The atmosphere froze in an instant.
It was as if someone had pressed the pause button on the scene. Apart from Jiang Fuyue, who was still propping up her chin and smiling calmly, Xie Yunqian had already been strangled by embarrassment, she couldn’t even manage to turn her head to take a look.
She only wished there were a crack in the ground she could slip into silently.
Xie Dingyuan stepped forward, walking straight to Jiang Fuyue’s side, and set down the cheesecake in his hand.
Xie Yunqian, sitting opposite them, had already lowered her head in silence, not daring to lift her eyes.
The three of them, no one spoke.
Second by second, time passed, and this corner grew quiet to an almost excessive degree.
“Eighth Sister…”
“Ah Yuan, listen to my explanation!” The moment Xie Dingyuan opened his mouth, the woman abruptly raised her head and cut him off, as if being even a second late would send everything hurtling toward an irretrievable outcome. “Things aren’t the way you heard them. I, I was joking around with Yueyue!”
“Is that so?” Jiang Fuyue crossed her arms over her chest, unhurried and composed. “But I don’t think that was a joke.”
“You…”
“Just now, sister was so confident. Why don’t you dare admit it now?”
“Shut up!” The woman flared in anger and humiliation.
“The one who should shut up is you.” Xie Dingyuan spoke coldly, his gaze sharp as a blade. “White moonlight? You think you deserve that?”
Just a few words, and Xie Yunqian’s face turned deathly pale, her whole body trembling.
Even Jiang Fuyue couldn’t help being taken aback.
She hadn’t expected him to be so direct, so utterly merciless.
But on second thought, this was exactly Xie Dingyuan,
Severe and exacting, meticulous to the extreme.
He might not be gentlemanly, might at times disregard appearances, and could even be completely lacking in grace, but he was absolutely fair and impartial, absolutely clear in love and hate, and absolutely intolerant of even a grain of sand.
Not to mention a clumsy schemer like Xie Yunqian, back when he had first met Jiang Fuyue, hadn’t he also been sharp-tongued and indifferent, cold-faced and unfeeling?
That one sentence, “You think you deserve that,” delivered in his flat, unruffled tone, carried the stiffness of a statement of fact. Regardless of whether the other party was male or female, regardless of their relationship to him, he just flung it straight at their face.
Jiang Fuyue had no doubt that if the one sitting opposite today hadn’t been Xie Yunqian but his own biological father, Xie Dingyuan would still dare to say the same thing.
Low emotional intelligence?
Bad temper?
Terrible personality?
At first glance, it did seem that way. As a man, he was using words to corner, even humiliating a woman.
But was he wrong?
No.
He was merely laying out an ugly truth in the most straightforward, unvarnished way possible.
Did Xie Yunqian deserve it? She did not!
It was like an unblurred horror video.
Sure, it wasn’t very civilized or proper, but it really was satisfying, and genuinely cathartic.
People are social animals, gradually worn smooth by life, becoming rounded and accommodating, but Xie Dingyuan was different,
He was the one that slipped through the net of social niceties, a razor-sharp, frost-cold sword laid bare.
Back then, Jiang Fuyue herself had been annoyed with him to the extreme; now, Xie Yunqian probably didn’t even have one-tenth of her tolerance.
Sure enough, the woman’s face was ashen, her lips trembling, her eyes filled with hurt and humiliation. She even choked up at one point. “Ah Yuan, in your eyes… am I really that unbearable?”
So many years of childhood-sweetheart affection, and in the end all she got were the three words “you think you deserve that.” She didn’t understand.
“What do I lack compared to her?” As she spoke, she raised her hand and pointed straight at Jiang Fuyue.
The latter frowned, she really disliked being pointed at.
Just as she was about to say something, Xie Dingyuan moved first and directly knocked Xie Yunqian’s hand aside, his tone carrying a warning: “Be more polite to her. Don’t point fingers.”
Xie Yunqian felt as if her chest had been stabbed full of dense, tiny thorns. The pain drove her completely out of control. “After so many years of sibling affection between us, you don’t care about that at all?”
“Before I married into M Country, what I thought about and cared about was all you; after marrying over there, it was still you, I…”
“Enough!” Xie Dingyuan cut her off coldly. “What you think of me is none of my business, and I don’t want to know. But I can tell you clearly, before today, I didn’t have much of an impression of you; after today, all that’s left is disgust.”
