Rules of Engagement

Chapter 3 Weekend Couple

Elsa followed Greenwood to the restaurant and ordered a bowl of millet noodles. When he asked her to take a walk with him, she followed him out to the streets. They were high school classmates, so they talked a lot of what happened with each other and their classmates, except Elsa's uncomfortableness with physical contact, of course. They weren't familiar with each other that time, but they had plenty of classmates and teachers, which reminded them of their schooltime. Ever since then, they got to know more about each other.

She had suggested hundreds of times that she needed to buy clothes, but Greenwood had only avoided that suggestion even further. Seeing that she wasn't going to say anything anymore, Greenwood suggested, "How about we go to the cinema? I've already bought tickets as well as popcorn and coke. It's a pretty good deal."

She blinked in surprise, not knowing that he had already made plans to hang out with the headmaster's daughter tomorrow. Since this was his last day with Elsa, Greenwood might as well start spending all his money.

"Maybe another day. I stayed up all night, and I don't want others to worry about me," she said apologetically, motioning to the bags beneath her eyes.

Although a little disappointed, he maintained his poise with an easy smile. "Well, you can go have a good sleep. I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Drive carefully."

Because of work, she had a second-hand car for her to drive home. Elsa nodded.

She didn't know whether she was relieved or not that Greenwood finally left. It was as if another burden was lifted from her shoulders. However, she kept herself together. Her father was already sick, and she didn't want to worry him any further. Plus, she was already old.

From what she could remember two years ago, a woman she knew next to their house had greeted Elsa and her mother with a question on whether she was married yet.

When Blanche Yang shook her head, the woman widened her eyes in surprise. "What? Isn't she old enough already?"

In Elsa's hometown, not getting married in their mid-twenties was already a talk of the entire neighborhood. Elsa couldn't help but be insulted by the reaction.

After putting her car away in the garage, she dragged her tired body up to the group dormitory building with a bag in hand. The dormitory contained three single rooms, one room per person. It didn't have any living room, so people just usually went to their own respective quarters. Since all the basic requirements were met, she was fine with living in the place.

Only people like her would be fine to live in this place. Generally speaking, local people or those who had families wouldn't live in such a place with absolutely no privacy. As soon as she entered, she noticed how her colleagues were stewing trotters.

She scrunched her nose and took a shower. One of the reasons why she chose Greenwood was that he couldn't give up his stable teaching love in the suburbs while she couldn't give up her favorite job in the city. As they were only separated with a three hour bus trip, it was fine for both of them to see each other at weekends.

It kind of made her feel guilty that she wasn't staying with him, but she couldn't help but appreciate his considerateness in that matter.

Lying on the bed with a quilt in her hands, she slowly fell asleep with the background music playing from the next room.

Suddenly, her mobile phone rang, which woke her up. Elsa glanced at her watch to see that it was 4:10 AM. She frowned. Her marriage leave had begun yesterday, so it wouldn't be her boss. Plus, she was the bride, she should look forward to her wedding day.

She buried her phone under the covers till the ringing finally went to a halt. Elsa turned over on her bed but was now more awake because of the ringing. Her eyes were heavy as the sleepiness slowly faded away.

When she looked at her phone, her eyebrows furrowed at the sight of Greenwood's name.

'Why would he call me at this time?'

Just as she was about to call back, Greenwood called yet again, his voice tentative. "Do you mind coming to the hotel?"

"Can we discuss it tomorrow?" She scowled. Although she wasn't able to fall asleep now, she wasn't planning on driving all the way there in the middle of the night.

"It's really important!" He didn't give her another second to say anything before he hung up the phone.

"Hello? Hello?" Elsa hung up with a scowl.

She stood up and got dressed. Seeing as from the alertness of the man's voice, Elsa could tell he must've been in trouble to call her at a night like this. As she was driving, she could feel a dull ache on her temples from the anxiety and lack of sleep.

