I See Roses

I See Roses – Chapter 1

The plane landed at Pingcheng International Airport, precisely at 7 o’clock in the morning.

The sky was gray and hazy, and the entire city seemed still asleep. Looking down through the aircraft window, the leaden ground was soaked by rainwater, deepening its color.

The phone vibrated several times, receiving messages that couldn’t be received due to poor onboard Wi-Fi during landing.

「Is it today’s flight?」

「Let me know when you’re close, I’ll have Liang Xian come pick you up.」

「Ming Si, don’t be stubborn.」

「Reply to the messages.」

The phone was placed next to the dressing mirror; she could catch a glimpse of the messages that flashed on the screen from the corner of her eye.

At first, the tone was somewhat gentle, but after a few messages, the true colors emerged, revealing a familiar commanding tone.

Asking Liang Xian to come and pick her up… As if anyone could persuade that young master.

After finishing applying the last stroke of lipstick, Ming Si gently smudged it.

She flipped the makeup mirror upside down on the table and kicked off the slippers provided on the plane. She put on high heels before picking up her phone:「No need, the airport will provide transportation.」

Having said that, she didn’t care about the other party’s reaction and walked out on her own.

Not many people knew she was returning to the country, and at this moment, her WeChat was still calm. Ming Si casually browsed through it, then tossed the phone back into her bag.

First-class passengers didn’t need to wait for their luggage. Outside the airport hall, a black Mercedes-Benz S-Class was already waiting in place.

Instead of going home, Ming Si went straight to her villa in the city center.

The housekeeper was caught off guard by her arrival and subtly inquired a few times Does Madam knows about this? Ming Si didn’t bother to respond, kicked off her high heels, and went upstairs to take a nap.

She couldn’t get a good sleep, and her dreams were intermittent.

The ragdoll cat she had raised for a few years no longer recognized her and treated her as a stranger. As soon as she entered the room, the cat hid far away in the corner of the white cabinet, secretly observing.

“Don’t recognize me?” Ming Si lifted the quilt and sat up, walking barefoot to the sofa chair by the window.

The ragdoll cat blinked its beautiful blue eyes.

After a long while, it quietly slipped down, its tail raised, and slowly approached.

Ming Si bent down and held it in her arms, touching it absentmindedly, gazing at the distant sky outside the French window.

Just then, a message from Lin Xijia came on WeChat —

「Still not up, slept the whole day?」

Ming Si picked up her phone and checked the chat history. Lin Xijia had asked her if she wanted to go to the newly opened MMA club in the morning. She had just come back, took a bath, and fell asleep without bothering to check.

She replied:「Just woke up, let me adjust to the time difference first.」

Closing the chat box, she glanced at the day’s accumulated WeChat messages and replied to a few of them.

Lin Xijia was straightforward:「Alright.」

「Oh, I heard Liang Xian also came back, seems like he took a flight these past few days. You two have quite the fate.」

That name brought back some unpleasant memories. Ming Si sneered and typed a few words:「A fate that brings disaster, I guess?」

Coincidentally, just as she was chatting with Lin Xijia about that person, a voice message from Cheng Yu came in: “In a couple of days, I’ll host a welcome banquet for you two. When you meet, don’t start arguing like you did when you were kids. You’re both in your twenties now, so take this opportunity to bury the hatchet. We don’t want to be on guard against you two explosive packages every time we gather.”

Ming Si:「Sorry.」

Cheng Yu:「?」

Ming Si:「Can’t promise that.」

Cheng Yu:「What the hell?」

Now it was Ming Si’s turn to be puzzled. She thought that her disagreement with Liang Xian wasn’t just a matter of a day or two, so why was Cheng Yu acting so surprised.

Cheng Yu sent a screenshot directly.

It was a WeChat chat interface.

In the screenshot of the chat interface, Cheng Yu had sent a voice message that lasted for seventeen seconds, identical in length and probably in content to the one that was sent her.

And the reply from the other side was:「Sorry, maybe I can’t promise that.」

Ming Si: ?

Without even looking at the name, she knew who it was. With that cheeky tone, there was no one else it could be.

Maybe I can’t promise that?

