Chapter 650 - 648: Unreconciled

In the Imperial City’s winter, snow fell at a moment’s notice.

Tang Mo waited with Tang Yuanxiao outside the residential complex for a little while, and then the snow began to fall.

Tang Yuanxiao was afraid Tang Mo would get cold, so he told him to go home.

Tang Mo was cold, but he couldn’t just leave Tang Yuanxiao there and go home, so he asked him to wait inside his house instead.

Tang Yuanxiao’s eyes flickered, but in the end, he shook his head.

"You go back. I’ll wait here. I... I need to clear my head."

No matter what, he refused to go inside and wait, and he insisted that Tang Mo go home. In the end, Tang Mo had no choice but to leave.

When Su Li finally finished her work and rushed back from the television station, she saw Tang Yuanxiao at the entrance to the complex, nearly turned into a snowman.

Su Li froze the moment she saw Tang Yuanxiao, then immediately walked over.

"Tang Yuanxiao."

Hearing Su Li’s voice, Tang Yuanxiao watched her walk toward him through the vast white snow, step by step. It was as if he was seeing again how she had first walked into his heart.

His entire body was numb from the cold. He stared intently at Su Li, and it was a long moment before he could make a sound.

"Su Li."

Just her name—two simple words—yet they were filled with a torrent of emotions.

Seeing Tang Yuanxiao’s face and nose, red from the cold, Su Li felt a pang in her heart and sighed softly.

"It’s too cold. Why don’t you come inside for a bit?"

Su Li was referring to the security booth at the entrance. The old security guard was quite familiar with her by now, and it was very warm inside his booth.

Tang Yuanxiao shook his head. "No, it’s fine."

Su Li looked at him, considering her words.

"You know, don’t you?" ’Does he know about my wedding?’

Ordinarily, since Tang Yuanxiao was an acquaintance, she should have invited him as a guest. But he was her ex-husband; inviting him would be inappropriate.

Su Li hadn’t even considered inviting him. She had assumed he already knew, but from the looks of it, he had only just found out.

"Yes, I know. Momo told me." Tang Yuanxiao’s face was stiff from the cold, and his attempt to smile looked unnervingly strange.

His chest heaved as he let out a couple of breaths. Finally, he spoke.

"Su Li, are you... are you really going to marry him?"

Without any hesitation, Su Li nodded affirmatively. "Yes."

Tang Yuanxiao squeezed his eyes shut. He seemed to be trying to hold it in, but in the end, he couldn’t. He bent over and let out a raw scream.

A scream full of agony and unwillingness.

He couldn’t accept it.

He just couldn’t accept it!

’I was the one who met Su Li first! Su Li was my wife! My love for her is no less than Wu Sheng’s! Clearly...!’

’Why? Why don’t I even have a chance?’

’Why did I have to stubbornly cling to propriety and decorum before? Why did I have to act all magnanimous and not interfere, just waiting on the sidelines for a possible opportunity?’

’And what was the result? Nothing... absolutely nothing.’

’Su Li is going to marry Wu Sheng.’

’There’s nothing left for me to wait for.’

’I can’t wait anymore.’

’Why did I wait? If I had known it would come to this, I should have done something, even if it meant resorting to unscrupulous means! Not this... not this...’

"I can’t accept it! I can’t accept it..."

Tang Yuanxiao gripped Su Li’s hand tightly. "Su Li, I can’t accept it! You should be mine, mine... I love you so much... so much..."

"I can’t accept it!... I can’t take it! How did I lose...?"

"My mother is paralyzed now, she’s in a nursing home. She can’t hurt you and Momo anymore, Su Li. Really, she can’t hurt you two anymore. And I won’t let her hurt you again either."

"I can protect you, protect Momo. Can we go back to how things were before? Just like the old days, okay?"

"I’ll be good to you and Momo for the rest of our lives, I swear. Can’t you just give me one more chance?"

"I can’t accept it, I can’t accept it ending like this..."

Tang Yuanxiao rambled on incoherently, spilling out his own thoughts, his true thoughts.

His grip on Su Li’s hand was painfully tight.

She was no longer someone who would just silently endure the pain, so she spoke up.

"You’re hurting me."

Tang Yuanxiao froze for a second, then slowly released her hand.

"I’m sorry..."

In his entire life, the words he had said most often to Su Li were "I’m sorry."

Tang Yuanxiao remained bent over, looking up at Su Li’s calm eyes before clutching his head fiercely.

Amidst the swirling snowflakes and the wailing wind, his fragmented screams tore through the air.

Su Li stood silently to the side, watching... just watching...

* * *

When Tang Yuanxiao woke up the next day, he stared at the ceiling for a long time.

The memories from last night came rushing back like a tide.

He hadn’t drunk any alcohol, but upon waking, he felt as if he had been drunk.

Pushed to the brink, he had acted like a drunk, shamelessly spilling out everything in his heart in front of Su Li.

’I can’t accept it.’ He desperately wanted to destroy the upcoming wedding. His mind was filled with the frantic desire to take Su Li away, to imprison her in a place where no one knew them, where no one could find them.

’Just him and her, with no outsiders to disturb them.’

’Su Li wouldn’t marry anyone else then.’

As these wild thoughts flooded his mind, Tang Yuanxiao looked at the serene Su Li in the snow, and this frantic notion reached its peak.

In the end, it seemed Tang Yuanxiao was about to act, but as his hand reached out toward Su Li and he looked into her eyes, he suddenly found himself unable to move.

Tang Yuanxiao had always found Su Li’s eyes to be the strangest thing about her, filled with complex emotions he could never decipher.

It looked like she was looking at him, but at the same time, it felt like she wasn’t. It was as if she were looking through him at someone else.

Her gaze was always complex, something he could never understand, yet every time she looked at him, his heart would flutter.

And just like that, Tang Yuanxiao froze. It was as if a basin of cold water had been dumped straight over his head, and he instantly calmed down.

Tang Yuanxiao didn’t know how he got back. Like a zombie, he had no memory of how he made it back to the family courtyard.

He had walked through the night on pure instinct, made it back to the family courtyard, and collapsed onto his bed.

When he opened his eyes again, it was already daytime.

Tang Yuanxiao got up mechanically, like a puppet. He washed his face and tidied himself up, then worked up a heavy sweat on the training grounds. By the time he sat in the conference room again, his mind had finally cleared.

Tang Yuanxiao looked intently at his superior and replied with a solemn, "Yes, sir."

The next day, Tang Yuanxiao departed with his team.

Instead of wallowing in a daze, lost in wild thoughts, and possibly doing something impulsive, Tang Yuanxiao chose to work.

A task that required a hundred times his usual concentration now seemed more appealing than ever to Tang Yuanxiao.

He even felt the urge to never come back...

Tang Yuanxiao shook the crazy thought from his head and set off on his journey. But just as he passed the point of no return, a disdainful voice echoed in his mind.

’Hah, there you go again... Tang Yuanxiao, you’re always like this.’

’Always running away!’

’And so childish!’

Hearing his own self-mockery, Tang Yuanxiao simply left a message and departed.

When Lin Huanzhu heard the news and came looking for him, he was already gone.

She stood there, stunned. She couldn’t help but touch her chest, feeling an unprecedented sense of dread in her heart.

Her heart pounded anxiously, sinking as if into a bottomless pit, a premonition that something terrible was about to happen.