Chapter 14 - The White Moonlight: He Treats You Like a Younger Sister...

It felt like a frequency vibrator had been implanted in my head, constantly buzzing and creating a closed, narrow space that trapped my senses.

Lin Xi could hear a familiar, gentle voice patiently speaking to her in her ear.

But the sound seemed to come from thousands of miles away, distant, hazy, and indistinct.

The only real thing was the scent of cedarwood at the tip of my nose and the vibrant pulse at the point where our necks met.

As the meridians pulsate, the scent of cedarwood grows stronger, slowly permeating the chaotic brain with each breath, finding the consciousness that is drifting in the void, and gently pulling it back to reality.

The process was long and arduous, and time seemed to be slowed down.

After a long while, she slowly and gradually felt the temperature of Fu Qingli's skin, the vibration of his chest when he spoke, and the hot breath spraying on her ear.

Like an ear that had been sealed with wax finally breaking open, one can gradually hear what he is saying.

As her body temperature rose, her stiff body began to soften, and her numb brain slowly began to rethink, struggling to process the words he repeated over and over again.

He and Su Yi'an are not in a relationship where they are going to get married.

But the scene of my self-esteem being trampled underfoot and rubbed raw back then is still fresh in my memory.

A month or so before their breakup, Fu Wenxun suddenly appeared downstairs at Fu Qingli's apartment building, stopped Lin Xi, and said he wanted to invite her to a nearby teahouse in Fu Qingli's father's name.

The waiter pushed open the door to the private room, and a young woman, whom we didn't know, stood up gracefully and invited Fu Wenxun to sit down: "Uncle Fu, thank you for your hard work."

Then, with an arrogant and unfriendly gaze, he looked her up and down. "You're Lin Xi?"

The tone was filled with undisguised contempt.

They made no move to invite her to sit down.

Fu Wenxun, seemingly unaware, leisurely sipped his tea and introduced, "This is Fu Qingli's fiancée, Su Yi'an."

Only then did Lin Xi realize that this was a trap.

She had no idea that Fu Qingli had a fiancée.

Fu Wenxun didn't care about her reaction and frankly admitted, "During this period, the online posts accusing you of plagiarism, the school's delay in clarifying things for you, and the cancellation of your national scholarship were all my doing. Of course, my target isn't you, but Fu Qingli. As long as he breaks up with you, obediently gets engaged to Yi'an, and returns to the Fu family to take over the family business, all of this will end. However, he has too deep a misunderstanding about me and has no intention of compromising."

“Miss Lin, in my opinion, Qing Li clearly doesn’t care that I’ve ruined your studies and future. So shouldn’t you think about yourself? As long as you break up with him and stop bothering him, I’ll get things back on track. Otherwise, this is just a warning!”

At that time, Lin Xi was just a sophomore and had never experienced such psychological warfare tactics.

She wanted to refute them, telling them that Fu Qingli had been working hard to collect evidence and coordinate relationships for his own sake, even alarming his maternal grandparents in Beicheng to help him seek connections.

But before she could speak, she remembered a few days ago when Fu Qingli came home smelling of alcohol, which was quite unusual for him. As soon as he entered the door, he hugged her tightly and murmured, "Xiaoxi, I'm sorry. It's all my fault that you had to go through all this."

At the time, I thought it was just drunken talk from someone under too much pressure, but now I'm hearing Fu Wenxun's words.

He had known all along that it was his father's doing, but he had never told him.

Amid the chaos, Su Yi'an spoke gently and affectionately, saying, "Xiaoxi, I heard Qingli mention you. He is grateful for Uncle Lin's help to Aunt Shen when he was in Nanqing, and he treats you like a younger sister."

"You may not have heard him mention me. We were childhood sweethearts, grew up together, and our mutual affection was a natural progression. We got together after graduating from junior high school and promised to study abroad together after the college entrance exam. But in our senior year of high school, Aunt Shen fell seriously ill, and he needed to stay in China to take care of her, so I had to go abroad alone. But unexpectedly, Aunt Shen passed away, and he blamed everything on Uncle Fu. He knew that Uncle Fu valued social status, and in order to get revenge on Uncle Fu, he broke up with me and chose you, who came from an ordinary background. But actually, he suffered a lot during the years he was with you."

"What Uncle Fu did was actually for my sake. He couldn't bear to see Qingli and me suffer, and he wanted to force Qingli to make a clean break with you. But Qingli is too stubborn. Because Aunt Shen insists on not going home, she even threatened to sever ties with the Fu family. I can't bear to see you become a sacrifice in this. Xiaoxi, I beg you, please leave him and let us be together, okay? For your own sake and for his, without the Fu family, he will have nothing, and he will regret it!"

“I know you truly love Qingli. If you can’t let go, wait until we get married and he takes over the Fu family business, then you can come back to him. I love him and am willing to accept you as his mistress for his sake. This is just the norm in wealthy families; Qingli will never have only one woman by his side.”

Su Yi'an had exquisite makeup and gorgeous clothes. Her bright face was full of confidence and pride, and she carried the fearlessness of being favored.

Lin Xi felt an embarrassing sense of guilt. She felt like a petty person who had taken advantage of the situation and tore apart a couple who truly loved each other.

She had previously wondered why Fu Qingli seemed to have no romantic desire for her; their most intimate interaction was merely a superficial touch of their lips, with no deeper entanglement whatsoever.

I originally thought it was due to his aloof personality.

Thinking about it, it does confirm Su Yi'an's statement that "he takes care of you like a younger sister."

So much so that later, she became more and more convinced that Su Yi'an was her first love, the "white moonlight" in her heart.

But now, he says he has no relationship with Su Yi'an and has only ever been with himself.

Was Su Yi'an lying about their mutual affection and impending marriage?

As the uncontrollable numbness in her body slowly subsided, Lin Xi felt weak all over, as if all her energy had been depleted. Her mind was filled with fragmented images from the depths of her memory, but she was too exhausted to analyze or judge them. All she wanted to do was close her eyes and get a good night's sleep.

Feeling her body soften, Fu Qingli tightened his grip on her slender waist, allowing her to lean all her upper body weight on him, reducing the pressure on her.

He reached out and gently stroked Lin Xi's slightly messy hair. Once her disordered breathing had calmed down, he asked softly, in a coaxing tone, "Xiao Xi, can you hear me?"

"Mmm." Lin Xi buried her head in his chest, her voice muffled and noticeably wet.

Hearing her answer, Fu Qingli breathed a slight sigh of relief: "Is there anything that's bothering you?"

Lin Xi was silent for a while, then moved her arms which he was holding tightly, and mumbled, "It's a bit hot, I want to... go home."

Fu Qingli finally felt a huge weight lifted from her heart. She chuckled softly, lowered her eyes to observe her reaction, and slowly loosened her grip on her arm: "Then let me help you up?"

"Um."

Even with Fu Qingli's help, Lin Xi was still breathless from getting up, and fine beads of cold sweat appeared on her forehead and the tip of her nose.

Fu Qingli turned the air conditioning back on in the car to cool it down, ignoring the fact that her shirt was soaked with tears and sweat.

He reached out and grabbed a few wet wipes, then bent down again.

Lin Xi tried to reach out to take it, but Fu Qingli gently grasped her wrist.

"Rest assured and rest well. I'll take you upstairs later."

After saying that, he gently tucked the strands of hair stuck to her face behind her ears and carefully wiped her forehead, the corners of her eyes and cheeks.

A note from the author:

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