Chapter 958: Chapter 188: The Proposal (Part 4)
Si Nan pulled at the corner of his lips, grabbed the seatbelt and buckled it, then finally fixed his eyes on Tang Yige. "A date?"
Tang Yige didn’t speak. Hooking up the corner of her mouth, she turned her face toward the car window.
Si Nan stared at Tang Yige’s smooth profile, his clear eyes narrowing slightly. He started the engine, pulled the car out, and slowly drove toward the exit of the parking garage.
As the car was leaving the underground garage, Si Nan glanced at Yige in the rearview mirror and asked in a gentle voice, "What do you want to eat?"
Tang Yige thought for a bit, then looked back at him. "Hotpot?"
"You can’t eat spicy right now," Si Nan said.
"We can get a yuan-yang pot, or a clear broth hotpot?" Tang Yige said.
Si Nan paused for two seconds. "Mm."
Tang Yige then looked at his profile and smiled for a while, before turning her face back toward the window.
When Tang Yige turned back to the window, Si Nan’s thick black lashes lowered slightly.
...
When they got to the hotpot place, Si Nan ignored Tang Yige’s pleading gaze and really did just order a clear broth base.
Tang Yige bit down, so angry she almost cried.
Si Nan pinched her hand. "You can’t eat spicy right now. You need to keep it light."
Tang Yige shrugged her shoulder. "Actually, my body doesn’t have much to do with whether I eat spicy or not. I know that."
Si Nan’s fingers holding Tang Yige’s hand gave a barely perceptible twitch. He tilted his head to look at her and said warmly, "Being careful is always good. Besides, eating light is good for your body in itself."
"Mm." Tang Yige curved her eyes and smiled at him.
Because it was noon, there weren’t many people in the hotpot restaurant.
Before long, the soup base and all the dishes Tang Yige ordered were brought out.
The base was a mushroom pork-bone broth, and it smelled very fresh.
Si Nan first ladled half a bowl of bone broth for Tang Yige to warm her stomach.
While Tang Yige held the bowl and drank, Si Nan rolled up his sleeves and started cooking the food for her in the pot.
Tang Yige slanted a glance at the person so serious about cooking for her, and felt as if even the soup she drank was sweet.
During the whole hotpot meal, Tang Yige was only responsible for eating; Si Nan took it upon himself to cook everything for her.
Once Tang Yige was almost full, he casually ate what was left while still cooking for her.
After that, he paid the bill and left the hotpot place with Tang Yige.
Once they got in the car, Tang Yige asked Si Nan, who was leaning over to fasten her seatbelt, "Are you going back to the firm?"
Si Nan clicked it in place, then kissed the corner of her mouth before sitting back in his seat, buckling his own belt, and starting the car. "No. I can handle the rest at home."
"Oh." Tang Yige nodded, her gaze drifting over Si Nan’s face a few times before she looked away.
Si Nan watched her through the rearview mirror, his eyes tinged with a certain depth. "The week after next is the fifteenth anniversary celebration of Shengge Law Firm. You’re coming with me."
Tang Yige, as always, listened. A few seconds of daze flickered through her beautiful eyes.
Then Tang Yige looked at Si Nan. "Me?"
Ever since the hotel scandal five years ago, plus Tang Yuwen publicly calling a press conference to sever their father–daughter relationship, Tang Yige had, for a time, become the public’s after-dinner joke, her reputation utterly ruined.
Since then, Tang Yige had rarely attended this sort of so-called anniversary celebration, which were, in truth, just social gatherings for the elite.
Besides, deep down, Tang Yige was very resistant to such public occasions.
This time, she would be attending alongside the male lead of the "hotel scandal" from back then...
Tang Yige didn’t dare imagine what kind of media storm that might stir up.
So, driven by the human instinct to avoid trouble, Tang Yige hesitated.
Of course, Si Nan knew the concerns in Yige’s heart and the reasons for her wanting to escape.
Though he was loath to force her into something she disliked, this banquet was, in essence, being thrown for her. So how could she not be there?
Si Nan’s eyes lowered slightly. After a moment of silence, he said, "I’m Shengge’s largest shareholder. If I don’t show up at Shengge’s fifteenth anniversary, it’ll look bad. And people usually attend such events in pairs. You wouldn’t want me to go alone like some loser, or take another woman instead of you, would you?"
After he finished speaking, Si Nan turned his head and cast Tang Yige a somewhat pitiful look.
Seeing him like that, Tang Yige’s heart softened.
Besides, how could she possibly allow him to bring another woman?
Tang Yige’s lashes lowered for a while before she looked up at him and smiled. "Of course I don’t mind going with you."
