Marriage proposal rejected

The sweet fragrance of flowers surrounded Fang Huai. He stood in the middle, looking at Li Xuan at the finish line.

He took a step forward to see more clearly, and Li Xuan curled his lips and smiled.

Fang Huai understood what it meant to reach the end. His mind was extremely clear and he avoided Li Xuan's silent urging.

In Li Xuan's eyes, his reaction was one of hesitation and rejection. Her originally happy mood suddenly dropped. Nothing went as expected.

"Li Xuan."

Fang Huai approached Li Xuan, stopped one meter in front of Li Xuan, and did not take another step.

His meaning was very clear, he didn't want it, he didn't want it.

For a moment, the entire living room fell into deathly silence. Fang Huai could not hear any sound, and he timidly looked at Li Xuan's reaction.

"Swish." The candle wick touched the wax, and the flame illuminated Fang Huai's face.

Letting Li Xuan see Fang Huai's expression clearly, he took a few steps forward and asked, "You've been very busy lately, haven't you?"

He handed the rose to Fang Huai and watched him take it. "Xiao Huai, I can't wait any longer."

Li Xuan lowered his head, their noses touching, and he looked into Fang Huai's eyes and said word by word, "Are you willing to stay with me forever?"

Fang Huai's light brown eyes were clear, like an elusive gem, melancholy and beautiful, but filled with so many emotions that Li Xuan couldn't guess what he was thinking.

He lowered his eyes and looked at Fang Huai's tightly pursed thin lips. His temperament was between youthfulness and maturity, achieving a delicate balance. He was stubborn and innocent, which made him unable to bear to force him to answer.

Fang Huai is soft-hearted yet ruthless. He will do anything to accommodate others and will agree to anything as long as it doesn't involve any bottom line issues. But when it comes to love, he is always so slow and stubborn.

He had envisioned their future together countless times. Their relationship was stable, even smooth and without any disturbances. But all the peace was broken that night when Fang Huai mentioned an insignificant person.

Li Xuan's expectations and plans were disrupted, and the turmoil and conflict between him and Fang Huai grew. Everything was slipping out of his control, like a captive crane whose attention was no longer solely focused on him.

Gradually, the well-behaved and docile Hezi wanted to step out of the range of activities he set, rejected his feeding, and resisted his way of domestication.

He wanted to grab him and keep him tied to him.

Li Xuan took out a gift box with two plain rings inside. "Xiao Huai, I want you to always rely on me."

Fang Huai held the flowers, frowning in thought. The flickering candlelight and the glaring lights blurred his vision. His sight began to wander, and a voice kept echoing in his mind: "Is this what you want?"

"Always relying on Li Xuan?"

"Let's start a family together, okay?" Li Xuan held Fang Huai's hand, saying sincerely, "A home that belongs to you. We can decorate the house according to your design drawings, have a large courtyard, and plant a locust tree in the yard. When the flowers are still in bloom, we can drink tea under the tree in the cool breeze, and when the flowers bloom..."

"Fang Huai?" Li Xuan called his name softly.

Home? Fang Huai looked up. He really wanted to have a complete family. Li Xuan's idea was beautiful, but why didn't he feel the slightest bit of excitement?

There was no ripple in his heart, and he was not moved. If he was not moved, was it still what he wanted?

Li Xuan saw Fang Huai's attitude soften, and his light brown pupils trembled. He thought Fang Huai's heart was moved, so he continued, "We will be together forever. You can always rely on me. I will always love you."

He didn't notice that after he said the word "dependence", Fang Huai frowned slightly and his face turned pale.

"We can..."

"No, Li Xuan, I don't want to." Fang Huai broke away from Li Xuan's hand and raised his chin in refusal, "I won't always rely on you."

He stepped back, his tall figure casting a long shadow on the floor. The two of them intersected, creating a strange and contradictory scene. Fang Huai glanced at the flowers in his arms, his face filled with stubbornness and determination. Recalling their past, he said word by word, "I've grown up."

Li Xuan noticed his resistance and pulled the corner of his mouth unnaturally: "I know."

But after he finished speaking, he looked into those eyes that could speak, and an unknown emotion surged in his heart, "I know you have grown up, you were so small back then..."

Fang Huai raised his hand to interrupt him and shook his head, "It's different."

Li Xuan's smile froze. Fang Huai looked up at him and said, "I'm sorry, I'm not ready to start a family with you yet."

The two of them were at this fork in the road. Fang Huai went left, Li Xuan right. Neither was absolutely right, or perhaps absolutely wrong. Their directions were different, and no one could say for sure whether they would actually meet at the same intersection.

But now, they did have a disagreement. If they hurriedly and stubbornly pulled one of them to walk with them, they might separate at the next intersection.

Fang Huai closed the gift box and handed the flowers to Li Xuan, "I'm sorry."

"Why?" Li Xuan tried to hold Fang Huai's hand, but failed. The flower fell heavily to the ground. "Bang!"

The bright red rose petals fell and spread all over the ground. He looked down at his empty palm and asked in a low voice.

A petal remained in Fang Huai's palm, and he quietly closed his hands to hide it.

