Tan Linyuan looked into Nan Yu's eyes. His eyebrows and eyes showed the calmness that came after careful consideration. "Our emotions were both unstable yesterday. Some things weren't explained clearly."
Nan Yu shifted her sitting position slightly, indicating that she was listening.
Tan Linyuan stared at her, his gaze growing deeper. "My engagement with Qu Jiaran is only temporary. Apart from a publicly - announced marriage, I won't give her anything else."
His expression was indifferent. "The validity period of this marriage won't last long either."
He concealed nothing and believed that after this explanation, his Yu Yu should be able to let go of her concerns.
It was just a hollow marriage, no different from the one between her and Shen Yanche.
Both were in name only, both were mere forms.
What remained unchanged was still the two of them.
After explaining to this extent, he didn't know what else she was still brooding about.
Nan Yu smiled, trying to look relaxed and calm. "Actually, I hate people like this the most."
When she said this, Tan Linyuan's always calm and noble face finally showed a moment of panic.
She said that she hated people like him.
Nan Yu's voice trembled slightly, but she still tried to make every word clear. "The reason I married Shen Yanche was that I was in a subordinate position and I had no choice. Is it the same for you, Uncle?"
Tan Linyuan was stunned.
"You're a god worshipped by everyone. You can always stay high - above and be calm. But you're also a calculating businessman. Everything has to become a bargaining chip for you to weigh your interests."
"The rules are set by you. Whether it's true or false depends entirely on your words. No matter what the outcome is, you're always the superior one, always the winner."
Tan Linyuan frowned slightly. Seeing the mist gathering in her eyes, he gradually held his breath.
The more Nan Yu spoke, the more congested and swollen her chest felt. "But I still don't understand. Does only the result matter when doing anything, and the process is completely unimportant?"
Tan Linyuan's expression remained unmoved, but if one observed carefully, they could notice his gradually tightened jaw.
Her throat was dry, and her thoughts were as chaotic as a pot of porridge. She just said whatever came to her mind. "My name 'Yu' is a single character. Since water is the dominant element in my fate, the fortune - teller said I have a blessed fate that only comes once in a century and can nourish all things."
Tan Linyuan remained silent.
Nan Yu pursed her lips and smiled at him. "It also has the meaning of 'unwavering', symbolizing my parents' unwavering love."
Tan Linyuan didn't know why she suddenly brought up the origin of her name, but he still nodded. "It's a very nice name."
"I think so too."
Because of his recognition of her name, Nan Yu smiled brightly. "When my dad was young, he was just a penniless young man. My mom was different. She was a first - rate beauty even in a crowd."
"At that time, many people came to propose marriage to her, like the big boss of a shoe factory or an enterprise investor. The match - makers almost broke the threshold of my grandma's house, but mom still chose dad who was as poor as a church mouse."
She heard these stories from her mother, Ye Hong, when she was a child. "And Ye Nanwan was named after my dad's and mom's surnames."
Nan Yu pressed her palm against her eyes. When she opened them again, her eyes were bright. "Dad even specifically put mom's surname first and his surname second."
Ye Hong and Nan Jiwen.
Ye Nanwan.
Saying this, Nan Yu tightened her grip on the handle of her suitcase. "I always thought that only this could be called love. Only two people in love like this were qualified to get married."
She stared directly at Tan Linyuan. "You must think I have no right to say these things. After all, I'm also someone who can use marriage as a deal. But if I weren't in debt, I wouldn't have chosen such a marriage."
Because she was calm enough, she could also look at Tan Linyuan clearly. "But you said that your marriage with Qu Jiaran is only temporary. For you, getting married and divorced are just means you have to use to achieve your goal."
Saying this, she gave a helpless bitter smile. "It seems that we made a wrong turn from the very beginning."
The wrong solution will never lead to the right answer.
"I'm not as open - minded as you think. In fact, I'm extremely conservative. During the first month when I had a relationship with you, I was scared every day, thinking I was the most promiscuous and unchaste woman in the world."
Her voice became hoarser and hoarser. "You can wave your sleeves and easily return to being the god admired by everyone. But I'm just an ordinary person with flesh and blood."
Bare - handed, how could she have the confidence to compete with a god?
She lifted her arm weakly to her forehead and then let it fall. "Since there's only a pure physical relationship between Uncle and me without any more entanglement of interests, it won't be that difficult to end it."
She blinked. "Let's just stop here. Thank you for taking care of me during this period. I'll always remember the experiences you've brought me."
During her speech, Tan Linyuan stared into her eyes all the time.
He looked at her as if he were looking at a tough grass in the wind. It seemed weak but was actually extremely strong, with a determination he couldn't refuse.
She was determined to leave.
Tan Linyuan was extremely upset. He just asked her gravely, "Since you also know that our relationship is just so pure and simple, why must it end?"
Nan Yu was rendered speechless by his question.
Why must it end?
She couldn't say it out. Once she did, she would be completely defeated.
Because in her heart, this relationship was no longer pure.
She didn't answer, and Tan Linyuan patiently waited.
Before Nan Yu could speak again, her phone ringing broke the dead silence.
The car she had booked in advance had arrived.
Nan Yu took a deep breath. Her voice was as light as a fleeting cloud. "It's time for me to go. Goodbye."
She left extremely neatly without any hesitation. She didn't even look back at him when she closed the door.
It seemed that she was ready to never see him again.
---
Tan Linyuan still sat at the table, his expression indifferent.
It seemed that Nan Yu's departure didn't have any impact on him. It was just that from then on, there would be one less person to have meals with and sleep with.
This empty house just went back from two people to one person again.
There was still a little porridge left on the table, and now it was completely cold.
Tan Linyuan scooped the remaining porridge into a bowl and drank it without changing his expression.
Nan Yu liked sweet food and was used to putting some sugar in the porridge.
But he found it bitter.
The bitterness welled up from his throat, numbing his tongue and making him lose his sense of taste for a moment.
The white piano in the middle of the living - room still stood there lonely.
The moment he saw the piano, Tan Linyuan seemed to suddenly wake up.
From then on, he wouldn't hear the sound of the piano in his study anymore.
His world would return to black and white and no longer have any color.
His jasmine had withered.