Chapter 27 Don't misplace your sincerity...
Xie Tang really wanted to slap her to wake her up, but looking at that face distorted by tears, the harsh words stuck in her throat.
After all, it was seven real years of youth, shattered into pieces.
“I love him…” Yin Xi buried her head in her arms, her voice muffled, filled with resentment and confusion, “For him… I came to Shenzhen right after graduation… I worked like crazy to save money, wanting to buy a house to settle my mother down, so I wouldn’t be a burden to him. I even scrimped and saved to prepare my dowry, just so his family wouldn’t look down on me…”
Her voice trailed off, "Why...why didn't he beg me this time? It's clearly his fault! Why is he so carefree...while I'm in excruciating pain?"
Xie Tang sighed softly, his hand resting on her trembling shoulder. "He doesn't love you anymore. Let it go..."
"Wow--"
Yin Xi seemed to have all her strength drained away by those words. She threw herself into Xie Tang's arms and burst into tears, her scalding tears instantly soaking Xie Tang's shoulder.
"It's too late, Auntie will worry." Xie Tang lifted her up forcefully, almost dragging and carrying the completely drunk woman out of the noisy bar.
Outside the door, the cool night wind instantly enveloped them.
Chu Song leaned against the door of the black Phantom, saw them, and opened the back door expressionlessly.
Yin Xi stood rooted to the spot, her confused gaze fixed on Chu Song.
She tilted her head, then suddenly grinned, a strange smile typical of a drunkard, and pointed at Chu Song, muttering to Xie Tang, "Tang, this driver... he's really handsome..."
"Not the driver!" Xie Tang tried to force her into the car.
Yin Xi slipped away from her hand like an eel, suddenly leaned close to Chu Song, and sniffed hard.
"Mmm...it smells so good..." Her eyes were glazed over, and she leaned closer. "What's that scent? Sandalwood...fir? Where did you buy this perfume? I want some too...for Xinyu..."
The strong, pungent smell of alcohol hit him, and Chu Song frowned in disgust.
He restrained himself, using only his long, slender fingers to press against Yin Xi's forehead, gently pushing her aside, and then neatly shoving her into the back seat before slamming the car door shut.
The movements were executed in one fluid motion, conveying a sense of detachment and impatience befitting a superior.
Xie Tang looked apologetic: "Brother Song, I'm so sorry! She drank too much..."
"It's alright." Chu Song's icy expression softened slightly as he opened the passenger door for her. "She's sitting in the back?"
"Okay! But I need to buy something, in case she throws up on the way." Xie Tang spoke quickly, and before anyone could reply, she had already turned and run towards the convenience store on the street corner.
Chu Song leaned against the car door, his gaze following the hurried figure.
At that moment, Yin Xi, sitting in the back seat, rolled down the car window, and a gust of cold wind rushed in, making her shiver. It was as if a crack had been punched into her muddled mind.
She leaned against the windowsill, brazenly scrutinizing the man under the streetlight.
A well-tailored dark coat hugged his tall and imposing figure, while the dim light accentuated the deep, sculpted contours of his face. He exuded an air of refined elegance and aloofness, like a perfect sculpture.
An unprecedented, almost dizzying attraction seized her.
"Hey..." Yin Xi knocked on the car window, her voice still tinged with drunkenness and a hint of sober inquiry, "Handsome guy?"
Chu Song glanced sideways, his eyes expressionless, and after a brief look, he turned back to the street corner where Xie Tang had disappeared.
"What's your relationship with A-Tang?"
What did she say about me?
"She never mentioned you..." Yin Xi laughed to herself, her drunken eyes sweeping over the car emblem, "Rolls-Royce... Phantom... Ha, last time downstairs at the law firm, she said it was a client's..."
Her smile turned bitter and sharp. "You two are together, aren't you? That ring... was it from you?"
She suddenly narrowed her eyes, her gaze scrutinizing, "Do you... know what kind of person she is?"
Chu Song finally looked at her directly, his deep eyes like a calm, cold pool in the dark night, reflecting Yin Xi's somewhat distorted face.
