Ji Qingtang unfastened her seatbelt with a click. “He and I are done.”
Watching Ji Qingtang’s departing figure, Shen Qian let out a breath of relief. When he’d asked that question, God only knew how nervous he’d been—the veins on the back of his hand, resting on the steering wheel, had bulged as he suppressed his heartbeat and tried his best to keep his voice calm.
He lit a cigarette but didn’t smoke it, just let it burn quietly.
Then he went upstairs. Looking at the closed door across the hall, Shen Qian’s heart suddenly felt full.
“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for you.”
After saying this softly, Shen Qian turned and went back to his own apartment.
After leaving Shen Qian’s car, Ji Qingtang returned to her bedroom and lay straight down on the bed, her eyes unfocused as she stared at the ceiling.
These past few days, she had deliberately avoided following news from back home, and she had deleted and blocked Lu Xingye’s phone number and all his other contact information.
Shi Qi called.
“Hello.” Ji Qingtang sounded tired.
“Tangtang, how are things going for you abroad now?” Shi Qi asked, sitting in a hanging chair.
Ji Qingtang buried her head in the pillow, her voice muffled. “Pretty good. Guess who I ran into?”
Shi Qi played along. “Who?”
“Shen Qian. Remember him?”
Shi Qi thought for a moment, then said, a little puzzled, “The Shen family’s only son?”
“Mm.”
With Ji Qingtang’s reminder, Shi Qi remembered. Back in the day, Shen Qian had had a razor-sharp tongue, and every time he ran into Ji Qingtang, he would always pick a fight with her.
“What a coincidence.”
Ji Qingtang didn’t think there was anything coincidental about it. Her mind was on something else entirely. She made small talk for a while, but in the end, she couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“Why didn’t you tell me what happened back home after I left?”
A row of ellipses practically appeared above Shi Qi’s head. “You’re the one who told me not to.”
“Even if you had told me, I couldn’t have stopped you,” Ji Qingtang said quietly.
“I didn’t go to the engagement banquet, but Gu Hanshen did. He said Lu Xingye’s face was absolutely awful. He took the microphone and said something had come up suddenly, and the engagement banquet was canceled.”
Ji Qingtang frowned. “He didn’t swap in a new bride on the spot?”
Hearing this, Shi Qi burst out laughing. “What are you even thinking? Even with ten times the guts, he wouldn’t dare. Never mind the alliance between the Lu, Ji, and Xie families—just look at that woman. Does she even deserve the position of the Lu family’s young madam?”
“Even if you threw him away, that doesn’t mean Li Baihua gets to benefit from it,” Shi Qi said resentfully. The name Li Baihua alone—
That last line successfully made Ji Qingtang laugh.
“What, having regrets?” Shi Qi asked.
Ji Qingtang smiled. “I’m just looking forward to seeing the look on his face when he finds out I’ve disappeared.”
The two chatted for a while longer, and after hanging up, Ji Qingtang’s stomach started growling.
She got up to make lunch—lately she’d eaten takeout until she was sick of it.
Once the food was ready, looking at the steaming dishes, her mood inexplicably improved a lot.
She rarely cooked for herself; most of the time, she had cooked for Lu Xingye.
Before she could even sit down, the doorbell rang.
Ji Qingtang frowned. She had just arrived abroad—who could be looking for her? A guess formed in her mind.
She opened the door, and seeing Shen Qian leaning against the doorframe, she knew it was him.
Shen Qian had already changed his clothes and was wearing a black casual outfit, looking wild and devilishly handsome.
“Smells good.” Shen Qian sniffed lightly, though it was hard to tell what he was referring to.
Ji Qingtang said politely, “Is something the matter?”
“My kitchen caught fire. Can I crash dinner at your place?” Shen Qian said with an expression of utter “sincerity,” blinking his eyes for good measure.
Ji Qingtang: “…”
Do I look like an idiot?
