Chapter 492: You Don’t Need to Explain
Shen Qingyan drove the car into the underground car park. The rain was pouring down in sheets that night, so obviously, she was not going back to her own home. She would stay in Su Li’s apartment.
When they returned to the apartment, they ran into Xiao Luo, who was just coming out of his own unit.
“President Shen, Miss Su. Could I trouble you both with something?” Xiao Luo asked, looking a little anxious.
“You need us to help change the young lady’s clothes?” Shen Qingyan probed.
Xiao Luo nodded. “Yes.”
“Ha… You’re quite the honest guy, aren’t you? This is such a good opportunity for you to take advantage of her, and yet you’re letting it pa.s.s.”
There was a hint of approval in Shen Qingyan’s gaze. She immediately shook her head. “I can’t help you with this. Call an ambulance and have her sent to the hospital.”
She was looking at it from Su Li’s perspective. This was a love rival that had appeared out of the blue, and if she were Su Li, she would definitely be feeling terrible. It was already taking a tremendous amount of effort for her to not fly into a rage, let alone help the other girl.
Xiao Luo frowned. “It’s just a mild cold. There’s no need to send her to the hospital. She’ll be fine once she takes some medicine for the fever.”
Shen Qingyan was growing anxious on his behalf. “Why don’t you understand, Xiao Luo? Does this seem like a problem that can be solved with flu medicine?” She couldn’t help thinking to herself, his relations.h.i.+p with Li was finally progressing somewhere, and now something like this had to happen. Did he want their relations.h.i.+p to be doomed?
Su Li looked at him with her beautiful eyes. “Who is she?” she asked. She had been quiet the entire time until now.
Xiao Luo immediately blurted, “We’re just friends!”
He and Gu Qianxue were obviously friends. Although men’s very nature would urge him to think fondly of such an innocent girl, that was about as far as he would go. In his eyes, Gu Qianxue was no more than a little brat who needed guidance.
“Just friends?” Su Li questioned a second time.
“Yeah. We met in Jiangcheng.” Xiao Luo replied.
Su Li sensed his candor and did not continue questioning him. There was a contemplative look in her eyes as she cast him a final glance, and then she walked into her apartment. At the same time, she glanced at Shen Qingyan and said, “Qingyan, please go to my room and get her a set of clean clothes from the closet.”
“Yours?” Shen Qingyan asked, shocked. She thought, was she really going to be this magnanimous?
“Of course. She’s more or less my size, so my clothes should fit her.”
Su Li turned around and said, “Oh, right, get a few bath towels and washed clothes as well. There are new ones in the closet.”
“Alright…”
Shen Qingyan heaved a sigh. If the person involved wants to pretend nothing was wrong, who was she, an outsider to get involved?
…
…
Drying Gu Qianxue’s hair, feeding her flu medicine, and changing her into a set of clean clothes—Su Li did all of this. After doing all of that, she returned to her own apartment without another word. Naturally, Shen Qingyan would not stay in Xiao Luo’s apartment, so she left with Su Li.
“Li, are you just going to remain this calm? The girl came all the way from Jiangcheng, so she’s obviously thinking of him differently, even if he doesn’t think of her that way. Now that they are both confined in the same s.p.a.ce, they’re just like dry wood and a raging fire. It’s really dangerous that both of them are together,” Shen Qingyan said to Su Li, who was sitting on the sofa opposite her, quietly reading a book. Shen Qingyan just could not stay calm.
“I trust him,” Su Li said without lifting her head from the book. “If he really crosses the line, I’ll dissolve our marriage and return him his freedom,” she said.
Huh…?
Shen Qingyan was quite shocked by that response, but she responded with a laugh. “If you really think like this, then it puts my heart at ease, but I know for certain that you don’t,” she said, “Perhaps both of you shared a strange moment when you went to collect the certificate, but you can’t fool me any longer. You’ve fallen in love with him.”