When she finally arrived at the hotel, a man in a suit arrived to greet her. "Are you Miss Xia? I'm the manager of the hotel. You can call me Mr. Wu. I have something to ask you on your fiance, Mr. Li."

She furrowed her eyebrows, following him to the main office. She didn't know what happened, but from the looks of it, Elsa was in for a sight. However, she just didn't know what to expect. She chewed her

bottom lip.

Elsa thought it over in her mind. She had left her phone number and money when she booked the room so that her parents could check in with their ID cards. Her parents still hadn't come to the hotel. Jane and Little Bun, however, came to stay in the hotel, so did something happen to them?

Her palms turned sweaty at the thought.

"Miss Xia? Miss Xia?" Mr. Wu had already pushed the door open, waiting for her to come in.

The man sitting opposite to her looked extremely familiar. After thinking about it, her eyes widened. This was the man she'd met earlier in the day! She turned, a blush forming on her cheeks.

Elsa saw that Greenwood was sitting on the other side, his face covered with bruises. "Elsa, you're here!" He was relieved at the sight of her.

"Greenwood, what's wrong?" She rushed towards him. There was a scar at the corner of his lips. When he opened his mouth, one of his front teeth had fallen out. "What happened?" The clothes he was sporting were already torn and dirty as if he'd just gotten out of the woods.

He wanted to say everything that had happened, but he started finding it difficult to do so. Having no choice, he decided to bite the bullet. "Well, we're going to get married tomorrow, right? I mean, the banquet and ceremony are held tomorrow, right?" ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

She nodded.

Being a reporter for years, she knew when it was time to listen and when it was time to speak out. As she faced Greenwood, she didn't face him as her fiance. He seemed to be just any other client she had faced. She nodded again, encouraging him to say more.

Encouraged, he continued, "I know that you'll stay in the hotel tonight, so I thought, as your fiance, I had the right to enter your room."

"Um..." She raised her eyebrows, but she let him continue.

"But this man beat me up and now he's taking me to the police station for stealing. Manager Wu intervened to mediate the matter, so he asked you to come to prove my identity."

Ella furrowed her eyebrows. "But I didn't give you my room card."

She had given it to Jane.

"Well, I got it from your side when we went out. We'll be a legal couple anyway, so our marriage is in accordance to the law." Greenwood turned to look at Soren and Mr. Wu. "See? There's no problem here."

He pointed at Soren. "And you! I haven't asked you why you're in her room. I can send you to the police."

Elsa suddenly felt annoyed as she stomped over to Greenwood, lowering her voice down to a whisper. "Why are you here? Why didn't you call me? I just picked the room card because someone dropped it. I was supposed to give it to the reception area, but you distracted me. My friends lived in the room that I booked,"

she snapped. Elsa hurriedly glance at the two men. "I'm really, really sorry. It's all a misunderstanding."

Mr. Wu heaved a sigh of relief. He honestly didn't want anything bad to happen to the hotel. This could affect his business and his reputation at the same time. "Mr. Wang, it's just a misunderstanding after all. Miss Xia has already explained it clearly."

"In that case, I thought too much. It's just with the regulations, I thought they were attracting burglars and rapists." Although his voice wasn't loud, it still echoed throughout the room, turning everyone's attention to him.

It was only then did she notice that he was wearing a military green camouflage shirt.

"Well, this shows that we should invest in security further in the future. We are really sorry for what has happened. We will refund what you've paid for the room to your card, Mr. Wang."

"That's unnecessary. I'm also responsible for that. I thought I left the room card at home, so I didn't tell the staff on time. I just asked the waiter to use the spare card to open the door for me." Soren shrugged, waving his hand in dismissal.

"It's my fault too. If you have suffered any loss, I can pay for it too," Elsa insisted. What Greenwood had done made her all the more uncomfortable, but she should still be responsible for the misunderstanding that she had caused. She would bear the consequences for her own carelessness.