From where Qiao Xingchu stood, he could only see Wen Tingli’s profile—the most heart-stirring beautiful line he’d ever seen.
He couldn’t help but speak. “Tingli.”
Mindful that Wen Desheng was right downstairs, he didn’t bother closing the door, walking straight up behind Wen Tingli.
“I’m sorry… my mother shouldn’t have humiliated you like that last night. I apologize on her behalf.”
Wen Tingli, wronged, began to sob. She’d always had the gift of fake crying, but now, genuinely heartbroken, and worried besides about her future with him, her crying carried an added weight of sorrow.
Qiao Xingchu moved to her side and looked down at her, watching the crystalline tears fall in an unbroken line, his heart aching with both pain and guilt. He took out a handkerchief and gently wiped her tears.
Wen Tingli turned her head away.
Qiao Xingchu had no choice but to clutch the damp handkerchief in his own hand.
“There’s something I want to say to you.” He said only that much, then fell into a long silence again.
Wen Tingli felt as though she’d waited an entire year, yet still no continuation came from Qiao Xingchu.
Unable to help herself, she glanced at him through her tears, only to find his expression strange. He seemed to be struggling fiercely within himself—bitterness, regret… even a trace of embarrassment.
She’d never seen such a complicated look on Qiao Xingchu’s face before—that weariness looked as though he’d just come through a desperate battle.
Finally, Qiao Xingchu seemed to have gathered his thoughts, and met Wen Tingli’s gaze directly. “I was shocked too, hearing about this last night. Don’t cry… My mother’s head is full of old-fashioned thinking. She was afraid I’d try to cover it up for you, so she didn’t alert me at first—instead she used her connections in Nanjing overnight to investigate your mother’s past. Once she’d confirmed everything, she went straight to my grandfather before I even knew what was happening. She caught me completely off guard. Right now the bigger problem isn’t her—it’s my grandfather.”
He let his shoulders droop wearily. “My grandfather is extremely stubborn. No matter how I explain it, he’s convinced that you and your father deceived me deliberately from the very start.”
Wen Tingli was shaken. “I didn’t!”
“Of course I know you didn’t. After all this time together, don’t you think I know your character?” Qiao Xingchu reached up to touch Wen Tingli’s head, forcing a smile. “But… it’s true that Auntie was once a courtesan.”
Tears welled in Wen Tingli’s eyes. “So you look down on her too? This isn’t her fault—if anyone’s to blame, it’s this unjust society—”
Qiao Xingchu fell silent for a moment, then said with a kind of restrained tact, “Auntie is Auntie, and you are you. I understand what hardship she must have endured back then, but the one I love is only you.”
Wen Tingli’s heart gave a start—Qiao Xingchu had received a modern, higher education, and by rights should be more open-minded about such things than most, yet he seemed unable to fully accept it after all…
No—everyone had their own standpoint, and she was willing to understand and respect his position. Only, if this was how he viewed her mother, then perhaps the two of them had no way forward together after all.
Seeing her stubbornly silent, Qiao Xingchu felt a pang of tenderness stir in his heart. “Tingli, you know how much I love you…”
She didn’t respond. He sighed wearily and retreated to sit in a nearby chair, eyes lowered to the floor. “Last night my grandfather made his position clear—he said he’ll never agree to you and me being together, not just because of Auntie, but because he’s already arranged a marriage for me.”
Wen Tingli was startled. Qiao Xingchu gave a self-mocking twist of his lips. “Ever since my father took over the family business, several of our factories have run into trouble. With our main capital cut off, at least half our cotton mills are looking at closure. To help drum up some support for my father, my grandfather used the excuse of his birthday to invite Shanghai’s elite—fortunately, he still commands some respect, and even managed to bring in the Lu family last night. And there’s something else—you’ve already met Bai Liyun.”
He lowered his head, ashamed.
The Bai family and the Qiao family were old friends. Since he and Bai Liyun had been born on the same day, the same month, in the same year, the elders of both families had half-jokingly arranged a childhood betrothal between him and Bai Liyun back then. But with more progressive social attitudes lately, he and Bai Liyun hadn’t really taken it seriously.
Earlier this year, the Bai family’s foreign cigarette factory had run into severe trouble due to aggressive dumping by foreign merchants. During that time, the Bai family had sought help from the Qiao family, and his grandfather had brought up the old marriage arrangement between the two families—the Bai family had many connections among cotton-yarn material suppliers in Jiangsu, which could help the Qiao family secure quality raw materials at lower prices, while the Qiao family owned a well-located plot of land in the city, well-suited for the Bai family’s factory and storefront.
If the two families helped each other, they could surely weather the crisis together.
Once his grandfather had brought this up, the Bai family had readily agreed as well. Last night, at his grandfather’s birthday celebration, the elders of both families had intended to formally inform him and Bai Liyun of the arrangement—only for him to bring home Wen Tingli without warning.
He’d openly defied his grandfather and father in the study on the spot, and his grandfather, enraged, had suffered a chest pain attack, forcing him to back down for the moment.
