it seemed that in Liang Xian’s eyes, her only advantage was being… familiar?

Did other factors like being beautiful, having a great figure, and being talented… not count at all?

Shi Tai took the wheelchair out of the trunk and swung it in a small arc in the air before placing it on the ground, looking at her deliberately as he spoke, “Miss Ming, this is your wheelchair.”

As the wheelchair landed, it stirred up a small gust of wind, and Ming Si subconsciously took a step back.

It had to be said that with a bodyguard like him, he was indeed a formidable weapon for intimidation and threats, a deadly tool.

In the darkness of the night, she couldn’t help but feel that the next second, he would take out a pair of sunglasses, put them on, and say with a cold face: The young master has ordered, if you don’t accept it, I’ll cut off your limbs.

“You can leave it here,” Ming Si cleared her throat and took out her phone to make a call, “I’ll have someone come to pick it up.”

This meant she absolutely refused to sit in it. Shi Tai glanced at Liang Xian beside him, seeing that he didn’t react much, he nodded, “Alright.”

Auntie Zhang hurriedly arrived at the entrance of the villa. She had known about Ming Si’s sprained foot, so she immediately supported her and greeted Liang Xian, “Mr. Liang.”

Liang Xian nodded lightly and said to Ming Si, “Then I’ll leave.”

“Goodbye,” Ming Si replied crisply, her tone deliberately sounding cheerful.

Liang Xian smiled and suddenly got closer.

Under the dim night sky, adorned with a few sparse stars, the wind carried a faint and clean woody scent from him.

Strangely enough, his carefree and unruly temperament matched well with the cold and slightly distant woodsy cologne, giving off a sense of charm and restraint.

This proximity and atmosphere coincided with the illogical dream she had.

Ming Si pursed her lips, looking at him warily, “What are you doing?”

“We’ve resolved our differences, after all,” Liang Xian bent down slightly and leaned in, saying, “Come on, give me a smile.”

His deep voice unexpectedly matched exactly with the one from her dream.

As if trying to hide her guilty conscience, Ming Si took a step back, raising her voice, “Why should I smile at you for no reason!”

Liang Xian didn’t mind at all, still smiling as he walked away and waved to her.

He suddenly realized that although it was him who proposed the reconciliation, he seemed to be increasingly fond of provoking her.

The black Bentley lit up its taillights and gradually moved away. Ming Si shifted her gaze to the wheelchair in front of her.

This wheelchair was the so-called reconciliation gift that Liang Xian gave her. It had a black leather cushion, and there was a row of electric buttons near the armrests. With a press, it could move forward, backward, and turn automatically. It was said to be quite advanced and could flexibly avoid obstacles.

“Miss,” Auntie Zhang put her hand on the wheelchair, “Do you want to sit?”

Ming Si, for some reason, sounded resolute as she replied, “No, help me hop back in.”

However, after hopping a few steps, she stopped. Her feet had been sore for a while now, and at this moment, they felt numb and painful, almost trembling.

Auntie Zhang quickly pushed the wheelchair behind her, and this time, Ming Si didn’t resist much and sat down.

Ming Si’s foot injury this time was quite severe and the doctor advised her to minimize exertion. For several days, she stayed at home and didn’t go out, relying on the wheelchair for basic movement.

At first, she found the idea of using a wheelchair difficult to accept, but once she tried it, she realized it was quite convenient.

Especially in the villa with a built-in elevator spanning three floors, the wheelchair allowed her to move around easily and smoothly. In just half a day, Ming Si completely adapted to this disabled life.

Of course, when Liang Xian sent a message asking her if the wheelchair was easy to use, she still displayed a very disdainful attitude and lightly replied with four words:「I don’t need it.」

Sometimes, Ming Si felt that even after their reconciliation, their relationship wasn’t much different from before; they still quarreled and made a fuss.

But sometimes, she also vaguely felt that something was different.

For example, after sending that message, she had a slight smile on her lips.

During the days when Ming Si was at home recovering from her injury, there were visitors almost every day.

Ming Zhengyuan and Cen Xinyan had visited once in a very formal manner. They didn’t say much; the conversation quickly turned to the topic of moving into the marital home. Ming Si didn’t want to argue about this topic and just casually responded with a few sentences.

