Chapter 60 Autumnal Tide
Chapter 60
"Look at what you're saying, it sounds rather sentimental."
Xia Zhiyu laughed and said casually, "It's as if you're saying I've been deliberately avoiding you for the past four years."
Her tone was light, but there was a hint of coldness in her voice.
But Jiang Zhiyan's originally cold expression relaxed as if a glacier had melted, and she frankly admitted, "I was deliberately avoiding you."
His calm demeanor surprised Xia Zhiyu, who couldn't help but glance at him in astonishment.
"In the first two years after you broke up, you were studying and working at the same time, so love would get in the way. The year before last and the year after last were your prime years, so you didn't have time to date."
"I think if I'm of no use, perhaps the best thing I can do is not bother you."
"What if I don't become better?"
"The probability of this happening is even lower than the probability that the United States will pay off all its foreign debt in one go tomorrow."
Jiang Zhiyan added, "You are smart, hardworking, ambitious, and able to seize opportunities. Success will surely favor you."
His words were calm and peaceful, revealing exceptional sincerity.
Xia Zhiyu looked at Jiang Zhiyan with considerable curiosity, "How come you've suddenly become so eloquent? You must have experienced a lot these past few years."
Her tone was amused, and she spoke without thinking, just teasing.
But Jiang Zhiyan suddenly turned his head and quietly glanced at her. His eyes behind his glasses were very indifferent, but they were as damp and cold as the weather outside the car window.
When he's unhappy, it's obvious; his thin lips are pressed into a straight line, his jaw tightens, and he doesn't respond to her words.
He started the conversation, and he's the one who's been ignoring her; it's all so strange.
Xia Zhiyu was a little annoyed, so she simply stopped talking, turned her face to the side, and stared blankly at the winding picture outside the car window where raindrops merged into long lines.
The carriage suddenly fell silent. Xia Zhiyu looked to her left, while Jiang Zhiyan stared ahead, as if they were separated into two different spaces, with only the same crisp sound of rain in their ears.
Raindrops flowed along the windshield wipers, forming an endless stream. The car turned a corner and passed Xia Zhiyu's graduate school. At the school gate, there were many young couples holding umbrellas, waiting to hail a taxi to go to the city center.
Just like Xia Zhiyu back then, she eagerly anticipates going home for the weekend.
Her home with Jiang Zhiyan.
Fragments of memories popped into her mind at an inopportune moment. Xia Zhiyu paused for a moment, then looked towards Jiang Zhiyan.
Perhaps he was tired from driving, he took off his thin-rimmed glasses with one hand and pinched the bridge of his nose during a break at the traffic light. His profile was sharp and his handsome and indifferent expression was tinged with a slight, imperceptible sadness.
"No."
A sudden male voice rang out in the carriage, abruptly pulling Xia Zhiyu from her reverie. Before she could react to what Jiang Zhiyan was saying, she subconsciously asked, "What?"
"I have no other experience besides you, not then, not now."
Jiang Zhiyan explained in a very soft voice, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly. Xia Zhiyu wondered if it was just her imagination, but she could detect a faint hint of grievance in his tone.
If it weren't for the ban on supernatural beings after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xia Zhiyu would have thought that Jiang Zhiyan had been possessed by some wandering ghost.
Having known each other for ten years and dating for five, this was the first time Jiang Zhiyan had spoken to Xia Zhiyu in such an accusatory tone. She opened her mouth hesitantly, but didn't know what to say.
"And when we first got together, I told you that I would only love you."
Jiang Zhiyan stepped on the gas, his eyes fixed straight ahead, his suppressed emotions even more chilling than the torrential rain outside the window.
"when?"
A moment of confusion appeared on Xia Zhiyu's face.
"After I took your parents back to the hotel, on the way back to you, I said that I would only ever love one person in my life."
"You didn't say it was me."
"Have I ever liked anyone else?"
Xia Zhiyu was taken aback. "I thought it was just a joke."
At that time, she was in the early stages of her life, and her classmates were almost all dating one person after another, breaking up one and starting a new relationship. In Xia Zhiyu's mind at that time, Jiang Zhiyan's words were like a light leaf falling, landing silently, and she would forget them after a good night's sleep.
Who knew Jiang Zhiyan was actually serious?
Her voice grew softer and softer, until the last few words were almost swallowed up by the humid summer night air.
"joke?"
Jiang Zhiyan's voice sounded like a taut string. He looked at Xia Zhiyu with disbelief in his eyes, "You thought I was joking when I was so serious back then? And what about later? Didn't I also say when I proposed that I would only love you?"
"When did you propose? Was it the time with the stocks? What kind of proposal was that?"
"The time I gave her the ring."
