Chapter 135

With his thin lips leaning in close, Xiao Qi was wide-awake now. Knowing he was doing this just to tease her, she immediately raised her voice and said, "I apologize to you. I was wrong, and I promise you will never have to see me again. I'll stay far, far away from you."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Xiao Qi felt the aura of the man standing inches away from her suddenly shift.

It felt... exceptionally piercing and cold.

Did she say something wrong?

This was the icy-cold Yichen Lin, the Yichen Lin who detested her. Saying this should have been exactly what he wanted, right?!

"Ye Xiyang," Yichen looked at her with extreme ruthlessness, "Listen to me carefully. You are nothing but a clown who has been playing the part of being completely oblivious while being self-righteous and smug. Now that you've figured it out, gather your feelings and get out of my world. Don't let me see you again. Get lost."

With that, he released her.

Xiao Qi truly never expected that the casual words she said to the auntie earlier today would be repeated twice by the two people she hated.

She had no clear recollection of what kind of emotional state she was in when she ran out of that suffocating villa. The only thing she knew for certain was that his command to "get lost" made her heart ache so much, so very much.

Xiao Qi strolled slowly down the street, unknowingly drifting toward a roadside bus stop.

Because of her superpowers, she rarely ever took the bus.

The 12X route should take me back, right?!

In that instant, she felt an urge to take the bus back.

Raising her gaze, she watched various buses arrive one after another, yet none of them was the 12X she was waiting for.

Ah, buses in City A seemed to love bunching together sometimes—none would show up for ages, and then several would arrive all at once.

This was the first time Xiao Qi had ever seen a place with a population density that could rival her home planet.

The bus stop was so crowded that Xiao Qi felt as though the air had turned thick and turbid.

Forget the bus. I'll just use teleportation to get back!

To use teleportation, she needed to go somewhere deserted.

Xiao Qi hurried away from the bus stop, immediately feeling the air grow fresh once more, accompanied by a profound sense of having survived a catastrophe.

Breathing air this fresh, she should have smiled.

Yet her eyes slowly began to sting, growing increasingly sore. She raised a hand to wipe away the moisture and stop the tears, but instead, they only fell faster. The overwhelming ache swelling in her chest made her just want to break down and cry.

She had always believed that liking someone should feel joyous, like blossoms blooming in the spring. Why on earth did it hurt this much?

It hurt so, so much...

And because it hurt, her eyes were leaking water again.

Dressed in a man's shirt, she attracted sideways glances from passersby, but Xiao Qi naturally had no mind to care. She walked along, weeping miserably as her eyes leaked.

While she was suffering and weeping over here, elsewhere...

Ever since Xiao Qi ran out, Yichen had maintained the exact posture she left him in until now, standing completely motionless like a straight, rigid statue beside the floor-to-ceiling window.

After a long while, his legs finally stirred.

He walked slowly over to the bed and sat down. His phone rang, and he answered it. "Mr. Lin, why haven't you come to the office yet? Didn't you say yesterday that we need to hold a very important meeting early this morning?"

Yesterday, he had asked Fang Li to email him several important projects and instructed him to notify all the executives for a meeting regarding those projects early this morning.

He glanced at the wall clock; it was already nine-thirty.

He hung up the phone, walked to the study, and initiated a video conference on his computer.

By the time it concluded, it was nearly eleven o'clock.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, involuntarily finding his thoughts drifting to Xiao Qi.

He suddenly realized that even though he had forgotten her, her influence on him seemed immense.

Especially her words: "I promise you will never have to see me again. I'll stay far away from you."

Hearing those words caused a sharp, violent pang in his chest.

Fang Li had said that five years ago she had left without saying goodbye. Could it be that time that had left a shadow on him?

Never mind, there was no use thinking about her. Whatever the case, that was all in the past now. Since he had already agreed to Joanna, he might as well give it a serious try with her. After all, she was a suitable match for him in every way.

For the first time ever, he didn't feel like going to the company today. Oh well, he would give himself a day off.

Yichen opened the drawer and took out the files inside.

Two items caught his eye immediately.

He took them out to look: a ring box and a little doll.

At first glance, the doll looked quite a bit like him.

His mind couldn't recall why these two items were placed here, but he could easily guess.

The doll must have been a gift from her.

And this ring...

He took it out to examine it. Sunlight streamed in from the floor-to-ceiling window, striking the ring just right and making it gleam with a dazzling brilliance that slightly stung his eyes.

His mind gave a sudden wrench, and a few fleeting images involving Xiao Qi flashed through his consciousness.

Did I give this ring to her?

When I gave her the ring back then, was I planning to marry her?

Did the past version of himself truly love her that deeply?

The violent thumping of his heart hammered against his ribs.

Yichen pressed a hand to his chest, the name "Xiyang" slipping involuntarily from his lips.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

Xiao Qi returned to her room, utterly exhausted. With weak, floating steps, she walked over to the bed and slid down the edge to sit on the floor, hugging her knees in a distracted, heartbroken daze...

"Xiao Qi, what's wrong with you?" Xiao Bai immediately jumped off the bed, asking anxiously, "Are you hurt? Did that Earthling hit you?"

"No," Xiao Qi got up and sat on the bed. "My plan didn't succeed. My heart is completely dead."

Xiao Qi looked like she was about to cry as she spoke.