Xie Yunqian staggered, her eyes widening as if she couldn’t believe it. “You… you’re disgusted by me?”
“From the moment you went abroad and cut off contact with the Xie family, it was clear you’re an ungrateful person, this is the first.”
“You yourself said that what we share is sibling affection, yet you harbored feelings you shouldn’t have, disregarding social ethics, human relations, propriety and shame, this is the second.”
“Warm and enthusiastic to someone’s face, stirring things up behind their back; one face in public, another in private; hypocritical and pretentious, harboring ill intent, this is the third.”
Xie Dingyuan spoke clearly, logically, laying out the three charges one by one.
Each one struck straight at Xie Yunqian’s fatal weakness.
Not to mention that he had never harbored that kind of feeling at all, even if he were to, the target would absolutely never be Xie Yunqian.
What could he possibly see in her?
Selfishness and moral decay? Or being incapable of math and physics alike?
With this series of blows and dismissals, Xie Dingyuan didn’t even need Jiang Fuyue to open her mouth, he had already shoved Xie Yunqian to the brink of shame and despair.
“Ah Yuan, no… it’s not like that…” She even tried to argue.
Xie Dingyuan looked at her coldly, waiting to see what one-two-three-four she could possibly come up with.
“I didn’t deliberately avoid contacting the family. At first it was just out of spite. Mom didn’t agree to me and you… I’m also a daughter of the Xie family. If she truly regarded me as her own, how could she have obstructed things at every turn? Heh, maybe she thought I wasn’t worthy of you…” The woman gave a bleak smile, part weakness, part plea for pity, yet hatred clearly flickered through her eyes.
“Mom looked down on me for not having a powerful family background, for being an orphan, for being of no help to you in your career. Dad actually listened to her too, how could I swallow that? All these years I didn’t contact the family, but did they ever take the initiative to contact me? Not a word, not a question…”
What a neat case of turning the tables!
Xie Dingyuan sneered. “You don’t need to say any more. Since you’re unwilling to keep in touch, then from now on there’s no need to contact us at all. You can consider yourself without relatives in this country, and the Xie family will also publicly deny the existence of an Eighth Miss. From here on out, each goes their own way, with no entanglements.”
With that, he took Jiang Fuyue’s hand and strode away.
Xie Yunqian froze at first. When she finally reacted, she immediately turned and shouted hysterically at the man’s back, “Ah Yuan, don’t do this, I’m begging you…”
But he walked away without looking back.
Xie Yunqian felt as if she’d been struck by lightning, her ears ringing with that sentence over and over,
“You can consider yourself without relatives in this country, and the Xie family will also publicly deny the existence of an Eighth Miss…”
Why did it turn out like this?
She had clearly planned everything. The cake couldn’t possibly have been ready that quickly, how could Xie Dingyuan have come back early and caught everything on the spot?
And what did it mean to deny her existence? Was she being expelled from the family?
All these years, although Xie Yunqian had lived abroad and never contacted the family, the old master and old madam had never said they would disown her.
That was why, over in M Country, she could do as she pleased, act as affected as she liked, after all, she still had the Xie family backing her. Even if she divorced her husband, she wasn’t afraid in the slightest.
At worst, she could just return home and once again become “Eighth Miss of the Xie family.”
But what did Xie Dingyuan say?
No contact. No relatives in the country. Public denial…
She had no doubt about the weight of those words. The Xie family was long since under Xie Dingyuan’s control. If he truly set his mind to something, even the old master wouldn’t be able to stop him!
So this was cutting off her escape route entirely, completely severing ties between her and the Xie family.
Thinking of this, sudden fear clutched Xie Yunqian’s breath, her complexion turning alternately green and white.
If the Xie family no longer wanted her, then…
Her heart instantly plunged into an icy abyss.
……
Meanwhile, Jiang Fuyue was being pulled along by Xie Dingyuan, storming out of the café.
They walked quickly all the way until they stopped by the fountain pool in the plaza across the street.
Jiang Fuyue took a light breath. The next second, she saw the man lower his head, take both her hands and hold them in his palms, like a child who had done something wrong. “I’m sorry.”
“Why the sudden apology?”
“I didn’t know before that she had that kind of intention. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have agreed to meet her.”
