Chapter 49. Li Li was already furious at his deception...
Li Li was already furious at his deception, but Tan Su, instead of repenting, added fuel to the fire by pinching her cheek and mocking her, "You don't really think you'll ever have the chance to call me brother-in-law again in this lifetime, do you?"
He usually treats the kitten like a child, spoiling and indulging her most of the time, and doesn't hold it against her.
Only a casual remark made by Li Li on the street in Hong Kong took Tan Su to heart, and he still dislikes that nickname to this day.
This time, she argued with him over Tan Yi, so Tan Su had to force her to face reality.
Li Li couldn't break free from Tan Su's grasp, so she shouted even louder to provoke him: "Brother-in-law, brother-in-law! I'm shouting, so what?"
She started shouting, her voice growing louder and louder than the discussion in the meeting. Tan Su simply canceled the meeting, veins throbbing on his forehead: "Apologize."
Li Li refused, and instead stabbed him in the heart: "Tan Su, are you kidding me? Do we have any serious relationship?"
"When I was with Tan Yi, you were probably nowhere to be found! Everyone knows about us, so even if I got back together with him right now, no one would be surprised. But you, who knows anything about you, Tan Su? Don't take yourself too seriously."
Tan Su was also enraged by her. He pressed her onto his lap, slapped her waist and hips twice, and said fiercely, "Say that again?"
"Don't mess with a tiger's backside!" Li Li, with her rebellious nature, immediately exploded. She said incredulously, "You dare hit me!"
She was Li Pusheng's darling since childhood. No matter how big a mistake she made, she would never be really punished. If she was naughty, she would at most get a few scoldings, and her face would fall down and the family would immediately surrender.
Tan Su didn't use much force, but the lecturing tone in his hand still angered her. Li Li immediately bristled and slammed her head into Tan Su's chin.
——
Tan Su traveled a long way but gained nothing, and ended up having a falling out with Li Li.
When Qi Xi returned, she invited him to dinner. Seeing Tan Su's bitten lip, she casually asked him what he had been busy with lately and why he was often away from the country.
Tan Su said, "I have a girlfriend."
Qi Xi was initially surprised, but seeing that Tan Su didn't seem to be joking, she belatedly felt delighted and carefully asked him what kind of girl the other person was, whether Tan Huiming had introduced her, and what her background was.
Most importantly, when would be a convenient time to bring him over for a meeting?
Qi Xi's own marriage was not perfect, and he did not care about the woman's family background. He just hoped that his son could marry someone he liked.
Tan Su chuckled: "She's still studying abroad, what a scoundrel."
Qi Xi frowned slightly at this inexplicable description. Suddenly, she heard the door open outside the private room. Wen Xi came over gracefully to greet her: "My family is having dinner with my grandmother next door. I didn't expect you to be here too."
This vegetarian restaurant has recently become very popular in S City. One of its dishes, a vegetarian Dongpo pork made with winter melon and shiitake mushrooms, is particularly outstanding and is very suitable for the elderly.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Qi Xi got up and went next door to greet the old lady, and Tan Su also got up and followed.
Apart from Li Zhoudu, Qi Xi didn't recognize many of the people who came today. Most of the guests were invited by Wen Xi to keep Wang Minjun company.
Qi Xi was asked to stay for a while by the old lady. She looked around and asked politely, "Why haven't I seen your young lady?"
Wenxi poured her some tea and said, "Little Cat is studying abroad."
Perhaps because her conversation with Tan Su was so intense, Qi Xi felt a jolt in her heart, as if she had discovered two inexplicably interlocking and perfectly fitting mortise and tenon joints. She picked up her tea and said slowly, "Really? She is quite an interesting and intelligent girl."
Qi Xi's gaze swept towards her son, Tan Su, who was talking privately with Li Zhoudu.
Li Zhoudu asked, "What have you been busy with lately?"
Tan Su gave a perfunctory reply: "It's just the same old business, nothing special."
Li Zhoudu gave him a look: "What are your uncles doing in Hong Kong? Do you need me to give you a heads-up?"
He said frankly, "Everyone has their own destiny, and they have already made their own independent agreements. I will not interfere."
Li Zhoudu sneered inwardly, thinking that he probably believed his lies.
Seeing the two unmarried men, both of whom were of advanced age and not yet eligible for marriage, together, Wenxi immediately became worried and said, "Hey, does your Tan Su have a girlfriend yet? I've been urging my Zhou Du to get her to agree to anything."
Qi Xi glanced at her son indifferently, exchanged a look with him, and did not mention what had just happened: "This is their own business, it's pointless for us to worry about it."
Wenxi said with self-doubt, "You know, was it wrong to stop it when we were studying? Now that we're older, why don't we mention it at all? I should have done what Xiao Mao did back then..."
Qi Xi picked up the conversation and tentatively asked, "What's the situation with your kitten now? Is there a definite answer yet?"
As Tan Yi's elder, Wen Xi was a little suspicious when she asked this question, and said awkwardly, "Xiao Mao'er is young and just plays around on her own. Her family doesn't really supervise her much."
Qi Xi: "So you don't have any requirements for the man?"
Li Zhoudu then interjected, leaning back in his chair with a casual air, "Fortunately, my family isn't short of money. I just want to find someone simple and easy to care for, someone who can treat her well. Even if I were to find a son-in-law to live with her, my little kitten wouldn't be able to endure hardship."
