Conseillère militaire et princesse

Chapitre 15

Old Postman and Aunt Mei reached a truce agreement at some point, established a revolutionary united front, and adopted a strategy of both soft and hard tactics, coercion and inducement, towards Ding Yan.

So, Ding Yan was finally forced to go on a blind date.

Aunt Mei said that this blind date was introduced by the father of her former colleague's brother-in-law. He's a prince of the local restaurant industry, not only as handsome as Louis Koo, but also exceptionally tasteful and gentlemanly. More importantly, he's honest and upright, unlike typical rich men who are womanizers; he even blushes when talking to women!

Ding Yan covered her ears and screamed, "Stop talking! Stop talking! I already agreed to go, so just stop singing his praises! You're really boosting others' morale while diminishing your own! Humph! I'm also the princess of the apartment! Humph!"

Ding Yan stormed out the door, and Aunt Mei called after her, "Let Xiaomi drive you there!"

"Shh..." the old postman whispered, "Don't let Xiaomi deliver it. Xiaomi is so pretty, she'll outshine Ding Yan... Let Da Mi go..."

Aunt Mei shook her head: "Dami won't work either. Dami is so handsome. What if people mistake him for Ding Yan's boyfriend? That would be terrible..."

While the two were whispering to each other, Ding Yan had already hailed a taxi and set off.

The blind date was held at the same teahouse where Yang Xin and I had tea last time.

"Oh? Miss Ding!" Li Meng came out of the teahouse, and as soon as he spoke, his face turned as red as if it had been painted with lacquer.

"Oh! You...you...you're here for tea too?" Ding Yan thought to himself, "This is bad. It would be so embarrassing if someone I know found out I was on a blind date."

"This is my teahouse." Li Meng smiled and lowered his head, still avoiding Ding Yan's eyes. "Are you alone?"

"Oh... um... I need to use the restroom..." Ding Yan glanced at her watch; the man should be arriving soon. Ding Yan hid in the restroom and called Aunt Mei: "Aunt Mei!"

"Ding Yan!" Aunt Mei laughed on the other end of the phone. Old You leaned close to the phone and whispered, "Quickly ask how things are going."

"What the hell! We know someone at this teahouse. Call them right away and either go another day or find another place!" Ding Yan said anxiously while sitting on the toilet. Drips of red water were faintly falling from the ceiling of the toilet, but Ding Yan did not notice them.

“What’s there to be afraid of if we know someone?” Aunt Mei said.

"Ugh! I'm not talking to you anymore! I'm leaving soon anyway, whether you tell me or not is up to you! Humph!" Ding Yan hung up the phone and hurriedly walked out. The waiters in the corridor looked at her strangely. Only then did she realize that all the waiters here were male.

She had just stepped into the lobby when her phone rang again. Without even looking at it, she answered, "Aunt Mei! I'm not here no matter what!"

"Hello? Is this Miss Ding? My surname is Li..."

"Ah...oh..." It's that guy, could he have arrived? Damn it! Ding Yan stomped his foot.

"You, you, it seems you're late..." The other person stammered, their tone a little impatient.

"Um... um... let's reschedule for another day..." Ding Yan said, while cautiously looking at every suspicious person in the hall.

"Since you're here, let's meet..." The other party hung up the phone, and a voice came from behind. It was Li Meng.

"What a coincidence, I didn't expect it to be you!" Li Meng suppressed a laugh, gently took out a handkerchief, and lightly wiped away the red water droplets on Ding Yan's forehead, then quietly wrapped the red stain in the handkerchief.

"Ah—" Ding Yan scratched his head, feeling embarrassed.

6.

While secretly glancing at the common blind date topics she had written down in her palm, Ding Yan chatted haltingly with Li Meng. She had done extensive research online for this blind date, more diligently than she had ever been during her school days.

Li Meng noticed that Ding Yan was also very nervous, but he himself relaxed and spoke very politely and tactfully, which quickly dispelled Ding Yan's unease.

Strictly speaking, Li Meng was indeed a good man. Most importantly, for Ding Yan, who lacked a father's love in her childhood and was an only child, Li Meng gave her a very warm feeling, like an older brother.

