Tang You deeply felt the malice coming from this world.
“Huh?”
“You even ruined his paintings,” Xiao Zexing said slowly and leisurely, “threw all his calligraphy brushes into the fish tank, tossed out his homework—”
“Wait a second,” Tang You felt suffocated, finding it unbelievable, “these… I did all of that?”
Xiao Zexing smiled kindly and gently.
“…Second Uncle is in the country right now, isn’t he?” Tang You’s voice trembled as she spoke, “Could I trouble you with something?”
“Go ahead.”
“In the future, whenever Second Uncle is going to be present somewhere, could you please give me a heads-up, a little warning?” Tang You looked utterly dejected, her eyelashes quivering slightly, “I’m afraid Second Uncle will kill me.”
Xiao Zexing laughed. “Don’t worry, he has a very good temper.”
No no no.
Tang You refused to believe it.
The fact that “Xiao Weijing” could remember everything so clearly now must mean that back then Xiao Zexing had been furious… extremely furious…
Tang You didn’t dare imagine the scene; her vision simply went dark.
Her determination to never marry into the Xiao family grew even stronger.
She lowered her head and quickly sent a text to the driver telling him to head back first.
It only took about three minutes to walk out from there. Xiao Zexing stopped just outside.
Tang You secretly observed and noticed that this car was different from the one last time.
She hadn’t known that Xiao Weijing had a hobby of collecting luxury cars.
The driver, wearing white gloves, was still holding an umbrella and standing by the car door. When he saw Tang You and Xiao Weijing approaching slowly, he hurriedly opened the door and respectfully invited them inside.
Tang You didn’t ask why “Xiao Weijing” wasn’t driving himself today.
Earlier, while sharing the same umbrella, she had already caught the faint scent of alcohol on the man.
Extremely light.
Mingled with the cedarwood note.
As if the wind would blow it away in an instant.
Tang You’s skirt was still wet. She sat down very carefully.
A drop of water slid down her cheek, traveled along her fair, luminous neck, and finally disappeared into her clothing.
She didn’t notice.
“Some things don’t need to be forced,” Xiao Zexing sat upright and suddenly spoke, “You should understand this principle.”
This was the second time he had said something like that.
Tang You was stunned. She lifted her head to look at him.
Inside, Xiao Zexing was only wearing that clean, immaculate white dress shirt with absolutely no visible brand logo. People of their social standing basically never bought ready-to-wear clothes—tailors would come to their homes regularly to take measurements and make everything custom.
The Xiao family had their own independent private lifestyle company. Apart from the necessary staff for food, clothing, housing, and transportation, they employed people down to flower arrangers, tea masters, and so on. Old Master Xiao loved dogs and kept more than twenty of them, big and small, each one with its own dedicated nanny to look after it.
Tang You wasn’t completely immune to being tempted by such extravagant luxury.
She lowered her lashes, her slender, delicate fingers twisting the fabric of her clothes. In a small voice she said, “…But I like you.”
Xiao Zexing’s expression remained calm and unchanged. His gaze settled on her face as a faint, almost imperceptible smile curved his lips. “Like me for what?”
For a question this simple and direct, Tang You had already prepared her answers long in advance.
She lifted her face. Her beautiful eyes seemed to hold a clear, shimmering pool of spring water. Biting her lip lightly, she spoke in a timid, bashful tone: “You might not know this, but back when Grandpa Tang arranged our engagement, I was really, really happy.”
She had rehearsed these lines in her head countless times. She had even anticipated “Xiao Weijing’s” possible reactions—mockery, cold laughter, him storming off in disgust—and had countermeasures ready for each one.
But she had never predicted this kind of situation.
Xiao Zexing rubbed the watch on his wrist in an absent-minded way. His dimples deepened just a little. “And then?”
Tang You felt like the entire rhythm she had planned was being disrupted.
