Always Chasing My White Moonlight Omega - Chapter 59

Soon, Ruan Yang arrived at the cemetery, where Jiang Jiang was waiting for her at the entrance. Jiang Jiang had intended to give Ruan Yang a specific location, but to her surprise, after telling her to go back first, Ruan Yang headed straight in the direction Xu Zhiyi had just gone as if she didn’t need any reminder at all.

Jiang Jiang glanced around at the desolate wilderness and felt a bit scared. But considering Xu Zhiyi had Ruan Yang with her and wouldn’t be in any danger, she followed Ruan Yang’s advice and took a taxi back.

Without the slightest hesitation, Ruan Yang found Xu Zhiyi’s location. It was nighttime, and the cemetery was nearly empty. She stood at the foot of the long steps, watching Xu Zhiyi’s back.

Xu Zhiyi was sitting in front of a tombstone, her fingertips lightly tracing the photo on the stone.

Ruan Yang didn’t approach her. She simply stood there quietly. She didn’t know how much time had passed, only that the evening wind had grown so cold it stung her face before she finally walked over, took off her coat, and draped it over Xu Zhiyi’s shoulders.

Another chilly gust swept by. Xu Zhiyi looked up and saw Ruan Yang staring intently at her, showing no surprise at all.

Instead, she tugged Ruan Yang’s coat tighter around her shoulders and turned her gaze back to the photo on the tombstone.

Ruan Yang followed her gaze. She had never met Xu Zhiyi’s mother, Xu Rou, in person. By the time she entered the Xu family, only Xu Rongjiang and Xu Zhiyi remained.

“When I was just born, my mother developed postpartum depression because of my father’s neglect,” Xu Zhiyi suddenly spoke. “Back then, she would sit by the second-floor window every day, waiting for my father to come home. But what she didn’t know was that after waiting like this for over a decade, she never once got to have a meal with him on time.”

“Without her husband’s love and suffering from illness, my mother passed away when I was fifteen.”

Xu Zhiyi finally stood up. She tilted her head, wiping at the corner of her eye as if genuinely puzzled. “Ruan Yang, tell me, how could a man like my father make so many women lose their minds over him?”

Ruan Yang’s mind echoed with Ruan Qingyu’s words from earlier. She shook her head, unable to speak for a long while.

The pale moonlight of late autumn and the stark glow of the streetlamps fell together on the photo embedded in the stone. Xu Zhiyi wasn’t really expecting an answer from Ruan Yang. She turned away, her expression calm, and began descending the steps toward the exit. Ruan Yang followed.

Xu Zhiyi had called her own driver to pick them up. The two waited by the roadside in silence. On the way back, Xu Zhiyi kept her eyes fixed out the window, while Ruan Yang kept hers fixed on Xu Zhiyi.

When they arrived at the hotel, Ruan Yang opened the door to Xu Zhiyi’s room and followed her inside. Just as Xu Zhiyi was about to say she had calmed down and that Ruan Yang didn’t need to worry about her, Ruan Yang suddenly pointed to the sofa nearby and said, “I’m afraid of ghosts. I won’t be able to sleep. I want to stay here tonight.”

Xu Zhiyi: “…”

If you’re afraid of ghosts, why did you follow me to the cemetery?

Besides, she studied Ruan Yang’s expressionless face for a few more seconds there was no way Ruan Yang looked like someone who was afraid of ghosts.

But she couldn’t be bothered to argue. She went in, took a shower, and lay down on the bed.

True to her word, Ruan Yang settled on the sofa.

The lights went out, and the room fell into complete silence. Xu Zhiyi’s emotions had been turbulent all day by all logic, she shouldn’t have been able to sleep.

But at this moment, hearing the soft breathing sounds behind her, she inexplicably felt a sense of security welling up from the depths of her heart.

Before long, drowsiness overtook her.

