Are You Allergic To Romance? - Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Love Potion

The two cars gradually faded into the distance until their silhouettes were completely gone.

Jing Yuan still stood silently in the same spot for a long time. No one knew what she was thinking.

(If we can meet again, I’ll bring a bouquet of flowers for you.)

She admitted that hearing Xie Mianzhi suddenly utter this assumption made her momentarily joyful, but now that she thought about it, it was just a fantasy.

It was probably just Miss Xie Mianzhi’s polite, customary way of saying goodbye.

That’s right. There shouldn’t have been anyone else here in the first place.

It was true before, and it would be true in the future.

Only when two fuzzy little things rubbed against her legs did Jing Yuan retract her lonely gaze. She looked down at Golden Bean and Yuan Bao, who seemed to be comforting her at her feet.

She reached out and stroked them.

“Miss Xie has left. You two must miss her very much,” Jing Yuan murmured while smoothing the fur of the two little creatures.

To be honest, the few days she spent with Miss Xie Mianzhi were the most magical time she had ever experienced.

So magical that she felt a trace of attachment, a slight reluctance to let go.

She never rejected Xie Mianzhi’s words, whether they were teasing, irritable, or slightly harsh, because she felt that Miss Xie Mianzhi was probably using those behaviors to protect herself.

Humans were sometimes like that, using deliberate actions to conceal their inner feelings.

And she craved warmth. When Xie Mianzhi tried to touch her before leaving, she was willing to be touched by the other person, but her body temperature had suddenly dropped, and she was afraid the other party would notice the abnormality.

In fact, for a fleeting moment, she thought Miss Xie would accept the real her—accept her extraordinary side and become her friend.

Perhaps she would.

But she didn’t dare to be certain. After all, it was a huge gamble. If she lost, there would be no room for a second chance.

Jing Yuan stopped her hand and pulled up her sleeve. The black markings were still winding around her arm, a terrifying sight in the eyes of outsiders.

If Xie Mianzhi saw these markings on her, even just a little, even if she didn’t fully transform into her true form, she would probably be too scared to stay there, immediately flee, and run far, far away.

Jing Yuan looked at the crumpled business card in her hand, gave a bitter tug at the corner of her mouth, then scooped up Golden Bean and Yuan Bao, placing them in their little nest, and quietly walked into the house alone.

She didn’t know why, but Jing Yuan suddenly felt that her house was unrealistically quiet, causing her an unprecedented sense of discomfort.

She tried hard to stop herself from overthinking and needed to do something to distract herself.

So, Jing Yuan went to the kitchen and looked at the fresh food she had bought.

“Bought too much,” Jing Yuan muttered to herself.

She didn’t particularly enjoy this food. As for why she bought so much, she was probably secretly hoping Xie Mianzhi would stay here for a while longer.

She had also asked Grandma Shen to deliver a large bag of blueberries, because she needed to squeeze fresh blueberry milk. Tonight, she would probably drink enough for two people.

Jing Yuan looked out the window. It seemed to be raining lightly again.

She wondered if Xie Mianzhi had arrived home yet. She should have arrived by now.

As the refrigerator door closed, Jing Yuan also forced herself to stop thinking about Xie Mianzhi.

After all, they were just passing acquaintances. Moreover, her current condition was not suitable for intimacy. That person would be afraid, just as Xie Mianzhi had said—

‘Perhaps we won’t meet again in the future.’

Thinking of this, a tiny bit of sadness seeped into Jing Yuan’s heart.

Because that statement was indeed a fact. She didn’t want any tangible things, and she certainly wouldn’t take the initiative to contact Miss Xie Mianzhi.

She started cleaning the house. She would restore every nook and cranny to the way it was when she lived alone.

She washed the extra glass cup and put it away high up, meticulously tidying every corner of the room.

The hand cream on the coffee table was a gift from Xie Mianzhi.

That person had said her hands were beautiful.

Beautiful?

Jing Yuan stared blankly, lifting her hands up to the light. She didn’t quite understand what the ‘hand model’ she was praised as looked like. Miss Xie Mianzhi always used such cutting-edge fashion vocabulary.

She touched the body of the hand cream bottle, finally daring to apply just a little bit to her hand, carefully sniffing it, just as Xie Mianzhi had prompted her to do before.

Jing Yuan didn’t want to use it up, so she placed the hand cream back in the box and cautiously put it away.

After a moment, she stood up and began tidying the sofa.

Just as she put the last cushion back in its place, she suddenly noticed a faint luminous glow flashing in the gap of the sofa.

Puzzled, she reached into the gap and pulled out a necklace that shimmered with a transparent, iridescent light.

An emerald necklace.

It was the necklace Xie Mianzhi was wearing before. How could it be here?

Jing Yuan immediately recalled the night before when Xie Mianzhi’s hair had caught on the clasp and she had helped to untangle it. She remembered clearly that she had returned the necklace to Xie Mianzhi then.

After that… Xie Mianzhi had slept on the sofa for a while.

So, the other party must have left the necklace here.

Such a valuable necklace was lost, and she didn’t even realize it?

