"Si Yanli!"
Hearing the familiar female voice, Si Yanli turned his head abruptly.
Seeing Tang Wu standing not far away, his phoenix eyes beneath his glasses contracted slightly.
A look of disbelief appeared in his eyes.
She hadn't left yet?
Si Yanli's legs reacted faster than his brain. In a few quick strides, he rushed up to her.
With his uninjured hand, he forcefully pulled her into his arms.
He rested his jaw on her shoulder. Even though he was holding her tangibly, he was still afraid that this was just a dream.
"You didn't leave. This isn't my hallucination?"
Tang Wu was held tightly in the man's embrace, squeezed so hard she could barely breathe.
She broke free from his arms. Seeing the red rims of his eyes, she felt a great shock in her heart. "I have ten minutes before I board."
Hearing that she was still going to leave, Si Yanli's heart sank once again.
Tang Wu looked at his tightly furrowed dark eyebrows. She raised a finger and gently smoothed the space between his brows. "Don't panic just yet. Listen to me. My mother has quite a few properties in Australia that she wants to transfer to me. I need to go back with her to understand and learn about them. It should take about a month to complete all the procedures. You stay in the country and focus on recovering. I will come back in a month."
Hearing her say this, Si Yanli's tense nerves relaxed slightly.
His long, slender hand tightly grasped hers. Just as he was about to say something, she shook him off.
"I only said I'm coming back, I didn't say I would be with you. Didn't you want to pursue me? I'll give you a chance to do so, but whether you can win me over will depend on your performance."
A smile appeared on Si Yanli's elegant and handsome face. "Alright, I will do my best."
Tang Wu nodded. "If anything comes up, we can contact each other by phone or WeChat. I really have to go now, otherwise I'll miss my flight. My mom is still waiting for me in the VIP lounge."
Si Yanli patted her head. "Have a safe trip. Send me a message when you arrive."
Tang Wu gave an OK gesture and quickly passed through security to leave.
Si Yanli didn't withdraw his gaze until her slender figure disappeared.
...
On the way back to the hospital, Old Master Si tagged him in the family group chat.
Old Master Si: "Third Brother, what's the situation? Did you manage to make Wuwu stay?"
Si Yanli: "She boarded the plane."
Old Master Si: "This old man really wants to stuff you down the toilet."
Si Yanli: "The toilet wouldn't be able to digest me."
Old Master Si: "You're so eloquent in front of me, why are you so useless in front of Wuwu? You half-mute good-for-nothing!"
Si Yanli: "I only said she boarded the plane, I didn't say she wasn't coming back. She will be back in a month."
Old Master Si: "You brat, why didn't you say so earlier? You made me worry for nothing. Are you intentionally trying to anger me!"
Old Master Si: "If you can't win Wuwu over in a month, don't call me grandfather anymore!"
After saying that, Old Master Si kicked Si Yanli out of the group chat.
...
During Tang Wu's month in Australia, Si Yanli sent her messages and called her almost every day.
This was a treatment she had never experienced before.
On the contrary, because she had just taken over her mother's businesses and had a lot to learn, she was sometimes too busy to pay attention to him.
When Si Yanli couldn't get a reply from her, he would go look at her WeChat Moments.
Then one day, she found over a hundred notifications for likes and comments on her Moments.
She clicked them open and saw that they were all likes and comments from Si Yanli.
For example, on an old photo of her eating hot pot with colleagues where she wore a slip dress, he commented: "The straps are too thin."
Another example: on a group photo from an alumni gathering where she was smiling brightly, he commented: "Your gums are showing."
Tang Wu scrolled through his comments and found that almost none of them were complimenting her.
And here she was, thinking about finishing things up here quickly so she could rush back to the country without stopping!
She directly left him a message on WeChat: "Si Yanli, you don't need to pursue me anymore. I'm cutting ties with you!"
Even if he was a completely clueless straight man, there was no need to talk about her like that!
The photos she posted on her Moments were all strictly filtered by her. Even if they weren't flawless, they definitely weren't that bad!
Yet he managed to pick out a flaw in every single one of them!
She was furious!
The man quickly initiated a video call with her.
Tang Wu rejected it immediately.
A moment later, he called again.
Tang Wu had no choice but to answer.
The man's elegant, aloof, and handsome face appeared on the screen.
Seeing that face, the anger in Tang Wu's chest dissipated by a third.
"Since I have so many flaws, why are you video calling me?"
Tang Wu had been busy lately and had lost some weight, making her facial features look even more delicate and three-dimensional.
When she was angry, the corners of her eyes lifted slightly, carrying a touch of bright and charming allure.
Si Yanli's phoenix eyes darkened as he looked at her. His pale, sharp Adam's apple bobbed, and he said in a low, husky voice, "I just want you to wear slip dresses and laugh out loud only for me to see."
Tang Wu, "..."
So, he deliberately left those comments because his possessiveness was acting up?
"Wuwu, how much longer until you come back?"
Tang Wu tilted her head and thought for a moment. "About ten days."
Si Yanli gave a low affirmative hum.
...
Tang Wu ran into Lin Qianxue in Australia.
The last time she publicly revealed what had happened to Si Yanli in the past, the Si family blacklisted her domestically.
Now Lin Qianxue couldn't return to the country to develop her career, suffering a significant setback.
When Tang Wu attended a wealthy man's birthday banquet with her mother, Lin Qianxue was playing the piano to perform for the wealthy family.
No one knew what the wealthy man had said to Lin Qianxue, but his wife stepped forward, slapped Lin Qianxue viciously, and called her a bitch for seducing her husband.
Tang Wu heard many noble ladies gossiping that Lin Qianxue had become a plaything for the rich in order to make money.
She had managed to become famous because she was very good at seducing men, often mingling among several men.
Tang Wu was greatly shocked.
After Lin Qianxue was slapped to the ground by the wealthy man's wife, she spotted Tang Wu among the crowd of noble ladies and socialites.
For a moment, Lin Qianxue thought her eyes were playing tricks on her and she had seen the wrong person.
Originally, she didn't think much of it, as she had long developed a thick skin.
But the fact that Tang Wu witnessed this scene made her feel even worse than being slapped.
Tang Wu neither mocked Lin Qianxue nor sympathized with her. Her expression was cold and indifferent, as if Lin Qianxue was just an insignificant clown.
Seeing her expression, Lin Qianxue's pupils contracted violently.
A surging sense of shame threatened to swallow her like a tidal wave.
Covering her face, she scrambled up from the ground and ran away in a wretched state.
"She thought I didn't know about her and my husband these past few years, yet she still dared to come to my house to play the piano. In her chat records with my husband, she shamelessly said that my husband doesn't like this old hag and that she wants to take my place. She's dreaming!"
Tang Wu wasn't interested in this gossip. After telling Zhou Liying, she left the villa first.
Just as she walked out, Lin Qianxue came over and stopped her. "Tang Wu, I have something to say to you."