Following that, a few close girlfriends came over. Ming Si didn’t know where they got the information, but one day they brought a luxurious afternoon tea from a five-star restaurant to her place to chat and cheer her up. Later on, Lin Xijia and Cheng Yu also visited.

“Yu Chuan has an experiment and can’t get away. Brother Xian was supposed to come, but he had a last-minute business trip for the company,” Cheng Yu said. When they arrived, there were still a lot of desserts left on the afternoon tea table. Cheng Yu grabbed a macaron and frowned, “It’s too sweet, how much sugar did they put in this?”

“Who asked you to eat it all at once?” Ming Si couldn’t help but shake her head. Moreover, he was even eating it with unwashed hands.

“Never mind him; he’s always like this. Even if he wore a dragon robe, he still wouldn’t look like a prince,” Ke Lijie said, sitting in a chair beside them, surveying the surroundings, “Your small garden is beautiful. I want to create one in my new villa too. Who was the designer?”

“You, get lost first. Let me talk about business first, and we can talk about these things later,” Cheng Yu pushed him aside. “Hey, Ming Si, do you think Brother Xian’s recent movements are a bit strange?”

So, the business he wanted to discuss was this. Ming Si asked, “What’s wrong?”

Cheng Yu said that the macaron was too sweet, but he took another one while talking, “There have been several times we played together, but he didn’t join us. When we wanted to go to his house to play games, he wasn’t there. Whenever we meet, he often looks like he just got off a plane.”

Ming Si: “…”

She hadn’t noticed that.

In some ways, Cheng Yu knew much more about Liang Xian’s whereabouts than she, the nominal wife.

However, in an instant, she remembered something else.

That day in Liang Xian’s study, when she entered, he seemed to be reading a document that wasn’t written in Chinese.

Although Jinghong’s business empire spanned the globe, with many sizable overseas branches, was it necessary to use English at the headquarters in China?

Moreover, he seemed to have said later that he had a business competitor abroad… but upon further thought, Liang Xian had been designated as the heir of Jinghong in May, much later than when he received the death threat.

Who was competing with him?

For the first time, Ming Si had an inexplicable feeling that she actually knew nothing about Liang Xian.

But then, she thought this feeling was baseless.

When did she become interested in him?

Ming Si came back to her senses, leaned back in the chair with her back straight, and retorted, “Is that so? But how is that any of my business?”

Cheng Yu: “…”

He was someone who highly valued friendship and sincerely hoped that Ming Si and Liang Xian could get along well. On the way here, he heard from Ke Lijie that perhaps these two had already broken the ice, and he was happy for quite a while.

Now, it seemed that Ke Lijie was a terrible liar, and Cheng Yu felt like his emotions were being wasted.

At the same time, Ke Lijie was internally complaining: It turns out that Brother Xian was only being perfunctory when he said their relationship had improved.

In reality, they couldn’t get along then, and they still couldn’t get along now.

On days when there were no visitors, Ming Si would quietly stay in her attic studio, organizing her design inspirations and portfolio. On the tenth day of her recuperation, she received an email from the organizers of the design competition, stating that the competition would be held in Venice in November.

Venice, the city of water, was about to enter the rainy season in November.

Ming Si propped her chin on her hand; coincidentally, it was raining outside at this moment as well. The summer rains in the city were always fierce; the rain cascaded down the large glass windows, making distant high-rise buildings appear blurred.

As if she was crossing across time and space, she seemed to have already felt the suffocating feeling of her chest being filled with moisture.

However, no matter how much she disliked the rain, she had to go.

Just then, there was a sudden knock on the attic door. Ming Si thought it was Auntie Zhang bringing sweet soup, “Come in.”

The door lock was twisted, making a soft click.

At this moment, Ming Si was reaching for a diamond on the small table behind her. She pressed a button with her hand, and the wheelchair spun around with a whoosh, smoothly sliding forward for five or six meters before stopping right in front of the small table.

She lightly snapped her fingers, seemingly as if proud of her skillful control.

The shadow at the door seemed to move slightly.

Ming Si’s hand, that was reaching out to grab the diamond, paused.

Auntie Zhang… would never be this quiet, right?