Is this feeling love? Sometimes love is like this: even if two people who know each other well have never had any special feelings for each other, when something makes them start to see each other from a different perspective, they will find that, oh, we can love each other.

That evening, Li Meng escorted Ding Yan to her doorstep, then suddenly grabbed her arm, blushing, and asked, "Um...did I pass?"

"Hmm... If you pass, don't even think about me making an exception and selling you that house!" Ding Yan said fiercely.

"No!" Li Meng hurriedly shook his head.

"Also, if you pass, don't even think about me waiving your rent! Not even a discount!"

"No, no!" Li Meng waved his hand nervously again.

"And another thing! If you pass! We'll let bygones be bygones regarding Xiao Jia and your Bei Bei's affair, since they'll be relatives from now on..." Ding Yan paused, noticing Li Meng's sudden hesitation, realizing she'd been thinking too far ahead, as if she were in a rush to marry him. She quickly covered up her embarrassment and continued, "So, the rent reduction for that quarter that we agreed on before is also off-limits! You still have to pay!"

“Okay, okay—” Li Meng drawled, “If all of these are fine, then does that mean I can pass?”

"I'll call you tomorrow and tell you the answer!" Ding Yan blushed and fled into the room.

Aunt Mei and Old Mail flanked them like paparazzi, asking, "How is it? How is it?"

"Don't even mention it!" Ding Yan's face was still flushed, and she didn't dare to look at them. She rushed straight to A, B, C, and D, who were locked up. "It's all your fault! You made me sell myself to save up for that quarter's rent!"

A, B, C, and D hummed a few times for no apparent reason.

"What does this have to do with rent?" Old Postman was rather slow to catch on.

"Could it be... that your blind date is Mr. Li from downstairs? It can't be such a coincidence, can it?" Aunt Mei continued to play dumb.

"So, did it work out or not?" Old Postman followed Ding Yan like a shadow, but Ding Yan ignored him angrily.

Aunt Mei laughed and said, "Didn't you hear what our girl said? She sold herself... So, did it work out or not?"

Old Postman finally understood, and laughed like a ghost.

7.

Is this what love is?

Wang Xiaofeng stabbed the howling sow hard, swiftly dismembered it, and then, while raping the pork, thought about Ding Yan's appearance. He kept thinking of someone; he must have fallen in love with that person, right?

He tossed the toilet paper onto the sow, pulled up his pants, let out a long, contented sigh, and looked down at the still-warm sow's body, suddenly remembering the corpses that had gone missing from the hospital.

Human associations are strange. For some reason, when he thought of the missing corpses, he also thought of Ding Yan. He remembered that Ding Yan had said she wanted to taste what a human cheek tasted like.

Ding Yan, that strange little "vampire," must not be joking to say such things, right?

He kicked the sow, rode his bicycle back to his residence, grabbed a spare scalpel, and resolutely headed for the hospital. He remembered that earlier that evening, the morgue had just housed a body—a victim of a car accident—that had died upon arrival at the hospital, and the family had not yet been contacted.

For Yang Xin, this was a good opportunity to make a contribution. They deliberately let the media report on the car accident and the hospital responsible for the treatment, and even published a notice in the news to let that perverted thief know that the body was currently at the hospital.

He and several colleagues lay in ambush near the hospital and the morgue, waiting for their prey to be caught.

In the early hours of the morning, just as everyone was dozing off, Yang Xin suddenly heard faint noises coming from the morgue. He gently nudged his colleague, then looked at his team leader, awaiting orders.

At the captain's signal, several men rushed into the morgue. Yang Xin was the first to turn on the light, and saw several rats squeaking and scattering in all directions. There were a few small bite marks on the chest of the corpse.

"Damn it!" the captain cursed in frustration, then suddenly turned around and yelled at the morgue door, "Who's there?!"

Then several policemen rushed outside the door.

Outside the door, Wang Xiaofeng saw several gun barrels coldly pointed at him and couldn't help but tremble.

"Xiaofeng? What are you doing here?" Yang Xin's face was full of doubt. Could he be the corpse thief?

"I was just going back to the hospital to get something when I heard a noise here. I thought the corpse thief had appeared, so I rushed over to check..." Wang Xiaofeng said calmly.

The captain ordered everyone to put away their guns and said coldly, "This is none of your business. Get out of here!"

