Chapter 92: True Feelings Revealed

“Farewell, Xiangzhou City!”

As the train slowly rolled out of the platform, Wu Ya was gone.

He had arrived in anxiety and left in exhilaration.

At the start, all he had was three hundred thousand.

He was confident enough, of course, but money in hand was still too little to make him feel truly secure.

Now, however, not only had he gotten back three production lines, he had also driven the price down by nearly half.

And the fifty thousand he had once planned to borrow from Huang Silu, if things came to the worst, had never even been used.

That loyal fat Huang could just keep it and use it to chase girls.

Otherwise, with that face of his, how would he ever find a wife?

Ah.

Being a brother was hard indeed.

“Wu Ya, I’m here!”

After more than ten hours on the road, the familiar sights finally came into view.

The moment he stepped off the train, Liu Qian’s voice rushed into his ears.

She was waving both hands, her face bright with excitement.

It had been a full seven days since they had last seen each other.

And before he left, Wu Ya had still been carrying resentment.

So Liu Qian’s guilt had been bottled up for seven long days as well.

Though they spoke every day, she was afraid of bringing up anything unpleasant and ruining his mood for business.

Because of that, she had never once mentioned an apology.

But as guilt piled higher and higher, so too did her longing burst forth.

Now that she finally saw that familiar figure, one could only imagine how thrilled she was.

“Heh, you’ve been waiting here a long time? Aren’t you tired standing here like this?”

Wu Ya quickened his pace and came to Liu Qian’s side.

His face, his eyes, were all overflowing with joy.

A brief separation.

Though their relationship was still somewhat hazy and had not yet reached the mature, settled love of adults, it was precisely that haziness that made it all the more earnest.

There was no impurity in the longing.

It was simply one plain, unadorned thing:

I miss you.

“Not really tired, just...”

“Just what?”

Seeing the shyness on Liu Qian’s face, Wu Ya asked on purpose.

After living two lifetimes, how could he possibly fail to see through a girl’s thoughts?

The reason he asked was simply to see her grow even more bashful.

To watch the blush spread across her face as she spoke her heart.

Only then would Liu Qian be at her most breathtakingly beautiful.

And only then would the whole atmosphere become more tender.

More sweet.

And far more capable of letting him feel all the pleasures of living a second life.

But who would have thought?

“Just that my ankles are a little sore from standing, that’s all! Nothing serious, nothing serious!”

Another voice intruded at just the wrong moment.

Wu Ya’s brows instantly knotted together.

“You damned fat Huang! Did I ever say you were to come pick me up?”

The anger in his voice came down directly on Huang Silu’s face.

Whoosh.

Huang Silu, who had ridden over the whole way in a bumpy rush, screeched to a stop.

Something seemed off.

The moment this kid got off the train, why did he come out all fire and thunder?

But what exactly was wrong, he had no idea.

“What are you spacing out for? The two of them are flirting. Why are you butting in?”

Beside him, Qiao Ya could no longer hold back.

This fat Huang had only after she agreed to date him that she truly realized something:

His emotional intelligence belonged to a number so small it was practically zero.

He was immune to all things romantic.

If not for the fact that his family background was decent, and that he himself was a financial genius, and that this flaw also meant he was fairly dependable, Qiao Ya really would not have given him the time of day.

“Oh? They’re flirting? But... you two ought to choose the setting, shouldn’t you? In broad daylight, who would think you were flirting? So that can’t really be blamed on me, can it?”

Huang Silu paused, and finally understood the atmosphere they had been trying to create.

The back-and-forth had merely been a prelude to set the mood.

Yet his reckless interruption had spoiled everything.

Though his emotional intelligence was lacking, his reflexes were quick.

And his mouth was especially unforgiving.

After a short, eloquent speech, the fault had somehow become Wu Ya’s and Liu Qian’s.

They were the ones who lacked decorum and were scandalous in public.

“Huang Silu, I think your life these days has been a little too sweet, hasn’t it? So sweet you’ve forgotten which direction sweetness even comes from.”

Sweet?

Huang Silu’s body hair all stood on end at once.

That was a veiled threat.

If he dared say another thing, his whole ugly history would be exposed.

And he had no doubt at all that Wu Ya was fully capable of doing it.

“Um... well... we should get going first! Come on, Wu Ya, give me your bag. You and Liu Qian can walk slowly. We’ll clear the way ahead. Let’s meet at Recollection House!”

