Chapter 18

Qin Hua had rushed back from the factory in Yunzhou. Nearly three hours on the high-speed rail, then a trip to the market to buy groceries and cook. After such a busy day, she was so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open, nodding off on the sofa in front of the blaring TV…

Only when the doorbell rang did she sit up straight and look back. The sight made her brow furrow at once, because Si Nanyu was once again trailing silently behind an expressionless Wen Qingyan like an ostrich hiding its head in the sand.

When the two of them had left, they’d been holding hands, and as the doting old mother, Qin Hua had been deeply gratified.

She was very, very fond of Wen Qingyan; otherwise she wouldn’t treat her even better than she treated Si Nanyu. She had firmly believed that her daughter’s shortcomings could be made up for, at least in part, by the sincerity of her, the mother-in-law.

But now it seemed the results were negligible.

Si Nanyu was simply mud that couldn’t be plastered onto the wall!

Left with no choice, Qin Hua forced a smile and stood up to fuss over Wen Qingyan with warm concern. “Little Wen, you’re back? It’s cold out, isn’t it? I’ve already prepared your bathwater. Go wash up, quick~” She gave Wen Qingyan’s shoulder a light push, then slipped smoothly between the two of them, blocking Si Nanyu’s path.

Si Nanyu heard Qin Hua speaking, but she had kept her head down the whole time, unaware that Qin Hua was right in front of her. She braked hurriedly to keep from bumping into her.

Still, her eyes stayed fixed on Wen Qingyan, who was smiling politely at Qin Hua.

Then, without realizing it, her mouth twitched into a pout…

Before the pout could finish forming, Qin Hua’s strong arm hauled her away.

Qin Hua could be gentle at times, but she was more often overbearing, especially with Si Nanyu. She practically backed her into the corner of the sofa, then glanced toward the bathroom Wen Qingyan had disappeared into and asked, “On this trip out, did you upset Little Wen again?”

Si Nanyu cried her innocence. “I didn’t! We were watching the stars so nicely, and then suddenly she just…”

“She got upset, that’s what.”

As she spoke, Si Nanyu’s mouth pouted up again, and the moment Qin Hua saw it, she pinched her daughter’s lips, saying with disdain, “What are you pouting about?”

“If you ask me, Little Wen is the wronged one here. Her partner of many years, whom she dated and then married, suddenly doesn’t remember her. Do you think she could be in a good mood?!”

Si Nanyu’s eyes darted around, and she retorted weakly, “I haven’t forgotten her…”

“I remember that she’s my teacher…”

“You stubborn thing! How did I give birth to such a stubborn creature? It’s all your father’s fault…” Qin Hua had meant to rant about both her and Si Xueyi, but halfway through the sentence, she suddenly stopped. Si Nanyu shot her a puzzled look.

You had to understand: in eighteen years of memory, Qin Hua and Si Xueyi had gone from fighting side by side, to loathing each other, to being like water and fire!

Especially after the divorce, theirs was not a relationship you could casually bring up.

Si Nanyu found it strange. There were many things she couldn’t see through, yet somehow she sensed something was off.

Just like Qin Hua now, and Si Xueyi, and Si Jiamu.

Something must have happened during those years of memory she had lost!

“Mom… are you keeping something from me?”

“My dad, and Si Jiamu…”

Si Nanyu was about to rehash old questions, but the moment she called out “Mom,” Qin Hua’s guilt flared. She didn’t answer, only pulled a stern face and said, “You claim you’re eighteen, so grown-up matters are none of a child’s business. Listen to Little Wen and behave.”

“Be good, work hard, live well!”

“Mom, I will!” Si Nanyu promised first, but she still wasn’t quite willing to let it go. Looking into Qin Hua’s guilty, evasive eyes, she said lightly, “If you won’t tell me any of this, then I’m calling my dad.”

“You…” Qin Hua cried out, then fell silent.

Si Nanyu had assumed she would snap “You dare!” the way she used to. She hadn’t expected her to stop at a single word.

She looked over suspiciously, knowing that if she just pressed a little further, she could surely pry a reason out of her.

Just like back when they had first divorced.

Si Nanyu had been under ten then, understanding divorce in her own childish way: her parents simply wouldn’t live together anymore, and nothing changed for her. Si Xueyi still picked her up and dropped her off now and then, still took her out to play and bought her treats.