Wang Xiaofeng nodded hurriedly, then staggered out of the hospital without even daring to look back.

The captain put his gun away and asked Yang Xin, "You two know each other?"

"Fellow villager."

"Don't alert him yet, keep a close watch on this guy! That's it for today! Damn it!" After saying that, the captain glanced at Yang Xin again, still worried, and said, "You can withdraw from this case for now!"

8.

Once a woman falls in love, there is no one else or anything else in her world.

Old You sighed as he buried his head in his emails. He thought, "That girl Ding Yan must have run off to Li Meng's house downstairs again. Lately, she's even been too lazy to participate in suicide counseling. It's all been Old You carrying the load. She's really exhausted."

Ding Yan likes to call Li Meng "brother," saying that's how they call him in Korean dramas. She originally wanted to call him "uncle," but Li Meng firmly disagreed, so she had to settle for the second best.

"Brother—" Ding Yan said coquettishly, "Shall we watch Korean dramas together again today?"

"Alright, alright!" Li Meng playfully pinched her nose. "I just can't do anything with you!" He first locked Bei Bei on the balcony, then got up, put the CD away, and sat on the sofa. Ding Yan, like a kitten, used his leg as a pillow.

Beibei has always been hostile to Dingyan, so whenever Dingyan comes, it has to be locked up like Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding. This is probably the fate of dogs.

Ding Yan's hair was soft and fine, like a cat's. Li Meng smiled as he stroked her hair, his heart overflowing with happiness. He had always thought he would never be happy again in his life. He had always been terrified of women, terrified of them. But this girl, for the first time, made him feel close and safe.

He glanced at Ding Yan again. This girl always complained about watching Korean dramas, but she would fall asleep as soon as she started watching them. Little did he know, Ding Yan simply loved the feeling of sleeping on his lap, just like when she was a child in the mountains, lying on her grandfather's lap and basking in the sun—comfortable, warm, and safe.

Li Meng carefully turned down the volume, his forehead beaded with sweat, his lips trembling. He held back and gently kissed Ding Yan, then slowly pulled over a cushion and gently placed it under Ding Yan's head before pulling away and rushing into the bedroom.

In his bedroom, besides the bed, there was only a large wardrobe. He hurriedly crawled into the wardrobe, and then the entire wardrobe began to tremble, accompanied by deliberately suppressed groans.

A dozen minutes later, when he came out of the closet, he saw Ding Yan standing at the bedroom door with a surprised look on his face.

"Brother..." Ding Yan asked in confusion, "What are you doing in the closet? You're all sweaty..."

"N-nothing..." Li Meng's face was deathly pale as he leaned against the wardrobe door. "Nothing, I'm just looking for clothes..."

“You’re lying!” Ding Yan said loudly, “You must be…” As she spoke, she walked up to him, took his wet hand, and said, “You must be just like me when I was a child, and you liked to hide in the closet to vent when you were in a bad mood.”

“Yes, yes!” Li Meng nodded hurriedly.

"But why are you in a bad mood?" Ding Yan looked up.

"I...I..." Li Meng didn't know how to respond for a moment, so he simply lowered his head and kissed her lips fiercely.

Ding Yan's mouth had a sweet, slightly fishy taste that was very tempting. Li Meng couldn't resist kissing him deeply.

Perhaps, this girl can cure his illness?

Thinking of this, hope rekindled in his eyes.

9.

All night long, Ding Yan sat cross-legged on the sofa in a daze, occasionally touching his lips and sometimes chuckling to himself.

Xiao Jia whispered, "Could Ding Yan have become like us?"

Xiao Yi said, "If she turns into a dog too, I'll marry her."

Xiao Bing said, "If we're going to get married, we should get married together."

Old Postman gave them a hard knock on the head, then looked at Ding Yan and whispered to Aunt Mei, "Could it be that... you know?"

Which one?

“That’s the one!” The old postman clenched his right hand and inserted his index finger.

"No way..." Aunt Mei looked at Ding Yan as well, "Isn't this too fast?"

“Young people these days are all like this…” Old You quietly waved his hand in front of Ding Yan’s eyes.

"What?!" Ding Yan snapped out of her daze.

"Are you...?"