Chapter 485 - Buy A New Brother

Zhai Yanjun was stunned by her question. He placed his hands on his knees and answered, "You have always been very important to me."

Xiang Wai chuckled, "You still don't get it, do you?" He raised his brow at her as she continued, "There is a difference between being loved and being important to someone. There is no doubt that you believe I'm important to you but you never loved me."

"I have," he argued.

"You should at least stop lying to yourself now," said Xiang Wai. "Those words had never been even able to fool me, I wonder how you managed to fool yourself for so long that you love me?" She rubbed her forehead as she went on, "You want to know why I stopped fighting for our relationship? It's because I didn't want you to force yourself to love me. I know you feel like you owe me something and you wanted to pay me back by being in this relationship. But that's now how love works. I'd rather see you live happily with someone else than see you forcing yourself to be with me."

"I never had to force myself to be with you," he said. Deep down, he knew that he felt like he owed her way too much. He owed this life to her, after all. If it wasn't for her, he'd have long killed himself. But he didn't think that was the reason why he was with her. "Believe it or not, but I did love you."

Xiang Wai smiled at him, "Fine, I believe you. But that's all. There is nothing else left between us. I want you to stop feeling like you owe me something. You don't. We both knew what we're getting into when we started our relationship." She ran a hand over her face and added, "But now that it's over, I just don't want you to be so awkward around me. Our families are still close. I don't want this to become an issue in the future."

Zhai Yanjun stared at her face, trying to find something but he couldn't find anything at all. He sighed to himself and stood up. "I need to go back to the base. Anyway, I promise I will not try to avoid you anymore."

"That's good," replied Xiang Wai and didn't even try to stop him to stay for lunch. 

However, once he left, she leaned back into the wooden chair and closed her eyes. That stifling feeling in her heart was unbearable and she truly felt exhausted. Once she opened her eyes again, all the haziness from her eyes had disappeared. 

She was already here and didn't feel like walking out on an empty stomach. She ordered a bowl of extra spicy noodles. As if the chili was not enough, she even poured more hot sauce into the noodles before slurping it down heartily. It was obvious that the noodles soup was spicy but she didn't care. Her eyes teared up, her nose was stinging, even her tongue was tingling but she didn't pay attention to any of it.

After she was done with the meal, she went to the bathroom and washed her face with cold water. Looking at her reflection, she frowned. Her eyes were red from crying, so was her nose. Her tongue had already gone numb from the stimulation of chili. Wiping her face with a paper towel, she walked out as if nothing happened. 

Sitting inside her car, she leaned her head back on the seat and wondered out loud, "I don't even have a drinking buddy. What a tragedy!"

She took her phone and scrolled through her contacts. In the end, her finger hovered about her brother's contact details and whispered, "Sorry, Ge! It seems I really have no one else to bother." With that, she pressed Xiang Weimin's contact number to call.

"What's up, Wai?"

"Ge, how about having drinks with me tonight?" she suggested cheerily.

"I'm a patient right now," reminded Xiang Weimin.

"It's okay. I'll drink, you just watch me and give me some company," said Xiang Wai.

"Wow! That's so heartless of you," commented Xiang Weimin. 

"Ge, I'll bring chicken wings for you and also some coke! I think it's a good deal."

Xiang Weimin's brows furrowed up and he asked, "You okay?"

"I am," she replied even though her body had stiffened once he asked that. However, she didn't even miss a beat to reply to not make him get suspicious of anything.

"Then why the thought of drinking all of a sudden?"

"It's because I'm off duty," she replied. "I can't drink on duty. Now that I have the chance, I thought I should let loose a little. It's not like we get such opportunities every day."

Although she sounded reasonable, he still felt something was up with his sister. However, he didn't pry it. He knew if he asked anymore, she might drop the idea of coming to see him altogether. She had never liked being questioned. But even if he didn't know what was up with her, that didn't mean he couldn't be there for her.

Especially when she was the one reaching out to him. And that was rare in itself. How could let this chance slip by?

"Then come over," he said. "Bring some spicy chicken feet as well."

"Alright!" Xiang Wai was happy to hear that. "Anything else do you want?"

"Buy some beer," he added.

"You can't drink," she reminded him this time.

"I'm telling you to only buy beer. Don't buy any other hard liquor. You are not very good with alcohol anyway."

Xiang Wai continued to listen to his instructions as he even told her how many cans of beers she was allowed to drink and how many she was supposed to buy. He won't even allow her to get drunk. Seriously, her brother was not a good drinking buddy. But he was all she got. She had to make do with him.. It's not like she could buy a new brother now.