Chapter 63#

When Xia Yuantu first received Zhao Rong’s call, he thought Qiao Nanqi’s request for reconciliation had simply been rejected by Zhao Rong again. This childhood friend of his was sometimes quite normal and sometimes had an exceptionally bad temper; it wasn’t surprising for things to get a bit strained when he was agitated.

He went to Zhao Rong’s house with the intention of mediating.

However, when he reached the front of the house, he saw Qiao Nanqi leaning against the door from a distance. Flying snow continued to hit him and hang on his hair tips, but he didn’t move, head lowered, thinking about something unknown.

Xia Yuantu stepped forward and called out softly, “Old Qiao…?”

Qiao Nanqi slowly turned his head and looked up at him.

Xia Yuantu was stunned in place.

Qiao Nanqi’s lips were completely drained of color from the cold, and his entire face was pale, except for his eyes which were suffused with a deep red.

Unfinished tears covered the faint mole below the outer corner of his eye, as if staining his entire face with gloom.

The moment he looked up, his gaze was empty and desperate. Upon seeing that the newcomer was Xia Yuantu, his eyes slowly focused.

He retracted all the helplessness, sadness, pleading, and madness he had shown before Zhao Rong, seemingly transforming back into that upright, sharp, and solemn Young Master Qiao.

At first, Xia Yuantu thought Zhao Rong might have been exaggerating a bit.

When Zhao Rong called him, he said, “He’s truly not clear-headed right now; I feel like he could go crazy at any moment, not like his previous self at all. Since you have a good relationship, if it’s convenient, could you come pick him up? Maybe he’ll be calmer seeing a friend.”

Xia Yuantu thought Qiao Nanqi was like back when Qiao Anqing passed away—losing all calm and reason, as if the madness in his bones had been extracted. But now… although he looked a bit sorry from being in the snow, it wasn’t to the point of being out of control.

Was it that his memory had blurred because it was too long ago, or did Qiao Nanqi already know how to exercise restraint?

“What’s going on with you two?” Xia Yuantu was truly a bit confused. “What are you doing sitting here? Zhao Rong asked me to take you back. How about we go back to your place first?”

Hearing his words, Qiao Nanqi turned his head again and glanced at the tightly closed door.

The moment he turned, Xia Yuantu seemed to see Qiao Nanqi’s gaze instantly become obscure.

Although he didn’t know what happened, it clearly wasn’t a small matter.

Given Qiao Nanqi’s stubborn nature, Xia Yuantu had already begun considering the possibility of feeding Qiao Nanqi sleeping pills in water. To his surprise, Qiao Nanqi didn’t continue to be stubborn here but slowly stood up and brushed the snow off himself.

“Okay,” he said.

His tone was light, as if it could be swept away by the wind and snow at any moment.

With a heart full of questions, Xia Yuantu watched Qiao Nanqi get into the passenger seat, then called Qiao Nanqi’s driver to have Qiao Nanqi’s car driven back, before driving Qiao Nanqi home himself.

On the way back, the wipers swayed back and forth, brushing aside the falling white snow. Vehicles on the street moved slowly, the surroundings busy yet desolate.

Qiao Nanqi remained silent the entire time.

He didn’t even come close to the “out of control” description Zhao Rong had used on the phone.

Yet Xia Yuantu still felt a bit of a terrifying quietness. This silence was like vines quietly spreading in the heart, bit by bit, silently entwining and step by step strangling that heart.

It wasn’t a lull, but a dead silence.

As they neared home, Xia Yuantu finally couldn’t resist: “What exactly happened between you and Zhao Rong? Before, you were at least somewhat lost, but now I almost thought this car was heading to a funeral parlor.”

After he spoke, the car fell into silence.

When they reached Qiao Nanqi’s doorstep, just as Xia Yuantu was about to slowly step on the brakes, Qiao Nanqi suddenly said, “Zhao Rong and Lu Xingping are getting married.”

“Oh, so that’s—”

Xia Yuantu slammed on the brakes. The car came to a sudden halt, and under the effect of inertia, both men swayed forward.

After sitting steady, Qiao Nanqi didn’t care at all about Xia Yuantu’s sudden braking. Seeing the car had stopped, he got out and walked straight into the house.

