I Woke Up and Found Myself Married to the Dean - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: And Teacher Wen? Will You Always Be Here Too…?

“But a few years ago the market was in a slump, and the livestreaming industry was developing rapidly, so we… are now running a factory in Yunzhou.”

“Aunt Mu is…?”

“Mu Yaoyao.”

Mu Yaoyao was… Si Jiamu’s mother, the wife Si Xueyi married later. One could also call her Si Nanyu’s stepmother.

A woman whom Si Nanyu once thought Qin Hua would loathe with a passion.

And now, Si Xueyi had passed away, and Qin Hua was running a factory together with Mu Yaoyao?

The revelations falling from Qin Hua’s mouth came one after another; there wasn’t a single thing Si Nanyu could have adequately prepared for. She tried, but it was useless.

“Mom, is everything you’re saying true?!”

Si Nanyu felt her eyes prickle and swell with discomfort—it was for the matter of Si Xueyi. She also felt a fire smoldering in her heart because of Mu Yaoyao and Si Jiamu.

So, the reason she saw Si Jiamu at the entrance was because…

“You and Mu Yaoyao’s mother-daughter duo live in the same neighborhood?”

Since she had told one thing and then a second, Qin Hua was no longer afraid of telling more. She threw caution to the wind and pointed upstairs: “They live on the top floor. They come over occasionally.”

“Are you on very good terms now?” Si Nanyu pressed further, but this time Qin Hua didn’t answer directly.

Instead, she paused for a moment before saying: “The ‘we’ in that sentence includes you.”

“Your relationships now are all quite good.”

This also explained why, when Si Jiamu saw Si Nanyu at school, she called her “Sis” so affectionately. And why Wen Qingyan wanted Si Jiamu to pass on a message.

Si Nanyu couldn’t quite explain what kind of mood she was in. There was tartness and bitterness, and there was a dull, throbbing ache. But it felt as though none of it mattered much. Just because she had lost ten years of memory didn’t mean those ten years weren’t something she had experienced.

“Mom, I’m going home first.”

Si Nanyu didn’t actually feel much sense of belonging to the “home” she shared with Wen Qingyan, but because she liked Wen Qingyan, she could naturally justify being close to her. Now, it had become a place for her to temporarily escape to.

After returning home, Si Nanyu drank two large glasses of water in succession, trying to calm herself down. She didn’t succeed, so she retreated back into her own room.

There are many ways to decompress, but Si Nanyu wasn’t sure if she needed them right now; she simply followed her instincts to look for the musical instruments she was familiar with.

She had noticed a few days ago that this guest room seemed to be specially fitted with soundproofing foam. As long as the sounds she made weren’t too loud, they wouldn’t carry very far. So she became somewhat reckless, playing through the keyboard, guitar, and drum kit all at once.

For two hours, Si Nanyu didn’t stop once. By the time she finished, she was drenched in sweat. So she took another shower and fell straight asleep.

A classic case of avoidance—avoiding the many facts she didn’t fully understand. Her method of avoidance was choosing to sleep.

She slept until the sky turned dark. The room was deathly quiet. She lay on the bed with a blank gaze, and before long, she heard the sound of the door opening. Thinking Wen Qingyan had returned, Si Nanyu perked up instantly.

She had planned early that morning to go pick Wen Qingyan up, but now… it seemed it was too late.

Hurrying out of the room, she didn’t see the Wen Qingyan she expected. Instead, she saw Paigu and the pet shop staff member who was delivering him back.

The staff member clearly recognized her, greeting her with a light smile: “Miss Si.”

Si Nanyu nodded, said a word of thanks for the hard work, then took Paigu from her hands and saw the person out the door. Once back inside, she added food for Paigu and then prepared to head out to pick up Wen Qingyan. She still didn’t know how to drive, so she planned to take the subway.

Just as she was at the entryway changing her shoes, Wen Qingyan walked in.

Si Nanyu couldn’t describe the feeling—regardless, the moment she saw Wen Qingyan, her heart felt distressed to the extreme, to the point where she even wanted to go hug Wen Qingyan.