Jing Yuan held the necklace, thought long and hard, and sighed helplessly.

**

It was night, and the lights were brilliant.

Xie Mianzhi didn’t go directly back to her own residence but came to the Grand Manor.

It was where her grandmother lived and the location for the family’s weekly “bonding” dinner.

She knew very well that she would face a condescending critique session, but going herself was better than being summoned and questioned by those old folks, as there were many in the family who wanted to see her fail.

“Oh, I didn’t expect all the elders to be here.”

As soon as Xie Mianzhi entered the main hall, she saw her dear uncle and aunt’s family sitting there, along with the project secretary under their command.

Her own father was absent.

Sure enough, her second uncle and aunt were trying to influence the grandmother again.

“You finally remembered to come back, Mianzhi,” the old woman sitting on the armchair coughed and immediately addressed her wayward granddaughter.

“Of course, Grandmother. I missed you so much that I came back to see you without even finishing my vacation. I haven’t even complained about you freezing all my bank cards,” Xie Mianzhi sat down on the sofa and delicately sipped the black tea presented by the maid.

Old Madam Xie immediately rapped her cane, pointing the blame elsewhere. “I didn’t freeze your bank cards. I don’t have the capability your father has.”

Tch, she’s the one who secretly ordered it, Xie Mianzhi rolled her eyes internally.

“Everyone was just so worried about you, Mianzhi. You didn’t even attend the Lu family’s dinner last time, and then you completely vanished for the past few days. It made us all especially anxious.”

The person who spoke up next was her aunt, a snobbish woman who had always tried to compete with her own daughter against Xie Mianzhi since childhood. She was also the driving force behind the nomination of her daughter, Xie Tongqi, as a candidate for the manager of the South District Trade Mall at tomorrow’s board meeting.

“Is that so? Auntie, you were worried about me too? Were you worried I wouldn’t come back, or that I would come back?” Xie Mianzhi tugged at her lip, looking at the woman who always wore a fake smile. She truly felt like vomiting.

She still remembered the time when this woman had held her underwater in the pool when she was a child.

However, no one had noticed then, and no one knew about it, because to outsiders, her uncle and aunt always appeared so kind.

Her mother passed away early, causing her to suddenly lose her voice for a period. Doctors diagnosed her with intermittent aphasia.

She had an older sister who took very good care of her, and her father, as the eldest son of the family, was constantly busy with the corporation. But her sister couldn’t be by her side every day, so during that time when she suffered from aphasia, she couldn’t make a sound even when her aunt held her underwater.

It wasn’t until a servant was about to come upstairs that her aunt finally let her go.

Afterward, her uncle and aunt would often buy her gifts as if nothing had happened, maintaining a superficial relationship.

That incident of being submerged in the pool became her lifelong shadow.

Everyone thought being born into such a prominent family was a blessing, but there was only endless deception and bl00d ties that wished for her downfall.

“Little Zhi, what are you saying? I was just trying to be kind. Wasn’t I trying to ease the relationship between you and Grandmother? We are all family,” her aunt quickly said, feigning distress.

“That’s right. Your auntie was so worried you wouldn’t return that she couldn’t sleep properly,” her uncle quickly chimed in in agreement.

Xie Mianzhi couldn’t be bothered to deal with the two of them. She handed the gift box, which Rong Cheng had passed to her from behind, to the Old Madam.

“A specialty from Misu Town, white truffles,” Xie Mianzhi explained casually.

Old Madam Xie immediately laughed upon receiving the gift. “Mianzhi is sensible after all, remembering to bring a gift for this old woman.”

“You went to Misu Town?” Her uncle, however, was clearly shocked, because the upcoming South District development project included Misu Town. How had Xie Mianzhi gotten there ahead of time?

“Yes, I stayed there for the past few days. The climate is pleasant, the local customs are simple, and it’s suitable for developing a resort.”

Clearly, her statement angered the two elders sitting opposite her. After bidding the Old Madam farewell, they left without a second glance.

After hearing the sound of the car engine driving away, Xie Mianzhi turned back to look at the Old Madam, who was still holding the box of white truffles, inspecting it up and down. The old woman knew exactly what was going on but was pretending to be ignorant.

“Grandmother, they’ve all left. You don’t need to admire it anymore,” Xie Mianzhi took a sip of tea and spoke abruptly.

The Old Madam took off her reading glasses and tapped Xie Mianzhi’s foot with her cane. Fortunately, Xie Mianzhi reacted quickly and dodged it.

“Look at you. You constantly butt heads with them. Now that your aunt knows you went ahead to inspect the South District project, won’t she hold a grudge against you?” The Old Madam was perceptive. She knew what her children were thinking, but they were all family. Even if she knew about certain things, as long as they weren’t too excessive, she could only pretend to be amiable on the surface.

Xie Mianzhi chuckled softly. She didn’t really care about the project manager position this time. Who was in charge of the project was irrelevant to her. It was just that some people always assumed she, Xie Mianzhi, wanted a piece of that small gain.