The next day, when Xu Zhiyi woke up, Ruan Yang was already washed up and sitting on the sofa waiting for her.

Seeing Xu Zhiyi awake, Ruan Yang waved her phone. “Shi Fangxuan has a shoot today and didn’t take any leave. She might be back at the hotel soon.”

Xu Zhiyi understood Ruan Yang’s implication and practically bolted upright. She freshened up in record time, then went with Ruan Yang to stake out Shi Fangxuan’s door.

While waiting, she scrolled through Weibo and noticed that since last night, all trending topics related to Shi Fangxuan had been suppressed, as if someone had deliberately kept them from trending afraid that Shi Fangxuan might suffer even the slightest harm.

Realizing this, Xu Zhiyi let out another cold laugh.

Her father sure knew how to be considerate.

Back when she was being torn apart online, she’d never seen Xu Rongjiang show such thoughtfulness or eagerness.

After about ten minutes, Xu Zhiyi received a message from Jiang Jiang saying that Shi Fangxuan’s car seemed to have arrived at the hotel parking lot and that she’d be up soon.

A few minutes later, Shi Fangxuan finally appeared at the end of the hallway.

As she approached her room and saw Ruan Yang and Xu Zhiyi, she seemed surprised.

“What are you two doing here?” Shi Fangxuan took off her sunglasses, revealing tired eyes beneath, as if she hadn’t slept well all night.

Seeing her like this and recalling how neither Xu Rongjiang nor Shi Fangxuan had answered their phones last night, Xu Zhiyi frowned. “Where were you last night?”

Shi Fangxuan had learned from her assistant about Xu Zhiyi bringing her sweet soup yesterday. Thinking Xu Zhiyi was upset about that, she replied in a low voice, “Sorry, Zhiyi. Thank you for the sweet soup yesterday. I had something to take care of and wasn’t at the hotel. I’m sorry you came for nothing.”

“I asked where you were last night,” Xu Zhiyi snapped, unable to hold back her impatience.

Hearing this, Ruan Yang placed a hand on Xu Zhiyi’s back. She glanced around after all, they were in a hotel hallway, not the safest place for such a conversation.

“Let’s talk inside,” Ruan Yang said, looking at Shi Fangxuan.

Shi Fangxuan hesitated, studying Xu Zhiyi for a moment before nodding and swiping her keycard to open the door.

Once the door closed behind them, Shi Fangxuan set down her bag and turned to find Xu Zhiyi still staring at her with that same unfriendly intensity.

“Can you tell me now? Where were you last night?”

The question carried an accusatory edge, making Shi Fangxuan’s brow furrow.

Already in a bad mood because of last night’s news, Shi Fangxuan was losing patience over being interrogated about a bowl of sweet soup.

Her tone turned icy as she replied, “I don’t think I owe you an explanation. Where I was last night has nothing to do with you.”

“How is it nothing to do with me?”

Before she could finish, Xu Zhiyi cut her off. Just as Xu Zhiyi was about to say more, Ruan Yang stopped her.

“Zhiyi,” Ruan Yang said, taking her hand and speaking softly, “calm down.”

The warmth of Ruan Yang’s breath brushed against her ear. Hearing her words, Xu Zhiyi’s rapid breathing gradually steadied.

She closed her eyes to steady her emotions, and when she opened them again, her tone had softened considerably.

“Yes, it originally had nothing to do with me. But what if the man you were caught in a scandal with last night was my father? Would that still have nothing to do with me?”

At these words, Shi Fangxuan’s eyes widened considerably.

Xu Zhiyi’s father.

For a long moment, her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but after opening and closing several times, she could only utter in disbelief, “Xu Rongjiang is your father?”

Xu Zhiyi simply looked at her without speaking, though her expression had already improved significantly compared to earlier in the hallway.

Shi Fangxuan then began to scrutinize Xu Zhiyi anew.

The resemblance, it was unmistakable.

