Chapter 6 When we were eight years old...
Xie Tang was awakened by a sneeze.
The air conditioner was set too low, so she curled up in bed, her nose red from the cold.
Just as she was groping for tissues, the morning light suddenly reflected a brilliant red glow on the headboard.
The velvet gift box that had appeared out of nowhere was lying quietly next to her lemon candy wrapper.
The moment the lid was lifted, her breath caught in her throat.
The limited edition ruby three-piece set for Qixi Festival flows with a blood-red luster in the morning light, with 18K gold intertwined in a thorn pattern, and diamonds like morning dew condensed on the tips of the thorns.
Isn't this the set featured on the cover of last week's fashion magazine?
Yin Xi praised it as beautiful at the time, but unfortunately she couldn't afford it.
The phone screen lit up, and the official website displayed a seven-figure price.
Xie Tang suddenly felt her palms burning – this was equivalent to three years' salary without eating or drinking, yet it was just a "prop" that Chu Song casually gave her.
She slammed the box shut, only to see the words embossed in gold on the lining: "To My Legal Eagle"
This affectionate nickname suddenly brought back the bittersweet feeling of that lemon candy from last night.
Xie Tang put the jewelry back in the gift box, but she couldn't suppress the unfamiliar flutter in her heart.
She glanced at the time; there wasn't time to open the other gift box. She quickly washed up, grabbed the case file, and left the room.
Achoo!
When Xie Tang walked into the restaurant, rubbing her red nose, Chu Song was drinking milk.
As she sat across from him, he looked up, his gaze sweeping over her thin nightgown, and asked, seemingly casually, "Didn't you cover yourself properly with the blanket last night?"
"It's probably a flare-up of his rhinitis..." Aunt Yu handed over a hot towel that was still steaming.
Just as Xie Tang was about to take it, a slightly cool hand covered her forehead.
Chu Song appeared behind her at some point, still carrying the cool scent of morning shaving lotion.
He felt a burning sensation in his palm, and looked down at her. "You call this rhinitis?"
Aunt Yu brought over a forehead thermometer. "38.5 degrees Celsius. You shouldn't go out today."
"It's just a low-grade fever. I have a case to handle this morning. I'll take some fever reducer later." Xie Tang shrank back in the chair, feeling the urge to sneeze again, and quickly pulled out a tissue to cover her nose.
Chu Song leaned down, her shadow enveloping her completely: "Attorney Xie, are you going to court while you're ill?"
He glanced at her case file and said, "So the judge can see you blowing your nose while defending yourself?"
Aunt Yu chuckled and quickly went to the kitchen to pour milk.
Xie Tang sensed the impatience in his tone, and she didn't know what she had done to upset him.
In her memory, Chu Song's eyes were always curved. He could squat for half an hour to pick up kite strings for her. Even when she tore up his homework, he would just smile, pat her head, and say, "Don't do that next time."
"Don't set the temperature so low."
Xie Tang slightly increased the distance between them and obediently replied, "Oh, okay."
Actually, she quite likes sleeping with the air conditioner on and a quilt covering her. The feeling of being enveloped in warmth yet with a slight chill is strange, but it also makes her feel inexplicably safe.
After breakfast, Aunt Yu brought over some fever-reducing medicine, and Chu Song watched her take it before getting up.
"Brother Song," Xie Tang called out to him, pushing the red velvet box towards him, "This is too valuable."
Chu Song turned around and looked directly at her: "Don't you like it?"
"no......"
"Then keep it." He suddenly smirked. "If you don't dare keep it, just throw it away."
Xie Tang's pupils trembled—a piece of jewelry worth over a million was as light as a piece of waste paper in his mouth.
Evil capitalists.
But……
Chu Song patiently followed her gaze, which lingered on her hesitant face. "Is there anything else?"
Xie Tang felt like her mind was in turmoil; the problem seemed to have an answer, yet it remained unresolved.
She bit her lip and insisted, "Brother Song, if it were just something worth ten thousand yuan or so, I definitely wouldn't hesitate to give it to you. But these are too valuable, far beyond what I can afford. I really can't accept them..."
Moreover, their relationship wasn't close enough for them to accept such luxury goods so casually.
They're quite principled.
Chu Song stared intently at her, "Is it that you dare not accept it, or that you don't want to?"
"In no mood."
Chu Song's lips curved slightly, revealing a smile. "Do you remember when you were six years old, you loved sweets, but I didn't? You insisted on giving me candy, and when I refused, you got angry with me..."
"Is that so?" Xie Tang scratched her head awkwardly. This was indeed the kind of "tyrannical" thing she could do when she was a child.
"I don't remember, but I just wanted to give you something I liked, so please don't take it to heart, Song-ge."
"Okay, I won't take it to heart, you can keep it. It's not like you don't like it, and it's not like I can't afford it. This was chosen to fit your size, and if you don't want it, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to give it to someone else. Besides..."
As Chu Song spoke, he gently pushed the gift box back in front of her, saying, "Something worth ten thousand yuan is not good enough for you. You deserve better."
As Xie Tang listened, she felt a warm breeze caress her heart, and her cheeks flushed involuntarily.
This kind of subtle and understated flirting is simply irresistible.