Besides, she didn’t even know the plan for developing a tourism resort in Misu Town was included in the project before she went there. It was just a coincidence that she had gone to check it out in advance.

But who would have thought that she hadn’t done much on-site inspection, instead spending her time at a woman’s house on a cliff?

Of course, there was no need to explain these things to others. She would just let them assume she was preparing in advance.

“They want to promote Tongqi. It’s just a nod from you. Just grant their family’s wish,” Xie Mianzhi was indifferent.

“You can mentor her on the surface, but such a major project can’t go through her hands,” the Old Madam slowly said. She was offering a compromise, but deep down, she valued Xie Mianzhi the most, both for her capability and leadership.

“I’ll probably lead her straight into a ditch, leaving her barely whole,” Xie Mianzhi scoffed. She hated the Old Madam’s peacemaker attitude.

“Look at you. You’re too sharp, and your words are so harsh. You need someone to temper your personality. You didn’t even go to the last dinner, leaving me to put on an old face and apologize to the Lu family.”

The Old Madam didn’t mind Xie Mianzhi talking to her like this in private. Among her grandchildren, Xie Mianzhi was her most spoiled, and she usually let her do as she pleased in everything.

Except for the matter of finding a partner. She was as stubborn as her father.

Putting on an old face to apologize? She’s just exaggerating.

“Does our Xie family need to intermarry with other families?” Xie Mianzhi retorted. She didn’t know what trick the Old Madam was pulling.

“It’s better if the strength is equal. At least it ensures my granddaughter’s wedding is grand and that she isn’t wronged.”

Xie Mianzhi knew her grandmother and father had good intentions, but she didn’t want her life controlled by anyone. “Grand weddings are for show. I only want to find someone I like.”

The Old Madam took a sip from her teacup and couldn’t help but smile at Xie Mianzhi’s answer. The child was exactly like her father.

“The key is that you don’t have anyone you like yet. That’s the difficulty.”

The grandmother pointed out the crux of the matter. Their Xie family ancestors were quite open-minded and not the type to oppose their children’s freedom to love. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have agreed to Mianzhi’s father marrying Shu Lan back then.

However, to this day, the Xie family’s cherished daughter had never had a romantic partner. What kind of person did little Mianzhi actually like?

“I’m dedicated to the family corporation, taking care of everything for you. Doesn’t that suit your intentions? Do you insist on me marrying out?” Xie Mianzhi raised her eyebrows. She helped herself to the plate of lychees the butler offered and stuffed them all into her mouth, leaving none for the Old Madam.

Ugh, this lychee doesn’t taste sweet. It’s not as delicious as the one from before.

Grandma Xie looked at her granddaughter’s ferocious eating manner and clicked her tongue.

And listen to what this child is saying! She was making it sound like she was forced to stay in the company, when she was clearly just an old maid with nothing else to do besides work.

“In the future, I’ll be an old maid, not Little Zhi. I’ll be Old Zhi,” the Old Madam scoffed. She was genuinely worried about Xie Mianzhi’s marriage.

What Little Zhi, Old Zhi? Why did these people’s versions of her name sound so unpleasant?

“Old Zhi it is. I’ll still be a wealthy old maid,” Xie Mianzhi retorted testily.

Old Madam Xie shook her head. She truly couldn’t win against her granddaughter’s sharp, poisonous tongue. Since the tough approach didn’t work, she tried the gentle one.

The Old Madam dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief and lowered her voice, expressing worry: “Actually, Grandma is just concerned about your life-long happiness. You’re this age already. I don’t know if I’ll live to see you settle down, alas.”

“So you arranged for me to marry that young master of the Lu family?” Xie Mianzhi countered. She wouldn’t be swayed by her grandmother’s exquisite false sentiment.

Old Madam Xie immediately shook her head. Lu Xiao, the only heir of the Lu family, had just returned from abroad. He was destined to inherit the Lu family’s cruise ship business, and his future was limitless.

As for why the marriage alliance came up, it was Lu Xiao’s father, a good friend of Mianzhi’s father, who had proposed it. Apparently, his son, Lu Xiao, had always been very fond of Xie Mianzhi.

“Mainly because he likes you very much,” Grandma Xie explained.

“Please, we only met when we were children. Where does ‘liking’ come from?” Xie Mianzhi quickly waved her hand. In her memory, Lu Xiao was a snot-nosed, spoiled little boy who came to her house to freeload food. She didn’t like him.

The Old Madam saw her granddaughter’s extreme aversion. The other party was completely locked into the rigid impression from her childhood. Maybe her attitude would change later.

But she was also curious about Xie Mianzhi’s feelings, so she simply asked, “Then what kind of person do you like? Grandma can help you look for someone.”

What kind of person does she like?

Xie Mianzhi looked at the empty plate of lychee peels and fell into silence.

A hazy figure slowly emerged in her mind—

A black-haired woman with pale skin.

Gently stroking her neck with immense tenderness.

The chilling touch that made her tremble.

Bright, golden, shining eyes.

Like a deep sea, a love potion.

…

She must be going crazy. Why was she associating that with…

Jing Yuan?