Chapter 41 Let me send you away.
While taking a shower, Jiang Shiyan turned the showerhead switch to the left halfway through to suppress his desire.
If we define that water temperature as extremely cold or icy, then what we have now is a pot of boiling water, like a prank placed on top of a door frame. He accidentally pushed the door open, and every pore of his skin was torn open.
Blood rushed to his upper body, and Jiang Shiyan's grip tightened, but Xu Yaochen hardened his stance, refusing to utter a sound, biting his lip and remaining silent.
Like trying to catch a turtle in a jar, each of the three felt like they were the turtle.
Xu Yuewei said to him, "Get out."
Jiang Shiyan said no, "I still have to keep him in check."
“It’s okay if you let him go, we won’t fight.” She lowered her eyes. “Right?”
Xu Yaochen remained silent, his body completely drained, lying limply as if dead.
"You don't have to close the door completely; I'll yell if I need you."
His tone was calm, yet firm.
Jiang Shiyan looked at her for a while, his breathing becoming slightly heavy. After a moment, he granted her wish.
The latch retracted halfway and got stuck between the misaligned door frames.
Xu Yuewei drew back the curtains and opened the window, letting in a blast of cold air. No need for screens; there were no mosquitoes this season. That was one of the good things about winter.
"This winter has been quite warm; it's already past the winter solstice, and it hasn't snowed yet."
She leaned against the wall by the window, and Xu Yaochen also got up, sat on the edge of the bed, and said sorry in a low voice.
Xu Yuewei ignored them, staring at the pattern on a piece of carpet between them, and continued talking to herself:
“Every year on the winter solstice, my family used to eat dumplings. My aunt would make them, and they never tasted the same. The adults said that eating hot dumplings during the coldest time of the year would keep you warm and healthy for the rest of the year. I didn’t get to eat any yesterday, and I’m still a little craving them.”
“I remember one year my dad didn’t come home for the winter solstice because he was on a business trip. My mom asked him if he had eaten dumplings, and he said he had and took a picture of us.”
"Did your mom actually cook it?"
She slowly lifted her eyes, her pupils beneath her eyelashes as cold as the wind, yet also like the temperature neutralized by the wind seeping into the room, not freezing.
"I remember she was from the South and was quite dedicated."
"I'm not trying to make you feel anything. You're not the one who made the mistake; you're just the result. So am I."
She said casually, "Just accept it, there's no other way."
Xu Yaochen clearly wasn't listening: "Then why are you telling me all this?"
The pages of the past fluttered before her eyes; she caught one and, according to what was recorded on it, began to recount old grievances:
“When I was in high school, you came to my house and said that your dad had beaten you so badly that you ‘bribed’ me with those things. Did you want me to go home and take the beating for you?”
Xu Yaochen said no, but his confidence seemed a little weak.
Xu Yuewei remained noncommittal, her tone light: "Dad has never hit me, because he never expected me to be successful. But he tied you to his life, giving you the best and the worst."
"So, the person you should blame is not me."
Xu Yaochen remained silent for a long time, then cursed:
"Damn, acting like a confidante late at night, don't you feel disgusted?"
"I'm leaving Fog Bridge." She tugged at the small balloon on her sweater. "It's good to take this opportunity to have a good chat with you."
"Opportunity?" He jumped up, slapping the bed, and pointed towards the door, as if he'd heard a joke. "What opportunity? Isn't this a trap you two set on purpose?!"
He ran his fingers through his tangled hair, which resembled a feather duster, and got angry again when he thought about what had just happened. "You've found a powerful backer, haven't you? If Dad knew you'd snagged a rich husband, he'd regret not being alive to enjoy his good fortune."
“Dad knows.” Xu Yuewei crossed her arms and raised her index finger near the door. “Actually, he’s not your brother-in-law now, but he used to be.”
Xu Yaochen was speechless for a moment: "...What do you mean?"
Speaking of this, she couldn't help but laugh: "Jiang Shiyan is the one who broke Young Master Qiu's nose. But who knew he had cosmetic surgery? His nose looks quite natural."
