The Day She Never Asked Me to Get Back Together - Chapter 11
Chapter 11
After the storm subsided, Qi Zhaoyuan and I fell into a strange sort of stalemate.
The case was being investigated, old matters were being unearthed, and Grandma had been admitted to the hospital.
Tang Shuyi returned to her life as a leisurely young lady of means, occasionally sending me messages.
“Are you two back together yet?”
“No.”
“Useless.”
I looked at those two words and laughed out of sheer frustration.
But she wasn’t wrong to scold me.
Qi Zhaoyuan stopped pressing me at every turn like he had before.
He started giving me space.
Every day, he still had his secretary deliver breakfast to my office.
When I worked overtime, he had his driver wait downstairs.
When my mother went for her check-up, he remembered the time better than I did.
But he didn’t say a single word about “starting over.”
It was as if he were truly waiting for me to speak first.
And I just happened to be incredibly stubborn.
Words would reach the tip of my tongue, circle around three times, and then I’d swallow them back down.
It wasn’t until a week later that I received a document envelope at my doorstep.
Inside was the complete transaction history for that bank card from three years ago.
Only then did I realize that the subsequent payments for the surgery fees hadn’t come from the old lady at all.
It was Qi Zhaoyuan.
Even the costs for the imported medicine my mother used during her hospitalization had been funneled through several accounts by Ding Qichen on his orders.
At the very bottom was a sticky note.
The handwriting was familiar, though the strokes were a bit messy.
“She’s stubborn. Don’t tell her.”
The date was from three years ago.
I clutched that piece of paper, and tears instantly began to fall.
It turned out that while I thought I had been cruel enough to make a clean break, he was busy protecting me even while he hated me.
I sat in the entryway and cried for a long time.
The first thing I did after I finished crying was change my shoes and head downstairs.
I had to find him.
But as soon as I ran downstairs, I saw Qi Zhaoyuan standing by his car.
He looked like he had just rushed over from the office; his shirt sleeves were rolled up, his collar was unbuttoned by two notches, and he was holding a bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts from the shop I loved.
Seeing my red eyes, he frowned.
“Who bullied you?”
I rushed over and threw my arms around him.
His entire body went stiff.
A few seconds later, he suddenly pulled me tight against him.
“Peng Qingchuan?”
I buried my face in his chest, my voice sounding incredibly muffled.
“Are you sick in the head?”
“Scolding me again?”
“You clearly are sick.”
The more I spoke, the more I wanted to cry.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He was quiet for a moment, as if he had already guessed.
“Tell you what?”
“Tell me that you paid for my mother’s medicine three years ago. Tell me that you didn’t really hate me. Tell me…”
I sniffled and finally forced out the hardest sentence of all.
“Tell me if you still want me.”
The evening breeze downstairs was light.
But the hands holding me suddenly tightened with immense force.
It was as if he had heard the greatest news in the world, yet feared he had misheard.
“Say that again.”
I looked up at him, my eyes red from crying, but I still couldn’t help being stubborn.
“If you didn’t hear it, then forget it.”
Qi Zhaoyuan lowered his head, pressing his forehead against mine, his chest vibrating with laughter.
“No.”
“I’ve waited for those words for far too long.”
My nose felt stingy.
“Weren’t you quite good at waiting?”
“Who said that?”
He looked down at me, his gaze deep and burning.
“I originally wanted to wait until the day you begged me to get back together.”
“But then I realized I couldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because as a person, your love for me is real, but your stubbornness is just as real.”
“If I kept waiting, what I’d eventually receive might be your wedding invitation.”
I couldn’t help it; I started laughing through my tears.
“Then what should we do?”
He leaned down and gave me a very light kiss on the corner of my mouth.
It wasn’t heavy.
Yet it seemed to soothe all the grievances of the past three years in an instant.
“Then I’ll be the one to beg.”
“Peng Qingchuan.”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s get back together.”
“This time, I’ll be the one to pursue you, the one to bow my head, and the one to say everything first.”
“Just… don’t run away again.”
I looked at him, and tears fell once more.
This man.
Even though I was the one who hurt him the most, in the end, he still couldn’t bear to let me be embarrassed.
I reached up and grabbed his collar, pulling him down a little.
“Qi Zhaoyuan.”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t get too ahead of yourself.”
“I haven’t agreed yet.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Then why are you holding me so tight?”
“I’m afraid you’ll run.”
He smiled, his eyes shining like the light in that small kitchen many years ago.
“Don’t worry.”
“This time, even if you try to drive me away, I won’t leave.”
Later, a heavy rain fell over Haicheng.
He and I hid in the car, sharing a bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts that had already gone cold.
The windows were fogged up, making everything outside a blur.
He reached out to wipe a bit of sugar crumb from the corner of my mouth, his movements deliberately slow.
My ears felt hot under his gaze, and I reached up to swat him.
“What are you looking at?”
“Looking at my girlfriend.”
“Not yet.”
“Fine.”
He humored me, but his eyes were full of laughter.
“Then I’m looking at my future wife.”
I turned my head away, pretending not to hear.
But the corners of my mouth still couldn’t help but curve upward.
It turns out that people who have truly loved each other will still find their way back after wandering for so long.
It’s not because of good luck.
It’s because someone couldn’t bear to let go.
And because one day, we finally learned to stop using the person we love to test our courage.
