Quick Wear: Cousin, Come to the Bowl Quickly

"Just kidding?" Lin Xi seemed to be stung by this, her voice full of hurt and disbelief. "How could it be a joke?! I've liked you for so many years, why doesn't it count?"

She pointed to the brightly lit and bustling villa behind her, her voice choked with sobs and trembling, "Besides, haven't the elders of both families already agreed? Tonight... tonight we're going to announce our marriage in front of everyone!"

"What the elders say doesn't count!" Xu Yucheng turned his head abruptly, his voice tinged with obvious excitement, as if he had finally found a plausible excuse. "That was an arranged marriage! Lin Xi, we're both educated people. You should know what era it is now. People out there believe in free love! You have to make your own decisions about your own life!"

"Free love?" Lin Xi retorted excitedly as if she had heard a huge joke, tears finally rolling down her cheeks.

"But two days ago, right in my living room! When the elders of the two families sat together to discuss the date and arrange the banquet, you were clearly there! You nodded your head at that time! But you didn't say a word of objection! Now the arrow is on the string, and you tell me that you arranged it? Talking about freedom? Xu Yucheng, you are going back on your word!"

"Go back on your word?" These three words pierced Xu Yucheng like a needle. He seemed to be completely ignited, and the long-suppressed grievances and unwillingness burst out, and his voice was filled with resentment.

"I didn't want to do it in the first place! My parents forced me to do it! Do you know how they forced me to do it?!" He almost growled.

"Actually, I've been back from France for a long time! I've been wanting to talk it out with you for a long time! But my father knew I wanted to break off the engagement, so without a word, he started using the family rules and beat me up severely. Then he locked me in the room and I couldn't see anyone or go out."

"Until... until I gave in and agreed to marry your family, he was willing to let me out! From the beginning to the end, I was forced into it! I didn't want to do it at all!"

Lin Xi felt as if struck by thunder. His whole body swayed, and the blood color on his face instantly drained away, leaving him as pale as paper.

She stumbled back a step, as if unable to bear the blow, and murmured in a lost voice, "Not... unwillingly? You mean... you agreed only after being locked up... and beaten...?"

Looking at Lin Xi, who was always bright and outspoken but now had red eyes and looked so fragile that she looked like she would break at any time, Xu Yucheng felt a trace of pity in his heart.

But thinking of the shackles that he was about to break free from, and the lingering slender figure in his mind, he hardened his heart, gritted his teeth, and forced himself to cut the Gordian knot.

"Yes! I just don't want to!" He forced himself to look into Lin Xi's broken eyes, his tone filled with almost cold determination.

"Lin Xi, I've always just treated you as my sister! I've never thought of marrying you!" His chest heaved violently, and he finally squeezed out the most hurtful words from between his teeth, "Actually... I don't like you at all!"

"Don't like it?" Lin Xi seemed to have been completely drained of her strength. Her body trembled slightly, and her voice was as light as a dream talk.

"Since you don't like me... then why... why have you been so good to me since I was a child?" She suddenly raised her head, tears streaming down her face.

"You saved my life and you always obeyed me. You never went west when I asked you to go east... You treated me so well... so well..."

At the end of her speech, she lowered her head dejectedly, making it impossible to see the expression on her face, but the uncontrollable shaking of her shoulders still revealed her emotions.

The warm night wind blew silently through the flowers.

Seeing that she was shaking all over from crying, Xu Yucheng finally softened his heart for a moment. He took out a clean handkerchief from his suit pocket, handed it to Lin Xi, and advised her in a hoarse voice.

"Xixi, this is a new society. The old saying 'repay your life with your body' is no longer popular. There is no love between us. Even if we are forced together, we will only become a pair of resentful couples, tormenting each other. It is better to stop now than to regret it later."

Lin Xi didn't take his handkerchief, but continued sobbing. Xu Yucheng looked back at the faint noise and music coming from the front hall and sighed deeply, his tone full of fatigue and unquestionable.