Xia Yuantu waited for a moment before belatedly running to catch up.

Upon returning home, Xia Yuantu looked at Qiao Nanqi’s cheeks which were starting to turn red and used a thermometer to measure his temperature. Sure enough, he already had a fever. Qiao Nanqi himself seemed to have exhausted his energy as well; after returning home, he could initially manage to take a shower, but lay down as soon as he came out.

Truly a misfortune.

Just finished serving a Zhao Rong with both external injuries and a stomachache a while ago, and today another Qiao Nanqi who stubbornly froze himself into a high fever.

These two are truly a pair of fated enemies.

After calling the doctor, Xia Yuantu asked Sister Li, who cooked for the Qiao household, to make some light food. When things quieted down, sitting in the living room, he finally recovered from Qiao Nanqi’s sentence just now.

He immediately reached for his phone with fumbling hands to call Lu Xingping.

— The line was busy over there.

Zhao Rong said to Lu Xingping on the other end of the phone, “Senior, if it really causes you any trouble, please notify me and I’ll resolve it.”

“Are you sure your appearance won’t make things more troublesome rather than resolving them?”

Zhao Rong: “…”

That indeed seemed possible.

But thinking of the words Qiao Nanqi said before leaving, he was still somewhat worried about whether he would implicate Lu Xingping.

He didn’t have much concern about fulfilling the marriage contract at first because he felt that even if Qiao Nanqi went crazy, it would be directed at him, the “one who snatched him away,” because Lu Xingping was getting married. But he would leave Yang City after the wedding, so there was nothing to fear.

But now…

“In short, if it has an impact on Senior, you must tell me. I’ll go explain to him.”

On the other end of the phone, Lu Xingping raised an eyebrow: “Do you think I’d keep it a secret? Do I look like someone who would be that righteous?”

Zhao Rong: “.”

He suddenly felt this phone call was a bit redundant.

The two said a few more words about the invitation and wedding banquet preparations before hanging up.

Lu Xingping put down his phone, walked to an ornamental small greenhouse built in a corner of the study, and performed daily maintenance according to the instructions.

This was something he had set up on a whim recently. There wasn’t much inside, just a few specially paired plants and corresponding ecological environments, as well as a few butterflies that had cocooned but not yet emerged.

Looking at this appearance, they should be about to emerge from their cocoons alone in this warm little world during the season when it’s freezing outside.

The next day.

Qiao Nanqi woke up from his grogginess. As soon as he sat up, Xia Yuantu, who was personally accompanying him, noticed he was awake.

Xia Yuantu immediately took the thermometer to measure his temperature. Deliberately avoiding the matter of Lu Xingping and Zhao Rong’s marriage, he said, “Good health is indeed good; the fever has almost gone down. Don’t court death next time. Waiting for someone outside in heavy snow, is there something wrong with you?”

Qiao Nanqi, having just emerged from sleep, had a muddled mind and subconsciously said, “He also waited.”

“What? Who?”

Qiao Nanqi didn’t answer. He lowered his eyes, scanned the surroundings, and reached for his phone on the nightstand.

Xia Yuantu suddenly came over and pressed him down: “You made such a mess of yourself yesterday. Sister Li cooked porridge for you; I’ll have her bring it in for you first?”

Qiao Nanqi shook his head: “No appetite.”

He intended to pick up his phone again, but Xia Yuantu suddenly called out to him: “Old Qiao.”

Qiao Nanqi looked at him, his expression empty, but even if he was distracted, he still saw through Xia Yuantu’s thoughts: “Is there something on the phone you don’t want me to see right now?”

Unable to hide it, Xia Yuantu had no choice but to say, “Regarding Xingping and Zhao Rong’s matter, it was quite unexpected for me too… but since the deed is done, there’s no one in this world who can’t live without someone else, right? How about I find someone for you, introduce someone with a clean background and a personality like Zhao Rong’s?”

Upon hearing Zhao Rong’s name, Qiao Nanqi’s previously somewhat empty gaze changed sharply, suddenly becoming deep and sorrowful.

He still picked up his phone.

As soon as he opened the notification messages, he saw a message sent to a group by the person handling matters for Lu Xingping on the Lu side.

