35 Chapter 35
◎Let’s chat tonight◎
When he saw Sang Xinqi's pale face, hanging arm and bleeding bandage on the hospital bed, his pupils suddenly constricted and his heart seemed to be tightly grasped by an invisible hand. The pain was so severe that his breathing stopped for a moment.
"What's going on?" His voice was low and hoarse, as if squeezed out from the depths of his throat.
As soon as the words fell, Sang Xinqi said weakly, "Why are you here?"
Jiang Xun, who was standing nearby, interrupted, "I called."
Sang Xinqi glanced at him sideways.
Jiang Xun raised the corner of his mouth slightly, turned to Liao Yishen, and told him the whole story in detail.
Liao Yishen stared at Sang Xinqi with a distressed look, his voice trembling with suppressed emotion. "Are you stupid? You didn't know how to run when you saw danger? And you even went to block it."
Sang Xinqi tried to explain, "At that time I..."
Jiang Xun pretended to be wronged and shouted, "Brother Liao..."
Seeing this, Sang Xinqi couldn't help but chuckle.
After staying in the hospital for a while, the three left.
On the way back, Jiang Xun received a call from the police.
Police informed them that the woman had been sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.
It turned out that the reason she became mentally ill was because of the blow of her husband's infidelity.
She was pregnant at the time and went to confront the mistress, but was pushed down and suffered a miscarriage.
After losing the child she had longed for, she became increasingly depressed and eventually suffered a mental breakdown. From then on, she would attack men whenever she saw a couple. In her distorted perception, all men were unfaithful.
The man who beat her today was her husband. Over the years, her husband had been taking care of her with guilt. He had kept her at home and everything was peaceful, but he didn't expect her to run away today.
After hanging up the phone, Sang Xinqi sighed, "What a pitiful man... Really, all men are bad."
Jiang Xun and Liao Yishen looked at each other in bewilderment. Jiang Xun said helplessly, "Sangsang, you've ruined the whole boat with this one."
Sang Xinqi then realized her gaffe and apologized, "I'm sorry, I was so angry."
As the three of them were talking, the car had already arrived at Jiang Xun's residence. He pushed open the door and stepped out of the car with his long legs.
Sang Xinqi rolled down the window and waved at him, "We won't be getting off. You should go back and get some rest."
Jiang Xun put one hand in his pocket, bent down and glanced into the car, and smiled lazily, "Okay, bye."
After watching Jiang Xun enter the community, he started the car again.
On the way back, the car was unusually quiet, with only the faint sound of the air-conditioning vents. Liao Yishen rested his slender fingers on the steering wheel, his eyes focused on the road ahead, while Sang Xinqi tilted her head to look at the passing night scene outside the window. The two of them maintained silence tacitly.
It wasn't until the car stopped safely in the underground garage that Sang Xinqi spoke as if waking from a dream, "We're here."
Liao Yishen hummed in a low voice.
The two unbuckled their seatbelts, got out of the car, and walked side by side towards the elevator. Sang Xinqi suddenly remembered something and said an annoyed "Ah!", "My car is still parked in the garage of our old residence."
Liao Yishen tilted his head to look at her, his eyes falling on her raised arm. "You probably won't be able to drive for a while. If you don't mind, I'll help you drive it back when I have time."
"Okay," Sang Xinqi's eyes lit up and the corners of her lips rose unconsciously.
The elevator door slowly closed, leaving only the two of them in the enclosed space. Liao Yishen suddenly asked, "What time do you usually go to work?"
"Around eight o'clock," Sang Xinqi replied, then curiously asked, "How about you?"
"A little after seven."
This answer made Sang Xinqi open her eyes wide in surprise, "So early? No wonder she had never met him in the morning after moving here for so long.
The elevator arrived at the floor with a "ding" sound.
As she stepped out of the elevator, Sang Xinqi thought to herself: I had originally wanted to take this opportunity to ask him to pick me up and drop me off at get off work, but he starts work so early...
As if seeing through her thoughts, Liao Yishen took the initiative to explain, "The company starts work at 9 o'clock, I'm just used to arriving early."
