Chapter 299

Xia Xi answered the phone, her gaze flicked to the car window, her voice a little low: "Hello."

"Do you know how I got through these thirteen hours?" Xu Yanfeng said in a heavy tone.

Xia Xi: "……"

Is it really that exaggerated?

"You might as well be straightforward; tell me now what you want." Xu Yanfeng said, "Otherwise, for the coming week I'll have a sword hanging over my head—I might collapse before seeing the result."

Xia Xi curled her lips, teasing: "Do you also get nervous and scared?"

"Yes." Xu Yanfeng almost instantly answered firmly, "Because it's you, I don't have complete confidence."

Xia Xi's eyelid twitched, the smile at the corner of her lips faded, and the playful mood vanished.

She pinched the hem of her casual suit, eyes downcast, she whispered: "I've waited so many years; can't I wait a week? I don't want to say it over the phone."

"Tsk." Xu Yanfeng felt a bit gloomy, couldn't do anything about her, and finally compromised: "Fine, I'll wait for you. A week, right? If you're late by a day, I'll fly to Londun to grab you."

Xia Xi burst out laughing.

"I can't be certain about work matters; when I say a week, I mean roughly a week, I'm not sure if it's earlier or later." Xia Xi said softly, "Please be patient."

She stopped beating around the bush and asked about the child: "Zi Heng?"

"He's asleep. Do you want to see him? We can video call."

"No need."

"Then do you want to see me?"

"……"

Faced with Xu Yanfeng like this, Xia Xi could hardly cope; she bent slightly, elbows on knees, palms covering her involuntarily smiling mouth, and remained silent for a while.

Xu Yanfeng was still waiting for her answer, his tone rising: "Hmm?"

Xia Xi gave a light cough, then said seriously: "I'm almost at the hotel; I won't keep talking, you should rest early."

She spoke quickly, hung up first, and her heart rate took a long time to return to normal.

Actually she was lying; the hotel was still far off.

But she was afraid she couldn't hold back and would laugh on the phone.

During the days she spent in Londun, Xia Xi saw no sunshine; she always carried an umbrella in her bag, just in case of sudden rain.

In such gloomy cold weather, Xia Xi especially missed Xu Yanfeng, longing for his voice and his warm embrace.

She never imagined that one day she and Xu Yanfeng would reverse roles; each time they talked, Xu Yanfeng would say he missed her, while she, on several occasions, would start to say something only to veer off onto an unrelated topic.

What she wanted to say was "I miss you too," but it ended up as "I just ate a biscuit," "My work is going pretty smoothly," "I plan to have a late-night snack later," and so on.

The Xia Xi from seven years ago seems truly gone.

After work that day, Xia Xi declined the car sent by the client; she wanted to go to the mall to browse and shop.

She picked gifts for everyone at home, her hands full of shopping bags, she got hungry from walking around, was about to find a restaurant to eat when a call came in.

At that time, which was dinner hour, besides Xu Yanfeng, Xia Xi couldn't think of anyone else who would contact her.

Xia Xi couldn't free her hands to answer the phone, so she put the shopping bags on the ground, took out her phone from her bag, saw the caller ID, and sure enough it was Xu Yanfeng.

She sat on the nearby public bench, one hand resting on the armrest, and heard the person on the other end ask: "What are you doing?"

Xia Xi replied truthfully: "I just finished browsing the mall, about to go eat."

Xu Yanfeng: "That's fine. Send me a photo later so I can verify."

Xia Xi leaned against the backrest, gave a lazy smile: "You really have gotten addicted to monitoring me?"

Xu Yanfeng didn't rebut; whatever she said was how it was: "Yeah, addicted."

Xia Xi: "……"

After exchanging only a few words, Xu Yanfeng urged Xia Xi to go eat, as if he feared that chatting longer would delay her and cause her to starve.

Xia Xi put her phone back in her bag, picked up the shopping bags at her feet, left the mall, and casually entered a restaurant.

She glanced at the menu, her appetite was good, she ordered meat sauce pasta, chicken cutlet Caesar salad, and a pumpkin soup.

After a short wait, the dishes she ordered arrived; she didn't start eating, but lifted her phone to take a photo and sent it to Xu Yanfeng, intending to tell him she wasn't lying—she was really having a meal.

Xu Yanfeng: "Which restaurant is this?"

Xia Xi raised an eyebrow, wondering if he was interested in the restaurant's food, planning to check it out next time; she didn't think much and sent him the restaurant's name with the detailed address.

Calculating the time back home, Xia Xi lowered her eyes, tapped on her phone: "It's already 1 a. m. there; go to sleep quickly."

After sending that, Xia Xi put down her phone and focused on enjoying her dinner.

She was lucky; the randomly chosen restaurant wasn't a dud, and the dishes she ordered suited her taste. Xia Xi ate everything, feeling a bit full, so she didn't rush to leave, wanting to take a breather.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling window, the already dim sky grew darker; where the streetlights shone, fine threads like down floated down.

Xia Xi sat by the window, her face close to the glass looking out, and realized it was raining.

In the blink of an eye, the fine rain intensified, hitting the ground with a patter, and the surface quickly turned dark.

Worried that waiting longer would bring heavier rain making it hard to get a taxi, she paid the bill, picked up her things, and headed for the door.

A waiter helped pull open the glass door; Xia Xi thanked him, stepped outside, and a chilly wind blew in, making her narrow her eyes as her thoughts drifted away.

Having lived in this city for several years, she still wasn't used to the rain, which felt especially biting, able to seep into the bones.

Standing under the eaves outside the restaurant, Xia Xi recalled the days when she first arrived in Londun—

After school, waiting for a bus off campus, or while working part-time outdoors, on rainy days she would always imagine Xu Yanfeng stepping out of some car, umbrella in hand, his tall, slender figure appearing before her eyes, lifting the umbrella's edge to reveal his handsome face. He would approach her, hold the umbrella over her head, shielding her as they walked into the rain, wind and rain blocked outside the umbrella, and she would feel no chill.

In the end, she realized it was just a fantasy.

Each time she withdrew from the fantasy back to reality, her heart felt empty; the great sense of disparity often brought panic, like being alone trekking a desert, or like solitary sailing on a tiny boat in a vast ocean.

After experiencing this many times, Xia Xi would consciously force herself not to fantasize; the moment that person's image appeared in her mind, she would immediately shift her attention to something else.

This approach didn't work well; she still thought of him frequently.

Like an addiction she couldn't quit.

Finally, she chose to yield and let things be.

Her eye sockets suddenly felt warm; Xia Xi blinked, and facing the curtain of rain before her, the corners of her mouth curled into a faint arc—people really do easily reminisce about the past in familiar surroundings.

Her phone rang, dispelling half of Xia Xi's gloomy mood. She shifted the shopping bag from her right hand to her left, reached into her bag, took out the folding umbrella and tucked it into the crook of her arm, then pulled out her phone to glance at it.

It was still Xu Yanfeng calling.

Why hasn't he rested yet?

The several shopping bags together were heavy; carrying them with one hand was a bit taxing. Xi Xia clamped the phone between her shoulder and ear, shifted some of the load from her left hand to her right, and smiled: "Why are you calling again? There's no need to check in so frequently."

Xu Yanfeng laughed too, his low, magnetic voice coming through the line: "It's raining; haven't you returned to the hotel yet?"

Xia Xi startled, the phone on her shoulder almost slipping; she quickly lifted her hand to hold it, gazing at the sky-full of rain, she fell silent for two seconds, then asked: "How do you know it's raining in Londun?"

Did he check the weather on her side?