Chapter 222

Shen Li was stunned for a moment, not reacting immediately, and only realized afterward that the gift Xie Qin was talking about was her.

After a moment of silence.

Xie Qin: "I don't want you to be too tired."

"If you really want to bring something, just buy some apples; the little brat likes to eat them."

Shen Li: "Your younger brother?"

Xie Qin: "Yes."

He likes to eat apples?

Shen Li silently noted this in her heart.

Shen Li told him: "I have your brother's WeChat, but I haven't really chatted with him. I see him often posting his exam report cards on his Moments, and he gets full marks in every subject."

Xie Qin raised an eyebrow, "You can see them?"

Shen Li: "Yes, I can."

As she spoke, she took out her phone, clicked on Xie Huai's WeChat, and entered his Moments. The first post was his math test paper with full marks.

Xie Qin took a moment to look and said amusedly: "We've all been blocked by him."

"When he was little, he was quite clingy to me."

Shen Li: "And now?"

Xie Qin: "Now his wings have hardened, and he even dares to challenge me."

Shen Li looked down at her phone, scrolled down Xie Huai's Moments, and found a photo. In the photo, the young man was wearing the black uniform of a private aristocratic middle school. His features were still green and immature, and his edges hadn't fully grown out, yet he already revealed an innate, handsome bone structure. Standing in the center of the crowd on the podium, his fingertips pinching a flat certificate, his spine straight, his cold and noble temperament was exceptionally superior, making him particularly eye-catching among his peers. "He looks a lot like you; one can tell at a glance that you are biological brothers."

Xie Qin: "Oh, then... am I more handsome, or is he?"

This was a death trap question.

Shen Li didn't hesitate and blurted out: "You are more handsome!"

Master Xie smiled with satisfaction.

Once they started talking about his family, the topic seemed endless.

Shen Li asked him again: "Is there a big age gap between you and your brother?"

Xie Qin chatted with her about family matters: "Yes, originally my mother considered having only one child. My father said he wanted to have another sister to keep me company, but I didn't expect that the one born later would be another little devil. At that time, after he was born, I had just been expelled from a middle school in Di Du, so I stayed in Wuchuan and never went back. My brother stayed by their side."

Shen Li: "You haven't been back for so many years, don't you miss them?"

Xie Qin came to Wuchuan in his first year of middle school; counting it up, he hadn't been back for eleven years.

Xie Qin didn't think much of it and said in a leisurely tone: "Why would I miss them! Before middle school, I studied in Di Du, and even when we lived together, everyone was busy with their own things. Usually, you couldn't even see a shadow of anyone."

It didn't make much difference to him where he stayed.

Shen Li: "Is that so?"

Xie Qin: "Yes."

After his words fell, the atmosphere fell silent.

Xie Qin had the navigation on in the car, and the route showed it would take another twenty minutes to arrive. She asked him again in a soft voice: "Xie Qin, can you tell me more about your family?"

Xie Qin curled his lips: "Why did you think to ask now?"

Shen Li told him: "I want to... understand you a little more."

Later, Xie Qin briefly told her some things about his family. It turned out his father wasn't just an ordinary painter but a top student from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and the small business his mother did wasn't ordinary either; she was the president of a listed group, and their business touched upon various industries. Xie Qin really didn't know the specifics, and he didn't care about family matters.

She suddenly understood why Zixin had such great psychological pressure after getting engaged to Xu Zhouyuan.

Shen Li instantly felt a huge stone pressing on her, making it hard to breathe.

She shouldn't have asked these things.

Shen Li was silent for nearly a minute. Xie Qin had just gotten off the elevated road, and there were a lot of vehicles on the airport road at this point, so he couldn't spare the attention to talk to her. After driving for a while, he spoke: "Why aren't you talking?"

Shen Li sighed slightly in her heart: "Xie Qin, I feel like you're living a hard life staying in Wuchuan with me. Did I delay you a bit?"

Xie Qin's eyebrows moved slightly, followed by a nameless fire in his heart. He laughed angrily and said: "Shen Li! I confessed these things to you; did you think I was showing off to make you feel inferior?"

Having been scolded for no reason, she didn't quite dare to speak.

Xie Qin ordered her: "Hurry up and put away all those thoughts in your head."

"Doesn't me having money mean you have money? You should be secretly happy, you know?"

Is that so?

Because of what he said, Shen Li had a faint thought that she was the one who profited. After thinking about it, she said slowly and unrealistically: "Then am I... a gold digger now?"

Xie Qin said very arrogantly: "If you want to understand it that way, it's not wrong."

Shen Li asked him in a soft tone: "Are there other ways to put it?"

Xie Qin said something that Shen Li would never have expected in her life: "I tried to throw money at you before, but you didn't take the bait. Later, I had to rely on my own 'sex appeal' to succeed."

He said it with pride, putting Shen Li on a pedestal. Put that way, it seemed like Xie Qin was the one who had profited the most.

But something was wrong. Shen Li savored it and realized that she had been described by him as a 'lecher'.

A female hooligan who didn't care about money but was greedy for his 'male beauty'.

Thinking of this, Shen Li's lips curled up unconsciously, and she didn't refute.

Whatever he said, it was what it was.

A while later, they quickly arrived at the airport, and the car was parked directly inside the airport.

After getting out of the car, Xie Qin held her hand and ate something inside the airport, and after waiting for about half an hour, they boarded the plane.

They were sitting in business class, with their seats together.

After boarding the plane, Shen Li felt sleepy as soon as she sat in the chair.

Xie Qin asked the flight attendant for a blanket, which he covered her with, "Sleep for a while first, I'll call you when we arrive."

Shen Li: "Okay."

She was indeed so sleepy she could barely hold on.

During the National Day period, the neurosurgery department at the hospital had received many critically ill patients, and she hadn't slept for eight hours a day.

Closing her eyes, Shen Li quickly fell asleep.

With this sleep, the turbulence of the plane landing woke her up directly.

Shen Li opened her eyes and found that Xie Qin had also just woken up beside her. The two looked at each other, yet she realized that her right hand, wearing the wedding ring, was firmly held in his palm, their fingers interlaced.

Xie Qin reminded her: "We've arrived."

The sleepiness Shen Li had just woken up with vanished instantly, her heart pounding. She pursed her lips and told him uneasily: "Xie Qin, I'm still nervous."

It was just a few minutes past twelve at night when they landed in Di Du.

Xie's father's car was parked on the side of the road at the departure level of the terminal.

When Xie Qin walked out of the airport holding Shen Li's hand, he was looking down, having just finished replying to a message, and saw that familiar black Audi at a glance.

After walking closer, Xie Qin opened the rear passenger door and let Shen Li sit in first.

Xie Qin sat in last and pulled the door shut with a 'bang'.

As soon as Shen Li got in the car, she pretended to be calm and greeted: "Hello, Uncle."