Waiting Until Her Heart Went Cold

The day Nan Xingyu would leave was drawing closer.

She didn't know if she was just being sensitive.

Xi Jin had been keeping a tight rein on her lately. Wherever she went, she had to report it to him. Even when she went downstairs to buy sanitary pads, he wanted her to send him her location.

"I'm not sending it! I really can't stand you!"

Nan Xingyu carried the bag into the elevator.

"Why don't you just put the monitoring app back on my phone?!"

His tone on the other end of the call was no better. He roared at her, "Nan Xingyu, why do you have so much to say when I just asked you to send me your location?!"

Nan Xingyu's nose stung.

The metal doors reflected her reddened eyes.

She said nothing for a long while.

"Speak?!"

He spoke impatiently, his voice carrying its usual commanding tone.

The elevator doors opened.

Nan Xingyu sniffled. In another couple of days, she would be saying goodbye to him for good anyway.

She would just keep putting up with him.

She stepped out of the elevator, her voice nasal. "I'm at your place. You can hear the lock opening, can't you?"

The fingerprint lock beeped.

"Is there anything else? If not, I'm hanging up."

"Xiaoyu."

Xi Jin called out to her just in time. He seemed to hear that she was close to tears. After a pause, his tone softened a little.

"What did I say? You cry at the drop of a hat."

"I'm sorry. I was wrong. I should be smiling."

"..."

There was no sound from the other end.

Nan Xingyu sniffled again and deliberately asked in a tone so polite it was distant:

"Young Master Xi, do you have any other orders for me?"

"Nan Xingyu."

Xi Jin enunciated each syllable of her name. "Do you have to be like this?"

Nan Xingyu walked into the living room and tossed her shopping bag onto the coffee table. "Ever since we were little, haven't you always liked having me bow and scrape before you, obeying your every word?"

With that, she flopped down on the sofa in a huff.

"If you've got any more anger, go ahead and let it out."

There were barely two days left anyway.

She would see who he found to vent on after that.

She heard a faintly trembling sigh from the other end of the phone.

He didn't hang up, so she couldn't either.

And so they remained at an impasse.

At that moment, in a hotel suite.

Xi Jin braced his forehead with one hand, gripping his phone so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

He didn't know how to explain it to her.

How afraid he was of losing her.

Although he had threatened Xi Kun, he didn't know whether Xi Kun would find Nan Xingyu.

It wasn't that he was afraid Xi Kun would do anything to her.

It was just that he would inevitably make Nan Xingyu leave him.

She didn't like him to begin with.

She would surely agree to Xi Kun's demands.

And leave him without looking back.

He didn't dare imagine it.

He would go mad.

All he could do was use this clumsy way to make sure she was still by his side.

"Xiaoyu, shall we get married?"

He lowered his head, his voice hoarse. "Let's forget about everything else and get married abroad, okay?"

She said from the other end, "Your grandfather just passed away."

"I don't care."

Xi Jin insisted, "I want to marry you. Let's stick to the original plan and go abroad to get our marriage certificate on February 14. Any country will do."

"Xi Jin, can you be reasonable? Even if you didn't have any feelings for your grandfather, he only just passed away. What will other people think of you?"

"I don't care."

"I do."

Hearing that, Xi Jin let out a cold scoff. "I know. Those are all just excuses."

After a pause, he added, "Nan Xingyu, you've never loved me."

There was no sound from the other end of the phone for a long time.

Xi Jin waited for her to "deny it."

He waited until his heart went cold.

He lowered his eyes, his voice barely above a murmur. "You don't have to wait for me for dinner tonight."

With that, he hung up.

Nan Xingyu leaned against the black leather sofa, her gaze sweeping across the spacious living room.

She had lived here for almost three years.

Everywhere she looked held memories of her and Xi Jin.

But more of them were of absurd affairs of the flesh.

She searched her heart and asked herself whether she had ever loved Xi Jin.

Perhaps she had.

But she didn't want this unequal kind of love.

The night view beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows glittered, the custom chandelier gave off a luxurious glow, and every furnishing was exquisitely flawless.

The luxury and warmth were like an invisible net, trapping her inside.

She looked at her reflection in the glass.

This wasn't home.

It was an exquisite cage.

She had to leave this place.

To find her true self, the self who wasn't trapped by Xi Jin.

The next day.

Nan Xingyu received a call from an unfamiliar number.

It was a man.

She almost hung up immediately.

Her years of aversion to the opposite sex seemed to have become a conditioned reflex, especially toward men whom Xi Jin saw as potential rivals in love.

But the person on the phone.

Even at the risk of Xi Jin finding out, Nan Xingyu had to meet him.

Inside a café.

Nan Xingyu was in full disguise. Only after making sure she couldn't sense Xi Jin anywhere nearby did she quietly push the door open.

Song Shuchen spotted her as soon as she entered.

Seeing her sneakily hurry over, he couldn't help laughing. "Is all this really necessary?"

Nan Xingyu didn't dare take off her hat or mask. She only removed her glasses and smiled sheepishly.

"Xi Jin is resourceful. He always manages to pop up out of nowhere."

Song Shuchen looked at her round eyes for a few seconds, then took out a document.

"Sorry I didn't tell you before. Yuexi asked me to handle your school transfer."

"Thank you."

Nan Xingyu scratched her head awkwardly. "If I'd known it would be so much trouble for you, I'd have been too embarrassed to ask for your help."

"It was a small matter."

Song Shuchen added, "But there's something I want to confirm with you again."

"Hmm?"

The air conditioner made Nan Xingyu feel a little hot. She pulled down her mask, her small face slightly flushed.

"What is it, Brother? Go ahead."

Song Shuchen unintentionally glanced at her soft pink lips, then raised his gaze.

"Are you sure you want to transfer schools? You and him... are you going to be all right?"

After learning about their relationship, he could tell they still had genuine feelings for each other and was afraid she was acting on impulse.

"Don't rush to answer. Think it through."

Nan Xingyu lowered her long lashes, her fingers tapping against one another unconsciously.

More than ten seconds later.

She raised her eyes. "Brother, I've thought it through. I want to transfer schools."

"All right."

Song Shuchen asked no more. He rested his cool, pale fingertips on the folder and gently pushed it toward her.

"As long as you follow my arrangements, I can make sure you reach your new school safely without him finding out."

He leaned forward slightly, staring into her eyes.

"Can you do that?"

"..."

Nan Xingyu gripped the document envelope tightly in both hands.

The chance to escape Xi Jin was right in front of her.

"I can," she said firmly.

Song Shuchen nodded lightly and leaned back against the sofa.

"The transfer notice Yuexi gave you last time was just a decoy. This is the new school I've arranged for you."