Chapter 46: Interference from the Past
The thrill and confusion brought on by the lightning-fast touch of their fingertips didn't last long. Like a stone dropped into an icy lake, it stirred violent ripples before being quickly swallowed up by the deeper cold and reality. Both Su Wanqing and Huo Tingxiao tacitly chose to ignore and forget, as if that brief, almost scorching contact had never happened.
Life returned to a seemingly calm, yet turbulent undercurrent. Huo Tingxiao became even busier, even coming home less often than before. Su Wanqing continued with her studies, housework, and necessary social life, trying to maintain a surface of calm, but the plucked strings deep within her heart could never fully subside.
She knew that what stood between them was not only the indifference of character and past trauma, but also those invisible and intangible, yet omnipresent... shadows and interference from the past.
That afternoon, Su Wanqing was sorting through some design sketches in her study when the phone in the living room rang. She walked over and answered it. It was Assistant Chen.
"Madam," Assistant Chen's voice sounded a little hesitant, "Ms. Lin Weiwei is here. She said...she has something to personally deliver to the commander. The commander is still at the headquarters. Please see..."
Su Wanqing's heart sank slightly. Lin Weiwei? What was she doing here? And she specifically asked to see Huo Tingxiao?
She was silent for a few seconds, then asked calmly, "Did she say what it was?"
"He didn't go into detail, just said it was a very important matter, about... some of the chief's old things." Assistant Chen's voice was a little embarrassed.
Old stuff? Su Wanqing's heart skipped a beat. She instantly thought of the blood-stained photo of mother and son, and of Chen Feng... What tricks was Lin Weiwei trying to play?
"Please let her in." Su Wanqing took a deep breath and said. She couldn't avoid seeing her, because that would make her look guilty or cowardly.
"Yes." Assistant Chen agreed.
A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. Su Wanqing calmed down and walked over to open the door.
Lin Weiwei was standing outside the door, wearing an exquisite Chanel suit, holding a heavy-looking brown paper document bag in her hand, with her usual impeccable and gentle smile on her face.
"Sister Su, sorry to bother you." She greeted with a smile, but her eyes seemed to glance behind Su Wanqing, as if looking for something.
"Ms. Lin, please come in." Su Wanqing stepped aside to let her in, her tone distant and polite, "The commander is not at home. If you have anything to say, you can tell me, or I can tell him."
Lin Weiwei walked into the living room, sat down gracefully on the sofa, placed the file bag on the coffee table, and said with a smile, "It's okay, I'll just wait for him for a while. It's not a big deal anyway, just some... things that Brother Tingxiao left with me a while ago, and I kept forgetting to return them. I just remembered them while sorting through old things recently, and I think it's better to return them to their original owner." Her tone was relaxed and natural, as if she was talking about a trivial matter.
Something left with her? Su Wanqing's heart felt like it was stabbed, a sharp bitterness rising from it. There really was a past and intimacy between them...that she couldn't touch.
"What is it? Do you need me to pass it on to you?" Su Wanqing tried her best to make her voice sound steady.
Lin Weiwei smiled and gently stroked the file bag with her fingers, with a hint of nostalgia and... a subtle pride in her eyes: "There are some old photos and letters, and... some little gadgets we made together in the past. They are not worth much, but they are all memories. I think it would be better to hand them over to him personally." She deliberately emphasized the words "we" and "memories".
Photos? Letters? Little things we made together?
Each word was like a needle, piercing Su Wanqing's heart with precision. She could almost imagine the warmth those things carried, belonging to their childhood sweetheart years, a past she could never participate in or replace.
She clenched her fingers, her nails digging deep into her palms, and managed to maintain a calm expression on her face: "Since the leader is not here, Miss Lin, please come back another day. Or, I can make an appointment for you."
Lin Weiwei seemed a little disappointed, but soon smiled again: "It's okay, I'll wait. Maybe he will be back soon?" As she spoke, her eyes swept across the living room again, and finally fell on the pot of plants from a foreign country on the windowsill that Su Wanqing had carefully transplanted. Her eyes flickered almost imperceptibly.
"This pot of grass... looks a little unfamiliar?" she asked casually.
Su Wanqing's heart suddenly tightened. She remembered Huo Tingxiao's unusually serious attitude when he brought back the plant.
"A friend gave it to me." She answered vaguely, not wanting to explain further.
Lin Weiwei smiled, her tone carrying a hint of meaning: "Really? It does look quite wild. But it's better to be careful with this kind of alien species. If it brings any diseases or pests, it will be troublesome to deal with." Her words sounded like a kind reminder, but in fact they contained hidden meaning, implying that Su Wanqing, like this pot of plants, was "alien" and might bring "trouble."
