Chapter 96 (Two chapters combined)

That evening, Jiang Le returned home at ten o'clock.

The father was playing cards with a cigarette dangling from his lips, the ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts, filling the living room with smoke. The mother sat stiffly on the sofa, the two clearly arguing, the atmosphere tense.

Jiang Le knew very well that it was mostly because her father had lost money gambling. She pursed her lips, walked straight through the living room without looking to the side, and slammed the bedroom door shut, shutting out the disgusting smell of smoke and the sounds of arguing.

No one cared why she came back so late, no one cared what she had been through outside, and no one asked her if she had eaten yet.

What's the point of calling the police? It will only spoil his card-playing fun and bring him even more harsh abuse when he gets home.

The sounds from the living room outside continued.

“There are winners and losers in card games, stop nagging! Go boil some water, and while you’re at it, make some wontons. After we finish playing cards, we’re going to have some late-night snacks.” The father said indifferently, without even looking up.

"What time do you finish?" Her mother's voice was suppressed and restrained.

The father said absentmindedly, "Around three or four o'clock."

The woman, unusually assertive, said, "I need to finish before midnight. I have something to tell you."

Someone at the card table immediately sneered, "Brother Yong, your wife has a fiery temper. Looks like you've suffered quite a bit of injustice."

After saying that, he looked at Jiang Le's mother with a mocking gaze, as if to say, "How can you be so insensible, woman?"

Jiang Yong didn't take it seriously, letting his wife be bullied by the glares of these cronies. He said impatiently, "What's the rush? Go make wontons."

Jiang Le heard the sound of a door slamming shut with resentment and her father's cold snort, "Useless thing."

She put on her headphones.

But his mind wandered, and he thought of Li Yingqiao.

As she saw them off, the woman, presumably checking their information with the back office staff, said, "Jiang Le, I know you're a senior in high school, about to take the college entrance exam. Yu Jinyang said you're very smart. You were able to tell that person was a fake security guard just from a loose thread on their clothes, but I respect your choice. Even at your age, I couldn't be as carefree as you—and I mean that in quotes. I still hope you'll prioritize your safety. Pain and injury are not things you can compare; comparisons breed words like 'give up' and 'let it go.' That's how a woman's bones are ripped away, one by one, until you can't stand up anymore. Contact me if you need anything, okay?"

After she finished speaking, she handed over a business card with a sincere expression.

At midnight, the living room was still filled with smoke and the card game hadn't stopped. They were really into it when Jiang Le heard his mother urging him to stop several times, and then he was scolded by Jiang Yong. Clearly, he had lost even more.

"Brother Yong, you haven't disciplined your wife well," a fellow card player added fuel to the fire. "She's so nagging even while playing cards, is she worried about the money?"

"Get out! How annoying!"

Jiang Le opened the door, walked straight over, grabbed the remaining cards on the table that hadn't been drawn yet, and flung them all over the place. The playing cards scattered like snowflakes everywhere.

Everyone was stunned, their hands stopped, and they stared at the seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl.

The next second, the table was kicked over.

Jiang Le was not surprised at all. She knew what her action would bring, and what followed was a barrage of punches and kicks.

But she wasn't as scared as she used to be.

It was in that instant that she understood why, upon learning that the fake security guard's target wasn't her, she subconsciously ignored the harm this kidnapping had caused her. It was because her father always had the same attitude after hitting her: "Your mother provoked me first; beating you was just a side effect."

This time, she took the initiative to overturn the card table. In the face of the impending storm, Jiang Le calmly picked up the 110 emergency number she was on and said, "Did you hear that? I'm calling the police."

***

That unique, pleasant scent of Yu Jinyang, mingled with her breath, slowly traveled from between Li Yingqiao's brows to the tip of her nose, stirring a subtle shiver wherever it went, and a familiar tingling sensation rose spontaneously from her tailbone.

She was still irresistibly drawn to his reaction, but for some reason, she was a little worried about Jiang Le. She was also very clear that until Jiang Le actively asked her for help, any more words she said would only annoy this teenage girl even more.

Yu Jinyang saw through her thoughts, "Shall I go with you to see her again tomorrow?"

"No need. Jiang Le is very smart and probably wouldn't want strangers interfering in her affairs."

"Then kiss me, I miss you so much today."

