Chapter 57 Now

After finishing his last meeting of the afternoon, Ye Peixiu went to the Xia family's old residence in the compound to pick up Xia Qingwan.

At that time, Grandma was playing chess with Chen Yuman. After Xia Qingwan received Ye Peixiu's call, she told the two of them and went upstairs to change her clothes.

After changing her clothes and going downstairs, Chen Yuman joked, "Seeing your boyfriend?"

Hearing this, Grandma looked up at Xia Qingwan, who smiled slightly. "I'll go straight to school tomorrow morning and come back at noon to take you to the airport."

"Call back anytime if you need anything."

Grandma said.

"Okay, I'll go then."

Upon arriving at the gate, Ye Pei was making a phone call while holding onto the driver's side door. When he saw her, he walked around the front of the car and opened the passenger side door for her.

She got in and fastened her seatbelt. After Ye Peixiu finished his phone call outside the car and came in, before starting the engine, he grabbed the back of her head and pressed her down to kiss her.

The actions were natural and intimate, a scene that had occurred countless times before when he and she would drive out together.

After driving onto the main road, Ye Peixiu remembered something and asked, "Did you have lunch at Manxianglou?"

"Um."

Did you run into my mom?

"...We bumped into each other." Lying at this point was obviously not a good choice, so he said, "I greeted him."

Ye Peixiu smiled at her, "What did you talk about?"

"We didn't talk much. There were a lot of people, so we just exchanged simple greetings."

Ye Peixiu glanced at her, raised his hand and patted her head, "Good girl."

After chatting for a bit about her schedule over the past few days, she said, "I'm sleepy, I'm going to take a nap."

"Go to sleep."

Ye Peixiu drove to a hot spring villa in the suburbs.

She woke up just as the car pulled into the parking lot. They went to the villa hand in hand and took a shower each.

The villa is a single-family house with extremely strong privacy, surrounded by dense forests. A corridor extends from the side of the building, at the end of which is an open-air private hot spring.

Xia Qingwan changed into her swimsuit, tied her hair up, and walked out along the promenade, only to see Ye Peixiu already soaking in the water.

He stretched out his arms and rested them on the edge of the pool, turning his head to look at her.

She was wearing a light pink one-piece swimsuit, a rather conservative style, but her slender figure and full, smooth skin still made a strong visual impact.

"Where did you get down from?"

She walked to the edge of the pool and stood above him. In the smoke, she couldn't see the stairs going down.

Ye Peixiu reached back with his long arm, grabbed her leg, and lifted her down.

A white splash of water was created.

She wiped the water off her face and turned her head to look at the water surface. "Why do I feel a faint fragrance?"

Like the crabapple tree.

Quiet and elegant.

Ye Peixiu raised her chin slightly to indicate, and she looked over there. Through the mist, she saw that there was indeed a crabapple tree by the pond, with branches and heads full of pink and white flowers.

Against the backdrop of the cool night in the dense forest behind, it appears dreamy and ethereal, like a shadow in a painting.

She was deeply surprised, "It's autumn, why is it still blooming?"

"I had someone do it."

The climate here is hot, so the flowering period is longer than in the city, but it also takes a lot of effort to cultivate it.

"You're confusing it," Xia Qingwan said with a smile. "It thinks it's still spring."

Still working so hard to bloom all over the tree.

Ye Peixiu smiled, "Is it pretty?"

She nodded.

"Would you like to pick some and put them in the hot spring?"

He asked.

"I think it's better not to."

She said, "Let it bloom." She was a little reluctant to leave, and kept turning her head to look at the flowering tree.

The pool water rippled outwards, splashing against the pool walls and moving back and forth between his and her chests.

Ye Peixiu looked at her intently, seeing her wet profile, his eyes sparkling and clear, with a hint of coldness.

He stretched out his arm to grab her waist. Before she turned her head back, her body had already moved into his arms spontaneously. She reached out to hold his shoulders, and was carried by the pool water, and her whole body crashed into his arms and his chest.

Ye Peixiu lowered his head to find her lips, pressed his hand down to her waist, and kissed her deeply.

She could already feel it being rubbed against her lower body.

My whole body went limp, as if all my strength had been drained.

He then asked in a low voice, "Where does it sour?"

Xia Qingwan took a moment to react. He was asking her where she felt sore after all the running around these past few days.

"...calves".

Ye Peixiu lifted her knees with his palms, slid them down her knees, grasped her calves, and gently kneaded them.

She hissed softly.

He immediately paused, "What? Is it too heavy?"

