Even though it was a warm spring day, with everything coming back to life, cold sweat kept breaking out on Lu Xiaoqiao’s body.
Xie Xun leaned against the car door, his body tilted to one side and one foot resting on the ground. This position was actually the result of her pulling him out of the car.
The man slowly raised his hand and used his thumb to wipe the blood from his lips.
The beautiful flowers around him seemed to lose their color in comparison with his face. Yet the fingerprints on his pale cheek and the way he calmly wiped away the blood somehow turned the beautiful scene into something frightening.
Lu Xiaoqiao continued backing away.
She thought she finally understood why Qin Shuman was afraid of him.
“Get out of the car,” Lu Xiaoqiao said, her voice trembling at the end. “Go back to your house.”
Xie Xun slightly raised his eyelids and casually glanced at her.
“You said I disgust you. Why?”
His voice was hoarse, probably because he was in so much pain.
Lu Xiaoqiao almost blurted out the truth about the handcuffs. After all, she had confronted him about them before, so it was no longer really a secret.
But just as the words reached her lips, she suddenly remembered what he had called her earlier.
“Baby.”
The doctor had been right. His memory could return, and the more he was exposed to things from his past, the faster his memories would come back.
Lu Xiaoqiao was afraid.
The Xie Xun before and after his memory loss was actually the same person. Yet at this moment, Lu Xiaoqiao was afraid that he would remember everything.
That man who had clung to her like a poisonous snake.
That man who had tried desperately to hold back his madness and cover it with gentleness, yet whose hidden insanity she could still sense.
She didn’t want to see that side of him.
At least, not now.
She couldn’t escape him.
Lu Xiaoqiao swallowed the truth about the handcuffs.
“I’m very particular about emotional loyalty. The man I’m with has to belong to me, both physically and emotionally. Before we got married, I didn’t know about what happened between you and your sister-in-law. I can’t accept it. Even if the two of you once liked each other, I still can’t accept it. Don’t disgust me.”
Xie Xun gave her an amused but mocking smile.
“Didn’t you say everything between us was just a transaction? Our marriage was meant to make my brother and sister-in-law feel at ease. We helped each other and both benefited from it. So what? You could accept it back then, but you can’t accept it now?”
Lu Xiaoqiao froze.
Xie Xun lowered his eyes and smiled faintly.
“Little liar.”
She was full of lies. How many of them were actually true?
Lu Xiaoqiao became anxious.
“Get out of the car!”
Her tears stopped. Xie Xun’s complexion gradually returned to normal, and he regained some strength. He slowly leaned back against the seat.
“Do we have a written agreement?”
“…” Lu Xiaoqiao didn’t understand. “What?”
Xie Xun asked, “The transaction. Is there a written agreement?”
“No.”
Xie Xun raised an eyebrow.
“So it was just a verbal agreement?”
Lu Xiaoqiao looked at him cautiously.
Xie Xun said, “Then couldn’t you just make up anything you want?”
“I didn’t lie to you!” Lu Xiaoqiao snapped angrily. “Everything was fine before. I wouldn’t have minded if this arrangement lasted our whole lives. But then your brother suddenly died, and you and your sister-in-law started getting closer. Wouldn’t it be better if I just let the two of you be together?”
Xie Xun gave a mocking laugh.
“Just a moment ago, you said you couldn’t accept anything between me and my sister-in-law.”
And now she was saying she could accept the arrangement lasting a lifetime.
“…”
Lu Xiaoqiao was completely losing the argument.
Perhaps he had had enough fun teasing her. Xie Xun didn’t continue pressing her. Instead, he calmly took out his phone.
“Add me.”
Lu Xiaoqiao refused.
“Add me, and I’ll get out of the car.”
Seeing that she was starting to give in, Xie Xun smiled and added, “And don’t block me. Otherwise, I have plenty of ways to get back into your car.”
“…”
Swallowing her frustration, Lu Xiaoqiao reluctantly added him.
Xie Xun kept his word. He calmly got out of the car, then walked around to the back seat and carried out the family portrait.
