Forbidden to Flirt and Run 33

Chapter 33

The bright lights in the room illuminated Xu Qingtang’s pale face.

The ice pack had made Xu Qingtang’s hand numb, but she seemed unaware, just numbly holding it and numbly staring at the vase in front of her.

Her vision was blurry. In fact, Xu Qingtang could no longer see clearly, only an outline. Even if it was just a rough outline, she knew that those flowers had withered beyond recognition.

But she herself was still unwilling to throw them away.

These were originally what she had prepared to give to Gu Yizhi when she returned from her business trip, to tell her that she was actually looking forward to her.

When the roses were in full bloom, she hadn’t returned. When the roses withered, they had ended.

At first, Xu Qingtang just cried silently. In the end, she burst into tears, crying until her nose was blocked and she could only gasp for air with her mouth.

She reached out to touch those flowers, but only touched a handful of thorns.

Her mind was filled with scenes of her time with Gu Yizhi. Gu Yizhi carrying her to the car, Gu Yizhi stroking her head and telling her it was okay not to be omniscient, Gu Yizhi leading her down from South Mountain. Just a few days before they had separated, they had made plans to go to South Mountain again… These ordinary, trivial memories formed a sharp steel knife that ruthlessly pierced through the mask Xu Qingtang used to hide herself. Under the mask, she was bleeding profusely.

And what broke her heart even more was that at this moment, she remembered her friend’s words—she had advised her to make things clear with Gu Yizhi.

Yes, she was indeed torn between family and love, almost torn apart. What about Gu Yizhi? She was kept in the dark. She knew nothing. All she could know was the hot and cold, the push and pull that she had given her.

Who wasn’t suffering?

After crying, Xu Qingtang leaned against the edge of the shoe cabinet, exhausted. After a long silence, she twisted the doorknob and rushed out the door.

Xu Qingtang didn’t know if rushing out was right or wrong. She knew that no one would die without someone else. She could also live without Gu Yizhi, but she really didn’t want to lose Gu Yizhi.

She wanted to be with Gu Yizhi, to have a future with Gu Yizhi. She really, really wanted to.

Only the cold wind was still blowing in the corridor. Gu Yizhi was gone.

Xu Qingtang wiped her tears. Usually so concerned with her appearance, she didn’t care about her dignity now. She pressed the elevator button and got in. Watching the numbers jump down, she thought to herself, let’s take a gamble. If, if she can still see Gu Yizhi.

If Gu Yizhi hasn’t left yet.

Xu Qingtang quickly walked out of the lobby, bypassed the community courtyard, and went straight to the main gate. Her tears were wiped away and then welled up again. Fortunately, it was the middle of the night, and there were no pedestrians around. No one saw her pathetic state.

The further Xu Qingtang walked, the more discouraged she became. She knew very well that Gu Yizhi had probably left long ago, but she still stubbornly wanted to keep walking.

The cold wind of late autumn raged. Xu Qingtang pressed her palms to her eyes, forcing back the tears. At the main gate, she vaguely saw Gu Yizhi standing straight under a streetlight.

Xu Qingtang was slightly stunned, then quickened her pace.

When she reached Gu Yizhi’s back, Gu Yizhi had already opened the car door. Xu Qingtang reached out and grabbed her wrist. The real warmth in her palm finally dispelled her uneasy feeling. She pleaded, “Don’t go, Gu Yizhi. Please, don’t go.”

Gu Yizhi turned back, her eyes deep as she looked at Xu Qingtang, her tone calm. “Miss Xu, what are you doing now?”

The cold wind invaded, mercilessly beating against their bodies. Hearing her so calm, Xu Qingtang’s eyes instantly turned red again. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”

The surroundings became blurry again. In a daze, she saw Gu Yizhi’s hand land by her eyes, gently wiping.

Gu Yizhi wiped her tears, her tone softening a little. “So can you tell me why you said that?”

“It’s all my fault. I only thought of myself, never of you. I thought I was suffering, but I never thought that the cold shoulder would also make you suffer. I was insecure, but I never thought that you would also feel bad when you didn’t hear from me. It’s my fault, I’m selfish, I only thought of myself…”

Xu Qingtang’s tears fell in large drops, dripping onto her arm and quickly soaking her sleeve.

She was sobbing uncontrollably, only her hand holding Gu Yizhi’s had not let go.

