"You promised. Why did you go back on your word?"
She wasn't distracted by him and continued to ask the question that had been on her mind.
The look of holding back tears while trying to act calm and tough annoyed Qi Shifeng.
Go back on his word?
Did she really think that the Xu family's bankruptcy was because he hadn't lent them the money?
Qi Shifeng found her a bit ridiculous. His voice was as cold as the night.
"Xu Tingyu, do you know what it means for a company to have a cash flow of several hundred million?"
It wasn't just a simple number. There were complex and tedious things behind it.
He didn't have to explain at all.
But for some reason,
after seeing her red eyes and pale face,
he still inexplicably explained.
"I don't know," Xu Tingyu retorted stubbornly. "If you didn't want to lend the money, you could have just told him from the start. Why did you go back on your promise?"
Did he know that
giving someone hope only to destroy it with his own hands was worse than not giving any hope at all?
Qi Shifeng was so amused by her words that he laughed.
He lifted his eyelids and looked at her.
In his deep, dark eyes, there seemed to be a fleeting light, gone in an instant, impossible to catch.
Sure enough, with his elder brother backing her up, she thought she was something, didn't she?
"Xu Tingyu, are you teaching me what to do?"
Qi Shifeng still sat in the half - shadow. His features were sharp and his轮廓 was deep.
This was a face she had been infatuated with, willing to throw herself into the fire for it.
But at this moment, he glanced at her, his eyebrows slightly raised.
The impatience and hostility in his eyes were impossible for her to ignore.
She laughed, until her eyes were wet with involuntary tears.
"Qi Shifeng, so you've always hated me."
It was a statement.
"So ruining my last hope was also a way for you to take revenge on me, wasn't it?"
He knew those four paintings were her last hope to save her family, so he targeted them precisely.
As a profit - seeking businessman, he was willing to go against money just to tear up those paintings and take revenge on her.
Haha, how ridiculous.
As usual, she stood in front of him, her eyes moist but a smile on her face.
It was as if she was saying that the weather was nice today.
But for some reason, there was a sense of despair seeping from her bones.
Qi Shifeng didn't like this feeling. He stepped out of the shadow in big strides, reached out, and pinched her chin.
He stopped her strange smile.
He also forced her to look up, and the only thing reflected in her eyes was him.
"Don't look at me with that kind of look. It's all your own doing."
His deep and cold voice was like the ripples of melted ice - water, spreading layer by layer.
It hit her eardrums and made her shiver all over.
When he got married, he had told her.
Since she was determined to marry him, she had to bear his mood swings.
What did she say back then?
"I'm stubborn. I won't turn back until I hit the wall."
"Maybe by then, the wall will feel sorry for me?"
Wasn't she so obedient back then?
After just three years, couldn't she keep up the act anymore?
Xu Tingyu watched his thin lips part and close. Every word was like a sharp sword, stabbing deeply into her heart.
"Qi Shifeng, are you happy to see me so miserable?"
He actually admitted that he had done it.
He didn't even try to cover it up. He was sure she couldn't do anything to him, right?
She had even spoken up for him when Chen Chunyao suspected him.
Now that the truth was out, she felt like a clown being played around.
The most ridiculous thing was that in the afternoon, she had even thought about begging him.
Qi Shifeng looked down at her.
She also looked up at him.
On her left cheek, there were still traces of the "battle between mother - in - law and daughter - in - law" with Liu Ning.
Her charming and beautiful eyes were filled with tears that were constantly sliding down the corners of her eyes.
"If I'm happy, why are you crying?"
His fingertips traced up her beautiful facial contour and wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes.
But his heart - stabbing words were asked so lazily and casually, extremely malicious.
Yes, why was she crying?
She didn't even know why she was crying.
After extreme pain came numbness.
After numbness, there was a bit of confusion.
Qi Shifeng saw that she was in a daze. Her clear and beautiful eyes reflected him, but they were unfocused, the light scattered.
The tip of her small nose was red from crying.
This pitiful look was so alluring, incredibly beautiful.
It made people want to bully her even more.
"Are you dissatisfied with me?"
He leaned closer to her. His deep voice seemed to come from hell.
"There are countless people in the world who are dissatisfied with me, but you're not allowed to be. Because all this is what you 'asked' for."
The living room was extremely quiet.
Qi Shifeng enunciated every word clearly.
But Xu Tingyu couldn't hear anything clearly.
She inexplicably started to have tinnitus. The shrill whistling sound seemed to pierce her eardrums.
"Qi Shifeng, I regret it."
"I really shouldn't have married you. This is all my retribution."
When people are in extreme pain, they always subconsciously try to escape.
The person who had hit the wall until bloodied finally felt a twinge of regret.
"Regret?"
Hearing these two words with his own ears, Qi Shifeng, who had been vaguely angry, had his dark eyes turn even more sinister.
"Did I allow you to regret? Or is it because someone gave you the courage?"
Her distraught look was an eyesore to Qi Shifeng.
Since it was an eyesore, he wanted to destroy it.
"You pestered me persistently before, and now you say you regret it when you're bored."
"Xu Tingyu, do you think I'm some cheap thing that you can take and discard as you like?"
Over the years, the outside world had said that the new head of the Qi family was cold - blooded, calculating, and deep - scheming.
He seemed to act calmly in everything, but in fact, he was aggressive and always in control.
He rarely showed his emotions.
But Xu Tingyu seemed to be an exception.
In fact, to some extent, Qi Shifeng was almost split when it came to Xu Tingyu.
He was like two different people in and out of bed.
Out of bed, he was always cold.
But in bed, he was very changeable.
Sometimes he was so passionate that he was worse than a brute, and sometimes he was so calm that it was terrifying.
Just like this time, after his anger was ignited, he didn't say another word.
He just threw her onto the bed with emotion and then lowered his head to kiss her.
The blue veins on his white skin stood out on the arm propped beside her, cold and sexy.
Throughout the whole process, even though Xu Tingyu was tortured to the brink of death and let out silent screams,
there wasn't much emotion to be read in his deep, dark eyes. He just calmly observed her emotions,
as if he wanted to see through her.
But what emotions could Xu Tingyu have?
She was like a piece of wood, lifeless, and even her eyes were unfocused.
Qi Shifeng wasn't very interested in her like this.
But he just wanted her to know who her husband was.
She had forced this marriage, so she had to bear it.
He dominated her forcefully, like a wild beast, insatiable.
After a night of torment, just before dawn, he "kindly" let her fall asleep.
Xu Tingyu was too tired, so she didn't see that the man stared at her for a long time in the early morning light.