Several times during that period, she had told Qin Hua just like this, that she would contact Si Xueyi herself, and Qin Hua had refused so sternly. She hadn’t understood, but later, later on, she came to.

It was because of Si Jiamu.

Ten years apart in age, Si Nanyu had already been in middle school the first time she met Si Jiamu. By then she was getting naughtier and naughtier, while Si Jiamu was tiny and a little clingy with her.

Though the girl wasn’t bad-looking, even a bit cute, a sticky, fawning little child had thoroughly annoyed Si Nanyu.

And especially since that child looked somewhat like her.

It made her feel all the more that her father’s love had been stolen away, so her moods began to swing. On one hand she pulled away from Si Xueyi, and on the other she couldn’t help wanting to be close to him.

In that push and pull, years slipped by without her noticing. She outgrew her playful age and entered high school, where, buried in her studies and wallowing in heartbreak over love she couldn’t have, she went long stretches without seeing Si Xueyi, and saw less and less of Qin Hua too.

Then in the blink of an eye, it was now.

“I’m not trying to hide things from you. It’s just that some things, I don’t know how to say. Let me think it over…” Qin Hua had her back to Si Nanyu, her voice uncharacteristically low and unsteady, then it firmed up again. “Let me think it over some more!”

Si Nanyu had never intended to force anything. Seeing Qin Hua like this, she reined herself in and nodded. “Okay.”

But by the time Wen Qingyan came out of her bath and started talking with Qin Hua, Si Nanyu’s mind had started churning again.

Whatever Qin Hua needed to think over before telling her had to be about Si Xueyi.

Bankrupt? Divorced again? Or sick?

Si Nanyu felt a vague worry, so before her own bath, she took out her phone and dialed the number she had memorized.

Looking at the name on the screen, “Si Xueyi (Dad),” Si Nanyu’s eyes flickered.

She hung up in a hurry.

After all… she had promised Qin Hua. Whatever needed saying, she would wait for Qin Hua to say it. No calling Si Xueyi first.

She couldn’t go back on her word.

At the same time, she pocketed her unease, stripped off her clothes, and got into the shower.

Qin Hua’s home was spacious, and this bathroom had presumably been prepared for her and Wen Qingyan. Everything inside was a matching couples’ set, down to the tangerine-scented body wash she loved.

Wen Qingyan had just used it too, and the whole room smelled of tangerines.

“I have no idea how to tell her that her father passed away.”

After Si Nanyu went to the bathroom, Qin Hua drew Wen Qingyan over to the corner of the sofa again. This time it wasn’t an interrogation; she was afraid Si Nanyu might overhear.

She was genuinely worried. However ugly the divorce had been, however dead the feelings, Si Xueyi was still Si Nanyu’s biological father.

When the accident happened back then, Si Nanyu had taken it hard and needed quite a while to recover. And now this… it would be a second wound.

It caught Wen Qingyan off guard as well. She still had her doubts about Si Nanyu’s amnesia, found it hard to accept, and would never have thought to factor this in.

But Qin Hua’s worry couldn’t be faked, so Wen Qingyan patted her leg and said soothingly, “Mom, Nanyu still needs to know about this.”

“I know, I know. But Nanyu, she…”

“She says she’s eighteen. Not in her twenties. Does she really have the capacity to bear it?”

A mother was a mother, after all. Qin Hua might complain about Si Nanyu with her lips, but how could she not care when it counted?

By comparison, Wen Qingyan was far calmer.

“Nanyu was only twenty-one when Dad passed. She hadn’t even graduated from college.”

“This has nothing to do with age. It’s the matter itself that’s the problem.”

Fair point. Qin Hua nodded, then remembered it wasn’t just this one thing. Her expression turned flustered, and she grabbed Wen Qingyan’s hand. “Yao and I…”

The moment the words left her mouth, Wen Qingyan’s brow furrowed, and seeing it, Qin Hua went pale and hastily corrected herself. “Auntie Mu and I… the fact that we opened the factory together, how am I supposed to explain that?”

When it came to those two people, even Qin Hua’s usual boldness crumbled, and she could only turn to Wen Qingyan for help.

