She twisted the flower bud between her fingers, then placed the flower in front of Lei Qingyi.
“Say, isn’t she being too unreasonable?”
Lei Qingyi was furious. How can there be such an unreasonable lady? He came over to apologise, not to argue. There was no need for such a reaction. Furthermore, this had nothing to do with him. Why was he to be blamed for everything? This wasn’t fair. He felt wronged; he refused to accept it; he was furious.
Yan Huan placed the flower in front of Lei Qingyi, then released her grasp. The flower fell from her hands, carrying with it a faint fragrance which brought to mind the scent and colour of paleness.
“Has anybody ever told you what giving chrysanthemums meant?”
She asked Lei Qingyi.
Lei Qingyi shook his head. How would he know all this? He was just a coarse man.
Yan Huan picked up the flowers again. One white, one yellow. They looked pretty, but also cold.
“Yellow and white chrysanthemums tied together means sorrowful grieving.”
Lei Qingyi’s eyes twitched.
“This flower is given to the dead.” Yan Huan released the flowers, which fell to the floor. Their pure fragrance which lingered on her fingers faded with the wind.
“That…”
Lei Qingyi coughed, “Are you okay?”
“Do I look like I’m not okay?” Yan Huan hugged her elbows. She just had some blood taken. It wasn’t as if she was going to die.
Yeah, it wasn’t as if she was going to die, so who would care about her?
Lei Qingyi was speechless. Yan Huan turned around, and like Yi Ling, locked herself in her room and refused to come out. Thinking about it, she was a nobody. After all, in both lifetimes, she was like this. She had no relatives, so it was natural that nobody would care for her.
She just couldn’t get over her own thoughts. She still felt like she was abandoned, abandoned by everyone.
Especially the moment everybody left, she was really abandoned. She was even abandoned by Lu Yi.
Yi Ling said that Lu Yi got into an accident while fetching a woman. She did not ask the reason, nor did she want to know. It didn’t matter what relationship he had with that woman. The important point was that it was a woman, the wound was caused by a woman.
So she could not forgive.
Outside, the nanny, who had just come in, was shocked.
She looked at the floor full of chrysanthemums, speechless.
“Master Lei, who did you buy the flowers to mourn?”
Nanny’s words were like a slap in Lei Qingyi’s face. He was about to break down.
“Auntie, you, too, know that this flower is for the dead?”
“Everybody knows,” Nanny brought a broom and started sweeping the floor. She suddenly raised her head, “Have you never swept a tomb before?”
“I have,” Lei Qingyi was nearly in tears. “But we only burnt paper money, never flowers.”
His family maintained their traditional practices. The Lei family came from the ancient Wu line, and have always maintained hundreds of years of culture. Lei Qingyi didn’t know when it started, whether from his grandfather or great-grandfather or even before them, but the Lei family had always buried their dead instead of cremating them. Every Qingming day, during the Ghost Festival sweeping of tombs, they always used real paper money, not chrysanthemums or anything else.
He didn’t know whether he wanted to punch himself, or the florist. Couldn’t they have said something to remind him? Knowing Yi Ling’s personality, she would definitely hate him.
That day, Yi Ling didn’t come out. She took her food to Yan Huan’s house to eat. Yan Huan wanted to drink a lot of soup to build up her health. She wanted to quickly return to her team. She had two more months to go before going home. After lasting for almost a year, she didn’t want herself to collapse at the door.
As for Lei Qingyi, he had to stand outside and go hungry. Nobody called for him to eat.
The nanny employed by Yan Huan was very responsible. She followed everything her master said. If the master wanted to leave Lei Qingyi out in the cold, then that was what she did.
Lei Qingyi was starving, but he still didn’t leave. He just sat on their front door, and called his secretary to berate him.
His secretary said innocently, “Our leader, don’t you have some common sense? You could have given any flower, but you chose chrysanthemums. How could you blame me for giving the wrong flower? You didn’t ask me.”
Lei Qingyi gritted his teeth, “Then why didn’t you tell me?”
The secretary snivelled, “You didn’t ask, right?”
Yan Huan gulped down the soup the nanny boiled. The soup smelled of Chinese herbs, and was pretty good, but tasted unspeakably bitter to Yan Huan.
She wasn’t sure if it was her mouth that was bitter, or her heart.
She put her bowl down, feeling dizzy and nauseous. Feeling uncomfortable, she laid down. When Yi Ling entered, she found her in that state.
“What’s wrong?” Yi Ling was shocked. She frantically put her hand on her forehead, and felt the cold sweat on her forehead, though her skin was ice cold.
Yan Huan opened her eyes but felt like crying. She missed Lu Yi. She missed him…
She shut her eyes, but the tears kept flowing from the corners of her eyes.
“Cry. You dare cry? You’re just a bitch, the whole world just can’t see it yet. Your blood is dirty, your body is also dirty.” A palm landed on her face. She turned her face, and saw the man’s cold expression. He looked at her with disdain, annoyance, resentment, and hatred, because she had blocked his path.
A young lady wearing high heels stood in front of her, “Oh, isn’t this Yan Huan? Wasn’t she quite well-off? How did she become a foul dog?”
“She was originally a dog. Let’s go. Don’t let a dog contaminate your eyes. Didn’t you say you wanted to see her in a sorry state? Look, now that you’ve seen it, are you happy?”
The lady gave a lovely smile, “You’re so good to me.”
“Of course,” The man wore an indulgent smile directed at the lady. “Who else would I be good to?”
The person on the floor curled up, her hands scratching the floorboards. Suddenly a large foot stepped on her, crushing the bones of her hand with a loud crack.
“Lu Qin, I hate you, I hate you…”
Su Muran, I want to kill you…
“Huanhuan, Huanhuan…”
Yi Ling was on the brink of tears. “Dr. He, what’s wrong with her? Why is she crying? Why can’t I wake her up? Is something wrong with her? Will she die? Dr. He, you must save her.”
“Don’t be anxious. Don’t disturb Yibin.” Lei Qingyi quickly held back Yi Ling who had taken a step forward.
“Shut up!” Yi Ling shouted at Lei Qingyi. “If not for the chrysanthemums you sent us, Huanhuan would not be like this!”