The room was too quiet, with no other sounds except for the occasional wet, blushing kisses that broke the silence between the two of them, who would kiss each other on the left and right sides in a loud exchange of blows.

After several rounds of deep kisses, Yu Jinyang let her catch her breath for a few seconds before leaning down on her again. Li Yingqiao turned her head slightly away, not letting him kiss her again, but her lips unconsciously pouted to meet his.

Yu Jinyang laughed out loud. The grown-up Li Yingqiao was a hundred times cuter than when she was a child.

He held her chin and casually swayed it gently from side to side. "Do you know how cute you are like this?"

"Thanks."

"Thank you my foot."

Li Yingqiao still kept a straight face turned away.

He smiled. With one hand holding her chin and the other supporting her side, he forcefully turned her face back, forcing her to look at him. Then, in those eyes that were filled with clear love and hate, he saw the stubbornness and unwillingness to admit defeat that he knew from high school.

She was never one to stay by his side when she was little. Even when they were doing homework together, her eyes were always looking around at things in all directions: the dung beetles on Liang Mei's balcony, Li Bai and Du Fu in Miao Jia's Chinese textbook, Gao Dian's Cantonese accent, Zhu Xiaoliang's slippers... anything could attract her, but nothing could keep her there for long.

Back then, he imagined doing what he was doing now, turning her face around without a word, so that she could only have eyes for him, and at most, two more exam papers.

At this moment, he belatedly realized, staring into her eyes with a clear smile, and said, word by word, "Li Yingqiao, you're jealous."

Before they were in a relationship, she frankly admitted her possessiveness towards him. As a friend, this possessiveness seemed more justified. However, when it came to subtle and hidden feelings, Li Yingqiao became inarticulate. So she could only turn her face away again, but someone had already anticipated this and grabbed her chin, preventing her from moving an inch.

"Hmm? Is that so?"

She did not speak.

Her face was turned to face, and she could clearly feel the force in the man's hand change from irresistible to gentle. Finally, he slowly and deliberately stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers, without saying a word, propping up half of his body, just staring straight at her.

Li Yingqiao was annoyed by his touching and slapped him lightly on the forehead.

Yu Jinyang buried his face in her shoulder and laughed. After laughing for a while, he began to shower her earlobe with kisses and whispered, "What should I do? I want to make you jealous, but I'm afraid you'll really get angry."

To be honest, Li Yingqiao felt that he was the real veteran in love, and she was completely outmatched in his ease and skill.

"..."

Silence fell.

He looked at her serious expression and felt a sudden tightness in his chest. "Li Yingqiao, it doesn't have to be like this."

"How could it possibly be that bad?"

Yu Jinyang: "I'm not a dog that will run away if someone gives me a bone. Also, please don't question Huangfu Tieniu's determination to love someone."

What the hell?

Li Yingqiao couldn't believe what she was hearing: "What did you say?"

“Zhong Su said it was Zheng Miaojia who said it,” he coughed lightly, his ears turning slightly red, “that they don’t call us ‘young master’ anymore, and in novels they might just call us Huangfu Tieniu.”

Li Yingqiao: "…………"

Yu Jinyang rolled over and lay down beside her, glancing at her and saying, "Stop teasing me. I knew you weren't jealous."

Li Yingqiao kicked him repeatedly, seemingly in dissatisfaction, yet also as if she were playing around.

It was as if she were kicking the shelf of her childhood secret hideout. Suddenly, she found it kind of funny, and while kicking, she reminisced, "You know, those potato chips I used to bring you to class, I kicked them off the shelf like this, one step at a time. Mom said that anything that fell off the shelf was mine. Every night I would kick and kick, kick and kick—"

Yu Jinyang laughed out loud, put his arm on his forehead, and gave him two heavy slaps on the thighs, almost making half of his body slide off the bed. He said in a low voice with helplessness, "Stop kicking, Li Yingqiao. I won't fall off any potato chips, only your unwanted ring."

He stopped talking.

He knew it just by glancing at her.

He buried his head in the pillow. "Go to sleep."

"I want."

Yu Jinyang glanced at her: "What do you want?"

"I want a ring."

"What do you mean by wanting a ring?"

She kicked him again.