She quickly steadied herself, frantically recalling the script she had prepared, and forced herself to keep going: “Actually… even before the engagement was decided, I had already started secretly liking you. What you might not know is that I’ve had a crush on you for a full four years—”
Xiao Zexing interrupted her calmly: “So you started secretly liking me when you were thirteen?”
…Huh?
Aaaaaah—she accidentally said four years instead of three!
Tang You could only grit her teeth and answer: “Yes.”
Xiao Zexing let out a slow, leisurely laugh. “Well then, I’m truly overwhelmed with honor.”
Tang You clenched her jaw, lifted her face again, squeezed out a few pitiful little tears, and switched to an even more nauseatingly sweet form of address: “Weijing-gege-gege… ever since we were little, at Grandpa Tang’s house, you were the only one who was truly kind to me. You would share your candy with me. Whenever someone bullied me, it was always you, gege, who stood up for me. You are the lighthouse of my life, the brightest star in the night sky. I can’t even imagine what I would do without you, gege…”
—Completely made-up nonsense. Since she assumed the person in front of her remembered nothing, Tang You threw caution to the wind and started fabricating wildly.
After saying so much, her throat was practically dry. She sneaked a glance sideways—Xiao Zexing still looked perfectly calm and unruffled.
He propped his chin on one hand, listening to her lazily, showing no intention of interrupting at all.
Their eyes met.
Xiao Zexing smiled. “Go on.”
…Continue?
You really don’t mind how cringey and embarrassing this is?
Tang You had no choice but to keep weaving this tragic, beautiful love story: “The moment I found out Grandpa had arranged our engagement, I was so happy it felt like I’d won hundreds of millions in the lottery. I always thought you were someone I could only admire from afar—I never dared to hope for anything more. I didn’t dare hope that you would love me. I could ignore everything between you and Sister Wen Ling… As long as I could become your wife, even if you never liked me for the rest of our lives, I would still be completely content.”
By the time she finished, Tang You wanted to curl up in shame and die. She couldn’t believe she had just uttered such bootlicking, simp-level lines!
This passionate confession clearly hadn’t moved Xiao Zexing in the slightest. He simply asked: “If you like me that much, then why—after you went abroad—did you never once come to see me?”
Completely caught off guard.
The question threw Tang You into total disarray. For a moment she had the horrifying illusion that he had seen right through every single lie. The discomfort made her grit her teeth and keep spinning: “Because… it seemed like you didn’t like me. So many people said you went abroad partly to avoid me… I didn’t want you to hate me, so no matter how much I wanted to see you, I held myself back. But I’ve always quietly followed you. Every night I had to look at your photos before I could fall asleep peacefully. For these three years you’ve been gone, you’ve always been in my heart…”
She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but after hearing this long string of saccharine nonsense, Xiao Zexing didn’t seem angry at all. If anything… he looked even more… pleased?
Tang You was completely baffled.
…What is going on with Xiao Weijing right now?
She really couldn’t figure out this man’s angle.
“Since you like me so much,” Xiao Zexing’s gaze slowly withdrew from her lips. He smiled, “It seems I need to have a talk with Grandfather and move the wedding date forward.”
!
Those words struck directly at Tang You’s biggest fear. She frantically waved her hands: “No no no!”
He raised an eyebrow slightly. “What? You don’t agree?”
“Um… it’s not exactly that…”
“Didn’t you say you like me very much? Like me so much that you have to look at my photos every night just to fall asleep peacefully?” Xiao Zexing reached out, gently plucked a bamboo leaf that had gotten caught in her hair, and smiled. “Then why do you suddenly look so unhappy the moment marriage is mentioned?”
Those were things I said just to gross you out!
Aren’t you supposed to hate this kind of thing the most?!
Tang You swallowed down the urge to vomit blood and forced out: “It’s not that I disagree… it’s just… uh, isn’t it a little too sudden? I’m still in school, and we’re still in the middle of… cultivating our feelings—”
“Not sudden at all,” Xiao Zexing smiled elegantly. “After all, we’ve already been engaged for four years.”