She was about to shut the door and go back to her room when Shen Qian, as if he’d anticipated her next move, blocked it with his leg. “We’re partners, you know. Don’t be so heartless.”
Ji Qingtang understood the implication instantly.
A proper smile plastered on her face, she opened the door and gestured for him to come in, while inwardly cursing him ten thousand times over. Holding someone’s weakness over them—honestly, that was just despicable.
Shen Qian: Just wait, I’ll show you what a real beast looks like someday.
Shen Qian walked in, satisfied.
The layout of her apartment was the same as his, only the decorating style was completely different. He glanced down at the shoe cabinet—it was empty. She must have just moved in and hadn’t had time to fill it yet.
He was already wearing the slippers he’d come over in, so there was no need to change shoes.
He followed her to the dining table, where Ji Qingtang brought out another set of bowls and chopsticks from the kitchen.
Shen Qian lowered his eyes and looked at the simple meal on the table, and at the girl full of life sitting across from him, and felt that life was a strange thing.
Just days ago he’d felt dead inside—and now the ashes had rekindled.
He had witnessed scenes like this many times before. But the person sitting across from her had never been him.
His eyes suddenly grew a little moist.
A little red, too.
Ji Qingtang frowned. “What are you doing? I give you one meal and you get this emotional?”
Just how hungry was this guy?
Shen Qian theatrically wiped his eyes. “No, it’s not that. You put in too much chili—it’s making me tear up.”
Ji Qingtang: “…”
Ji Qingtang sat down, and the two of them ate face to face.
Shen Qian ate very earnestly, looking positively delighted, and Ji Qingtang kept feeling like he was dining on five-star restaurant cuisine. In truth, she… had a fairly accurate sense of her own cooking skills.
Throughout the meal, Shen Qian stole glances at her several times. The last time, Ji Qingtang finally couldn’t take it anymore. “If you have something to say, just say it.”
Shen Qian hesitated, then asked, “If Lu Xingye came to find you now, would you forgive him?”
He still wasn’t sure. He was still afraid.
“No.”
Her answer was swift and decisive.
This time she truly wouldn’t. She had come to see it clearly—her past self had been nothing but a hopeless romantic fool. Why had she humbled herself to stay by Lu Xingye’s side?
Wasn’t it better to shine on her own?
She, Ji Qingtang, had the figure, the face, the money—why should she live like an ascetic for a man who didn’t love her?
Shen Qian breathed a sigh of relief.
Ji Qingtang looked at the man eating across from her with a complicated expression. Why was he so concerned about her situation with Lu Xingye?
He was clearly not the type to meddle in other people’s business, yet back in school, anything involving Lu Xingye and he’d have to stick his nose in. And now he was this concerned about her and Lu Xingye…
Rumor had it that before he went abroad, he’d even met with Lu Xingye one last time. According to a certain source, when Shen Qian left, his eyes had been a little red.
Could it be that he actually…
Ji Qingtang suddenly saw the light. She got it. She truly got it!!
He had feelings for Lu Xingye all along.
No wonder he’d always snapped at her whenever he saw her. So she had been the biggest stumbling block on the road of their love.
So that was it.
Ji Qingtang thought back to all those forbidden love stories she’d read before, and imagined the tangled web of love and hate between Lu Xingye and Shen Qian. A wave of melancholy washed over her, and she clicked her tongue twice in pity.
The look she gave Shen Qian turned sympathetic and full of heartache.
Shen Qian, completely unaware of Ji Qingtang’s inner monologue, noticed her gaze from across the table. He looked up and saw the meaningful expression in her eyes. “??”
Ji Qingtang sighed inwardly. It was useless for him to see her as a rival—she was an outsider in this, just like him.
If it had been before, she could have allied with him and joined forces against the other women.
Now, all she could say was: the road ahead is yours to walk alone.
With that thought, Ji Qingtang pushed the plate holding the last chicken drumstick toward him, her eyes brimming with compassion.
“Eat up.”
Shen Qian: “..”