Qi Xi was speechless.
Tan Su chuckled beside him: "When Li Li was still Yan Qi, we seemed to have discussed this issue a few times. She's independent, has a strong personality, and is quick-witted. Zhou Du, aren't you being a bit too protective?"
Li Zhoudu was dissatisfied with his assessment, saying, "Even if you protect someone, you still get tricked into doing hard labor and end up doing favors for nothing?"
He was referring to the time when Li Li was sold onto television by Tan Su, a time he hadn't yet held a grudge against.
He forced a laugh again: "Besides, why should my sister have to suffer outside? Let others experience hardship; as long as my little kitten is happy, that's all that matters."
——
Tan Yi spent two months traveling around China, revisiting places he had visited in his youth.
He felt that his mood gradually eased from the gloom and depression as he traveled through the journey, but inevitably, at certain moments, he was choked by the loneliness that crept in.
The pain of losing his kitten did not lessen over time; he felt as if half of his soul had been torn away, the remaining part swaying and drifting in the wind and dust.
During this time, he received news from his mother.
When Tan Yi dialed Li Li's number, it was noon. He was sitting at a roadside stall by the teahouse, sipping a pot of Mao Feng tea for fifty-one yuan. He listened to the long tone on the phone and slowly counted the number in his mind.
one,
two,
three.
The phone rang for the third time before someone answered. No one spoke, but Tan Yi knew she was listening.
It must have been late at night on her end.
Tan Yi said into the microphone, "I have news about my mother."
After a few seconds of silence, Li Li finally spoke, saying, "Really?"
Tan Yi's voice was calm as he said, "I'm planning to go see her. Would you like to come with me, Cat?"
In her spare time, Li Zhizi started taking on some private English tutoring classes.
Earning money is secondary; Li Li is busy with her studies and doesn't want to waste time in this house. She takes one to two hours of one-on-one tutoring every day.
She was wearing glasses and preparing lessons on her computer when there was a knock on the door behind her.
Li Li stood at her door, clutching a pillow, and said expectantly, "Can I sleep with you tonight?"
She was unusually sleepless at a time when she should have been asleep.
Her round, plump pillow squeezed Li Zhizi's original space, and the two girls' hair overlapped, some long and some short.
Li Li couldn't sleep, so she chatted with her, saying that besides Ling Wei and her grandmother, she had only slept with Fang Xuan when she stayed at Fang Xuan's place.
Li Zhizi was the second girl of her age to sleep with her.
"Is something on your mind?" Li Zhizi's question interrupted the lead-in that Li Li had prepared.
Li Li turned her head, and in the darkness, the moist glint in her eyes was faintly visible. She carefully said to Li Zhizi, "If I go back, can you help me keep it a secret from my family?"
Li Zhizi turned her head and asked, "What are you going back for?"
Li Li paused for several seconds before telling her story with Tan Yi.
It started with the beautiful bond of childhood sweethearts and ended with the anger and pain of betrayal.
Over the past year, she has uncontrollably traced the origins of Tan Yi's behavior countless times.
If Fang Xuan's dissatisfaction can be attributed to her unconscious sense of superiority.
What about Tan Yi? What was his crime?
She kept thinking, if she hadn't chosen him in the first place...
If back then, it was Li Zhizi, who was brought from Jixi, who came to S City to accompany her as she grew up, instead of Tan Yi, would his life have been much happier?
At least he could grow up peacefully with his mother by his side, and on the day his carefree childhood suddenly came to an end, he would have an elder of close blood to support him in his helplessness and confusion.
Instead of acting rashly and recklessly, he came up with a bad idea to find fault with Tan Su, which backfired and cost him Tan Huiming's protection.
It seems that all the misfortunes he later encountered were inextricably linked to himself.
She told Li Zhizi everything, her voice hoarse and flat as she finished, "Look how well things are going now that he's left me."
Li Zhizi asked, "Why are you blaming yourself?"
"Not everyone deserves your reflection. Fang Xuan's words, for example, are full of flaws."
Li Li murmured, "But ever since that incident, I've felt like a complete failure. But no one has ever told me why."
Tan Yi's mother is a shared source of anxiety for them. She also wants to know if being forced to this point was because the initial choice was wrong.
Li Zhizi insisted, "He's not the same boy he used to be, and this isn't something you need to do. He's capable of taking responsibility for his own life, so why should he be at your beck and call?"
Li Li was silent for a few seconds, looked at the ceiling, and still said firmly, "But I want to go and see."
"It's not about getting back together with him, nor is it about continuing to compromise out of love or anything like that. It's just that I personally want to go and see for myself."
Li Zhizi hardened her heart: "I have to be responsible for your safety, I can't let you go."
Indulging Li Li is itself a great risk for her.
The previous one who let her escape, Wang Zhuokang, although Li Junchuan later apologized and transferred him from an ordinary crew member to a company manager, it was because it was an unintentional mistake.
If Li Zhoudu knew that she had knowingly and deliberately indulged Li Li, not only Li Zhizi would be affected, but also her parents in Jixi.
Li Zhizi made her stance clear, emphasizing again, "Even if you sneak back, I will tell Li Zhoudu to wait at the airport beforehand. So I will not agree."
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Author's Note: [Laughing and crying emoji] I'll need to adjust my biological clock later.
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