At that point he let out a soft, drawn-out sigh and looked at Tang You with tender affection: “You’re absolutely right. All this time… I really have wronged you.”
Tang You was on the verge of tears: “No… I’m not wronged…”
Aaaaaaaaah she desperately wanted to chop up the version of herself that had just delivered that passionate confession and throw the pieces away.
Seeing how flustered and uneasy she looked, the dimples in Xiao Zexing’s cheeks deepened even further.
“Alright, I won’t tease you anymore,” he said, reaching over to gently ruffle the top of her head. His eyes were full of laughter. “Just a joke. Look how scared you got.”
A joke?
This was not funny at all!
She was nearly scared to death!
Like someone who had been drowning finally breaking the surface, Tang You let out a huge breath of relief.
The moment she met Xiao Zexing’s smiling gaze, she realized her current state was extremely abnormal. She immediately ducked her head, covered her face with both hands, and tried to salvage her white-lotus-flower persona: “…Why would you tease me with something like that? That’s really too much…”
Even she felt grossed out by her own fake, delicate acting—but Xiao Zexing remained completely unmoved.
Tang You genuinely respected him as a real man for that.
But all the way home, she didn’t dare slip back into her deep-affection persona again.
She was seriously afraid that “Xiao Weijing” might act on impulse and actually marry her.
Four years apart, and Tang You felt like “Xiao Weijing’s” game had leveled up dramatically.
Even she was struggling to keep up.
Over the weekend, Tang Xiao—who almost never called—rang her up with a beaming tone, inviting Tang You to go soak in the hot springs and emphatically stressing that the whole family would be there.
Tang You originally didn’t want to go, but Tang Xiao hemmed and hawed: “Youyou, Dad wants to talk to you about your mother.”
At this critical juncture, the only thing that could possibly be linked to her mother was Qǐxīng.
Tang You was actually quite curious to see how Tang Xiao would have the nerve to bring it up with her.
She smiled. “Sure, let’s go then.”
The hot spring hotel Tang Xiao had booked belonged to Míngjiàn’s properties. When the Xiao family came themselves, of course they had their own private ginseng hot-spring courtyards. Zhao Manlan had also brought Tang You here to soak a few times in the past.
The facilities the Xiao family used themselves were all top-tier.
They were never open to the public.
While Tang Xiao was confirming the reservation with the staff, Tang Nan looked a little surprised and covered her lips. “Dad, didn’t we agree we were going to soak in the perso—”
Tang Xiao gave a dry cough. “The regular ones are just as good.”
As he said it, he glanced sideways at Tang You.
Of course Tang You knew exactly what Tang Xiao and Tang Nan were scheming. Inviting her along probably wasn’t really about “talking.” They most likely just wanted to sneak into the exclusive Xiao-family-only pools. But they didn’t have the status to ask directly—they’d be refused flat-out.
Tang You’s status, however, was different.
She was Xiao Weijing’s fiancée.
They were hoping she would be the one to ask.
She deliberately refused to give them what they wanted.
Yawning, Tang You said nothing at all. She stood there idly, still casually studying the leaves on the tree beside her.
Jiang Chenting, standing next to her, frowned. Unable to hold back, he sharply scolded his own sister: “What’s the difference between any of the pools? Nannan, what exactly are you being picky about?”
Tang Nan looked aggrieved and whined coquettishly: “Ge!”
Jiang Tao hadn’t spoken a word the entire time. She seemed preoccupied with heavy thoughts and didn’t appear to care about the little spat.
Over there, the staff had finished confirming everything and smilingly invited them in. Tang Xiao had already seen Tang You’s attitude and didn’t say another word. After all, this was still a hotel under the Xiao family name. Tang You and Xiao Weijing still weren’t married—the engagement was hanging by a thread. Tang Xiao didn’t dare stir up any more trouble.
Jiang Chenting pulled Tang Nan aside, face dark, and lectured her quietly away from the others.
Tang You couldn’t hear what they were saying. She stretched lazily, and from the corner of her eye caught Jiang Tao watching her with an probing look.
