Pandas
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The next morning, Yang Chen boarded Lin Ruoxi’s car and they both left for Zhonghai International Airport.
Lin Ruoxi’s Bentley was finally fixed. Her tyres had to be imported all the way from England. It was unknown if the manufacturer kept no stock in the country, or the car’s design was too unique, which made Lin Ruoxi have to impatiently wait.
She owned so many cars, which made Yang Chen wonder why she was unwilling to drive any of them. The reason Lin Ruoxi gave, made Yang Chen feel rather touched. She had developed a special connection to her car, and was reluctant to make a switch.
How nice would it be if she could too, develop a liking towards me, Yang Chen thought.
When they arrived at the departure hall of the airport, Li Jingjing could be seen standing there, silently waiting. She wore a pink sweater under a white coat and held a small luggage bag in hand.
When she saw Yang Chen and Lin Ruoxi coming towards her, Li Jingjing’s eyes went slightly red and watery and revealed a smile on her face.
“Sister Ruoxi… Brother Yang… you… thank you for coming to send me off.” After making the phone call yesterday, Li Jingjing wasn’t very confident that Lin Ruoxi would have come, considering what had happened before. However, Lin Ruoxi had really kept her promise.
Yang Chen sighed as he patted Li Jingjing’s head. He did not mind doing such an act in front of Lin Ruoxi. It was merely an act affection a brother would have done towards his sister. He knew that Lin Ruoxi would understand.
“After you reach there, you’ll be alone for quite a while. Don’t trust other people too much, especially men who seem to treat you exceptionally well. Don’t feel reluctant on spending money just because the dollar is more expensive than the yuan. Spend on whatever you should, or else your well-being would not be taken care off. Take care of yourself. May you have a safe journey,” Lin Ruoxi said gently, as if she was talking about something trivial.
Li Jingjing couldn’t stop herself from tearing away. Other than repeatedly nodding, she didn’t seem to be able to speak.
Lin Ruoxi smiled faintly and said, “You are one of my few friends here. I’ll wait for your return and learn to cook from you again. Oh yeah, after you come back in two years, there’ll be more adorable children at the orphanage.”
Li Jingjing grinned while she sobbed and forcefully nodded her head. “Thank you guys. Brother Yang, Sister Ruoxi, goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
Li Jingjing didn’t say anything else. Turning around, she walked towards the exit without turning her head to look back.
Lin Ruoxi was the first to turn and leave the airport.
Yang Chen quickly followed behind. Smiling, he said, “Babe Ruoxi, I sense that you have a warm heart but a cold shell. Women like you are too charismatic.”
“Stop spouting nonsense. Say this to other women.” Lin Ruoxi rolled her eyes. Evidently, sweet talk had little to no effect towards a rational woman like her.
Yang Chen chuckled. “Then we’ll go to the karaoke place now. You promised me yesterday that you’d learn singing from me. It’s really a crucial skill the rest of your life could use.”
Lin Ruoxi stopped moving, while her face revealed bitterness. “Can I not go?”
“No, you can’t,” Yang Chen rejected. “You can’t break your promise. Look at me, I’ve lived up to my promise to you.”
Lin Ruoxi pouted and remained silent. She then quickly walked to the parking area.
After half an hour, they arrived at Yuan’s Dream Karaoke where they were yesterday. The manager, naturally, wouldn’t have forgotten Lin Ruoxi. Yang Chen didn’t even have to take out his platinum member card, but the manager offered a huge room to them for free.
Yang Chen realized that he was tricked by Yuan Ye! The platinum card was a useless piece of decoration! They could enter for free based solely on Lin Ruoxi’s face!
Yang Chen felt that he had to take revenge on the kid. It was wrong to play a trick on an elder brother like that.
However, his current priority was to teach Lin Ruoxi how to sing.
Yang Chen insisted on bringing Lin Ruoxi here, for another major reason—his face.
[TL note: Face: side; reputation; self-respect; prestige, honor; social standing.]
His wife could do everything well, but would instantly annihilate everyone’s perception of her once she opened her mouth to sing. Wouldn’t this pull down his social standing as her husband?
It was the same principle when a woman hoped that her partner was handsome and attractive, to make other women envious. A man would hope that other men get jealous once his woman starts to singing. Although he would be fine as long as Lin Ruoxi could avoid singing, Yang Chen felt that he had an uneasy feeling his heart.
