Conversation

Would a woman, especially a pregnant woman, stand by and watch her husband flirt with another woman? Even if she didn’t like it, in a situation like that, Li Xian should not have been so calm.

Unless Li Xian had known all along.

Yan Yue tapped her fingers against the desk and suddenly thought of something. She called Yan Yicheng. “Yicheng, do you know anyone at the Civil Affairs Bureau? Yes, help me ask about something...”

The matter quickly yielded results.

Yan Yue frowned as she looked at the information on her phone. She had only been guessing that Li Xian and that man had never registered their marriage, only held a wedding ceremony. It seemed that wasn’t the case.

She took a deep breath. At the very least, it could be confirmed that Li Xian’s marriage had been designed from the start; as for why, only she herself knew.

Qin Qingyan looked at the towering modern building before her; the smooth glass curtain wall reflected the sun with a blinding glare.

She walked into the lobby, where the temperature was much lower than outside. The space inside was wide and open, and she immediately lost her sense of direction. At that moment, a woman in professional attire approached her with a smile.

“Are you Miss Qin? Yan Dong asked me to come get you,” she said.

Qin Qingyan said, “All right. Thank you.”

On the way up in the elevator, whether it was her imagination or not, the assistant beside her seemed to glance at her several times.

When Qin Qingyan deliberately turned her head and their eyes met, she asked, “What is it?”

“Nothing... nothing,” the assistant said. “I just think you’re even prettier than you look on TV.”

Qin Qingyan smiled. “Thank you.”

The woman escorted her to the door, then left.

The moment Qin Qingyan saw Yan Yue, warmth she couldn’t quite hide rose sweetly in her chest. Yan Yue was sitting behind her desk, looking at her; her eyes were full of gentleness.

Qin Qingyan walked up to the desk, braced her hands on it, and said with a smile, “It’s only been half a day. Asking for a hug isn’t too much, is it?”

Yan Yue smiled back and nodded. She stood and walked up to her, then took another step forward, placing her hands on either side of the desk to trap her in her arms. The distance between them shrank at once; Yan Yue’s gaze moved from Qin Qingyan’s lips to her eyes.

They looked into each other’s eyes, saying nothing.

More often than not, Qin Qingyan felt that the way lovers looked at each other was more lingering than a kiss.

Her ears warmed slightly. Leaning against the edge of the desk, she lifted both hands to Yan Yue’s shoulders.

Yan Yue had her hair pinned up, with only a few loose strands left at her temples. Her neck was fair; Qin Qingyan couldn’t help reaching out to touch her collarbone.

Her movement was slow, whether intentionally or not. The soft pads of her fingers slid over the skin above it as if she were playing some amusing game, testing it over and over without tiring.

“Qin Qingyan.” Yan Yue’s voice was husky; the hand beside her tightened. “What you owe now will have to be paid back later.”

“Why wait until later? Why not now?” Qin Qingyan’s eyes flickered.

Yan Yue smiled, lowered her head, and found her lips, kissing her carefully.

One kiss after another; as they kept kissing, both of them laughed, though neither of them knew exactly what was so funny.

Foreheads touching, noses brushing, breaths tangled together.

Qin Qingyan opened her eyes and met a pair of eyes that were full of desire, yet tightly restrained.

Something in her heart seemed to have been struck; it went soft and floaty, and words were about to spill out of her mouth.

At that moment, Yan Yue drew in a breath, stepped back, and turned to look outside. Before long, the woman who had brought Qin Qingyan up earlier knocked and came in.

“Yan Dong, here are the materials you requested.” Her gaze was properly averted, not wandering.

“Mhm.”

Qin Qingyan gripped the edge of the desk tightly, steadying her breathing.

Yan Yue said to her, “Wait half an hour. I still have some things to handle.”

Qin Qingyan nodded and sat down on the sofa opposite the desk.

She didn’t have many hobbies; she wasn’t interested in games, and aside from chatting, her phone didn’t seem to serve much purpose for her.

She opened Weibo, looked through a few of the recent hot search topics, then clicked on a post that Su Yan had made for the studio earlier; it was the video of them playing the card game that day.

A smile came to her lips as she scrolled through the comments.

After more than ten minutes, she still felt bored. Looking over, she saw Yan Yue sitting upright, bent over the paper in front of her with focused attention, occasionally glancing at the computer to check something.

Qin Qingyan watched her for a long while, then smiled softly and leaned back in the sofa with satisfaction.

This feeling was really nice.

After Yan Yue finished her work, they went together to a nearby restaurant for lunch.

After lunch, they made a detour to the supermarket to buy some ingredients and daily necessities.

Pushing the cart, Qin Qingyan carefully and skillfully picked out the vegetables and fruit they both liked. Before long, the shopping cart was already more than half full.

“Is that about enough? Do we need to buy anything else?” Qin Qingyan asked, looking at the cart full of things.

“That’s enough. Let’s go,” Yan Yue said.

As they pushed the cart to pay, Qin Qingyan suddenly remembered something and said to Yan Yue, “I’ll pay. You go get the car first. I’ll wait for you outside later.”

Yan Yue nodded. “All right.”

After confirming Yan Yue had gone far enough, Qin Qingyan immediately turned the cart around and headed straight for a certain section. Her face red, she quickly picked out a few boxes, tucked them under the snacks, and then went to the self-service checkout near the exit to pay on her own.

When she came out carrying a large bag of things, she could still feel her heartbeat pounding nervously.