He pulled her into his arms again, and calmly whispered in her ear, "I'll give you two more days to think it over, Li Yingqiao. I know you might be a little jealous today. Don't make a decision now. Entering marriage on a hormonal impulse could also lead to divorce. I hope you've really thought it through. Or rather, I probably know you better than I know myself, because I know your upbringing and your personality. If I wanted to force you to accept my proposal, I wouldn't have waited until today. But I want to give you more time to maintain the balance within your heart. The marriage and love I want is one where you can accommodate me within the order you maintain."

"I will ask you again and again if you are willing to marry me. Until you agree, don't worry that I will lose patience. Waiting for a possible happiness is no different from happiness itself."

Li Yingqiao felt a tingling sensation in half of her ear. These were perhaps the most chilling words she had ever heard in her life, and her heart suddenly began to swell and feel hot.

She rested her head on his arm and said, "You're so good with words. I never realized it before."

“You didn’t pay attention to me before.”

"Then where am I?"

"Pianist, surfer, who knows where your heart was back then? It certainly wasn't with me."

Li Yingqiao burst out laughing, slamming her head against his arm repeatedly: "Heavens, you're still jealous? It really wasn't me!"

“I want to reiterate, Li Yingqiao, I am not jealous.”

"Really? In that case, I lied to you. Actually, I liked him back then. He was so amazing. He could play the piano, had good grades, and was handsome."

"…………"

"Meow?"

"…………"

"Yu Jinyang?"

Yu Jinyang glanced at her coldly: "Really? Then why are you in my bed now? Why don't you go find him?"

Li Yingqiao: "I don't know, as soon as I walked in, someone took off my clothes and lay me down here."

“…”

"Where's your shame, Li Yingqiao?"

She couldn't help but laugh: "Meow, I really think that the one thing you've been most stubborn about all your life is your mouth. So I was shocked by what you just said."

"Then please close your eyes and go to sleep with this shock. I don't want to hear 'Yu Jinyang, stop bothering me! Yu Jinyang, are you annoying? Let me sleep for another half hour! Yu Jinyang, is half an hour that fast? Tell me why your half hour is so fast!"

Such unsatisfied and assertive questioning often made Yu Jinyang, whose mind was still foggy after waking up, feel uneasy, as if she was implying something.

The key is that once she cleared her head, she sat down to eat the breakfast her boyfriend made, apologized for her morning grumpiness, and even said sincerely and directly, "I didn't mean anything by it, you behaved very well last night."

This night is usually a bit stormy.

Li Yingqiao was well aware of her morning grumpiness; it had been like that since she was little. Her mother, Li Shuli, had complained about it many times, saying that even during her most annoying years, this morning grumpiness hadn't made her this angry. Especially during those days when she had to coax her to go to school, to be honest, Li Shuli's desire for Yingqiao to grow up healthy and happy wasn't without reason.

Upon hearing this, Li Yingqiao was speechless. She could only bury her head in Yu Jinyang's arms and rub against him, whispering, "Meow meow, you're so good, always been so good."

here we go again.

"I'm the worst." Li Yingqiao was very good at putting Yu Jinyang in a difficult position at times like this. "I'm so bad, yet you still have a crush on me and want to marry me. Aren't you a little perverted?"

He chuckled. "When did I ever say I had a crush on you?"

"Oh, no? Then when did you start liking me?"

I won't tell you.

"..." She grabbed his arm and pretended to bite him.

He didn't dodge, a slight smile playing on his lips. He pulled her into his arms, his warmth instantly enveloping her. He lowered his head and gently kissed her lips, soothingly saying, "Li Yingqiao, are you stupid? Back then, besides Gao Dian, who around us didn't realize I liked you? Now even Gao Dian has noticed and called to remind me. You're probably the only one in the whole world who doesn't know."

"Actually, I know," she said quietly, burying her head in his chest.

"I know you know." He lowered his head and kissed her lips again, a long and passionate kiss.

Jealousy solves nothing about emotions, and Li Yingqiao is the type who responds better to gentle persuasion than force. She needs gentle guidance, and Yu Jinyang is patient enough in this regard. "I know you love me very much now. You don't like that pianist, and you don't like Zhang Zongxie. You only like me. Right?"

"Mmm." She nodded vigorously.

"Can I change the password now?"

"What password?" she asked, puzzled, her bewildered head popping out from his embrace.