Si Nan watched Yige’s forcedly natural, willing smile through the rearview mirror, and a dull ache throbbed at the tip of his heart.
Si Nan didn’t say anything. He just freed one hand and briefly squeezed the hand Yige had resting lightly on his leg.
Tang Yige glanced at his hand holding hers, and tried to raise the corners of her lips higher.
...
The car stopped beneath the Jinxiu Huadu A District Building. Si Nan unfastened his seatbelt and was about to push the door open and get out.
"Brother."
But at that moment, Tang Yige unexpectedly called out to him.
Si Nan stilled, then leaned back against the seat, turned his head to look at Tang Yige, and curved his lips. "What is it?"
Tang Yige locked her eyes on his. "I have something to ask you. I hope you can answer me truthfully."
Si Nan leaned over and reached out to take both of Tang Yige’s hands, wrapping them in his palms and rubbing them gently. His voice was soft. "Go ahead."
The warmth coming from his hands made the question Tang Yige had been holding at the tip of her throat hesitate, sliding back and forth in her throat, and for a long while she still couldn’t get it out.
Si Nan looked at Yige with gentle eyes. "Didn’t you have a question for me? Or not anymore?"
"...I do."
Tang Yige’s voice was very soft.
Si Nan patted her hand. "What is it?"
Tang Yige bit her lower lip, and there was more determination in her gaze as she looked into Si Nan’s eyes. "Tang Ruan—did you have her taken away?"
The instant Tang Yige asked the question, the gentleness in Si Nan’s eyes was slowly devoured by something dark and sinister, until there was nothing left of it.
Tang Yige’s chest tightened. She quickly pulled her hands from his palms and instead gripped his tightly, her expression flustered. "Brother, you said you would be good to me, you can’t get mad."
Seeing Tang Yige’s anxious, uneasy face reflected in his pupils, some of the gloom in Si Nan’s eyes dissipated, but his expression was still so severe that it made her heart tremble.
"Brother..." Tang Yige clutched his hand even tighter, her voice low and hoarse.
Si Nan closed his eyes for a second, pulled one hand free from Yige’s grasp, and gently smoothed her tightly furrowed brow. His voice, though unable to hide its chill, still couldn’t bear to be truly harsh. "Don’t get involved in Tang Ruan’s matter, hmm?"
Tang Yige stared at him.
So Tang Ruan really had been taken away by him...
Her lips pressed together helplessly, Tang Yige looked into Si Nan’s eyes, her own filled with hesitation and doubt.
Even though she herself had so many misgivings and perhaps didn’t truly want to do this, in the end Tang Yige still spoke. "Brother, can I ask you for one last favor?"
Si Nan’s thin lips tightened into a line. "What do you think?"
"Just this once." Tang Yige looked at him pleadingly. "Please? Please?"
"No."
Si Nan pulled his hand back and lifted his fingers from her brow, his expression turning hard and cold. "I can give in to you on anything else, but on this, there’s no room for discussion."
"I know, I know you’re angry, furious. But I’m angrier than you, more full of hate than you are."
Tang Yige’s eyes were slightly red as she gazed at Si Nan, her tone plaintive. "Brother, you’ve seen what things are like at home now. My parents are both in the hospital. My mom is still in a coma, we don’t know if she’ll live or die. My dad’s been hospitalized again. Our family is basically already broken apart."
"That’s not your home. Wherever I am, wherever Little Rui is, that’s your home. They don’t deserve your pity. They don’t deserve you wronging yourself to fulfill them."
Si Nan’s voice was icy.
"Yes, I am wronged, terribly wronged. And I’m full of hate, so full of hate."
Tang Yige’s voice was rasping badly. "But what can I do? I can’t change the fact that I’m their daughter, that I’m Tang Ruan’s biological older sister. Am I supposed to just stand by and watch my parents die?"
Si Nan’s body gave a faint jolt. Seeing the pain in Yige’s eyes, a tearing ache gripped his heart.
He leaned over, unfastened Yige’s seatbelt, wrapped an arm around her waist, and lifted her over to sit on his lap.
Tang Yige immediately wrapped her arms around his neck, aggrieved. "Brother, when I’m talking about this with you, I hate myself more than anyone else does. So what if I’m Tang Ruan’s real sister? After everything she did to me, to Little Rui, why should I show her any mercy or kindness? Even if she died, she’d only be getting what she deserves. I wouldn’t shed a single tear for her. That’s what I think in my heart, but reality is forcing me to do something that goes against it. It hurts, it hurts so much."
Si Nan held her tighter, his large hand gently stroking her trembling back. He lowered his head and kissed her ear. "Why insist on doing something that hurts you? Are you an idiot?!"