But she still didn’t dare, nor did she want Wen Qingyan to see her vulnerability. She forced herself to hold it together and said: “Teacher Wen is back?”

“I originally wanted to go pick you up, but unfortunately I didn’t make it in time…”

“What do you want to eat? I’ll make it right now.”

Si Nanyu bustled about, hoping Wen Qingyan wouldn’t see anything unusual about her. And Wen Qingyan indeed didn’t show much; she just looked at her faintly. After a long while, she finally spoke: “Don’t cook. I bought ingredients.”

“We’re having hot pot.”

Wen Qingyan’s existence was special to Si Nanyu. With just two simple sentences, her complex emotions began to dissipate, and she felt a faint expectation for sharing dinner with Wen Qingyan. She loved eating, and she loved hot pot.

But most of all… she loved Wen Qingyan.

While Wen Qingyan was still at school, Qin Hua had sent her a message telling her everything that had happened today. That was why she had prepared hot pot ingredients for Si Nanyu to distract her from her mood. It was indeed effective.

While Si Nanyu took the things to the kitchen to fry the hot pot base, Wen Qingyan sent a WeChat message to Qin Hua from the living room to set her mind at ease.

“Mom, Nanyu’s mood is fine. Don’t worry.”

But after sending it, she began to feel worried herself. Not for anything else, but worried about her and Si Nanyu.

Many years ago, when Si Xueyi’s accident happened, Si Nanyu’s reaction was neither large nor small. On the surface, nothing seemed wrong, but in the dead of night, Si Nanyu would always hold her hand, her voice thick with emotion, calling her name over and over. She was very dependent, very fragile.

She wasn’t like that now.

She said she had amnesia; what she forgot wasn’t just their ten years, she forgot so much more. So much that it made Wen Qingyan’s heart flutter with unease.

Perhaps there were things she hadn’t forgotten, too. She hadn’t forgotten the estrangement that had begun at some unknown point in time.

“Wen…”

“Hot pot is ready.”

She had also forgotten how to address her.

Wen Qingyan’s back was turned. When she turned around, Si Nanyu saw her expressionless face. The warmth from when they spoke of eating hot pot seemed like a hallucination.

Helplessness struck once more. Si Nanyu became constrained, carrying ingredients out trip after trip, barely looking at Wen Qingyan. During the meal, there wasn’t much talk. Gradually, her mood seemed to be shrouded in gloom again.

Wen Qingyan didn’t speak much either. Later, after they had been silent for too long, she temporarily put down her chopsticks and said in a very soft voice: “Mom told me everything about today.”

“Nanyu…” When she called her name, Wen Qingyan’s voice softened.

Si Nanyu felt her eyes were being irritated by the steam from the hot pot. She blinked hard several times, then looked up and smiled at Wen Qingyan: “I’m fine!”

She then continued in a low voice: “Hasn’t it all been over for many years now?”

She had already changed from eighteen to twenty-eight; she didn’t want Wen Qingyan to think she was childish and immature someone who only knew how to be sad when things went wrong. She had to keep her emotions in check and be a mature adult.

To her surprise, Wen Qingyan’s face showed softness again as she said: “You… don’t be too sad.”

“Besides… Mom is here.”

Wen Qingyan ultimately couldn’t hold back from saying words of comfort to Si Nanyu. But she didn’t dare include herself—to tell Si Nanyu that besides Qin Hua, she was also here. Because she wasn’t sure what Si Nanyu actually thought of her. After a relationship that had lasted ten years, Wen Qingyan was very lacking in confidence.

So after speaking, she kept her eyes downcast, unwilling to let Si Nanyu see her expression clearly. Si Nanyu lingered in silence, and when it came time to clear the dishes, she asked hesitantly: “And you?”

“Wh…at?!” Wen Qingyan’s heart rate quickened. Vaguely guessing what Si Nanyu was asking, she asked again anyway.

Si Nanyu’s face turned red. She didn’t dare look at her, her voice extremely soft: “And Teacher Wen? Will you always be here too…?”

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