"So that's how it is," Sang Xinqi suddenly realized, "The boss is setting an example."
Liao Yishen gave her a meaningful look, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised, "Well, lead by example."
Sang Xinqi was suddenly speechless. As the boss of a studio, she had to check in every day and was occasionally late.
She was hesitating about how to start when her phone suddenly vibrated and a message from Jiang Xun jumped into her eyes: "What time do you get off tomorrow? I'll pick you up and drop you off at get off work soon."
Sang Xinqi's heart skipped a beat. She quickly locked the screen and looked up at Liao Yishen. "Um..." She took a deep breath. "How about you take me to and from get off work? It doesn't matter if the times are different. I can adapt to your schedule!"
After saying this, she stared at Liao Yishen nervously, fearing that she would be rejected.
The man was silent for a moment, a smile flashed in his eyes, "Okay."
"Thank you, Liao Yishen!" Sang Xinqi's face suddenly blossomed with smiles. Without hesitation, she stood on tiptoe and pecked him lightly on the lips. "I'll go back first!"
She turned around and was about to enter the password. Just as her fingertips touched the key, she was suddenly grabbed from behind by a strong force.
The familiar sweet scent of osmanthus lingered around her nose, and a warm chest pressed against her back. Sang Xinqi's whole body stiffened, and her heart beat as violently as a drum.
She called out nervously, "Liao Yishen..."
The man's chest was pressed against her back, and his breathing was noticeably heavier.
After a few seconds of silence, he murmured, "Hmm," with suppressed emotions in his voice, "Seeing you lying on the hospital bed...I feel very uncomfortable."
Sang Xinqi looked down at his hand around her waist, his bony fingers tightening slightly. Her heart softened, and she softly promised, "I'll be more careful next time."
Liao Yishen held her for a while before letting go. He turned around in a hurry, and the sound of metal colliding when he took out the key was particularly clear in the quiet corridor.
Sang Xinqi looked at his tense back, and the corners of her mouth rose unconsciously. This man who was so decisive in the business world was actually shy at this moment.
She considerately didn't point it out, entered the password and pushed open the door. Before entering, she turned around and met Liao Yishen's gaze.
"Good night, Liao Yishen," she smiled with her eyes curved.
"Good night," he nodded, his Adam's apple rolling slightly.
After the door closed, they both leaned against their respective doors, their palms pressed against their violently beating chests. The throbbing was so clear that it seemed to burst through their chests.
The next morning, Sang Xinqi woke up earlier than the alarm clock.
After washing and dressing, she sat on the sofa in the living room. She kept looking at her watch and her ears perked up to catch any movement coming from the opposite door.
When the sound of the key turning finally rang out, she immediately jumped up and opened the door. Liao Yishen obviously didn't expect to see her, and his hand holding the door handle stopped in mid-air, "So early?"
"Of course," she shook the bag in her hand and smiled slyly, "I'm waiting for my personal driver."
They were the only two people in the elevator.
Sang Xinqi secretly looked at him through the mirror. Today, Liao Yishen was wearing a dark gray coat with a double-breasted design, but the shoulder line was as sharp as a knife.
When they arrived at the underground garage, Sang Xinqi became extremely clumsy in fastening her seat belt with one hand and it took her a long time to buckle it up.
When Liao Yishen leaned over to help, she smelled the faint scent of osmanthus on him, and for some unknown reason she pecked the tip of his red ear.
"You..." Liao Yishen suddenly shrank back, his ears were so red that they seemed to bleed, and the knuckles of his fingers gripping the steering wheel were white.
Sang Xinqi was about to say something playful to lighten the mood, but he sternly said, "Don't do that next time."
This sentence was like a bucket of cold water poured down.
She silently clutched the corner of her coat, turned her head to look at the scenery passing by outside the window, her heart in a mess. What did he mean? Was he shy or... rejecting?
But things have clearly calmed down between them. He even hugged her yesterday...
