Hard to Escape - Chapter 17.1

Candle: Aiii this author once again wrote a chapter that’s shorter than normal yet too long for a single release. Welp, A SHORT RELEASE IT IS, my apologies dear readers!!

Yin Li gave me one week to consider things. It just so happened that he had to spend this week away on a business trip, but he still made his presence apparent by sending me bouquets upon bouquets of scarlet red roses every day. Within a few days of these deliveries, our home was entirely permeated by the sweet fragrance of roses. After I’d gotten used to it, I came to feel that roses were indeed superior to lilies. The scent of lilies, compared to that of roses, was undeniably a little bit too strong.

Today was already the sixth day since he left. Last night Yin Li had texted me saying he would be back this evening. My heart held traces of both nervousness and expectation. To be honest, I was already clear about things. On the second day after Yin Li’s proposal, I had heartlessly deleted Mo Xing Zhi’s text of the artist’s contact info. From that, I knew what answer I would give Yin Li.

In these six days, I had unexpectedly missed Yin Li quite a lot, but I’d also felt somewhat embarrassed. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that it wasn’t like me to tell him directly to his face, “I agree to marry you.” It didn’t suit my personality. Subconsciously, I felt that I should be pulling his lapel, hounding him until he cried bitter tears, and then demanding, “Spit it out, are you marrying me or not?!” The current progression of events left me feeling that there was a too big of a disparity.

At this time, I was sitting in the loft, basking in the warm light of dusk. I’d found a piece of paper and was mindlessly doodling on it, when an idea suddenly popped into my head. Maybe I could write my answer down on a paper, letting Yin Li discover it for himself. Then our eyes would naturally meet in tender, synchronized harmony and fireworks of love would burst forth in our hearts. This sort of scene would leave a much better memory for us in the future. Decided, I found a piece of note paper and crookedly scrawled with a highlighter on on it, “Yes I’ll marry you!” I wrote these three words in large, bold, and messy letters.

After I finished writing the note, I started to consider where to place it. But even after I’d pondered this question for a while, I still couldn’t come up with any good options, so I got up and walked over to the window to enjoy the view.

With a glance, I was suddenly struck with inspiration. Under the ginkgo tree in front of the yard stood a figure that was clearly Yin Li. He currently was standing with his back towards me, wearing a grey knitted sweater that I’d seen him in before.  He apparently was in the middle of a conversation with someone.

He’d probably rushed back early as a nice surprise for me. I stared at the words “Yes I’ll marry you!” written on the paper, and decided I should give him a nice surprise in turn.

I crumpled the paper into a ball and found a few more sheets of blank white paper to wrap it in. Soon, it became a small, round ball of paper. I then grabbed the highlighter again to write on the outside of the ball, “Open me up for a surprise!” and then eagerly ran back to the window.

Thankfully, Yin Li was still on the phone. His head was lowered, looking at his own shadow. This stance was pretty good, his current posture was perfect for my sneak attack.

I wound up my arm and threw the ball in his direction. Because of the wind, the ball ended up flying a little off course and only lightly brushed his shoulder before rolling onto the ground. But at least it had managed to finally catch his attention. Immensely satisfied, I lay flat on the window sill, wanting to see his reaction.

After being hit by some object, Yin Li was sure enough a bit suspicious. He first picked up the paper ball before turning to look in my direction. I waved my hand at him, but when he lifted his head up, I discovered… Crap! I’d hit the wrong person!

That face clearly wasn’t Yin Li’s face. I could only vaguely make out that he was a man with sharp, deeply carved-out facial features. His frame was similar to Yin Li’s and he was wearing the same clothes that Yin Li had worn before. Since he was standing at our front door, I had relied on my first impression of his back and assumed that he was Yin Li.

Once I thought back to the ball’s contents, I felt that as thick as my skin was, this sort of mishap was still very embarrassing. Furthermore, the man standing over there in front of me was probably struck silly by my throw. He held the ball and stared at me in shock with a pale face that was as white as a sheet. I promptly shrunk my head back in and crouched under the window to hide.

After awhile I snuck a look outside from behind the curtains, using them to conceal myself. Sure enough, that man had already left. I heaved a sigh of relief. He’d probably thought it was a prank. But my joy only lasted a few seconds. The main entrance’s doorbell started incessantly ringing without stop.

I ran over to look at the front door monitor. This time the face outside the door was clear, and sure enough it was the man from before. I couldn’t help but admit that he also had a handsome face, but it was a different sort of handsomeness compared to Yin Li’s graceful refinement. This man had a more straightforward handsomeness. Tragically, at this moment no matter how nice-looking of a face appeared before my eyes, they were all loathsome to me.

He rang the doorbell nonstop with a panicked and impatient expression on his face. He seemed to be saying something. Most likely because he was confident that I was at home, he had a look that said “Laozi1 is going to keep pressing this button until the end of time2.”

1 If you’ve read enough Chinese web novels you’ve probably run across “Laozi” before, it’s essentially an arrogant way to refer to yourself.

2 Literally “when the heavens are empty and the earth is old”, 天荒地老 just means a really long ass time.

Naturally, I refused to open the door for him. I was the only one at home. Moreover, no matter how handsome he was it didn’t matter a wit, the state of his mind seemed to be abnormal. Wasn’t it merely a ball of paper that hit you? With one glance you could tell that he was perfectly healthy. Just a light brush of a paper ball on the shoulder, what kind of harm could it have? After thinking it through, I decided to ignore him. Instead I just turned on the surround sound to better drown out the sound of the doorbell and his voice.

Only after I’d played through some Beethoven, then switched to some folk music and let “La mei zi La mei zi La~” cycle on repeat for three or four times, did the doorbell ringing finally stop. Not long afterwards, the real Yin Li returned. Maybe because he’d endured six straight days of meetings, the color of his face was quite ugly. It could even be considered gloomy. His eyes flashed with a stern grimness. He rarely displayed this sort of expression.

Candle: So the author originally wrote “Da mei zi” instead of “La mei zi”, probably to avoid copyright? Anyway I almost spat out my metaphoric drink when I read this line, to give you an idea of what kind of humor this expresses, please listen to this ICONIC CLASSIC OF CHINESE MUSIC:

Candle: For those of you who don’t know much of Chinese/Chinese culture, “La mei zi” (辣妹子) has a literal translation of smth like… “spicy lady” I guess?? Lol. The term is used to describe a sassy, pretty young lady. Kinda like our MC Yan Xiao maybe 🙂