"Do you think I'd bring Yaoyao to live here?"
Jiang Li lowered her eyes and remained silent.
That was indeed her first thought, but after his sarcasm, she came to her senses.
Right, how could Xiao Yanzhi bring Qin Yaoyao to the place where she had lived for four years?
It would be an eyesore.
Who would want to live in a house with traces of another woman?
Jiang Li's lips twitched, but in the end, she said nothing.
"Come in," Xiao Yanzhi said flatly when he saw her standing still at the door. "Are you planning to be the door god?"
Reminded by him, Jiang Li subconsciously stepped inside a few paces but still kept her distance from him. "Thank you for what you did about Jiang Yi."
"But if something like this happens again in the future, just kick him out."
Xiao Yanzhi stood up. Wearing a black shirt and long pants, he slowly walked towards her.
"I don't want to discuss things that have already been resolved," Xiao Yanzhi said in a deep voice. His eyes swept over hers as he asked indifferently, "Are you all recovered?"
Jiang Li looked at his face and nodded. "The doctor said I can go home to recuperate. I just need to watch my diet."
Although she said she was fine, she wasn't fully recovered. Her voice was still slightly hoarse when she spoke, with an unconscious charm.
Xiao Yanzhi leaned against the sofa, bent his fingers, and tapped twice irregularly. "Stay at Ruiyuan tonight and go to the Xiao family early tomorrow morning."
Jiang Li lowered her eyes and wanted to insist. "No, I don't have my things here. It's better for me to go back."
"You won't make it in time," Xiao Yanzhi said indifferently. "It takes three hours to drive to the Xiao family. You know that."
Jiang Li said, "I can get up early tomorrow morning. If it's inconvenient for you, I can find my own way to the Xiao family. We can meet at the Xiao family's gate then."
Xiao Yanzhi's eyes darkened slightly. "Jiang Li, what are you afraid of?"
Saying that, he took a step forward. The tip of his shoe touched between her feet. Looking down at her in an extremely oppressive posture, he said, "You lived here for four years. Are you still bothered by staying one more night?"
His sudden approach made Jiang Li's breath hitch. She instinctively wanted to escape, but there was no way out behind her.
Xiao Yanzhi was always like this. He would always trap her in a corner where she had nowhere to run before she even realized it.
It was the same with their feelings.
"I think it's inappropriate," Jiang Li took a breath and looked at Xiao Yanzhi.
He still wore the perfume she had given him. The familiar, faint, and cold cedar scent filled her nostrils. The smell of tobacco on him was gone, which made her nerves relax a little.
Xiao Yanzhi frowned. "What's inappropriate?"
Jiang Li pursed her lips and continued calmly, "Aren't you afraid that Qin Yaoyao will know and get angry with you?"
Hearing this, Xiao Yanzhi's tense expression softened slightly. He even smiled. "She won't."
His tone was confident and natural.
Jiang Li felt a tightness in her chest. She could sense the doting in Xiao Yanzhi's tone when he said this.
It was like a boyfriend complimenting his girlfriend on how beautiful she was.
She felt exhausted.
"But I still think it's inappropriate," she said calmly. "It's really improper for a man and a woman to be alone in a room."
Saying that, she tried to push Xiao Yanzhi away and was about to open the door and leave.
She had agreed to come, not to spend the night with Xiao Yanzhi, but to clarify everything.
"Mr. Xiao, thank you for everything you've done for me. So I'll go back to the Xiao family to deal with the relatives as you asked. But I won't stay here tonight."
She looked up at the clock. "The doctor said I need to rest well and not overwork myself. I'll leave now."
After saying that, she put on her mask and sunglasses and was about to take a taxi back to her place.
But she never expected that in such a short time of talking, it had started to snow heavily outside.
It had been sunny in the afternoon, but it was snowing in the evening.
The snow quickly covered the ground, forming a thin layer of frost. The cold suddenly swept across the whole street.
Because of the snow, the whole city became hazy and looked very depressing.
Jiang Li had been in the hospital and wasn't wearing thick clothes.
After standing outside for a few minutes, she was shivering with cold. Her fingers were frozen red, and the tip of her nose was pink.
Ruiyuan was a private and wealthy area. There were few cars and people. It was usually hard to wait for a taxi, let alone on a snowy day.
Jiang Li lowered her head, hiding half of her face in the collar of her coat. Her eyes were fixed on the road, hoping that a taxi would pass by.
She was thin to begin with, and the days in the hospital had taken a toll on her. Standing by the road, her figure looked slender and frail.
But she still stubbornly stood there. In a short time, her body was covered with snow.
Jiang Li didn't remember how long she had been waiting. Just when her fingers went numb, her nose ached, and she almost lost all feeling in her body, a man with his hands in his pockets stopped in front of her.
The snow was already very thick. When he stepped on it, there was a crunching sound.
It was reassuring.
Jiang Li kept her head down. She could only see a pair of black leather shoes under a pair of long legs, with a little snow on them.
He was tall, and his aura slowly drifted down from above.
"Jiang Li, come back with me."
His voice was serious. Carried by the cold wind through the snow, she clearly heard him say, "Come home with me."
Jiang Li's heart suddenly raced.
She knew that Xiao Yanzhi didn't mean anything else by this, but when she heard it, she still couldn't control her emotions.
After such a long wait, it was still him she was waiting for.
Seeing that she didn't move, Xiao Yanzhi gritted his teeth, undid the buttons of his coat, and slipped his hands around her waist, pressing her into his arms.
In an instant, the warmth that rushed towards her made her nose sting.
"Do you have to freeze yourself to death?" the man said coldly. "Don't give me any trouble. I've said this many times."
Outside the coat, the cold wind still howled.
But the snow couldn't drift in. The warmth from the man surrounded her. She greedily tightened her arms around him and could feel his solid chest.
And the steady and regular heartbeat from his chest.
She looked up, facing the oncoming snow and cold wind, and said in a slurred voice, "Didn't you say you didn't want me anymore?"
...
In the room.
Jiang Li finally stayed at Ruiyuan for the night.
After being frozen in the snow for half an hour, she, who was sensitive to cold, urgently needed a hot bath.
When she moved out, Jiang Li had taken away all her daily necessities.
But when she saw her previous toiletries and high - end skin - care products still neatly arranged on the counter in the bathroom, she was a little dazed.
Every item was unopened.