As a result, Yang Chen began teaching Lin Ruoxi seriously, starting from the most basic vocalization to explain basic music theories.
Yang Chen merely had to simply flip a few books to memorize this professional knowledge. It wasn’t difficult for him at all.
Thus, various complex conversations could be heard coming from the karaoke room…
“Ah—ahhhh—ahhhh…”
“Use your voice! Not your nose!”
“How is my nose making the sounds when it can’t?”
“Dark… dark skies… dark skies at…”
“Stop, stop, stop! Stop!!! How did you manage to sing the first word out of tune?! You could have just read it out loud and have gotten it more accurately.”
“Dark skies… at…”
“Stop!!! Did you really read it aloud just because I said you could do it nicely?! Sing it!”
“Dark skies…”
“The first word is off again!!!”
…
After some time, Yang Chen finally managed to get Lin Ruoxi right on the first sentence. Although her singing was so slow that it was akin to reading, it was at least sung at the right tone.
Yang Chen thought left and right for a solution. He finally recalled a technique he read about in a book. He waved his hands up and down while moving his legs from side to side, causing his entire body to start moving rhythmically. As he nodded, he said, “Come, do this with me.”
Lin Ruoxi pouted as he looked at Yang Chen’s posture which was unlike a bear. Shaking her head, she said, “No, it’s too ugly. What are you doing? Didn’t you say you wanted me to sing?”
“This is called a rhythm. Once your body starts following the rhythm, you’ll start to get a sense of rhythm when you sing. You have to look for a rhythm now. Follow the music, and mimic my actions. One, two, three, four, two, two, three, four, three, two, three, four… Just follow what I do. One, two, one, two… Do it now!”
Yang Chen’s limbs swayed like a standing panda as he shouted at Lin Ruoxi.
Lin Ruoxi got frightened by Yang Chen’s yell. Yang Chen looked so serious that he seemed to have started seeing her as his student.
Lin Ruoxi clenched her teeth as she gathered what remained of her courage. Since there was no one looking at her in the room, she put down her mic and stood up before swaying away together with Yang Chen like a panda.
Thus, the couple kept singing as they swung their bodies, singing away in the room.
Lin Ruoxi felt that the series of weird movements really managed to help her get a feel of the music. Therefore, she slowly got immersed as she sang…
After three songs had passed, when Lin Ruoxi and Yang Chen were completely absorbed in their swaying and singing, as if they were people diagnosed with epilepsy, the door got pushed open!
A server holding a tray, who was standing outside the door saw a guy and a lady with swaying oddly, as if they were turtles.
They couldn’t help it, since their movements switched to turtles.
Lin Ruoxi pounced onto Yang Chen’s chest like a terrified rabbit. She had the urge to bang her head against the wall to commit suicide! How am I supposed to meet people in the future?!
The server noticed that he witnessed something he wasn’t supposed to see. Although he didn’t have to be killed for knowing their secret, he quickly put down the tray of fruits and escaped.
On the other hand, Yang Chen was elated and satisfied by the sudden encounter. Lin Ruoxi herself jumped into his arms!
He hugged the fragrant and delicate jade. Since Lin Ruoxi moved for very long earlier, she was sweating quite a bit, causing her to exude her bodily scent, which made Yang Chen take a few deep breaths as he appreciated the rich fragrance.
“Hehe, I knew that singing like this will make you improve a lot quicker,” Yang Chen said happily while he hugged Lin Ruoxi’s elegant waist.
Lin Ruoxi suddenly realized what she just did. Forcefully, she pushed Yang Chen away as she panted. Blushing, she yelled, “It’s all because of you! I don’t dare leave this room anymore!”
“What’s wrong about that? We even have a marriage certificate. No one can stop us even if we get a room at a hotel,” Yang Chen said gloomily.
“I’m not talking about that!” Lin Ruoxi almost cried. “The server will tell others about it for sure, and say that we… we did … the kind of weird movements…”
Yang Chen pouted. Is it really weird? Who cares? It’s effective!
Suddenly, Lin Ruoxi’s phone which was on the table started to vibrate. Lin Ruoxi stopped minding the awkwardness anymore. Taking her phone up, she frowned before picking up the call.
“Hi, Wu Yue, did anything happen?”
Her secretary, Wu Yue, had suddenly called over during the holidays.
Lin Ruoxi listened quietly for a while. Slowly, the red on her face started fading, while she turned strict and serious.