Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“They are living a stress-free, leisure retirement. They buy groceries and cook daily, chit chat and play chess when there’s time, and travel overseas once or twice a year for holidays. Other than waiting for a grandchild, they have nothing else to worry about. Isn’t that a good life?
“Even if there’s a chance to rebuild our company in the future, I would not agree to it. My parents are getting old, why would they want to burden themselves with it? Also, I could see that my dad has gotten comfortable with a leisure lifestyle in these past few years. He may not be able to adapt to corporate life anymore. I don’t want to complicate the simple life that they currently have.”
Xia Wenna’s face dropped. She could not vent her anger on Song Yu since she was the daughter of her good friend.
However, Song Yu would not budge and this was making Xia Wenna boil.
“Can’t you be considerate for Chengzhi? How would he be labeled if you’re with him? If you like him that much, how can you endure the criticisms that he’ll receive from others? He’s such a proud man, but he’ll be the laughingstock of others in the future all because of you.” Xia Wenna took a deep breath to hold her anger in. “You like him that much, huh?”
“I think that…” Song Yu said as she raised her eyelids and stared at Xia Wenna with a determined gaze, “he wouldn’t care about them. He would not bother about what others think of him. How is it possible for someone as smart as him to be oblivious to the issues we’ll have to face together when he chose to be with me? Maybe he’s the one who has thought about this more comprehensively than the both of us. He wouldn’t choose to be with me if he cares.
“I’ve always remembered the words that he had said to me. He said, ‘Not to mention you’re only his ex-fiancee, even if you had gotten married to him and then divorced, don’t you think that I’ll still be able to pursue you if I wanted to?’ So, even if I had gotten married, and he can still be unfazed by that, do you think that he’ll be affected by what others say about him?
“If he’s so easily affected by what others think and can be kept in check by them, then he’s not Qi Chengzhi.” Song Yu then added calmly, “Why would I back out if he’s so determined?”
“You- ” Xia Wenna had just started to speak when she heard Aunt Yang’s voice. “Sir, you’re back!”
Xia Wenna turned around and saw Qi Chengzhi walk into the living room without changing into his slippers. He must have been really anxious as he walked in with leather shoes on.
“Weren’t you out entertaining clients? What time is it now? Why are you back so early?” Xia Wenna looked at Qi Chengzhi and turned to look at Aunt Yang. The latter lowered her head and retreated to the kitchen.
“I promised Song Yu that I’ll be back early,” he said indifferently.
Xia Wenna looked at her watch. ‘Early? It’s still too early at this hour. The dishes would not be fully served for a normal meal. It was obvious that he rushed back to protect Song Yu,’ she thought.
She had never seen him being so protective over someone. When Qi Chengji got bullied by Wei Ziqi to the extent that he had almost died in the United States, Qi Chengzhi did not even offer to help much.
As for today, it was just a coincidence that he was not around when she paid him a visit, but he came rushing home and entered the house without changing into his slippers.
Song Yu walked to his side and received his coat that he had taken off. Then, she proceeded to the entrance to bring Qi Chengzhi his slippers and placed them beside his feet. Qi Chengzhi took off those leather shoes and slipped into them, where Song Yu went to put his shoes back after that.
They seemed to be familiar with this routine and performed seamlessly. It was evident that Song Yu had moved in for quite a while.
Xie Wenna snickered and said, “You weren’t speeding on the way back right? You came home moments after I arrived. How did you manage to travel at such a speed?”
Qi Chengzhi remained expressionless. He looked down and saw Song Yu gripping his arm gently. He then held her hand and squeezed it softly to comfort her.
“Mum, let’s talk in my study,” he said with a deep voice.
“Why is there a need to talk in your study?” Xia Wenna remain seated and glanced at Song Yu. “What’s wrong with us talking here?”
“In the future, if you have anything to discuss, come directly to me. You don’t have to ask her to break up with me. She’s not the person who decides whether we’ll break up or not. If she had had a choice, she wouldn’t be staying with me in this house. It was all my idea from the very beginning and she had no say at all,” he said impassively without giving others a chance to refute him as he stood in the living room.
