14. Snow in a silver bowl
Our relationship will never end there.
Shang Xinuan was held tightly in Li Xiran's arms. Exhausted from days of waiting for flights and rushing to catch up on her schedule, she could only glare at him with her crystal-clear eyes.
Although it was a silent resistance, Shang Xi's warm eyes, like those filled with a clear, cold spring, could still easily chill Li Xiran to the bone.
Upon seeing this, Yu Jiayue, who had been silently watching over her, immediately stood up and rushed in front of the two of them, blocking Li Xiran's path.
"Let her go." Yu Jiayue's voice was extremely low, completely different from his usual demeanor.
"You have no right to make demands of me." Li Xiran, standing tall, took a step back, protecting Shang Xinuan in his arms.
Although the two men were on the verge of conflict, they were mindful of Shang Xin's well-being and simply stood their ground, neither of them arguing or trying to take her away.
But when their eyes met, the desert seemed to become a battlefield without gunpowder, filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder.
Seeing that things were not going well, the other three also followed.
The stalemate was finally broken by Shang Xinuan's incessant coughing. Already weak, she appeared even more pale and fragile in the night.
Qiao Xi pulled Yu Jiayue aside and mediated, "Let's give them a chance to have a proper talk, and also give Nuannuan a choice."
This time, Li Xiran didn't stop. He carried her through the crowd and headed towards his tent.
In the enclosed space where only the two of them were, Li Xiran gently placed her on the air mattress.
His eyes, which had just been filled with oppression and anger, were now overflowing with tenderness.
The young lady was seething with anger. The moment she sat down and looked at him, she raised her hand and delivered a resounding slap.
"Li Xiran, you bastard!"
She was almost furious, and that slap was delivered with all her might.
The manicured nails, adorned with pearls and diamonds, mercilessly left a bloody welt on his cheek, glistening with tiny beads of blood.
Li Xiran winced in pain, but the gentleness in his eyes remained unchanged.
He took her blood-stained hand, lifted one side of his shirt, and carefully wiped it clean for her.
"Does your hand hurt?" Li Xiran knelt on one knee on the ground, looking up at her with bloodshot eyes.
A gentle touch within reach, yet his eyes are filled with a yandere-like obsession.
"Li Xiran, with your intelligence, you shouldn't be unable to understand what I just said, right?" The heartbroken young lady's words were full of ruthlessness. "Then I'll say it to you again in plain language."
"There will be no more connection between us from now on. Not family, not friendship, not love. We will only be strangers."
"Nuan Nuan." Li Xiran shook his head, his voice choked with sobs, "Please, please listen to me calmly just once, okay?"
Shang Xinuan rarely looked down on him with the air of someone in a superior position in their relationship.
For her, Li Xiran was like a grand and beautiful dream. He stood at the peak of her youth, full of vigor and fearlessness, becoming the most vibrant figure of her girlhood.
Even the most dazzling neon lights and surging crowds couldn't compare to him gently calling her name. Simply standing in front of her was enough to dispel all her anger.
"It's too late." She uttered two words calmly, but they were enough to kill.
She waited for Li Xiran for half a month, hoping to get an answer.
In the end, however, others critically deny him.
A spoiled young lady should not choose a mature, reserved, and shrewd businessman as her partner.
She should favor someone without considering the consequences, rather than hesitate and waver at every step.
Li Xiran held her hand, wanting to pull her into his body, yet afraid of hurting her if he used too much force.
“Nuan Nuan, sometimes I envy you because you can express your love openly. But in this world, there are always people who have to restrain and suppress their feelings.”
"Li Xiran, was there some kind of forbidden relationship between us that required you to be so repressed and restrained?" Shang Xinuan's eyes were now devoid of even sadness. The lingering sorrow had turned into a deathly stillness. "Then from now on, I beg you, with your reason and your helplessness, please don't disturb my life anymore."
"I'm used to being upright and honest, and what I want is an equal response."
Li Xiran pleaded almost humbly, his usual aloof and elite demeanor completely gone, "Nuan Nuan, I lost my parents because of my impulsiveness. So for you, I have a million hopes that I dare not even try."
Before he was ten years old, Li Xiran lived with his mother, Andrea, in London, England.
Anya is a cheerful and bright woman. She didn't feel any resentment at only finding out about his arrival after the breakup. In fact, she was grateful that he chose her, an orphan, as his mother.
He saw Li Qianyun again when he was three years old, perhaps due to the natural attraction of their father-son bloodline.
The two met in Trafalgar Square, where he was separated from his mother in the crowd, crying sadly and helplessly.
The gentlemanly Chinese man spent over an hour feeding the pigeons with him, learning that he was just over three years old and that his mother had raised him alone. The man also told him that he had a gentle and considerate wife and hoped that they could have a beautiful and intelligent child like him.
