Xie Youci felt a turmoil deep within.
Seeing Chi Yang’s originally bright smile vanish completely, he suddenly had the impulse to pull her into his arms.
He sighed softly, “Want to call and ask?”
Chi Yang took out her phone and called Chi Qing. On the other end, faint sounds of arguing could be heard.
Chi Qing left the meeting room before answering, “Sorry, Er Er, something urgent came up at the company, I’m in a meeting and forgot I promised to come over tonight…”
Chi Yang lowered her eyelashes without a word.
Chi Qing tried to soften her tone as much as possible, wanting to comfort her, “Next time for sure, okay?”
Chi Yang gave a soft “mm” before hanging up.
Xie Youci set aside his usual playful demeanor, his arrogant and proud spirit subdued. His voice was incredibly gentle, “What did she say?”
Chi Yang sniffled, “She said she forgot.”
Xie Youci fell silent.
He seemed to find the situation absurd, taking a deep breath as if wanting to comment, but ultimately held back. This repeated hesitation was rare for him.
Instead, Chi Yang suddenly picked up her chopsticks. She lowered her head and scooped a mouthful of rice, “Let’s eat first.”
Xie Youci sat there motionless.
He watched Chi Yang quietly, suddenly understanding more clearly her comment about “liveliness” that day at the Xie family home.
“Chi Yang,” he called her in a lowered voice.
But Chi Yang didn’t respond. Holding the bowl with her left hand, she kept scooping rice with her chopsticks in her right, not touching any dishes, just eating the plain rice.
Xie Youci sighed helplessly.
He called her again, “Chi… Er…”
However, before Xie Youci could finish, he suddenly saw a teardrop fall into the bowl in front of Chi Yang.
His throat tightened, his voice cutting off abruptly.
Chi Yang also stopped eating, clearly choking up a bit. After regaining her composure, she tried to lower her head and continue eating.
But Xie Youci suddenly reached out and snatched her chopsticks. Just as he was about to say something, his peripheral vision caught a few crimson drops—bloodstains on the bowl.
He immediately grabbed Chi Yang’s wrist and turned it over, only then seeing the cut on her fingertip. His pupils constricted sharply.
“What happened to your hand?”
Chi Yang, who had been holding back her emotions, seemed to have opened the floodgates of tears. The sudden concern made her feel even more wronged. She hadn’t lifted her head yet, but the tip of her nose was red.
“I cut it with a carving knife just before getting off work.”
Chi Yang slowly raised her tear-filled eyes. The reddened circles around them looked like paint diluted with water, spreading softly. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and puffed, “It hurts so much…”
Xie Youci stared at her for two seconds, exasperated.
Then he sighed softly, bending his neck to look at Chi Yang’s wound, which seemed worse than when it was first cut. “Wait here for me.”
His tone sounded both stern and gentle.
As if he really wanted to scold her, yet feared making her cry.
So in the end, he could only suppress his frustration at her neglecting herself, getting up to fetch the household first-aid kit.
“This will hurt. Can you handle it?”
Xie Youci led Chi Yang to the living room sofa, rummaging through the medical kit for disinfectants and bandages.
Chi Yang shook her head honestly.
Xie Youci looked up at her. His dark, arrogant eyes seemed somewhat speechless, but meeting Chi Yang’s tear-reddened gaze, his usually proud heart softened inexplicably.
A strange feeling…
A sense of being tamed, subdued by her right before his eyes.Xie Youci frowned with some displeasure, but he didn’t let these emotions show to Chi Yang. Instead, he lowered his head and silently cursed himself for being so useless.
Facing her, he could only sigh. “Then I’ll be gentler.”
But Chi Yang still had a low pain tolerance. As he disinfected the wound, her fingertips trembled with each sting of pain.
Xie Youci lifted his eyes to stare at her. “Stop moving.”
“I can’t help it…”
“Chi Erer, I’m already being as gentle as I can.”
“But it just hurts, wuwuwu…”
“…”
And so, in the living room of Xizi Bay.
The man dressed in an elegant black shirt impatiently loosened the collar he had meticulously fastened to meet his future mother-in-law.
He found bending his neck too tiring.
So he simply knelt on one knee on the carpet in front of the sofa, cradling Chi Yang’s hand. He applied the medicine gently while blowing on it softly. “Is this okay?”
“Does it still hurt? It shouldn’t hurt anymore, right?”
“Princess Chi Erer, please stop crying.”
“We’ll throw away this awful meal. After I finish applying the medicine, I’ll take you out to eat something else, something better.”
“Alright, alright, if you don’t want to go out, we won’t. If you want to eat something, I’ll cook it for you, okay?”
Chi Yang lifted her tear-filled eyes to look at him, sniffling.
She steadied herself and asked in a voice still trembling with barely suppressed sobs, “Really?”
Xie Youci: “…”
“Then I want to eat lobster tail noodles that you make.”
Chi Yang’s eyes still shimmered with tears as she looked at him innocently. “The kind with the shells already removed.”
Now it was impulsive Xie Youci’s turn to choke up.
He remained silent for a long time before slowly coming up with an excuse. “You’re injured, you can’t eat seafood.”
“But lobster is from the river.”
“…”
After bandaging Chi Yang’s wound, Xie Youci rested his elbow on his knee and rubbed his temples with his head bowed.
Half an hour later.
A box of fresh, clean lobster tails he had urgently ordered was delivered at top speed to Xizi Bay.
Xie Youci took off his wedding ring and set it aside.
Those small, hard-to-shell lobster tails were peeled one by one by his slender, attractive hands.
Before he had even finished half, the usually proud and arrogant Xie Youci ran out of patience. He gritted his teeth and hissed through clenched teeth, “I f—”
But he swallowed the last word, forcing it back with tightly clenched jaws.
Xie Youci raised his hand and threw the lobster shell into the trash with all his might, considering that his venting. Then he resignedly lowered his head to continue peeling the remaining lobster tails.
Chi Yang waited until she was almost past the point of hunger.
Another half hour later, a steaming bowl of lobster tail noodles was brought out from the kitchen by Xie Youci.
Chi Yang’s appetite was quickly stirred. She looked at Xie Youci eagerly. “Just one bowl?”
“You want me to peel two bowls for you?”
Xie Youci’s eyelids drooped slightly, his dark, long eyes filled with depth.
Chi Yang shook her head. “No, what will you eat then?”
Xie Youci lazily and arrogantly sat down at the dining table, stretching out his long legs and picking up his chopsticks. He started eating the cold dishes. “I don’t have the leisure to peel this stuff for myself.”
“You eat it yourself, but not too much. Even river food can cause inflammation. Don’t come crying to me if your wound gets infected.”
His tone sounded quite impatient.
His expression was casual and indifferent.But Chi Yang couldn’t detect any trace of anger or irritability from him, as if it was all just a superficial show—in other words, he was simply putting up a tough front.