He’d meant to let things cool before broaching it again, but then his grandfather had learned about Wen Tingli’s mother’s past, and his opposition had only grown fiercer—he’d had a lawyer come to the house that very night to draft an agreement: unless Qiao Xingchu married Bai Liyun immediately, he would be stripped of his inheritance rights at once, and furthermore, no one in the eldest branch of the family would ever inherit a single cent from him going forward—they were to move out of the Qiao household immediately, and never again involve themselves in the family business.
Because of his father’s failed investments, the elders of the second and third branches had long harbored resentment toward the eldest branch, frequently stirring up trouble in front of his grandfather—this incident had simply given them all an excuse to erupt at once.
His mother, both frightened and furious, had pulled him aside. “Do you see now? All because of this Wen Tingli, are you determined to drive your own father to his death? And what about your sister—if you cost her a share of the family fortune too, won’t you feel any shame as her brother?!”
Hearing all this, Wen Tingli’s heart had already turned half to ice. Qiao Xingchu, having finished his account, sat there lost in a daze. If it were only a matter of losing his inheritance, he wouldn’t hesitate to leave the Qiao family—but how could he bear to drag his parents and sister down with him? At the thought, he wiped his face with a resolute motion and stood abruptly, walking over to stand before Wen Tingli.
“So you’ve come today to say goodbye to me?” Wen Tingli asked, her face pale.
Qiao Xingchu gazed at Wen Tingli with unusual longing, as if ten thousand arrows had pierced his heart. He made up his mind quickly, took out a document from inside his coat, and knelt halfway before her. “Tingli, give me one year, please? I don’t love Bai Liyun—this marriage is nothing but a transaction of interests. Once both families have weathered this crisis, I’ll divorce her. I’ve already opened two wineries in Hong Kong under a friend’s name—in a year that’ll be enough for me to establish my own independent footing. By then I’ll finalize the divorce with Bai Liyun and bring you to Hong Kong—we’ll hold our wedding there.”
Wen Tingli stared at the document in Qiao Xingchu’s hand—it was a company registration, the factory site in Kowloon, Hong Kong, with Qiao Xingchu himself listed as the legal representative. Her mind reeled, and she looked at him in disbelief. “You mean, marry Bai Liyun first, and have me… wait for you?”
Qiao Xingchu lowered his head, his voice hoarse. “There’s no better way right now.”
“Does Bai Liyun know about your plan?” Wen Tingli asked blankly. “Does she know you intend to divorce her a year from now?”
Qiao Xingchu said nothing.
So she didn’t know, then. Wen Tingli continued staring blankly at him, but her gaze changed instantly, as though looking at a stranger.
Qiao Xingchu flinched at that look. “Tingli, don’t look at me like that. She may not even love me either—the Bai family is in deep trouble, and only a marriage alliance with the Qiao family can put both families at ease enough to cooperate. Bai Liyun herself understands this perfectly well.”
“Then why don’t you just tell her your plan directly?” Wen Tingli thought back to the way Bai Liyun had looked at Qiao Xingchu the night before, and nodded as if realizing something. “You know she has feelings for you, don’t you? This marriage might be nothing but a transaction to you, but clearly it means something more to her—have you ever thought about how unfair that is to her? And besides…”
She spoke with bitter mockery. “What does that make me? You’ll already be a married man, yet you want me to keep loving you in secret—are you asking me to be your mistress?”
“Don’t say that about yourself!”
“Who’s the one degrading me, exactly?” Wen Tingli pressed on without pause. “You’ll be Bai Liyun’s husband, and I’ll be the one who can’t see the light of day—from then on I can only watch the two of you from the shadows, and every single time we meet, it’ll be a violation of decency. If we’re ever caught by accident, do you have any idea what kind of shame I’d carry?”
Qiao Xingchu cut her off. “But what other choice do I have!”
Wen Tingli froze in shock.
“I promise you, I won’t see you privately for this whole year—just bear with it for one year, only one! After a year, you and I will be legitimate, lawful. You won’t have wrecked our marriage, and I won’t have betrayed my wife.”
As he said this, Wen Tingli kept shaking her head through her tears. Even if he’d simply asked to break up with her outright, she wouldn’t have felt this hurt and disappointed.
“This is betrayal! No matter your reasons for marrying Bai Liyun, your heart should belong to her alone from that point on. All you’re thinking about is freeing yourself a year from now—have you ever considered what filing for divorce would do to her? What if she gets pregnant during that time—would you abandon your own child too? Or what if, in the end, you can’t bear to leave your family after all—will you come back and tell me not to wait for you anymore? Qiao Xingchu, you’re so selfish—from beginning to end, you’ve only thought of yourself!”
Qiao Xingchu’s expression darkened further. “Tingli.”
Wen Tingli pulled her arm from his grasp without the slightest hesitation.
“Go! I could never harm another innocent woman for my own selfish gain—whatever bond we had is broken!”
She turned her back on him decisively.
Qiao Xingchu stood there, staring fixedly at her.