INS Chapter 43

Tao Ling was startled, his brows completely furrowed.

Wen Qingying saw his expression clearly and put his arm around his waist without any hesitation.

Looking at the woman in front of him, Wen Qingying’s brows also wrinkled.

 

“Customer, what are you talking about?” Tao Ling asked.

The woman took a step forward, her eyes suddenly filled with tears: “I recognize you; your last name is Tao. I’ve seen your photo.”

Tao Ling couldn’t help but turn his head to look at Wen Qingying. Now he can occasionally communicate with Wen Qingying with some simple gestures, so he expressed his confusion.

 

Wen Qingying gently pulled him back, took out his phone, and asked the woman: “Hello, customer, what can I do for you? Do you need help? Or did you get the wrong person?”

After reading this question, the woman raised her hand to push him away, still with tears in her eyes, staring straight at Tao Ling: “Mr. Tao, are you homosexual?”

 

Tao Ling stood behind Wen Qingying and grabbed his arm.

Wen Qingying turned his head, with a worried look between his eyebrows. Tao Ling patted his arm soothingly, indicating that he didn’t need to worry about it.

Looking up, he saw two passers-by passing by not far away, looking in this direction. Tao Ling cleared his throat: “Please come in and take a seat.”

 

The woman turned a deaf ear and still asked stubbornly, “Excuse me, are you a homosexual?”

Tao Ling said, “This… dajie[mfn]”big sis”, a casual way to refer to a woman older than you[/mfn], did you recognize the wrong person? What do you need help with?”

 

The woman took a step forward and raised her hand to pull Tao Ling but was blocked by Wen Qingying. She suddenly raised her voice: “You’re not a homosexual, right? Huh? Answer me! It was that person who harassed you unilaterally, right!”

There were many people coming and going on the street. When this was said, several people looked back.

 

After two seconds of silence, before the woman completely lost control of her emotions, Tao Ling said, “Dajie, I don’t know who you mistook me for. I have nothing to do with anyone else. My boyfriend is right next to me.”

He pinched Wen Qingying’s hand: “Look carefully, this is my boyfriend. I’m gay, and my boyfriend is gay. I don’t know you, and my boyfriend doesn’t know you either. I don’t care who you are looking for; please look carefully!”

 

“You really are a homosexual,” the woman’s lips trembled, and tears flowed all over her face. “Were you together with Xia Chaoyang before?”

Sure enough.

 

Hearing this name, a burst of anger suddenly surged in his heart. Tao Ling said coldly, “I haven’t. I’m telling you, my boyfriend and I are each other’s only partner. Please don’t insert any weird names between us! This is very rude and insulting.”

 

The woman shook her head, took another step forward, and looked at him pleadingly: “Even if you and Xia Chaoyang have never been together, he likes you. He likes you, right? He loves you! He divorced me because of you!!”

She spoke louder and louder, and people gradually gathered around to watch the quarrel.

Tao Ling suppressed his temper and said, “Can we discuss this in the store? You’re really affecting our store’s business.”

 

“Tell me where he went! Please! I’m begging you!” the woman said in a hoarse voice.

After a while, she suddenly stepped back and was about to kneel on the ground. Wen Qingying was quick to take the lead and held her up at once.

 

Tao Ling was so confused when he saw this. He knew that this woman was pitiful and that Xia Chaoyang was actually also pitiful, but his heart could only hold the person he loved, and he didn’t want to pay for the pain of others.

Was there anyone in the world who held a greater sorrow than Tao Jun? For Tao Ling, there wasn’t.

 

He could no longer control his emotions and angrily said, “Dajie, I really don’t know where Xia Chaoyang went! He’s your husband; why are you asking me!”

After saying this, Tao Ling immediately thought that something was wrong and that he had said something wrong. The next second, he heard the woman crying, “Yes! He’s my husband! But he doesn’t want me anymore because of you!”

 

More and more people were watching, and the familiar boss of the next store also came out and asked in a low voice, “Teacher Tao, what’s going on?”

Tao Ling said, “I’m sorry, this customer must have recognized the wrong person. Everyone, please disperse. Sorry.”

 

Wen Qingying was very strong, and the woman couldn’t kneel down under his support, and she kept crying.

Tao Ling had been very anxious since he had vaguely guessed the woman’s identity. Seeing that she was so persistent, he gritted his teeth, waved his hands in front of him, and knelt down in front of her: “Please, dajie, can I kneel for you?”

 

The surrounding people were all shocked, and the woman also froze.

Wen Qingying let go of the woman and hurriedly turned around to pull Tao Ling. Tao Ling looked at him deeply and struggled slightly. Wen Qingying then slowly loosened his hand and also squatted down.

 

Tao Ling had an indifferent expression and stood up straight: “I don’t care about men having gold under their knees.[mfn]basically a saying that men shouldn’t kneel[/mfn] I’m kneeling to apologize to you, but I’m not in the wrong at all. I just ask you to let me go, and please have Xia Chaoyang also let me go after you find him!”

