“It’s okay.”
Yu Nian was stunned, and following that, a few flickers of a different expression couldn’t help but appear on her tightly concealed face.
What kind of person was the Mai Suisui she knew?
Though a bit naive at work, she was strong; her refusal to admit defeat was known to everyone.
Quiet and shy—this is what Yu Nian had discovered.
But she had never thought that one day she would be taken care of by Mai Suisui. At this moment, Yu Nian discovered three more of Mai Suisui’s qualities: being meticulous, steady, and knowing how to take care of people.
Mai Suisui had originally thought that as the one who invited her, Ms. Nian San would be the first to start a conversation. As a result, after waiting for a long time to the point where her drunkenness began to dissipate, there was still no sound from behind her.
She curiously stole a glance backward with her peripheral vision and discovered that the other party had actually been drinking by herself, as if she had forgotten Mai Suisui’s existence.
You called someone out, yet you don’t say anything yourself?
Mai Suisui withdrew her gaze and stared thoughtfully at the few bottles of beer on the table in front of her.
After a moment, she puffed out her cheeks and simply reached out to pop a bottle cap as well.
Since you won’t talk, then let’s just drink together.
“Did you arrive much earlier than me just now?”
After drinking a few cups of wine, Mai Suisui finally couldn’t stand the awkward atmosphere and took the initiative to start a topic.
The person behind her was silent for a few seconds before saying in a suppressed voice:
“I only arrived a few minutes early, and then I saw you coming by car…”
“Oh, so Ms. Nian San, did you ask me out for a reason?”
Hearing this, Yu Nian’s hand holding the wine glass paused.
Regarding this move of hers where she had invited someone out on a sudden whim, she didn’t know how to explain it either.
After thinking it over, she finally remembered one thing worth mentioning.
So, after a slight deliberation, she whispered to Mai Suisui behind her: “It just so happens that we both have things on our minds, so I wanted to come out and vent.”
“What about you? Why did you dare to agree to come out?”
As soon as she spoke of this, Yu Nian thought of Mai Suisui’s reaction at the beginning.
She was actually afraid of being kidnapped…
And this place was chosen by Mai Suisui; there were people all around. Even if someone truly had bad intentions, they wouldn’t do it in front of a public crowd.
It was obvious she was nervous to the extreme, yet she had still accepted the invitation, which made Yu Nian very curious.
Mai Suisui couldn’t stop herself from taking a deep breath. While bringing the wine glass in her hand to her lips, she blinked her slightly tipsy eyes and murmured, “What a coincidence, I also wanted to find someone to vent to.”
Hearing her answer, Yu Nian, sitting behind her, was silent for a moment. After some thought, she still asked a question: “You broke up with your boyfriend?”
“What? Where would a boyfriend come from!”
Mai Suisui retorted, between laughter and tears.
“Oh, then it’s…?”
“An ex-girlfriend.”
“…”
When Mai Suisui heard the person behind her stop making noise, for some reason, her heart panicked.
“Uhm…”
“Don’t worry, I didn’t think much of it. In fact… anyway, in my view, it’s very normal.”
Mai Suisui breathed a sigh of relief.
Yu Nian also probably understood something. She looked down at the bottle of wine in front of her that she hadn’t drunk much of yet and suddenly said, “Since you felt the two of you weren’t suitable, breaking up isn’t something to be ashamed of, right?”
Mai Suisui’s drinking action paused.
She blinked her slightly hazy, drunken eyes. Then, she took a deep breath, smacked her lips, and continued pouring wine, grumbling in her mouth: “Thank you for your kindness, but some things… outsiders won’t understand.”
“Did your girlfriend cheat?”
In an instant, the wine glass Mai Suisui had just brought to her lips stopped again.
She suddenly clenched her hand. After several seconds of silence, she turned her head angrily to glare at the back of this person, her chest heaving violently.
She didn’t know what exactly she was angry about right now. Was she angry at this person’s bluntness? Or was it… because she felt humiliated by this matter of hers?
“Actually, she didn’t exactly cheat.”
“And don’t think I’m explaining for her; I’m just seeking truth from facts.”
Turning her back to Nian San, Mai Suisui took another sip of wine. Although she had indeed intended to confide in the person behind her beforehand, she hadn’t expected to be so candid and open with the other party to this extent. This was simply like… actively opening the door to her heart and letting the other party inspect it.
Mai Suisui very much disliked this feeling, to the point where she didn’t even have the mind to say a couple more words to the other party.
“Although I’m not very clear on the details of what happened, I can see that you are very angry about some of her actions.”
Unexpectedly, Yu Nian, who usually didn’t like to meddle in others’ business, became talkative tonight.
She likewise poured herself a glass of wine, lifted it to her lips, and drank slowly. Her indifferent expression was, as always, impossible for people to guess her thoughts.
As for these words, Mai Suisui chose silence. She could only choose silence; she couldn’t speak any further.
