A beautiful summer night

"Who is Xie Tianqi?" In just a moment, Yao Qin seemed to have become a different person.

I don't know Xie Tianqi or Xiao Ayan.

The plush toy she was holding in her arms was casually tossed aside.

Liu Shubai's emotions followed Yao Qin's changes, just like the tacit understanding that had formed over so many years of spending day and night together. He smiled and explained, "Nobody here, you don't know anyone. Are you hungry? We have guests at our house today, can you help me entertain them?"

After observing Xie Qiyan and his companion for a while, Yao Qin stepped forward and smiled at them, saying, "Since you are guests, please take a seat. Don't stand there."

Smiling broadly and calmly, as if everything that had just happened was an illusion.

Xie Qiyan closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then sat down with Xia Wanzhi.

He wanted to try to say something to Yao Qin, but when he tried to speak, his heart was pulling at his throat, and even breathing was painful.

In the end, it was Xia Wanzhi who spoke to Yao Qin.

As if they were telepathically connected, she seemed to know what Xie Qiyan wanted to know, and the conversation almost always steered towards the direction he cared about.

Yao Qin answered fluently, her smile warm and gentle. She even urged Liu Shubai, "Go and tell the kitchen what to do. What are you standing here for?"

Liu Shubai went out as usual, and returned three minutes later. This time, he sat down and joined the conversation.

Yao Qin replied with grace and composure: "How come I've never heard you mention having such young friends before?"

She asked Liu Shubai, but before Liu Shubai could answer, she continued to ask Xia Wanzhi, "Are you two a couple?"

Xia Wanzhi smiled without saying a word, tilting her head to look at Xie Qiyan.

From the moment Xie Qiyan sat down, he kept looking at Yao Qin with a sorrowful longing in his eyes, as if he were looking at a familiar stranger, yet his whole being exuded the joy of something lost and found.

Yao Qin actually sensed this contradiction.

But at this moment, Yao Qin seemed to have transformed into some kind of personality. She was calm and gentle, but she couldn't remember anything about Xie Qiyan.

Xie Qiyan finally came to his senses and answered Yao Qin's words: "We are husband and wife, Wanzi is my wife."

This was his first conversation with his mother in over twenty years.

Yao Qin smiled and nodded approvingly: "Good lad, you're lucky."

Xie Qiyan smiled.

He thought that Yao Qin must have returned to the time before she met Xie Tianqi.

Her crisp, clear Jiangnan accent and charming eyes brought her to life.

"It would be good if things could stay this way," Xie Qiyan thought.

After finishing their meal, Yao Qin was tired and rested. Liu Shubai's heart, which had been in his throat, finally settled down. He then invited Xie Qiyan and Xia Wanzhi to have tea around a small bamboo courtyard in the back garden.

The moment Xie Qiyan stepped into this place, he felt as if he had returned to his childhood, to the small courtyard in Jiangnan where his parents and great-grandmother lived.

No, not as if.

Here, Liu Shubai has restored it almost exactly to be the same as that small courtyard.

Xie Qiyan subconsciously looked at Liu Shubai.

Liu Shubai remained silent, and quietly made tea after sitting down.

“You’ve seen it too, your mother… has been like this for a long time.” Liu Shubai looked Xie Qiyan in the eye before explaining, “It’s not that I want to cut off your contact. You’ve seen it too, any one of your Xie family members would have a fatal impact on her. Qiyan, I just want to take her away, to escape to any place where there are no members of your Xie family, and then hide her away so she can live a peaceful life.”

It was for Yao Qin, but also for his own selfish reasons.

Standing in this courtyard, which was exactly the same as when he was a child, Xie Qiyan glanced at the clusters of flowers. The wind blowing in his face was cold, causing the stove fire to flicker with a few sparks, bringing a touch of warmth.

After a long silence, Xie Qiyan spoke softly, "Thank you."

Liu Shubai paused, her hand holding the cup still, and looked at him incredulously.

"That time in Yangliu Lane, that time she fell into the river." Xie Qiyan's voice was low, his face showing no emotion, but his words were filled with sincere gratitude, "Thank you for being by her side all these years."

He took Yao Qin away; whatever his reasons, at least he protected her.

Xie Qiyan is not someone who cannot distinguish right from wrong.

How can we completely separate the grudges and grievances?

He resented Liu Shubai for separating him and his mother for twenty years, but without him, Yao Qin might not be alive today.

After a long silence, Liu Shubai smiled, a smile that was both weary and sorrowful: "I thought you would hate me."

Yao Qin suffers from schizophrenia; she is occasionally not clear-headed, but she also has moments of lucidity.

When she is lucid, she misses her son and wants to break free from the gilded cage he built for her to go back to see him. But it is he who stops her.

Besides fearing that Yao Qin would lose control of her emotions, he was also afraid that Yao Qin would leave him.

Xie Qiyan remained silent.

“She doesn’t love me, whether she’s sober or like just now when she doesn’t remember anything, she doesn’t love me. She listens to me, obeys me, and only treats me as a good friend, a friend she can rely on.” A hint of loneliness appeared in Liu Shubai’s eyes. “Perhaps she doesn’t love Xie Tianqi anymore either, but she’s unwilling to accept it, unwilling to accept that her feelings were misplaced, and unwilling to believe that her vows with Xie Tianqi have ultimately become a joke.”

“Ayan, she thought about going to see you, but after packing her bags, she didn’t have the courage.” Liu Shubai’s eyes reddened. “Don’t blame her. She’s just afraid that you will see her incompetence, and even more afraid that you will resent her for abandoning you.”

She has her own difficulties.

She was just sick, very sick.

Xie Qiyan lowered his eyes to hide his emotions, remaining silent and unsure of what to say.

"It's good that you're safe and sound," he said.

Just live.

The rest, we'll take it slow.