Belated Romance (Mu Tongrui)

Fu Lingye stared into her anticipating eyes; his expression unreadable. “No.”
Mu Tongrui wasn't buying that. Grabbing his big hands with her small ones, she pleaded, “You may not like me now, but you will
fall in love with me one day.”
“You're so confident about that?”
Fu Lingye's finger traced her lips. Mu Tongrui grabbed hold of his hand and pressed it against her cheek. “You said that you
belong to me, and no one can take you away! Of course, I would be confident about getting you to fall in love with me! It's only a
matter of time.”
Besides, in the past two days alone, she had already begun to feel his love for her......
Did he start to have feelings for her?
Why else would he come all the way to S City just to seek her out?
Fu Lingye huffed lightly and flicked her forehead gently. Not too hard, not too soft, but still leaving a tingling feeling on her
forehead. Mu Tongrui raised a hand to it and scowled, “What's that for?”
“Don't pair me up with Qiao Sang again. I've got nothing to do with her.”
Just like that, Mu Tongrui's eyes lit up. “You've never dated Qiao Sang before?”
Fu Lingye glared at her. “Did I ever say that she was my girlfriend?”
She had thought that Qiao Sang used to be his girlfriend.
Mu Tongrui could feel the excitement bubbling up inside of her. “Do you mean that you're just friends with her? You're just
apologetic for her?”
“I've never had feelings for her. You happy now?”
Mu Tongrui rejoiced at the coolness of his words. “I'm happy! I'm really happy!”
Mu Tongrui decided to push it. “How about Han Ling? Have you dated her before?”
“No.”

“But Han Ling said that she lived with you for a whole year when you were depressed!”
Did one year really go by without anything happening between them?
“So you're saying that we have to sleep in the same bed as well?”
“......”
That's true.
That said, Han Ling must have been deliberately confusing her.
“But I'm still jealous! I'm jealous that they got to know you so early on, and that they're very important to you.”
Mu Tongrui admired them. They've seen the wild and youthful side of Fu Lingye in full.
The Fu Lingye ten years ago probably won't be as mature and calm as he is now.
“Rui, you must be really jealous to say that.”
Fu Lingye's dark pupils were fixated on her as he made that conclusion.
Mu Tongrui's face turned red as a beetroot, and she bit her lip before replying, “I didn't do it on purpose......I was scared that
some other woman would tell me about your interesting relationships with her when we go back to Bei City......”
Fu Lingye began to pity her out of nowhere. Pulling her into an embrace and putting his lips against her forehead, he promised,
“When we get back to Bei City, we're getting our marriage certificate for real this time.”
Mu Tongrui's heart quivered at the sound of that. The trauma from the last time they tried to get their marriage certificate lingered
in her mind. “Lingye, I didn't cause your accident that day,” she hurried explained.
“I know.”
She would never do that.
“Won't it be too early to register?”
Although they have gone through a lot, Mu Tongrui still felt that they were rushing things.

Fu Lingye glanced at her abdomen. “So you want to wait till the second baby's birth before registering?”
Mu Tongrui's face reddened even further, the scarlet hue stretching all the way to her neck.
They haven't even gotten married, yet they already have two children......
That's faster than any ordinary couple out there!
Mu Tongrui pouted. “You're rushing to get married with me just because I'm pregnant?”
She didn't want to become the kind of woman who forces a man into marriage because of their lack of abstinence. However, now
that she's pregnant and Fu Lingye was the one asking for her hand in marriage, she felt that the child in her belly had raised her
status.
Fu Lingye raised his finger and poked her on the forehead again. “What's happening now? Pregnancy Syndrome?”
“......”
The corners of Mu Tongrui's mouth twitched. She hadn't been thinking too much.
Fu Lingye sighed deeply.
Mu Tongrui was only twenty-four. Even though she had given birth to his child, she was still very young. The last slivers of his
patience have all been expended on her.
“I don't think the Old Master would let me get married to you.”
Fu Zhengyuan had never liked her a single bit. He didn't have a good first impression of her upon knowing that she went into
surrogacy. Mu Tongrui understood his stance - after all, which righteous girl would want to be a surrogate for some stranger?
She got to know Fu Lingye through a very unconventional way. It made sense for Fu Zhengyuan to have a bad impression of
her.
“That's his grandson you're carrying. He won't stop us from getting married no matter how much he dislikes you.”
Fu Zhengyuan was a conservative, so he definitely won't be happy to know that Fu Lingye got Mu Tongrui pregnant.
He should be the one worrying, not Mu Tongrui.