Gu Yizhi sighed softly, took out a handkerchief from her bag, and her movements were gentle and silent. “Is that all?”

Xu Qingtang’s tear ducts were out of control. She said in a low voice, “And… I asked you about your views on love before. You said you wouldn’t hide it if you were in a relationship. But, but I can’t tell my mom right now. If we’re together, I can’t admit you to my family for the time being. I’m afraid you won’t be able to accept it, so, so…”

As Xu Qingtang used the handkerchief to stop her tears, she accidentally looked up and found that the seemingly calm and indifferent Gu Yizhi also had red eyes. Her heart ached even more.

Even now, she still didn’t have the courage to tell Gu Yizhi that she was being forced into a marriage.

Xu Qingtang tilted her head up, her words and tears falling together. “Yizhi, don’t go, okay?”

“How can I go when you’re like this?” Gu Yizhi ruffled her hair, then took the lead and held her hand. “Let’s go. I’ll take you home.”

At that moment, Xu Qingtang was ecstatic. She turned her tears into a smile, but it was a very ugly smile. “Alright, alright, let’s go back. You’re not angry anymore, are you?”

Gu Yizhi stroked her head again.

The two of them walked this not-so-long road side by side in silence. During this time, Xu Qingtang couldn’t help but cry again. Gu Yizhi wiped her tears again and smiled helplessly. “Tangtang, I just realized you’re a little crybaby.”

Xu Qingtang’s emotions, which had just stabilized, collapsed again because of Gu Yizhi’s words. She held back and held back, but in the end, she couldn’t, so she just let her tears flow freely. She sighed. “What little crybaby? You’re so cheesy. This is a normal physiological phenomenon, cleaning the eyes, you understand?”

“And…”

Gu Yizhi asked, “And what?”

“And I’m a little reluctant to part with you.”

Gu Yizhi laughed. “After cleaning your eyes, your mouth has also become sweet.”

For once, Xu Qingtang was quiet and didn’t argue with her, just smiled along.

Xu Qingtang had rarely cried since she was a child. Ever since Qi Qingyue’s accident, their family had also experienced a change, but Xu Qingtang had never cried. But when she was with Gu Yizhi, whether it was today or in the past, there were times when she couldn’t control her tears.

When they reached her door, Gu Yizhi let go of Xu Qingtang’s hand, once again helped her wipe her wet eyebrows and eyes, and then gently touched her right cheek. Xu Qingtang subconsciously gasped in pain.

Gu Yizhi asked softly, “Does it hurt a lot?”

Xu Qingtang nodded. “It hurts a lot.” She looked at Gu Yizhi aggrievedly, pulled her finger, and said coquettishly, “Blow on it for me. It won’t hurt if you blow on it.”

The usually gentle Gu Yizhi just smiled gently at this moment. “You deserve it. You were so ruthless. You don’t know how to cherish yourself.”

Xu Qingtang: …

This script doesn’t seem right.

“Put an ice pack on it first, then a hot pack after a while. Don’t touch your face if you don’t have to. You can wear a mask when you go out, you know?”

Gu Yizhi’s patient and nagging tone made Xu Qingtang a little uneasy. She asked, “Are you leaving?”

Gu Yizhi hummed in agreement. “Tangtang, you should think it over during this time. Come and find me when you’ve thought it through.”

Xu Qingtang said, “Ah,” at a loss. “Think what through?”

“Think about why you wanted me to go, and why you wanted me to come back.”

*

Gu Yizhi was right. Xu Qingtang also felt that she deserved it. On the third day, her face was so swollen that she had to ask the troupe leader for two days off.

When Tang Gui saw her at Xu Qingtang’s home, she knew the whole story from a single detail. Just seeing the slight swelling on her mask, she could tell how swollen that half of her face must be. She was dumbfounded. “Qingtang, what’s wrong with you? You didn’t get into a fight with Gu Yizhi when you were drunk that night, did you…”

Xu Qingtang sometimes really admired her friend’s rich imagination. She let her in and just asked, “Why are you here?”

Tang Gui said, “Doesn’t our company have tickets to your theater? I happened to get one, but when I went, your colleague said you had taken leave.”

“I know you,” Tang Gui said as she changed her shoes. “Even if there was an earthquake or a tsunami, you probably wouldn’t take leave.”

