I Am The Third Party (GL) - Chapter 18

Seeing her smug look, a nameless fire rose in my heart, which grew stronger with the giggles of the two girls in her arms.

“The unlock code is 7844.” Qi Xi raised his head.

Was she serious about saying the code so straightforwardly?

I had a little doubt in my heart, but my finger quickly clicked on the four numbers without hesitation.

Entering the boot interface, there was a photo of Yan Sinan wearing a white ancient costume and holding an oil umbrella.

My heart ached again, but it was very short, pitifully short.

Because I understand who I am and what kind of feelings I have, I have always maintained a good balance between Qi Xi and Yan Sinan.

Grandpa said that the “degree” between people is very important, and too much is as bad as too little.

Sadness or joy, it’s over once it’s over.

“Xianyu, this is fate. I’m your grandfather, and you’re my granddaughter. It’s destiny, it’s fate.” Back in the courtyard of our old house, my grandfather would hold me in his arms, rocking back and forth on a rattan chair, stroking his beard with one hand and fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan with the other. “Meeting someone and being together is destiny. You want to be with them, you want to get close, but you’re afraid to get too close. You need to find a distance.”

So, how much distance is appropriate between Qi Xi and me?

I clicked on the camera and snapped a few photos of the bed, my eyes glued to the touchscreen, not wanting to stray even an inch from the erotic photos being zoomed in on.

I couldn’t believe such shameless people existed.

Doesn’t she feel suffocated by the dirtiness of living in society with such a bohemian facade?

She indulges in sensual pleasures, yet never takes the slightest care of her true heart. Doesn’t she feel exhausted and cry?

“Isn’t it beautiful? If you don’t get out of here, I’ll send them to Yan Sinan right away.” I pulled up the photos and held them before Qi Xi, saying coldly.

Qi Xi looked up, and the cold gaze I’d tried so hard to disguise suddenly met her bottomless eyes, momentarily disorienting me.

“Coward,” she snatched the phone from my hand. Right in front of me, she opened Yan Sinan’s text messaging screen from the contacts menu and sent him all the photos I’d just taken, all in one MMS. The whole process was incredibly smooth, without a moment’s hesitation.

I blinked, looking at her with mixed feelings.

She grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer, then shoved the phone back into my hand, resting her head on the cushions. “Look at what she said, read it to me.”

Wasn’t she afraid of Yan Sinan’s anger?

Did she feel she’d done her fiancée justice?

Wasn’t she

even a little ashamed? What was going on between them?

Could it be… My heart tightened. Could it be that Qi Xi had already done this more than once?

The phone suddenly vibrated, and the screen lit up, indicating a new message.

I quickly clicked on it.

Sender: Sinan.

Message: It’s no use sending me more photos like this, Qi Xi. I know you’re trying to provoke me and make me jealous, but I have my own difficulties and boundaries. Can you please stop bullying me?

This is… the reaction of a fiancée to seeing erotic photos of her lover in bed with another woman?

Yan Sinan said that sending more of these photos would be useless.

Sending these photos was just to provoke her and make her jealous.

She loved Qi Xi, so why didn’t she immediately catch him in the act, point fingers at Qi Xi and scold her?

Why didn’t she call and ask why he did this, why he betrayed her?

I was a little confused, a little overwhelmed.

More than anything, I was speechless and filled with unspeakable sorrow. I felt sad for Qi Xi and Yan Sinan.

I suddenly understood Qi Xi’s intentions.

Qi Xi was just a brat, a little brat who never grew up.

She wanted Yan Sinan to notice her, to care about her, to be as stubborn with her as she was with Yan Sinan.

But Yan Sinan didn’t. She treated Qi Xi with perfunctory and deceitful attitude, not taking him seriously at all.

So Qi Xi started crying and throwing tantrums like crazy, trying to attract Yan Sinan’s attention through such exaggerated and violent words and deeds, even though the results were minimal, until in the end there was no effect at all.

A person’s image needs a lot of effort and care to maintain, and it will collapse if you are not careful. Some

are still good if they are broken into pieces, but some are simply smashed into slag, and 502 can’t be glued together.