Yu Jinyang looked down at her, his smile finally betraying him, his expression turning quite unpleasant: "What password? Your phone, the dorm door, and everything except the computer password which is my birthday—you've used this 0315 for all of them, haven't you? Li Yingqiao, I really thank you for having such a profound relationship in Beijing. Damn it, I've become your mistress even in Chicago."

Li Yingqiao: "………………"

His eyes kept blinking.

Yu Renjie blinked repeatedly in front of the mirror.

The anesthetic made his head still a little dizzy, but his mind was clear. Thinking about the nurses' frequent glances at him earlier, he couldn't help but wonder: I'm sixty years old, why am I suddenly being noticed?

He looked at him again and again. Apart from two more crow's feet at the corners of his eyes, although he could no longer match the dashing appearance of his youth, he was indeed handsome throughout his life.

Tang Xiang didn't know what he was doing locked in the bathroom, but she could see a hint of confidence in his expression. She wondered where his confidence came from.

So she met his gaze with concern and without any hesitation, and asked him curiously, "Do you remember what happened?"

Yu Renjie racked his brains, but it was very difficult. His brain just wouldn't work, as if a heavy piece of iron was stuck in it. He honestly shook his head.

"Someone knocks you out, steals your clothes, and sneaks into the art gallery as a security guard."

Yu Renjie rolled his eyes instantly: "...If you want to be a security guard, just say so. Why did you hit me?"

Tang Xiang mumbled, "What else could it be?"

But she didn’t dare to go into too much detail, fearing that Yu Renjie wouldn’t be able to handle the shock, since he woke up in the changing room, almost naked, with only a pair of shorts left on him.

Yu Renjie understood instantly: his eye spacing wasn't right, he wasn't handsome enough. That kid was so picky.

Tang Xiang noticed that his expression had become even more confident.

So I couldn't help but ask, "No, Yu Renjie, what are you so proud of?"

Yu Renjie: "Beautiful? Not really, just a little handsome."

Tang Xiang understood: Well, the anesthesia hasn't worn off yet, and his mind is still foggy. Last time he had surgery, when the anesthesia was almost worn off, he was completely incoherent.

"Yes, yes, you're the most handsome." Tang Xiang chuckled, then breathed a sigh of relief and let him be. "Qiaoqiao has high standards. You must have some ability to be chosen by her. After all, she now uses our son's eye distance, arm length, and leg length as the criteria for selecting people."

"Tch, she's using a photocopy as the original, turning the tables on everyone." Yu Renjie was naturally unconvinced. "Did she manage to sneak into that uniform?"

"He's been subdued. The police car took him away, and the ambulance took you away. Anyone who didn't know better would think you were the one who subdued him."

"..."

She didn't know the details, and her son didn't have time to explain it to her in detail. Moreover, he was injured himself, so he only had the medical staff treat him briefly before going back home. Since the ambulance only allowed one accompanying family member, Jin Yang consciously gave up his spot, saying that his father would prefer her to accompany him.

Tang Xiang was slightly taken aback and suddenly realized that Jin Yang seemed to have always been accustomed to giving in to his father since he was a child.

Just as she was about to say something, Jin Yang seemed to see right through her thoughts.

He stood outside the ambulance, speaking more candidly than ever before—just like when Yu Renjie had just had his leg amputated, when he and his mother would always have long talks late at night, encouraging each other and supporting one another.

But Yu Jinyang rarely analyzed herself; she only told her from the perspective she had seen since childhood that Yu Renjie loved her very much and needed her very much.

Today, he spoke about this father-son relationship for the first time, openly and frankly saying, "Mom, I only understood what Dad was thinking after I had Li Yingqiao. Please get in the car, I understand Dad very well."

Tang Xiang thought of this, remained silent for a moment, and then suddenly said, "Renjie, I ran into Li Shuli when I went to the social security bureau a couple of days ago to help a resigning employee stop paying social security."

Yu Renjie searched the room for eye cream to reduce crow's feet, then asked without turning his head, "And then?"

"She was at the window..." Tang Xiang paused slightly, "...it seemed like she was helping someone apply for unemployment benefits."

Yu Renjie then turned to look at her, seemingly not quite understanding why Tang Xiang had suddenly brought it up: "Her gua sha clinic has a normal turnover of staff. What's so strange about that?"

Tang Xiang hesitated, as if a thousand pounds were pressing down on her throat. Finally, she opened her mouth and said solemnly, "Shuli is a martyr's family member."