Li Xuan, who was always elegant and calm, raised his head and looked at his lover who rejected him.

When Fang Huai met those eyes, his heart couldn't help but tremble. Those eyes that could see into people's hearts were deep and gentle, like an infinitely tolerant lake. Ripples appeared due to emotional fluctuations, shaking him imperceptibly.

He hastily avoided Li Xuan's gaze and tightened his grip on the petals.

During this time, he had seen all sorts of scenes and people in the hospital: parents anxious and distressed because their children were sick, and elderly people stumbling from the mountains to the city just to save their grandchildren. They were all so "alive".

They love their children and they all have their own families.

In Fang Huai's eyes, their lives are colorful, distant and untouchable.

I still remember the first couple who came to the hospital with their child. They cried with joy after their child recovered. They sat together without any intimate gestures, but you could tell they loved each other so much that no one could disturb them.

Holding hands, they told each other how good the other was. They were grateful for each other's existence and they had each other's support.

After Fang Huai finished his ward rounds, the intern who followed him sighed quietly, "You have to love someone to this degree to get married."

Fang Huai was puzzled. He turned around and asked her, "Why?"

Xu Hangran was obviously taken aback by the question and stammered, "But, isn't it because you love each other so much that you get married?"

"Why get married if you don't love each other that much?"

Fang Huai was also stunned. He couldn't help but think about himself and Li Xuan. Did they really love each other enough to start a family? Did they love each other enough to walk together forever, to trust each other with their backs?

His answer was no.

He couldn't start a family with Li Xuan, and Li Xuan couldn't turn her back on him. He always felt that the word "family" was too far away, and it contained too many things. He didn't dare to do it. He avoided it countless times and pretended to be stupid.

Li Xuan still regarded him as the child who would only choose him for help when encountering problems, and the lover who could never live without him.

"We're not in love enough to get married." Fang Huai raised his head, revealing a pale face, and spoke in a difficult tone, "There are too many problems between us that have not been resolved."

Li Xuan looked down at Fang Huai in disappointment, watching his face grow paler and paler.

"Is it that I don't love you enough? Or is it that you don't love me enough?" Li Xuan's voice was low and hoarse. He forced Fang Huai to look into his eyes. The rippling blur stirred up a big wave. Anger, complaints, and countless confusions rushed towards Fang Huai.

He was rolled up in the middle, and Fang Huai was pressed so hard that he couldn't breathe.

It was too familiar. Fang Huai's mind uncontrollably recalled the look Fang Henian gave him back then. He closed his eyes in fear and tried to breathe.

"What's the problem? Is it because of the countless arguments we've had recently, or is it because of Kong Lingyu?" Li Xuan grabbed Fang Huai's shoulders and growled, "It's the latter, right?"

The pain in his arm made Fang Huai subconsciously wave away his hand and step back suddenly, his expression clearly showing resistance.

Li Xuan was shocked by Fang Huai's violent reaction. He slowly raised the back of his hand that had been slapped red, and looked at Fang Huai in disbelief.

Fang Huai felt his scalp tingle, and his mind felt like it was about to explode. "What's going on with this Guan Kong Lingyu?"

"You know very well that I have nothing to do with him now."

He growled with a splitting headache, his emotions completely erupting, his eyes reddened, "Why should we involve outsiders in our problems?"

"Haven't you noticed the problems between us? You never looked me in the eye from the beginning to the end, and you never treated me as a lover who could walk side by side with you, right? We haven't seen each other for several months, and my calls are always unanswered. I don't even know what you are busy with. I don't care about these things." "But you obviously went home, and I still couldn't contact you. The funny thing is that I-"

Fang Huai pointed at himself and choked up as he said, "As your lover, I only heard the news of your return home from an outsider."

The scenes of their quarrel and the last words Li Xuan said to him a few months ago rushed to squeeze his brain, like dense needles, piercing deep and painfully.

Dependence, disappointment, why?

Fang Huai's eyes reddened as he questioned, "I'm clearly on the same level as you, and you can rely on me, so why do you always think I have to rely on you?"

"Do you think I'm unworthy? Or do you think I'm incapable? I can still take good care of the people around me, and I can do everything independently." Tears welled up in his red eyes, but he stubbornly refused to let them fall. Fang Huai's voice began to choke: "Why?"

"This is clearly a problem between us, why involve outsiders? I can't be trusted, right?"

"Li Xuan, in your heart I'm still a child, right?"

Fang Huai's questions one after another caught Li Xuan off guard. He didn't understand why Fang Huai's emotions suddenly exploded, but he wanted to hug Fang Huai now.

Fang Huai now looks like a cornered rabbit. His red eyes and stubborn look make him feel soft-hearted. Even when the rabbit is angry, he still thinks it is cute.

"Don't touch me." Fang Huai waved away Li Xuan's hand, quickly wiped away his tears, and tried hard to suppress his crying.

He thought the angry rabbit would be coaxed into submission, just like before, but Fang Huai's words made his heart sink.

"Maybe we are not suitable." Fang Huai looked up and said seriously.

"Maybe we are really not suitable to be each other's lovers."