The Beloved One Is Always Coveted - Chapter 25

Chapter 25

◎I Don’t Do That Kind of Thing◎

Qi Xue also fell silent. She hadn’t expected her words to cause Yu Li to overthink so much. After a deathly silence, she blurted out two words, almost frantic.

“Idiot!”

Yu Li nodded silently. She was indeed an idiot.

However, Qi Xue’s next sentence stunned her.

“Why do you think of yourself that way?”

“In your eyes, am I that good? Are you that bad?”

Yu Li thought, Yes, she knows herself best. She’s selfish and despicable. That’s just the way it is.

She typed, still: I’m sorry.

“I’m not angry at all, really. I was just joking. I’m willing to talk to you. I want to continue being your friend. I want to be your friend for life.”

Qi Xue now regretted her previous words immensely. If she had just said she was willing, Yu Li wouldn’t be so internally conflicted.

“I want to talk to you. Please don’t just type to me, okay?”

Yu Li was momentarily stunned. The coldness slowly disappeared, and the feeling of suffocation receded like a tide.

Her heart, which had sunk to the bottom, rose a little. For some reason, her tears didn’t stop; they flowed even more fiercely.

How could she talk like this? Her voice would give her away instantly.

So she typed: It’s not convenient for me to talk. Typing is fine.

And yet, she dared not fully believe: Qi Xue, is what you’re saying true?

“It’s true, I promise you.”

Qi Xue was earnest, short of swearing to the heavens.

Yu Li gave a soft “Mm,” realizing Qi Xue couldn’t hear, so she quickly typed: Mm, I know.

Her tears gradually subsided, and warmth began to fill her heart. She typed, asking Qi Xue if she wanted to continue the voice chat.

Qi Xue replied directly: “I don’t want to hang up.”

Yu Li hummed, her voice still carrying a slight cry, not loud, unnoticeable unless you listened carefully.

She reopened her microphone.

Qi Xue heard her breathing again, so light and shallow, yet heavy in her chest, making her whole heart drop.

Heaven knows how long she had been waiting for a message.

Both fell silent again. After about a minute, Qi Xue laughed first, and Yu Li laughed along with her. Their laughter mingled, infecting the wind that happened to blow by, and the faint rustling sound outside the window started again.

Yu Li didn’t pay attention, focusing on Qi Xue speaking. Qi Xue said Yu Li couldn’t think that way, couldn’t always blame herself. She wasn’t as good as Yu Li thought. She was impulsive and combative, and her studies weren’t great she wasn’t the perfect person Yu Li saw. She also said that in her heart, Yu Li was far from bad; she was the most wonderful person in the world.

Yu Li said she was making things up, so Qi Xue listed many reasons, saying she was kind and cute and that cats liked her. Her own cat, Xiao Hua, was especially fond of her.

Neither of them mentioned Tang Xi. It was a mutual, silent understanding, as if that night hadn’t happened at all.

The next day was Sunday. Yu Li and her mother, Yu Rong, were staying in a small guesthouse reserved for the housekeepers. Yu Li stayed cooped up in the room, still thinking about her lost backpack.

Tang Xi said she had already looked for it, but Yu Li felt she was just placating her. Monday was the first day of school. What would she do without her backpack?

She knew she couldn’t rely on Tang Xi. She should look for it herself, trace the path from that night. Maybe the backpack hadn’t been picked up and was just lying somewhere.

But she felt an inexplicable sense of worry.

Over the past two days, she could sense a faint, lingering gaze, like the damp moss in a summer rain, creeping inch by inch up her spine, rising segment by segment.

A cold chill spread up the back of her neck. She felt panicked, but when she looked around, there wasn’t a soul in sight.

She thought it was an illusion, but the illusion was too frequent. Moreover… it wasn’t an illusion.

Perhaps behind the tightly closed curtains, a pair of eyes was truly watching her, gloomy and eerie, staring at her back for a long time.

She already had a suspect: Miss Tang Fei. Tang Xi had warned her to be careful of her sister before she left.

So, she huddled in the room all day, afraid to go out. But as evening approached, she started to get anxious.

Yu Li was worried about her safety, but the still-missing backpack was clearly more important. It contained not only her textbooks and workbooks but also her secret personal world.

She had asked her mother to ask the other housekeepers, but none of them had found her backpack.

After being anxious for a long time, she finally found a clue.

Yu Li finally went out to look for her backpack. It wasn’t long before she ran into it. It was dangling from a hand, as if greeting its long-lost owner affectionately.

The person holding the backpack looked haggard, with dark circles under her eyes, like someone whose vitality had been drained by a ghost. However…

Yu Li’s gaze fell on her backpack. The hand holding it was completely inconsistent with its owner fair as jade, with long, clean fingers, and thin calluses on the pads, like a pianist’s hand.

Yet, that hand was clutching the slightly worn strap of her backpack. The delicate hand that played a piano worth hundreds of thousands was, for the first time, holding a cheap, coarse backpack, which even had a fake brand logo on it that was obviously counterfeit. It just didn’t look right.

Yu Li hadn’t had much exposure to the piano. When she was little, it was popular to take extracurricular classes to be talented, and several kids learned the piano.

Some families even bought pianos for their children to practice at home. Yu Li had watched enviously for a few days, finally begging her mother to buy her a musical instrument—a Hulusi (gourd flute).

It wasn’t a good one. An old woman sold it at a stall. As long as it made a sound when you blew it, that was enough. As for the quality of the sound, that wasn’t their concern.

She didn’t know if the hand holding a Hulusi and the hand playing a piano were equally slender and well-proportioned, but they were definitely different.