But for a moment, Wen Qingyan didn’t know what to do either. Her own suspicions were still unresolved, and now more complications kept arriving.

Wen Qingyan lowered her head and pondered briefly before speaking her mind. “I think you shouldn’t hide these things from Nanyu. She doesn’t like it.”

“And it’s not right.”

Hearing this, Qin Hua wanted to say more, but Wen Qingyan lifted her eyes, spotted Si Nanyu coming out, and murmured, “Nanyu’s finished her bath. Let’s all sleep, Mom. Stop dwelling on it.”

“The boat will straighten itself out when it reaches the bridge.”

With that, Wen Qingyan stood, and Qin Hua rose to follow. She had been feeling somewhat guilty, but seeing Si Nanyu act as if nothing had happened after a simple shower, her heart settled back into place.

This child’s saving grace was her short memory and her thick skin. She was happily admiring herself in her new pajamas in front of the mirror… and blow-drying her hair while she was at it.

“Si Nanyu, bed.” Only when Wen Qingyan called her did Si Nanyu obediently say goodnight to Qin Hua and follow her into the bedroom.

The room was clean and tidy, clearly one they only occasionally stayed in. The sheets were purple and the pillows were teal, the respective favorite colors of Si Nanyu and Wen Qingyan.

Si Nanyu had secretly loved Wen Qingyan for so long that her observation of her could barely be called… meticulous, so she knew exactly what colors Wen Qingyan liked.

The more she thought about it, the more embarrassed she became, inching toward the bed one labored step at a time.

Wen Qingyan, on the other hand, was entirely at ease. She was already under the covers, only the bedside lamp left on, watching her phone as she waited for Si Nanyu.

After waiting forever, she looked up in exasperation, weariness in her eyes. “I’m very tired.”

Hearing that, Si Nanyu sped up as expected, burrowing under the covers and curling herself into a shrimp, then reaching up to turn off the bedside lamp.

Before her fingers touched the switch, Wen Qingyan’s voice sounded. “I like sleeping with it on.”

“Oh, okay.” Si Nanyu answered meekly and turned over to sleep, but her movement was too big and she bumped Wen Qingyan’s leg.

Both of them wore nightgowns, so the touch was skin against skin.

Shame and excitement surged through Si Nanyu at once, and her face flushed crimson.

Wen Qingyan turned to look at her, speechless and choking… and rather flustered too. She said crossly, “Move over to your side.”

“Okay!”

Already hiding herself inside the covers, Si Nanyu answered in a muffled voice. Wen Qingyan ignored her, closed her eyes, and prepared to sleep.

Truthfully, she was having some trouble sleeping too.

Sharing a bed with Si Nanyu again after a week apart, yet lying so scrupulously apart, felt deeply unnatural to her.

Si Nanyu used to cling to her like a needy plaster, wrapping her arms tightly around her waist…

Still, Wen Qingyan, who had suffered from insomnia for a while now, slipped into dreamland surprisingly fast thanks to Si Nanyu’s presence.

But before she could fall into deep sleep, Si Nanyu’s ringtone jolted her awake.

She opened her eyes groggily and turned her head toward Si Nanyu.

Si Nanyu clearly hadn’t expected her to fall asleep so quickly, not even two minutes. Noticing her gaze, she froze mid-motion as she half sat up, and whispered apologetically, “Sorry… it’s my dad calling!”

“You said who…?” Wen Qingyan’s half-open eyes went perfectly round at those words, a faint, barely detectable tremor in her voice. Her hand, beyond her control, clamped down on Si Nanyu’s thigh under the covers.

“Hss…!” Si Nanyu yelped at the pain, and seeing Wen Qingyan look almost frightened, assumed the ringtone had startled her. She quickly hit decline and, by pure reflex, started to lean over… to hold Wen Qingyan.

Before the motion could finish, Wen Qingyan intercepted her halfway.

Wen Qingyan’s arm looped around her shoulder, her knee pressing over her legs, and she crashed into her arms in a rush of tangerine-scented body wash…

In the dim lamplight, Si Nanyu’s face reddened. As her hands hovered hesitantly over Wen Qingyan’s waist, she heard the accusation tumble out, laced with reproach and on the verge of tears. “Si Nanyu, are you out of your mind?!”