When Yin Xi saw him looking over, she flashed a sweet smile: "We've known each other since we were 18, best friends, only friends... you know?"
"Still drunk?" Chu Song's voice was indifferent.
"I'm perfectly sober!" Yin Xi slapped the car window, her voice suddenly rising, filled with the catharsis of drunkenness, "The only one! There's no one else! She graduated and went back to Shenzhen, and I couldn't bear to leave her, so I came along and joined the same law firm..."
Her tone suddenly dropped, "She asked me if I wanted to join Li Qing's team, but I didn't want to be on the same team as her... Guess why?"
Without waiting for an answer, her eyes became complicated and resentful: "With her around, I'll always be... perpetual second place! I don't want to be outdone by her, but I can't live without her!"
She bit her lip, her nails digging into the window frame. "Why...why is she always...just a little bit better than me? Luck, ability, everything...just a little bit better. I'm not reconciled...but what can I do?"
She looked up at him. "Do you know what it feels like to be suffocated by someone pressing down on you?"
In the end, his voice was filled with naked jealousy and resentment.
Chu Song listened to this rambling filled with negative emotions until his patience ran out, and he irritably raised his hand to check his watch.
Time seemed to stretch out in the thick, sticky air.
Yin Xi continued rambling on, but Chu Song keenly grasped the core of the matter—her feelings for Xie Tang were far from the "only one" she claimed to have.
She was enjoying Xie Tang's care, yet secretly, jealousy gnawed at her heart.
"She treats you—" Chu Song suddenly interrupted her, his voice devoid of warmth yet possessing a penetrating power, "very well?"
Yin Xi paused for a moment, then raised her chin with a strange pride: "Good! Excellent! Super good!"
"And what about you?" Chu Song's gaze locked onto her, his tone flat yet like a cold scalpel, "You're 'super good' to her too?"
“Probably…” Yin Xi’s eyes flickered, avoiding Chu Song’s sharp scrutiny, and her voice lowered, “It should… be fine.”
These words sounded completely unconvincing, more like a form of self-hypnosis.
Chu Song's gaze passed over Yin Xi and suddenly lit up.
Yin Xi also saw the figure running towards them in the distance. Immediately, like a puppet with its strings cut, she pulled her head back, closed the car window, slumped into the seat, closed her eyes, and secretly regretted saying so many resentful things to him.
Xie Tang came running back, panting, with a bottle of mineral water and motion sickness patches in her hand: "Sorry, I went a bit too far..."
"What's the rush?" Chu Song opened the car door, his voice regaining a hint of warmth.
Xie Tang glanced at the "sleeping" Yin Xi and carefully closed the passenger door: "Brother Song, I'd better sit in the back and keep an eye on her."
"Hmm." Chu Song walked around to the driver's seat.
The car started.
In the back seat, Xie Tang stared at her phone, but her mind was entirely on Yin Xi.
As the car entered the last intersection before Yin Xi's residential area, a suppressed gurgling sound escaped Yin Xi's throat, and her body shifted uncomfortably. "Don't get Chu Song's car dirty!"
Xie Tang quickly tore open the bag, forcing himself to suppress his nausea, and held it to Yin Xi's mouth, "Spit it into the bag!"
The filth poured out, and a pungent odor filled the air.
After Yin Xi finished vomiting, Xie Tang immediately opened a bottle of mineral water and handed it to her: "Rinse your mouth."
We finally arrived at Yin Xi's building.
After throwing away the trash, Xie Tang laboriously helped the unsteady-footed Yin Xi upstairs.
Yin Xi's mother, Zheng Cui, was in her fifties with a weathered face, anxiously looking out the door.
Seeing his daughter drunkenly being helped back by Xie Tang, his heart finally settled down.
"What's wrong with Xiaoxi? Didn't you say you were going to see Xinyu? Why are you so drunk?" Zheng Cui asked repeatedly, looking worried.
Xie Tang felt a pang of sadness, but forced a smile: "Auntie, don't worry, she just had a good time at a colleague's gathering and drank a couple of extra drinks. Please help her inside to rest."
