Inextricable

When Xu Xingxing returned home with vegetables, her mother, who had been sleeping in the bedroom, came out.

“Mom, you’re up.” Xu Xingxing smiled at her mother.

Lin Meihui, who had now had a few hours of good rest, felt much better. Seeing the basket in her daughter’s hand, she felt surprised. “Have I slept for so long?”

Xu Xingxing smiled and said, “You must be very tired these days, so you go back to sleep, and I’ll call you after dinner is ready.”

Lin Meihui had slept all afternoon, and her mood was good now, so she shook her head and replied to Xu Xingxing, “I’m not tired anymore. Let me do it with you.”

Lin Meihui had good cooking skills. When she cooked, Xu Xingxing was basically reduced to a helper.

She took a look at the vegetables her daughter had bought and commented, “The winter bamboo shoots are quite tender. Did you buy them at the first store at the east gate?”

Xu Xingxing took the bamboo shoots and started to peel them as if she hadn’t heard her mother’s words.

“Xingxing?” Lin Meihui called out.

“Ah?” Xu Xingxing returned to her senses.

Lin Meihui looked at her daughter with a puzzled expression and asked, “What are you thinking of? You didn’t even hear me.”

Xu Xingxing replied, “Ah… I wasn’t thinking of anything…”

Lin Meihui didn’t care about that and started to prepare food.

Before she had gotten out of the car, Huai Jing had told her that he would pick her up at seven o’clock in the evening after he finished a meeting. Putting the peeled bamboo shoots into the basin, Xu Xingxing sighed softly. ‘Didn’t he come to Huai City for business? Why does he still think of those things when he’s on a business trip?’

……………………..

Dinner was ready by the time Xu Xingyuan returned home after sending off his fiancee’s family. Seeing that the food was ready, he quickly went to the bathroom to wash his hands. 

“Sister, how many spoons of rice should I serve you?” Xu Xingyuan took his sister’s bowl and asked while standing in front of the rice cooker.

A few seconds passed, but when Xu Xingyuan didn’t get any answer, he poked Xu Xingxing, who was ladling out the fish soup while standing next to him, and called out, “Sister?”

Xu Xingxing came back to her senses, glanced at Xu Xingyuan, and said, “One spoonful is enough.”

“What are you thinking about? Have you lost your soul?” Xu Xingyuan asked.

Lin Meihui, who was serving the vegetable dishes next to her, smiled and said, “I don’t know what she’s been thinking about all this while. She was like that when we were cooking as well.”

After hearing Lin Meihui’s words, Xu Xingyuan narrowed his eyes. He was engaged now, and was no longer a silly young man who didn’t understand the matters of men and women like before.

After Lin Meihui entered the living room, Xu Xingyuan carefully approached Xu Xingxing and asked with a smile, “Could you be thinking…” ‘Is she still thinking about that bad man?’

Xu Xingxing came back to her senses, looked up at her brother, poked his head, and said, “Don’t even think about it.”

“Okay.” Xu Xingyuan went to the living room with a smile.

After a happy dinner, as Xu Xingxing was clearing the table, Xu Xingyuan went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. Lin Meihui turned on the TV to watch the news broadcast.

This was a tradition left behind by Xu Xingxing’s father, who had been a policeman, and he had the habit of watching the news broadcast every day. Even though he was dead now, his family still followed this habit every day.

After clearing the table, Xu Xingxing went and sat near her mother. Five minutes later, at seven o’clock, the news broadcast began. Xu Xingyuan, who had finished washing dishes, also came and sat next to his mother. 

Surrounded by her two children, Lin Meihui was obviously very happy, and chatted with them while peeling oranges.

After Xu Xingyuan took a freshly peeled orange, he broke it in half and gave a half each to Lin Meihui and Xu Xingxing. 

Xu Xingxing put a piece in her mouth. As the cool orange petals pressed against the tip of her tongue, Xu Xingxing bit into them lightly. “This is very sweet.” After eating a piece, she glanced at the time and put the orange back into Lin Meihui’s hand while saying, “I’m going to make a call.”

Xu Xingxing got up and went to her bedroom. She turned on the light, stood in front of the window and dialled a number.

One side of the window was lit up bright, with the other shrouded in darkness, and a starry sky twinkled in its midst.

After the phone rang twice, a man’s voice came from the other end. “I will pick you up.”

Xu Xingxing’s throat moved, and she looked up at the sky outside the window. “I’ll take a taxi by myself. Where are you?”

The man didn’t insist on picking her up. He instead replied in a deep voice, “The same room.”

With a slight redness in her ears, Xu Xingxing responded softly and hung up the phone. She then put on her coat and went to the living room. When Xu Xingyuan saw her, he asked, “Sister, it’s so late, you still have to go out?”

“Hmm.” Xu Xingxing felt a little guilty. She glanced at Lin Meihui and said, “A colleague from my company who has a good relationship with me has come to Huaicheng on a business trip. The leader asked me to help him.”

“Isn’t your company on holiday?” Xu Xingyuan asked while eating an orange.

To which Xu Xingxing replied, “Some departments don’t have holidays.”

“Don’t delay your work.” After saying this, Lin Meihui told Xu Xingyuan, “You send your sister there, and then pick her up when she finishes her work.”

