1 Year Ago
"Finally we graduated!" Li Hong declared happily, dusting off the invisible dust from his graduation cap.
"Agree," Zheng Hao nodded wholeheartedly, his eyes still on his diploma.
"Look, your wife is coming," Li Hong nudged his friend, seeing Xiao Yang coming towards them with a huge bouquet of half pink half red carnations.
Zheng Hao shook his head in disbelief, but in a very very very deep corner of his heart, he felt cherished. It was a super nice gesture for him to remember his graduation day, let alone bring that huge bouquet although Zheng Hao never gave him hope.
"Hao ge, congratulations!" He smiled, showing his even white teeth as he passed the bouquet to Zheng Hao.
Meanwhile, the fireworks lightened the semi-darkness.
***
"What are you doing here?" Zheng Hao almost shouted, seeing Xiao Yang in his father's dry cleaning store.
"Hao ge," Xiao Yang waved his hand excitedly, "I spilled wine on my shirt, so I brought it here so that Uncle Zheng can take care of it," he explained with a smile.
Brimming with anger, Zheng Hao grabbed the younger's arm and dragged him out of the store before his father came back to the counter.
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
"Ge, I told you already."
"No, the real reason... nevermind, just leave my family alone."
"No no," Xiao Yang shook his head vehemently, "you got me wrong, ge! I am here because I missed you. As you graduated, I don't see you at university. Also you don't reply to my messages, so I came here to see you."
"Why are you this persistent?" Zheng Hao asked tiredly, "you are handsome, rich and easy-going, it shouldn't be a problem for you to find a lover. Why are you chasing me?"
"Because I love you, ge," Xiao Yang announced honestly, his hazel eyes shining, "as you said I am handsome, rich and easy-going, so just be my boyfriend, okay?"
"Just leave me alone."
As soon as Zheng Hao said it, a heavy rain poured down as if the sky cried with Xiao Yang.
***
"Good afternoon, Zheng Hao," an elegant woman in her fifties greeted Zheng Hao as soon as he entered his family store.
"Good afternoon, you are...?" Zheng Hao asked politely, looking at his father curiously, but his father just shrugged.
"I am Sun Xiao Yang's mother," the woman replied, then fixed her already-neat hair which was bundled in a bun, "I am here to ask you for a favour."
Zheng Hao's gaze hardened. First Xiao Yang and now his mother... After a month of silence, he thought the younger one finally gave up, but now his mother was there, probably to give Zheng Hao a good amount of money to leave his son alone.
"My son loves you so much, you are the only one he talks about."
Okay, that was unexpected. Zheng Hao was slightly taken aback, but composed himself rather quickly.
"So?" he asked coldly, ignoring the glare he got from his father.
Mrs. Sun feigned a cough, then smiled again, "can't you give him a chance? He is a nice young man, I am sure you-"
"No," was the firm reply, "I don't want to date your son and I told this to him many times. Therefore, please leave me alone."
***
"Hao ge, why don't you talk to me?" Xiao Yang jutted his pink lips.
Zheng Hao glared at him, but didn't say anything, he rather continued with ironing. As words were useless, he decided to try the silence-card.
"I didn't send my mom here, I swear, she just wanted to help me," Xiao Yang explained in an imploring manner.
"I don't blame you or her," Zheng Hao said coldly, "I just want you to leave me alone. Look, you actually don't love me, you just got obsessed with me because I say no to you."
"No!" Xiao Yang exclaimed in horror, "I am not obsessed, I really love you."
"STOP IT ALREADY!" Zheng Hao shouted as he slammed the iron on the ironing table, failing to see the younger one's hand resting on it.
"Arrggh!"
***
"Can't you really give him a chance?" Mrs. Sun asked Zheng Hao with begging eyes, "my son really loves and needs you."
Zheng Hao exhaled loudly, "Mrs. Sun, this is exactly why I don't want to do anything with your son. I want to live a simple life, so I don't want any forced romance in my life. Please, just find someone else from your rich social circle."
Mrs. Sun's gaze hardened, "I couldn't agree more, young man. You are just selfish and definitely not worthy of my son's love... Still, you know how stubborn he is. He insists on holding on to you."
"So? What to do now?"
"I will talk to my son one more time, but if he insists, then by hook or crook, you will be his."
***
"Hao ge, are you okay?" Xiao Yang asked with a broken voice as he slumped on the hospital floor near the older one.
Realising it was Xiao Yang, Zheng Hao's mind went into a frenzy. Like a madman, he started to hit the younger one, repeating "IT IS YOUR FAULT! YOUR MOTHER KILLED MY FATHER!"
"No ge!" Xiao Yang denied the allegation although he didn't stop the mad man hitting him, "the doctor said the other driver was under influence."
"NO!! IT IS A LIE! YOU DID IT!"
***
"I understand your suspicion, but I really didn't cause your father's accident," Mrs. Sun said, standing inside the certain dry cleaning store, "it has been months, you should come to your senses."
Zheng Hao didn't even spare her a glance, "just leave."
"I see it is impossible to talk sense to you," she opened her black bag and fished out a document, "I bought this building," she said and threw the document on the counter.
Zheng Hao took it with trembling hands, "why?...why you...?"
"Of course to threaten you," she said nonchalantly, "I talked nicely to you, even begged you, but you didn't care; therefore, now I am threatening you. If you don't marry Xiao Yang, I will demolish this building and your family business of sixty-five years will be gone forever."
"You can't do this!" Zheng Hao exclaimed, but he knew she could do that. That was the reason why he was so adamant not to fall for Xiao Yang's charms from the beginning. Rich kids were always the same; they were acting nice, but when they didn't get what they wanted, they tended to turn into monsters.
"I can and I will... if you don't marry my silly son."
...
Another year... after all, money was everything. After resisting so long, Zheng Hao lost the game and was forced to marry his little monster.
***
A/N: Surprise! I was productive, so I managed to finish a chapter before Thursday^^ I hope you enjoy *whispers* if you do, please leave a vote/comment <3