Xia Wenna was still in shock at Qi Chengzhi’s words. Without waiting for her response, he turned around and said to Song Yu, “Go to the bedroom first.”
Song Yu looked at Xia Wenna, uncertain. She felt that it was not very nice to do that.
“Go,” he urged again and gave a gentle squeeze on her delicate hand.
Song Yu gave him a worried glance but still nodded obediently. Then, she walked up the stairs while looking back repeatedly.
…
…
Eventually, Xia Wenna followed Qi Chengzhi to his study. While admiring her son’s elegance, she had never imagined that there would be a day where her son would be so protective over a woman and would not let her suffer one bit.
However, when facing her, Qi Chengzhi displayed a face of nonchalance, the tenderness he had when he defended Song Yu was gone, and Xia Wenna could not help but feel angered by him. No matter what, she was pregnant with him for ten long months and suffered through labor to give birth to him. How could her son treat his own mother so cold-heartedly?
“What exactly are we talking about that we have to avoid Song Yu?” Xia Wenna stood there and glared at Qi Chengzhi exasperatedly.
“I think it’s best for you to take a seat,” he said as he pointed towards the sofa near the wall, “or you can lean against something. I’m worried that you’re gonna fall standing in the middle of the room without anything to hold on to.”
Xia Wenna sneered, “Are you going to tell me that Song Yu’s pregnant?”
“That’s not it,” Qi Chengzhi denied. “It’s all right to stand here if you think you can bear with what I’m about to tell you.”
He gave up and turned around to walk to his desk. He opened the cabinet below and revealed a safe.
Xia Wenna did not know what to expect after looking at his serious behavior. He definitely did not look like he was joking around. While Qi Chengzhi was opening the safe, she moved to the sofa and sat down.
Shortly after, Qi Chengzhi walked over with a folder in his hand and passed it to Xia Wenna. “Take a look at this.”
Xia Wenna’s gaze fell on Qi Chengzhi’s hand and moved along his slender fingers to the folder. She was quite confused and blinked doubtfully before taking the folder from him. What could be so important that he had to keep it in the safe?
She opened the folder and took out the documents inside. After reading the bolded letters on top, her hands shook violently all of a sudden, almost dropping the documents onto the floor.
She removed all of the documents from the folder in a haste. As she read through the fine print, her expression gradually became pale and ghastly. Her hand that was holding onto the side of the paper trembled uncontrollably. She gripped it so tightly that her fingertips turned white.
“Song family’s bankruptcy…” Xia Wenna’s entire body shuddered before she lifted her head slowly with an ashen face, “that was your doing?”
With his slender fingers, Qi Chengzhi ignited the lighter and lit a cigarette. He took a drag and exhaled clouds of smoke from his stern, thin lips and said, “I caused the Song family to go bankrupt. Since you and Song Yu’s mother are as close as sisters, shouldn’t you compensate her after knowing that your son was the one who led them to bankruptcy?
“I am the one who caused the downfall of the Song family, where Song Yu has to struggle for survival, endure the dirty looks given by others and attend to all sorts of entertainment. Even so, you still forbid her to be with me and criticize her actions? In fact, she’s the real victim.” Qi Chengzhi took another drag impassively without showing any emotion. “Our family is indebted to the Song family since the eldest son destroyed their family while the youngest son broke off the engagement with her. Think about it, don’t you think we owe her too much?”
“You…” Xia Wenna threw the document onto the desk. She felt as if it was burning in her hands and could not bear the weight of it any longer. “Why did you do that?”
Qi Chengzhi did not answer and squinted his eyes before taking another drag.
“Our family doesn’t need to depend on the Song family’s company. There’s no reason to bankrupt them.” Xia Wenna took in a deep breath. She could only feel pain and dryness in her throat, and the suffocating feeling in her chest was agonizing.
She rubbed her chest and slowly exhaled before saying, “We all thought that Chengji was dead in the United States after that incident years ago. That’s why the engagement between Song Yu and him was automatically called off. It was precisely because of this that the Song family’s company could no longer hide the fact that they don’t have an heir to inherit the company. Even though I am not familiar with business tactics, but I know that it takes more than a day to bring a whole company down.