As soon as Xu Xingyuan put down the oranges and got up, Xu Xingxing stopped him and refused. “No need.” She bit the bullet and looking at her puzzled younger brother, said to Lin Meihui, “The company has arranged a room for me, and I will stay there tonight. It’s quite cold outside, so I’ll just drive there by myself.”

Since Xu Xingxing said so, Lin Meihui did not insist, she nodded and added, “That’s fine, pay attention to safety on the road. Do you have to continue helping there tomorrow?”

Speaking of this, Xu Xingxing was not sure, but she shook her head and said doubtfully, “Probably not.”

Hearing this, Lin Meihui smiled and said, “Okay, I’ll prepare your breakfast tomorrow.”

Xu Xingxing nodded, got up and went out the door.

As soon as she went out, Xu Xingxing’s heartbeat became faster, as if wanting to break free from a cage. She stood in the dark corridor, thinking that she had lied to her mother for the first time, just in order to see Huai Jing.

‘Xu Xingxing, you really are going crazy.’

She then took a taxi instead of driving by herself. “Master, please go to Jiaru Hotel.”

After getting off from the taxi, Xu Xingxing entered the hotel and reached the door of room 2024. She looked at the room number plated with black gold under the light. In the past, she had wanted to forget it, but now she just regarded it as a memory. She rang the doorbell, and after a while the door opened, with Huai Jing standing there looking at her. He was wearing a shirt and trousers. He seemed to have just gotten done with his work, since his tie had not yet been removed. He stood under the entrance light, his eyes looking cold and deep.

Seeing Xu Xingxing, Huai Jing’s brows and eyes became stained with a smile, and as his slender fingers hooked into his tie, his body moved aside a little and he invited her in a low voice, “Come in.”

This room was a suite, with the entrance opening out into the living room. Only the night light and the high table lamp in front of the sofa were turned on, and these made the whole living room look much more warmer.

Xu Xingxing had obviously been here once, but it seemed like this was the first time she had seen this room. She had been so nervous during that previous occasion that she hadn’t observed anything. Now thinking about it, she wondered why she had been that nervous at that time?

Standing beside her, Huai Jing, with his tie now gone, looked at Xu Xingxing and said, “Let’s both take a bath first.”

On hearing those words, Xu Xingxing returned to her senses, nodded and said, “Okay.”

She took a bath first and went to the living room while Huai Jing took his bath. There was a sofa near the floor-to-ceiling windows and she knelt on it, opened the window curtains and looked at the scenery outside the window.

Xu Xingxing’s eyes flickered slightly. This was the first time she had looked down at the city she had grown up in. The new urban area was developing very rapidly, and the current infrastructure construction already gave it the appearance of a big city.

Jiaru Hotel was located in the city centre. Looking down from this height, she could see the unclosed commercial buildings downstairs, where people were coming and going, and it all seemed very lively.

…………………

After Huai Jing came out from the bathroom, he found no one in the bedroom, so he glanced at the living room.

The woman only wore a white bathrobe after her shower. She had pulled the gauze curtain aside with both hands, and was kneeling on the sofa in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The white bathrobe was a bit short, revealing two smooth, white and slender calves.

The sofa was very wide, and her entire instep was attached to the sofa, with her short toes slightly stretched.

Huai Jing’s eyes moved slightly as he slowly walked over to her.

The man’s body leaned up from behind, and his breath enveloped her in an instant. She gasped, and just when she was about to turn around, she felt his lips at her ear.

“Right here?” 

Xu Xingxing opened her eyes slightly, and nodded.

“Good.”

…………………….

By the time Xu Xingxing woke up, Huai Jing was already putting on his shirt. She huddled under the quilt, narrowed her eyes slightly, and looked at the man cautiously.

The man didn’t seem to notice her gaze, he was intent on buttoning up, starting from the bottom, his white and slender fingers pinching each button. His movements were very slow, there was a lazy air to him, showing that he wasn’t fully awake yet.

One by one, the buttons covered the view, moving from his mermaid line to his abdominal muscles, then the pectoral muscles, and finally the collarbone. When the last button was inserted, the man paused his movement and smiled. “Do you want me to undo it and show it to you again?”

Having got caught peeping, Xu Xingxing felt guilty and turned her gaze to the side. She didn’t speak, but a man’s low laughter sounded out. “Get up, I’ll take you home.”

The two of them took the elevator downstairs, and reached the car, which was parked in the VIP area. Huai Jing opened the door for Xu Xingxing. Just as she was about to get into the car, she spotted a familiar person stepping out of a familiar car.

Noticing a change in her, Huai Jing turned and saw a man in a jacket getting out of a Mercedes. The man looked average, with a refined temperament. Huai Jing looked at Xu Xingxing who was still in daze, and put his hand in front of her eyes.

Her eyes nowblocked, Xu Xingxing froze for a moment, staring at the big hand in front of her. She then turned her head and saw the man look down at her with a slightly displeased expression.

Xu Xingxing pursed her lips and explained, “That’s my ex-husband.”

As soon as Xu Xingxing finished speaking, the big hand in front of her directly covered her eyes.

Xu Xingxing: “…”

Huai Jing said arrogantly, “It’s just an ex-husband. Why are you looking at it?”