She coldly smiled:「He sure knows how to leave room for himself.」

Cheng Yu:「The way you two can fight in sync during an argument is truly unique. Fine, I don’t expect this welcome banquet to end peacefully, but please have the decency to leave each other whole for me.」

「Life is tough. Sigh.jpg」

Ming Si couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to his theatrics.

This time, Ming Si took quite a while to adjust to the time difference, a whole week in fact. During this period, she didn’t participate in any gatherings or events.

By the weekend, she finally responded to Cheng Yu’s frequent invitations and set a time:「Tomorrow night is fine.」

The other side replied with a dancing little person saying “OK” in an animated expression, exuding excitement as if saying, We can have fun again! He eagerly started arranging the gathering.

Because of Liang Xian’s Maybe I can’t promise that response, Ming Si unilaterally treated this gathering as a battlefield, fully prepared for the other side to provoke her first.

On the weekend, Ming Si arrived a few minutes late due to traffic.

Most of the people were already in the private room. The seats were arranged in a circle from left to right: Yu Chuan, Ke Lijie, Cheng Yu… and Liang Xian.

He was wearing a loose white shirt, lazily leaning back in the deep red leather sofa of the club, clearly not looking like a serious person. Cheng Yu was chatting animatedly beside him, and he was listening with his head tilted, lips curled with a smile that seemed both teasing and mysterious.

—A cynical attitude, carrying a hint of arrogance and a touch of wickedness. He was just as she remembered, not much different from a few days ago.

The bond between childhood friends was different from that of friends made later in life. Within a few minutes of sitting down, the atmosphere became familiar. There were discussions about who had a new girlfriend, who had run away from home again, all becoming topics of conversation.

At the moment, Cheng Yu was pointing to his own forehead with sorrow, “My dad made me shave it, just look how ugly it is!”

The light in the private room was dim, he put his head under the light so Ming Si could see clearly— the sides were shaved flat, revealing the scalp, and there was a three-dimensional inscription.

“Little forbearance may spoil great plans,” Ke Lijie approached and examined the words shaved into his hair, showing respect, “Your dad is really avant-garde.”

“He’s not, I added the words myself. I can’t just cut my hair this short for nothing,” Cheng Yu showcased his distinctive hairstyle, then sat down with great self-satisfaction, “Enough about me, today is the big day for Ming Si and Liang Xian. Let’s raise our glasses…”

He deliberately provoked Ming Si, who as he hoped, threw a pillow at him.

“Ouch!” Cheng Yu blocked with his hand, dramatically complaining, “I was talking about you two returning to the country, isn’t that a happy occasion!”

The group was accustomed to Cheng Yu deliberately seeking punishment, so they all looked on with amusement.

“But you two are rarely so in sync,” the only serious person among the group, Yu Chuan, laughed and then asked, “How did you two come up with the idea of coming back together?”

Liang Xian, playing with a black lighter in his hand, casually tossed it on the table, “Coincidence.”

“Is that so? Oh, by the way, I heard a piece of news, don’t know if someone was pulling my leg,” Cheng Yu leaned forward mysteriously, acting like a student sharing a secret.

For some reason, Ming Si felt that when he said this, his gaze seemed to pass over Liang Xian first and then shifted towards her.

It inexplicably made her uneasy.

“What news? Your mouth never stops like a train,” Ke Lijie didn’t take it seriously.

“Brother Xian, you can’t get angry,” Cheng Yu ignored him and emphasized to Liang Xian, “If it’s true, you don’t need to be embarrassed to admit it. If it’s false, just treat me as if I’m talking nonsense.”

Liang Xian nonchalantly responded, his voice slightly hoarse, “En.”

Someone beside urged him, “Cheng Yu, stop beating around the bush, just say it!”

Cheng Yu glanced at Ming Si again. Before she could react to the meaning behind that gaze, he scratched his head and said to Liang Xian, “I heard you’re going to marry Ming Si.”

“Pfft—” Most of the wine in Ke Lijie’s mouth sprayed out, almost creating a human fountain.

“I’ll be damned, Ke Lijie! You have damn loose mouth.”

“……”

The scene was chaos for a moment. Ke Lijie and the others were too busy to make fun of each other, jumping up to clean their clothes.