Jiang Zhiyan slammed on the brakes, and the Maybach came to a stop on the side of the road. "In October of the year you started working, on the plane back from the United States, the flight attendant gave you a ring with an inscription in English: To My One and Only Love in This Life."
Xia Zhiyu's expression went blank for a moment. She swallowed hard and said in a strained voice, "I thought it was the name of a product series. Besides, they didn't say it was a proposal, and it wasn't a wedding ring. I thought it was just an ordinary gift."
"But isn't an engagement ring just a custom-made diamond ring for the woman?"
“You said you wanted the biggest and shiniest pink diamond, so I flew to France specifically to buy it. I even helped design the blueprints.”
Jiang Zhiyan's face turned pale with anger. He stared at Xia Zhiyu, who wished she could hide her head under the car, for a long while, his tone filled with suppressed heartbreak.
"If giving a ring doesn't count as a proposal, then what does? Do I have to kneel down on one knee and loudly profess my love in front of a whole plane of colleagues for it to count?"
After briefly simulating the scene in her mind, Xia Zhiyu swallowed hard and quickly shook her head. Just thinking about it gave her goosebumps.
"..."
The atmosphere inside the carriage was as stagnant as a freshly sealed can.
Xia Zhiyu touched her nose sheepishly, "I didn't think much of it at the time. I just thought it was an ordinary gift. Why didn't you tell me when you got home?"
"How can I tell you? As soon as you got off the plane, you rushed to find Ren Yu, shoved the ring into my hand, and then booked a flight back to your hometown. How can I explain it to you when your rejection was so obvious?"
Xia Zhiyu remembered that she had just been blocked by Ren Yu, and as soon as she got off the plane, she saw a message from Lao Xia telling her that something had happened to Ren Yu's family.
Ren Yu's half-dead biological father came back to sue her for alimony, hoping she could come back and help resolve the issue. This matter involved some of Ren Yu's family's privacy, so she couldn't tell Jiang Zhiyan and had to vaguely reply.
The misunderstanding naturally formed just like that.
Sometimes, that's how it is; taking one more step or one less step can lead to an outcome that's hard to accept.
Did someone do something wrong?
No one is at fault.
The sound of rain gradually subsided, and a sliver of sunlight pierced through the sky, reflecting on the drizzling rain.
"Would things be better now if I had knelt down and proposed back then?"
Jiang Zhiyan's tone was stiff and tense, as if he were asking Xia Zhiyu, or questioning himself in a low voice. His dark eyes held a lot of complex emotions that were hard to describe.
A few raindrops were still pattering against the car window, forming lines that flowed down and slicing the window into pieces.
"Who knows?"
A pang of sadness welled up in Xia Zhiyu's heart, and even her smile seemed forced. Accompanied by the crisp sound of raindrops tapping on the glass, she tried her best to relax the atmosphere, saying:
"How about Mr. Jiang invests in the time machine project? It's a sure thing, you'll lose money."
—
There is no spring or autumn in the north of the city. After a long, drizzling rain, the temperature drops by more than ten degrees. There is always a gray mist of water spray outside the window. It's terrible weather.
Even in terrible weather, we still have to grit our teeth and take the puppy out to play, since Lele has been stuck at home for two or three days due to the heavy rain in the north of the city.
"By some twist of fate, that movie was meant for the two of you, so are you thinking about getting back together now?"
Fang Xinle relaxed and threw the toy ball to Lele, who was splashing around in the pool. The puppy splashed out of the water, picked up the ball, and happily swam over. Its wet black nose nudged Fang Xinle by the poolside, and it was having a great time.
Xia Zhiyu sat on the nearby rest chair, her chin pointed and her jacket collar tucked in. After a moment of silence, she said, "I don't know."
How to describe her feelings for Jiang Zhiyan now? It's a bit like looking at a bottle of fine wine placed on a high platform. Although she feels a little unfamiliar with the taste because she hasn't tasted it for many years, she also knows that its flavor has become richer and richer with the passage of time.
And it attracted her more and more.
Having tasted the flavor, Xia Zhiyu felt an indescribable passion within her body being quickly awakened by him during these few brief encounters. Whenever Jiang Zhiyan appeared, he naturally attracted her attention like a magnetic pole of the same sex. This was a feeling she had never experienced from any other man in the past four years.
Especially when he held an umbrella and walked her downstairs that day, his trench coat accentuated his handsome figure.
"Would you still like me as I am now?"
Raindrops, like glass beads, rolled down the edge of the umbrella in a series, falling straight to the ground continuously, the dampness blurring Jiang Zhiyan's silhouette.
Xia Zhiyu stood on the balcony watching him walk away, and suddenly her vision seemed to be filled with a damp mist, as if it had been submerged by the autumn rain.
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