Chapter 207

Shen Li: 【How else do you want me to care?】

She had long since had no home in Haishi.

After sending this sentence, Xie Qin happened to walk out of the kitchen carrying the noodles. Shen Li stepped forward, pulled out a chair, and sat down at the dining table, placing her phone, screen dark, on the table.

"Taste it." Xie Qin handed her the chopsticks.

Shen Li reached out and took them.

After Xie Qin brought out his own bowl, he sat down across from her.

At this moment, the phone beside his hand rang once.

Xie Qin glanced at it: "It's so late, someone is still sending you messages?"

Shen Li kept her head down, eyes lowered, not intending to reply. She tasted a bite of the egg noodles he cooked; the taste was quite good, "It's Shen Zhaozhao."

Xie Qin: "Oh."

He just responded with a sound, not asking further about what it was.

A while later, after Shen Li ate the noodles in her mouth, without too much hesitation, she told him the matter: "Shen Zhaozhao said, Mom wants to come to Wuchuan to find me."

"Isn't that quite good." Xie Qin said: "Just in time to tell her about our business."

Xie Qin had mentioned meeting the parents many times.

Several times, when Xie Qin received calls from Di Du, it was his mom and dad urging him to bring her home.

He never hid it from Shen Li, even putting it on speakerphone.

At the time, Xie Qin's tone toward his mom and dad was the same as it was toward anyone else, very arrogant: "Still urging me? Hundreds of calls a week, aren't you tired? I'm already sick of answering them."

Xue Jingshu scolded him: "You brat, I'm your mother! Give me a time for when you're coming back. I'll book the tickets for you two then."

Xie Qin: "I'm free anytime, but your daughter-in-law isn't. You know, she's studying at Jiangchuan University, her studies are busy."

Xue Jingshu: "... I don't believe it, you must be making excuses here, you don't want to come back yourself and are using my daughter-in-law as a shield."

Xie Qin laughed helplessly: "No, let's be reasonable, okay? Is it that I don't want to bring her? I'd like to fly over right now."

"She really is busy."

"Fine, I can't talk to you."

"I'm not saying anything else."

"If I keep talking to you, you'll even remove me from the family register."

Xie Qin was also tired of answering, so he threw the phone to Shen Li, wiping his hair, "You talk to her."

It was Shen Li's first time talking to Xie Qin's mother, which made her feel a bit nervous; she looked at him, not daring to take it.

The voice on the phone continued: "Xie Qin? A-Qin? You brat... Mom is talking to you! Why aren't you answering?"

Xie Qin raised an eyebrow at her nonchalantly, lifting his chin to signal her to pick up and explain.

Shen Li didn't dare move.

Xie Qin didn't care anymore, dropped a sentence, and turned away: "I'm going to blow-dry my hair."

"Xie Qin." Shen Li lowered her voice and called him anxiously.

He didn't look back.

Shen Li had no choice but to bite the bullet and pick up the phone, her hand trembling as she held it to her ear, speaking in a very soft voice: "Auntie... Xie Qin went to blow-dry his hair."

The person on the other end of the phone was silent for a good while, probably for over ten seconds.

During this time, Shen Li heard the sound of hurried footsteps going downstairs.

Xue Jingshu: "Li-Li?"

Shen Li sat on the sofa, her hand tightly gripping the hem of her shirt: "Mm, it's me."

"When are you free to come to Di Du to play? Is it that Xie Qin doesn't want to come back? If he doesn't come, you can come find Auntie by yourself, Auntie will have Xiao Huai go pick you up."

Shen Li helped Xie Qin explain: "It's not that, Auntie. Xie Qin doesn't not want to come back, it's that I'm too busy. He has urged me several times, it's me who can't spare the time."

"Do you think this would work? When I have time in a while, I'll come find you, okay?"

Xue Jingshu: "That's fine, that's fine, you go by your own time. Auntie isn't in a hurry at all, studies are important."

Shen Li: "Mm, thank you, Auntie."

Xue Jingshu: "A-Qin, how is he treating you? Has he bullied you?"

Shen Li: "No, he treats me very well."

This call lasted for about half an hour, and Xue Jingshu even added her on WeChat and sent her a very large transfer, which she didn't accept, but Xie Qin helped her click it later.

Her thoughts returned to the present.

Shen Li's eyelashes fluttered, and she told him some things in a calm tone, "In order to treat Mom's illness, the house in Haishi was sold a long time ago. The place Mom is living in now is a house that Jingze helped rent."

"Jingze's mom and dad were old classmates with my dad, and they had a good relationship, so I've known him since I was little."

Xie Qin said 'Ah' in realization: "Childhood sweethearts."

Shen Li looked up at him, not expecting that to be his focus.

When Shen Li said these things, the atmosphere was somewhat heavy, because his sentence made that heaviness dissipate a little.

Shen Li always found it hard to speak about these things in front of him.

So at the beginning, she didn't tell Xie Qin much.

She only told him that she went abroad at the time because her mother was sick.

At that time, they were only boyfriend and girlfriend still getting to know each other, and they didn't know much about each other's family backgrounds, so if she had taken the initiative to say too much.

It would always give people the feeling that she was trying to play the victim.

But thinking about it now, it really was... quite miserable...

She was facing Xie Qin, a proud son of heaven with a superior family background, and she would always have some sense of inferiority in her heart.

The only thing Shen Li could take out was her academic qualifications.

This thought was only for the Shen Li of the past.

Now...

They had lived together for a long time, and they seemed to have long since exceeded the limited relationship of a boyfriend and girlfriend.

They had long since regarded each other as the only one for the rest of their lives.

Or should one say, family?

Anyway, that's what she thought.

Xie Qin... should be too.

She rarely revealed her inner thoughts, including the things in the deepest part of her heart that she wanted to say but didn't dare to, and didn't know who to say them to.

The only person she could speak to was him.

Even if she told Xie Qin all about her embarrassment and her wretchedness, he probably wouldn't mind her family background.

Saying all the things she had been holding in her heart to Xie Qin, the gloom that had been heavy in her heart felt somewhat relieved.

"After coming back with Mom, housing prices in Haishi rose rapidly. The savings I have on hand now aren't even enough for a down payment on a house in Haishi, so I thought I'd wait a few years and save up more; renting a house like this all the time isn't a solution."

Xie Qin's chopsticks were still stuck in the noodles, he hadn't taken a bite, his whole person leaning back in the chair, hands crossed in front of him, quietly listening to her finish speaking.

"I didn't expect Mom would suddenly think of coming to Wuchuan to find me."

"This time she comes..." Shen Li lifted her eyelids, looked into his eyes, pursed her lips tightly, and said: "She might stay with me forever."

"She doesn't know about us living together yet."

Xie Qin understood, he nodded slowly and told her: "You want to buy a house in Haishi, isn't that salary card of mine with you? It should be enough for a down payment."

"Choose a better location, don't pick one that's too bad, you don't need to worry about the subsequent repayments, my job is quite stable now, and my mom and dad can help out too."

"If we buy it now, we can live there when we go to Haishi in the future."

"If Auntie doesn't want to stay in Haishi and wants to come to Wuchuan for a long stay, I don't have any objections."

He just made a reasonable suggestion; as for how to decide, it was still up to her.