Chapter 218: Does Miss Xia Not Agree?

It must be said, Xu Guanshan knows the essentials of negotiation; every word he spoke struck right at Xia Xi's heart, she felt a dull ache, and for a long time she had no response.

The tea in the cup had gone completely cold.

Xu Guanshan picked up a cup of scalding tea with bamboo tweezers and placed it before her, replacing her original cup: "You don't need to rush to give me an answer; think it over yourself."

Xia Xi's face had lost all color, perhaps because the tea room was too shady, with no sunlight coming in, which made her feel cold.

She who claimed to fear neither heaven nor earth now felt a surge of fear in her heart; she bit her lip hard, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and only then kept her voice from trembling: "What if I refuse? Will you go after my family?"

Xu Guanshan stared slightly, then broke into the first smile he had shown her; he slowly shook his head: "I'm a businessman, not a gangster." After a pause, he saw through her thoughts: "Are you planning to ask Xu Yanfeng for help?"

Her family's current situation is like hanging off a cliff edge—no one to lend a hand, and they couldn't climb up on their own.

As a student who hasn't yet entered society, what solutions could she have? The only path before her was to seek help from her boyfriend of prominent family background.

So her intention is not hard to guess.

Having her thoughts laid bare by Xu Guanshan's blunt remark, Xia Xi felt somewhat embarrassed; she gripped the cup tightly, the freshly poured tea was scalding, and her fingertips quickly reddened.

She seemed not to feel it.

Xia Xi dropped the pretense of composure, gave a self‑mocking smile, and frankly admitted: "To be honest, I was about to ask him for help. He's my boyfriend, and he seems to care about me; as long as I speak up and he can do it, he won't refuse."

Xu Guanshan set the tea cup down heavily on the table, his tone turning a bit colder than before: "My attitude is clear—you two could never make it to the end."

When he stated the purpose of today's meeting, Xia Xi already knew she and Xu Yanfeng would never last; she didn't need him to stress it.

When she was pursuing Xu Yanfeng, she hadn't not thought about the future; she considered his wealthy family background and wondered what she'd do if his relatives opposed their relationship. Back then she had her family to fall back on; although the gap with his family's circumstances was large, she still felt confident, believing she herself was outstanding, and that giving it a try held nothing impossible.

Now…

Everything was gone; her confidence had suddenly turned into arrogant overconfidence, oblivious to her limits.

Did she expect Xu Yanfeng to oppose his entire family for her sake?

She asked herself, Xia Xi, do you have that kind of capital?

But she didn't want to give up.

Xu Yanfeng is the person she likes, very much so; if there's even a sliver of possibility, she doesn't want to let go.

The phone rang suddenly, pulling Xia Xi out of that near‑suffocating situation; her finger twitched, she picked it up and saw it was a call from Xu Yanfeng—it was almost twelve, and he had finished his work.

In her panic, Xia Xi accidentally hit the reject button.

She quickly opened WeChat and typed fast to Xu Yanfeng: "Please wait a moment; I have something to deal with here, I'll contact you later."

Xu Yanfeng replied "Okay," and didn't call again.

Xu Guanshan saw who had called her, pondered a moment, then said: "Don't worry about you finding out—my relationship with Xu Yanfeng is just average." His words were sugarcoated; in fact they were far from harmonious, stemming from his past mistakes, but that wasn't the point he wanted to make. The point came after: "He is much closer to his mother. When she gave birth to him she contracted a lingering illness, her body weakened, and I dared not let her know about your affair."

Xia Xi understood his implication: if she insisted on being with Xu Yanfeng, causing him to break with his family, upsetting his mother to the point of damaging her health, she would be a sinner, and Xu Yanfeng would be one too—his guilt greater than hers, for he would be unfilial.

If she truly loved Xu Yanfeng, how could she let him become a sinner?

No wonder he's the chairman—so formidable. He never uttered a harsh word from start to finish, yet his approach was more damaging than pointing at her nose and hurling insults or threats.

