In the evening, Wen Ran heard sounds from downstairs and immediately stood up.
Every time Xie Yunli came, there would be sounds like this. She had already memorized them.
However, when she carefully pushed open the door and went downstairs, she found that he had already left.
“Xie Yunli… where is he?”
Seeing her poking her head around, Aunt Zhu couldn’t help but smile. “If Mr. Xie knew how much you wanted him to come, he would definitely stay longer. But he was also afraid of delaying your bedtime, so he gave me something and left.”
“Something? What is it?”
“A gift for you.”
Aunt Zhu pointed to the gift box on the table. “He said to open it in your bedroom before sleeping. Maybe it will make you feel better.”
Wen Ran looked at the gift box, feeling a bit embarrassed to open it, but also really wanting to see what was inside. She touched the gift box, then looked at Aunt Zhu. “Aunt Zhu, will you accompany me? Come with me, okay?”
Aunt Zhu smiled and nodded. “Okay, Auntie will unwrap it with you.”
Wen Ran and Aunt Zhu brought the gift into the bedroom together. Aunt Zhu said, “I’m going to turn off the lights.”
Wen Ran didn’t understand why the lights needed to be turned off. While she was puzzled, she saw Aunt Zhu open the gift box and fumble around with her hands for something.
Then she heard a click, as if some mechanism had been activated.
Melodious music began to play, and with that object as the center, countless brilliant rays of light projected throughout the room in the darkness.
Wen Ran looked up to see stars filling the sky surrounding a crescent moon, transforming the entire ceiling into a starry night sky.
At the center of the light was a pink castle music box.
“So beautiful.”
Aunt Zhu couldn’t help but exclaim, “I’ve only seen such beautiful starry sky projections on TV. It’s really gorgeous.”
Wen Ran was already mesmerized. She couldn’t help but spin in circles under the starry sky, her eyes full of brilliant stars.
Aunt Zhu watched the smile slowly spreading across her face and took a photo with her phone.
How wonderful. She hadn’t seen Wen Ran show such a childlike smile in a very long time.
It really had been too long.
In the past twenty-plus years, Wen Ran had rarely displayed such happy emotions.
Even during the dozen or so years when her mother was still alive, she was truly happy very rarely, because most of the time she was receiving autism intervention therapy and spending lonely nights at home.
Due to certain innate defects, she also found it difficult to experience the normal emotions of ordinary people.
She had never even experienced true, carefree love.
Because even her mother’s love for her was suppressed and prone to breakdown.
During those day-after-day intervention treatments, Wen Ran had unconsciously self-harmed more than once. Whenever her mother saw her scarred body, she would hold her in her arms and comfort her gently, but those tears of heartache also caused Wen Ran pain.
Love sometimes also represented wordless suffering.
So Wen Ran had never experienced this kind of carefree, pressure-free affection, because Xie Yunli never demanded anything of her.
The reason he rarely came home was also to give her enough time to slowly get used to this place, and to let her gradually forget that she still had the identity of a wife. It was as if this identity was the most insignificant thing to her. She didn’t need to do anything for him based on this role, she just needed to accept his meticulous care. She didn’t need to think about anything else.
Except for the proposal and wedding, he had never formally appeared before her as a husband.
In front of her, he was Xie Yunli, and only Xie Yunli.
Soon, Xie Yunli received a photo from Aunt Zhu.
Wen Ran was looking up at the stars and moon above her head, her eyes curved like a crescent moon.
This was also the first time he had seen her smile, that kind of pure, child-like smile.
This world was so noisy for her, filled everywhere with things she couldn’t adapt to or understand.
Yet even just a small gift could bring such a happy smile to her face.
Xie Yunli looked at it for a long time. The light on his phone screen dimmed, then he lit it up again, repeating this process and looking at it for who knows how long, until suddenly an incoming call display appeared on his phone, covering the original photo.
The smile in Xie Yunli’s eyes immediately disappeared.
He answered the phone and heard greetings from the other end.
“Yes, I’m fine. Wen Ran is also fine. Please don’t worry.”
“When will you bring Wen Ran over for a meal? It’s been more than two years. She should have adapted somewhat by now…”
Xie Yunli said indifferently, “It’s not time yet. Her condition still needs a very long time.”
“Then you two…”
“I will take good care of her.”
Xie Yunli interrupted, “This is my responsibility.”
The elder on the other end of the phone sighed. “Good. It’s good that you’re still willing to take care of her. If one day you want to give up…”
Xie Yunli didn’t speak.
He was very certain that day would never come, but he didn’t want to explain anything, because explanations were useless. Many things could only be proven with time, otherwise people would just endlessly bother him with such questions.
After hanging up, Liang Zeqi called asking if he wanted to come drink.
It was now eleven-thirty. Xie Yunli figured he wouldn’t fall asleep quickly at this time anyway, and would very likely have a drink to help him sleep, so he had Zhou Wei turn around and go to where Liang Zeqi was.
Although Liang Zeqi loved to play, he had grown tired of nightclubs years ago when he was abroad. Now when he went out drinking, it was to high-end places frequented by business people that weren’t very noisy, which is why he dared to call Xie Yunli.
When Xie Yunli arrived, Liang Zeqi had also just arrived not long ago.
“I just casually invited you. I didn’t expect you to actually come.”
Liang Zeqi grinned and put his arm around his shoulder. “Are you finally unable to stand going home to a cold, lonely bed at night?”