It was an electronic wedding invitation.

There was also a message from Xiao Wu, telling him with trepidation that the invitation sent over from Lu Xingping’s side had already been placed on his office desk.

Qiao Nanqi’s grip tightened, as if he wanted to crush the phone.

“Old Qiao…” Xia Yuantu had obviously received these as well, which was why he tried to stop him from looking at the phone. Having seen them now, Xia Yuantu still wanted to offer some advice, “Who hasn’t had an ex?”

Qiao Nanqi’s voice was exceptionally raspy due to a night of high fever. “Yuantu.”

“Eh?”

He stared fixedly at the message on his phone, his whole body tense, and said as if he had made a decision, “I’ll destroy the Lu family.”

Xia Yuantu almost knelt before this childhood friend.

But before he could react, Qiao Nanqi slowly lowered his head, masking his expression, and said in a low voice, “I really want to destroy the Lu family.”

Xia Yuantu let out a sigh of relief.

He remembered that when Qiao Anqing first passed away, Qiao Nanqi often said, “I want to go find her,” “I want to go ask her.” At first, he and Lu Xingping were terrified, fearing Qiao Nanqi truly was depressed and couldn’t go on living. Unexpectedly, the more he thought this way, the more composed he appeared in front of others, and his actions became increasingly goal-oriented and determined.

If Qiao Nanqi truly wanted to do something, he would just go do it.

Saying it like this was merely a way of venting something he knew he couldn’t do.

Saying it this way actually meant he wouldn’t do it.

…Was it his illusion?

He felt Qiao Nanqi had changed a lot.

Although Qiao Nanqi’s current state was very poor, if such a thing had happened in the past, Qiao Nanqi would have long since gone crazy regardless of everything.

Xia Yuantu pushed aside these miscellaneous thoughts and said, “I’ll go bring the porridge in for you first. You haven’t eaten all day.”

Xia Yuantu left the master bedroom and went to the kitchen. Sister Li had already finished her work and was waiting for him.

“I’ll do it,” he thought of Qiao Nanqi’s current appearance, “it’s not convenient for others to go.”

Sister Li naturally nodded in agreement.

As he turned around with the porridge, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a row of sticky notes on the kitchen wall. From a distance, he couldn’t see what was written, but he could see the handwriting was sharp and neat, clearly written by Qiao Nanqi.

Sister Li noticed Xia Yuantu’s gaze and said, “Oh, this is written by Mr. Qiao. He’s been learning some of Xiao Zhao’s favorite dishes lately, and then he writes down the ones with complicated ingredients and sticks them here.”

She didn’t know about the matter between Zhao Rong and Qiao Nanqi, and finally added with a sigh, “Xiao Zhao will surely be very surprised when he comes back.”

He won’t be coming back.

Xia Yuantu thought to himself.

He walked back with the porridge. Because he was afraid of spilling it, this young master who had basically never served anyone before walked extremely slowly, with light steps, head lowered with every step.

Walking to the door without a sound, Qiao Nanqi’s low, raspy voice came from behind the half-closed door.

Qiao Nanqi was holding the phone to his ear, clearly on a call with someone.

“…Why?”

“…”

“I just want to ask you why.”

“…”

“Do you really love him? Can you love him more than I do?”

“…”

“Lu Xingping, are you a coward? Is it that hard to admit it to my face?”

“…”

Xia Yuantu waited outside, wanting to wait for the call to end before entering.

But after an unknown amount of time, after Qiao Nanqi put down the phone, he held his knees with both hands and slowly lowered his head.

His whole body twitched slightly, and he suddenly bit his own wrist hard—to keep from crying out loud.

After just a moment, a bright red color seeped from his wrist.

And despite his best efforts, an irrepressible sob still escaped.

Xia Yuantu sighed, set the porridge aside, and walked forward silently to close the door for Qiao Nanqi.

A good number of days passed in a flash.

Those wedding invitations had almost all been delivered to the intended recipients, and the news of Lu Xingping and Zhao Rong’s wedding was already common knowledge.

After a continuous period of flying snow, the weather in Yang City gradually cleared up. Even though the temperature was dropping lower and lower, the vault of heaven became increasingly blue.