Recollection House.

Huang Silu snatched the bag from Wu Ya’s hand, grabbed Qiao Ya, and fled at full speed.

He did not even give Qiao Ya a chance to say hello to Wu Ya.

And in order to calm Wu Ya’s anger, he even spared no expense and booked lunch at Recollection House.

That was the best restaurant in Suiyan District.

A meal there cost at least over a hundred.

For the current Huang Silu, over a hundred? Nothing much.

But in those days, it was half a month’s income for an ordinary family.

Naturally, Huang Silu still winced at the cost.

After all, though his family was well off, his monthly allowance was only ten yuan.

“Huang Silu, are you hiding something from me? Why do you and Wu Ya seem so secretive? And what he just said clearly had another meaning behind it! Why did you panic and run the second you heard him?”

They had barely left the station when Qiao Ya shook off Huang Silu at once.

She stared at him in accusation, not even blinking.

She was not stupid.

Those two buddies had always been of one mind.

Covering for each other was practically second nature.

But what had just happened?

To stop Huang Silu from opening his mouth, Wu Ya’s words had been full of threat.

And as soon as Wu Ya finished speaking, Huang Silu had acted as if he had seen a ghost.

He did not dare linger for even a second.

So she was certain of it: this fellow was definitely hiding something from her.

And not a small thing, either.

“Oh, that? It’s nothing. Heh, you know how Wu Ya and I are—we’ve always been at each other’s throats. Especially lately, with business booming for him. Sure, he’s not as good as me, but it is a real business, after all, something that lasts. So naturally he’s gotten a bit more full of himself than I am. Besides, I’ve been thinking of trying my hand at something too, and I’ll need to learn from him. Don’t you think I ought to lower my head a little?”

After a brief consideration, Huang Silu tossed out a perfectly polished explanation.

It left Qiao Ya, who had been full of suspicion, with a trace of newfound appreciation in her eyes.

This man, though lacking in emotional intelligence, did have a strong drive to improve himself.

And he was no fool, either.

After all, he knew that while finance could make a person rich overnight, a real business could endure far longer.

So he had started seriously thinking about doing something else.

All in all, his merits still outweighed his faults.

Meanwhile, Wu Ya and Liu Qian, walking behind them, moved forward side by side at a leisurely pace.

“Wu Ya, are you still angry?”

Liu Qian lowered her head, her voice so soft only the two of them could hear.

Her eyes were full of worry she did not want him to see.

Her parents’ attitude toward him not only revealed their selfishness, but was also a profound lack of respect for Wu Ya.

It was, more or less, an insult to his dignity.

If Wu Ya truly felt no resentment at all, Liu Qian would not believe it.

That was why she was worried.

She was afraid this matter would plant a rift in Wu Ya’s heart.

And then, in the future...

How would she face his parents?

How would she live...

under the same roof?

"Pah! Shameless!"

At the thought of life in the future, Liu Qian could not help but silently spit on herself.

A young girl, already thinking about spending her days with a man?

Her heart had begun to stir far too early, to the point of shamelessness.

When had she become like this?

“Heh, angry? Liu Qian, though our relationship has not yet reached the point of marriage, that is the goal I will fight for in this life. So sooner or later, we will become one family. Since that is so, how could a family be angry with its own? And more to the point, your uncle and aunt only acted from concern for you. On that alone, if I were to be angry, then I would not be worth a damn.”

Just as Liu Qian’s heart was racing wildly, Wu Ya’s expression turned solemn.

Those impassioned words flowed into her ears.

How could a girl’s little thoughts escape the eyes of someone who had lived two lifetimes and carried decades of worldly experience?

Though these words were meant to set the mood, it could not be denied that they also came from the bottom of Wu Ya’s heart.

Marrying Liu Qian and making up for the regrets of the past was one of the most important goals of his reborn life.

So when he said it now, it was a genuine confession from the heart.

“You... you mean that?”

Liu Qian raised her head in a hurry and looked at Wu Ya, her eyes shimmering with emotion.

“Of course it’s true! I, Wu Ya, swear here and now that in this life I will marry no one but Liu Qian! If I break this oath, then heaven will—”

Swoosh.

To show his resolve, Wu Ya raised a finger to swear.

But at the crucial moment, a soft hand covered his mouth and stopped the rest of his words.

“Don’t you go talking nonsense!”

As her gentle whisper followed, the air around them was filled with tenderness.