Chapter 511 - 449: Turned Sour
Chapter 511: Chapter 449: Turned Sour
The oranges the Lu Family bought were refreshingly sweet. Xiao Man was thirsty, and since she didn’t want tea, she ate an orange. Her family had also bought a batch for the New Year, but with all the guests coming and going these past few days, they were all gone.
"So? Gu Shaojun and Bai Junfan, who’s more handsome?" Xiao Man asked Yang Liu’er.
"Well, I think they’re both equally good-looking," Yang Liu’er answered with a smile, giving her a sideways glance.
"How can they be the same? There’s something wrong with your eyes."
"Oh, they’re about the same! To each their own. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. When someone’s yours, you think they’re the best no matter what!"
Xiao Man was speechless. ’So Gu Shaojun is just a carrot or a cabbage in Yang Liu’er’s eyes? I really can’t accept that!’
"Anyway, my Gu Shaojun is just better than Bai Junfan!"
Yang Liu’er clicked her tongue. "You’re so shameless. You’re not even married yet, and he’s already ’yours’."
"Of course we’re getting married. That’s set in stone. We’ve decided in our hearts, and we only have room for each other. No one can take the other’s place."
"Yes, I believe that, and that’s how it should be. You two will definitely be very happy!"
Yang Liu’er said this with all sincerity, her smile bright. But as she feigned looking down to peel an apple, her lowered eyelids hid the dimness in her eyes.
Xiao Man saw it clearly and didn’t plan on letting it go. She asked directly, "Bai Junfan is back in Beijing, isn’t he? He’s found you, right? When did he find you? What did he say?"
Yang Liu’er looked up and sighed. "Good heavens, you’re interrogating me like a criminal. Even in the movies, the police question suspects one question at a time."
"Fine, one question at a time, then. Answer the first one."
Yang Liu’er shot Xiao Man a reproachful look and offered her the peeled apple. Xiao Man shook her head. Pouting, Liu’er took a big bite herself, chewed, and swallowed. Then, she briefly recounted how Bai Junfan had come to see her. Her mood was a little low and her tone was melancholic, but her eyes weren’t red this time. In the past, whenever she talked about Bai Junfan in front of Xiao Man, her eyes would well up like two springs, the redness around them lingering for ages. It was quite exasperating.
"He got back to Beijing on New Year’s Eve and only then found out I had already left the Bai Family. He said he was very worried, but he didn’t come looking for me until the afternoon of New Year’s Day. Obviously, Shun Ma and Luo Chunxiang told him where I was. Knowing his personality, he never liked me staying at other people’s homes. If we were visiting relatives and they asked me to stay, he would drive through the night to pick me up and bring me home, saying he didn’t want me to live under someone else’s roof. But this time, he saw me staying with the Lu Family and actually said it was fine, telling me to just stay here..."
"So if he hadn’t done that, would you have wanted to go back to the Bai Family with him?"
Yang Liu’er shook her head with a bitter smile. "I want to be with him, to live with him, but not to set foot in the Bai Family home again. I’d be fine living anywhere else. I was hoping he would still feel the way he used to, that he’d miss me and think of me day and night, that he’d just have to turn around to remember to pull me close and never let go... I don’t know how to make you understand. When we saw each other that day, I was so excited and happy. But in the end, he just left like that, with no lingering, no reluctance. That night... I cried all night. My heart felt completely hollow."
"I understand. In your heart, you and Bai Junfan were already a family. You were wandering outside alone because he wasn’t home and couldn’t look after you. Now that he’s back, you want him to take you with him. You’d be willing even if all he could find was a rundown shack to put you in, as long as it was the two of you living there. But he has no such plans."
Yang Liu’er’s eyes finally reddened. She took out a handkerchief to cover her mouth and nose as a stream of tears fell. She choked out, "I’m so ashamed to tell you this, but if I don’t, Jianling will for sure. You know how everywhere I go, I tell people I have a fiancé? A fiancé with a name, who cherishes me and is definitely going to marry me in the future. But when Bai Junfan came to the Lu Family, he was very approachable and polite. He thanked Uncle Lu, Brother Lu, and Sister Jianling for taking care of me, and he even had things to talk about with Weiwei. But everything he said, every attitude he showed, all pointed to one thing from start to finish: he’s my brother, not my fiancé! The Lu Family knows my background, though. They know the Bai Family is a prestigious household that looks down on my low status, which is why I ran away. Uncle Lu tried to sound him out, but he wouldn’t admit we had a marriage agreement. He only said that he stayed at my home when he was in trouble, and that we have a brother-sister relationship! Sister Jianling joked that he should prepare a dowry for his little sister, saying his sister was old enough to get married. Weiwei even yelled that I couldn’t get married, that he wanted me to stay and be his mom... and you know how Bai Junfan reacted? He smiled and said, ’That’s fine!’ Manman, do you have any idea how wronged and pained I felt at that moment? I thought of a phrase: ’slapping your own face.’ No one has ever slapped their own face as hard, as resoundingly as I have!"
Xiao Man wasn’t surprised. "I’ve told you before, you’re not the one he’s going to marry. Still, the fact that he’s making his attitude clear this early shows he has some conscience. Since he can’t give you marriage and happiness, he should just let go cleanly and let you marry a good husband. That’s for the best!"
With tears in her eyes, Yang Liu’er looked utterly pitiful. "Can’t you stop kicking me while I’m down?"
"He’s already said and done all this, and you still haven’t given up hope? You’re twenty-two now, right? This is the perfect age to get married. If you don’t get over this and end up wasting a few more years holding yourself back, you’ll become an old maid who can’t get married."
"Don’t be ridiculous! I’m not an old maid!"
Yang Liu’er twisted her body and instinctively raised a hand to touch her own pretty, smooth face. It was so wonderful to experience the feeling of being young again. She believed that she would definitely be able to get married in this lifetime, to have a respectable and splendid wedding, to be a beautiful bride with dignity, and to declare to the whole world that she was her husband’s one and only, lawfully wedded wife!
In her previous life, she had a man, so she wasn’t exactly an old maid who couldn’t get married. It was just that she had no official status and could never be with him openly. Before Bai Junfan married Tang Yaxuan, Bai Qingyue wouldn’t even allow her to get pregnant. She took so many birth control pills that her body grew bloated and misshapen, and her digestive system got worse and worse. Her son’s birth was a complete accident. She was about to be dragged to the hospital to have him aborted, but she knelt on the floor and kowtowed desperately until her forehead was bloody. It just so happened that Bai Junfan came home right then and saved the baby in her womb.
’I thought that giving birth to my son, giving him life, was a good thing for him. But what was the reality?’
Yang Liu’er closed her eyes in pain, unwilling to look back on her son’s brief, desolate, and pitifully humble life.
Then her thoughts turned to how Bai Junfan had been seeking her out frequently these past few days. Each time, it wasn’t simply to pour out his feelings of longing for her. His responses to her advances felt more like he was just going through the motions. He seemed restless and agitated, as if he were in a hurry to get somewhere. He was no longer like his old self, who would immerse himself in his love for her without a care in the world. And now, even as he hugged and kissed her, he could still calmly and clearly make those demands, one after another, leaving Yang Liu’er’s heart sour and bitter, turning all her tender affection into something that tasted foul.