Once she noticed, Jiang Tao gave a small smile—but her eyes remained cold.
Tang Xiao had booked late and hadn’t expected Tang You to stay completely silent. The reserved courtyard was standalone and didn’t come with guest rooms. To reach the actual accommodation, they had to walk down a long wooden corridor through a bamboo grove.
Tang You soaked together with Jiang Tao and her daughter.
Jiang Tao had only been in the water for two minutes before she felt dizzy and short of breath. She excused herself and left first.
That left Tang You and Tang Nan—two half-sisters who completely ignored each other.
Tang Nan lay sprawled against the rock wall, playing on her phone and making calls. Tang You ordered a pot of clear sake, set it floating on a wooden tray in the water, and drank it slowly at her leisure.
After finishing the sake, Tang You gathered her clothes and headed to the shower area, planning to rinse off properly, change, and rest.
She had just untied her clothes when she heard rapid footsteps. The curtain was yanked open. Tang Nan—already dressed in her skirt—swiftly snatched the basket of clothes Tang You had placed on the counter and bolted out.
By the time Tang You hurriedly threw her swimsuit back on and chased after her, Tang Nan had already disappeared without a trace.
“Vicious bitch!”
Tang You ground her teeth and cursed.
No matter what, she never imagined Tang Nan would pull this kind of stunt on her.
It was seriously low-class and dirty.
All her clothes, shoes—gone. She didn’t even have a bath towel to wrap around herself right now.
Just a two-piece swimsuit.
No matter how open-minded Tang You was, she couldn’t accept walking out looking like this.
This wasn’t the beach, after all.
Sitting here waiting for death wasn’t an option.
Tang You forced herself to calm down and rummaged everywhere for anything she could use to cover up.
When she was completely out of ideas, she suddenly noticed some unknown plant in the courtyard—broad, green leaves unfurled.
Tang You fully tapped into her DIY survival skills. She quickly plucked several leaves, silently apologized toward the silk curtain, snapped off a vine, strung the large leaves together, and wrapped them around her waist in a circle.
She checked herself in the mirror, then yanked the small tablecloth off the little square table. It was just big enough to cover her upper body—but it still left a strip of waist exposed. Her waist was so slim the cloth wouldn’t stay up at all.
Whatever. She’d treat it like a crop top.
Tang You comforted herself like that.
Once she got out, she was definitely going to teach Tang Nan a brutal lesson.
Fortunately, it was already dusk, almost dinner time, and there weren’t many people around. Tang You poked her head out, confirmed the long corridor was empty, then calmly stepped outside.
She’d just pretend she was starting a new fashion trend.
She had only taken a few steps when she heard Xiao Zexing’s voice: “Youyou?”
Aaaaaaaaah!!!
Her inner scream chicken went absolutely feral.
Tang You turned around stiffly.
Bamboo shadows swayed. Xiao Zexing stood against the dim lamplight, tall and slender, his aura clear and refined.
He walked over slowly, studying her with obvious interest. “What are you doing? Cosplaying Sun Wukong?”
His gaze drifted downward. He paused for a moment.
Above the messy, emerald-green homemade leaf skirt.
A slender waist that couldn’t be hidden no matter what.
Thin and delicate. Fair and glowing.
“From the back your walk looked pretty arrogant,” Xiao Zexing pushed aside a bamboo branch, stepped closer under the moonlight, and smiled unhurriedly. “Sure enough, it’s you.”
Tang You was so startled she stumbled back two steps—taking strides so dramatic it was like she no longer recognized her own relatives.
Author’s Note: Tiny Little Mini Side Story
“Whenever Second Uncle is going to be around somewhere, could you please give me a heads-up, a little warning?” Tang You looked utterly dejected, her eyelashes trembling slightly. “I’m scared Second Uncle will kill me.”
Later on, Xiao Zexing really did almost kill her.
Just… in the living room, the study, the bathroom, the kitchen…