She shook her head, "...It's comfortable."

Ye Peixiu continued.

After thoroughly kneading and massaging this calf, I switched to the other side.

"Don't press it anymore," she said, gently pushing him away. "Aren't there still massages to come?"

"It's not as good as mine."

These words immediately made Xia Qingwan laugh.

She burst out laughing, "How amazing, Ye Peixiu."

"Isn't that right?" Ye Peixiu lowered his eyes and smiled gently, kissing her lips. "Who understands you better than me?"

"You know me best."

Before she finished her words, her two well-massaged calves were spread out and placed on his waist.

Her voice trailed off, and she protested softly, "...This won't work."

"No."

He answered in a low voice.

It was thoroughly rubbed by my fingers, and it was also thoroughly polished.

Ye Peixiu kissed the side of her neck. She tilted her head back and breathed in the cool night air, but her body felt hot and swollen from soaking in the pool water.

In the hazy vision, there is a thin mist above the hot spring pool.

Perhaps because she had been soaking in the pool for a long time, her whole body felt hot, and she had a faint pinkish glow, making her look like a delicate pink and white flower trembling in a fairyland.

After soaking for twenty minutes, he carried her to the bedroom.

Finally, a staff member knocked on the door to ask when the massage could begin. It was already past the originally scheduled time.

Half an hour later, Ye Peixiu went to open the door and said, "Let her sleep for a while, in another twenty minutes."

After working non-stop for a week and having just taken a hot spring bath, he felt in good spirits.

While waiting for Xia Qingwan to wake up, he sat on a grand chair in the corridor and smoked.

The air is cool, and the view is filled with the quiet green pines of the dense forest, giving a feeling of being in a paradise.

Pei Yaxian happened to call and talk to him about the recent events of the Pei family.

After chatting for ten minutes, before hanging up, Ye Peixiu asked, "What did you say to Qingwan at Manxianglou today?"

He might not get a clear answer from asking, but he wouldn't feel at ease if he didn't.

“…Hmm?” Pei Yaxian seemed a little confused, wondering why he asked that. “He didn’t say anything.”

She expected that Xia Qingwan would not tell Ye Peixiu anything, and Ye Peixiu could not get the information, so he tried to deceive her.

She explained, "There were a lot of people, so I just gave a simple greeting."

The statements are exactly the same.

Ye Peixiu's mind suddenly calmed down for a moment.

"Um."

He remained calm and even chatted about other topics for a couple more times before hanging up the phone.

-

Xia Qingwan woke up in a daze, not knowing whether it was day or night. In her daze, she saw Ye Peixiu sitting on the single sofa by the window.

He was wearing a white shirt and black trousers, sitting with his legs crossed. His eyes were gentle when he looked at her, but there was a heavy sense of oppression on his whole body.

She suddenly regained consciousness, propped up her upper body, and asked, "What time is it?"

"Ten o'clock."

She didn't quite understand why he had that frightening expression.

Fortunately, he was the one who spoke first.

"Qingwan, do you have anything to say to me?"

"…Why do you ask?"

"What are you hiding from me?"

He found out.

Xia Qingwan made this clear judgment in her mind, followed by a wave of aggrieved bitterness.

Even without his mother telling her, she knew that he was under tremendous pressure in the Ye family.

Every minute she spent with him, the thought of what price he would have to pay to maintain their relationship caused her pain.

How could she lie comfortably beside him, letting him sacrifice his future to fight for her?

However, it's understandable that her dishonesty would make him feel angry and disappointed.

She could understand.

Xia Qingwan tidied up her pajamas, got out of bed and put on her slippers.

"I'm hiding something from you."

She stood at the foot of the bed, her eyes lowered, and spoke.

Ye Peixiu looked at her for a while, stood up, opened the window, and lit a cigarette.

A long silence followed.

He sat back on the sofa and said, "Because of your recommendation, I read Dream of the Red Chamber twice. Do you remember what Tanchun said?"

"If a large family is attacked from outside, it will not be able to be killed immediately. It must commit suicide within the family to completely destroy them."

He said, "Ye Garden is our home."

"I'll handle the outside affairs that belong to me, and you'll handle the ones that belong to you, just like my grandfather and your grandmother," he said, looking at her. "As long as the two of us don't abandon each other when things go wrong, this family will not fall apart."

He said, "Qingwan, have some faith in me, okay?"

Of course she had confidence in him.

But……

She put on the blanket and looked up at him, "Mr. Ye, even if your mother didn't say those words to me, we would still have to break up."

