Chapter 431: 453

453 "Apart from me, I suppose no one else has ever been divorced, right~" (Seeking subscriptions and monthly votes)

In the Living Room.

The sound of the argument was like a pot of boiling soup, bubbling away.

Various viewpoints, various stances, various "I think" and "You should" collided in the air.

Krystal sat beside Lin Xiuyuan, one hand resting on the tabletop, the other on her knee, her fingers unconsciously stroking the fabric of her jeans.

Her gaze swept back and forth across everyone's faces.

However, from beginning to end, a thread of her attention remained tethered to Lin Xiuyuan.

So, after scanning everyone, she turned her head and glanced at the man beside her with some worry, expecting him to be frowning, sighing, uncomfortable, or even wearing a look of guilt.

After all, the scene tonight was caused by him; although the focus of those arguments had veered off course, the root of it still revolved around him.

As it turned out, what she saw was a face watching the show with great interest.

Lin Xiuyuan had his hands propped on the table, his eyes sparkling, his gaze moving back and forth between those arguing, like an audience member sitting in a theater box watching a play.

Seeing him like this, Krystal really didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but at the same time, her brows furrowed slightly, and she re-examined her own situation.

Was her reaction just now a bit too intense???

After a few moments of silence, she raised her foot again and gently kicked Lin Xiuyuan's calf with the toe of her slipper.

The force was a little heavier than last time, but still not painful, just enough to bring the man back to his senses.

"What? What's wrong?" Lin Xiuyuan, having been kicked, looked at her with some surprise, his gaze pulling back from the distance and landing on her face.

Krystal looked at him and expressed with some disdain, "This place is no longer suitable for you to sit."

As she spoke, she tilted her chin toward the direction of the window, "Why don't you take Xueqiu and the other two out to the yard to look at the stars."

Lin YoonA, who heard this from across the table, also smiled, but she nodded slightly, indicating her approval of Krystal's decision.

Currently, this argument had begun to deviate from its original track; with Lin Xiuyuan sitting there, it would only cause the topic to be pulled back to him time and again, causing those who were already close to reaching a consensus to fall back into disagreement.

If he weren't present, perhaps everyone could discuss this issue more calmly and rationally.

At the same time, Xueli, who was sitting next to Krystal, had already looked toward Lin Xiuyuan.

Like a small animal acting spoiled, she let out an "Aowu," "Oppa~"

To this, Lin Xiuyuan looked at Krystal and the situation on the scene, nodded, and stood up from his chair.

Then, he put his hands into his pockets, looked at Xueli, and then at Goo Hara, "Then let's go, I'll take you two out for tea."

Having said that, under everyone's gaze, he took Xueli and Goo Hara and left the Living Room.

In the process, he didn't forget to go over to the storage cabinet to dig out a small tin of tea leaves, then crossed the Living Room, pushed open the floor-to-ceiling window, and walked to the edge of the yard.

In one corner of the yard, there had always been a tent rest area, and under the canopy was a set of outdoor sofas, paired with a large wooden coffee table.

This was a leisure corner of the yard; the sofa and table were already there when Lin Xiuyuan first arrived, and later he added a tea set and a water dispenser.

Usually, when he had nothing to do, he liked to come out to bask in the sun, drink some tea, or just lie there and daydream, doing nothing at all.

Watching the clouds slowly drift overhead, listening to the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves, his whole being relaxed from the inside out.

After coming out and sitting down, Xueli watched Lin Xiuyuan's practiced tea-brewing movements and couldn't help but look at him curiously, "Oppa, aren't you worried about the situation inside?"

"Indeed, the situation inside seems a bit strange. I thought you would be scolded, but I didn't expect it to evolve into this."

Goo Hara, who had spoken, was leaning against the back of the sofa, her legs curled up, her whole body huddled into a ball as she looked at Lin Xiuyuan.

And Lin Xiuyuan pressed the boiling water button, listened to the slight humming sound of the water dispenser, and muttered to himself, "What's there to worry about? Worried that they'll fight, or worried that after they have a falling out, they'll sell me out?"

Regarding this answer from Lin Xiuyuan, Xueli and Goo Hara both shook their heads, their movements almost synchronized, like a pair of sisters with a telepathic connection.

Both expressed that that wouldn't happen.

Fighting was somewhat possible, after all, everyone inside had probably thrown hands at some point.

But selling Lin Xiuyuan out was truly impossible; every one of them had inextricable ties with him, and selling him out would be equivalent to selling themselves out.

