Chapter 338: Chapter 338: Seizing the Opportunity
Tang Yuanxiao remained frozen, half-bent over, and didn’t move for a long time.
After Wu Sheng came in, Tang Yuanxiao dazedly wandered out the door.
After saying that, Su Li closed her eyes again, just as she had before.
Tang Yuanxiao knew exactly what Su Li’s earlier "thank you" meant. He knew she had said it while she was lucid.
But as for what came after, Tang Yuanxiao had no idea.
"Tang Yuanxiao, I didn’t sell Little Mo. I didn’t sell..."
Tang Yuanxiao didn’t know why Su Li would suddenly say something like that, but her words, combined with the look in her eyes that followed, made it impossible for him to ignore.
From the time he first came home on leave to now, Tang Yuanxiao had never truly understood Su Li’s attitude or the way she looked at him.
Not to mention their rushed wedding, where they barely had a chance to speak, but by the time he came home on leave later, the way Su Li looked at him was already off.
Back then, he thought Su Li had feelings for him, so he had overlooked a lot about the way she looked at him.
But now that he thought back carefully, he could recall it all.
Especially the looks Su Li gave him when his back was turned.
Tang Yuanxiao was very sensitive and perceptive. Whenever Su Li looked at him, he could almost always feel it.
Those complicated gazes from behind, a mix of what seemed like hatred and resentment—he had originally thought they were because of what had happened before. But this time, Tang Yuanxiao had a sudden realization: that wasn’t it.
It was as if her entire perception of him was based on something else entirely.
’What exactly is different... Just why is it like this...’
Sitting in the hospital corridor, Tang Yuanxiao pondered this question seriously for the first time.
The two times Su Li had looked at him just now, her gazes had been completely different.
That last hateful glare, along with her words, inexplicably weighed on his mind. There was a strange sense of familiarity to it, as if he had seen that look somewhere before.
"But why... What’s the reason..."
Tang Yuanxiao ran a hand through his hair, muttering to himself.
As he thought back over his past with Su Li, Tang Yuanxiao had a sudden, startling realization.
It seemed that no matter how hard he tried, he had never found a way into Su Li’s heart.
As much as he hated to admit it, he had to concede that there seemed to be some kind of barrier between them.
It wasn’t that Su Li’s attitude toward him had never softened, but then, in a single moment, it would suddenly become rigid again.
It was as if she were forcibly drawing a line between them.
Sometimes, this shift would be triggered by an event, but other times, absolutely nothing had happened at all.
As this realization dawned on him, Tang Yuanxiao froze, stunned.
’Just what is the reason for it...’
Tang Yuanxiao couldn’t figure it out for the life of him. Thinking back on Su Li’s words and behavior, he felt not only confusion but also suspicion.
’What in the world is going on with Su Li?’
Tang Yuanxiao’s head was splitting.
Just as he was pressing his temples, he heard the door to the hospital room open.
Wu Sheng was standing in the doorway, looking at Tang Yuanxiao.
Tang Yuanxiao glanced over at Wu Sheng, his eyes finally landing on the ring on Wu Sheng’s hand.
Tang Yuanxiao had, of course, also seen the new ring on Su Li’s finger.
Seeing the ring on Wu Sheng’s hand, which was obviously part of a matching set, the corner of his mouth twitched before he averted his gaze.
Since neither of them was willing to back down, the situation with an ex-husband, a current fiancé, and another suitor, Yang Jiu, had already earned them sideways glances from the doctors, police, and nurses.
Tang Yuanxiao didn’t want to get into a messy squabble with Wu Sheng in the hospital and damage Su Li’s reputation.
Not wanting to see Wu Sheng, he immediately got up to leave.
He had only taken two steps when he heard Wu Sheng call out from behind him.
"Old Tang."
Tang Yuanxiao stopped in his tracks.
Wu Sheng walked up to Tang Yuanxiao. "I haven’t had a chance to say this before, Old Tang. Thank you. Thank you for saving Su Li."