He wanted to continue, wanting to say that the person who had a relationship with Xia Chaoyang was dead, but the woman suddenly turned around, separated the crowd of onlookers, and rushed to the road.

 

Wen Qingying’s heart stagnated when he saw this, and he didn’t even have time to stand up. He stood up while squatting, almost jumping up, and took a long step in one step. The explosive power was so strong that everyone was surprised.

As soon as the woman got out of the encirclement, he followed behind her.

 

The moment Wen Qingying rushed to the roadside, a truck was coming from the opposite side. The woman rushed over without avoiding or dodging. It was unknown whether she was deliberately trying to hit the car or to cross the road.

The second before the sharp brake sounded, Wen Qingying rushed forward and hugged the woman.

The two people rolled together to the middle of the road and stopped at the edge of the flower bed in the middle.

 

Tao Ling, who followed, was so scared that he lost his voice. He immediately ran over. Several cars stopped in an emergency. The truck driver in the front cursed, “Fuck! If you want to die, get out of here!”

Tao Ling’s head was buzzing, and he didn’t care about apologizing.

 

When he got close, he pulled up the woman who was protected by Wen Qingying, and immediately wanted to hug Wen Qingying, but suddenly found that his hand was injured.

Perhaps because he supported his body on the ground when he rolled over, Wen Qingying’s right palm was stained with blood, and some dirt was rubbed into the wound, which looked shocking. He didn’t know if there were other injuries.

Tao Ling was shaking, but Wen Qingying didn’t look to be in pain. He even smiled and shook his head at him, trying to reassure him.

 

Tao Ling was so scared that he spoke with a nasal tone and yelled at the woman, “Are you fucking crazy? Stupid woman! You want to die for Xia Chaoyang? Has your brain been crushed by a mill?!”

The woman knelt on the side, as if she was scared stupid. She didn’t cry or say anything. She just stared at Wen Qingying’s hand. It took a while for her to come back to her senses. She waved her hands and bowed in panic: “I’m sorry, sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

 

Tao Ling’s voice was trembling, and he lowered his head and shouted, “Wen Qingying, baby, where else does it hurt?”

Seeing that he was so emotional, Wen Qingying anxiously opened his mouth as if he wanted to speak, but nothing came out.

Tao Ling didn’t dare to move him and forced himself to suppress his emotions. He just hugged his neck and pulled him up tentatively.

 

A nearby shop owner came to help. They pulled the distraught woman up and came to help support Wen Qingying.

Wen Qingying shook his head, indicating that everything was fine, and just placed his hand on Tao Ling’s shoulder.

That driver had cursed enough and saw that no one responded to him, and it affected traffic, so he left.

 

A few people returned to the flower shop. Knowing that Wen Qingying wasn’t seriously injured, Tao Ling felt calmer.

He thanked the boss next door and prepared to take Wen Qingying to treat the wound. Before leaving, he remembered something and said to the woman, “Dajie, you wait here. If you want to commit suicide again, no one can stop you this time. I can only think that you are taking revenge on us. Look at my boyfriend’s injuries; it’s all because of you.”

 

The woman cried so hard that her voice became hoarse: “I didn’t, I didn’t want to commit suicide.”

“That’d be for the best.” Tao Ling said coldly.

 

Fortunately, there was a pharmacy nearby. On the way there, Tao Ling kept lifting Wen Qingying’s arm, carefully keeping the wound facing upwards to avoid it from being touched.

The red spot kept flashing in front of his eyes, and he almost couldn’t help but choke.

Wen Qingying easily saw through his pretended strength, and the other hand that was not injured reached out from in front of him, gently brushed his cheek, and kissed his hair while no one was paying attention.

Tao Ling took a breath, turned his head to look at him, touched his gentle eyes, and finally smiled.

 

It was half an hour after the wound was treated. When they returned to the flower shop, the woman was still sitting stiffly at the table, motionless, just like before they left.

Seeing them coming in, she hurriedly stood up: “Is it bad?”

 

Tao Ling said expressionlessly, “If it was, I wouldn’t be here talking to you.”

Wen Qingying touched his face; Tao Ling looked at him and curled his lips slightly.

Turning to the woman, he didn’t see any disgust on her face.

 

“Please sit,” Tao Ling said.

The woman nodded and said, “I’m sorry.”

Tao Ling pulled out another chair for Wen Qingying to sit on: “Can you say anything else? From now on, I don’t want to hear these two words.”

He walked to the door, closed the glass door, turned the business sign over, and when he turned around, Wen Qingying had moved to the stool and left the chair for him.

 

Tao Ling pinched Wen Qingying’s hand, forced him to sit back on the chair, and then just held his hand, sat next to him, and looked at the woman in a conversational posture: “May I ask your name?”

The woman answered, “Jue Xia.”

Tao Ling raised his eyebrows, and the woman explained, “It’s not a pseudonym. My last name is Jue, as in feeling, and my given name is Xia, as in summer.”

“It’s a nice name. It matches your husband… ex-husband? It matches Xia Chaoyang.” Tao Ling said.

 

Originally, he thought Jue Xia would collapse when she heard Xia Chaoyang’s name, but she seemed to be completely calm at this time, just smiling palely.

