Chapter 1
It was already the beginning of winter, but the weather in Shen City was still warm; with the subtropical monsoon climate, it did not look like a winter at all. When Meng Yu came out of the airport, the sun was shining warmingly on her body, and soon, she was sweating. This was a completely different weather from Yancheng in the north. She took off her coat and stopped a taxi.
As a well-known technology city, Shen City had a unique sense of modernity. This place was not only rich in cutting-edge technology chips, but also a gathering place for technology leaders, especially in the Gao Xin District. One could often see familiar faces that appeared in financial magazines or technology forums.
Heavenly Favoured Garden was a high-end apartment residence located in the south of the Gao Xin District. This was the first high-end residential area developed in Shen City. It was surrounded by three famous science and technology parks on three sides in a fan shape. Those who chose to live here were big shots working in these science and technology parks.
Although the development here was the earliest, the facilities inside were not behind. Face recognition and fingerprint unlocking intelligent anti-theft systems had long been used. Meng Yu went up to the 28th floor and used her fingerprints to unlock the door. The apartment was decorated in a simple dark tone, cleaned and tidy, with little furniture, and the huge space showed a sense of loneliness.
There was no one in the living room, only two sweeping robots were working. Meng Yu vaguely heard a sound from the kitchen. She walked over and saw Xiao Qi cooking in the kitchen.
The man was no longer in a business suit and wearing leather shoes. He had changed into a black sweater and casual trousers. He had a straight figure, which was like a straight pine tree.
Sometimes Meng Yu felt that Xiao Qi was a particularly cold person who was detached from the world, and sometimes she felt that this person was particularly warm and like a very ordinary man from this world.
Just like now, he who was cooking seemed to have a layer of warm soft light on his body, making her want to rely on, so... she walked forward and hugged him from behind.
His body stiffened, but he realized that it was her. He didn't look back and continued what he was doing. "You could’ve told me that you were coming, then I would’ve prepared the meal for two."
"It’s fine, it's too late to prepare now."
He turned off the fire and looked at her sideways, "If you still want to eat something, you should let go of me first."
Meng Yu let go and waited outside. As a great genius in the AI world, Xiao Qi was self-disciplined and well-restrained, but he liked to do everything by himself. As long as he had time, he always cleaned up his home and never mistreated his stomach.
Soon, the meal was ready. It was two fried rice. Xiao Qi's cooking skills were quite good. The fried rice was very fragrant.
After eating, Xiao Qi habitually read a book for a while.
Meng Yu watched TV for a while and felt bored. She simply lay on the back of the sofa and looked at the man.
He was sitting on an armchair with his legs crossed. There was a floor-standing lamp beside him. With the light shone on his face, it made his cold face seem warmer.
Probably reading something serious, his lips were pressed lightly, making his jaw line tightened, but his cold appearance fascinated her the most.
She walked over and squatted beside him, put her arms around his waist and leaned her face on his thigh. Xiao Qi looked down at her and asked, "What's the matter?"
"We haven't seen each other for a long time, don't you even want to say that you miss me?"
She deliberately pouted, looking at him with a grievance. The cold man frowned slightly, and his face became more serious, like the stern and terrifying instructor during military training. Everytime she noticed this face of his, she would feel nervous unconsciously.
"You know I don't like to say that."
Meng Yu stuck out her tongue and rested her face on his lap again. Of course she knew that he didn't like to say these mushy words. He didn't like being close to people, and he also didn't like her to be clingy, sometimes she felt that Xiao Qi was so serious and rigid as an old soldier without desires.
Xiao Qi raised his wrist and looked at his watch, "It's late, you should go and rest."
She didn't move.
"Not sleepy?"
She raised her head, looking at him with a pair of enamored eyes, "I don't want to sleep alone." She said to him coquettishly.
His eyes stayed on her face for a few seconds and then turned to the side, "Then what do you want to do?"
"I want to sleep with you."
"..."
She grabbed his wrist and shook, "We have been together for so long, we can be one step closer."
He lowered his head and turned the pages, his attention returned to the book, "I said, this kind of thing should wait until we get married."
"Then when will we get married?"
"Until my work becomes stable."