She seemed to see her six-year-old self, across time, forcefully stuffing those lemon candies into the boy's palm.
Clutching the velvet box, Xie Tang looked up at him with a defiant glint in her eyes, reminding him, "Jewelry given as a gift after marriage belongs to the woman's personal property. If we divorce in the future, I can take it with me."
Chu Song leaned down and said, "Are you reminding me that I should supplement the gift agreement?"
Startled by this sudden closeness, Xie Tang shrank back slightly. "No, no need."
"Then let me ask you a question." He fixed his gaze on her, not giving her a chance to escape.
"Go ahead." She subconsciously leaned back again, trying to create some distance.
Why did we argue when we were eight years old?
"Argued? Did we ever argue?" Xie Tang looked blank, as if that memory was shrouded in mist, and she couldn't recall it at all.
Seeing the blankness in her eyes, which seemed genuine, Chu Song understood that it was impossible to expect her to remember on her own.
They're pretty carefree.
He gave a soft snort and turned to leave.
"I remember!" Aunt Yu came over with ginger tea to smooth things over. "How could I not remember? It's that painting..."
"A painting?" Xie Tang's eyes widened.
"The portrait you drew of Ah Song," Aunt Yu gestured with a smile, "was stained by Ah Yun's spilled juice."
“You said it was okay and that you would paint another one for Asong. But Asong had already promised Ayun that he would go play tennis and didn’t have time to accompany you,” Aunt Yu explained in detail.
“You got angry then, feeling that Ah Song didn’t treat you as a good friend. You said you finally painted a picture for him, but he didn’t appreciate it. You painted another one for him, but he said he didn’t need it. You also said that he was biased and valued Ah Yun more than you.”
Is that so? Chu Song wondered to himself.
One is his older sister, and the other is a friend three years younger than him. He already knew which one was more important.
Xie Tang listened and smiled helplessly. How naive she was back then.
"So, in the end, I won the argument?" she asked curiously.
As Aunt Yu spoke, a loving smile appeared on her face. "You won! As soon as you started crying, Asong panicked and stopped playing ball with Asun in an attempt to appease you. But you stormed off with your schoolbag on your back, saying you'd never come to play with him again."
"No one expected that you would never come to the Chu family to play with Asong again after that."
Aunt Yu sighed softly, "During those days, Ah Song hoped every day that you would calm down and go play with him. Later, he couldn't wait any longer, so he secretly ran away to the Qin family to find you..."
"It turns out you no longer live there."
Xie Tang lowered her eyelashes, as if listening to someone else's story.
Those fragments shattered by time—the wisteria trellis, the soaked drawing paper, the figure slamming the door and leaving…
It is clearly my own memory, but now it feels as unfamiliar as someone else's case file in court.
I can't quite describe the feeling—it's a mix of melancholy, wistfulness, or something else entirely.
Chu Song's gaze fell on Xie Tang, as if he saw that small figure deep in his memory—that little boy who was once as bright and dazzling as a little sun, whom he cherished and protected.
He remembered every sly smile of hers, her puffed-up cheeks and sparkling eyes when she was angry.
Yet this little girl who depended on and trusted him could be so resolute when she got angry, and they were separated for a long thirteen years without any news.
He thought that perhaps she didn't really not want to talk to him.
She was too young then, and the storms of the world came too quickly and too fiercely.
She was simply swept along by immense sorrow and change in the turbulent torrent of fate, helplessly drifting with the current, and ultimately... unintentionally, she left him behind on the other side of time.
And what about him? He almost completely forgot about her too.
If it weren't for Chu Yun frequently mentioning that distant name, if it weren't for that glimmer of light deep in my heart that refused to be extinguished...
That little girl named "Xie Tang" may truly sink completely into his life like a pebble thrown into the ocean, leaving no ripples.
This realization caused a belated, sharp, dull pain to rise in his heart.
His throat tightened, and he asked the question that had lingered in his heart for many years: "After leaving the Qin family, did you really never even think of coming to see me? Not even... just once?"
Xie Tang raised her head and met his unreadable gaze.
She paused for a moment, retrieving fragments that had long since sunk to the bottom of the river of time.
Then, she spoke softly, "Yes."
She paused, and that deliberately sealed-away memory surged back with a chilling dampness:
"My grandfather had just passed away when the Qin family kicked me out like trash... At that time, I felt like the sky had really fallen."
Her voice was soft, yet it carried a heavy, suffocating quality.
The world was pitch black, and the only light I could think of was him.
She wanted to go find her brother Song.
That little girl, only eight years old, carrying a small schoolbag, was like a lost and panicked young animal. With her vague memories and a desperate obsession, she embarked on a journey to find "Brother Song" all by herself.
She walked through unfamiliar streets, watching the endless stream of cars and indifferent pedestrians. Her small figure seemed so tiny and helpless in the vast city.
She was lost; fear gripped her heart like cold vines, and she couldn't find her way home...
“I almost…lost myself. My mom was frantic when she found me.”
In my memory, Xie Shuang's always gentle face was distorted for the first time by extreme fear and anger.
She rushed forward and hugged herself tightly, her body trembling like a leaf in the wind.
The next second, a slap filled with fear and despair landed heavily on Xie Tang's back and arm!
Not just once, but several times, with uncontrolled force!
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