“It means that you had started targeting the Song family long before Chengji was involved in that incident. Why did you do it?” Xia Wenna lowered her gaze and looked at the documents again, but she shied away instantly as if she was scarred by them.
She placed her left hand on the sofa and gripped it so tightly that her fingers were buried into the sofa. She wanted to stand up but found that she had no strength to do so.
Qi Chengzhi squinted his eyes and puffed out a stream of smoke before he mockingly said, “What do you think?”
Xia Wenna’s expression changed when she thought of a possible reason, but she dared not say it aloud. Her face grew paler over time.
“Even if nothing had happened to Chengji back then in the United States, you knew that even if he liked Wei Ran, he would not be allowed to be with her because of our family and Wei Ziqi. He would have ended up marrying Song Yu anyway. Unless, the Song family went bankrupt, and Song Yu loses her status and family background to match with ours, or else…
“That’s why you single-handedly destroyed the Song family with the intention of breaking off Song Yu and Qi Chengji’s engagement,” Xia Wenna finished. She stared at Qi Chengzhi while her whole body trembled violently.
She did not have to wait for his answer to ascertain her speculations.
There was no bad blood between Qi Chengzhi and the Song family. Xia Wenna had to imagine the unimaginable as he had gotten together with Song Yu now.
Qi Chengzhi scoffed when he heard Xia Wenna continue asking, “When were you interested in her?”
When Song Yu got engaged to Qi Chengji, she was still a high school student and not of age yet. However, he was already a grown man at that time.
This sounded extremely ridiculous. She looked at her introverted eldest son and could not fathom how a mature man like him could have taken a liking towards Song Yu when she was still a young girl. This was not something a normal man would do!
“…” Qi Chengzhi removed the cigarette between his lips and put it out in the ashtray. Then, he walked out of the study with both hands in his pocket.
Xia Wenna took a final look of the documents before taking her cell phone out to snap photos of the first and last page. She then put the documents back into the folder and sealed it before walking out of the study.
When she went to the living room, Song Yu was not there anymore. She did not return after Qi Chengzhi told her to go back to the bedroom just now.
Xia Wenna could not help but peek at the second floor. She felt pain in her chest and sighed heavily. She had no idea what to say after she recalled what she saw from the documents just now.
Qi Chengzhi was right. No matter what, the Qi family was indebted to the Song family.
Nevertheless…
What kind of absurd excuse was this for her to agree to them being together!
Song Yu was being very restless in the bedroom. She secretly left a small gap at the door to listen to what was going on outside. After hearing Xia Wenna had left, she tiptoed downstairs and saw Qi Chengzhi smoking on the sofa.
Since she moved in, she had never seen him smoke once. Although she could still smell the cigarette smoke on him, but she has never seen him smoke with her own eyes. She knew that he avoided smoking in front of her.
At this moment, he was sitting with a dark expression. His face looked rather stern normally when he was not smiling, but he seemed even more unapproachable now.
The white-colored smoke gradually dissipated upwards, guided by his pale, slender fingers, blurring the features of his face.
Qi Chengzhi moved his eyelids slightly when he sensed her approaching him. He put out the cigarette and sipped on the tea that Song Yu had drank earlier to mask the scent of cigarette smoke.
“What did you say to aunty?” She sat beside him obediently and placed her bare feet on the sofa. She wrapped his strong arm with both her hands and sniffed the lingering cigarette smoke on him.
Qi Chengzhi’s deep-set gaze fell onto her bare feet. He checked the floor for slippers but there were nowhere to be seen. He then frowned and said, “Why did you come downstairs without wearing slippers?”
The house was air-conditioned instead of using the heater. Nonetheless, the living room floor was still very cold as it was made of marble.
Song Yu tucked in her toes. She felt a little awkward with him staring at her feet.
“The bedroom was carpeted and warm, so I bared my feet. I guess I’ve forgotten to put the slippers on when I came out,” Song Yu said. While she was trying to retract her feet, he covered them with his big, warm hands.
The complexion of his palm was similar to her feet. When he placed his hands on her feet, they were very cold, so he proceeded to wrap them up with his hands.