Ming Si should be grateful that Ke Lijie’s reaction was so exaggerated that the attention of the entire private room was drawn to him, and no one noticed her tiny cough.

Overcoming the discomfort in her throat, she raised her eyes and coincidentally met Liang Xian’s gaze.

Evidently, he had taken note of her reaction just now. His lips curved slightly, portraying an attitude of being composed and unruffled, seemingly as if celebrating the fact that she couldn’t withstand the test.

Ming Si tightened her fingers around the glass and then slowly relaxed them.

You want to compare who’s tough, huh?

She rested her chin on her hand, smiling at Cheng Yu, “Order some dishes. You’ve all been drinking too much.”

“That’s right,” Ke Lijie casually tossed the tissue in his hand on the table and sat down, “You’re saying Liang Xian wants to marry Ming Si? Why not say he’s going to marry a Moroccan princess? That seems more likely.”

Speaking of the Moroccan princess, he recalled something else and turned eagerly, “Hey, Brother Xian, the last time you were chasing that Ukrainian supermodel, did you leave her your contact information?”

“What supermodel? I don’t remember,” Liang Xian seemed uninterested in this topic and picked up the lighter from the table again.

Click! The crimson flame lit up.

“Playing innocent again. What about that little sister from the ballet troupe? What did you do to her? She was crying to me every day afterward,” Ke Lijie continued.

Liang Xian, with a cigarette in his mouth, said something briefly that Ming Si didn’t catch.

—Because Cheng Yu, in a loud voice, stood up again, “To be honest, I don’t believe it either, but someone spread the rumor that you two are getting married. Besides, our Pingcheng is so big, what kind of incident hasn’t happened? Brother Xian hasn’t made a statement yet!”

After he said that, perhaps everyone felt that it was worthy of pondering, the private room suddenly fell silent.

Ming Si really wanted to hit Cheng Yu on the head. Why was Liang Xian’s words the standard answer and hers didn’t count?

Subconsciously, she looked at the man sitting across and tightened her grip on the wine glass.

“Liang Xian?” He hadn’t spoken for a while, so even Ke Lijie wasn’t sure.

Liang Xian seemed to be lost in thought, and then he came to his senses. With the cigarette in his mouth, he cast a casual glance at Cheng Yu and sneered, “Why would you believe the words of someone like that?”

Both parties denied it, and for some reason, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

— It was just too surreal to think that this pair of childhood adversaries would suddenly abandon their past and walk hand in hand into the realm of marriage. It would surely make people doubt life.

Ming Si slowly finished her drink, put down the glass, and caught a glimpse of her phone screen lighting up.

She checked it and then looked up.

Liang Xian was still chatting with Cheng Yu and the others, crossing his legs and lazily leaning against the sofa, but she didn’t know when he sent the message.

A few simple words:「Wait for me, we’ll leave together.」

Ming Si posed a question in response:「Are we that close?」

Not only were they not close, but they were also the kind of people who could argue all day when they met.

Liang Xian saw her message but didn’t elaborate. He casually tugged at the corner of his lips and replied:「I have something for you.」

Ming Si neither agreed nor disagreed. The conversation between the two of them took a pause here, and it hadn’t resumed during the rest of the gathering.

It wasn’t until the group of people had enough to drink and moved to a water bar and billiard club, making noise until midnight before it ended. Cheng Yu’s SUV carried the drunk Cheng Yu away, and the noisy and colorful scene dissipated like a fleeting light.

The rowdy group had enough to drink, they moved on to the water bar and the billiard club; it wasn’t until late at night that the gathering ended. With Cheng Yu, who was drunk, being driven away in an SUV, the commotion dispersed like fleeting lights.

The night sky was cool and tranquil, with only a few sparse stars. It was the end of May, not yet truly summer.

Ming Si stood downstairs at the club, subconsciously hugging her arms to keep warm. After waiting for who knows how long, a black Bentley slowly came to a stop before her eyes.

The car window rolled down slowly, revealing the side profile of a man.

Ming Si let go of her arms and walked down the steps in high heels, extending her hand to him, seemingly not to want to say much, “What’s the thing you have for me?”

“You left it in the car this morning,” Liang Xian raised an eyebrow, and between his fingers, he held a red booklet, which he waved in front of her, “Our marriage certificate.”