Chapter 59#

Zhao Ming assumed he hadn’t heard clearly and repeated: “Aren’t you two about to hold a wedding? Xiao Rong just called me and said he was going to pick out wedding rings and wouldn’t be coming today. I thought you wouldn’t be coming either.”

The words “wedding” and “wedding rings” appeared so unexpectedly that Qiao Nanqi took a deep breath of cold air. Only after calming down slightly did he say: “Did you perhaps remember wrongly?”

He was somewhat dazed.

Zhao Ming was sometimes lucid and sometimes not; perhaps she was just remembering something from over a year ago.

Even though they hadn’t prepared for a wedding at all back then.

Even though he hadn’t gone with Zhao Rong to pick out wedding rings back then.

But maybe Zhao Ming had remembered it wrongly, getting things mixed up.

Where would Zhao Rong get a wedding from?

But Zhao Ming grew increasingly surprised.

She picked up the phone placed by the side of her wheelchair, flipped through it, and found the message Zhao Rong had sent her.

Sometimes she was too forgetful, so Zhao Rong would usually send her a message after calling as a reminder.

Smiling, she pushed the phone screen in front of Qiao Nanqi, showing him the message Zhao Rong had just sent.

— “I’m going to pick out wedding rings and will be preparing for the wedding these two days, so I won’t be coming for now. Mom, take care of your health.”

Sent today.

Wedding.

Why didn’t he know anything about it?

The person in the wedding couldn’t be him.

Who was Zhao Rong going to hold a wedding with? When did Zhao Rong…

No, Zhao Rong had told him— “I might still date and marry others…”

The back of Qiao Nanqi’s hand, which was gripping the wheelchair handle, was already strained to the point of veins bulging. In his heart, a surge of uncontrollable irritability crashed around.

But Zhao Ming was still watching. He endured it, extracting reason from this irritability and containing his facial expression.

“…How did you know it was me?”

Zhao Ming had clearly mistaken the person.

“Because on the day Xiao Rong told me he wanted to get married, you spoke with him at the door.” Zhao Ming was clearly very satisfied with the matter of marriage, and her eyes crinkled with smiles as she spoke.

Zhao Rong resembled his mother, especially those affectionate peach blossom eyes, which were exactly the same.

As if naturally carrying a smile, it stung Qiao Nanqi’s heart even more.

She continued: “Xiao Rong also said he would bring the person over, and you came just a few days later. So why didn’t you go with him? Don’t you want to pick one you like?”

Qiao Nanqi felt as if every word he answered was being extracted from his own bones and blood, aching in small fragments.

“…It’s fine as long as he chooses,” he said. “I’m okay with anything.”

He couldn’t even deny that he wasn’t the person Zhao Ming spoke of. Because this was his only reliance for standing here.

He also wanted to find Zhao Rong immediately right now.

He was going crazy.

He even felt that everything he had heard so far was fake, that Zhao Ming had remembered wrongly, that he had seen wrongly.

Perhaps there was some misunderstanding in all this.

How could it be, how could it be…

By the small path, who knows which withered branch was crushed by the accumulated snow. In the silence, several crisp sounds of branches breaking suddenly rang out with a soft “clack,” and the heavy snow fell along with the branch into the smooth white snow on the ground.

Clearly it only landed near Qiao Nanqi, yet it felt as if a cold hole had been gouged into his heart.

For a moment, his eyes were empty, those brownish eyes only containing a fullness of white snow. His gaze lost its focus, and he almost wanted to bury himself in this snow.

After a moment.

He withdrew his gaze and slowly pushed the wheelchair.

As usual.

Qiao Nanqi still spoke with Zhao Ming sporadically, accompanying her as if nothing was wrong.

Until Zhao Ming felt cold, only then did he send her back in.

Once inside the house, Qiao Nanqi half-knelt down, looking at Zhao Ming at eye level. His voice, perhaps from too much suppression earlier, was suddenly a bit hoarse: “I have something urgent to attend to, so I won’t accompany you anymore.”

“Going to accompany Xiao Rong to buy rings, right?” Zhao Ming smiled. “Go ahead quickly, don’t…”

She paused.