Xu Rongjiang had been a renowned heartthrob in his youth, and Xu Zhiyi had inherited all the best features of his appearance, even refining them to perfection.

Yet, this revelation was still hard to accept. Shi Fangxuan stared at Xu Zhiyi with a complicated expression for a long while before finally averting her gaze.

She sighed and then turned her attention to Ruan Yang.

Xu Zhiyi knew she was concerned about Ruan Yang’s presence, worried that Ruan Yang might spread whatever she was about to say. Ruan Yang understood as well, she wasn’t particularly curious to begin with and had only come in for Xu Zhiyi’s sake. Now that Shi Fangxuan didn’t want her to hear, she turned to leave.

But unexpectedly, Xu Zhiyi grabbed her hand and said to Shi Fangxuan, “It’s fine, she can stay. My father’s current partner is Ruan Yang’s mother.”

Hearing this, Ruan Yang couldn’t help but glance sideways at Xu Zhiyi. She had expected Xu Zhiyi to refer to her mother as Xu Rongjiang’s mistress.

The news was so shocking that Shi Fangxuan’s eyes widened further, her gaze darting back and forth between the two of them.

She could hardly believe what she was hearing.

“So?” she stammered, raising a trembling hand to point at them, “you two are now sisters?”

The last word was almost a whisper, laced with disbelief.

This was absurd.

Her eyes fell once more on Xu Zhiyi and Ruan Yang’s tightly clasped hands.

After a long silence, Shi Fangxuan finally composed herself. She walked over to the sofa a few steps away and sat down, rubbing her temples as she recalled the past.

“I wasn’t with your father last night. I was called back to the company, my manager wanted to discuss how to handle the scandal.”

Then, as if anticipating Xu Zhiyi’s next question, she continued, “There’s no reason for me to lie. Many people at the company saw me yesterday. If you don’t believe me, you can ask them.”

Such a clumsy lie wouldn’t be worth telling. Xu Zhiyi pressed her lips together. “Then what about you and my father?”

“I’ve told you before,” Shi Fangxuan leaned back on the sofa, her tone gentler now, “it was just a youthful indiscretion.”

“Back then, your father and I were classmates in high school. He was just a poor boy back then, and I merely defended him when others mocked him. That’s when he said he liked me.”

Back when she was sixteen or seventeen, Shi Fangxuan didn’t take this youthful infatuation seriously. Xu Rongjiang pursued her relentlessly, even going so far as to beg their teacher to let him sit beside her just so he could tutor her. At the time, Shi Fangxuan wasn’t much of a studious person either. Seeing Xu Rongjiang’s attitude of “if you don’t go out with me, I’ll keep forcing you to study,” she found it irritating. On a whim, she agreed to give their relationship a try.

But after they got together, Shi Fangxuan realized that Xu Rongjiang was far more ambitious and ruthless than he appeared. He also held grudges. Those who had mocked him back then were secretly reported to the school administration, with additional fabricated charges that were enough to get them expelled.

She discovered all this unintentionally. Disliking such a man and not having strong feelings for him to begin with, she told Xu Rongjiang after just a month that they weren’t a good match.

Compared to dating someone like Xu Rongjiang, Shi Fangxuan even began to think that studying and doing homework weren’t so bad after all.

But her reason for breaking up didn’t sit well with Xu Rongjiang. He refused to accept it and pestered her endlessly. Unable to bear the harassment, Shi Fangxuan eventually left the country after a semester of his relentless pursuit.

“In the years that followed, I only heard about Xu Rongjiang through others. I knew he got into the Imperial Capital University and eventually married a wealthy heiress.” Here, Shi Fangxuan paused and looked at Xu Zhiyi. “But I never imagined she would be your mother.”

