Su Yang stood in a daze for a few seconds in front of the bathroom door with Xu Lize's phone in her hand. It wasn't until the sound of running water came from inside that she walked dazedly to the bedside, took out the charger, and plugged the phone in.
The moment the black screen lit up, out of the corner of her eye, Su Yang caught sight of two missed calls on the phone. The name on the display made her catch her breath.
Ren Sijia.
These three wonderful words seemed like a long - forgotten key that suddenly opened the window of her memory.
She must have heard or seen this name somewhere. These three beautiful words carried a touch of the coquettishness of a wealthy overseas - educated young lady from the old days, making Su Yang feel as if she was very familiar with it.
Just as she was thinking, Xu Lize's phone suddenly vibrated. The abrupt ringing overshadowed the sound of Xu Lize taking a shower in the bathroom. It was like a series of death knells, making Su Yang's heart pound with fear.
At this moment, the bathroom door was suddenly yanked open by Xu Lize from inside. The man was covered in steaming water vapor. He walked out of the bathroom while wiping his hair.
Su Yang turned around and glanced at him, then pointed at the charging phone. "There's a call."
Xu Lize tossed the towel onto the chest of drawers, leaned over to take a look, and then simply turned the phone off.
The room fell silent again. Su Yang was a bit surprised. Just as she was about to ask him why he didn't answer the call, suddenly she felt the mattress beside her sink. Xu Lize had lifted one leg and sat directly opposite her.
There were still tiny water droplets on the ends of the man's slightly long hair. His eyelashes fluttered like a raven's feathers, and his perfectly contoured face was as cold and noble as the first snow in winter, making people shrink back in awe.
Su Yang felt a sense of oppression and unconsciously shifted her body backward. Her back hit the headboard of the bed.
"Why didn't you answer the phone?" What was coming was bound to come. Meeting each other's eyes, Xu Lize was the first to speak.
Su Yang unconsciously swallowed and reached out to grab the collar of her pajamas. She forced herself to say, "I didn't hear the phone."
"You didn't hear the phone all night?" Xu Lize felt his anger had nowhere to go. The punch he was supposed to throw seemed to hit a big puff of cotton wool, all dissipating into nothing.
"Yeah." Su Yang nodded.
"What were you doing all night?" Xu Lize frowned.
"… Having dinner with someone." The little woman's voice gradually softened.
"With whom?"
"Gu... Xuyan."
Xu Lize squinted his eyes. He never expected these three words to come out of Su Yang's mouth.
"Gu Xuyan from Yongye Real Estate?" He couldn't believe it and double - checked.
Su Yang nodded. She lifted her eyes to look at him and then said, "He met me in the hospital and helped me a bit. And the kid was there too. He said he wanted to thank me, so he invited me to dinner."
"What did he help you with?" Xu Lize slightly parted his thin lips, crossing his arms and waiting.
Su Yang blinked. Suddenly, she felt some words stuck in her throat. She wanted to say something but then thought it was meaningless. After a dozen seconds, she gently shook her head and said, "It's nothing. Just small things. It's already solved."
As soon as she finished speaking, Su Yang saw the light in Xu Lize's eyes suddenly turn cold.
"Small things, already solved? How were they solved? Did Gu Xuyan help you solve them?"
Xu Lize's rapid - fire questions left Su Yang bewildered. The oppressive low - pressure around him made her even more uneasy.
Su Yang didn't know if Xu Lize's sudden displeasure was because he was in a bad mood tonight or specifically aimed at her.
"Why aren't you talking?" Xu Lize looked at her, unable to hide his anger. But he didn't know what exactly he was angry about at this moment.
Was he angry that he had asked her directly but she still concealed what had happened in the hospital, or was he angry that she had had dinner with another man all night without answering a single call from him?
"What should I say?" Su Yang frowned and stared at him intently.
Suddenly, she heard Xu Lize let out a very soft laugh, a laugh that was almost cold and arrogant.
The bright bedroom was deathly silent. The two people sitting face - to - face, whose breaths were not in sync, seemed to be acting in a silent movie, black and white, with a long - drawn - out plot that seemed to be deliberately stretching the time, making people annoyed and running out of patience.
Xu Lize had never been so annoyed by this seemingly endless silence.
Suddenly, he stood up and looked down at her. A fierce look flashed in his eyes. "Su Yang, remember your identity. You're Mrs. Xu now. You're married. I paid a fortune for this marriage certificate!"
In an instant, Su Yang felt something in her heart suddenly shatter. With a "bang", it made her breath short. Her brain seemed to be lacking oxygen.
All the gorgeous and magnificent things in front of her turned into boring black and white in this instant.
The color drained from Su Yang's face. The turmoil in her heart suddenly stopped. An inexplicable sense of inferiority spread and burned all over her body, intense, decisive, and bloody.
The temperature of the air - conditioner in the room seemed too low. Su Yang felt so cold that she shivered.
Suddenly, she slowly stood up. Her gaze rose until she was looking Xu Lize in the eye. There was not a single extra expression on her calm face. It was as if her soul had left her body, leaving only a shell.
"Don't worry. I've always remembered my own identity." She slowly opened her mouth. Her voice was a bit hoarse but steady without the slightest fluctuation.
At this moment, Su Yang felt like she had run a ten - thousand - meter marathon but had dragged her tired and heavy body back to the starting point. It turned out that her being overly sensitive and insecure was never redundant!
Her calm voice finally brought back a bit of Xu Lize's rationality hidden under his anger. He suddenly didn't know what he was doing. He just felt that he had been overly emotional tonight, and his emotional outburst was a bit dull.
In self - reflection, he barely reached out his hand to pull Su Yang, but the little woman took a step back to avoid his touch.
In that instant, Xu Lize saw a kind of deathly stillness like drowning in her eyes, wrenching at his heart and suppressing his breath.
"It's late. I'm going to sleep." This time, Su Yang spoke before him. Her calm tone carried a sense of unfamiliarity. "You've been on a plane all night. You should rest early too."
After she finished speaking, she walked straight past him without looking sideways and headed straight for the door.
The sounds of opening and closing the door were only a few seconds apart, but in these short few seconds, Su Yang felt as if she had suddenly fallen from the clouds.
Those seemingly exclusive favors and those tender feelings full of joy were as short - lived as a morning dream, as beautiful as colorful soap bubbles that would burst at the slightest touch.
It turned out that what didn't belong to her would never belong to her.
It turned out that the gap between the two of them that she had always cared about had never been filled.
It turned out that she had never really understood Xu Lize.