Chapter 21 That day, I booked a room with Xiaoxue! ...
Xi Bojian seemed oblivious to his thoughts at that moment, and said with a hint of self-deprecation, "Sorry, I shouldn't have said these things in front of you."
He smiled again, his handsome face beaming. "We're alumni, don't you remember? Back in St. Francis, we climbed the snow-capped mountains together."
He seemed to recall for a moment, then gestured with his hand to indicate height on the ground: "You were only this tall back then, and you've grown so much in the blink of an eye."
"I've rarely returned to Fancheng since graduation, so it's truly a rare coincidence to meet you like this... Shall we exchange contact information?"
As he spoke, he tucked his slightly long bangs behind his ear and turned his head to reach for his phone.
—In that instant, Ying Shixue caught a glimpse of a light, flesh-colored scar between his temples.
The words of refusal stuck in her throat. Ying Shixue stared at him intently for two seconds, then suddenly spoke with ease:
"OK."
-
After exchanging numbers with Xi Bojian, Cai Hu hurriedly found him and said that Song Qi wanted to see him.
Cai Hu is Song Qi's assistant, very young but very tight-lipped.
Ying Shixue followed him with some doubt, finally stopping at the entrance of the inner villa's stairs.
Cai Hu stood respectfully to the side: "President Song, please go up alone."
What did Song Qi want with him?
Although they were nominally father and son, they actually met very few times. Apart from the annual year-end celebration, they almost never showed any fatherly affection in private.
Song Qi stood tall and straight on the balcony, which was the tallest building in the manor, offering a panoramic view of the entire manor.
Ying wiped the snow as she climbed the last few steps of the stairs, finally stopping five meters away from him.
"......Father."
Song Qi didn't turn around, or rather, he was squinting at something in the garden downstairs. Ying Shixue followed his gaze and her heart sank. The direction he was pointing was clearly the western swimming pool where the argument had just taken place.
But Song Qi didn't summon him as if to interrogate him. He still leaned on the railing with one hand, without even changing his posture, the cigarette between his fingers flickering.
Ying Shixue lowered his gaze slightly, and it was then that he noticed that in the lush garden by the pool, several moths were fluttering against the bright yellow wick inside the lampshade of the black bronze carved street lamp.
“Every year when the gardeners clean up, they find a lot of dead moths in the lampshades. They know that the light and heat will kill them, but they are too persistent.”
Ying Shixue let out a soft "Ah," then fell silent: "Like a moth drawn to a flame, it's instinct."
“But instinct will kill him.” Song Qi shifted his body and turned around.
His face was exactly like Song Mingli twenty years later, with a high and sharp profile and deep-set eyes. Although he had been planning to retire in recent years, he was actually very young among those who had taken his place. Moreover, his physique showed no signs of muscle weakness or laxity due to the passage of time. In fact, time seemed to have only sculpted him into a more mature person. This had combined with his unique aura and charm, giving him a breathtaking presence when he looked at someone.
Being looked at like that by someone in a superior position is obviously uncomfortable. Ying Shixue subtly and instinctively shifted her gaze to the side. By the garden streetlight, the edges of the moth's wings were already showing signs of yellowing and curling up, but it seemed completely oblivious to this, thumping and thumping as it crashed into the light.
The unspeakable silence made him somewhat anxious. No matter how intelligent and calm he was, there was ultimately a nearly thirty-year gap in their life experiences. Ying Shixue frowned almost imperceptibly, but Song Qi suddenly sighed softly:
"It's alright, you can go back now."
Before finally stepping down the stairs to leave, Ying Shixue couldn't help but turn back one last time.
In the darkness of the night, Song Qi's expression was indistinct, but the emotion revealed in his gaze sent a shiver down Ying Shixue's spine. Even as she walked out of the villa, she was still pondering the meaning of his look.
Why that look in his eyes? Why did Song Qi show him that expression?
A person who needs to make an appointment and go through layers of notification before his own child can visit him, a person with whom he only has a superficial nominal adoptive father-son relationship, a person who, at the age of twenty, fought his way out from countless brothers and uncles of the previous generation of the Song family and swiftly gathered the entire Song family together, a person whose emotions are never revealed and are extremely profound.
He hadn't even shown much emotion when facing Song Mingli, but the emotion he just felt wasn't disgust or indifference, but rather—
mercy.
What was he pitying, or what did he know? Ying Shixue recalled his actions over the past month or even half a year and replayed them in his mind to deduce the truth. Suddenly, someone rushed up in front of him and grabbed his wrist.
—Single Oddity?
Ying Shixue stared at him in astonishment, but before she could even ask, "Why are you here?", five or six more people surged out from the roadside. Qian Yanlan, who was in such a huff that her carefully applied makeup was about to be ruined, was followed by Si Chengjun, Yu Dannan, and two flustered waiters. Even Song Mingli had come.
Qian Yanlan was so angry her hair almost stood on end: "Tell me! Who was that bastard ex-boyfriend you went to the hotel with that day?!"
Book a room? What kind of room?
Before Ying Shixue could even process what was happening in front of her, Shan Qi suddenly turned around and grabbed her arm tightly as if it were his last lifeline: "Xiaoxue! It was Xiaoxue and I who booked the room that day!"
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