Chapter 776 Beautiful Name
Jin Liwei didn't reply right away which made Iris feel nervous. But now that she felt more at peace after telling him this much, this small nervousness was nothing. Whether he believed her story or not, she felt confident that his love for her wouldn't diminish based on his words and actions so far. For her, that was the most important.
"I believe the parts that make sense," he finally said. "At least, for now. Like I said, I need some time to process everything."
She nodded. "I understand. I'm not forcing you to believe me but I hope that you will someday because this is the truth—my truth. But there's no need to rush. Think about everything I told you tonight slowly and carefully and if there are any parts that you need clarification, just ask me and I'll do my best to give you a satisfactory answer."
"Alright," he said. His fingers tapped once again on the mattress. "I always wondered why Long Xiulan's dossier from the background check I ordered didn't match the Long Xiulan I came to know after meeting you. The dossier said that Long Xiulan had terrible school marks and almost flunked out of senior high. If it wasn't for Father-in-law using his connections, you—she would've failed to even graduate from high school. She had no records of knowing other foreign languages except for English and even then, she could barely speak it fluently.
"And yet here you are, a certified polyglot. Exactly how many languages you're able to speak, even I'm not sure because you learn so fast. The number of languages you tell me today might not necessarily be the same after a couple of months. Even your professors tell me that they're astounded by your ability to master languages so quickly. Not only that, you're also a student of Cross Academy, the legendary school of geniuses. I thought that my grandfather and Grandpa Lu were the only special ones that I personally know who could enter such an exclusive and prestigious institution. I never expected that my own wife would be one as well.
"If I didn't have the dossier I ordered as evidence, I would've assumed that someone deliberately tampered with your records in order to destroy your reputation. I even thought that you did it yourself because you're also a world-class hacker and something like that is very easy for you to do. I just couldn't think of any reason why you would do that to yourself. The most logical explanation that I could think of was that your teenage rebellion overshadowed your real brilliance, that you intentionally suppressed your inner genius and acted like a spoiled brat for attention."
His fingers stopped tapping and he looked at her with a meaningful gaze. "But I guess that's not the case."
"No, it isn't," she replied.
"The dossier didn't match because it belonged to another person. It belonged to Long Xiulan. And the person I met, the genius woman who I fell in love with, isn't actually Long Xiulan. It's you."
She smiled and nodded.
"Evelina."
Her smile shook when she heard him call her real name. Then it bloomed into a smile so bright that it hurt her jaw to maintain it. She didn't care, though. She was so happy hearing him say her real name.
"Yes, Liwei."
"Evelina," he repeated.
"Yes."
"What a beautiful name."
She was now beaming. "Thank you."
"Do you prefer me to call you Evelina from now on?" he asked.
The question caught her off guard. She hadn't thought about that at all. Her head tilted to the side and her expression became serious, as she thought about his question. [This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l . c o m (remove spaces). If you're not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It's very discouraging to see thieves profitting from my hard work. Please read this novel on W e b n o v e l. Thank you! -Arria Cross]
"Yes, I would love for you to call me Evelina, if that's okay with you," she finally said after thinking about it. Then she added, "But I don't mind if you continue calling me Xiulan. I already accepted the reality that I'm now Long Xiulan. I don't want any confusion about my name to be a source of awkwardness between us."
"Now that you told me all of this, I'll feel more awkward calling you by something that you don't consider your real name," he said. "I may not yet fully understand or necessarily believe everything you've told me today, but if you prefer to be called Evelina, then I'll do it. Besides, it's weird that I've been calling my lover by the wrong name all this time. It's about time that I call you by the correct one."
Her smile returned. "Thank you, Liwei."
"Let's do it like this. I'll call you Evelina when we're alone. But when there are other people around, I'll continue calling you Xiulan because that's what they know you as. We don't want them asking any questions and pry about why I'm suddenly calling you by another name, right?"
"Right," she agreed.
They spent the next few minutes just looking at each other. The atmosphere had already lightened a great deal.
"You really can't take the smell of the pain gel?" Jin Liwei asked all of a sudden.
She thought for a moment. "I…I can take it!" Then she pleaded, "Liwei, please don't sleep in another room. Our bed is big. We can still sleep together even if we have to lie on the other ends of the bed. There will still be plenty of space between us. Just don't leave me tonight. I need you with me tonight, darling."
His mouth curved up. "Alright."
She released a breath of relief.
"But that's not the reason why I asked," he said. "I asked because I want to hug and kiss you right now."
Her heart skipped a beat. Then off she went, running into his arms again. He caught her.
Both of their mouths sought each other. And when they finally met, groans of pleasure and relief escaped from their throats. It felt so good that she almost cried again. They were gasping when their glistening lips separated.
"I love you, Liwei."
"I love you too, Evelina. So much."