Chapter Eighty-Eight: Ill? A Weak Kidney!

“Mackie, don’t you dare mess around behind my back. Careful, or I’ll ruin you.”

From behind her, Shen Yanlie’s cold, razor-edged voice rang out abruptly, as domineering as ever, bold and arrogant, as if he held her entire being in contempt.

Mackie pouted, thinking hard for a moment, then decisively arched a brow and lifted her chin.

“Shen Yanlie, if you still dare to leave now and go see someone else, tomorrow I’ll go and level the place, and wipe out that person’s entire family.”

Hearing the footsteps fading farther and farther away, Shen Yanlie pushed himself up from the floor, braced an elbow on the sofa, rolled over, and with a languid motion flung himself onto it.

At her words, Mackie suddenly came to a halt. The sound of her footsteps cut off at once.

A faint, wicked curve touched Shen Yanlie’s lips, though it was not especially obvious.

“Scum,” Mackie said hurriedly, assigning him his label. But in her world, that word had long since belonged to Shen Yanlie. She did not mind saying it to his face. After all, he had always been this way.

Fine. Fine. Let it be. At worst, she would make up for it properly afterward. Right now, though, she had to hurry to Ye Muyan. She wanted news. News about Chen Xuemin.

“Hey, Mackie. You dare abandon me? ... I’ll be angry, you know. And once I’m angry, the consequences are serious.”

Shen Yanlie lifted a hand to his forehead and tapped it lightly again and again. He had not slept properly for three days. Especially with that damned weather in London, and then Mexico after that. It had truly worn him to the bone. There had not been a single place blessed with clear skies.

Yet somehow, as though the weather were speaking for his mood, the rain had fallen in endless succession. The great cities had all been the same. Only after he returned to his homeland, and then came back to this city, did he finally see blue sky.

Perhaps it was because she was in this city that the skies had cleared.

Ahem. Mackie deliberately cleared her throat. Shen Yanlie, keep up the act if you want. This young lady is not paying you any mind. Let’s see how arrogant you can be then.

Downstairs.

Yuwen Si was in a foul mood. He clicked his tongue several times, angrily biting into an apple. Hearing movement at the stairway, he immediately turned and fixed his gaze on Mackie.

Mackie lifted her brows slightly, deliberately tugged the hem of her blouse downward, and lowered it a little, as if to bolster her courage. “Um... Yuwen Si, Shen Yanlie seems to be ill. Could you keep an eye on him? I have something to do and need to go out for a while.”

“Ill? ... How could that be? He was like a wolf just now. How could he suddenly be sick? You’re joking, right?” Yuwen Si clearly did not believe her. He shook his head again and again, kept the apple in his mouth, flipped through a newspaper, and then lowered it again.

After a pause, he said, “Even if he really is sick, it’s probably just weakness in the kidneys.”

At first Mackie had not replied to Yuwen Si, too focused on other matters. She had already begun to move, but now she found herself unable to lift even a single step. She turned back, her gaze slightly annoyed, but Yuwen Si seemed not to notice anything at all, as though his remark had been nothing more than an offhand comment.

Very well. Then this was called getting what he deserved. If even Yuwen Si did not believe it, then she might as well treat Shen Yanlie as though he were only fooling around and let it go. Given that, Mackie thought and thought again, then resumed walking, crossing the hall and heading for the door.

Only... this door was truly strange. How was it that now, with just a casual pull, it opened at once? Good heavens, what had she been doing just moments ago, unable to open it no matter what?

Mackie found it both amusing and baffling. Could this door possibly recognize people, sometimes clear-headed, sometimes muddled? Fine, she would not argue. She had to hurry and find Ye Muyan to see what new information he had brought her.

The young man named Ye Muyan was sitting alone in silence by the river. Autumn wind swept over him, carrying a touch of cold. He turned back to glance at the neon behind him, the city lights blazing brightly. He crushed the empty can in his hand with force. With a sudden metallic crack, the can was instantly mangled beyond recognition.

The strands of hair at Mackie’s forehead were whipped about by the wind. The loose black hair on either side flew on one side, while on the other it clung to her cheek, enamored of her fair skin and equally enamored of her vermilion lips.

She ran all the way, searching for that figure along the poorly lit edge of the coast.

When Ye Muyan turned his head again, he saw her arrive exactly as promised. He had never thought there could be someone so punctual, someone who would appear precisely at the time he had expected—and that person was her.

Mackie was slightly out of breath. “This time... I don’t think I was late...” she said between gasps at last. She pressed both hands to her chest, trying to steady herself as her breathing rose and fell.

Ye Muyan could not help laughing. He looked at her, his gaze deep, and in a brief span of time carefully appraised her from head to toe.

