Unexpectedly, Wen Ran shook her head. “If I keep playing with it, it will break.”
After all, the puzzle was made of relatively soft material. No matter how carefully it was handled, repeated assembly and disassembly would inevitably cause damage.
Aunt Zhu breathed a sigh of relief. If Wen Ran had continued playing like this, it would have truly become repetitive behavior, and she really would have needed to consult a psychologist.
Wen Ran suddenly spoke up: “Aunt Zhu, I want to go see Kaka. I’m worried about Kaka… I miss it and want to see it.”
“Of course, of course. I’ll go with you.”
Aunt Zhu nodded repeatedly. Wanting to do something else was a good thing; otherwise, if she continued staring at that puzzle all day, she would really be worried sick.
Just as she relaxed, she heard Wen Ran ask: “Is Xie Yunli doing well?”
Aunt Zhu was stunned for a moment and said: “He should be fine. He’s probably busy with company matters.”
Wen Ran nodded and didn’t say anything more.
Aunt Zhu found this rather curious. Wen Ran and Xie Yunli had been married for over two years, but in the previous two years, Xie Yunli’s name had appeared in Wen Ran’s speech so few times that they could definitely be counted on one hand.
Could it be that because Xie Yunli had visited several times recently, Wen Ran had suddenly become curious about him?
Aunt Zhu couldn’t help but wonder suspiciously whether Wen Ran’s recent unusual behavior was related to Xie Yunli’s visits. The puzzle was also a gift from Xie Yunli, after all.
But then she thought it was quite normal. After all, there were only so many people who appeared in Wen Ran’s life, and Xie Yunli was nominally one of her closest people now.
It was precisely because she had become curious that she would study something for such a long time… even though what she was studying was a puzzle that didn’t really have much to do with Xie Yunli himself.
Having figured this out, Aunt Zhu actually felt it wasn’t such a big deal. Perhaps this was even a good thing, since there were truly very few people in this world who could spark Wen Ran’s interest.
Even if Xie Yunli was her nominal husband, it didn’t matter much. For Wen Ran, the marital relationship was actually the least important thing.
Because what mattered most was her care and curiosity.
Aunt Zhu eagerly took out her phone and said to Wen Ran: “Would you like to see some photos or videos of Mr. Xie? I can find a few for you to look at.”
But Wen Ran seemed unresponsive, blinking her eyes blankly. “Why would I want to see him?”
Aunt Zhu said: “Weren’t you just asking whether Mr. Xie was doing well?”
Wen Ran tilted her head, puzzled: “Can photos show whether he’s doing well or not?”
Aunt Zhu: “Well, well, well… I suppose you really need to see the person himself to tell…”
…
At the residential complex entrance, Xie Yunli got out of the car and said to Zhou Wei: “You can take a taxi back to the company. I’ll need the car later.”
“Yes, Mr. Xie.”
Leaving work on time on a weekday to come to the villa district was the first time this had happened for Xie Yunli. Usually he would either be meeting clients or working overtime alone.
But Zhou Wei, though curious about his boss’s private affairs, knew better than to ask too many questions. In his impression, Xie Yunli never discussed his family matters with others, not even with close friends.
Xie Yunli took out two boxes of expensive cigarettes from the back of the car and went to find the security guards first.
The property manager here knew him, and upon hearing that he had business to attend to, immediately came out personally to receive him.
Xie Yunli seemed to just be making casual conversation, but the manager was very enthusiastic.
This was the most upscale independent villa district with only a few households in total. The property management was well aware of each household’s situation and knew that the people living in Xie Yunli’s villa required special attention. For instance, if anything happened at that household, they were to notify Xie Yunli immediately.
Over the past two years, aside from Aunt Zhu who greeted the security guards every time she went out, newer security guards didn’t even know there was a female owner living there.
Xie Yunli didn’t deliberately ask about anything, but soon the property manager voluntarily told him that Aunt Zhu had recently registered once for a rental car, since all visiting vehicles had to be registered. The guards remembered clearly that Aunt Zhu and Wen Ran had gotten into the car together. Although they didn’t see her face clearly, there was no one else it could have been besides the female owner who usually stayed home.
Other than that, they had never seen the female owner of that house go out. Even during routine patrols, they had never seen her leave the house. They had assumed she preferred staying at home, so they found it quite remarkable when Wen Ran suddenly went out that time.
Xie Yunli certainly couldn’t tell them much more.
After leaving the property office, the smile disappeared from Xie Yunli’s face.
He had been involved in business since before graduation and was accustomed to thinking through many things.
Sometimes thinking from too many angles made simple matters seem complicated, but some things really weren’t that complex.
Perhaps he had been overthinking Wen Ran’s situation.
Today was a weekday. He hadn’t told Aunt Zhu in advance and had come over after work.
Xie Yunli walked to the villa entrance.
He had probably been coming quite frequently lately, so the door in front of him seemed even more familiar than his own apartment.
When Aunt Zhu heard the doorbell, she hadn’t expected it to be Xie Yunli. She was startled when she saw him enter: “Mr. Xie is here?”
The last time he came without notice, he said he was passing by. This time…
“I got off work early today and thought I’d drop by. Would it be convenient for you to make me dinner?”
“Of course it’s convenient. Please sit down first. What would you like to eat today? I’ll go prepare it.”
