After a while, Xin Che received a text message from an unknown number: "Hello, this is Chen Ming. Is it convenient to meet tomorrow evening?"
On Tuesday evening, in a private room at a high-end restaurant, Xin Che arrived early. Chen Ming followed shortly after, and as soon as he sat down, he got straight to the point: "Before Susu's surgery, she didn't even dare to call you. Is that normal? If you can't treat her well, then I'm begging you... give her back to me."
Xin Che quickly said, "It was my fault for making her misunderstand that I really wanted this child. When I see her, I will explain it clearly to her. Thank you for taking care of her the other day."
The two shrewd men knew that, with things having reached this point, dwelling on the past would benefit neither of them. In their small circle, having an influential friend was far better than having a powerful enemy. From then on, neither of them mentioned Susu again. Xin Che frankly shared a lot of industry insights with this romantic rival who had entered the field ten years after him.
On Sunday evening, Xin Che heard the sound of a key turning in the lock. He looked up and saw Susu entering the door. She kept her head down, changing her shoes by herself, and never looked at him. Xin Che got up and said emotionally, "Eight days, and you've finally decided to come home."
Susu still kept her head down: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so willful."
Xin Che stood beside her, tilting his head and looking at her with a smile.
Susu spoke again: "If you want to break up, I'll just take some things and leave."
"I want to break up? Why would I want to break up? Even if I wanted to break up, it would be because you never let me see you."
Susu replied softly, "It's okay, you don't need to tell me why, I'll leave in a bit."
Xin Che asked again, "Go where?"
Susu didn't reply. A sense of grievance welled up in her heart, and tears began to fall in a stream.
Xin Che sighed, stepped forward, and pulled her into his embrace, gently coaxing her, "It's all in the past now."
He wanted to ease her emotions, and said with a smile, "I'll tell you something funny. Your manager ran into me at the company a couple of days ago and turned around and left. I guess he probably found out why you were hospitalized and was afraid I'd say something about him."
He put his arm around Susu's shoulder and led her into the room, "Alright, stop crying. I bought you quite a few gifts these past few days, let's go take a look."
On the bed in the guest bedroom were several large brand-name packaging bags. Xin Che teased, "If I were the one hospitalized and Ji Xiaoran was taking care of me, you would have torn me to shreds already, let alone bought a pile of gifts to coax me."
Xin Che's attitude improved Susu's mood considerably. She smiled and retorted, "Is that the same? I've never seen you do any housework. I can't even imagine how you survived when you were alone."
"There used to be an auntie who would come regularly to help me with housework... I'm looking for her again recently to help you recover." Xin Che raised an eyebrow and added with a smile, "Your housework is much more expensive than hers."
In the following weeks, Susu would still occasionally think about the child she lost and secretly shed tears. Whenever Xin Che caught her, he would always comfort her. One time, he really didn't know what else to say, so he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "When you've recovered... I still prefer hearing you call me 'Daddy'."
Susu's face instantly flushed with embarrassment, and she raised her hand to hit him.
In the year since Chen Ming and Susu broke up, he had never pestered her. Apart from this hospitalization, they had only met twice.
During that time in Shenzhen, they walked hand in hand, cried in each other's arms, and he could feel that Susu also couldn't let go of him. But no matter what he said, Susu consistently refused to believe that they could get back together.
The next time they met was when Ji Xiaoran accused Xin Che of cheating. He could tell that Susu had completely moved on from him by then. After that meeting, he packed up the things she had left at his place and sent them to Xin Che's home, which was also a way of forcing himself to say goodbye to the past.
Before meeting Xin Che, Chen Ming had already adjusted his mindset and just wanted to confirm if Susu was being treated well. However, in the following days, the warm breath Susu exhaled on his back as she threw up and the few tears that dripped onto his shoulder were something he couldn't shake off. He even hated her a little – she clearly wasn't going to give him another chance, yet she still came to stir up his feelings.
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