Su Wanqing pursed her lips and didn't respond.
Just then, the sound of a car engine was heard outside the door.
Huo Tingxiao is back.
Su Wanqing's heart instantly lifted, while Lin Weiwei's face revealed an undisguised smile of joy.
The door opened, and Huo Tingxiao, dressed in a neat suit, walked in, looking exhausted. Seeing Lin Weiwei in the living room, he paused, his brows furrowed slightly, and his eyes turned cold. "Why are you here?"
His tone was blunt, even with a hint of obvious displeasure.
Lin Weiwei's smile froze for a moment, but quickly returned to normal. She stood up, picked up the file bag, and said softly, "Brother Tingxiao, you're back. I came to give you some things. They're some old things you left with me, and I thought it was time to return them to you."
Huo Tingxiao's gaze fell on the document bag, and it suddenly became sharp and cold, even with a hint of...warning. He was silent for a few seconds before he said coldly, "What is it?"
"Just some photos, letters and the airplane model we made before..." Lin Weiwei walked forward with a smile and tried to hand him the briefcase.
Huo Tingxiao didn't take it. His gaze shifted from the file bag to Lin Weiwei's face, his eyes frighteningly cold. "No need. Get rid of it."
The smile on Lin Weiwei's face completely disappeared. She looked at Huo Tingxiao in disbelief, her eyes slightly red, and her voice was filled with grievance: "Brother Tingxiao? These are... these are all memories from the past! How can you just deal with them like that?"
"Let the past be the past." Huo Tingxiao's voice was calm, even with a hint of impatience. "I have something else to do. I won't see you off." He directly ordered her to leave, without even lingering on the file bag for a second.
Lin Weiwei's face turned pale in an instant. She bit her lip, looked at Huo Tingxiao's cold and resolute attitude, then glanced at Su Wanqing who was standing silently beside him, and a trace of deep jealousy and unwillingness flashed in her eyes.
She took a deep breath, forced a smile, and put the file bag back on the coffee table. Her tone was filled with a hint of stubbornness and grievance: "I've delivered the things. What you do with them is up to you. I'm leaving now."
After saying that, she turned around and walked quickly towards the door. When she passed by Su Wanqing, her footsteps paused almost imperceptibly and she gave her an extremely complicated look, a mixture of resentment and provocation.
The door was gently closed, and only Su Wanqing and Huo Tingxiao were left in the living room, along with the unsightly document bag on the coffee table.
The air was stagnant, filled with an indescribable sense of tension.
Su Wanqing looked at the brown paper bag, feeling a mixture of emotions. She felt a secret sense of relief at Huo Tingxiao's indifference towards Lin Weiwei, but also felt a sour and uneasy feeling about the bag's possible entrapment of her past, which she could not touch.
Huo Tingxiao stood there, staring intently at the document bag, his brow furrowed, his jawline tense, and an extremely oppressive, almost irritable aura emanating from him. The bag seemed to have touched a very sensitive nerve in him.
After a long while, he seemed to take a deep breath, suppress his emotions, and turned his gaze to Su Wanqing. His voice was still a little cold and hard: "What did she say?"
Su Wanqing came back to her senses and shook her head gently: "I didn't say anything, I just came to deliver something."
Huo Tingxiao was silent for a moment, then walked a few steps to the coffee table, picked up the file bag, and without even looking at it, walked straight to the storage room next to the study, opened the top cabinet, stuffed the file bag roughly in, and then closed the cabinet door with a "bang".
As if it was something extremely annoying and needed to be isolated immediately.
After doing all this, he turned around, his face still not looking good, but the tone he spoke to Su Wanqing softened a little: "If she comes again in the future, just ignore her."
"...Yes." Su Wanqing replied in a low voice.
Huo Tingxiao said no more, turned around, and strode up the stairs. His back remained straight and hard, yet a hint of imperceptible irritation and... fatigue lingered.
Su Wanqing stood alone in the living room, looking at the tightly closed locker door, her heart in turmoil.
Disturbances from the past, like ghosts, never go away.
What Lin Weiwei brought wasn't just a bag of old things; it was a silent declaration and provocation—she possessed a past shared with Huo Tingxiao that Su Wanqing could never possess. And no matter how indifferent Huo Tingxiao was now, that past had truly existed and was likely still somewhere, aching faintly.
This time, Huo Tingxiao chose isolation and rejection.
What about next time?
Will he still be so resolute when the past comes crashing back in a more irresistible way?
Su Wanqing found that the little bit of confidence she had just built up began to waver again.
The undercurrent beneath the ice seems to be more turbulent and...complex than imagined.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