But Yu Nian seemingly had no intention of ending this topic. She continued: “Even if there was no physical cheating, could it be emotional cheating? Emotional cheating counts as cheating, too.”
“What does this have to do with you?!”
Mai Suisui finally couldn’t control her irritability. She slammed her wine glass onto the table with a sound that was neither heavy nor light; this was definitely one of the few times she had lost her composure since graduation.
“I don’t want to mind other people’s private business either, but since we’ve already opened up, if we don’t continue speaking, I feel it will make our relationship awkward and not conducive to our future interactions.”
An absurd look flashed across Mai Suisui’s tipsy face. She frowned and whispered, “Are you saying…”
“Just as you said before, we are already friends, aren’t we?”
Mai Suisui thought for a moment. “I won’t deny what I said before, but this ‘friendship’ between the two of us is a bit different.”
“For example, when the two of us drink offline, you would rather chat back-to-back than actually meet. I’m starting to suspect if you’re some big celebrity?”
“And you also arrived a few minutes earlier than me. You must have been observing me from the shadows and only came over once I was seated. If there are no surprises, you’ve probably seen what I look like?”
“See, as a friend, I seem to be guarded against by you in every possible way. On the other hand, you know quite a lot about me. Is this normal?”
Yu Nian, with her back to her, was silent for a moment upon hearing this. She actually also chose to shift the topic, pulling the conversation back to the matter from just now: “Actually, I feel that since the feelings for each other aren’t deep and you can’t accept the other party’s actions, breaking up is a matter of course. What is there worth worrying about?”
Hearing this, Mai Suisui let out a nearly imperceptible snort through her nose.
She wasn’t targeting Nian San’s words, but rather her reaction of evading the point.
As expected, a bunch of grand principles in front, but when it came to themselves, no one was willing to reveal their inner heart to an outsider.
She had originally wanted to use words to squeeze the other party a bit more, but as a result, she lifted her wine glass, her head felt dizzy, and the thought from the previous second was tossed to the back of her mind.
She grumbled to her: “The so-called ‘being in a relationship’ is originally a process of trial before two people confirm true love. Once it’s confirmed that they are the love of one’s life, the two people love each other wholeheartedly.”
“So, what you mean is, you think you and she were true lovers?”
“No!”
Unexpectedly, the woman who had just been refuting her simply shook her head the next second. She put down her wine glass with great momentum and said drunkenly with a wrinkled nose: “My point is! My feelings aren’t as casual as you describe! The end of a relationship isn’t as easy as you think!”
Being told this, Yu Nian momentarily became speechless.
What else could she say?
When it came down to it, she was also just a theoretical talker with no practical experience. The advice she had given previously was merely based on rational judgment.
If one truly argued about it, she indeed did not understand what kind of state two people were in when they were in love.
“Let me tell you… my words just now weren’t wrong. She indeed didn’t count as cheating, but you… what you said wasn’t wrong either. In my eyes, she really might be an emotional betrayer…”
“Actually, this story is very cliché… well, it’s just that she couldn’t withstand family pressure and hid it from me to go on a blind date. After I found out, she even blamed me for not trusting her…”
She suddenly stopped at this point, reached out her hand, and cautiously poked Nian San’s back with her finger.
Yu Nian’s drinking action stopped immediately. Facing away from her, she was inexplicably nervous: “What are you doing?”
“If you were standing in her position, what would you do?”
For some reason, when asking this question, the smile on Mai Suisui’s face was very sweet.
She looked as if she were truly drunk; she was smiling, and a pair of dazed eyes were constantly trying hard to open wide, using an extremely novel gaze to study Yu Nian’s back.
Yu Nian, however, gave her an extremely calm reply: “I would not engage in such meaningless thinking.”
Immediately after, without waiting for the dazed Mai Suisui to understand, she heard the woman say to her without turning her head: “Just refuse her.”
Hmm?
She was stunned again. What did these words mean?
“Isn’t the other party still waiting for you to give an answer? I think you should just refuse.”
“I know why you are struggling. You believe the end of this relationship is also partly your responsibility, so you have no way to take the initiative to say those words.”
“But a relationship is a matter between two people. The responsibility lies with you, and it also lies with her. What do you owe her? This is my suggestion to you as a bystander.”
Mai Suisui’s face, which was already flushed red, fell silent.
She asked in a low voice: “Refuse her, and then what?”
“Refuse her, and then go and look forward to the arrival of the next relationship.”
As Yu Nian spoke, she picked up the wine bottle, poured a glass of wine, turned her hand to pass it backward, and—amid Mai Suisui’s stunned expression—delivered that glass of wine before her eyes.
“Humans are very strange creatures. When two people are together, perhaps they can do anything. I think you should also find someone in the future who is willing to face everything with you. Refusal isn’t necessarily an end; it could also be the start of another chapter.”
Max stared silently at that glass of wine that had been delivered in front of her.
A few seconds later, she reached out both hands to take it and said very softly: “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Nian San also said to her very softly.