Anya's arrival disrupted the previously warm and cozy atmosphere.
Her nervousness and eagerness to escape seemed to say something.
That afternoon, Li Xiran learned about his origins, and Li Qianyun also learned that he had a child.
But children and adults have different perspectives. Li Xiran watched the man and woman chatting together and excitedly thought that he was finally going to have a complete family.
However, Li Qianyun frankly told everyone that he already had a wife and cherished their relationship very much.
Anya seemed relieved and promised that as long as he didn't try to take their son away, she wouldn't let his wife know about their youthful romance.
The two hit it off immediately. Anya would continue to raise her son, while Li Qianyun would give the mother and son a generous monthly allowance and promised to celebrate Li Xiran's birthday every year.
Everything calmed down until Li Xiran's tenth birthday.
“Nuan Nuan,” Li Xiran said, “That year, my birthday wish was for my father to leave his wife and get back together with my mother. I wanted a family where both parents were present. But he rejected me.”
Then, in a fit of rage, he shook off his parents' hands and stormed onto the road.
He thought it was just a reckless impulse, but unexpectedly, a car rushed straight towards him.
To protect him, his parents chose to use their bodies as a shield.
Li Qianyun died on the spot, Anya was in a vegetative state for many years, and later disappeared in Chen Shaoyi's care.
"Nuan Nuan, this is why I've always been restrained and patient in everything I do." His life is like a game of chess; every move he makes requires careful consideration and a focus on the bigger picture. He must maximize his own interests within the limited number of moves he can make.
Therefore, the gentleness and soothing warmth he presents to the world is more of a protective shield.
He attempted to use these established terms to smooth out his own sharpness and control his survival with a sense of insensitivity.
"You are like the bright moon, and I, who have nothing, dare not easily touch you."
"Then why now?"
"Warmth, later I thought. Perhaps you were God's way of compensating me with a bright moon."
“I regret what happened to Chairman Li. But I cannot agree with your confidence.” She was completely enraged by Li Xiran. “My existence as Shang Xinuan is not to compensate anyone. Your excuse is far-fetched and belittles me.”
"Warm!" Li Xiran thought that by revealing his past, he could gain some understanding, but he didn't expect that it would add fuel to the fire in the already tense situation.
"Please take me back right now, and please leave this place. Don't disturb our journey anymore." In the end, she wouldn't even give him a second glance. She only hoped to forget him from this world as quickly as possible.
Upon hearing this...
The only light in Li Xiran's eyes completely dimmed.
He was once so noble and powerful, but now he is just as helpless and lost.
He could only try to stop her choice with an almost frantic embrace, a suffocating feeling of being crushed, wishing he could melt her entire being into his body.
"Let me go!" Humiliation and grievance caused Shang Xinuan's tears to flow again.
She was trapped in the embrace she once cherished most, but now it felt like a field of thorns, piercing her body and leaving her covered in scabs.
"If letting you go means we'll never meet again, then I'll never let go." He held her tightly, protecting her neck, his voice filled with desire and a sense of possessiveness. "I've already lost too much. I won't, and I won't allow myself to lose you too."
"Li Xiran, I am a person, not someone's possession!" she struggled desperately, and the embrace began to feel increasingly unfamiliar.
With her hands pinned under Li Xiran's arm, and no longer able to struggle, she bit directly on his neck and shoulder, the taste of blood instantly filling her mouth.
Li Xiran only let out a muffled groan of pain, then hugged her even tighter, "You don't belong to anyone. I'm yours, Nuannuan, I'm yours."
At that moment, the two seemed to have gone mad, completely losing their reason, and only wanted to release their emotions to the fullest.
In the very end, Shang Xinuan was completely exhausted, her lips stained with his blood, and she weakly rested her head on his shoulder.
He showed neither sorrow nor joy, his eyes staring blankly ahead without blinking.
"Then I only ask for a distance that's neither too close nor too far from you, okay?" he whispered.
Shang Xin's lips trembled, and tears streamed down her face. "Li Xiran, I've really made up my mind. I don't want you anymore."
Li Xiran looked at her, and after a long while, he let out a barely audible sigh. He wiped away her tears and said, "I'm sorry for tonight. I'll take you home to rest first. But our relationship will never end there."
Looking back, he himself felt that his behavior just now was crazy and out of control.
But it seems destined that Shang Xinuan is the only piece in his life's game that prevents him from thinking calmly and will still cause him to collapse after considering the overall situation.
A note from the author:
Chairman Li has secured a contract worth hundreds of millions, but he doesn't know how to date a young girl.
In conclusion, the real "wife-chasing-after-the-cremation" is yet to come.
Also, students have been quite busy with classes lately, so I can only update daily without interruption. I will increase the update frequency once things are settled. Please forgive me, everyone!
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