Clearly, it would be a fine day on the wedding day.

It was currently midday.

As in the past few days, Xiao Wu brought office documents to Qiao Nanqi’s house—their Sir had been unwell lately and was handling matters from home. He had been running back and forth between the company and Qiao Nanqi’s house every day, even having a spare key to Qiao Nanqi’s house.

Only every afternoon, Qiao Nanqi would always be locked in the study, doing something unknown. If he came at this time, he would inevitably have to wait for a while.

But today’s matter was a bit urgent; he needed Qiao Nanqi’s signature quickly.

After entering the house, he walked to the study and knocked on Qiao Nanqi’s door, briefly stating that the matter was relatively urgent.

Qiao Nanqi’s deep voice came from inside: “The door’s unlocked, come in.”

Xiao Wu entered cautiously.

Qiao Nanqi was sitting by the desk, holding a pen, sitting upright, writing something stroke by stroke.

As Xiao Wu approached, the first thing he saw was the faint stubble appearing around Qiao Nanqi’s lips.

Qiao Nanqi had been… very haggard these past few days.

In the past, although he always made people afraid to approach, he actually still had spirit; sitting there casually, he was always the one who attracted the most eyes. But now… it was as if he had lost his life force.

He handed over the documents. Qiao Nanqi raised his hand to take them. During the movement, his sleeve was pulled back slightly, revealing a deep bite mark on Qiao Nanqi’s left wrist.

Although it had scabbed over, it was enough to see how hard he had bitten when the injury was fresh.

Just looking at it made one’s own wrist ache faintly. Who knows who bit it. Who would dare use such a cruel hand on Qiao Nanqi?

Xiao Wu didn’t dare ask.

Qiao Nanqi looked at the documents for a while, then quickly signed them with a flourishing script and told him he could leave.

Before turning around, Xiao Wu lowered his head and glanced at what Qiao Nanqi was writing.

It was a blank sheet of paper filled with words, clearly all handwritten by Qiao Nanqi.

The words on it were not neat, falling in different places, very chaotic.

And beside Qiao Nanqi’s hand was a whole stack of such papers. Judging from the thickness, there were dozens or even hundreds of pages.

Whether it was the stack beside him or the one Qiao Nanqi was currently writing, they were all filled with four chaotic yet repetitive words.

Densely packed.

All these added up… must have been written repetitively thousands or tens of thousands of times.

He looked closer, and those four words were— “Happy Wedding.”

In the evening, Zhao Rong received more photos from the pet shop employee.

This employee had suddenly stopped for a few days recently, and Zhao Rong thought she had lost patience. Unexpectedly, there were new photos every day again lately.

Clicking on today’s photos, those cats were getting fatter and fatter.

He replied, “They’re being raised so well. I want to discuss something with you.”

“Say it,” the other side replied almost instantly.

“Actually, it’s not quite a discussion, just asking you. I see you like them very much, and I won’t want to bring them home in the future. Why don’t you take them home, if you’re willing.”

This time, the other side was silent for a long time.

Zhao Rong was thinking that he would be leaving after the wedding matters were settled. Since the girl liked those cats, and he had paid enough for all their expenses for their entire lives, why not just let her take them home to raise?

But the other party didn’t reply, and he couldn’t help but wonder—had he misunderstood?

Just as he was about to explain, the other side suddenly replied, “Okay, thank you.”

Very brief.

But this girl had never been one for many words; Zhao Rong had grown used to it during this period.

He sent the nameless electronic invitation Xu Xin had prepared for him to the other party.

“Remember I said before that I had good news?”

He sent them one by one.

“I’m holding a wedding in two days; this is the invitation. If you’re interested, you can come. No need to bring a red envelope; there will be souvenirs at the scene. Thank you for looking at them for me so often during this time.”

Zhao Rong’s intention was just a polite invitation.

If the other party wanted to come and take a souvenir, it could be considered his thanks.

If the other party felt constrained and didn’t come, he had also fulfilled the courtesy of an invitation.

After sending it, Zhao Rong got up to take a shower.

By the time he finished his shower and lay in bed, wrapping himself in the quilt and picking up his phone to take a look, the girl had replied to him with a message.

“Happy Wedding.”