She hastily brushed it off, turned around almost as if fleeing, and quickly returned to the silent black Phantom waiting downstairs.
Closing the car door instantly shuts out the noise from the outside world.
The pungent smell of vomit still seemed to linger at the tip of her nose, mixed with Yin Xi's broken cries, making her feel exhausted.
She leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes, and raised her hand to rub her throbbing temples.
The car drove smoothly into the night.
In the driver's seat, Chu Song remained silent for a few minutes, then lightly tapped the steering wheel twice with his fingertips, breaking the thick silence in the car. "A-Tang."
"Hmm?" Xie Tang opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him.
“Your friend,” he paused, seemingly considering his words, but ultimately chose the most direct and essential description, “Yin Xi.”
Xie Tang immediately realized that Yin Xi might have said something out of control to Chu Song while drunk, which offended him, and hurriedly said, "Brother Song, she talks nonsense when she's drunk. If she offended you, please don't take it seriously..."
“A drunk person’s words aren’t necessarily all lies.” Chu Song interrupted her subconscious defense and said incisively, “Some things are better left unsaid when you’re sober, but you dare to say them when you’re drunk.”
"Be careful of her." He stared straight ahead at the road, his voice calm, yet like a cold pebble thrown into Xie Tang's heart.
Xie Tang was stunned, completely unexpected that he would say such a thing.
Chu Song seemed to sense her surprise and continued in a statement-of-fact tone, "Her feelings for you are far less pure than your feelings for her. Her jealousy and resentment run deeper than you think."
He recalled Yin Xi's face under the streetlight, twisted with jealousy, resentment, and dependence, as well as her possessive words, "my only friend," and the blatant "Why is she always a little bit better than me?"
That complex malice, a mixture of inferiority and resentment, was laid bare under the influence of alcohol.
“Take what I say today to heart.” Chu Song gave her a meaningful look, with the detached air of someone in a superior position who had a keen understanding of human nature. “Don’t give your sincerity to the wrong person.”
A heavy silence fell over the carriage, even more so than before.
The neon lights flashing past the window cast intermittent shadows on Xie Tang's face.
She leaned against the car window, her gaze unfocused as she stared at the flowing night outside.
Chu Song's blunt and cold reminder echoed repeatedly in her mind, making her examine for the first time the friendship she once thought was unbreakable with Yin Xi.
The next morning, Xie Tang had just arrived at the law firm when she bumped into Yin Xi.
She appeared no different from usual, but a hint of darkness lurked in her eyes.
A person who values love above all else will not be able to get over heartbreak for at least a year or two. He only hoped that Yao Xinyu would not kneel down and beg for forgiveness, so he softened and got back together with her.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two stepped into the elevator side by side.
"Gu Chang joined Junmeng Law Firm and is working with a top-notch team..." Yin Xi suddenly glanced sideways, testing Xie Tang's reaction.
Xie Tang simply gave a faint "hmm," her expression completely unmoved.
"It's so good to have money and connections, all roads lead to Rome..." Yin Xi said with a self-deprecating laugh, "When will I be able to earn a million a year? No, I'll be content with 500,000."
The elevator stopped on the 22nd floor with a "ding".
As Xie Tang walked out, he said, "With Gu Chang's abilities, he could enter the Junmeng without any connections."
“That’s true,” Yin Xi followed her. “He said in the group chat that he’s treating us to dinner this weekend, but Tang Zhi is in Beijing for training and can’t make it back. What about you?”
"Most likely he's not free." Xie Tang recalled Chu Song's words, "Gu Chang likes you," and her heart surged with emotion.
She would rather play dumb forever—once the truth is revealed, their relationship will inevitably become awkward, and there may be no turning back.
But running away isn't an option; she has to find an opportunity to make things clear.
"What are you busy with this weekend? Is Auntie's surgery scheduled?" This was the only reason Yin Xi could think of.
"Just one or two weeks."
Yin Xi put her arm around her shoulder to comfort her: "It'll be alright. I'll go see Auntie this weekend."
"good."
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Author's note: Today's update is complete~ It's the last day of the holiday, and going back to work is worse than going to a funeral.
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