Mu Tongrui got curious. “Lingye, are you hoping for a son?”
Why else would he be repeatedly addressing the unborn child as “my son” and “my father's grandson”?
She started to worry if he would get disappointed if the child turned out to be a girl instead.
“It doesn't matter to me, but Sweetheart wants a little brother.”
Mu Tongrui breathed a sigh of relief. “I hope it's a boy too. Old Master would probably want a grandson.”
Although the Old Master dotes on Sweetheart more than Xiaohan, Mu Tongrui still hoped that it would be a boy so that Fu Lingye
would have both a son and a daughter.
Mu Tongrui's stomach rumbled. She rubbed it and smiled awkwardly. “The baby's hungry......”
Fu Lingye took the coat from the clothes hanger and draped it over her shoulders. “Let's go out and eat.”
Fu Lingye wasn't familiar with S City as a whole, much less the food there.
Mu Tongrui had lived there for a couple of weeks, so she knew every restaurant in the area.
Mu Tongrui led him straight into a cooked-food stall.
It was lunch hour and the place was crowded, but there were still some empty seats.
“How many of you here?” The lady boss asked.
“Two,” Mu Tongrui replied, stretching out two fingers.
“Take a seat and order from the menu. The food will arrive shortly.”
Mu Tongrui took Fu Lingye's arm and led him to an empty table.
Fu Lingye was not accustomed to this. Mu Tongrui took the menu and asked him, “Fu Lingye, what do you want to eat! I want to
have some spicy pickled fish!”
How was that a question? “You can order for us,” Fu Lingye said.

Mu Tongrui glared at him before placing her order: a bowl of spicy pickled fish, two stir-fries, a plate of stir-fried potato shreds
with green pepper, and a plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes. All were regular home-cooked food.
Fu Lingye studied the surroundings as he wiped the grease off the table with a tissue, slightly put off by the lack of cleanliness.
Mu Tongrui smiled and said, “The environment might not be the cleanest, but their food is better than those five-star restaurants!
The best food is always hidden in these small food stalls.”
Fu Lingye remained silent.
As they waited for their food, two young ladies sitting near them began to stare at Fu Lingye.
Mu Tongrui noticed it too, and she wasn't happy about it. Couldn't they tell that he's married?
She even deliberately exposed the ring on her finger a couple of times, yet the two girls ignored it completely.
They began to whisper among themselves.
“Look at him! He's so handsome!”
“Why don't you go get his number?”
“Shh! Is this a dare?”
After that, one of them walked over to Fu Lingye.
“Hello handsome! Can I have your number please?”
Fu Lingye looked up at her before giving a polite hum of approval.
Mu Tongrui could almost explode from anger at that moment. Is he ignoring her? She's literally sitting in front of him!
The girl's gaze was full of infatuation. Mu Tongrui resisted the urge to just hide him in a closet or something - he belonged to her,
and no other woman should be able to see him!
How is this guy so attractive?
The girl bashfully gave her phone number to Fu Lingye, and he returned the favor.

After that, the girls enjoyed their meal and left the restaurant.
Mu Tongrui's good mood was nowhere to be found. Even the enticing spicy pickled fish on the table lost its appeal.
“How could you?”
He promised to register for marriage with her once they got back to Bei City? How could he give his phone number to some
random girl just like that?
“What did I do?” Fu Lingye asked calmly.
“How could you give your phone number to some random girl?”
No, they shouldn't even know him! Especially those that have ulterior motives!
Fu Lingye took another bite calmly, after which he placed some pickled vegetables into her bowl. “You've been craving sour stuff
recently? Eat more.”
“......”
How could this man just change the subject like that?!
Mu Tongrui was vexed.
......
Soon after exiting the restaurant, they began to search for Fu Lingye on WeChat. The profile that they found had a dog meme as
a profile picture.
The two girls exchanged looks.
“How could that mature-looking man have such a childish profile picture?”
“And it says 'Female'? Is he a pervert or something?”
“No way! Maybe he's scared that too many girls would add him on WeChat, so he set his gender as 'Female' to block any
attacks?”
......

Just as Mu Tongrui was about to toss the pickled vegetables into her mouth angrily, her phone chimed. It was a notification from
WeChat.
Mu Tongrui didn't bother about it, but Fu Lingye peered at her screen and said, “Your phone rang. Aren't you going to look at it?”
Mu Tongrui finally decided to put down her cutlery and pick up her phone. A red “1” appeared in the contacts section of WeChat,
meaning that someone had added her as a friend. She opened the notification and realized that the profile was of one of the two
girls from earlier.
Mu Tongrui was stunned for a moment. So the phone number Fu Lingye gave them just now was her number?