Lu Xiaoqiao’s lips moved.
“My…”
“Say one more word,” Xie Xun warned, glancing at her. “And I’ll take everything with me.”
Lu Xiaoqiao: “.”
Saying anything else to him would only be asking for trouble.
Lu Xiaoqiao quickly got back into the car and drove away almost as if she were escaping.
Her phone rang just after she left the villa complex.
It was Xie Xun calling.
Lu Xiaoqiao didn’t answer.
The person on the other end was extremely patient. When one call went unanswered, he simply called again.
After the third call, Lu Xiaoqiao finally couldn’t take it anymore and answered.
There was a faint crackle of static.
The man’s relaxed, pleasant voice came through.
“Next time, answer immediately. Don’t make me finish what I started earlier.”
Lu Xiaoqiao snapped, “Just say what you want!!!”
Xie Xun smiled. “The gate password.”
“…”
Damn!
Damn, damn, damn!!!!
Lu Xiaoqiao was so annoyed that she gave him the gate password and then quickly listed everything else in one go.
“The second gate uses fingerprints. The safe uses facial recognition. There’s a remote control in the garage. The garden is maintained by a regular worker. The house cleaning and meals are handled by part-time workers. The phone number is 135…”
She rattled everything off without caring whether he could remember it.
When she finished, the surroundings became so quiet that she could hear the soft breeze.
Then she heard Xie Xun’s intermittent laughter through the phone.
Still laughing, he said, “Good girl. I like you, baby.”
“…”
Lu Xiaoqiao immediately hung up.
If she hadn’t been driving and unable to throw her phone, she would have smashed it onto the ground.
What a pervert!
What a damn pervert!
After Xie Xun had laughed enough outside the gate, he entered the password and walked into the yard with the family portrait in his arms.
The courtyard had been carefully landscaped. There was a pavilion with a tea table, a rockery and fish pond, and a small fountain spraying water in the middle of lush flamingo flowers.
A birdcage hung beneath the covered walkway, but it was empty.
Perhaps because the owner had been away for so long, even though the house was regularly cleaned, no one had been instructed to feed the living things there.
Xie Xun stopped for a moment.
For some reason, he felt that there should be two peony parrots inside the cage.
The courtyard should have been lively and colorful.
The wind blew past, making the plants sway under the sunlight.
The loneliness felt like water.
Xie Xun stood there in a daze for a while before carrying the family portrait under the covered walkway.
He used his fingerprint to open the door.
The large, empty living room immediately greeted him with a heavy silence.
It had the feeling of a place that was regularly cleaned but no longer lived in.
He frowned.
He didn’t like it.
A large section of the living room wall was completely bare, but there was a clear rectangular mark on it, as if a huge painting had once hung there.
The painting was gone, leaving behind only the outline of where it had once been.
What had it been?
Xie Xun lowered his eyes to the family portrait beside him.
A wedding photo.
A wedding photo of him and Lu Xiaoqiao.
Why was it gone?
Xie Xun placed the family portrait on the sofa and continued looking around the villa.
There were traces of a woman and a child in every corner. It was obvious who the owners were.
The staircase leading to the second floor had been blocked off. There was an elevator beside it.
Xie Xun’s first thought was that it had probably been blocked off to prevent Tutu from falling while going up and down the stairs, so they used the elevator instead.
The master bedroom was on the second floor.
When Xie Xun pushed open the door, sunlight and a gentle breeze flowed toward him.
Suddenly, he became dizzy, and his hand gripped the doorframe tightly.
Someone was speaking beside his ear.
There was a faint sound of crying.
Almost pleading.
“We should part peacefully. Please don’t frighten the child, okay?”
“No.”
Xie Xun heard his own voice.
It was filled with extreme restraint, with madness on the verge of breaking loose.
“I love you. I love you. Baby, you can’t leave me.”
A burst of hitting and screaming followed.
Xie Xun’s body went rigid.
The bedroom was clearly empty, yet fragments of images flashed before his eyes.
He still couldn’t remember anything.
But fear entered his heart first.
Xie Xun turned around and hurried away.