"Xiao Qi, don't cry," Xiao Bai sensed that Xiao Qi had become very prone to tears lately and hurried to comfort her. "If it didn't work this time, there's always next time. Anyway, that Yichen Lin..."

Xiao Qi's hands suddenly emitted a sizzling sound, followed immediately by wisps of white smoke. "What's going on? Why are my superpowers acting up out of control again?"

Xiao Qi immediately ran to the bathroom, turned on the tap, and rinsed her smoking hands under the running water, but it was of no use.

Xiao Bai hurried over. "Xiao Qi, weren't your superpowers already under control? Why are they acting up again now...?"

"You just mentioned that hateful jerk," Xiao Qi stared at her hands, which were crackling with electricity and smoking. "Why do my superpowers go haywire whenever he's mentioned?"

"It's not that your superpowers are malfunctioning," Xiao Bai said, having figured it out by now. "It's that he has the ability to trigger your loss of control, causing your superpowers to go haywire."

"How is that possible? He's just an Earthling! How could he possibly control me, an alien with superpowers?"

Xiao Bai analyzed the situation: "Xiao Qi, didn't you used to think it was strange that you couldn't use your superpowers whenever you were around Yichen Lin? Now it seems likely that your signal transmitter is with him, which is why you couldn't use your powers. And now that you've fallen in love with him, he's the one who makes you lose control of yourself, because you care about him more and more."

"I don't want to care about him! I don't want to lose control of myself!" Xiao Qi immediately initiated teleportation.

Xiao Bai shouted, "Xiao Qi, where are you going?"

But she had already vanished.

* * *

Yiyang had a document that needed his older brother's signature, but Fang Li told him that Mr. Lin wasn't coming to the office today and would arrive tomorrow.

It was truly rare to run into a day when his brother skipped work.

As he walked into the office, his phone rang; it was his mother.

"Yiyang, Mom brewed the soup you love. Come home for lunch..."

"Mom, I'm afraid that won't work today," Yiyang said while reviewing computer data, his hands still clacking away on the keyboard. "Xiyang hasn't been at the company these past few days, and no one is helping me, so I'm quite busy."

"She's not the only person in your department."

Yiyang blurted out, "I just like staying and working together with her."

However, Xu Lu suddenly focused on his preceding sentence, completely missing what followed. "Yiyang, what about Ye Xiyang? Did she take time off?"

Yiyang spoke the truth: "It's not really time off. She's at home reviewing materials related to perfume, which still counts as working."

"She could read those at the company too!"

"There are too many people at the company. Her mood hasn't been great lately, and she needs some quiet."

"Is her bad mood because of her breakup with Yichen?"

"Probably!" Yiyang suddenly realized and paused his work. "Mom, you must have experienced heartbreak when you were young, right? How did you cure a broken heart?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? Your father is the only one I've ever had." Xu Lu cut straight to the point: "Yiyang, you are not allowed to meddle in those two people's business, you hear me?"

Naturally, Yiyang disagreed with her words. "Mom, Xiyang is my friend. It's only natural for me to help a friend. Besides, you promised me before that you wouldn't make things difficult for my brother and Xiyang anymore. Don't go back on your word."

"Of course not," Xu Lu vowed solemnly. "When has Mom ever gone back on a promise she made to you? As long as you work hard at TC, Mom is satisfied. By the way, Ye Xiyang and your brother—have they really had a falling out?"

"I suppose so!" Yiyang found it strange. "Mom, why do you keep asking about this?"

Xu Lu cleverly explained: "One is your brother, and the other is your good friend. The only reason Mom is asking out of concern is for your sake."

Hearing this, Yiyang felt a surge of comfort. His mother really had changed.

"Mom, I'm going to work at full speed now, and then I'll rush back to drink the loving soup you brewed for your son."

"Alright, alright. Then I won't disturb your work. Mom will be waiting for you at home."

"Understood, Mother dearest."

Xiao Qi teleported back. Seeing that she had returned, Xiao Bai immediately brought up what it had been pondering just moments before: "Xiao Qi, didn't you say before that sometimes when you were around Lin..." It stopped itself, remembering that name couldn't be mentioned. "...around that Earthling, you could occasionally use your superpowers?"

Right as it finished speaking, it noticed what Xiao Qi was holding in her hands.

A gigantic photo frame featuring pictures of two people pasted onto it.

Unmistakably, they were Yichen and Anna.

"Xiao Qi, has your brain short-circuited? Why would you bring back photos of two people you hate?"

"Didn't you say I care about him?" Xiao Qi placed the photo frame in the most conspicuous spot. "I specifically looked up desensitization therapy for this. If I face him every day, I'll build up a resistance, and then I won't lose control anymore."

"What about Joanna then? Why did you bring her photo?"

"She's for consolidation therapy. As long as I look at her, I'll be reminded and warned that he has a girlfriend, that this is the person he loves, and that I mustn't think of him anymore. After a long time, won't I manage to kick the habit of him?"

Xiao Qi felt that her method was exceptionally appropriate and utterly perfect.

She crossed her legs on the bed, picked up a document from the bedside table, read the document for one minute, turned her head, and stared at the photo frame for five minutes.

Xiao Bai was somewhat baffled. "Xiao Qi, why do you spend such a short time looking at the documents, but stare at those two for so long?"