Mr. Ye.

She seemed to like to distance herself from others by addressing them.

Ye Peixiu didn't say anything.

“I don’t know what my grandmother ever said to you,” she admitted, “but I did talk to her, and the conclusion was that I had two years.”

“Originally, we were supposed to be together for two years. That way, I would be graduating soon, and you would be under 30, so we wouldn’t be holding each other back.” Xia Qingwan paused for a moment, “...But now it seems that, barely, we’ve known each other for two years.”

"That's about it."

Ye Peixiu felt it was absurd.

They had just made love less than half an hour ago, and now they are here, by the bed, seriously discussing breaking up.

Just now, in the hot spring pool, the sensation of naked skin touching, that intoxicating feeling, was still vividly lingering on his body.

What are the reasons for the inevitable breakup?

He asked calmly.

“I recommended ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ to you, so you read it. But there’s another book that I also really like and have read many more times. That book is ‘Westward at Night.’ There’s a line in it that I’ve always wanted to put into practice: ‘Live in a world without walls.’”

"I haven't even stepped out of the walls of my studies yet, but I can already feel the walls of your home."

"The Ye family doesn't welcome me, and I have no intention of stepping into such a walled city."

He had known all along that she was proud.

Whatever her mother said to her, it must have made her very embarrassed.

This is her pride.

Asking her at this point, "Was it said out of spite?" will only make her feel more embarrassed.

Ye Peixiu understood everything, so he didn't ask anything.

After a moment of silence, he asked, "When do you want to break up?"

"Let's do it now."

She said.

"OK."

He said it calmly.

She immediately took off the blanket she was wearing and went to the dressing room to change her clothes.

Autumn was gradually deepening, and the suburbs were chilly at night. She put on a long skirt and a windbreaker, and was about to put on a scarf when she turned her head and saw Ye Peixiu appear at the door of the cloakroom.

Her tears were already streaming down her face.

Ye Peixiu came over, and she turned her head to avoid him, but he had already gently grasped the back of her head, looked into her eyes, and said, "Have you cried once today?"

“I feel very embarrassed.”

When his mother came to her door demanding a breakup, how could a 20-year-old girl not feel embarrassed and ashamed?

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault."

He was bound by the shackles of wealth and honor, unable to step down. All those who had nurtured him in the past and would rely on him in the future would see her as an obstacle.

Of course it's his fault.

“I know I’ve put you in this predicament, put you in a difficult position, and caused you great suffering.”

His family, her family, were tearing her apart.

"Don't cry."

He kissed her forehead, "Are you leaving now?"

"Um."

"I send you."

-

On the way back to the city, neither of them spoke.

They drove all the way to the gate of the Xia family's old house in the compound and both got out of the car.

Xia Qingwan felt that she should say something to put an end to this relationship.

But at this moment, her mind was hazy, almost blank, and she couldn't find the right words.

Ye Peixiu stood opposite her, the two of them standing in the two beams of headlights in front of the car, as if they were being pierced.

Just as she was about to speak, Ye Peixiu said, "There's no need to say anything else."

She took a deep breath and nodded.

Will you block me?

She shook her head.

"Okay," he said, "go back."

Ye Peixiu felt like he was facing a wounded little lion. He was cautious and appropriate in maintaining the current peaceful situation.

He didn't really feel like breaking up.

He just felt that she had a stress reaction due to the series of blows she suffered, including the auction and his mother.

He should finish dealing with the matter of the old house in Xishan before coaxing her back.

Ye Peixiu thought so, standing in the light in front of the car, watching her walk into the gate of the Xia family's old house.

-

Grandma and Chen Yuman are already asleep.

Xia Qingwan went straight back to her room, took a second shower, turned off the lights and lay down on the bed.

My mind is completely blank.

She didn't expect the breakup to be so easy.

Perhaps she had already released all her pent-up emotions when she met Ye Peixiu's mother that afternoon, so at this moment, her mind was blank.

This day was a rollercoaster of emotions.

Clutching her little yellow dog plush toy, she lay in bed and gradually fell asleep.

The next morning, just before she was fully awake, in that half-awake state, she instinctively thought she was still lying in Ye Peixiu's arms, and could even smell his fragrance and feel his warmth.

I opened my eyes, slowly, and realized where I was and what happened yesterday. It was only then that I finally felt reality.

She was already living in a completely new world without Ye Peixiu.

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The author has something to say: I'm giving everyone a bonus in this chapter. Actually, I feel like the next chapter won't be too sad...