“Mm.” Jiang Fuyue nodded. This much she believed.
Xie Dingyuan was that kind of person with extremely clear boundaries between like and dislike. He might hide liking something, but dislike was dislike, plain on his face, written in his eyes.
Even getting a little too close, breathing the same air, would be intolerable to him.
“Did you already guess that she had those kinds of feelings toward me…?” The man cleared his throat lightly, hesitating as he stole a glance at her.
“Hm?” Jiang Fuyue raised an eyebrow, the corners of her lips lifting with obvious teasing. “Toward you how?”
“……”
“Say it? Why are you embarrassed now?”
“Ahem!” The tips of the man’s ears turned a little red. “Toward me… harboring improper intentions.”
“More or less.”
“What do you mean, more or less?”
Jiang Fuyue: “You guess.”
Xie Dingyuan: “……”
Actually, from the way he’d described some of Xie Yunqian’s behaviors earlier on the road, like watching movies together, chatting about celebrities, and so on, it wasn’t hard to tell what this Eighth Miss Xie was really thinking.
All women, who doesn’t understand who?
You can tell at a sniff whether it’s coffee or green tea.
“You’re not angry?”
Jiang Fuyue blinked. “What would I be angry about?”
“The things she said…”
In fact, Xie Dingyuan had heard everything, from start to finish, not missing a single word.
When he left, he had taken one of Jiang Fuyue’s wireless earbuds with him.
The moment Xie Yunqian spoke her first sentence, Jiang Fuyue had turned on the audio pickup.
The phone was placed face-down on the table, and with the earbud in, he was able to listen to the entire exchange.
Tsk…
He’d never thought Xie Yunqian would actually still be hung up on those little things from before the age of six. With memory like that, how was it that her studies had been so bad?
Xie Dingyuan couldn’t figure it out.
So he simply stopped thinking about it.
“When we get back, I’ll let the family know. Anyway, the Xie family has long since treated her as if she doesn’t exist.”
Back then, Xie Yunqian had been selfish and willful, disregarding everything and insisting on marrying abroad. That alone had already broken the old madam’s heart. Afterward, she never contacted them again, which made the old madam completely give up.
One had to admit that some ungrateful wolves really can’t be raised right.
There was also one thing Xie Dingyuan found rather strange, why had Xie Yunqian suddenly contacted him?
Those words aimed at Jiang Fuyue were clearly prepared in advance.
Suddenly, Jiang Fuyue remembered something and blurted out, “You still haven’t answered the question I asked earlier.”
Huh?
The man looked blank. “What question?”
“Who is your white moonlight?”
Xie Dingyuan thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No one.”
“Doesn’t that include me?” Jiang Fuyue snorted lightly, feigning anger, clearly teasing him on purpose.
She thought he would go along with it, generously admit it, and then say a few sweet nothings. Unexpectedly, he solemnly shook his head and replied firmly, “You’re not.”
Jiang Fuyue: “?”
Her expression was already starting to crack, her face darkening a little.
But the very next second, Xie Dingyuan said, “Someone you can’t get but still obsess over, that’s what’s called white moonlight. You can see it but can’t touch it. But you’re my girlfriend. If I want to kiss you, I kiss you; if I want to hold you, I hold you. Be good, being white moonlight isn’t something we should do.”
It’s bad luck.
Jiang Fuyue smacked her lips for a moment, somehow, it actually made a lot of sense?
“Then what am I?”
He thought for a bit. “…A cinnabar mole.” Pressed against his chest, hidden in his heart, something no one else was allowed to see, no one else was allowed to touch.
An existence cherished and protected, loved and treasured, placed at the very tip of his heart.
…
They never got to drink the coffee, and the whole thing ended unpleasantly. Though neither Jiang Fuyue nor Xie Dingyuan really minded, it still wasn’t a happy affair.
Fortunately, it was still early, not enough to waste the good time.
Xie Dingyuan simply went back to that bakery, planning to pack another cheesecake. “I saw online recommendations, this shop really is good, with a great reputation.”
He knew Jiang Fuyue had a sweet tooth and wanted to cheer her up.
Unfortunately, the shop ran on a reservation system. Without an advance booking, you could only line up on-site.
Xie Dingyuan didn’t say another word and went straight to stand in line. Then he turned to Jiang Fuyue and said, “It’s too sunny. Go sit on the bench under the trees across the street for a bit. It’ll be quick.”