That rainy summer night, her shout of "Let him go!" only added fuel to the fire. Jiang Shiyan had only been pulling them apart, but upon hearing this, he bent his knee and pressed down, punching the mistress in the face right in front of her.
In that instant, all her original plans vanished into thin air, and she felt as if her soul had been drained away. She stood there dumbfounded, watching the two men roll and push each other on the ground until the man surnamed Qiu finally managed to get free and cursed at her: "You son of a bitch!"
Only then did I remember to try and break up the fight.
Then she took the person with the bleeding nose to the hospital. Before getting in the car, she held back her tears and glanced at Jiang Shiyan. Her panicked eyes finally found their anchor, but the anchor abandoned her.
He stood there with his hands hanging naturally at his sides, his wet hair obscuring his eyebrows and eyes, making it impossible to see his face.
Then, he turned and left, the raindrops disappearing into the water.
"I remember that incident. So, the man surnamed Jiang is the one you secretly lived with behind your family's back?"
Xu Yaochen's surprised voice suddenly interrupted his recollection. He raised his voice, then lowered it again, his voice carrying a hint of belated concern and apology.
"So later, were you really sent to... a mental hospital?"
Xu Yuewei came to her senses; the outside air was so thick it soaked through her sweater. She closed the window.
"Yeah, we have to let them vent their anger. I forget who told me, but 'If a mad dog bites someone, the dog should be killed.' In their eyes, we're just dogs."
Open the window for a while to let some fresh air in, so the room doesn't become stagnant like still water. Once it's flowing, it'll have a bit of life.
Xu Yuewei picked up a piece of plaster that had fallen to the ground, dragged out a chair from next to the desk, sat down, crossed her legs, wrapped the plaster around her ankle, and said:
"Thank you. But remember to pay me back, and it would be best if you could quit gambling."
Xu Yaochen scratched his head. "Are you really leaving?"
"Besides needing help to sweep the graves, you probably have no other reason to keep me here, right?"
Xu Yuewei crumpled up the plastic wrap from the plaster and threw it into the trash can. Throwing away something useless really makes you feel good.
"Also, stop spreading rumors about your relationship with Princess Yongle. Can't you at least have some decency?"
“I didn’t? I really am her man,” he gasped, “one of her men.”
"..." She glanced at his upper body, "You have biceps too?"
"Damn, I'm a master at charming women, you know? Too bad you'll never see it."
"Why don't I see her by your side? Have you fallen out of favor?"
"So what if I lose her? She doesn't need my company and still gives me money. I'm happy, okay?"
As they talked, Xu Yuewei suddenly felt a strange calm, as if this was the end she wanted to draw before leaving the Fog Bridge.
It wasn't with Zhou Xu, Xiao Han, or Qian Yi, nor with Jiang Shiyan, but with him, her younger brother whom she didn't like and with whom she had no past to reminisce.
He was a fragment entirely from the past, a part pieced together to form her. Though she didn't want it to be this way.
After sitting quietly facing each other for a few minutes, a loud and urgent knocking suddenly sounded at the door.
Even with all that force, the door still won't open.
Xu Yuewei imagined Jiang Shiyan holding onto the handle to steady himself while banging on the door, and was surprised that he actually restrained himself and didn't come in.
She walked over and opened the door, as if a screw had been pulled out.
The moment he saw her, the heavy anxiety in the man's eyes, who had been waiting for so long, dissipated, and he simply gazed at her silently. This reminded her of when she was learning latte art; the milk foam blended in, and it was the concentric circles that gave it its soul.
"My foot is fine now, I'm going back to my room."
It wasn't even a brush past each other; when she walked past him, there was a fist's distance between them, a distance neither of them dared to reach out.
The door to room 6008 closed, and Jiang Shiyan, with a heavy heart, picked up his cell phone from under the television.
They are all black, so there's no need to conceal them, and they're not easily noticed.
He pressed the pause button and started playing back the recording.
*
When Xu Yuewei returned to 3009, Song Jinshu had just finished showering and was drying her hair. The hairdryer was making a whooshing sound, then suddenly went out.
