Forced by fate – Destined to be his Wife

“Why? He seems so loving towards you and it would still be his grandchild. I thought he liked Rhea?”

YuZhi downed the remainder of his drink, his own head swimming a little and shook his head. Sobering with a little dip in his good mood and feeling weirdly inclined to open up to TangShi properly. He wasn’t someone who spoke about his personal issues with just anyone, usually just ZhengLi so it was a weird feeling to want to tell her. She had this way about her that pulled all sorts of emotions form him and a need to share. Maybe he was just drunk and overthinking it.

“My dad, the night he crashed…. He caught my mother having sex with Rhea’s father. He was mad as hell, driving recklessly, on a call to my grandfather telling him he wanted a divorce when he swerved off the road and ended up in a ditch. My grandfather has never forgiven the Cheng family and sees Rhea as part of the problem. He lost his son because of an affair, so he tolerated her but always made it clear he would replace her when it was time for me to marry.”

TangShi was rendered speechless and sat upright with a start, blinking at him with a shocked expression. Her heart chumping into her chest with the shock of his story.

“I’m so sorry. I never knew… Wow, that’s pretty…. a big deal.” His words sobered her enough to realize how much of an issue that was and couldn’t imagine how much grandfather must have been against Rhea to prohibit any future for them both. She could empathize with his grief and heartbreak and didn’t want to judge him too harshly. She assumed YuZhi understood it too, hence why he never outright defied him with a pregnancy or wedding.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“Ironic really. It was because of what our parents did that Rhea, and I grew closer than before. We were both hurt and ashamed and she carried the guilt of me losing my father. She tried to support and comfort me as a friend. My mother…… she committed suicide two months later because she couldn’t live with my father’s death. Guess she loved him and regretted it in the end.” His words trailed off quietly, sitting forward to stare down between his feet as he picked at the label of his bottle and TangShi’s soul ached for him.

TangShi was silenced and her heart tore in two. Realizing why YuZhi was the type to conceal his pain and emotion and keep women at arm’s length. His mother betrayed them all and then left him to fend for himself in the aftermath. His trust must have been destroyed and his once happy family devastated. She knew that a couple of years later the Leng family had a plane crash that saw a huge chunk of them perish. He had lost so much.

She had known his mother died in that time frame, but the press implied she had a long ongoing health issue. Nowhere had it been made public that she took her own life and TangShi automatically slid her arm in his and rested her head against his shoulder to comfort him. Not knowing what else to do but wanting so badly to give him something. To show she was feeling for him and truly sorry for what he lived through.

“I don’t even know why I’m telling you this. I don’t ever talk about them.” He shrugged, picking up a new beer and took a swig to distract himself from the wave of raw emotions threatening to spew out. Something he had learned to control over the years. Leaning forward further to dangle it between his knees while TangShi stayed cuddling against him. He was becoming acclimatized to her touch and presence and didn’t mind having to hold hands or be this way with her anymore. It was reassuring, like he had a constant warmth and haven by his side who didn’t judge him for things he didn’t tell others. He knew deep down that TangShi wasn’t the type to hold the truth against him given how crappy her family situation was.

“I can see why your grandfather is so against it. He blames her whole family and somehow it would be a betrayal to your father to have a Cheng grandchild as heir. I understand it. But why is your aunt so pro Rhea if her brother passed that…” TangShi was even more confused by that.

“She doesn’t know. My grandfather told only me. And I told Rhea. My sister and family have no clue why my father died that night, other than it was an accident and my mother took her life because of her grief. Rhea doesn’t know it was suicide either.”

“I promise I won’t tell a soul, not even Linlin.” TangShi leaned back and made a crossing motion of her heart which softened YuZhi’s mood, and he smiled gently at her, leaning in to bop his forehead against hers in a show of affection. Swaying a little due to being drunker than he thought, yet glad he had offloaded some of this onto her. It felt nice to tell someone and not immediately feel anxious they saw you differently or would take on more guilt like he thought Rhea would have back then. Only ZhengLi knew all the details of everything.

“You know, I’m sorry about being such a jackass to you the first couple of months. If I had known we would be friends in time, I wouldn’t have made life hell for you. I feel like an idiot for making you suffer. For being cold when you’re…… like this.” He was truly apologetic and regretted all the times he deliberately goaded her or created situations to cause her upset or stress. She had turned out to be the sweetest girl he had ever met and probably the most genuine heart he had come across and it bothered him looking back that he abused that sort of girl. Even not knowing she was Alice; he had been able to see that TangShi was a rare find. Not many girls were so gentle natured and forgiving as she was and undeserving of anyone treating her poorly. His desire to protect and shelter her lately grew stronger the more he got to know her.

TangShi shrugged and smiled at him. Pushing all of it into the past and exhaled softly. She was someone who had learned to let things go in her life or else the grudges would weigh her down.

“I can understand why the situation made you hate me. My father never gave me a choice and I had to abandon school and come home which made me resent you too. I never knew about any of this until two days before we got our marriage license. I don’t hold it against you, I too wasn’t that nice to you.”