"Xixi, I'm sorry for you. From now on, if you want to hit or scold me, I, Xu Yucheng, will not say a word. But not tonight... I'm afraid my parents and uncle can't wait to announce it in front of the guests. I have to stop them."

"Really... is there no room for maneuver?" Hearing the determination in his words, Lin Xi trembled, raised her red and swollen eyes, and looked at him with the last glimmer of hope.

"I'm sorry..." Xu Yucheng's eyes flickered, avoiding her gaze, and he added, "I will personally go to Uncle Lin and Aunt Lin to apologize and take all the blame on myself."

Lin Xi stared at him for a long time, the light in her eyes gradually extinguished, as if she had finally accepted her fate.

She raised her hand and wiped away the tears on her face. The corners of her mouth pulled upwards with great effort, forming a sad arc. "I... understand."

As she spoke, she slowly opened the small handbag that she had been holding tightly in her hand until it was almost embedded in her flesh, and took out a dark blue velvet box from it.

Her fingers trembled a little, but she opened the lid with extraordinary determination.

The moonlight flowed like water, quietly on a pair of silver-shining rings in the box, one large and one small, with a simple design and flashing a cool light.

Seeing the pair of silver rings, Xu Yucheng's heart suddenly tightened, his Adam's apple rolled, and he said in a hoarse voice: "What is this...?"

"A ring." Lin Xi forced a smile. "I heard from those Westerners that in the West, when a man and a woman are engaged for life, they exchange rings. Wearing it, they can... live together forever and ever."

She smiled sadly, tears silently sliding down and dripping onto the velvet box.

"What a pity... it's no longer useful." She gently closed the lid of the box, took Xu Yucheng's somewhat stiff hand, and stuffed the small box with her body temperature into his palm without giving him any room to refuse.

"Xi..." Xu Yucheng's fingertips trembled, and he subconsciously wanted to let go.

Lin Xi, however, increased her strength, squeezed his hand tightly, and said in a voice so low it sounded like a sigh, "Wait until we get to a place where I can't see you... then throw it away."

She raised her eyes, misty with tears and full of fatigue, "I'm tired. This birthday... is not happy at all."

Before she finished speaking, she suddenly opened her arms and gently hugged Xu Yucheng.

Xu Yucheng's body instantly stiffened like a rock. He instinctively wanted to push her away, but when he raised his arm halfway, he forced himself to hold it back. In the end, he just patted her shoulder soothingly.

The hug was so short that it seemed like an illusion. Lin Xi quickly withdrew her hand, took a step back from Xu Yucheng's arms, and even straightened his tie knot which she had messed up a little.

"I'm tired. I need to go back to my room and rest." She lowered her eyelids, her voice returning to its usual tone, though it was filled with a deep sense of weariness. "Whether you want to cancel the engagement or pursue your freedom, go and talk to them yourself."

After she finished speaking, she raised her eyes, looked at Xu Yucheng deeply, then turned around without any reluctance, walked along the flower path in the fragmented moonlight without looking back.

It was not until Lin Xi's back completely disappeared at the end of the path lined with lush flowers and trees that Xu Yucheng slowly withdrew his gaze and looked down at the small velvet box in his palm.

After a while, he pursed his lips, as if he had made up his mind, suddenly clenched the box, turned around and strode towards the brightly lit front hall.

He didn't notice that after he left, a slender figure in a simple aqua blue cheongsam walked out silently from behind the lush sycamore tree in the corner of the garden.

The moonlight outlined her pale face without a trace of blood. She stared blankly in the direction where Xu Yucheng disappeared, her eyes empty, as if she had lost her soul.

It was not until she heard the footsteps of servants and vague conversations in the distance that she woke up as if from a dream. She hurriedly picked up the hem of her cheongsam, turned around quickly, and disappeared into the shadows of another path.

At the corner at the end of the flower path, Lin Xi, who should have left long ago, was now leaning quietly against a cold stone pillar.

She lowered her head, spread out her hands, and looked at her fingertips stained with bright red nail polish in the hazy moonlight. The sadness on her face had disappeared without a trace, and in its place, there was a meaningful smile on her lips.

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