“Just make whatever you have. I’m not picky.”
Xie Yunli glanced upstairs.
When he had entered just now, he had seen that Wen Ran, who had originally been in the living room, immediately ran upstairs when she heard he was coming.
Was she hiding from him?
Or did she simply not want to see him?
“The ingredients I ordered will be delivered soon. Please wait a moment while I go to the entrance to pick them up.” Aunt Zhu hurriedly put on a jacket and went out.
Delivery personnel weren’t allowed inside here. Either the security guards would deliver to the door, or residents had to pick up at the entrance themselves. Since Aunt Zhu usually bought quite a lot, she would go herself, only asking security for help when she really couldn’t carry everything.
Xie Yunli nodded. “Alright, go ahead.”
Actually, he wasn’t hungry. He just had nothing else to do here if he didn’t eat.
Wen Ran was upstairs, not knowing what she was doing, or perhaps deliberately avoiding him. There wasn’t a sound.
Xie Yunli sat on the sofa, his gaze falling on the basement entrance.
Last time it was curiosity that led him into the basement room, where he discovered that ‘secret.’
After that, without Wen Ran’s permission, he probably had no right to go in there again.
From their wedding day, he had made her a promise to take care of her and give her as much freedom as possible within his means.
Whatever she wanted to do or didn’t want to do, wherever she wanted to go or didn’t want to go, as long as personal safety could be ensured, he wouldn’t interfere.
So he rarely inquired about anything other than matters concerning health and safety.
He also never let outsiders know her name or appearance, hoping that if others met her someday, they wouldn’t recognize her as his wife and thus cause her trouble.
At least, this was the greatest freedom he could offer.
Xie Yunli stood up, somehow feeling redundant here, since Wen Ran apparently didn’t want to see him.
He had just picked up his jacket, preparing to tell Aunt Zhu she didn’t need to cook for him and find some excuse to leave, when he suddenly heard a crash from upstairs, as if something had fallen to the floor.
This was immediately followed by Wen Ran’s startled cry.
Xie Yunli immediately dropped his jacket and ran upstairs. The sound had come from the study. He knocked on the door: “Wen Ran, what happened?”
The door wasn’t locked. When Xie Yunli heard no response, he couldn’t wait and opened the door directly.
Wen Ran was standing in the center of the room with her hands covering her ears, looking helpless. Xie Yunli quickly scanned the room and saw that an easel had accidentally been knocked over onto the floor.
Wen Ran kept patting her ears with her hands. She had had this problem since childhood: once startled, she would easily develop tinnitus and fall into panic.
Thinking she was frightened and hurting herself, Xie Yunli instinctively stepped forward and grabbed her hands.
Feeling her hands suddenly enveloped by warm touch, Wen Ran was startled and her body shrank back sharply.
Xie Yunli calmly stepped back a little and lowered his hands, asking softly: “Are you alright? Did anything hit you?”
Wen Ran shook her head. After her breathing calmed down a bit, she stammered: “I was walking… walking carelessly and bumped into it. I’m sorry…”
Xie Yunli said: “It’s fine. You don’t need to apologize.”
He bent down to set up the fallen easel.
He hadn’t been to this study in a long time, since Wen Ran was the one using it entirely. Only today did he notice that she really had a lot of painting supplies, filling up an entire row.
The bookshelf was also neatly filled with books, and there was even a digital drawing tablet next to the computer.
When she had moved in, she hadn’t brought so many books. They must have been accumulated gradually over these two years. He hadn’t realized that she not only loved painting but also enjoyed reading so much.
Every corner of the study was neat and clean. A green plant sat beside the snow-white curtains, and the evening sunlight streaming in seemed to drape the entire room in golden gauze.
Standing there with a paintbrush, wearing a light-colored dress and the apron she wore while painting (which she had even painted with a sunflower field), with her long black hair framing her pale, beautiful face under the evening light filtering through the window, Wen Ran looked like a quiet maiden from an oil painting.
Her eyelids remained lowered, and her voice was so soft it seemed it might dissipate into the air at any moment.
Xie Yunli suddenly realized that he had never truly seen her eyes.
Someone had once asked him whether he really didn’t mind that his wife had autism, since this condition couldn’t be completely cured.
This also meant that throughout their lives, they might never be able to communicate like ordinary couples, nor be intimate like normal married couples.
But what if someday she could communicate normally with others but still refused to talk to him?
Wen Ran crouched on the floor, carefully tidying up the art supplies. When Xie Yunli stopped talking, she didn’t know what to do, but she sensitively felt that his aura seemed different from usual.
Remembering that when he had just arrived, he said he hadn’t eaten yet.
Wen Ran thought, perhaps he was hungry?
Just like her former family members, when work got busy, they might not be able to eat meals on time.
Reaching to pick up something on the floor but grasping nothing, Wen Ran came back to her senses and realized that the two tubes of paint that had fallen on the floor had already been picked up by Xie Yunli.
“Where should these go?”
Wen Ran saw his outstretched hand with the two tubes of paint in his palm.
Then she looked at her own hands.
Indeed, his were much larger in proportion than hers.
Seeing that she seemed lost in thought, Xie Yunli let her stare at his hands for a full minute before asking: “Wen Ran, what are you thinking about?”