"Then there you have it, so what is there to worry about? Arguing occasionally can actually enhance a relationship; do you think a relationship that never argues can last?"

In the gap while the water was boiling, Lin Xiuyuan began to fiddle with the tea set, and at the same time, his words came out in a smooth flow.

Even Xueli and Goo Hara, two young women with high emotional intelligence, were thoroughly fooled by him and were stunned for a moment.

The two of them looked at each other, and in their eyes, they saw the same confusion: what he said seemed very reasonable, but they always felt something was not quite right.

After coming to her senses, Xueli, although she understood she had been fooled by Lin Xiuyuan, didn't mind this small matter; instead, she curled the corners of her mouth into a smile and blinked at him quite cutely.

"But oppa, tonight was clearly your problem."

"That's not quite right. At first, I also thought it was my problem, but later I discovered that what they were talking about wasn't me at all. I was just the fuse; they are the group that dominates the issue."

When mentioning the fuse, Lin Xiuyuan used his fingers to gesture the shape of a line, then pointed inside the house, and finally made an explosion gesture.

"That's also because you were running around, oppa~" Xueli laughed and scolded him back.

Seeing the steam starting to rise from the kettle, the corners of Lin Xiuyuan's mouth also revealed a slightly mischievous smile, "Hmm, then should I close The Gate and stop playing?"

Xueli and Goo Hara were suddenly shocked, their pupils dilating to the limit in that instant!!!

A moment later.

"Ah, oppa!!!" Xueli shouted in shock and nervousness.

"Xiuyuan, don't scare people!" Goo Hara also added, her voice carrying a sense of panicked lingering fear.

Lin Xiuyuan looked at their frightened appearance and couldn't help but laugh, his laughter not loud, "Hahaha, I'm teasing you, how could I possibly close The Gate."

Then he reached out and picked up the kettle that had already heated up, and began to rinse the tea set.

"Alright, let's not talk about this, let's drink some tea."

……

Inside the house.

With the departure of the three, Lin Xiuyuan, the atmosphere in the Living Room seemed to have undergone some subtle changes.

Krystal sat on the chair, her hands folded on the tabletop, and after a moment of silence, she spoke again.

"Everyone, aren't we drifting a bit off-topic? Although I know everyone means well, it seems tonight's topic was supposed to be about Lin Xiuyuan's situation."

"Isn't that what we're talking about?" Kim Taeyeon sat at the other end of the table, her brows slightly furrowed.

Facing Kim Taeyeon's question, Krystal did not refute it, but instead responded with a gentler, more introspective approach, "But I just thought about it and realized that as we talk back and forth, it seems to be centered on our own interests, rather than on Lin Xiuyuan."

This sentence caused many people's gazes to fall upon her.

Some were surprised, some were lost in thought.

Among them, a few pairs of eyes looked at her with surprise, as if they hadn't expected Krystal to be able to complete such a self-examination so quickly, and to actually voice it out loud.

This determination and execution are quite impressive.

You have to know, in the heat of the most intense argument, being able to jump out of the argument itself and examine one's own position from a higher perspective is not something everyone can do.

At the same time, Kim Taeyeon was also a bit dumbfounded and confused.

How is it about interests?

So she began to look back at the few sentences she had just said, wondering if they were truly as selfish as Krystal had described.

At this moment, another voice slowly spoke up.

"Actually, has everyone thought about one question?"

The crowd's gazes gathered once more, turning in unison toward the source of the voice, only to find that the one speaking was Li Juli, who had been silent all along.

At this time, Li Juli was resting her chin on one hand, her elbow propped on the table, her gaze passing through the floor-to-ceiling glass window, landing in the direction of the courtyard.

Outside the window, three blurry figures were sitting around a tea table, boiling tea over a stove.

Then, without pulling back her gaze, Li Juli kept looking at that figure outside the floor-to-ceiling window, slowly finishing the words she hadn't finished.

"You have to know, Lin Xiuyuan is someone from the 2013 side. On our side, he has no family, no relatives, and certainly no friends."

Saying this, she finally withdrew her gaze, swept a circle around the Living Room, and looked at everyone, "Of course, except for us."

The Living Room went quiet.

And Li Juli's voice continued, and it was the kind that wouldn't stop until it shocked everyone, "Have you ever thought about it, if we push Lin Xiuyuan too hard, what if he stops coming over?"

Once these words were out, Kim Taeyeon clenched her small fists.

Even Lin YoonA, who had always been devoid of desire, sat up slightly.

