Chapter 323 - 256: The Unasked Question

"So, someone made a move on you? And you didn’t tell me?"

Since the topic was already brought up, Ni Bingyan decided not to hold anything back.

Though it was quite embarrassing, she told him the whole story about Xu Bin.

Exchanging voice messages back and forth was inconvenient, so the two of them started a voice call.

Sang Yuan listened quietly the whole time, then came out with that question.

Hearing the tone of his voice, Ni Bingyan suddenly grew nervous.

’He’s going to say something like, "Tell me where he is. I’ll go kill him right now,"’ she thought, and quickly started to explain:

"There are a lot of people like that in the industry. It’s impossible to deal with every single one. I’m not that kind of person, and I didn’t suffer any real loss. You have your own things to do, and I can handle it for now. I just felt it was unnecessary to tell you..."

Sang Yuan was silent for a moment, then spoke in a very serious tone, as if stating some great truth:

"You’re so beautiful, so outstanding, and so ambitious. It’s normal for people to have their eyes on you. It has nothing to do with your profession, and it’s not your fault. It’s my problem."

Ni Bingyan hadn’t said anything because she was afraid Sang Yuan would overthink it. She never expected him to say something like this and, for a moment, didn’t know how to respond.

Many wealthy families are unwilling to have their sons marry actresses. Besides their busy schedules preventing them from taking care of the family, it’s also because of the industry’s bad reputation, which taints their own.

In the eyes of the world, a muddy pond only contains loaches; how could there be so many pure lotuses emerging unstained from the muck?

If the industry is full of promiscuous women, then all women in it must be promiscuous.

It’s like when someone commits a crime, people look at their family differently.

It was a very unreasonable logic, but it was one that truly existed.

The Sang Family was well-off, and Sang Yuan’s personal qualifications were ridiculously good. If his whole family hadn’t been so sincere, and if her father hadn’t given his approval, she definitely wouldn’t have accepted Sang Yuan’s pursuit.

This sense of inferiority made her exceptionally proud.

She didn’t want to be looked down on because of her profession, especially not by Sang Yuan. That’s why she never liked to tell him about the negative things that happened in the industry.

After carefully choosing her words, she finally spoke:

"This has nothing to do with you. Even if you’re trying to comfort me, you shouldn’t say that."

Victim-blaming was simply absurd. She didn’t think it was her fault, and she certainly couldn’t agree with Sang Yuan taking the blame on himself.

’He’s got absolutely nothing to do with it!’

"How could it have nothing to do with me? If he knew you had a boyfriend, and a very outstanding one at that, he’d understand that you wouldn’t be interested in him even if you were blind. Making a move on you would just be asking for humiliation! Most people would know to back off when faced with such a reality."

’I have to admit, something feels off about his words, but they make so much sense!’

It was like that chair a friend had given her a while back. It looked crooked, but when you sat on it, it was perfectly stable. It was just as bizarre.

"AHEM, a lot of people who do this kind of thing are already married with kids! Someone with a crooked mind isn’t going to consider all that. If he had any brains, he’d know I’m not that kind of person, and he should also know I have a boyfriend. It’s not like I’m hiding it."

’He’s making it sound like I’m out here pretending to be single.’

Ni Bingyan felt a little wronged, and it showed in her tone.

Sang Yuan raised an eyebrow, pretending not to hear her, and continued on with his own line of reasoning:

"If there’s anyone in this world who doesn’t know you’re my wife, that’s my fault. So, what do you think, should we get engaged first? How about next month? The New Year is coming up, and everyone will have time off. Do you want to keep it simple or have a big celebration? I’ve thought of a few plans, want to hear them? If you’re busy, I can discuss it with my father-in-law first..."

Before he could finish, Ni Bingyan’s hand trembled, and she hung up the call.

She touched her face—sure enough, it was burning hot.

’This guy is always like this. He seizes every opportunity, slipping in comments whenever he can, trying to sweet-talk me into getting engaged and married quickly. I don’t know why he thinks so highly of me.’

All the eligible bachelors in the world claim they haven’t had enough fun yet, but this weirdo seemed to have had his fill before he’d even started.

’Is marriage really that great?’

Sitting on the edge of her bed, Ni Bingyan found herself unconsciously pondering this question.

BZZT~

Her phone vibrated. A new message had arrived.

First, an Excel document, followed by a voice message:

"This is a guest list I’ve drafted. Take a look when you have time and see if anything needs to be changed. I wouldn’t want my plans to be less than perfect."