Jiang Fuyue refused, curving her brows and smiling sweetly at him. “I’ll keep you company. Two people aren’t boring.”
After saying that, she took the initiative to grab the man’s hand, interlacing their fingers, and even gave it a light squeeze.
Xie Dingyuan instantly felt as if he’d drunk two jin of honey, his whole body, inside and out, radiating sweetness and signals of bliss.
Finally, after forty minutes, it was their turn.
Jiang Fuyue said, “If I’d known earlier, I would’ve just taken that cheesecake with us…”
Anyway, Xie Yunqian wouldn’t have the appetite to eat it; leaving it behind was just a waste.
Xie Dingyuan laughed at her. “Can you have a little backbone?”
“No.”
…
They didn’t settle dinner outside. Instead, they carried the cake back to the hotel and planned to eat at the Chinese restaurant there.
Unexpectedly, the food was quite good.
Especially the roast duck, it actually had a bit of authentic Beijing flavor.
Jiang Fuyue had been eating Western food for several days straight. Suddenly having a Chinese meal, her appetite immediately opened up.
So the tip was especially generous.
The head chef personally came out to thank them. Good grief, he turned out to be a fellow Chinese, speaking fluent Beijing dialect, a genuine old capital native.
According to him, he’d once been an apprentice at a roast duck shop in the old Four-Sided City. After going abroad, he devoted himself to studying Chinese cuisine and, by luck, managed to become the head chef of a five-star hotel.
Way too Versailles.
…
After dinner, the two took a walk for a while. Once their food had mostly digested, they returned to their rooms.
Jiang Fuyue quickly washed her hair and showered, then changed into a nightgown. Just like the night before, she knocked on Xie Dingyuan’s door in a soft, alluring way.
The man held onto the doorframe, seemingly hesitating over whether to let her in.
Jiang Fuyue directly ducked under his bent elbow and swaggered inside.
Xie Dingyuan: “……”
Jiang Fuyue opened the packaging box, took out the whole cheesecake inside, then cut a small piece each for herself and Xie Dingyuan.
It still seemed to be missing something…
Her gaze swept over, spotting red wine sitting in the liquor cabinet opposite. Her eyes immediately lit up.
Xie Dingyuan walked straight over and blocked her line of sight with his body. “Don’t even think about it! Your stomach was hurting this morning, forgot that already? You really don’t learn!”
Right, her period had arrived.
“Ahem… just a small cup. No, a small sip.” Jiang Fuyue pinched her fingers together, indicating just a tiny bit.
The man still refused. “Stop messing around. You shouldn’t be drinking alcohol right now.”
“If cheesecake isn’t paired with red wine, that’s what’s truly a waste. And I really want to drink it, okay?~”
That single “okay,” with its rising tail tone, perfectly captured the essence of coquettishness, especially when the one acting spoiled was Jiang Fuyue.
Its rarity was comparable to a shooting star streaking across the sky.
That blow was practically fatal to the man, striking straight at his soul, shaking his senses.
It took him a long while to recover. Meeting her expectant gaze, he finally conceded. “Fine. Just a small sip.”
Jiang Fuyue happily rushed over and kissed him with a crisp smacking sound. “I promise!”
Yeah, right.
Facts proved that a woman’s mouth really is a lying ghost.
Sip after sip, Jiang Fuyue ate plenty of cake and drank plenty of wine. Xie Dingyuan simply couldn’t stop her.
Maybe because she’d had sweets, her mood became beautiful as well. Jiang Fuyue smiled in complete satisfaction, and then…
She sprawled on Xie Dingyuan’s bed and refused to leave.
“Get up, little drunkard.” The man tugged at her hand.
“Nope!” The girl leaned back with all her might.
That night, Jiang Fuyue successfully stayed over again.
…
After that, the two stayed another four days. Only after touring all the fun places in NY did they finally bring themselves to return home.
On the day they returned, at three in the afternoon local time, the flight landed on schedule at the Capital Airport.
The Han family’s Four Vajra received the news and mobilized collectively.
That’s right, everyone came.
Plus an extra little reckless dog.
“Woof woof, ”
“Look! Yueyue’s out!”
Want to show your support? Go donate at Paypal or Ko-fi to show your appreciation! :)