Song Yu shuddered, her face was flushed red. She tried to retract her legs further but Qi Chengzhi tightened his grip. He used his rough-skinned thumb to caress her delicate sole, sending jolts of electricity to it.
Song Yu felt warmth starting to spread from her sole, moving up to her calf, her abdomen and continued to her chest and arms.
His strong palm pressed her feet so that her sole was pinned onto his solid abdomen. Even though there was a thin layer of fabric in between, she could still feel the outline of his firm muscles through her sole.
“Don’t cover them like that, it’s dirty!” Song Yu was flushing badly. She felt uncomfortable with him holding her leg this way. Especially when his hands were clean and slender, she felt like they would be dirtied by her feet.
She tried to shake him off her feet but failed to do so. Instead, Qi Chengzhi raised her legs to his mouth and planted a kiss on her big toe.
Song Yu felt her face burning up as if it was going to explode. Her lips were moving slightly but she could not utter a single word. She also dared not look at his handsome face. The only sensation she felt was the softness of his lips on her flaming toe.
She had totally forgotten what she had intended to ask him. Her brain was in such a mess that it became dysfunctional.
A few moments later, her feet were all warmed up by his hand. He then carried her into the bedroom and placed her on the bed, his scorching palm moving up inch by inch from her sole to her ankle.
Song Yu’s breathing hastened and started taking deeper breaths when he did that. She was oddly mesmerized by his charming features.
At this moment, she was all he had in his eyes. She was so enthralled by her own reflection in his jet-black eyes.
She thought of his expression when he covered her legs. There was not even a hint of disgust. She used her soft palm to caress his angular cheeks. Stubble had started to grow around his chin and lips area as it was already night time, and he had not shaved yet. Although it was barely visible to the naked eye, it felt a bit scruffy when she touched them.
Her delicate thumb pads caressed his burning lips gently before she raised her head to kiss them. She pecked him on the lips, kiss after kiss, slowly making her way to his stubbly chin. The bristles were poking her soft lips, reminding her of the obvious difference between a man and a woman. Every part of him exuded a mesmerizing charm.
Moving along his chin, her lips reached his Adam’s apple. It felt quite hard as if there was a ping pong ball inside. Song Yu was fascinated and kept planting kisses on it.
Her repeated kisses caused Qi Chengzhi to itch. There was also a pooling heat in his lower abdomen, where he pressed against her with his bulge. He then lowered his head and enclosed her lips with his.
For whatever reason, the arms around her tightened all of a sudden. It could be that he was affected by the conversation with Xia Wenna where he revealed the documents that he had kept hidden for so many years. He was afraid and felt a heavy weight in his heart.
Originally, he thought that the documents would never see the light of day and he would take them to his grave. He was never planning to let her go.
However, he was anxious that the truth would unfold once it got revealed. He was fearful of her reaction if she found out what really happened.
It was a bold move for him to make that decision. Nevertheless, he did not regret his actions, but it became a ticking bomb buried at the bottom of his heart.
He was certain that Xia Wenna would not expose him when he showed her those documents. This was to stop her from coming after Song Yu.
He embraced her tightly and gave her a deep kiss, where Song Yu could only mutter a nasal hum.
She could feel that Qi Chengzhi was very different tonight. His charming face looked very determined, with a hint of wildness between his brows.
…
…
At last, Song Yu leaned in his arms, completely worn out and unable to gather any strength. He was still hugging her tightly, his arms were like ropes, holding her firmly in place. He buried his face into her neck, sniffing and kissing it all the way from her earlobes to her ears, before moving upwards to the corner of her eyes and her cheeks.
His thin lips were blazing hot, smoldering her with cigarette smoke and the scent of tea leaves in his mouth. He kissed the corner of her eye to her cheek, before moving slowly to the edge of her mouth and finally reaching her lips, encasing her like a spiderweb.
His kisses were filled with tenderness and sincerity. Song Yu stretched her eyelids lazily and saw his lingering deep-set eyes.
This flustered Song Yu, as she thought that his eyes looked exceptionally beautiful at this moment. They were not as piercing as usual. This gaze was meant for her and her only, making Song Yu treasure this charming guy even more.