Only Krystal remained calm, her brows just furrowing slightly before quickly relaxing, and she stated very firmly, "It won't come to that, Juli, you're exaggerating too much."

"Right, you also know I'm exaggerating. Then, in this matter, is it possible that we are also exaggerating too much, Xiujing?"

Li Juli did not refute, but she did not agree either, just replying with a very calm tone.

At this time, Dalongzai, who had been playing around with Park Jiyeon, finally became a bit more serious.

Originally, she had been whispering and bickering with Park Jiyeon at the corner of the table, poking each other and patting each other, but after hearing Li Juli's words, the small movements in her hands stopped, and she picked up the thread of the conversation in the middle of this silence.

"Although I am not the oldest person here, besides me, I don't think anyone else here has been married, or even divorced."

When mentioning divorce, there was no great fluctuation in Dalongzai's tone; it was just a very objective statement.

"So, you might just not understand men that well yet."

"Of course, I don't mean physically here, but a kind of spirit, a kind of nature. Or rather, this situation is the same whether it's a man or a woman."

Speaking to this point, Dalongzai's gaze began to look a bit hollow, as if she were looking at a scene only she could see, or perhaps recalling something.

"That is, the fastest way to lose a person is not through cheating, nor is it through distrust, disgust, or things like that. It is when you are becoming the biggest source of pressure for the other person, rather than the source of peace in their heart."

"There is a saying that goes: when there is a storm outside, the home should be a harbor, not a place harder to face than the storm outside."

"In my view, men are actually very simple. They won't leave because someone prettier appears by their side; their nature only wants to possess everything, to own everything."

"But if the pressure from one side is greater than the other, even if it were me, I would choose the easier side."

"No one likes pressure."

As Dalongzai finished the last word, Park Jiyeon, who had long since stopped being hostile toward her but just couldn't stand her, felt her eyes instantly turn red.

Her nostrils flared slightly, and her breathing became shallow and rapid.

Her gaze fell on Dalongzai's face, looking at that face which was much thinner than her own, looking at those eyes that were deeper, calmer, but also more exhausted than her own, and she suddenly understood.

As the same person, she seemed to feel in the dark the helplessness, sorrow, and madness of the version of herself on this side when facing that marriage.

Those arguments in the middle of the night, those tears when alone, those days of smiling in front of the camera and breaking down behind it—she hadn't experienced them yet, but at this moment, she seemed to be able to feel them.

Like some kind of memory carved into her genes, when she heard Dalongzai say those words, it was wirelessly transmitted over in the dark and activated.

She had been hostile to the other party before, not because she didn't understand Dalongzai, but because she didn't want to become the next Dalongzai.

She didn't want to experience those things, didn't want to become like that, which is why she had always used resistance to keep herself clear-headed.

And Li Juli, on the side, had already reached out and pulled Dalongzai over, gently patting her shoulder, "It's probably just as Zhiyan said."

"Actually, when I first heard that Lin Xiuyuan had encountered so many dangerous things, I was also worried and angry at first. But I know very clearly where my anger comes from, and that is because Lin Xiuyuan hid it from me; that part is not good."

"I don't want him to hide these things from me to do them, because even if he wants to do them, after telling me, I can instead use other ways to reduce the probability of danger occurring, rather than hiding it from me."

Speaking to this point, Li Juli's speaking speed slowed down, as if giving everyone time to digest it.

"But I just realized that everyone's point of view seems to have gone a bit off. Tonight's topic, wasn't it about 'Lin Xiuyuan hiding things from us'? How did we end up talking about 'not wanting Lin Xiuyuan to do this or that'? It's a bit over the line."

As Li Juli's voice fell, Lin YoonA, who hadn't spoken much before, also cleared her thoughts and filled the gap after she finished speaking.

"I personally feel that Juli is right."

"Actually, in my view, I think we need to recognize one situation first, and that is not to take ourselves too seriously."

"Or rather, who everyone considers more important in their hearts."

"And the only question that can define importance is who needs whom more."

When each of these people spoke halfway, their gazes would always glance at Lin Xiuyuan outside the house, and Lin YoonA was no exception, so looking at that figure, the corners of her mouth curled up, "In my view, I don't think Lin Xiuyuan needs us more; rather, it is we who need Lin Xiuyuan more."

"And some people need The Gate, some people need that person, this is the starting point."

Finally, Lin YoonA withdrew her gaze and said the last sentence with some emotion, "So everyone, please don't forget your original intention, and don't take Lin Xiuyuan's kindness to us as a bottom line that can be pushed further; that is not good."

Now, the Living Room was completely quiet.