It was already midnight after drinking with Chen Chunyao and the others.
Xu Tingyu had something to do the next day, so she left early. She directly hailed a taxi and headed to the hotel.
She no longer had any assets in Kyoto, so during these three months back, she could only stay in a hotel.
When Qi Ruixi learned that she was staying in a hotel, she warmly invited Xu Tingyu to live with her.
She was now living alone in a detached house with plenty of spare rooms.
Moreover, she also implicitly indicated that it was far away from all the Qi family members.
However, Xu Tingyu still declined. "It's more convenient to stay in a hotel. We don't have a rented office here. It'll be convenient to have meetings in my room then."
This was one reason, as there would be a lot of work to be coordinated.
But there was another reason she didn't explicitly state, which was that no matter how far away she was, there would always be a chance of running into someone.
Moreover, what could be hidden from Old Master Qi?
The fact that she was able to come back to Kyoto to hold a performance was already because the other party had taken into account that she had been well - behaved for the past four years.
If she dared to move into Qi Ruixi's house, she was afraid that she would be thrown out of Kyoto, along with her luggage, the next day.
She returned to the hotel, took a shower, dried her hair, then sat back at the table and started dealing with emails.
Just then, she received a call from Qi Ye.
"You're back in Kyoto? Is everything going smoothly?"
On the other end of the phone was Qi Ye's gentle voice.
Not long after Xu Tingyu left Kyoto four years ago, Qi Ye also returned abroad.
At first, the two didn't contact each other much. Apart from holidays, they only contacted each other occasionally.
It wasn't until half a year ago, when Qi Ye moved near her company, that their contacts increased.
When she came back to China for a tour this time, Qi Ye was quite worried after learning about it and asked her if she was scared.
At that time, her answer was, "After all, that's my hometown. I can't avoid going back for a lifetime. So, even if I'm scared, I have to go back."
Because of this sentence, Qi Ye didn't say anything else.
Now, calling to ask clearly showed that he was still worried.
Xu Tingyu smiled. "Everything went smoothly. I also met Ruixi. She's matured a lot and has the air of a strong woman."
When mentioning Qi Ruixi, the voice on the other side became even softer.
"Ruixi is a very outstanding girl."
Qi Ye didn't stint on his praise.
"Big brother, you're really good at spotting others' strengths."
Xu Tingyu paused for a moment and suddenly praised him.
She didn't mean that Qi Ruixi wasn't outstanding enough. It was just that in the Qi family's patriarchal environment, Qi Ruixi was always the one being overlooked.
Even Liu Ning thought that Qi Ruixi's future was to marry a wealthy man of the right family background, have a few children, and become a rich wife.
With the title of the eldest daughter of the Qi family, they all overlooked the fact that Qi Ruixi had a high - level education, high intelligence, and was already very outstanding herself.
There were millions of such overlooked girls.
And growing up in such an environment, Qi Ye could always affirm them in time.
He was really both gentle and kind.
Hearing her praise, Qi Ye laughed out loud. "That's because you're all really outstanding."
After chatting for a while, Qi Ye said again, "It's already very late on your side. Go to bed early. Have a good dream."
He was always so well - behaved.
When they were abroad, even Xu Tingyu's assistant had gossiped about whether Qi Ye was trying to court her.
Although she was constantly teased and gossiped about, Xu Tingyu had never doubted it.
The reason was simple. Qi Ye had never overstepped the line.
He and she had never even had unnecessary physical contact, nor had he ever said anything ambiguous.
So she firmly believed that the other party just regarded her as a younger sister.
She hung up the phone, poured herself a glass of red wine, and curled up on the sofa. Her body was very tired, but she had no sleepiness at all.
Everyone she met today deliberately avoided mentioning one person.
But when she set foot on this land, the first name that flashed through her mind was still his.
Qi Shifeng.
In the past four years, she hadn't deliberately followed his news.
Others also took her feelings into account and regarded his name as a taboo.
But she could never get around this name in her life.
Moreover...
She took a sip of the wine in her glass and remembered that six months ago, on Chinese New Year's Eve, she received an anonymous email.
There was a photo in it.
Not a single word.
But because of this photo, on Chinese New Year's Eve, she laughed and cried, yet managed to have a rare good sleep.
It was a photo of Youyou.
Although she hadn't seen her child for four years, she just knew that the fair - skinned little boy in the photo was her own son.
There was no need to guess who sent this email.
It was precisely because of this email that she decided to return to China.
Her Youyou was already five years old. She wondered if he still remembered her as his mother.
If he knew that she had abandoned him back then, would he still recognize her as his mother?
Would he still smile at her like he did when he was a child?
In these self - questions, her yearning and guilt for Youyou grew stronger and stronger, almost torturing her to the point where she couldn't live a normal life.
Now, sitting here, breathing the air of Kyoto, she finally had a moment of realness.
She was back, on the same land as Youyou.
Now, although she might still be considered weak in front of the Qi family, as a mother, she had the courage to go all out.
These three months were a kind of trial for her...
After finishing the last sip of wine in her glass, she finally lay down on the soft big bed and fell into a deep sleep.
No matter how broken she was the night before, the sun would always rise as usual the next day.
Xu Tingyu slept until she woke up naturally, worked for a while, then went out.
A few months ago, she had someone investigate Youyou's kindergarten.
The Qi family was very vigilant and sent Youyou to a school with a high - level security system.
It took the private detective a long time to figure out Youyou's schedule without alerting the other party.
He would arrive at the kindergarten at nine o'clock every morning, usually sent by Qi Shifeng himself.
If Qi Shifeng was on a business trip, he would be sent by bodyguards and a nanny together.
He would have lunch at school, and at four o'clock in the afternoon, a nanny and bodyguards would come to pick him up and take him home.
After getting home, he usually read books first, then played with toys, and waited for Qi Shifeng to come back for dinner.
The father and son would take a walk after dinner.
The information the detective brought back was not much, even rather meager.
It could be summarized in just a few words.
After reading it, Xu Tingyu just felt even emptier inside.
The more she read, the more she felt that their life was so quiet, so quiet that it seemed they didn't need her as a mother.
She didn't know if coming back was a good decision for Youyou.
So she decided not to disturb the child for now and just silently watch for three months.
If Youyou didn't need her, she would continue to stay in the shadows and only silently watch over him in the future.
If Youyou needed her, she would spare no effort to bring the child back to her side.
This was her three - month plan.
At this moment, she stood outside the crowd waiting to pick up children from the kindergarten, constantly looking towards the gate.