Chapter 12: Quit 012

Chapter 12

Su Tao and Xie Jin's departure left the whole family in silence, as if the air had solidified.

They didn't care that Su Tao was angry, but offending Xie Jin was too detrimental to the company's development.

What worried them even more was whether Su Tao would hate them and deliberately make things difficult for their company by whispering in Xie Jin's ear.

"Mom, what you just said was too much. Mr. Xie had just walked in the door and must have heard it." Su HaoYang frowned at Li Pei, and irritably scolded her.

Li Pei's temper flared up at once. She slapped the table and screamed, "How would I know Xie Jin was here? I thought they had broken up long ago! Now it's all my fault? She hasn't been home for a year and that's got nothing to do with me!"

"Just shut up, will you die if you say less?" This time it was Su Sheng who spoke.

He knitted his brows and got up angrily from the dinner table.

As he passed through the living room, he saw the birthday cake Su Tao had brought was still sitting lonely on the coffee table.

Suddenly a scene flashed through his mind.

On the day of Ling Yuan's funeral, the then nine-year-old Su Tao held her mother's urn in the rain, standing alone with an umbrella, silent, neither crying nor making a fuss.

Somehow, his heart ached sharply.

Old age inevitably brings back memories. Su Sheng's back hunched a little as he slowly climbed the stairs.

-

The sky exploded with thunder, and the rustling of leaves blowing in the wind mixed with the thunder, adding an aura of horror to the deserted little path.

Su Tao walked quietly along the wall. Once she got through this path, it would be the highway. This little path had no parking.

The street lamps on both sides of the path were triangular lamps in a pseudo-European style, not very bright, but able to reveal silhouettes.

The silhouette on the ground had slender legs and an inverted triangular, exquisite figure, silently following all the way.

Without looking back, she knew it was Xie Jin.

As she approached the end of the path, Su Tao stopped and calmly looked back at Xie Jin. "Don't follow me. I'm fine."

Xie Jin's deep eyes reflected Su Tao's tranquil face. Raindrops pattered down gently. He took her hand and tucked her into his car parked at the roadside.

After wiping the raindrops off Su Tao's face with a tissue, Xie Jin began to dry himself.

He broke the quiet in the car with a displeased tone, "Why didn't you tell me your family treats you so badly?"

Su Tao looked out at the passing cars and pedestrians in silence.

Xie Jin took out the business card Su HaoYang had given him and coldly laughed as he tore it in two and threw it in the trash.

"Star, Yang, Entertainment," he enunciated mockingly. "Your brother is called Su HaoYang, your brother Su Yang Xing. The company ownership has already been divided up."

Although he lived in an environment surrounded by wolves, when his father was alive, he had cherished him.

His father had said the TianJin Group was a gift given by his father on the day he was born.

Because it contained his name, his father had managed it with great care and paternal love.

In contrast, what position had Star Yang Entertainment relegated his little peach to?

"A year ago when you told me you never wanted to go home again, did it have to do with the company renaming?"

"Please take me back to the ocean theme hotel I stayed at before." Su Tao said lightly with a nasal tone, turning her head to look out the window.

Through the reflective car window, Xie Jin saw her seemingly calm yet dejected expression. The words to force her back to the villa died on his lips, and he didn't say them.

The car stopped in the hotel parking lot. Su Tao softly thanked him and got out.

Because she didn't come back last night, the popular Maldives themed room had been booked by someone else. She could only choose between Antarctica and the seabed again, and picked the seabed suite.

She used the key card to open the door with Xie Jin following behind into the room.

Once inside, he immediately took off his rain-drenched clothes and called Jin ChuiWen to bring him a clean set.

Then he went to run a bath, brazenly taking off his pants and draping a robe over himself.

Su Tao was stunned speechless by his practiced, habitual motions. For a moment she didn't know whether she should leave or kick him out.

"I booked this room." Su Tao decided to kick him out after all.

"Oh, what's wrong?" Xie Jin sat by the tub waiting for the water to heat up, looking up at her puzzledly.

"So please leave."

Xie Jin's brows furrowed slightly as he lingered without withdrawing his gaze. His already gaunt face seemed to have thinned another circle recently, and his angle of lowered chin and raised eyes made his jaw as sharp as a bamboo shoot. His eyelids were more sunken too.

Seeing him still looking confused, Su Tao wondered which part of her words hadn't been clear enough? Just as she was about to rephrase even more clearly, her phone vibrated in her pocket.

She took it out first and casually glanced at it. It was a friend request from an unknown number.

The note said: About Xie Jin and Qin Xuexi's secret.

The person's words made her expression darken, and she tapped Accept out of curiosity.

Soon after verifying the friend request, the person sent a photo that Su Tao opened.

The photo was a bit blurry, clearly taken stealthily, but the main subjects were unmistakable.

Xie Jin and Qin Xuexi.

In the night's neon lights, they had just come out of a club door, intimately leaning together. Xie Jin's eyes were closed, while Qin Xuexi looked at him attentively.

Their lips were pressed together.

Su Tao swiftly raised her eyes to look at Xie Jin, still adjusting the water temperature. Her gaze returned to WeChat, where she tapped the sender's default black profile picture but could glean no information.

She sent the person a message but the display showed they had already deleted her as a friend.

Su Tao hesitated briefly before saving the photo and forwarding it to Zhang QiGuang to help verify if it was photoshopped.

After putting her phone away, Su Tao looked up again to see Xie Jin had readied the bath and was satisfied with the temperature, preparing to bathe.

Her gaze suddenly turned sharp, with disappointment and disgust in her eyes.

If this photo was real, then she'd been a huge joke these past four years!

Su Tao walked over to Xie Jin's side and roughly grabbed his robe collar with all her might, dragging him to the door.

Caught off guard while about to take off the robe, Xie Jin stumbled. By the time he reacted, Su Tao had already opened the door and pushed him out, adding a kick for good measure.

Dazed, he was about to demand what she was doing when the door slammed heavily shut. Xie Jin cradled his nose standing stupefied outside the door for a long time.