Recently, she had genuinely come to regard Xu Zhiyi as a friend, which made her more patient in explaining: “Zhiyi, believe me, there’s really nothing between me and your father. After I left the country, I had no contact with him whatsoever. I haven’t seen him in all these years, and I have no idea why he suddenly remembered me and came looking for me. As for the video you saw, that day I had just finished an event. He cornered me after work, insisting on having dinner together. When I refused, he just wouldn’t leave me alone.”

After hearing this, neither Xu Zhiyi nor Ruan Yang could believe that the person Shi Fangxuan described was the same Xu Rongjiang who, in their eyes, was utterly cold-hearted.

Indeed, there are no truly cold-hearted people in the world, only those who simply don’t care for you.

“I never had feelings for your father back then, and even less so now after all these years. You can rest assured about that, Zhiyi.” Shi Fangxuan finished speaking, then cast a complicated glance at Ruan Yang.

She opened her mouth as if to say something more but hesitated, deciding against it as nothing seemed appropriate.

As if to confirm Shi Fangxuan’s words, her phone rang the moment she stopped speaking. She pulled it out of her bag and frowned, showing the caller ID to Xu Zhiyi and Ruan Yang.

It was Xu Rongjiang calling.

At the same time, her WeChat notifications kept popping up, all from the same person.

She caught a few messages: Xu Rongjiang was apologizing, saying he hadn’t anticipated the scandal would cause her so much trouble and promising to have it suppressed.

He was also reiterating his sincerity, urging her to reconsider whatever proposal he’d made earlier.

Although nothing was explicitly said, one could still guess the gist of it.

The tone was warm and considerate, so unlike his usual self that it was almost unrecognizable.

Xu Zhiyi felt nothing but disgust.

She could never have imagined that her father, who had always looked down on others and treated her mother with indifference and disdain, would grovel like a lapdog for another woman.

Shi Fangxuan noticed the dark expression on Xu Zhiyi’s face. She casually ended the call, muted the phone, and tossed it onto the sofa.

No matter how many times the other end called, she didn’t spare it another glance.

Ruan Yang wrapped an arm around Xu Zhiyi’s shoulders and gave them a gentle pat. Though her head was bowed, she could still sense the emotions Xu Zhiyi was struggling to suppress.

The incessant buzzing of the phone filled the room. After listening for a while, Ruan Yang’s grip on Xu Zhiyi’s shoulder tightened.

Her tightly bitten lower lip suddenly relaxed as she recalled the dazed look on Ruan Qingyu’s face the night before.

“I,” she began, “I want Fangxuan-jie to do me a favor.”

The pain from her squeezed shoulder gradually brought Xu Zhiyi back to her senses. She looked up and suddenly caught something in Ruan Yang’s eyes.

Xu Zhiyi frowned. “Aren’t you disgusted? You must have realized it, what my father sees your mother as.”

Ruan Yang closed her eyes, her loathing for Xu Rongjiang reaching its peak at that moment.

“I know.”

She knew. The moment Shi Fangxuan finished speaking earlier, she had realized.

Xu Rongjiang had always treated her mother as a substitute for Shi Fangxuan.

But she didn’t show it. When she opened her eyes again, her expression seemed calm.

“Precisely because I know, I need Fangxuan-jie’s help even more.”

Xu Zhiyi reached up and covered Ruan Yang’s hand, which was still gripping her shoulder.

By now, she understood that Ruan Qingyu was just another pitiful soul, no different from her own mother.

She sighed.

Then nodded.

With Xu Zhiyi’s agreement, Ruan Yang turned to Shi Fangxuan.

Walking over to the sofa, she picked up the still-vibrating phone and handed it to Shi Fangxuan.

“Fangxuan-jie.”

Staring at the face so eerily similar to her mother’s, Ruan Yang dug her nails into her palm.

She didn’t know if this was the right thing to do, but she still believed Ruan Qingyu shouldn’t live in ignorance forever.

Shi Fangxuan’s dark eyes fixed on her.

Ruan Yang placed the phone in Shi Fangxuan’s hand.

“Would you like to answer the call?”

Support