Qi Xi is a jaguar in front of me, but she is a kitten in front of Yan Sinan.

Qi Xi, just like Yan Sinan, you have slept with countless people, and she sent you away with a sentence that she had her own difficulties. How cheap are the three words “I love you”?

Does Yan Sinan love Qi Xi like that?

Does Qi Xi love Yan Sinan like that?

I don’t understand.

But I don’t think the love in my heart is like this.

“You’re such a bullshit!” I yelled, grabbing the phone, took off my shoes, stepped onto the bed, rushed over to pull Qi Xi’s hair, and slammed the phone into her face with a crisp sound. The two girls screamed, grabbed the wrinkled clothes under the bed, wrapped them up, and ran to the door.

I was in no mood to tell them to get out. “Your fiancée really loves you, and you two are so in love. You two perverts, a pervert with a pervert, a perfect match!”

“Qiao Xianyu, what are you crazy about!” Qi Xi sat up straight and reached out to grab my flailing arms. In two or three strokes, he put my arms behind my back, bent his knees and pressed them against my lower abdomen, which hurt so much that I grimaced.

“You’re having so much fun with other girls, and she doesn’t even look at you. She doesn’t cry or make a fuss. How can she say she loves you? How can she not care about you messing around outside? She is your fiancée, why should she not care about you? Your notebook is full of her name, your phone is full of her photos, and you call her name in your sleep. Why doesn’t she come to see you? She never came to see you when you were hurt! You don’t eat well or pay attention to your eating habits, you get stomachaches but you don’t say anything, you just frown, and she has never cooked a meal for you! She likes classical culture and likes to drink tea, but you study the tea ceremony seriously, and your bookcase is full of books about tea, but she has never flipped through those books or looked at your notes! You are such a sleepless person, but you got up early in the morning to see her for her exhibition, and she didn’t accompany you properly, leaving you to go home alone and sad at night! Why doesn’t she come to see you, why doesn’t she come to accompany you, she-“

“She said she loves me.” Before I could even think, I was pulled into Qi Xi’s warm embrace. He raised his hand and patted my back, gently, one after another. “Did you sneak through my bookshelf?”

I froze, my heart racing like a roller coaster in Happy Valley. It had been soaring through the air a moment ago, but now it was freefall, shattering to pieces on the ground. My nose twitched, and I fumbled across the bed, grabbing the crumpled blanket and pulling it towards me. The awkward position made it a bit difficult, but I persisted, pulling the blanket over bit by bit, and struggling to cover Qi Xi.

“The air conditioner isn’t on, what if you catch a cold? I was the one making the ginger soup, not you. Are you trying to cause me trouble?”

Qi Xi took a deep breath in my ear, pulled the blanket over me, and hugged me tightly, whispering, “Then don’t be bothered, okay?”

I took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling. How could I have met such an idiot?

At this time, the two girls at the door shouted with a smile, “Sister Xi, it seems that the matter is over. Then we can take the money and leave.”

I froze, craning my neck to look at them, my face flushing, though I didn’t know why I had to blush…

Qi Xi just smiled, fished out a large wad of red bills tied with string from under his pillow, and tossed them to them.

The two girls blew her a kiss, pocketed the money, and left.

I rubbed my nose guiltily and mumbled, “You go to bed. I, I, I’m going to the sofa.”

“Little fairy,”

I turned back. “Hmm?”

“You’ll sleep with me tonight.”

I jumped, startled. “You’re coming?”

Qi Xi was startled at first, then smiled. “It’s just lying down to sleep. What are you thinking?”

I turned and fled to the bathroom. “I, I, I’m going to shower.”

————————————————–

A few days later, my savior, my signature cash cow—Xiao Xuewu—finally arrived at the new shop.

As the owner, I was overjoyed and cried tears of joy. I held her hand and chatted for a long time.

As I expected, she stopped by the bar and attracted many repeat customers.

So, while good products are important in business, so is a good image, isn’t it?

After Xiao Xuewu arrived, she served waiters and mixed drinks at the bar. I was idle in the workshop, occasionally helping out, which made my days much more relaxed.

In my free time, I chatted with Yuzai and Xiaoyu and the others; it was quite fun.

