The reason for the surprise was that although these two were walking hand in hand, their interaction wasn’t as intimate as Jiang Si had imagined.
Chi Heng’s expression was also quite peculiar.
How to put it? It was obvious that he felt very uncomfortable.
Yet he wasn’t entirely resistant either.
Faced with Jiang Si’s undisguised confusion, Chris firmly declared, “Yes, we’re together!”
Chi Heng remained silent, nodding slightly in agreement.
This was a story they had agreed upon days earlier.
No matter who asked, this would be their answer.
“Congratulations, then.” Jiang Si suppressed the strange feeling in her heart and didn’t press further.
However, Chris couldn’t shake her guilt. A few days later, when Jiang Si came to the embassy district to check on the construction progress, Chris seized the opportunity to invite her into her office.
As soon as the door closed, Chris confessed.
“I’m sorry, I actually lied to you that day.”
Her expression was complicated as she brought it up.
Jiang Si hadn’t planned to ask about it, but seeing Chris’s eagerness to confide, she played along.
“What’s going on?”
Why was the word “lie” even involved?
“We’re not actually together.” Chris took a deep breath. “In short, we’re just in a cooperative relationship now.”
“Cooperative?” Jiang Si had considered many possibilities but never expected this.
“Yes, I proposed it. He disagreed at first, but I eventually persuaded him.”
After a pause, Chris turned around. “Did you know his mother used to abuse him?”
Jiang Si pressed her lips together, not responding immediately.
The scars on Chi Heng’s back were clearly old wounds.
This had been confirmed by the doctor during her first visit to the hospital to see him.
Seeing her expression, Chris realized Jiang Si already knew.
But she hadn’t.
As if opening a floodgate of memories, Chris continued, “When I first met him, he was constantly sick—missing school at least a dozen times a semester. Before that day, I always thought it was just his asthma making him so frail.”
Jiang Si listened quietly. They say love begins with pity.
The sorrow in Chris’s eyes was almost overflowing as she spoke.
It was clear how deeply she was entangled in this relationship.
“So, that’s why you proposed this cooperation?”
“Yes.” Chris nodded. “If we didn’t, his body might not hold out until he returns to Gaul.”
“His injuries…”
“His wounds aren’t healing as quickly as before.”
Jiang Si knew Chi’s mother was ruthless—after all, she had no qualms about harming her only son.
But she hadn’t expected her to keep tormenting him even now.
“What happened that day?” Jiang Si asked.
Even if she hadn’t, Chris would have told her.
Chi’s mother had long known about Chris’s feelings for him.
She also coveted the influence of Chris’s family in Gaul.
So, half a month ago, she formally proposed an alliance between the two families.
The rest didn’t need explaining—Jiang Si understood.
Chi Heng had obviously refused the arrangement.
Enraged, Chi’s mother retaliated.
In truth, Chi Heng had no more weaknesses after Qin Grandfather and Qin Grandmother passed away.
He was fully capable of breaking free now.
But to dismantle the forces behind his mother, he had to endure.
This meant that as long as he resisted, he would suffer inhuman torment.
“His mother is a very domineering woman.” Chris went on. “Every time she hurts him, she uses the best medicine to prevent infection, only to repeat the cycle once he recovers.”
Even if she didn’t hurt him directly, she’d target what he cared about.
Facing Jiang Si, Chris was candid. “I know who matters most to him.”
This was the bargaining chip that convinced Chi Heng.
Otherwise, he would never have agreed.
Jiang Si was momentarily stunned, then shook her head. “Not necessarily.”
Times change, and so do many things—especially emotions.
Those involved are often blind, while outsiders see clearly.
Jiang Si knew very well that Chi Heng’s attachment might not be to her.
She just happened to appear during the freest, happiest, and most carefree period of his life.
That was why he couldn’t let go of those memories—and the person in them.
“Really?” This was the first time Chris had heard such an interpretation.
So shocked that she forgot the cup in her hand held coffee, she gulped it all down in one go.
The bitterness twisted her face into a pained grimace.
Jiang Si quickly handed her a tissue from her bag. “Take it slow.”
Chris wiped her mouth, recovering before looking at her seriously. “You really think so?”
“You know me—I say what I think.” Jiang Si smiled.
Chris thought about it and nodded.
With just the two of them in the office, there was no need for shyness.
If she were truly reserved, she wouldn’t have made such a bold declaration in front of Uncle Da that day.
It was practically a marriage proposal.
But to be fair, that wasn’t her original intention.
“Then what was?” Jiang Si asked, noticing Chris’s growing grin.
“What I meant to say was, ‘I can help him.’”
But at the last moment, Chris changed it to: “Let’s get married!”
Jiang Si immediately gave a thumbs-up.
Recalling the telegram she’d once sent Huo Tingzhou, she couldn’t help laughing. “No wonder we hit it off despite our clashes.”
Their blunt approaches were strikingly similar.
“I dared to do it because of you,” Chris said.
Now Jiang Si was genuinely curious. “How is this my doing?”
They’d shared many meals lately, but she’d never played matchmaker—let alone advised Chris to propose.
“Of course it is.” Chris pointed to the book of proverbs on her desk.
Jiang Si had helped her find it.
Lately, Chris had been studying it whenever she had time, marking passages she didn’t understand to ask Jiang Si later.
There were plenty of Chinese staff in the embassy district, but their explanations never quite resonated with her.
Take the saying, “A forced melon isn’t sweet.”
She didn’t see how romance had anything to do with melons.
They all said it meant that things gained through coercion rarely end well.
But Jiang Si had said, “Who cares if it’s sweet? Take a bite and find out. What if it suits your taste?”
Better than hopping around the melon patch helplessly.
Or the one about “A good horse doesn’t turn back for old grass.”
She knew the meaning behind these words was that one shouldn’t cling to the past—people ought to look forward instead.
But Jiang Si offered a completely different answer.
She said, “Whether you turn back or not is your choice. There’s no shame in going back to an old flame, as long as that person truly cares for you. If they don’t, just move on and find another.”
The key is, don’t let the label of being a ‘noble steed’ tie you down.