"Where did you go? You didn't reply to my messages. I'm really afraid you went up the mountain and got eaten by a bear."
"There can't be any bears here, right?" she laughed, hugging Jinshu's arm and resting her head on her shoulder.
"What do you smell like? Go take a shower!"
"I'll wash right away. I'm so tired, let me rest for a bit."
Song Jinshu shook her shoulders and teased her, saying sarcastically, "My shoulders are too narrow to carry you. Why don't you go find your husband?"
Xu Yuewei straightened up, sensing something was wrong.
"The news about you and Jiang Shiyan has spread! People are even asking me about it. I don't know as much as they do, humph."
Xu Yuewei quickly hugged Jin Shu's waist:
"Please forgive me for catching your bouquet."
"Did you steal that? I'm not blind!"
"Yes, I was planning to catch it with my forehead!"
Xu Yuewei helped her blow-dry her hair. Their room had two single beds, but since it was their last night, they squeezed onto one bed to chat.
Song Jinshu, with a face mask on, applied hair oil to her half-dry hair: "So, you two are back together?"
"No, otherwise I wouldn't be leaving tomorrow."
"Why not stay?" Song Jinshu asked, puzzled. "I feel like you're not completely indifferent to him, are you?"
Xu Yuewei thought for a while: "Of all the men, I like him the most, but what I need most right now is not a man."
If suffering really works, she thought, the most useful thing she learned was that any sense of security that depends on others is fleeting and unreliable.
She had thought he could support her, that their relationship wasn't so fragile, but she was wrong.
Even with her eyes closed, she could still easily recall the angry and sorrowful face of the young man from that time.
“The day before, you and I picked up a cat together. You named it Mibao, and you said I was the dad and you were the mom.”
He removed the gauze from his hand, revealing a long, dark red bloodstain.
"What were you doing when it was causing trouble at home and I couldn't handle it by myself?"
“I was so close to you then, yet you didn’t see the bandage on my hand. I came out of the clinic, and I was a block away from you, but I still saw you. I asked you, ‘Where have you been wearing the dress I bought you? What have you been doing?!’”
"The Hilt Hotel costs four figures a night for a regular room. No wonder you reacted so strongly and wanted to break up with me. In the end, you just think I'm poor?"
"I'm sorry, Princess, I've wronged you."
"I'll return it next month. Pack your things and I won't throw them away."
...
At Jin Shu's second urging, Xu Yuewei got up to take a shower.
Before entering the bathroom, she habitually glanced at her phone and was startled to find a string of incoming calls and messages.
The number was an unfamiliar one, and the messages were all friend requests from Jiang Shiyan.
One of the messages read: "When can you come to record the voice-over you promised me?"
The latest message is: 【What room are you in?】
Xu Yuewei was completely bewildered. She clicked "accept," and a string of verification messages popped up.
She picked the most important reply:
Regarding the voice acting, I've thought about it later, and I'm probably still relatively inexperienced. I suggest you find another instructor. I can handle the transcription; I'm confident any of them can produce the effect you want.
Jiang Shiyan made a phone call right away.
Xu Yuewei couldn't pretend to be dead anymore, so she answered the phone. Before she could even utter the word "hello," a deep, urgent voice came through her earpiece:
"Are you leaving Fog Bridge?"
Xu Yuewei hadn't expected him to secretly record the conversation. She assumed Xu Yaochen had betrayed her, and after a two-second silence, she said, "Hmm."
"when?"
"……tomorrow."
There was silence on the other end of the phone. After a long pause, Jiang Shiyan said, "Okay."
"I'll take you. High-speed train or plane? What time?"
After speaking, he realized his tone was not good, swallowed, and his voice was still hoarse:
"Let me see you off this time... okay?"
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Author's Note: After a few sweet chapters, it's time to get a little sour, hehe [droopy-eared rabbit head]. No prize for guessing: will the VIP members leave? [droopy-eared rabbit head]
There are still some details left unmentioned in the flashback section; I'll talk about them later. [Pigeon]
And don't worry, her body hasn't suffered any real harm. Her brother won't have it so easy either; a gambler can't win without effort. [Spreading positive energy]
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