“Are you serious?” YuZhi was shocked by that confession. He had known for weeks before marrying her all about it. He had agreed to give two years of his life on the understanding he would marry Rhea one day. It’s the only way he could get his grandfather’s approval for the future he wanted, by compromising on a timed deadline instead of a lifetime marriage. He still hadn’t told Rhea that children between them might not be a doable thing though; grandfather still hadn’t agreed to him having any other kids beyond one with TangShi. He was a stubborn old coot and not yet ready to relinquish that clause.

TangShi didn’t get a chance to reply because Linlin dived on them awkwardly, like a heavy bomb of human bones and skin and almost killed her in the process. Clambering all over them as she tried to crawl between two closely sat bodies and injuring them mildly in the process. TangShi shoved her by the ass to the back of the seat to assist her.

“Picture time!!” She sang loudly in TangShi’s ear before rolling over the backrest and jumping behind the seating booth to get between them. She leaned forward pushing them together so she could fit her head in between them awkwardly. “Zhengy…take one… come on, bubba!” She motioned and cooed at her drunk playmate who sighed and obediently trotted over, pulling his cell out of his pocket to do as he was told. It was clear he wasn’t as drunk as her and was humoring her requests.

“Why do we need three thousand pictures tonight?” he raised a brow at her in question and she waved at him in annoyance.

“Ughh, for my WeChat moments. Stop talking and start doing.” She flapped her hands, ushering him to obey and ZhengLi nodded. Muttering under his breath about the weirdness of women and making sure he zoomed into their faces only and cut out their pretty private club in the background. He rarely took pictures, and this was weird for him.

“Okay, on three. One! Two! ….” ZhengLi positioned his phone sideways and got ready to click when Linlin suddenly darted back, grabbing the back of YuZhi and TangShi’s head systematically and bopped their faces together with speed and force neither saw coming. The result was a startled pair jumping at the contact and turning towards each other in reaction, which meant a full face on collision as ZhengLi snapped the shot. It was a mildly painful experience and as soon as she released them, they both darted back with shocked expressions.

“Woohooo, let me see.” Linlin whooped in glee at her naughtiness and climbed over, pushing them further apart ungracefully so she could retrieve his phone. Almost getting TangShi in the face with a stiletto heel in the process.

“Linlin!” TangShi smacker her leg as she scurried away and rubbed her face where YuZhi had smashed lips against her in that painful encounter. Her face flaming with heat and feeling the blush creep up her skin. It was an intimate accident, and her heart was flipping over at the assault. Suddenly unable to look him in the eye as shyness overtook.

“She’s worse than him!” YuZhi too was rubbing his chin and lips where they had been bang pressed for a millisecond and yet he could taste the peach tinted lip-gloss from TangShi’s lips, and it wasn’t entirely unenjoyable. He wasn’t too phased about having inadvertently kissed her as it wasn’t like he hadn’t kissed many in his lifetime. It was not on purpose and no big deal; besides he had kissed her a hell of a lot more eight years ago.

It was a brief meeting of mouths, completely closed and flat faced into one another but YuZhi still got a weird feeling in his stomach about it. A gnawing of guilt and something else.

“Oh my god…look. You two totally kissed!” Linlin smiled like a mischievous brat and turned the phone to flash them a picture. It did look in fact like they had briefly pecked one another on the lips for the picture. Linlin was obscured behind them where you couldn’t really even make out her hands clamped on the back of each head. It did look like a candid kiss shot of a couple. TangShi blushed even harder and fidgeted with nails while biting on her lower lip.

“Shut up. You are mentally about his age, you know that.” YuZhi laughed at her antics, unbothered, and sat back while scooping his beer and handing TangShi a half-drunk cocktail she started before shots to stop her picking her crystals off her manicure. This had sobered them both a little and culled their heart to heart.

“ummm, I think I have more maturity than this wild thing.” ZhengLi hooked Linlin from behind and scooped her into his arms for a back hug, pressing his chin on top of her head to annoy her as she wiggled and tried to throw him off.

“You two can both go to hell. TangShi loves me just the way I am. It’s being youthful and fun loving. You’re just mad because I got a priceless kiss shot and she looks more attractive than you in it.” Linlin gloated, waving ZhengLi’s phone in the air, and then pulled it back to open the WeChat app. “Totally putting it on my moments.”

Linlin was oblivious to the fact it wasn’t ‘her’ moments on WeChat and uploaded it with a smile for her mutual friends of her private account to see. She tagged the club and posted it with ‘Love’s young dream’ as the title. Happy with herself for another memory that they could laugh about another day. She was abuzz with how close TangShi and YuZhi seemed to be tonight and very pleased with her mischievous trick.

“Enough of that. More drink, less talk.” ZhengLi snatched back his phone and slid it into his pocket, hooking her hand and hauling her back with him. Intent on getting all of them so drunk they wouldn’t be able to see straight. “I’ll go get another round!”