Savage Kiss - Chapter 79

After dinner, Xu Qingyi received a video sent by Shen Yuqiao.

Xu Chen had indeed been looking much better lately, not as thin as before. His surgery was still being scheduled.

She also showed it to her grandmother. The old woman watched with tears streaming down her face, “Our Qingbao has grown up! A-Chen didn’t dote on you in vain!”

Xu Qingyi’s nose tingled with emotion. “Good people will be rewarded, Grandma. All of us will.”

The old woman wiped her tears. “I’m not a good person. I gave birth to a monster.”

See? Good people always blame themselves.

A while later, Xu Qingyi’s phone rang again.

She thought it was another video from Shen Yuqiao, but it turned out to be a message from Liang Fanglin on WeChat.

She had always had him on WeChat but had never privately chatted with him.

Liang Fanglin didn’t say anything, he just sent a candid photo of Shen Yanzhou.

Shen Yanzhou was sitting on the steps of the auto repair shop, having just finished work. His eyes were vacant and bloodshot.

After a while, Liang Fanglin seemed unable to hold back any longer and asked her:

[Miss Xu, we’re all going home for the New Year. The boss says he has no home. He’s always alone every year. Could he come back with you for the New Year this time?]

How could he have no home?

Even though his family wasn’t harmonious, wouldn’t the Shen family still gather for New Year’s Eve?

Xu Qingyi felt a knot in her chest and didn’t reply.

Shen Yuqiao had given her 500,000 yuan. That transaction should be over, right? She shouldn’t get involved with Shen Yanzhou again.

Sitting there, Xu Qingyi stared blankly at Shen Yanzhou’s WeChat profile picture.

This time, she didn’t block or delete him, but both of them tacitly acted as if the other didn’t exist.

After a while, she closed the app.

February 20th, New Year’s Eve.

It was the first time in many years that Xu Qingyi was spending the New Year at home. She bought two fireworks costing over 500 yuan each. In the outskirts of their county town, no one bothered to enforce the ban, and her grandmother loved watching them.

After the New Year’s Eve dinner, she planned to set off the big fireworks, but first, she wanted to light some smaller ones to warm up the atmosphere.

“Grandma, sit over there and watch!”

“Be careful!”

Xu Qingyi had been a tomboy since childhood and wasn’t afraid of setting off fireworks.

She walked to the side of the road, placed the fireworks down, and looked around to see if anyone was passing by.

Just then, an auntie came over and said, “That’s Qingqing’s house. Just go straight in, second floor!”

“You’re her boyfriend, right? Qingqing has such good taste!”

“Come over with Qingqing to visit sometime!”

“Okay, thank you!” a low, polite male voice replied.

Xu Qingyi froze.

A few seconds later, a tall figure appeared at the intersection. He wasn’t carrying any luggage and was wearing a black wool coat with a black scarf.

After scanning the area briefly, his gaze landed on Xu Qingyi.

The lighting downstairs was dim, but he still pinpointed her location accurately.

Xu Qingyi barely dared to move.

Shen Yanzhou walked toward her step by step, finally stopping in front of her and the fireworks on the ground.

A long gaze.

A drawn-out silence.

“Qingbao?” her grandmother called from the second-floor balcony.

Xu Qingyi looked up. “Yes! Just a moment, Grandma.”

Shen Yanzhou watched her light the fireworks, watched them shoot up one by one. The patterns were small and fleeting, but he could clearly see her slightly upturned face.

Her eyes were moist.

For the second firework, Shen Yanzhou took the lighter and ignition stick from her hand. He lit the firework himself.

Xu Qingyi stood three meters away, watching his face reflected in the brief, dazzling glow of the fireworks.

She turned and walked into the building, with Shen Yanzhou following silently behind her. Neither spoke.

At the corner of the first floor, Xu Qingyi stopped, and he stopped too.

But Shen Yanzhou was tall; even standing on the lower steps, he could meet her gaze at eye level.

“What are you doing here?” Xu Qingyi asked.

Shen Yanzhou reached into his pocket and pulled out his hand, a ring resting in his palm.

He said, “I’m looking for something that looks exactly like this, just a smaller size. Did you pick it up?”

Though phrased as a question, he already knew it was with her.

The ring had been knocked out of his hand and fallen downstairs. Shen Yanzhou had searched almost the entire night but couldn’t find it.

It was only later that he thought to check the surveillance footage.

Xu Qingyi bit her lip slightly, refusing to admit it. “I don’t know.”

Shen Yanzhou then said, “There’s a surveillance camera in front of the building.”

After she came downstairs, she had crouched on the ground, searching for a while with her backpack in her arms, then picked something up before leaving.

Although he couldn’t see exactly what it was in the footage, he assumed it was the ring.

“…” Xu Qingyi frowned. “I’ll get it for you.”

Shen Yanzhou waited by her doorstep.

An elderly woman in a wheelchair passed by and stopped, looking at Shen Yanzhou. “Young man, why aren’t you coming in?”

She pulled him inside. “It’s cold out here. Come in, you’ve made it just in time for the New Year’s Eve dinner!”

By the time Xu Qingyi came out with the ring, Shen Yanzhou was already sitting on the sofa.

The apartment had been bought with Xu Chen’s compensation money. It had two bedrooms and was a bit cramped, with a small sofa. Shen Yanzhou sat there as if perched on a toy sofa, his legs with nowhere to stretch.

Grandma shot her a reproachful look: You don’t turn people away on New Year’s Eve.

“Do you drink?” the elderly woman asked Shen Yanzhou.

Xu Qingyi had prepared the New Year’s Eve dinner, fish, shrimp, braised pork knuckle, and all sorts of snacks and nuts laid out. The small table was completely covered.

But there was no alcohol.

Shen Yanzhou responded like a schoolboy being questioned. “No, Grandma.”

The elderly woman beamed at his address. “Not drinking is good too, your future children will be smarter!”

“Grandma~!” Xu Qingyi quickly interrupted her.

Grandma enthusiastically entertained Shen Yanzhou, urging him to try this and that, her smile never fading.

After they had eaten their fill, they set off large fireworks, each lasting about two minutes.

It was the first time in her life that Xu Qingyi had enjoyed herself so thoroughly.

Tilting her head back, she laughed unconsciously for a while before noticing Shen Yanzhou staring at her. She quickly wiped the smile from her face.

As soon as midnight passed, Grandma wheeled herself back from the balcony, saying she was tired.

Xu Qingyi also prepared to go upstairs and return home.

Shen Yanzhou shifted his feet but didn’t step forward.

She heard him ask, “Can I stay at your place?”

Xu Qingyi was taken aback. When he arrived, she hadn’t seen him carrying any luggage, so she assumed he was staying at a hotel in town.

She turned to look at him.

Shen Yanzhou stood there like a homeless stray. “My phone’s dead, I didn’t bring my card, and I have no cash.”

He handed her his phone. “You go up first and charge this for me.”

The house was small, and he was the only man there, so he had to wait until they had all gone to sleep before he could go up.

Xu Qingyi had no idea what he was thinking, assuming he just wanted to smoke or something. She turned and took his phone upstairs to charge.

After a long while, when he still hadn’t come up, Xu Qingyi couldn’t sleep. Wrapping herself in a coat, she went back downstairs.

Shen Yanzhou was leaning against the wall at the foot of the stairs, not smoking, but watching the distant fireworks.

“After my mom passed away, this is the first time I’ve set off fireworks,” he said quietly.

He seemed to smile again. “This is also the first time I’m spending the New Year with someone else.”

Xu Qingyi’s throat tightened slightly.

“Don’t your father and brother celebrate with you every year?”