Anyway, they’d probably come in handy someday.

The evening breeze carried a faint chill; when it brushed past, it was neither cold nor hot.

Bai Ruo was wearing a trench coat, hands in her pockets, with a cap and mask on as she wandered the streets to clear her head. She walked without a destination; when she thought it was time to go back, she would turn around and head home. If she had walked too far, she would take a taxi.

It had been like this for the past few days.

As usual, she followed the road, passing several traffic lights. The places around her gradually began to feel unfamiliar. Glancing at the time, she saw she had already been walking for nearly an hour.

It was time to go back.

She raised her head, then froze.

Not far away, Li Xian was also in a trench coat, one hand in her pocket, the other holding a phone call.

As if sensing something, she glanced casually to the right; the words in her mouth stopped halfway, and she looked at that person in disbelief.

She might mistake anyone else, but never Bai Ruo.

The wind lifted the hems of their coats and quickly passed on.

Li Xian took a step forward, then stopped. Bai Ruo was looking at her.

Time seemed to slow at that instant. The people hurrying past disappeared one by one, leaving only the two of them.

But soon, Bai Ruo looked away and, a moment later, turned and walked off. Her back looked lonely.

Li Xian wanted to call after her, but she couldn’t make a sound. Her current identity was a shackle, locking herself in and locking others out as well.

Bai Ruo felt tears sliding from the corner of her eye and sinking into the not-quite-breathable mask.

Looking up at the darkening sky, she thought that eventually it would pass; eventually, she would forget that person too.

The next morning, Yan Yue opened her eyes. The curtains in the room were tightly closed, and everything was dark, making it impossible to tell the time.

She reached for her phone; it showed seven-thirty.

She let out a breath of relief and lay back down, all traces of sleep already gone.

The person in her arms was breathing evenly, with no sign of waking.

Yan Yue lifted a hand to Qin Qingyan’s earlobe, her fingertip feeling that tiny mole there. She smiled faintly and stared at Qin Qingyan’s brows and eyes for a long time.

Carefully moving Qin Qingyan’s hand away from her waist, she got out of bed without making a sound.

After washing up, she quickly prepared breakfast. In the end, she left a note and then went out.

Yan Yue waited on the road Qin Xian took every day on her way to the hospital, checking her watch. About this time.

A few minutes later, Li Xian really did appear in Yan Yue’s line of sight, only this time the man was with her too. The two of them walked one after the other; they didn’t look like husband and wife at all, more like a superior and subordinate.

Following them to a corner, the man said something to Li Xian, then turned toward another direction.

Yan Yue pressed the accelerator and drove up beside Li Xian, rolling down the window. Li Xian was slightly startled; after the other woman gestured to her, she got in.

The car moved slowly. Li Xian glanced at Yan Yue; seeing that she still hadn’t spoken, she asked first, “Mr. Yan, did you come looking for me for something?”

Yan Yue said, “I was just passing by.”

Passing by? Li Xian clearly didn’t believe it.

“Do you have a surgery scheduled?” Yan Yue asked. “Or are you in a hurry to get to the hospital?”

“No.”

“Good.”

She turned the steering wheel and changed direction.

Li Xian looked out the window. It wasn’t the familiar route. “Where are you taking me?”

Yan Yue didn’t answer. Soon, Li Xian found out.

The car stopped; across the street not far away, her husband was eating with a woman in an intimate way, talking and laughing.

Li Xian looked away. “What do you mean by this?”

“I thought you would know.” Yan Yue looked across with interest.

Li Xian said nothing. There was panic in her expression, and unease, but not the anger one would expect from a newlywed wife.

“Your husband is cheating while you’re pregnant, and you’re unfazed.” Yan Yue said, “You’re using your own happiness as a wager; what exactly are you trying to win?”

Li Xian’s eyes flickered, as if moved.

“I haven’t told anyone about this,” Yan Yue said.

Li Xian gave her a complicated look, her lips moving slightly.

“Qin Qingyan used to envy you all, so she couldn’t understand what you were doing. But maybe I can.” Yan Yue said.

Back then, when she told the Yan family about her sexual orientation, their hostility pressed down on her like a mountain, making it hard to breathe. But she still never took a step back; not for Jiang Lan, only for herself.

And if Li Xian hadn’t truly been driven to desperation, she would never have taken such a desperate measure, even at the cost of herself.

Of course, there was another possibility too.

“I don’t think you just suddenly suffered a mental break,” Yan Yue said.

Li Xian suddenly laughed. Her smile was easy, tears glimmering at the corners of her eyes.

“You must think I’m so stupid,” Li Xian said, touching her lower abdomen. “Maybe it still won’t work out after all. She probably hates me to death by now.”

No one knew how much pain she had been in on their wedding day, when she kissed that man in front of Bai Ruo. Her body recoiled with nausea; she had to suppress the urge to vomit while forcing herself to smile brilliantly.

“Why didn’t you explain everything to Bai Ruo?” Yan Yue asked.

“She wouldn’t agree,” Li Xian said gloomily. “Even if I told her everything now, what right do I have to think she’d still be willing to accept someone like me?”

Li Xian continued, “At least things are still going the way I expected. Even if the final result isn’t what I want, that’s not something I can control.”

She faced Yan Yue. “Sorry, but I can’t say the specifics yet.”

“Mhm. I’m only asking a few questions as a friend, that’s all. In the end, this is still your private matter. I won’t tell anyone about today’s conversation,” Yan Yue said.

“Thank you.”