Aunt Zhu said: “This size, she would eat three… ah, I forgot to tell you the quantity in advance this time.”
She had written all the reminders on sticky notes in the kitchen, but Aunt Zhu had forgotten this one thing.
Xie Yunli paused, then asked: “What would make her change her habit and only want to eat two?”
Aunt Zhu was somewhat surprised he would ask this question: “Probably she really wasn’t very hungry today, so she ate less. Or… she felt embarrassed to eat too much in front of you?”
After thinking, Aunt Zhu added: “When you’re not busy, you could come back more often to visit. Ran Ran would miss you too.”
Xie Yunli didn’t say anything, just nodded: “Thank you for taking such good care of her.”
He had driven himself when he came today, parked outside. He originally wanted to say goodbye to Wen Ran before leaving, but when he turned around, he found she wasn’t in the living room – she must have gone upstairs to do her own things.
Xie Yunli found it amusing. He must have been influenced by Aunt Zhu’s earlier words to actually think Wen Ran would miss him.
Whether he came or went, she was always doing her own things.
Unless he walked right up to her, he would never see her reaction.
People with autism who naturally have weaker emotional needs find it very difficult to establish emotional connections with others. Even with their closest relatives, it takes long-term companionship to develop familial feelings.
He was her husband, yes, but equally, he was also a stranger with no emotional connection.
At the kitchen window, Wen Ran stood by the curtain, watching Xie Yunli walk toward his car.
She watched until the car drove away. Aunt Zhu had been looking for her for a while before finding her: “My dear, why are you here? What are you looking at?”
Aunt Zhu glanced outside and realized: “You were watching Mr. Xie? Why didn’t you go see him off just now?”
Of course, Aunt Zhu understood that asking her to see Xie Yunli off would be asking too much.
She patted Wen Ran’s shoulder and said gently: “Were you happy that Mr. Xie came to keep you company today?”
After a while, Wen Ran finally spoke: “I don’t understand.”
Aunt Zhu: “Don’t understand what?”
Wen Ran didn’t speak again, just looked in the direction the car had gone and stared blankly out the window.
Aunt Zhu touched her head.
Things she didn’t understand – forget about them. Perhaps many things she would never understand.
But so what?
As long as she could live well and do what she wanted to do, that was enough.
No one in this world would have any excessive demands of her anymore.
For a whole week, Xie Yunli was away on business trips, with Liang Zeqi accompanying him.
“I really have to hand it to you. Yesterday you entertained clients until 2 AM, then got up at 8 AM the next day to meet more clients. After several days like this, you’re still so energetic?”
Liang Zeqi had originally come along to help his family scout a location and hang out with Xie Yunli, but couldn’t find him when he wanted to play, and couldn’t see him at night either. Today he finally cornered him in the hotel for some pool: “Why do you push yourself so hard? Your company has been pretty stable these past two years, right?”
“Stable?”
Xie Yunli chuckled: “You think my company is like your family’s multi-generational enterprise? If I don’t push this hard, guess how long my company would last before going bankrupt.”
“It can’t be that bad. I think you’re just scared from when your dad went bankrupt when you were little.”
Liang Zeqi said: “You don’t need to pressure yourself so much. Don’t tell me you’re planning to push this hard until you go public?”
Bang – Xie Yunli sunk two balls with one shot.
Liang Zeqi was different from him. This guy got 20 million from his family right after graduation to start a business, lost it all completely, then slunk back to work at the family company. His family’s attitude was to let him buy experience and lessons with money, so he’d know that even with money, business wasn’t easy.
But Xie Yunli had truly built everything from scratch. Since his family went bankrupt over ten years ago, he had really walked step by step from being so poor he only had a few hundred yuan in his pocket to where he was now.
There was one year when things were really difficult – he could barely pay salaries. Liang Zeqi had voluntarily brought 2 million of his own pocket money to help, but Xie Yunli didn’t take a cent and toughed it out himself.
This was why, despite their vastly different family backgrounds, Liang Zeqi had always treated him like a big brother all these years. He truly admired this man.
Back when he was studying abroad, whenever he got into trouble, it was always Xie Yunli who helped him solve it. Xie Yunli was not only extremely cunning but also very ruthless in his methods, though you couldn’t tell from his appearance.
Because when Xie Yunli was studying abroad, he appeared to be just a polite international student working part-time to pay for school.
