Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins

But when he went yesterday, he had noticed that Xiao Qing was not in the best spirits, looking as though something weighed on her mind. With his godfather and godmother present, Yang Shuo Xuan could not ask too much; he had merely told her to rest well.

"Yang Ce, do you have some time?" Xiao Qing was in no mood to banter with Yan; she spoke directly and gravely.

"What, don't tell me you want to do that right now?" Yang Heng Ye said. "Can't wait?"

"..." Xiao Qing fell silent for a moment, then said, "Yang Ce, I have something important I want to talk to you about. Can you come over?"

"Something important?" Yang Pu Qi was startled. Xiao Qing rarely spoke to him in such a serious tone, which made Yang Mo Yi somewhat uncomfortable. "What important thing?"

"About our future," Xiao Qing said after a pause. "Let's talk about it in person."

"Our future?" Yang Mo Yi was a little suspicious, but still said, "All right. Where are you? I'll come over right now."

"I'm at home," Xiao Qing said. "Just come straight over."

"Wait for me. I'll be there in fifteen minutes." Yang Ce hung up and walked into the office. He had just been discussing the opening of the jewelry company with Zhang Bin.

"Zhang Bin, I'm heading out for a bit. You study it first," Yang Min Lan said to Zhang Bin.

"No way, boss. You're leaving me on my own again?" Zhang Bin smiled bitterly. "Even if you are the boss, you can't treat me like this. What a miserable life."

"Come on, didn't I find the jewelry designer?" Yang Yan Zhou said. "Think of how much effort that saved."

"Seems like you wrapped that up with a single phone call," Zhang Bin said, aggrieved.

"Then let's see you wrap it up with a single phone call," Yang Pu Qi said, glaring at him.

"..." Zhang Bin was speechless. "Fine, I'll call it my bad luck." Zhang Bin resigned himself to his fate.

Though Yang Ce joked with Zhang Bin on the surface, he was anxious inside. Instinct told him that something must have gone wrong with Xiao Qing. The way she had spoken just now was very strange, giving Yang Mo Yi a deeply uneasy feeling.

He drove straight to the residential quarters of Songjiang Engineering University and, familiar with the way, arrived at the building where Xiao Qing lived. To make it easy for Yang Jue Huan to come and go, Xiao Qing had given Yang Ce a set of keys, so Yang Shuo Xuan did not knock; he went straight up and opened Xiao Qing's door.

Xiao Qing heard the sound of Yang Ce opening the door from inside and came out to meet him, though anyone could see the haggardness on her face.

"Sister Xiao Qing, what on earth is wrong? Don't scare me." Seeing Xiao Qing's appearance, Yang Ce's heart ached. He hurried forward and embraced her.

"Ai..." Xiao Qing sighed faintly, looking at Yang Ce, not knowing how to begin.

At that moment, Yang Shuo Xuan noticed that Xiao Qing's eyes were red and swollen, clearly from recent crying. Yang Ce quickly helped her into the room and seated her on the bed. "Sister Xiao Qing, if something is troubling you, tell me. Is there anything you can't say to me?"

"Yang Ce, I'm afraid... I'm afraid that after I tell you, you'll hate me," Xiao Qing said in a small, nervous voice.

"Me hate you? Why would I hate you?" Yang Ce asked, puzzled.

"What if I did something that let you down?" Xiao Qing gritted her teeth and asked.

"Did something that let me down?" Yang Xu Tang frowned at once and looked at Xiao Qing. "Sister Xiao Qing, what are you talking about? What have you done that let me down?"

"Besides you, I've also been with someone else that way. Would you be angry?" Xiao Qing probed cautiously. In her view, having been with a man that way was more likely to be condemned than having been with a woman, since it involved a question of social convention. That was why she asked Yang Ce so vaguely, little knowing that this only made it harder to accept.

To be continued.

669. I'll Go With You to Meet Him

"When did this happen?" Yang Jue Huan's heart sank sharply. Could Xiao Qing have given her heart to someone else? Yet Yang Shuo Xuan did not erupt on the spot. After all, Xiao Qing's status now was only that of his god-sister; if one day Xiao Qing truly wanted to marry someone else, then Yang Shuo Xuan could only respect her choice.

"Before I met you," Xiao Qing said quietly.

"Ah, before you met me?" This time it was Yang Ce's turn to be baffled. Whether or not Xiao Qing and he had been each other's first, Yang Ce knew perfectly well. So when Xiao Qing said that before meeting him she had been involved with someone else, Yang Ce truly did not quite understand.

"Sister Xiao Qing, what are you saying? Don't joke around." Yang Heng Ye laughed. "Do you have a fever today?"

"Yang Ce, I am completely clear-headed right now, and I don't have a fever. I am talking to you about something serious, not joking." Xiao Qing's expression turned solemn.

"All right, even if what you say is true," Yang Xu Nai spread his hands helplessly, "you also said it was before you met me. I'm not such a petty person. Before you met me, I couldn't possibly have demanded anything of you. So you don't need to worry at all about whether I'll be angry."

"But..." Xiao Qing looked at Yang Ce with some disbelief. Wasn't it said that men were very petty about this sort of thing? Could it be that he simply did not care about her?

Then she saw Yang Min Lan smile and say gently, "Xiao Qing, do you remember the bloodstain on the bedsheet that time in Hong Kong? How do you explain that? You're not going to tell me you just happened to have your period that day, are you?"

"Of course not. I mean, sometimes doing it doesn't necessarily mean breaking..." Xiao Qing's face flushed bright red at once. Even though she had already been intimate with Yan, she still could not help feeling embarrassed at this moment.

"Forget it, Sister Xiao Qing. No matter how you were before, that is all in the past," Yang Ce waved his hand. "What I care about is your present, not clinging to things past."

"Really? Yang Ce, is that truly what you think?" Hearing Yang Jue Huan's words, Xiao Qing's expression lit up at once, but then dimmed again—because what she meant was something entirely different from what Yan imagined. The key issue was that she had done that with a woman, not a man. Even if Yang Ce could magnanimously tolerate her past, could he endure that his woman had once been homosexual? That was what Xiao Qing feared most.

But now that it had come this far, Xiao Qing threw caution to the wind. Gritting her teeth, she said, "Yang Ce, actually... things aren't quite what you think."

"Not quite what I think?" Yang Ce frowned. Looking at Xiao Qing's uneasy, frightened expression, he felt a pang of tenderness. "Sister Xiao Qing, I've already told you—whatever you were before, that's all in the past. What I, Yang Ce, care about is who you are now. A person can't live in the past, can they?"

"Yang Ce, actually, it's like this..." Seeing how certain Yang Ce sounded, Xiao Qing felt herself steadying a little. "Before I met you, because of what happened with Song Hang, I'd lost all faith in men. And it was during that time that I met a woman who'd been through something similar."

"Been through something similar? A woman?" Yang Ce was startled, and a vague suspicion began to take shape in his mind.

"Mm. Because we shared the same grief, we found more and more to talk about, and we'd often eat together, go out and have fun. Then one time, we both got drunk, and she suggested—suggested we watch a video together. And it turned out to be... a film of two women together. And so, in a fog, we..." Xiao Qing's account was halting and muddled, but Yang Ce had long since guessed the gist of it, so he understood well enough.

Watching Xiao Qing hang her head and tell him all this like a child confessing a misdeed, Yang Ce could not help but smile. This Xiao Qing of his—she really was adorable.