Looking at her like this, Tao Ling found that she was actually very elegant, and she was completely different from her breakdown just now.

 

“I’m sorry, as soon as I saw you earlier, I couldn’t control my emotions. It was like I went crazy.” Jue Xia said, “I have some trouble controlling myself at this time.”

Wen Qingying sat quietly holding Tao Ling’s hand, and there was no blame in his eyes when he looked at her.

 

“Excuse me, when did you meet Xia Chaoyang?” Tao Ling asked.

Jue Xia didn’t even need to think about it and blurted out, “More than five years ago.”

Tao Ling asked bluntly, “Why did you think I was the reason for your divorce?”

Jue Xia: “I saw your photo in the study.”

Tao Ling laughed: “Then how did you find us here? You went around asking people using the photo?”

 

Jue Xia was silent for a while and said, “It’s a coincidence. I know that he has a good relationship with one of his colleagues and tells him everything. I took your photo to find that colleague, but the colleague said he didn’t know you, so I sent the photo to my friend. I originally wanted to confide in her, but she said she had seen you.”

“Seen me?” Tao Ling was surprised.

 

Jue Xia nodded: “Seen you, at an academic conference some time ago. She is an editor, and she also told me that he had looked for her before because of you.”

Tao Ling frowned, used a few seconds to sort out her words, and then laughed at himself, thinking that life really does come in a circle.

He said, “Xiao Chaoyang’s ex-boyfriend isn’t me, it’s my ge.”

 

Jue Xia looked up in surprise. Tao Ling didn’t give her the opportunity to ask questions and quickly said, “We’re not twins; we just look alike. My ge and Xia Chaoyang were college classmates. They broke up six years ago. At that time, Xia Chaoyang probably didn’t know you yet? So Mrs. Xia, you really found the wrong person. You should go to my ge, but my ge is dead, so you can ask the heavens.”

 

When he said this, he held Wen Qingying’s hand very tightly. Wen Qingying knew that he was in a state of uncertainty, and his thumb gently rubbed the back of his hand.

 

Jue Xia was speechless for a long time. Tao Ling smiled and said, “If there was a mistake, it was that Xia Chaoyang had to get married that year. I don’t know how you met, but you can figure this kind of thing out if you just think about it. He wanted to live a normal life and hide his sexual orientation. It’s quite shameless. But to be honest, Xia Chaoyang dared to divorce you now and leave the house empty-handed, which is still better than cheating on you for a lifetime.”

 

“I still despise him, but I understand him. What decision has he made now? To push himself to the point of no return, do you think he can be happy? He can only suffer for a lifetime, a lifetime of self-punishment.”

 

“Jue Xia jie,” Tao Ling said, “I call you jie, since it’s better to suffer for a short term than a long term. Think about it yourself. Is this the truth? You’re in so much pain because of him, so you must hate him. Since he will definitely not be happy, you should be happy to see him like this. These are all his retributions.”

 

After the voice fell, it took a few minutes for the three people to stop talking at the same time, and then a sob broke the strange silence.

Jue Xia covered her face with both hands and cried again.

 

Wen Qingying stood up and wanted to hand her a tissue; Tao Ling couldn’t stand him doing that while he had an injury, so he got up to do it first.

As he turned around, Tao Ling looked outside and saw that no one on the street looked over here. He did not avoid Jue Xia at all; he bent down and kissed Wen Qingying on the lips.

 

Jue Xia lowered her eyes uncomfortably, wiped her tears with tissues, and took a long time before she calmed down, saying, “I don’t want him to suffer.”

Tao Ling obviously expected this answer, sighed, and shook his head: “Sometimes people don’t need to be so kind; it’s better that way.”

He handed the tissue to Jue Xia again. When Jue Xia thanked him, she glanced at the ring on his hand and asked, “Mr. Tao, where did you get your ring?”

 

Tao Ling took back his hand: “Why?”

Jue Xia said, “I have seen this ring.”

Tao Ling was stunned, remembering that this ring was a pair of rings, and the other was sent by Xia Chaoyang on Tao Jun’s birthday.

He turned his head to look at Wen Qingying and asked Jue Xia anxiously, “Where did you see it?”

 

“He was very strange for a while, so I…” Jue Xia stopped talking here.

Tao Ling continued for her: “You found someone to tail him.”

 

Jue Xia took a deep breath and admitted, “I found someone to tail him and found that he went to a store that was hard to find, in another province. Later, I secretly looked through his things at home and really found this ring. Maybe it was another one, exactly the same as this one. The inner circle is engraved with petals, right?”

 

“You know about it?” Tao Ling was surprised.

Jue Xia pursed her lips lightly: “It was because of this ring that I confirmed that he was… a homosexual.”

 

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TL: sorry about the slow updates lately, midterm season got me choked by the neck. And uh finals are also coming up, so I don’t think I’ll be able to update faster anytime soon. Sorry about that, thank you guys for your patience.

Also, thanks to anyone who’s left a comment so far! I may not be responding, but I definitely do see it ^^