She noticed Qiao Nanqi’s eyes were somewhat red.

Qiao Nanqi immediately turned his head and stood up: “I’ll be going now.”

He was going to find Zhao Rong; he was going to ask Zhao Rong face-to-face.

There was no wedding, no person getting married.

It couldn’t be.

Zhao Rong had clearly loved him for so many years; he and Zhao Rong were clearly already in love with each other. It was just that Zhao Rong was angry with him. As long as he changed and became the way Zhao Rong wanted, Zhao Rong would come back.

How could Zhao Rong fall in love with someone else?

The moment this thought emerged, it fired ten thousand arrows at Qiao Nanqi, instantly piercing him with countless holes. He couldn’t wait a single moment.

He almost fled out the door.

The clerk at the jewelry store confirmed again that the Mr. Zhao who was currently looking through this year’s new model catalog had visited at the beginning of last year.

The person was currently sitting upright in the reception area, head lowered, earnestly looking at the descriptions and photos on every page. He had taken off his outer coat after entering, and currently wore only a royal blue crew-neck sweater. The faintly visible collarbone elegantly outlined the curve of his neck, and that face was an unconflicted mix of nobility and tenderness.

Even though this was the preferred place for all the wealthy and prestigious people in Yang City to buy jewelry, and it welcomed and sent off many people with extraordinary temperaments every day, the salesperson still couldn’t forget such a person.

What’s more, this Mr. Zhao had also come on such a chilly winter day last year.

The wind and snow were also heavy then, but it was late winter then, whereas it was early winter now.

In a place like theirs, those who come to buy wedding rings twice either want to change to a different style or the person beside them has changed…

Seeing Zhao Rong’s empty ring finger, the salesperson immediately understood.

As she walked over, Zhao Rong was looking through and happened to pick up a call: “Xiao Wu? Is there something you need me for?”

From the other end of the phone, a relatively peaceful voice of a young man first came faintly: “Mr. Zhao…”

That voice was immediately replaced by another deep voice: “Zhao Rong, where are you? I can’t get through to your phone—”

“I’m quite busy right now, sorry. Whatever it is, I’ll talk after I’m done.”

Zhao Rong actually hung up the phone in the blink of an eye.

The phone immediately rang again.

After Zhao Rong pressed it off, he simply blocked that number.

The phone finally became quiet.

Only then did the salesperson continue forward, placing the freshly brought water by Zhao Rong’s hand. “Has Sir taken a fancy to anything?”

“Thank you,” Zhao Rong took a sip from the water cup. “Wait a moment.”

This time, he took the initiative to call someone whose identity was unknown.

The voice of the person who picked up the phone was also very pleasant to hear, with a bit of lightheartedness, but through the phone, the salesperson could only vaguely hear some parts.

She only knew that the Mr. Zhao in front of her said to the person on the other end: “There are too many, it makes me so tired to look. Senior, I’ll buy the most expensive one.”

“…”

“I’ve looked; it’s not gaudy.”

“…”

“…Okay. The second most expensive one is quite gaudy.”

Before the salesperson could react, Zhao Rong stood up and pulled out a card.

He said: “Order two of the one with the second highest price, both in men’s style. Measure my size now, and I’ll write down the size for the other person for you.”

This was even swifter and more decisive than those wealthy young men who brought people to buy rings.

But they had seen plenty of strange situations here, so the salesperson naturally didn’t ask more, picked up the necessary items and went to handle it.

After the payment was completed, that Mr. Zhao didn’t linger at all, tucked his card away and left.

As if coming to this place was only to complete a task.

Not long after Mr. Zhao left, another man came into the store. He was very tall, and in such cold weather, he still wore only a thin trench coat. He had a slender build, deep eyes, and a faint mole at the outer corner of his left eye, which softened the coldness of his person and added a bit of refinement.

The other party didn’t seem to be a regular in such a place; at least the salesperson hadn’t seen him in the two or three years she had worked here.

His expression was very downcast, and his eyes hid some unknown emotions—obscure and somber, as if they would splash out madness at any time.