Regardless of their past, Wu Sheng was truly grateful to Tang Yuanxiao for saving Su Li.
"I will keep this gratitude in my heart. If you need anything in the future, just say the word. I’ll do whatever it takes."
To him, this was a debt of gratitude even greater than if Tang Yuanxiao had saved his own life.
Tang Yuanxiao looked into Wu Sheng’s eyes and could see his sincerity, but...
"You don’t have to thank me. I didn’t save Su Li for you. I saved her because it was *her*." This gratitude felt incredibly irritating.
Tang Yuanxiao looked straight at Wu Sheng. "I used to think Su Li only faced so many hardships because she was with me. If it’s going to be like this with you, too... then there’s no difference between us."
’If there’s no difference, why should I give up?’
"After what happened this time, I’ve made up my mind. I won’t give up on her."
Wu Sheng shook his head. "I could tell, even without you saying it."
’He wasn’t blind, after all.’
Tang Yuanxiao took a deep breath. "So don’t thank me. If I take advantage of this opening and Su Li chooses me..."
Wu Sheng raised a hand, cutting him off. "That’s impossible. But since you brought it up, I’ll make my stance clear. Even if that happened, I would still thank you."
Tang Yuanxiao stared at Wu Sheng for a long moment before finally averting his gaze and striding past him.
Wu Sheng called out to his retreating back, "Old Tang, what I said still stands. If you need help in the future, come find me. I’ll do everything in my power to help you."
"I said I don’t need it," Tang Yuanxiao called back without turning. "I’ll be here at six to take over."
After the recent kidnapping, no one could feel at ease about Su Li’s safety.
Someone needed to be with her at all times.
Tang Yuanxiao hadn’t eaten since he’d found out about Wu Sheng’s proposal yesterday. Combined with a sleepless night, he desperately needed to refuel and recover his strength.
Tang Yuanxiao went to grab a meal, then returned to the hospital and found a quiet corner to close his eyes and rest.
He hadn’t expected to, but he ended up dozing off.
Half an hour later, Tang Yuanxiao was jolted awake from a dream.
"Tang Yuanxiao, I didn’t sell Little Mo. I didn’t sell..."
He had dreamed of Su Li, and more specifically, he had dreamed of those words.
But for some reason, the Su Li in his dream didn’t look like she did now, and the setting wasn’t the hospital.
It looked like the Tang Family’s home—in the cattle pen...
Su Li was a mess, her face deathly pale. She looked just as wretched, but she was also very different from the Su Li he knew now.
If it weren’t for her identical eyes and that same, hate-filled glare, he wouldn’t have recognized her as Su Li at all.
In the dream, this wretched Su Li, both a stranger and hauntingly familiar, screamed at him, "Tang Yuanxiao, I didn’t sell Little Mo! I didn’t sell him..."
Then, Tang Yuanxiao saw himself walk toward Su Li, step by step, and grab her by the throat.
He lifted her clean off the ground by her neck. Her face instantly turned a ghastly shade of purple as she clawed at his hand, struggling.
"Mmph... it wasn’t me... not me..."
"No!" Tang Yuanxiao jolted awake from the dream, gasping for breath.
He looked down at his trembling hands, then at his surroundings, unable to get his bearings for a long moment.
’It was too real... That dream was far too real...’
The warmth from Su Li’s neck seemed to linger on his hand...
Tang Yuanxiao shot to his feet and ran to the floor with Su Li’s room. He stood outside the doorway, and only after seeing Su Li lying there peacefully did he let out a huge sigh of relief.
"It was a dream... Just a dream..."
’Thank god it was just a dream... just a dream...’
He took several deep breaths, then wiped the cold sweat from his face before getting up to leave.
Tang Yuanxiao walked to the stairwell, sat down, and stared at his hands.
Slowly, uncontrollably, they began to tremble.
’It was clearly a dream, so why did it feel so real?’
’So real it was as if he had actually lived through it...’
’So real he couldn’t possibly ignore it.’
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