Chapter 166

Chapter 166

The temperature in Ireland was not much different from Beicheng. If anything, it was a little warmer.

Or perhaps it was because the manor was in full bloom. With her arm linked through Xie Qiyan’s, Xia Wanzhi walked along the flagstone path, feeling as if she had stumbled into spring. Everywhere she looked, spring unfolded in all its splendor.

That was right. The Beginning of Spring had already passed. Spring had come long ago, silently and without warning.

If Liu Shubai could buy up a hundred acres of farmland in Youqin Town and turn it into a sea of flowers to please Yao Qin, then he could also create a Jiangnan landscape for Yao Qin in this romantic city.

This Chinese-style manor, brimming with the charm of Nancheng, was also named Youqin.

It was both Youqin, and you qing-filled with affection.

It held Yao Qin, and it held his love for Yao Qin.

“Please wait a moment, you two.” Someone was hurrying toward them from up ahead. The manor’s butler inclined his head slightly to Xia Wanzhi and Xie Qiyan in apology, then quickly went forward to exchange a few words with the person. Afterward, he returned and gestured for the two of them to follow him elsewhere.

“Madame Yao has just fallen asleep. Mr. Liu will be here shortly.” The butler spoke fluent Chinese.

But clearly, he was a local.

Xia Wanzhi thought of her maternal grandfather, far away in the UK.

Back then, when Ms. Qiao Shu had married into the UK, Mr. Richard had not only hired Chinese chefs to ease her homesickness, but had also required the manor’s butlers and servants to communicate entirely in Chinese.

Now, Liu Shubai was probably doing the same for Yao Qin.

They waited for quite some time before Liu Shubai finally arrived, late and unhurried.

Xia Wanzhi remembered what he looked like. She remembered the scholarly air about him, the sense of talent and refinement that seemed to flow from his very bones.

Only now, the Liu Shubai standing before her had faintly graying temples and looked somewhat weathered.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.” Liu Shubai’s voice was gentle and warm. He must have rushed over too quickly, because even after stopping, he was still slightly out of breath and had to steady his breathing.

Xie Qiyan’s gaze sharpened slightly.

He had no impression of this man.

Perhaps, as the man had said, they had indeed met when he was a child, but Xie Qiyan did not remember.

Their eyes met. Liu Shubai froze for a moment. As Xie Qiyan studied him, he also took in Xie Qiyan’s appearance.

After a long while, he was the first to speak. “Those eyes of yours look like your mother’s.”

Xia Wanzhi had said the same thing when she saw Yao Qin’s photograph.

Liu Shubai looked as if he were seeing an old acquaintance, both reminiscing and sighing with emotion.

But Xie Qiyan’s tone toward him was far from polite. It even carried unmistakable hostility. “Where is she?”

“She took her medicine, threw a bit of a temper, and just fell asleep.” Liu Shubai withdrew his gaze and looked instead at Xia Wanzhi, his tone still mild. “I thought Ah Yao and I would stay far away from all the rights and wrongs of the past for the rest of our lives, living here in our own little paradise. I never expected that you, little girl, would marry Little Ah Yan-and that you would actually find your way to us.”

It just so happened that she had married Xie Qiyan. It just so happened that she had kept that painting. It just so happened that, following the clues, she had found him.

Xia Wanzhi’s brows drew together slightly.

“Perhaps everything was destined.” Liu Shubai was smiling, but there was not the slightest joy in that smile. It looked more like self-mockery.

He had taken Yao Qin and hidden far, far away.

But they had still been found.

Xia Wanzhi understood the implication in his words, and she could not hide the anger in her heart. “So what you mean, Mr. Liu, is that all these years, Ayan’s mother’s whereabouts were deliberately concealed by you?”

Liu Shubai shook his head. “Concealed would be too strong a word. I don’t have that kind of power. After Ah Yao fell ill, she rarely met anyone. Time passed, people changed, and the world is vast. I took her away from it all. It was only natural that you couldn’t find her.”

“You…” Xia Wanzhi still wanted to argue, but Xie Qiyan stopped her.

“Why?” Xie Qiyan demanded.

He needed an answer.

But Liu Shubai only smiled. “Why? What other reason could there be? Because I didn’t want her to die. Because she was gravely ill.”

Silence settled like the cold air today, icy enough to cut to the bone.

Xie Qiyan remembered what he had said over the phone.

After a long silence, Xie Qiyan said in a muffled voice, “I’m her son.”

“But she doesn’t remember you anymore.” Liu Shubai did not deny his selfishness, nor did he intend to admit that he had been wrong.

Xia Wanzhi laughed in anger and cut in, “But that still doesn’t give you the right to deprive mother and son of the chance to see each other! Mr. Liu, what gives you the right?”

If Yao Qin had never once intended to abandon her son, then what Liu Shubai had done was far too selfish.

Yes. What gave him the right?

What qualification did he have?

Those words struck the heart of the matter, like a knife plunged straight into his chest.

At last, Liu Shubai’s calm expression shifted. Hit where it hurt, his pupils contracted, and his breathing grew heavier.

His gaze fell on Xia Wanzhi and Xie Qiyan’s tightly clasped hands, linked because she was defending him. Liu Shubai lifted his eyes somewhat mechanically. “Because back then, Xie Qiyan was only a half-grown child. He could barely protect himself in the Xie Family. How could he possibly have taken care of her when she was determined to die?”

He sighed, then suddenly gave a sorrowful smile. “Every day, I had to repeat one lie or tell another. Do you think I didn’t suffer too? But I had no choice. I was afraid that if I let her go back, she would die.”

Xia Wanzhi could not understand. Xie Qiyan had even less patience for these roundabout words. He released Xia Wanzhi’s hand, stepped forward, and seized Liu Shubai by the collar. “What exactly happened to her?”

As if he had not heard him, Liu Shubai continued talking to himself. “I only wanted her to live. I only wanted her to stay by my side…”

He would not answer. Listening to those words, a fierce hostility gathered between Xie Qiyan’s brows. Just as his clenched fist was about to swing up, Xia Wanzhi reacted quickly and stopped him.

Her heart leaped into her throat. She clutched his arm tightly with both hands, her gaze anxious, yet still a shade more rational than Xie Qiyan’s.

She shook her head, signaling for Xie Qiyan to calm down.

The veins stood out sharply across the back of his clenched hand, blue tendons bulging. The corners of Xie Qiyan’s eyes were tinged red. Only after a moment did he slowly loosen his grip, and one arm dropped to his side as if all strength had left it.