It was the same answer every time: wait until they got married, and until the work became stable. But she didn’t know when that would be. He was already the technical manager and vice president of Pangda Leading. Pangda Leading was the leader of the domestic AI industry, as its vice president, his net worth already surpassed tens of millions, so she didn’t know how stable he wanted to be.
She always felt that he just used this rhetoric to put her off.
Meng Yu was a little angry, and went back to the room in a huff, but after sitting on the bed for a while, she still didn't see him come in. She lay down on the bed, feeling angry and frustrated. He was not the kind of man who would coax people. It was hopeless to expect him to coax her. In the end, it would only make her even more angry.
When Meng Yu woke up the next day, she saw the neatly stacked clothes and trousers beside the bed, not the set she wore yesterday. She and Xiao Qi were in different cities. Occasionally, she would come to live for a few days. She also had some clothes here, and the set she wore yesterday had been washed and stacked neatly in the closet.
He probably washed them for her after she fell asleep yesterday.
She looked at the pile of clothes and couldn't help but smile. The resentment that had accumulated last night was gone. She had loved Xiao Qi for so many years. He would always look cold and indifferent, and her affection would not always get his response, she felt that loving him was very exhausting. But there were also good things about him; his excellence, his temperament, his considerateness, and the sense of home when having him around. When she felt exhausted, his strengths would always jump out so that she couldn’t help but love him again.
The sudden ringing of the doorbell brought back Meng Yu's thoughts. Meng Yu wondered who would knock on the door so early. She got dressed and went out. Xiao Qi hadn't gotten up yet, she went to open the door, and there was a woman standing outside with a child in her hand.
The woman was dazed when she saw that she opened the door, and then she smiled, "Are you Meng Yu? I heard Qi Qi mentioned you."
Meng Yu, "???"
‘Qi Qi? Is she talking about Xiao Qi?’
It happened that Xiao Qi also came out of the room at this time. As soon as the little girl saw him, she broke away from the woman's hand and ran towards him. She ran up to him, hugged his leg, and said exactly, "Daddy."
‘Daddy?’ Meng Yun was so shocked, Xiao Qi had a daughter?
The woman was a little embarrassed. She walked in and pulled the little girl away, and said, "Didn't I tell you not to say silly things?" After that, she apologized to Meng Yu again, "I'm really sorry, the child doesn’t know what she was talking about."
Meng Yu was still a little confused, who were those two and what was their relationship with Xiao Qi? She looked at Xiao Qi with questioning eyes.
Xiao Qi said, "this is Elder Sister Ai Qing. She is my neighbor in my hometown. This is Huan Huan, her daughter."
‘Ai Qing?’ Meng Yu felt that the name was a bit familiar. She suddenly remembered that she had seen a photo in Xiao Qi's wallet with the words "Ai Qing" written on the back of the photo. At that time, she had not been with Xiao Qi. One time when they went to dinner together, his wallet accidentally fell to the ground, and the photo in the wallet also fell out. She happened to see it. At that time, she casually asked him who the person in the photo was, but Xiao Qi was silent, so she did not ask more. Later, she never saw the photo again after they were together, and the photo in his wallet was also forced to be placed with her photo by her.
Because it was a long time ago, she could not remember if the person in the photo was Ai Qing in front of her, but since it was the picture that Xiao Qi could carry with him in his wallet, the relationship between the person in the picture and him was definitely not ordinary.
"I bought breakfast, let's have breakfast first." Seeing Meng Yu still didn’t have any reaction after she said that, Ai Qing came over to pull her, "Meng Yu, come and have breakfast together."
Meng Yu sat down at the table, her mind was still a little confused. The sudden appearance of this woman named Ai Qing gave her an unspeakable sense of crisis, which she had never had before. She normally had confidence in herself, but this inexplicable feeling now made her irritated.
She was eating absent-mindedly. Ai Qing and Xiao Qi chatted with each other from time to time. They seemed to be talking about something that happened when they were young. Ai Qing put the crab buns she bought in front of Xiao Qi and said, "this is what you like to eat best."
And as if she thought of something funny, she chuckled, "I remember the first time you ate crab buns when you were a child. You got burned by the hot bun that you couldn't speak, but you still wolfed it down. When I asked you why you didn’t spit it out, you said that it was so tasty, so you didn’t want to waste it. You were really silly back then.”
Then she heard Xiao Qi chuckling. As if she had discovered something extraordinary, she suddenly turned her head, and saw Xiao Qi really chuckling with his head down.