Xie Yunli picked up his wine glass and took a sip. “Say fewer things that’ll get you beaten up. I don’t have time to send you to the hospital.”
“…So heartless.”
Liang Zeqi sighed. “Tell me, how did such a cheerful, generous, and optimistic handsome guy like me end up becoming best friends with a cold-blooded, heartless work machine like you? Were we star-crossed lovers in our past life?”
Xie Yunli removed his hand from his shoulder. “You’re overthinking it. Even if you were a woman, I wouldn’t be interested in you.”
“Then take a look.”
Liang Zeqi gestured toward the bar across from them. “So many beautiful women with graceful figures. Is there anyone you fancy?”
Xie Yunli leaned back on the sofa. Under the dim lighting, the figures of men and women appeared blurry to him, yet what surfaced in his mind was still Wen Ran’s smiling face under the starry sky.
Her hair was lively, and her eyes were full of scattered starlight.
“That child has almost never experienced true happiness from childhood to adulthood, always so lonely. If her coming into this world was a mistake, but if we can let her experience even a little bit of beauty…”
Someone had once said this to him.
Only today did he understand the true meaning of those words.
The kind of happiness that seemed so simple and within reach for ordinary people was precisely the thing that was so difficult for that girl to possess.
“What’s wrong with you lately?”
Liang Zeqi spoke up, interrupting his thoughts. “Are you too tired from work? Why don’t you take a vacation? I’ll accompany you to relax somewhere?”
Out of three hundred sixty-five days a year, Xie Yunli worked at least three hundred sixty days. Who could handle that?
Of course, he could understand. In today’s society, without family background or connections, building something from nothing on your own was extremely difficult.
Even if you could fight your way to the top, sustaining an enterprise long-term wasn’t simple either. After all, even century-old foundations could collapse overnight, let alone a newly developed enterprise.
Liang Zeqi understood the hardship of Xie Yunli’s work. His own family was also in business, and everyone in the entire family had their own careers.
But Xie Yunli was the only one in his entire family working hard to support everything. No one helped him. He had always relied on himself alone.
Even after getting married, he couldn’t live a normal life like ordinary couples.
Thinking this way, Liang Zeqi felt a bit sorry for him. Xie Yunli suddenly smiled, with a somewhat mocking tone. “Liang Zeqi, you’re overthinking it. I’m not as pitiful as you think.”
How could he not see what Liang Zeqi was thinking?
But this guy was indeed thinking too much.
He had always known what he should do and what he should possess.
Moreover, he was doing his best to do what needed to be done, and what he should possess, he would possess sooner or later.
Xie Yunli patted his shoulder with enough force to make Liang Zeqi’s expression change. “Think more about yourself. Fooling around like this every day, you’ll get beaten up again sooner or later.”
“…Don’t mention it. Yesterday my dad was still yelling about me coming home to get beaten up. What the hell did I do? Haven’t I been working properly? Compared to those loser rich second-generation kids who spend money freely and cause trouble every day, I’m already quite diligent.”
Partly due to Xie Yunli’s influence, Liang Zeqi had indeed become much more sensible in the past two years, knowing how to work properly and not playing around as much as before. So Liang Zeqi’s parents had always liked Xie Yunli very much.
They always lamented that their family didn’t have a daughter, otherwise they would definitely want Xie Yunli as their son-in-law.
After hearing about Xie Yunli’s secret marriage, Liang Zeqi’s parents were also curious about what kind of person his wife was, and had always wanted Liang Zeqi to help them meet her. Unfortunately, what they didn’t know was that even their son didn’t have the opportunity to meet Mrs. Xie.
“I really admire you.”
Liang Zeqi had drunk a bit too much. He wiped his drunk face and looked at the calm and sober Xie Yunli. “What I admire most about you is that you always know what you should do. You have plans, courage, ability, and damn it… you always succeed.”
Xie Yunli said, “That’s because when I don’t succeed, you can’t see it.”
“But!”
Liang Zeqi drunkenly slapped his thigh. “Only this matter of you getting married, I really think it’s not the right thing to do. I think you will regret it sooner or later!”
Xie Yunli took a sip of wine and said nothing.
Liang Zeqi looked at him sincerely. “Even if you regret it one day, don’t keep it bottled up. Really, I absolutely won’t laugh at you. After all, we’re both men. I understand you.”
Xie Yunli said indifferently, “I have nothing to regret.”
Everyone who knew of her existence thought he would give up.
He had nothing to explain either. After all, everyone’s thinking and cognition were different, and being self-righteous was a flaw that everyone had to some degree.
“Huh? What did you say?”
Liang Zeqi didn’t hear clearly and wanted to lean over to hear what he had said.
Xie Yunli pushed him away. “Your face really deserves a few beatings.”
Liang Zeqi innocently touched his handsome face. “What did I do wrong? Why would you hit my face?”
Xie Yunli had already gotten up to pay the bill and leave.
Soon, Liang Zeqi was surrounded by several men and women. Xie Yunli glanced back and didn’t bother with him anymore.
What he did never needed others’ approval, nor did he ever need their opinions.
Otherwise, he would have been a person who accomplished nothing long ago.
On Friday, Aunt Zhu suddenly told Wen Ran that Xie Yunli would come tomorrow and asked her to prepare mentally.
Sure enough, Wen Ran immediately became nervous.
However, Aunt Zhu could tell that besides the usual nervousness, there was also some happiness mixed in.
Of course, this happy emotion might not even be something Wen Ran herself was aware of.