Just like now, Tang Fei’s gloomy smile made her feel startled again. Tang Fei had picked up her backpack and deliberately waited here.

She already knew from Tang Xi that they were different, and Tang Fei was even more so, because she didn’t look like someone who would show respect.

She didn’t know why Tang Fei was focused on her. They had only officially met twice, and the first “meeting” didn’t count as it was very unseemly.

Stumbling upon a scene with your sister and her girlfriend… If it were Yu Li, she would awkwardly hide. But Tang Fei wasn’t like that. When she was discovered, she neither hid nor avoided them. Instead, she boldly knocked on the window and demanded her sister’s girlfriend.

The Tang family was definitely not normal. Except for Yang Shuo, there wasn’t a normal person among them.

Yu Li sighed lightly in her heart. She wasn’t willing to spend much time with Tang Fei, so she spoke plainly: “Are you… are you here to return the backpack? This backpack.”

She raised her hand and pointed at the backpack in Tang Fei’s hand. “I dropped it accidentally.”

“I know.”

Tang Fei’s eyes followed the pointing finger, noting it was delicate and soft, largely matching the subjects in her paintings.

Her voice was slightly hoarse when she spoke, with a cold, metallic texture, well-suited for a band vocalist.

“Then, can you return it to me?”

Yu Li didn’t know what kind of person Tang Fei was. Judging from her appearance, she looked like someone who played rock and roll, but her mother, Yu Rong, had mentioned she was a painter when they chatted a few days ago.

People with great achievements in the arts seem to have some flaws, or unique personalities self-centered, paranoid, sensitive, even abnormal. Less rationally speaking, they all had some mental quirks.

Yu Li unconsciously raised her toe, thinking she should quickly retreat and close the door if Tang Fei tried anything.

“I have a condition.”

Tang Fei’s gaze closely followed Yu Li’s uncertain look, calmly stating her purpose.

“I need a model. You are the most suitable candidate.”

The words were direct, completely disregarding Yu Li’s feelings.

Heaven knows how surprised she was to see Yu Li in the garden that night. In that dark, deep, gloomy room, Yu Li was glowing with a clear, moist white light. Tears flowed relentlessly from her innocent, beautiful eyes. She was fragile and lovely, like a fallen angel with broken wings.

The angel’s body was small, trembling with every breath, glistening with moisture, blurring Tang Fei’s vision.

Her angel, her muse, the temporary vessel for her perfect artwork.

She had found her.

Tang Fei’s heart surged that day outside the window. The last time she was this excited was when she first started painting.

As a beginner, she had held a black marker and used messy, slightly crooked lines to depict a chaotic, bizarre, and twisted world. The moment the painting was finished, Tang Fei immediately understood the source of the tremor deep in her soul.

That business suit was not suitable for her. Her destiny lay in the boundless field of art. So, she betrayed Tang Nianyi, who had paved the way for her, and went alone to Italy to systematically study fine arts.

Yu Li understood. Tang Fei never intended to return the backpack. She was negotiating, which was exactly the same tactic as Tang Xi.

Even the so-called “condition” was being taken from her.

“What if I don’t agree? You won’t return my backpack?”

Yu Li spoke softly but intentionally emphasized “my,” hoping Tang Fei would realize that the backpack was inherently hers. If Tang Xi hadn’t insisted on dragging her along, how could it have fallen into Tang Fei’s hands?

“I found it.”

Tang Fei stated a simple fact. Since she found it, it was under her control.

“And how do you prove it’s yours?”

“It is clearly mine! My name is written in the books inside!”

Yu Li was about to explode. It was clearly her backpack! Why did she have to prove she was the owner? This was just being deliberately difficult!

But she didn’t dare to get angry. Even her voice was the same as before, sounding less like a statement and more like a plea.

“Your name?”

Tang Fei raised an eyebrow and looked at her, then unzipped the bag and pulled out a math textbook, smoothly avoiding Yu Li’s attempt to snatch it away. She was perfectly calm, showing no awareness that the owner was right in front of her.

“It’s on the first page. My name is right there.”

Yu Li watched her open the first page and quickly pointed out that her name was written there in black ink, along with the grade and class.

“Name?”

Tang Fei looked at her earnestly. “What’s your name?”

Yu Li: “…Yu Li.”

“How do you prove this is yours?”

Tang Fei clenched the spine of the book, her expression still gloomy, looking like a class teacher confiscating a bad student’s extracurricular reading.

Yu Li was stunned. How else should she prove it? Her name was on it. There were also her notes inside, and the handwriting was consistently rounded. How could that not prove it was hers?

Tang Fei’s lips curved into a slight arc: “There are so many people in the world. You’re not the only one named Yu Li. How can you prove it?”

“I’m the only one who lost a backpack here.”

Yu Li unconsciously clenched her fists. She could see that the other person was being unreasonable, trying to force her to be her model, but she refused.

“How are you so sure I picked it up here?”

Tang Fei shook the backpack. A single, light sentence instantly negated Yu Li’s claim.

Even though the backpack in her hand was identical to Yu Li’s, and the name in the book was identical, Yu Li still had to prove it was hers, provide the most powerful evidence. Since she couldn’t, then it wasn’t hers.

No matter how many of her belongings were inside the backpack, it wouldn’t matter. Even the diary wouldn’t help. Yu Li could argue a thousand or ten thousand times, and Tang Fei would always find a reason to deny it.

Watching Tang Fei start to walk away with her backpack, Yu Li had no choice but to give in. She lowered her head, pulling on her backpack strap, and said: “I don’t do that kind of thing.”

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