Chapter 182

Chapter 182

Spring had come to Beicheng. Yao Qin wore a vintage frost-blue suit dress, her neck wrapped in a fluffy fur scarf. When she lowered her eyes, half her face disappeared beneath it. As she spoke with the Old Master, her manner was gentle and serene.

Just as she had been many years ago, the first time he saw her.

Xie Tianqi’s gaze flickered. His breathing was long and slow, yet faintly unsteady.

Liu Shubai, seated beside her, kept his eyes on Yao Qin the entire time.

Just as he had many years ago.

After exchanging a few simple words with the Old Master, Yao Qin slowly lifted her head and turned to look at Xie Tianqi, whose hair was now half-streaked with white as well.

This was their first meeting in more than twenty years.

She had come to see him in a dress the same color as the one she wore when she first met this man, for no other reason than to make a formal farewell.

Farewell to obsession. Farewell to her past self. Farewell to the man she had once loved so deeply, the man who had betrayed her.

Yao Qin had thought she would be lost. That she would be sad, furious, resentful.

But at this moment, there was none of that.

None of those unnecessary emotions remained.

Only a faint calm.

“I want to talk to you.” Her purpose today was simple. She only wanted to talk to him.

To talk about what had happened back then.

The Old Master was the first to leave. Xia Wanzhi followed close behind, holding Xie Qiyan with one hand and tugging Xie Tan with the other. Only Liu Shubai remained beside Yao Qin, fire blazing in his eyes, looking as if he would not let anyone come near her.

“You’re not leaving?” Xie Qiyan called back to him.

Liu Shubai said nothing. He really did not want to leave.

After a long stalemate, it was Yao Qin who pushed him gently. “Wait outside with Ayan and the others. It won’t take long.”

Hearing those words, which sounded faintly like reassurance and made one feel at ease, Liu Shubai finally began moving, looking back with every step.

“Xie Tan, go find Grandpa.” Xia Wanzhi stopped and patted Xie Tan on the shoulder, telling her to leave.

Children were not allowed to eavesdrop when adults were talking.

But adults could.

The corner of Xie Tan’s mouth twitched, but when she met her eldest brother’s fierce glare, she had no choice but to tactfully walk away.

The three of them did not go far, just close enough to hear the conversation inside clearly.

It was Yao Qin who spoke first. “Why?”

Just like more than twenty years ago, she asked only one question. Why?

“I never got an answer back then. I don’t want to leave without one today too.” Yao Qin pressed down her emotions as she questioned him.

Xie Tianqi only stared at her blankly. “Your illness…”

“Thanks to you.” Yao Qin cut off whatever he was about to say next.

She was afraid it would be a word of concern.

Xie Tianqi swallowed back the unfinished sentence and gave a mocking laugh. “Thanks to me? The man who lived with you all these years was him, not me. How is it thanks to me?”

“Yes. Without Shubai, I would have died long ago.” Yao Qin did not argue with him. She lifted her eyes and urgently asked him again, “Xie Tianqi, back then, why?”

Why did you leave me? Why did you stop loving me? Why did you betray me?

“I answered you before.” Xie Tianqi looked at her, but after just one glance, he shifted his gaze away. “There was no reason. I just didn’t love you anymore.”

“It wasn’t that you didn’t love me anymore. You hated me.” Yao Qin’s voice grew lower and slower. If he would not say it, then she would say it for him. “You hated me. Hated me for making you lose wealth and status. Hated me for making you lower yourself to live in a little courtyard with blue-tiled roofs.

“But back then, when I suggested breaking up, you were the one who refused. You were the one who insisted! You were the one who chose to cut ties with your family. You were the one who willingly went with me to Nancheng! Even if you regretted it, even if you hated me… why did you hate Ayan too?” Yao Qin’s voice turned muffled, unable to swallow the ache in her throat. “He is your son…”

She had thought that, at the very least, he would treat their son well. She had thought that with the Xie Family’s wealth and status, Xie Qiyan would live a better life.

After learning what Xie Qiyan had gone through in the Xie Family all these years, Yao Qin felt as though she had been laid across the edge of a blade. She regretted it. Regretted sending her own son into hell with her own hands.

She was furious. Furious that Xie Tianqi was unworthy of being a father, unworthy of being human.

The Xie Tianqi of the past had been so good to Xie Qiyan.

She had thought that, at the very least, he would treat their son well.

And she hated someone else too.

Herself.

In this lifetime, there were only two men she had wronged. One was her own son. The other was Liu Shubai.

She knew herself to be deeply sinful.

Perhaps heaven was willing to give her a chance to atone. That was why she had returned.

Returned to make amends.

“He is my son?” Xie Tianqi finally looked up at Yao Qin again. Whether in the past or now, he was still afraid of seeing her cry. He laughed self-deprecatingly, but there was also a nameless fury mixed into that laugh. “Is he my son?”

As if the massive boulder that had been pressing on his chest for so many years had finally shattered, what burst out were cries of humiliation and rage. “Ask yourself honestly-is he really my son?!”

That shout was louder than the sound of his bare hand slamming against the table. Not only was Yao Qin’s face filled with shock, even Xia Wanzhi and Xie Qiyan, who were eavesdropping by the door, were stunned in disbelief.

After a long moment, Xia Wanzhi mechanically turned her head to look at Liu Shubai.

She studied him for a few seconds, then slowly shifted her gaze to Xie Qiyan’s face.

Trying to find what similarities there were between the two men.

Unlike everyone else’s shock, Liu Shubai’s face held only a fury even stronger than Xie Tianqi’s.

The last of his rationality kept him pinned at the doorway.

He knew he could not go in and beat that bastard to a pulp.

Their conversation was not over yet.

Yao Qin would be angry.

Their gazes met-one filled with fury, the other shifting from shock to disappointment.

“So… that’s what it was.” Yao Qin no longer looked at him. Bracing herself on the armrest of the chair, she slowly stood and looked down at Xie Tianqi.

From above, she looked down at this man.

She smiled, the curve of her lips carrying a hint of mockery.

So the answer she had been seeking all this time was actually this absurd.

The answer was absurd.

And Xie Tianqi even more so.

“What are you laughing at?” Xie Tianqi’s breathing rose and fell sharply. Because of his earlier emotional upheaval, his heart ached faintly.

“You thought he wasn’t your son…” Yao Qin choked out. She could not accept this answer. The tangled mass of emotions in her heart left her unable to breathe.

How laughable.

With difficulty, she forced the corners of her lips to move. “Just because of what you thought, you broke your promise, betrayed our feelings, abandoned your wife… and cast aside your son.”

“Xie Tianqi, I… I was wrong about you. I was lying to myself.” As she clenched her fists, her constricted pupils strained to keep even a single tear from falling. Yao Qin drew in a deep breath.

After a long while, she asked him, “Then who did you think he could possibly be the son of?”