She kept retreating, unable to withstand a single blow.

Xia Xi stared at her scald‑reddened fingertips, took a deep breath, and rose: "Thank you for the tea, Chairman; I'll give it careful thought."

She walked to the door with steady steps, raised her hand to push it, but it wouldn't budge for a while, making her break out in a sweat on her forehead. Only when the assistant outside heard the commotion and opened the door did she realize that, in her distracted state, she had pushed the wrong way.

She exchanged a glance with the assistant, nodded, and stepped past him to go out.

Xia Xi didn't detour along the corridor but went straight through the central courtyard; the noonday sun bathed her, finally warming her up, yet for some reason her whole body trembled uncontrollably.

After she left, Xu Guanshan's assistant entered the tea room and happened to see Xu Guanshan leaning back in his chair, rubbing his brow as if troubled. The assistant, who was always at his side, had never seen him like this even when handling tedious affairs.

The assistant ventured a guess: "Miss Xia, do you not agree?"

"I can see she's a smart person, not a brainless fool who only knows love; she'll understand which choice is most advantageous." Xu Guanshan moved his finger from his brow and pointed at the tea cup.

The assistant understood, stepped forward, and poured him tea.

Xia Xi walked absentmindedly by the roadside, forgetting to call Xu Yanfeng back; she raised her phone and dialed Xia Xuan, wanting to know how she was, whether she had improved.

"Sister." Xia Xuan's soft voice came through her ear: "Have you eaten?"

Xia Xi felt a bit weary, sat on the public bench in front of the bus stop, and replied: "Not yet."

A bus pulled up slowly, its front and rear doors opened, people got off and on, and it was noisy.

"Oh, I'm doing homework at home—so many worksheets, piled up like a mountain. I don't know how you managed to get through your senior year of high school; I find it really tough. Those questions know me, but I don't know them." Xia Xuan pretended she was fine: "Mom's cooking in the kitchen; today's lunch has the sweet‑and‑sour pork ribs you like, but you're not home, so you can't have any."

Listening to her forced‑cheerful tone, Xia Xi could still hear that her breathing was sometimes heavy, sometimes weak—a common symptom of her illness: shortness of breath, rapid respiration.

She realized that when Xia Xuan had called earlier, she had been half‑asleep and still didn't know that Xia Xuan had learned from their older sister that she was hospitalized; Xia Xuan was concealing it, not wanting her to worry.

That fool…

Did she think she could keep it hidden forever just because she'd managed it for a moment? She'd find out sooner or later.

Xia Xi closed her eyes; two streams of tears rolled down, tracing the corners of her mouth, and she tasted a bitter flavor.

Xia Xuan kept chattering on: "I'm so hungry—I'll definitely want a big bowl of rice later. By the way, what did you have for lunch? I heard your school's meals are good. Sis? Sis? Strange, why is there no sound—is the signal bad?"

Xia Xi lifted her sleeve to wipe her tears; since Xia Xuan wanted to keep it secret, she went along with the pretense, pretending she didn't know about the hospitalization: "Let's have spicy hot pot for lunch. My appetite hasn't been great lately—I'm craving something strong‑flavored."

Xia Xuan's breathing grew ragged; she quickly moved the phone away, afraid Xia Xi would hear her, then after a moment she brought it back to her ear, lay on the hospital bed, stared at the white ceiling, and wistfully said: "Ah, I'd love to have spicy hot pot too—extra numbing, extra spicy, extra vinegar. Unfortunately, the only two times I've had hot pot, I ate the plain broth version, which was bland and tasteless."

Xia Xi couldn't bear to listen any longer; she made up an excuse and hastily hung up.

While wiping her tears, she hurried back, sweat covering her body, bursting out on her skin in a sharp sting.

Xia Xi unfastened the belt at her waist, threw open her coat, and took off running, afraid that if she lagged even a moment, the chairman of the Xu Clan would leave.