But actually he was very calculating. When he needed to use schemes, he absolutely wouldn’t resort to violence. When he needed to use violence, he absolutely wouldn’t waste mental effort.
With a partner like that, who else would Liang Zeqi call “big brother”?
There was another thing Liang Zeqi admired about him: he himself had been quite the playboy since college, while Xie Yunli rarely participated in entertainment activities and was usually abstinent as hell. Even when beautiful women threw themselves at him, he wouldn’t spare them a glance.
So when Liang Zeqi heard he got married two years ago, he almost immediately rushed to see what kind of goddess his new wife was.
Unfortunately, Liang Zeqi still didn’t know what Wen Ran looked like.
He just assumed Xie Yunli owed the Wen family something, which was why he married that girl with congenital autism.
Like Zhou Wei, who had never met Wen Ran, in his imagination, Wen Ran was also an autistic girl who stayed home year-round, with average looks and figure, silly and dull.
Either way, Liang Zeqi felt Xie Yunli had gotten a terrible deal – just terrible. Even if he owed that family something, he could have just paid money to settle the debt. If not that, he could have acknowledged her as a sister, treated her as family – anything would be better than marrying such a wife, right?
But he knew Xie Yunli’s character. Once Xie Yunli decided something, others’ advice was useless. After trying to probe a few times and nearly having Xie Yunli turn on him, he didn’t dare say much more.
Of course, Liang Zeqi still felt indignant on his behalf.
At least he was a normal man – what kind of situation was this?
“I say, buddy, now that you’re finally done being busy, let’s go relax?”
Xie Yunli glanced at him: “Aren’t we relaxing right now?”
“…Don’t you know anything besides playing pool? The kind of relaxation I’m talking about isn’t this.”
Liang Zeqi was somewhat speechless: “Go out and have fun occasionally. How about that place I went yesterday?”
The places Liang Zeqi went were either high-end private clubs or upscale nightclubs.
Xie Yunli said: “If you want to go, go yourself. I have an early flight tomorrow, can’t keep you company.”
Liang Zeqi didn’t say anything for a moment. Xie Yunli glanced at him and found he was staring at a graceful young woman who had just entered – probably just down from the gym upstairs, still wearing tight fitness yoga clothes.
“I made eye contact with her earlier.”
Seeing that he was also looking at the woman, Liang Zeqi slung an arm over Xie Yunli’s shoulder with a mischievous grin: “But I noticed when she came in and looked around, her gaze passed over me and settled on you.”
Although Liang Zeqi was confident in his charm in most situations – after all, he used to be quite the playboy – he knew his place next to Xie Yunli. There might be plenty of men with his kind of charm, but you really couldn’t find many like Xie Yunli.
Not to mention looks – Xie Yunli had a face that naturally attracted women’s attention. Just his aura alone was enough to make Liang Zeqi bow down in admiration.
However, Xie Yunli just glanced casually and looked away, his expression so calm it didn’t even ripple: “If you like her, go for it.”
Liang Zeqi: “You’re not even a little interested?”
Xie Yunli coldly uttered two words: “No.”
…
Unbelievable.
Liang Zeqi sighed inwardly. He felt that even though Xie Yunli was married, his wife had autism and they had no feelings for each other. So what if Xie Yunli had another woman?
His little wife at home who never went out wouldn’t get jealous or sad, and there was no way she could even show her face publicly. Why constrain himself like this?
Of course Xie Yunli knew what Liang Zeqi was thinking, but he was too lazy to bother with him.
His phone rang – it was Zhou Wei. Xie Yunli answered: “Hello, what is it?”
Zhou Wei said: “Mr. Xie, are you coming back tomorrow? There’s something I want to tell you, it’s about that…”
Xie Yunli hated when he beat around the bush: “What exactly? Just say it directly.”
“It’s like this – a couple days ago I saw a video online about some college students visiting a pet rescue organization. I saw Aunt Zhu in it, and there was someone next to her. I can’t confirm if it was Miss Wen – I’ve never seen what she looks like, and the girl was wearing a hat and scarf, bundled up so you couldn’t see her face clearly. But I saw Aunt Zhu being very protective of her, and Aunt Zhu doesn’t usually go out much, so she couldn’t have left Miss Wen home alone…”
Zhou Wei paused, then continued: “Miss Wen rarely leaves the house. Should you check if the person in the video was Miss Wen?”