As soon as he entered, he asked if there was a guest with the surname Zhao here.

For some reason, the voice and tone of his speech gave people a sense of familiarity.

After only one glance from him, the salesperson instinctively said: “Yes, he just left after buying wedding rings…”

Before she could finish, the man turned and left.

Once his figure disappeared from the jewelry store, the clerk recalled for a moment and only then realized where the familiarity of the man’s voice came from.

Wasn’t this the person who had just made several consecutive calls to Mr. Zhao and was ultimately blocked directly?

When Qiao Nanqi, radiating low pressure, walked from the jewelry store to the car, Xiao Wu got out of the driver’s seat and opened the back door for him.

He felt that Qiao Nanqi was truly a bit terrifying today.

Clearly, these days, their Sir had become more and more approachable day by day. But this morning, after Mr. Zhao came to the company, Qiao Nanqi went to the nursing home. When he came out again, his whole person became off.

The pressure was low enough to directly crush a person.

Xiao Wu said tremulously: “Where is Sir going now?”

“You go back…” Qiao Nanqi didn’t even look at him, walking straight to the driver’s side. “I’ll go myself.”

Xiao Wu had no choice but to close the back door and watch him through the car window: “How about I go get a piece of clothing for you first?”

Qiao Nanqi only shook his head.

He simply didn’t have the mind for that.

He only wanted to see Zhao Rong.

The words “wedding rings” from the clerk’s mouth just now seemed like confirmation, completely extinguishing his hope in his heart that everything was just a hallucination.

Zhao Rong was really going to get married.

Zhao Rong had even personally come to buy wedding rings.

During this period, he felt as if he were walking on a tightrope—step by step, carefully. Although he walked very slowly, he was at least steady. It was as if by walking slowly like this, one day, he would still be able to reach the other end of the cliff.

But now, he had only taken a few steps, yet the front was a vast expanse with nothing.

The other end of the cliff had simply left no path for him at all.

Qiao Nanqi rolled up the window and drove directly to Zhao Rong’s house.

But when he drove to Zhao Rong’s doorstep, before getting out of the car, he saw that there were no new footprints on the small path in front of Zhao Rong’s house.

It had just drifted with flying snow for a while when he went to the nursing home; right now new snow covered the path. Zhao Rong clearly hadn’t come home during this time.

Qiao Nanqi’s expression froze.

Where else could he be?

In his heart, a familiar name suddenly popped up.

A possibility that he had felt something was wrong with recently, yet had never thought in that direction, emerged quietly.

A few days ago, Lu Xingping told him he was getting married, and the wedding would be soon.

On the same day, Zhao Rong posted an update expressing his mood, telling him there was good news.

And the increasing frequency of Zhao Rong coming to Lu Xingping’s house after moving out of his own… The way the two of them communicated and laughed as if no one else was around on the night something happened to Lu Xiaoyue.

Even the people Liu Shun introduced to Zhao Rong twice always brought him some sense of familiarity. At the time he didn’t know why, but right now, comparing those two people with Lu Xingping, the similarities were exceptionally clear.

These scattered fragments finally pieced together bit by bit in his mind.

When Qiao Nanqi saw Zhao Rong’s car at the door of Lu Xingping’s house, it finally pieced together into a complete fact.

After getting out of the car, he rushed to the door and raised his hand to knock.

But at the moment his knuckles were about to fall on the door, he suddenly pulled back his hand.

— What about after knocking?

Like a clown, in front of Lu Xingping, asking Zhao Rong if he no longer liked him, asking Zhao Rong if he was going to be with someone else?

That would truly be…

Too ridiculous.

He wanted to rush in immediately like he was crazy, yet he simply couldn’t do it as if he were crazy.

Crazy and suppressed.

After a long while.

He stood outside the door and staggered back two steps.

Thorns grew everywhere in his heart, and ten thousand sharp blades emerged, falling without any pattern. Amidst the chaos, he originally had many words and thoughts, but this turmoil finally settled into the fact that was inserted into his heart like a sharp sword.

Zhao Rong was going to marry Lu Xingping.