Chapter 74 - Let Me Speak for You

After a sudden downpour, at last a trace of summer's heat had been swept away.

Seeing the sky finally clear, Lin Xiaowen no longer needed to fret over whether to call for a ride or to bring a raincoat and umbrella when picking up Ranran from kindergarten.

When the car pulled up in front of her shop, Lin Xiaowen was still wielding her “window-wiping gadget,” scraping away the droplets from the glass display. It wasn’t until Xu Ningning pushed open the car door and struggled to get out that Lin Xiaowen, startled, snapped out of her reverie, tossed aside her cleaning tool, and hurried over.

“Ningning, what happened to you? What’s wrong with your foot?”

Lin Xiaowen’s concern was tinged with bewilderment, for the car was clearly not Xu Ningning’s own, and she had emerged from the passenger side.

Supporting Xu Ningning as she alighted, a deep, pleasant male voice drifted over.

Si Nan circled the car, stopping before Lin Xiaowen, greeting her with a gentle warmth like a spring breeze.

“Miss Lin, we meet again.”

“It’s… you!”

Lin Xiaowen’s heart sank, her face betraying no emotion as she stared at Si Nan. Yet the involuntary way she swallowed did not escape his notice.

Si Nan smiled at her with easy amusement.

“Xiaowen, Si Nan saw me twist my ankle outside the mall, so he kindly brought me back,” Xu Ningning explained, her expression stiff, her grip unconsciously tightening on Lin Xiaowen’s supporting hand. Her lowered gaze concealed her true feelings.

“Thank you for bringing Ningning back, Mr. Si. We’ll head inside now—safe travels, Mr. Si.” Lin Xiaowen had no time to dwell on how Xu Ningning addressed Si Nan, nor to wonder why, even if Si Nan was being helpful, he hadn’t simply taken Ningning to her own home, but had brought her here instead.

All she wanted was for Si Nan to leave at once, and for her never to see him again.

Heaven knew, every time she saw that cold, inscrutable smile of his, it sent a chill down Lin Xiaowen’s spine and made her skin prickle with unease.

“Miss Ningning should be able to go in by herself, yes?” Si Nan said softly, glancing at Xu Ningning.

“There's something I wish to say to Miss Lin,” he continued.

Seeing the hesitation in Xu Ningning’s eyes, Lin Xiaowen was seized by a sense of foreboding.

And so, as if reaching a final decision, Xu Ningning gently withdrew her arm from Lin Xiaowen’s grasp, murmured, “I’ll go in first. You two talk,” and limped slowly into the shop.

Xu Ningning walked with painful slowness, her figure seeming shrouded in some nameless mist, leaving Lin Xiaowen with a growing sense of oppression in her chest.

“Miss Lin, don’t worry. It’s just a sprained ankle—it will heal soon.”

Lin Xiaowen had neither the patience for small talk nor the energy to puzzle out Si Nan’s hidden meanings. She merely fixed her gaze on him, this man who, every time he appeared before her, radiated such an overwhelming, suffocating presence.

“If you have something to say, Mr. Si, please make it quick. I have to go tend to Ningning,” Lin Xiaowen said in a low voice.

Si Nan gave a slight smile, revealing white, even teeth; but in the depths of those fathomless eyes, a dark lotus seemed to bloom.

“Why so impatient, Miss Lin?” Si Nan sighed as though in resignation, leaning back against the car as he met her gaze. “You’ve waited so many years. Why should you care about a moment more?”

The air after the rain was humid and sticky, but the chill that pressed in on Lin Xiaowen had nothing to do with the weather.

She steadied her breathing, her eyes now glinting with wariness as she looked at Si Nan.

“I don’t understand what you mean, Mr. Si. If there’s nothing else, please suit yourself.” Lin Xiaowen, a cold sweat prickling at her back, turned to leave, her steps stiff.

“Miss Lin, are you pretending not to understand?” Si Nan’s tone was light, yet each word struck like a blade. “Very well, I’ll spell it out for you.”

Lin Xiaowen told herself not to listen—that nothing he said concerned her—but her body disobeyed, coming to a halt.

She heard Si Nan’s voice, soft and distant: “Si Ranran is the only child my brother left behind. And you… you were the girlfriend he dated in Chengdu all those years ago. Am I wrong?”

Her teeth chattered uncontrollably, but Lin Xiaowen still did not turn around. Perhaps if she refused to acknowledge it, it would all remain unreal—perhaps he had simply mistaken her for someone else.

“I’ll be more specific. My brother left the army to serve as a military training instructor at a local university. That’s when you met and started seeing each other. You two decided to marry after you graduated, and my brother said… he would soon take you back to Hong Kong to meet our father.”

Every word from Si Nan was gentle as a warm spring, yet each syllable slipped quietly into Lin Xiaowen’s heart, conjuring once more that young, handsome face who had made her promises—promises that could never again be fulfilled.

“Don’t say any more…” Lin Xiaowen murmured, closing her eyes. She knew what would come next would shatter the memory of that young man, make him vanish from her mind. She wanted only to hold onto him a moment longer.

“There was a day you went shopping and a fire broke out in the mall. The flames were out of control—no one could have fought them back. My brother got you out to safety, then rushed into the blaze to save others…”

“I told you to stop!” Lin Xiaowen spun around, stumbling towards Si Nan, her trembling hands clutching the front of his expensive shirt. Her eyes were wild with anger and regret, brimming with venom and despair.

Pain flickered in Si Nan’s eyes, though his voice remained calm and almost indifferent. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

Whether Lin Xiaowen’s anger or her desperate grip, neither seemed to move him in the least. He simply gazed down at her and asked, voice as steady as before, “If it weren’t for you urging him in there, he never would have died. If you’d tried to stop him, he wouldn’t have gone in, and the Si family wouldn’t have lost such a fine son. Ranran would not have been left fatherless.”

Whether accusation or narration, Si Nan’s gaze was unwavering, fixed on Lin Xiaowen’s face.

Lin Xiaowen seemed lost to herself, mumbling, “Ranran…”

At the mention of the person she cared for most, Lin Xiaowen was briefly dazed, her grip on Si Nan’s shirt loosening.

“Which brings me to the real point,” Si Nan said, pulling his shirt from her grasp and smoothing the wrinkles she’d made.

“After my brother died, my father saw you at the hospital. That was when you found out you were pregnant with my brother’s child. My father was adamant—you were not to give birth to that child. After all, what grandfather would accept a grandson whose mother was the cause of his own son’s death?”

Sweat from her temples clung to Lin Xiaowen’s disheveled hair, plastering it to her cheeks and forehead.

Her lips were pale, her face drained of all color.

She suddenly recalled the weather back then—it seemed just as it was now, so stifling that she could barely breathe.

It was as if she were trapped in a steam-filled chamber, teetering on the edge of death, unable ever again to take in a gasp of fresh air.