Liao Yishen turned his head to look at Sang Xinqi in the passenger seat. She was looking at the passing scenery outside the window, and her profile looked particularly soft in the morning light.
Her thick eyelashes drooped slightly, casting a small shadow on her lower eyelid, and the corners of her mouth were pursed into a straight line, which was her usual expression when she was in a bad mood.
His fingers tightened and unclenched on the steering wheel, the leather making a slight scraping sound.
He almost didn't sleep the whole night last night, and the scene of Sang Xinqi standing on tiptoe to kiss him and her lying in the hospital kept replaying in his mind.
Seeing her, he wanted to agree to reconcile, but this thought was followed by a deeper uneasiness.
The resolute back she showed when she left eight years ago is still his clearest nightmare in the middle of the night.
The car was so quiet that you could hear the sound of the air conditioning vents.
"Sang Xinqi," he suddenly spoke, his voice deeper than usual.
She turned her head, the confusion still in her eyes.
Liao Yishen's eyes were fixed on the road ahead. His Adam's apple moved up and down several times before finally uttering a soft sigh, "I..."
Sang Xinqi waited quietly for his next words, her heart beating faster unconsciously.
"Let's talk tonight," he finally said, his voice so low that it seemed to be squeezed out of his chest.
Sang Xinqi stared at his tense profile for a long time, then the corners of her mouth slowly raised into a shallow arc, "Okay."
The car fell into silence again. Liao Yishen drove intently, his knuckles turning slightly white on the steering wheel.
Soon, the car stopped downstairs of Sang Xinqi's studio.
She unbuckled her seatbelt and hesitated for a moment. "Would you like to have breakfast together? There's a good porridge shop nearby."
Liao Yishen's gaze finally turned to her, but he still had no intention of getting out of the car. "No, you go eat. I'm leaving first."
The light in Sang Xinqi's eyes dimmed, and she forced a smile, "Okay, be careful on the road."
She got out of the car.
Watching his car disappear around the corner, Sang Xinqi stood there in a daze for a while. Her originally hungry stomach now felt like it was filled with stones. In the end, she just bought a cup of coffee and walked into the studio listlessly.
Due to her arm injury, she could only handle some simple work. After 8:30, the studio gradually became lively.
"Boss! What's wrong with your hand?" Xiao Zhang exclaimed when he saw her arm hanging up.
"I got hurt accidentally," Sang Xinqi said lightly, not wanting to talk about the shocking scene yesterday.
By ten o'clock, my empty stomach began to protest.
She dragged her tired body to the bakery downstairs. When she was paying the bill, she suddenly heard a familiar voice, "Xinqi?"
She turned her head to look.
Xu Jianian stood behind her, frowning as he looked at her injured arm. "What's wrong with your arm?"
Sang Xinqi said, "I'm injured."
The two found a seat by the window and sat down, and Sang Xinqi briefly recounted what happened yesterday.
"Don't be so impulsive next time," Xu Jianian's voice was filled with heartache. "Do you want me to pick you up and drop you off at work soon?"
Sang Xinqi was slightly startled and looked up to meet his concerned gaze.
At that moment, she seemed to catch a flash of emotion in his eyes, so fast that she wondered if it was an illusion.
"Thank you, but no thanks," she gently declined, "Liao Yishen is seeing me off."
Xu Jianian's fingers tightened on the coffee cup for a moment, then quickly loosened. "You... made up?"
"I don't know," Sang Xinqi lowered her head and took a bite of bread, not noticing the complicated emotions in the eyes of the man opposite her.
Xu Jianian used the action of drinking coffee to hide his inner turmoil. He was still brooding over the missed opportunity eight years ago, and now that they met again, he didn't want to have any regrets.
"Are you free tonight?" he asked casually.
Sang Xinqi remembered Liao Yishen's invitation and shook her head. "I have something to do tonight."
"What about lunch?" Xu Jianian put down his cup and looked at her with burning eyes. "I have something to tell you."
Sang Xinqi suddenly had a strange premonition in her heart. She hesitated for a moment, but nodded and said, "Okay."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