Xu Qingtang closed the door, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “Because we don’t have earthquakes or tsunamis here.”

“Look at you, you don’t have a single humorous bone in your body,” Tang Gui sighed, then looked at Xu Qingtang again as she stood up. “You still haven’t said, what’s wrong with your face?”

Xu Qingtang was really too embarrassed to say that she had hit herself. It sounded like an idiot. “It’s nothing, I just bumped it.”

Tang Gui opened her mouth, but seeing that she didn’t mention it, she let it go. Then she said, “I have a few bottles of anti-swelling medicine. They’re quite effective. I’ll bring them to you tonight. By the way, then you and Gu Yizhi…”

She stopped there and rephrased the question. “Then are you really going to listen to your mom and go on blind dates, then get married and have children in the future?”

“How could I?!”

Xu Qingtang had no obsession with continuing the family line, and she didn’t believe in the so-called bloodline inheritance. And she didn’t like men, and she couldn’t accept living with a man. She also couldn’t deceive someone into marriage just to comfort Teacher Qi.

Even if it wasn’t for Gu Yizhi, she wouldn’t go on a blind date.

“Then your mom…”

Xu Qingtang said, “I’ll tell her when she’s better.”

That day, Gu Yizhi had told her to think it through. In fact, Xu Qingtang had already figured it out when she went out to find her. But figuring it out was one thing. She wanted to wait until things were settled before she told Gu Yizhi.

Xu Qingtang felt her head grow hot. As she was talking to Tang Gui, she unknowingly fell asleep. When she woke up halfway, she saw Tang Gui putting a fever-reducing patch on her forehead.

“Xiao Gui?”

When she spoke, Xu Qingtang found that her throat was very hoarse and also very sore.

Tang Gui shot her a glare. “You, Xu Qingtang, you torture yourself every day. You don’t even say anything when you have a fever. If you get sick one day, don’t say we know each other. I’m ashamed.” As she scolded, she took out some medicine and fed it to Xu Qingtang.

Xu Qingtang laughed, obediently took the medicine, and was a little surprised. “I haven’t been sick in a long time. I thought I was made of iron.”

In the past, when Gu Yizhi was sick, she had secretly laughed at her for being weak. Now, the tables had turned, and it was her turn.

“Even machines break down. Alright, alright, you should sleep,” Tang Gui placed her phone beside her and instructed, “I’ll go back and get you the anti-swelling medicine. If you’re not feeling well, call me. If you keep pushing yourself, I’ll get angry. I’m leaving now.”

Xu Qingtang felt she was really being wronged.

Most of the time, she did like to force herself to push through, but this time, she really hadn’t realized she was sick.

She replied weakly, “Alright.”

Hearing the sound of the door closing outside, Xu Qingtang closed her eyes, curled up on the sofa, and fell asleep in a daze.

She had a dream.

In her dream, she took Gu Yizhi to see Teacher Qi, but Teacher Qi refused to come downstairs. When she and Gu Yizhi went upstairs, blood started to flow out from under the door…

The dream was terrifying, but Xu Qingtang couldn’t wake up.

In the end, Xu Qingtang smelled a very familiar perfume. She groggily opened her eyes and saw a very blurry figure approaching her. The person bent down and seemed to pick something up. Then she felt a warmth on her body. It seemed to be the blanket Tang Gui had covered her with.

Xu Qingtang wanted to speak, but her throat couldn’t make a sound.

Is that Gu Yizhi? she wanted to ask.

Xu Qingtang slept very soundly this time. When she woke up, the sun was already setting outside, and the dim twilight was streaming in through the glass.

She propped herself up slightly. Just as her vision cleared, she saw Teacher Qi sitting beside her. She blinked, her eyes feeling very dry. “Mom?”

Teacher Qi handed her a glass of water, then touched her forehead and asked, “Are you feeling better?”

The feeling of being top-heavy had disappeared. Xu Qingtang nodded. “Much better.”

She took a sip of water, her throat feeling a little more comfortable. She held the glass with both hands and looked at Teacher Qi, hesitant to speak.

“Mom.”

“Qingtang.”

The mother and daughter spoke at the same time.

Xu Qingtang didn’t want to drag things out, but sometimes, some things were so difficult to say and do. She said with difficulty, “Mom, I have something to tell you.”