Some people are all talk and no action, but others do exactly what they say they’ll do, no matter how outrageous it seems.

Ni Bingyan’s scalp tingled. She hurriedly sent a message back: "What’s your rush! Just a few days ago, your mom was telling me to focus on my career! Now you’re here pushing me to get married. I’m under a lot of pressure!"

An actress’s golden years are so short. If she gets married and has kids early, her focus will be divided, and there’s no telling what will become of her career.

Sang Yuan chuckled. "What rush? A wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Shouldn’t we take three to five years to prepare for it? We can’t just rush into things, right? We can date and prepare at the same time. That way, when the time is right, everything will go much more smoothly. We’re both so busy with work, it’s perfect to use our spare moments to get the preparations done! We need to have a plan for how we do things in life. Don’t you agree with me?"

In his last life, their wedding had been extremely rushed because they’d put the cart before the horse. Sang Yuan had been bothered by it for years. In this life, he would die before repeating that mistake.

Ni Bingyan listened to this voice message three times over.

’There it is, that feeling again!’

’Something’s clearly not right, but he makes so much sense!’

Stunned, she found herself saving the voice message as if possessed.

"O-Okay, I guess!"

Their relationship had always been with marriage in mind. Since Ni Bingyan was a very disciplined person who liked to have a plan, Sang Yuan’s words struck a chord with her. How could she bear to say no?

Seeing she was swayed, Sang Yuan raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Good. Then I’ll start the preparations. It’s still too early for the wedding, so I’ll start by preparing for the engagement."

The topic had somehow shifted to this. Ni Bingyan’s eyes widened. ’Do I look like an idiot?’

She called him back, thoroughly annoyed.

"You smooth-talker! When did I say I wanted to get engaged? We’re still young, what’s the rush? It’s not like I’m going to run away!"

"An engagement is such an important event. Shouldn’t we take a year or two to prepare? We need a plan. We’ll date and prepare at the same time. We’re both so busy with work, we can use our spare moments..."

Seeing he was about to launch into his usual spiel again, Ni Bingyan clutched her racing heart and quickly cut him off:

"STOP, STOP, STOP! It’s so late, you should go eat. We’ll talk about this later. Besides, the guest list will keep changing, so there’s no point in finalizing it now."

"Oh, right! It’s my first time doing this, so I don’t have any experience. You make a good point. How about we decide on the wedding dress and things like that first? A custom-made wedding dress takes a long time to make. Do you have a favorite designer? And the jewelry needs to match the dress. Aside from the family heirlooms, we’ll need to acquire some more. Good gemstones are rare finds, so we’ll have to contact some gem suppliers..."

"STOP, STOP, STOP! I’m really busy here. We’ll talk another day, another day!"

Unable to fend him off any longer, Ni Bingyan made an excuse and quickly hung up.

It took her a long time to calm down.

She hadn’t asked the questions she was supposed to. It wasn’t that she forgot, but rather that Sang Yuan didn’t want her to ask.

She was a little worried about arguing and, after some hesitation, decided she should face it. He, on the other hand, was different. He seemed almost terrified of it?

While Ni Bingyan was lost in thought, Sang Yuan put away his phone and let out a long sigh.

He knew his wife better than anyone. Sometimes he felt wronged, thinking she didn’t trust him, but after calming down and thinking about it, he could understand why she was like this.

Their feelings for each other weren’t equal, and neither was their level of trust. To him, she was his wife of many years, but to her, he was just a boyfriend she had only recently started dating.

Ice three feet thick isn’t formed in a single cold day, and a person’s character isn’t built overnight.

If she were the type to trust others so easily, she would have been devoured with not even scraps left behind long ago.

In his last life, it took him many years to get her to trust and rely on him. This life had just begun; he couldn’t rush it.

With this in mind, he called Xiao Zhao and gave him some detailed instructions before staring blankly out the window.

Liking someone is a strange, inexplicable thing. Many people love someone with all their heart for years, only for it to end without any real resolution.

For someone like him, who had set his heart on one person since he was young and eventually had his feelings returned, he was already very fortunate.

In love, the one who falls first always has it harder. And it’s even harder when you’re stuck with a stubborn, hard-to-warm heart of stone.

But he didn’t regret it one bit.

Because once that heart of stone slowly warms up, you discover just how scorching hot it can be.

All they needed was time.