Su Li froze when she heard those words, and her gaze got out of focus momentarily.
Seeing Su Li’s reaction, Shen Qingyan brushed the matter off with a wave of her hand and said, “Forget it, I’ll stop talking. Talking too much is only going to make me seem like a gossiper. I’m going to shower. I need to check my phone later to see if there are any doc.u.ments the company needs me to sign.”
After speaking, she headed up to the shower.
…
…
Xiao Luo placed a hot towel on Gu Qianxue’s forehead. She had taken the flu medicine, and as she was trained in the martial arts, her body recovered after half an hour or so, and she awoke.
“Xiao Luo,” she called out.
“You’re awake.”
“Mmm.”
“Don’t stand in the rain like that next time. You’re a lady, and your body isn’t made of steel,” Xiao Luo chided her. His tone was not unlike that of a family elder.
“But, Mount Tianshan’s much colder than this place, and I’ve never once fallen sick from the rain there,” Gu Qianxue replied.
Xiao Luo said, “Then it seems that your body has grown weak from being in a bustling city for too long.”
Gu Qianxue thought about it rather seriously for a beat, and replied, “Hmm, I guess that must be it.”
“Drink up,” Xiao Luo said, handing a cup of hot tea over to her.
Gu Qianxue reached out for the cup and took a sip, and then looked out the window. “It’s raining really heavily,” she exclaimed.
“It is, and it doesn’t seem like the rain will stop any time soon. It’s a good thing I returned tonight. Otherwise…”
Xiao Luo did not continue speaking. Had the foolish little girl actually stayed out there in the rain for an entire night, there was no way Gu Zhanguo would forgive him. Even that despicable Gu Qianlin would probably make her way over to Xiahai all the way from Jiangcheng just to give him grief.
“Xiao Luo, I’m hungry!” Gu Qianxue cried, lifting her head, staring up at him.
An image suddenly formed in his head. It was the memory of the little girl who had lost her way and when he found her sitting alone in front of a large building. At that time, she had said something similar to him.
“Hold on, let me make you something.”
Xiao Luo stood up and decided to head over to Su Li’s apartment. He had no kitchen utensils here and no food, so there was no way he could cook in his own apartment.
But at this moment, Gu Qianxue tugged at her clothes.
“What’s wrong?” Xiao Luo said as he turned around and smiled.
Gu Qianxue looked miserable. “Don’t leave me alone,” she said.
Gu Qianxue did not tell Xiao Luo how much she had endured when she went against Gu Qianlin’s wishes and headed to Xiahai all by herself, much less the fact that she had run into a lot of trouble. She had gotten her phone and purse stolen, and by the time she reached Crescent Bay, she had been so hungry she was on the verge of collapse. She did not have a single cent on her, and she did not know what she would have done if Xiao Luo had not appeared. This was the main reason she wanted to wait by the main gate despite the rain—she couldn’t afford to miss him if when he returned.
“I’m just going to the apartment opposite to make something for you. I won’t leave you.” Xiao Luo gently pried her hand off his s.h.i.+rt.
And then he turned to leave.
He walked into Su Li’s apartment and found her sitting on the sofa, quietly and elegantly reading a book. Xiao Luo walked over to her. “Thank you for earlier,” he said.
“Mmm,” Su Li responded. She seemed unaffected by the entire matter.
“Her name is Gu Qianxue, and she’s a rather close friend of mine from Jiangcheng, but I can promise you—” Xiao Luo tailed off before finis.h.i.+ng his sentence, but his message was evident. He did not know why he felt like this, suddenly worried that Su Li might misunderstand.
“You don’t have to explain this to me. Don’t forget, we’re married, but only in name,” Su Li cut him off.
She was intentionally riling him up in a desperate attempt to see him fly off the handle and make clear that their relations.h.i.+p was more than a contract. She even wanted to see him fiercely declare that she was his, and his alone.