Chapter 16

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. Just as Tang Hui was about to ask if the other person was still there, the other person spoke again.

"You're really unromantic." The Mandarin that rang out again was much clearer and more fluent. Although it was still immediately recognizable as a foreigner speaking Chinese, it was much more standard than before.

Now it was Tang Hui's turn to fall silent.

He instantly realized that the person had deliberately spoken to him in that off-key, broken Chinese, whether to tease him or because he was worried that the person wouldn't recognize him by his tone of voice.

"Your Chinese has improved so much! You speak it really well." After a long silence, Tang Hui, not knowing how to respond, could only offer this compliment to break the silence.

Soon, a girl's excited and proud voice came from the phone. "I worked really hard to learn it. After all, I'm going to live in China, how can I not speak Chinese?"

Tang Hui didn't immediately grasp the meaning of the girl's second half of her sentence, and subconsciously said, "So, the tone you used at the beginning was teasing me... wait..."

He suddenly realized what was going on, his breath hitched, and his voice involuntarily rose. "You said you want to live in China? What do you mean?"

"How stupid! You're a student from a prestigious university, and you can't even understand this? What I mean is that I want to settle down in China and work and live here." The girl said smugly, her tone leaving no room for negotiation, as if she were giving a final notice.

Tang Hui understood. He suddenly realized that the phone number was local, meaning Lisa was currently in H City. "Do your parents know you're in China? Have they agreed to let you settle here?"

The girl named Lisa immediately became unhappy. Her tone turned somber, and she grumbled willfully, "I'm an adult now. Where I go is my freedom, and they have no right to interfere with my life. Dad and Eva have always respected my decisions."

“Lisa, you need to go back to America right now, go home. I’m not joking with you,” Tang Hui said with a serious expression, his tone stiff and resolute.

“No way. This is my decision, and you have no right to tell me what to do. I’m not going back,” Lisa retorted sharply, clearly unhappy.

Tang Hui kept taking deep breaths, as if only in this way could he force himself to calm down.

After calming himself down as quickly as possible, Tang Hui tried to persuade her in a gentle tone: "Lisa, listen to me. You grew up in America and have never been to China before. This is a completely different world from America. Whether it's the language, culture, or food customs, they are completely different. You've never lived here before, so you'll find it very difficult to adapt."

“What’s there to be uncomfortable about? I’m very adaptable, don’t underestimate me.” Lisa shouted defiantly, completely like a willful child who only acts according to her own preferences and insists on doing whatever she wants. “I’ve been here for three days and have a lot of fun. I’m very comfortable living here.”

"Traveling and real life are different. How can you still be so immature? Lisa, you're not a child anymore. It's been two years since you graduated from university, and you're still doing nothing all day. You haven't held onto any job for long, and you refuse to continue your studies. When will you grow up?" Tang Hui also lost his temper, adopting a parental authority and shouting angrily.

As soon as he finished speaking, Lisa's sobbing came from the other end of the phone. The girl cried and shouted, "Tang Hui, you heartless bastard! I came to live in China because of you, and you actually cursed me like this. I hate you so much! I don't want you to care about how I live from now on!"

Before Tang Hui could say anything more, the phone went dead.

Tang Hui suppressed his anger and dialed the number back, but the other party immediately hung up. He sneered, gritted his teeth, and dialed again, but the other party hung up immediately once more...

After this happened five times, the other end simply turned off the phone.

In the end, Tang Hui was so angry that he laughed. He muttered, "I must have owed you something in my past life," and threw his phone aside. He decided to ignore this crazy girl and continue eating his dinner.

It wasn't that he didn't care about her safety; it was just that he knew her too well.

As usual, within three days, the girl would take the initiative to contact him again and cling to him shamelessly.

The thought that Lisa would actually live in China made Tang Hui sigh again, and he immediately lost his appetite.

That crazy girl always does whatever she wants, and nobody can do anything about it. It seems he needs to find her a place to stay in advance, so she doesn't come over and freeload off him.

That's what it means to have a bitter pill to swallow.

The relationship between Tang Hui and Lisa is both simple and complex.

Simply put, they are cousins; in more complex terms, they are only cousins ​​in name only, with no blood relation whatsoever.

What's most worrying is that Lisa has liked her cousin since she was little, in the kind of romantic love between a boy and a girl.

The whole farcical drama started with one person: Tang Keyi, Tang Hui's aunt, who raised him in luxury.

