Chapter 62: Hibernation
“No problem. You can rest assured that I, Xia Changhe, will handle this business.” The middle-aged man held a cigarette in his hand and put it out the window. His posture was flamboyant, with the arrogant attitude of a typical nouveau riche. He was making a guarantee to the car’s communication system with a lot of spittle. “The principal? The principal… no problem. I can get it in a while. We’re going to do a big one this time.”
Xia Changhe patted his chest with a full of confidence. He secretly looked at the silent girl in the back seat through the rearview mirror. Her fair-skinned face had exquisite and deep features, and her long and curled eyelashes cast a shadow on her eyelids, hiding her dark and deep pupils. There was a faint sickness in her eyebrows, and she didn’t show a single bit of aggression.
He let out a sigh of relief and cut off some unrealistic suspicions in his heart. He exhaled a puff of foul-smelling smoke, and the cigarette butt in his hand was fiercely rubbed into the ashtray. He then turned his head and looked at the girl with a smile, and he lowered his posture in a fawning way.
“Qian Ge, how have you been at school this semester? When I came to pick you up, you said you wanted to go back and live there. What’s so good about such a broken place? It’s much better to live here with me. I’ve asked your Auntie Zhou to prepare a big table of dishes.”
“Then I’ll have to trouble Auntie Zhou.”
Xia Qiange moved her gaze from the tall buildings that were flashing past the window. Her hometown had also developed rapidly in recent years, but she had never been to the city center to see it. She had always stayed in the house that was in the man’s mouth, which was as dilapidated as a ruin. When she first went to Qingchuan, she was even a little unaccustomed.
“Um, Qian Ge, you heard me just now, right? I have a business deal, and I need money urgently. I asked you before, and you said it was not convenient for you to come back from school. Then how about this summer vacation…”, the man licked his lips, and the gold chain on his neck was a little dazzling.
“Let’s get things done. The old house has already started to be registered. I’ve also thought about it. We don’t want a new house. We’ll just take the money. You can live here with me in the future. The house is big enough… and there’s just a room for you.”
The man’s new car was driving smoothly on the main road, where the traffic was flowing back and forth. Perhaps it was because of motion sickness, but a wave of drowsy nausea rushed to her heart. She suddenly wanted to vomit. She hid the sinister and cold ruthlessness in her eyes and raised her head, her smile pure and harmless, which could always make people let down their guard.
“Let’s go in a few days. When I have some time, I’ll go and see my mother.”
“Oh… that’s fine too. That’s fine too. I’ll go with you then. She’s pitiful to be alone down there.” Xia Changhe was stunned for a few seconds, and a hint of impatience was aroused by the restlessness in his heart. But he still endured his temper and agreed with a smile. “The neighborhood in front is our home. It’s a new building that was opened two years ago. I had to ask a friend for help to get it. The decoration and everything are new.”
The man’s tone was filled with an almost undisguised show-off. It was as if after he had left the broken home, he had suddenly soared to a great height. And they were just a burden that was not of much use. But now that her name was on the property deed, he had immediately changed his face, which made her even more disgusted.
She had already despaired of this family on the night of her failed suicide attempt on New Year’s Eve. She had killed the weak self in her heart with her own hands. That was her last time being cowardly. She had deluded herself into thinking she could be bound by the pretext of kinship, but she did not know that even that little bit of blood relationship was more fragile and unbearable than a thin piece of paper in her heart.
…
The inferior axle was dragging on the smooth road of the neighborhood, and it was a little noisy. Xia Qiange pulled her suitcase and walked out of the underground garage. She scanned the exquisite decoration of the modern style around her, but she couldn’t help but think of the old and dilapidated home, where the entrance of the corridor was always piled up with garbage.
Xia Changhe had received a phone call halfway and had left, asking her to go back by herself. She had saved a lot of effort by not having to drag her heavy suitcase up the old stairs. She stood at the door of the room with the matching door number. She pressed the doorbell with a cold expression. The door opened very quickly, and the eagerness was gone the moment she saw the person standing behind the door.
