“I just thought of a very serious problem.” Tang Yushen tilted his head, his deep eyes fixed on her.
Xia Qiaoxi felt uneasy inside. What could be more serious than her ID card?
She wanted freedom!
She wanted to make money!
She wanted independence!
She didn’t want to become a Canary again in her later years, trapped in a prison, living a robotic life controlled by others.
Only when that ID card was in her own hands would it be the beginning of freedom.
“What problem?” Xia Qiaoxi asked softly.
“Did you and He Luyi get your marriage certificate?”
“No, we didn’t…” Xia Qiaoxi shook her head, “The wedding hasn’t taken place yet, and we haven’t obtained the marriage certificate.”
“That’s good.”
Otherwise, they’d have to go through a divorce.
What a hassle.
“The ID card…” Xia Qiaoxi reminded him weakly, “That’s my ID card. It’s useless for you to keep it…”
She needed it.
She desperately needed that ID card.
Xia Qiaoxi’s eyes reddened slightly as her small hand pressed against Tang Yushen’s arm. “When I was with the Xia family, everything was controlled by them. I didn’t have a bank card, I didn’t have a phone, I didn’t even have my own ID card. To them, I was just a tool for an arranged marriage…”
“I can’t continue living such a life without freedom. If I got married today, if I married He Luyi, I would just be moving from the Xia family’s cage to a more luxurious, more inescapable prison. I might even have to bear children and spend the rest of my life in that prison…”
She gently tugged at his white shirt. “Mr. Tang, I want to start over. I want to have my own life, a life free from control and constraints. That ID card…”
It was one of the most important things she wanted to take with her.
Tang Yushen’s eyes darkened. “I’ll give it to you when we get home. You don’t have a bag with you now anyway. Would you keep holding it in your hand?”
She could hold it in her hand!
Leaving it with someone else always made her feel uneasy.
“Let’s go shopping and buy you some things.”
Xia Qiaoxi shook her head. “No, that’s not necessary. Thank you.”
“What are you thanking me for?” Tang Yushen leaned closer to her. “Miss Xia, do you think I canceled your wedding with He Luyi and took you away from the Xia family because I happened to see injustice and decided to help, or because I was bored and wanted to play philanthropist?”
Xia Qiaoxi leaned back against the leather seat with no room to retreat. Watching Tang Yushen approach, she held her breath.
Tang Yushen tapped her nose bridge and smiled. “I’m not that kind-hearted. Everything I’ve done has a purpose, and that purpose is you. Xia Qiaoxi.”
Xia Qiaoxi had understood this last night.
Tang Yushen probably saw her as a replacement for his white moonlight.
The replacement trope?
Being a replacement was fine too. At least she had escaped the Xia family.
That environment where even the air felt suffocating, making her wish she were dead.
The future looked promising.
She would find a way to leave completely.
Xia Qiaoxi asked softly, “What do you want me to do?”
“Be my woman.”
His little Xier would be his woman, his one and only, his greatest love in this lifetime.
Xia Qiaoxi’s eyes reddened as her deep brown eyes stared at him, her body tense.
In the luxury car filled with cool air, the atmosphere between them felt heated, as if intense emotions were about to erupt and burn them both.
She asked softly, “What kind of woman?”
“What kind of woman do you think?” Tang Yushen countered with a wicked smile.
She didn’t know either.
Whether as a substitute or a fleeting whim,
She had to be grateful to Tang Yushen.
If not for him, she would already be wearing a wedding dress, standing outside the grand door, waiting for it to open, only to be ushered toward He Luyi—whom she had met only a few times—to become his wife.
“Xiao Xi’er…” Tang Yushen’s cool fingertips traced her face. His clear, resilient brows and eyes, paired with naturally smiling lips, carelessly exuded an innate fragility and delicate beauty.
She appeared so delicate, yet was so stubborn.
If he hadn’t encountered her on the rooftop last night, would she have jumped?
“From now on, you are my woman, and you are also a free person,” Tang Yushen murmured softly. “Never leave me in this lifetime.”
This lifetime?
Had his white moonlight passed away?
Did he need her to stand in for a lifetime?
“Isn’t this a bit too hasty?” Xia Qiaoxi couldn’t immediately agree to his demand.
“No, it’s compulsory.” Tang Yushen’s thumb brushed the corner of her lips.
Tenderly, delicately, affectionately.
Xia Qiaoxi’s heart trembled slightly. “Compulsory?”
“Yes…” Tang Yushen leaned in, his tall nose bridge pressing against her small, elegant nose.
Oh!
This was too close.
Xia Qiaoxi didn’t dare to breathe heavily, but the more she tried to control her breathing, the more she felt each exhale and inhale brush against his cheeks.
“If you’re not obedient, then it has to be compulsory…” Tang Yushen nuzzled the tip of her nose. “Will you be good?”
Good!
Even if she had to pretend, she would act docile and gentle.
It was what she excelled at.
“Mhm…” Xia Qiaoxi squeezed out a single syllable in response.
She closed her eyes as warm lips descended upon hers.
Tang Yushen kissed her lightly, without deepening the kiss.
Then he pulled away.
Under the blazing sun, the car entered a beautiful villa named Yu Xi Manor.
The blue-and-white exterior walls, shaded stone paths, a massive transparent glass greenhouse, a winding corridor over a lotus pond, and a rockery with clear flowing water.
To the right rear of the main building stood a small Western-style house, popular in the previous century, its style slightly different from the modern architecture.
It resembled the houses in the concessions often depicted in television dramas.
Tang Yushen followed her gaze. “Would you like to go take a look?”
That house was where they had lived after getting married in their previous life.
But it had been destroyed by the smoke of war. He had drawn it based on his memories and had it rebuilt.
He had always believed he would find her again. If she, like him, retained memories of their past life, she might want to visit the home where they had once loved.
“No.” Xia Qiaoxi shook her head slightly. “I’ll have time to explore it slowly later. Right now, I’m a little hungry…”
“Alright, let’s go eat first.” Tang Yushen held a parasol over her. “As the lady of the manor, you can change or request anything you don’t like here. You have free rein.”
“Mr. Tang, that doesn’t seem appropriate…”
Tang Yushen disliked this form of address. He frowned, his eyes—sleepless from the previous night—streaked with red veins. Even in his weary state, his gaze held traces of displeasure and cold severity.
He stopped walking and, under the parasol, lowered his head. “Call me A Yu.”
“Huh?”
Xia Qiaoxi stared at him blankly, her red lips slightly parted as she slowly uttered, “A… Yu?”
“Say it again.”
“A Yu.”
Tang Yushen had yearned to hear that voice for a hundred years.
His Xi’er had truly returned to him. They were reunited.
That’s how his white moonlight called him—the moment she called him “Ah Yu,” his gaze would turn deep and infatuated.
He must really like that white moonlight, right?
I wonder how much she resembles that white moonlight?
To make Tang Yushen so obsessed and infatuated, he didn’t hesitate to bring her home and dote on her.