After Tang Hui's biological mother, Tang Kexin, passed away, his father, Zhou Nianhua, was sentenced to life imprisonment for intentional homicide, and Tang Hui became an orphan overnight.

He has few relatives. Apart from his parents, his four elders have all passed away. His only relative is his mother's younger sister, Tang Keyi, who is also his aunt.

The Tang sisters were very close since childhood. When her only sister died tragically, Tang Keyi was devastated and transferred all her love to her sister's only remaining bloodline, her nephew Tang Hui.

At that time, Tang Keyi was not yet married. An unmarried girl suddenly had a half-grown son. Even though everyone knew that the child was her nephew and not an illegitimate child, there would still be people who would dislike him.

Fortunately, Tang Keyi is very hardworking and earns a good salary, which is more than enough to support herself and Xiao Tang Hui.

To express his gratitude to his aunt and to sever all ties with his biological father, the little boy, formerly named Zhou Hui, resolutely changed his surname to "Tang," taking the surnames of his mother and aunt.

From then on, there was no longer a child named Zhou Hui in the world. He was called Tang Hui. He personally "killed" his original self, as if this would wash away the dirty blood he inherited from his father.

Not long after Tang Hui and her aunt started living together, Tang Keyi met her current husband, Franck.

Franck is an American who was previously married and has a daughter, Lisa, who is five years younger than Tang Hui.

After Tang Keyi and Franck got married, Tang Keyi took her daughter back to the United States to live. Franck was a good uncle who was successful in his career and had a high income. He not only treated Tang Keyi very well, but also gave her a rich and happy life.

Most importantly, Franck treated Tang Hui as his own son, never showing any disdain for Tang Hui being a burden, and devoted all his energy to this little nephew, both materially and emotionally.

If Tang Hui was most grateful to his aunt, then Franck would be second. Because of them, he was not an orphan after losing his parents.

They did not suffer from hunger and homelessness; they did not steal, rob, or do bad things for a bite to eat, nor did they completely degenerate into the dregs of society, dying in darkness and despair.

They gave him a comfortable life and love, which allowed him to slowly forget the tragedy and avoid being consumed by hatred, thus preventing him from becoming a twisted and cruel person.

Tang Hui was sincerely grateful to his aunt and uncle, whom he had long regarded as his own parents.

The family of four lived a very happy life. If there was any difficulty, it was that cousin Lisa's feelings for Tang Hui were becoming increasingly strange.

Lisa is the daughter of Franck, Tang Hui's aunt's husband, and his ex-wife. She is not related to Tang Hui by blood, and it's not impossible for them to be together. However, influenced by traditional Chinese values, Tang Hui would never accept such a change in their relationship.

Moreover, he has always only ever treated Lisa as a younger sister.

During the summer vacation when Lisa was 16, for some unknown reason, she suddenly realized that she had fallen in love with Tang Hui. From then on, she couldn't stop pursuing Tang Hui relentlessly.

This was naturally opposed by Franck and Tang Keyi. Even Tang Hui started to avoid Lisa, fearing that the teenage girl might act impulsively.

However, it's unclear whether Lisa is truly a romantic or if what's unattainable is always the best. In any case, the more Tang Hui tries to avoid Lisa, the more infatuated he becomes.

In the end, even her own father, Franck, remained neutral and stopped interfering in the matter; Tang Keyi, however, adhered to the traditional Chinese ethics and strongly opposed it.

However, teenage girls can be reckless for love, and even if the whole world opposes it, nothing can shake their hearts, let alone Tang Keyi, their stepmother.

Finally, driven to the brink of desperation, Tang Hui decided to leave the United States and get away from this crazy girl, letting her calm down for a few years first.

In fact, Tang Hui's thoughts were very simple. He never thought that Lisa's love for him could be that profound. In fact, because of his parents' tragedy, he did not believe in any kind of love in the world.

In Tang Hui's view, Lisa has the temper of a spoiled princess. She cannot allow the man she loves to not love her, and she cannot allow any existence in this world that she loves but cannot have.

Young, willful, flamboyant, and arrogant, she couldn't believe that any man could dislike her. She wanted to prove herself, to make Tang Hui fall at her feet, and to become the mastermind behind this unrequited love.

Tang recalled that Lisa was just being stubborn. Perhaps if he had actually accepted her advances, she would no longer like him.

Of course, he could never try such a thing, so the only thing he could do was stay away from Lisa. Once the novelty of Lisa wore off, or she fell for another boy, he would be "safe."

However, he never expected that this crazy girl would actually do it for real—she traveled all the way to China.