“Why is it you? What are you doing at my house?” The girl behind the door frowned. Her heavily made-up face was almost unrecognizable. Xia Xinnan scratched her fluffy and dark red hair and glared at Xia Qiange, not letting her in. “Your mom is gone… you have nowhere to go and you’re freeloading at my house again. My house doesn’t welcome a jinx like you. It’s unlucky.”
“What’s wrong, Xiao Nan? Is your dad back?”
Zhou Hui was holding a handful of melon seed shells and was slowly walking towards the entryway. The TV in the living room was playing very loudly, but it couldn’t cover up the girl’s particularly direct and sharp and mean tone.
“Mom, it’s that guy from last time. Why did she come to our house?”
“Oh, it’s Qian Ge…”
Zhou Hui was stunned and looked at the girl who was blocked outside the door. She suddenly realized something. She hid the melon seed shells in her hand behind her back and immediately put on a gentle and considerate look. She even scolded Xia Xinnan a few times. “How can you talk like that, Xinnan? This is your sister. How did your dad usually teach you at home? Go back to your room.”
“Mom! Whose side are you on?”
“Get back quickly. Don’t cause me any more trouble.”
Zhou Hui pushed Xia Xinnan a few times, and the girl finally went back to her room with a pouting and irritable face.
“Qian Ge, look at this mess. I’m so sorry. Xiao Nan is your sister. She’s young and insensible. You, as an older sister, should be more tolerant.”
Zhou Hui smiled awkwardly and immediately took out a pair of slippers from the shoe cabinet and handed them to Xia Qiange. The slippers were a little old, and there was a small crack on the plastic surface, which looked a little shabby and ruined the atmosphere that had just been deliberately created. She braced herself and explained, “Old Xia said you were coming over for the summer vacation. I forgot to prepare some daily necessities for you. I’ll… I’ll go down and buy them for you later.”
“It’s okay. I’ve brought all these things with me. You don’t have to trouble yourself, Auntie Zhou.”
“It’s me who’s bothering you.”
Xia Qiange carried her suitcase into the house. Her polite and well-mannered behavior was so well-behaved that it made one’s heart ache. Zhou Hui thought of her own daughter, who was always messing around outside and was not promising. The envy had reached its extreme and had turned into a deep jealousy, and even a deep sense of crisis.
Zhou Hui welcomed Xia Qiange into the house. When she went to close the door, she didn’t see Xia Changhe’s shadow behind her. She turned her head and asked, “Why isn’t Old Xia back yet? Is he still parking?”
“Dad said he had something urgent to do. He dropped me off and then left.”
“So, Old Xia is not coming back today.”
Zhou Hui’s eyebrows furrowed, and the fawning smile on her face faded a lot. She had originally been acting according to Xia Changhe’s wishes, but she thought it was meaningless. A little girl, how much thought could she have? She was left with only Xia Changhe, her only blood-related father. Where could she go? As for the house… it was as good as in their pocket.
She slammed the door shut, cracked a melon seed, and went back to the living room, leaving Xia Qiange standing alone. Then, as if she had remembered something, she turned her head and looked at the girl, who still had a smile on her face. In her eyes, it was a weak and fawning look, and the contempt in her heart immediately grew stronger.
“By the way, there’s food on the table. It’s a semi-finished product from the deli downstairs. If you’re hungry, you can go and heat it up in the pot and make do.” She touched her still-flat stomach and said with a show-off look, her tone with a hint of an unclear warning. “I’m trying to get pregnant recently. I can’t be too tired. After all, Old Xia has always been hoping for a boy.”
Xia Qiange didn’t speak. She stood alone at the entryway, and a large shadow fell down, covering her dark and inky pupils. Her clear black and white eyes were distinct. The corners of her lips were still curved into a sweet smile, but her heart was getting colder and colder.
She touched her cheek, and the touch was cold. She rubbed the somewhat stiff muscles on her face, as if she wanted to wear the mask more firmly, to hide those sinister and gray thoughts.
After her muscles had relaxed, the smile that was often on her face fell with a thud. When she was not smiling, she looked gloomy and cold, like a wolf that was hiding in a low bush and was staring at its prey, with a ruthlessness that could bite the prey’s throat in one bite.