The annoying thing was that ever since Sun Minrui learned Xiao Xuewu had started at the new store,

he’d been coming in every other day, clinging to the bar like a fly and impossible to swat away. Only someone as good-natured as Xiao Xuewu could tolerate him, listening with a smile to his every “heartfelt word,” occasionally responding with a comment or two.

Everyone was listless at noon, and I, bored, slumped over the table, hooking my toes at Qi Xi’s calf. “Hey, tell me, is Sun Minrui annoying? Xuewu doesn’t like him at all, and he still has the nerve to cling to me.”

Qi Xixue followed me and slumped over the table. We sat opposite each other, each taking half, which perfectly divided the entire table.

“Oh. I see. You’re implying that someone doesn’t like me at all, and I’m still clinging on, and that person’s really upset, right?”

I choked on her words and changed the subject. “Look, look, he’s coming up again. Damn, that smile, so lewd! Look, look! Oh my dear Xuewu, just hide away! Why are you smiling at someone like that?”

Qi Xi, giving me face, turned his head to look at the two people at the bar.

Sun Minrui was perched on a bar stool, grinning and vividly describing something to Xiao Xuewu. Xiao Xuewu listened attentively with a polite smile, occasionally retorting. On the surface, they seemed like a perfect match, a talented man and a beautiful woman.

If you ignored Sun Minrui’s hypocritical character and the coldness in Xiao Xuewu’s eyes.

After a short silence, Qi Xi suddenly spoke and asked in a low voice, “How long have you known each other, Xiao what?”

I thought about it and answered, “More than half a year. The girl who worked for me quit at that time, and I was recruiting, so she came.”

“More than half a year?”

“Yeah.” I looked up at her, “Yes.”

Qi Xi frowned slightly, “Have you seen her at USTC before?”

“No, never. She is not a student of USTC, and she has never appeared nearby. I studied at USTC for four years, and after graduation I did business there for three years. I am very familiar with the surroundings, and I basically know everyone there, but I have never seen her.”

Seeing that Qi Xi did not move, I was a little worried and touched her hand, “What’s wrong?”

Qi Xi glanced at Xiao Xuewu at the bar again. This glance revealed the coldness of the bottom of a frozen lake in the twelfth lunar month from the inside out, which startled me.

She asked, “Is she mixed-race? Foreign, right? Which country?”

I sighed, “I asked, but she didn’t answer me. She didn’t say yes, nor did she say no.”

“She must be.”

Qi Xi’s tone was very resolute, even with some anger.

I was stunned. I didn’t expect her to react so strongly. “She often listens to some foreign songs. I don’t understand. They’re not English.”

“Next time you ask her the title of a song, check which country it is from.”

“Oh.”

Qi Xi asked again, “What did you say her name is?”

“Xiao Xuewu.”

“How do you write it?”

I asked Xiaoyu to go to the storage room to get paper and pen. I took the gel pen and wrote the three words Xiao Xuewu on the soft copybook and handed it to Qi Xi to see. Qi Xi frowned again, “Why did you choose such a name? Why didn’t you choose a good one? You used the desolate ‘Wu’.”

“I asked, she said it wasn’t given by her parents, but she called herself that. Isn’t it amazing? She’s like she suddenly appeared out of the ground. There’s a fog everywhere and you can’t see clearly.”

“She called herself that. Doesn’t she have parents?”

“Shh—” I grabbed her hand, glanced over at the bar, and leaned over to whisper, “Keep your voice down. She told me she’s the only one left at home, her grandmother and her own.”

Qi Xi was silent for a moment, then pulled out his phone and dialed a number. He first called out “Wang Zi,” asked a few words, then gave Xiao Xuewu’s name and said, “Find out about this person for me.”

After the call, Qi Xi lowered her eyes and remained silent for a moment, not knowing what she was thinking. I watched for a moment and couldn’t help but wave my hand in front of her eyes. “What’s the matter?”

“Little fairy, don’t get too close to Xiao Xuewu,”

Qi Xi said, his expression quite serious.

“Oh,” I nodded obediently.

Although I didn’t know why Qi Xi said this, I chose to believe her unconditionally.