When Mackie noticed his stare, Ye Muyan made no effort to avoid it, as though it were perfectly natural. She swallowed her dry throat and glanced down at herself. “Is there something strange about what I’m wearing?”

What did he mean by looking at her like that? And besides, she had made sure her appearance was in order before leaving. There should not be any problem. Yet once she thought of it, she could not help but hurriedly run through everything in her mind once more.

Shen Yanlie, that inferior man. On the surface he was cold and calculating, but in truth he was brooding, possessive, and overbearing. In public, one could always see his polished appearance, his impeccable speech and manners, the powerful force behind him, and that handsome, seductive face as expressionless as an iceberg. It would have been impossible for him not to attract attention.

But lately Mackie had increasingly come to realize that one side of Shen Yanlie was inclined toward a cold and ruthless possessiveness. He could act with absolute willfulness and do as he pleased, and with just a soft parting of his lips he could announce that he intended to claim her for himself.

But how could that be possible? If Shen Yanlie did not belong wholly to her, Mackie would never be foolish enough to give him her whole heart and soul without leaving herself even the slightest way back.

So this was a contest.

And yet, when Shen Yanlie wore her apron and cooked a meal waiting for her, appearing at her doorstep to welcome her home, at that moment she lost all caution. She allowed everything that seemed so natural, so right, to assail her without defense.

As if in that instant the dark and sunless walls had all collapsed at once. Two lonely hearts that had been solitary for so many years suddenly drew toward one another, carrying a warmth and heat that filled every inch of the heart completely.

She had sworn that as long as he needed her, she would do everything for him without complaint, let him have his way, stay by his side—even if it meant going to hell, so long as he was there.

But the appearance of Xie Yunting shattered the oath she had quietly made. She had only just been pointed at and abused by that brazen mistress, and she could not possibly become the mistress herself. Nor did she want to... yet she was still unable to resist him...

“My mood is awful. I wanted to find you to have a drink and talk. But I don’t know whether you’d be willing to listen to me,” Ye Muyan said, stating his purpose.

When he called, he had not told Mackie what it was about. And the reason he was being so candid now was simply this: if she did not want to stay, she could leave at any time. He did not mind.

But he hoped she would remain here with him. Otherwise, he would not have called only her.

When Mackie finally saw clearly that the person before her was Ye Muyan, not Shen Yanlie, she hastily averted her eyes, then drew her thoughts back into line. With a smile, she looked at him and said, “Of course. I’m all ears.”

Ye Muyan suddenly broke into a smile like a child’s and reached out his hand. Mackie hesitated for a moment, but still placed her hand in his. Supported by his strength, she sat down on the edge of the railing, her legs hanging naturally over the side. A fine, faint breeze brushed her ears, while before her the deep sea surged and rolled. The water’s surface shimmered with wave after wave of ripples.

“Mackie. Little Mackie. Junjun. May I call you that?” Ye Muyan asked, tilting his head slightly to look at Mackie’s profile, especially lovely beneath the dim yellow light.

Mackie nodded, her gaze fixed on the far shore. She did not know whether there were thoughts on the other side of the sea.

Ye Muyan withdrew his gaze and looked out into the distance. “Tomorrow I’m getting engaged. But I don’t feel happy at all. I can’t even explain why I’m not happy, why I’m not joyful. I don’t want to refuse, and I don’t want to go along with it either. But I still can’t stop myself from being troubled.”

His voice was neither light nor heavy, as though he were merely speaking of his own private feelings, yet his tone made it sound as if he were talking about something entirely inconsequential. But Mackie knew: the calmer one sounded, the more deeply one was suppressing everything—just as she herself had once done.

Xue Lizan had betrayed her. If not for He Jingjing’s reckless provocation, if not for her own finally reaching the end of her patience and preparing to fight back, she would by now have truly collapsed beyond recovery. The real her was not nearly as brave or unbreakable as she appeared.

If, after a breakup, everything around her had continued as usual, as though nothing had happened, she would have perished quietly in a world of her own solitude.

Xue Lizan had been the person closest to her. His departure made her look down on herself, made her think little of herself. But later, it was Shen Yanlie who step by step pulled her out of the mire. So Shen Yanlie was a special existence to her.

“In this world, eight or nine out of ten things go against one’s wishes. But once trouble has made its entrance, it will keep coming one after another. All you can do is either hold firm, or be utterly shattered.”

Mackie looked ahead and spoke softly.

She had felt this keenly of late, and so she knew those words were not, in truth, very kind. They even carried something of a chill. Because the person getting engaged was Ye Muyan, and the one who would have to make a choice was also Ye Muyan.