She rarely saw Xiao Qi smile. Sometimes she even teased him deliberately. Although he would laugh, his smile was perfunctory. But now he smiled a little shy, like a young and shy big boy.
She had never seen Xiao Qi like this. He was always strong and cold in front of her. Although he was only two years older than her, his rigid attitude sometimes made him look like he was her parents.
So, seeing Xiao Qi smiling like a shy boy, she was shocked.
After breakfast, Ai Qing left with Huan Huan, but Huan Huan obviously didn’t want to leave. She looked curious and asked Ai Qing, “Why are we leaving? That aunt didn’t leave.”
Ai Qing said with an awkward smile, “Aunt Meng Yu is Uncle Xiao Qi’s girlfriend, she doesn’t need to go if she lives here.”
The little girl was dissatisfied, “Then we live here too, let’s not go, okay?”
Ai Qing looked at Xiao Qi with embarrassment and then to Meng Yu. She coaxed, "Huan Huan, be a good girl, mom will buy you a princess dress, okay?"
The little girl lowered her head, no longer asked, but pouted and looked upset.
Ai Qing said to Meng Yu again, "She is just a kid, please don’t keep it in mind."
Meng Yu didn't say anything, Xiao Qi said, "It's okay, I’m leaving for work as well, so I can send you off."
Xiao Qi put on his coat and said to Meng Yu before going out, "Wait for me at home. If you are bored, you can go out and take a walk. I left you a card in the room. If the money is not enough, you can call me."
Just when he was about to leave with the woman, Meng Yu stopped him.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"I have something that I want to ask you."
Xiao Qi glanced at Ai Qing, and Ai Qing hurriedly said , "I'll wait for you downstairs."
She took the child and left. After the door closed, Xiao Qi asked, "what is it?”
Meng Yu felt irritated. She didn't want to fight with Xiao Qi, but she probably cared too much, so she couldn't control herself at all.
She asked him in a sulky tone, "you like your ‘Elder Sister’ Ai Qing, right?"
Xiao Qi frowned, "what are you talking about?"
Meng Yu sneered, "What am I talking about? She is the girl in the picture you used to keep in your wallet, right? If you don't like her, why did you keep a picture of her?”
"Yes, I liked her. Does this answer satisfy you?"
"..."
Meng Yu stared at him blankly. He actually admitted so quickly, and it was not in an angry tone but a calm tone as if he was telling her that the breakfast was made by him today.
"I still have to go to work. I don't have the time to argue with you here."
He turned around, preparing to leave after saying that, but stopped before opening the door . He turned around and said to her, "When I was a kid, the family of Ai Qing helped my family a lot. She is in trouble now and she needs my help. So I hope you will stop questioning me about her affairs in the future."
Meng Yu stood in a daze for a long time before she finally came back to herself. She slowly moved to the sofa and sat down.
Why argued with him? Why was she alway the one who felt sad after arguing with him?
But... how could he indulge another woman’s daughter to call him father, how could he smile like a young boy just because of what that woman said? She just asked him one question, but he was dissatisfied with that?
Only she was his girlfriend, wasn't she? Then why did he never think about her feelings?
Meng Yu felt exhausted like never before. Looking at the empty house. Her heart seemed to be empty as well.
Although she didn't want to admit it, she always knew that Xiao Qi didn't love her.
The answer was especially clear after seeing the woman named Ai Qing.
Xiao Qi didn't love her.
Even if he was kind to her, she could spend his money however she liked. Even if he was considerate to her, he would give her gifts on her birthday, wash her clothes, and cook for her.
But she knew he didn't love her.
He didn't respond to her love, and would never take the initiative to call her. He didn't care how late she came home after she went out to play with friends, and he never even asked who she was spending the night with.
However, she seemed to have no position to blame him. From the very beginning, he told her that he didn't want to have a relationship, and he had no plans to get married. She had been clinging to him all the time. It was her who said it was okay, and maybe she would change his heart.
She had lowered herself so much from the beginning, how could she blame him for not getting his response?
She could only say that she was too cheap.
But… she was too tired. His indifference time after time, and his unloving, which caused wounds in her heart again and again. She was exhausted.
She got up, packed her things, and sent a text message to Xiao Qi.
"I'm leaving."
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