Chapter 23 He Knelt Down
I sat back down, facing him. "I know you're serious."
Xiao Yuan had always been proud. His love and hate came that direct. For him to lower his head like this, I had never doubted the sincerity in him at that moment.
But.
I smiled. "Just because you're serious, do I have to accept?"
"Mr. Xiao." I brushed his hand away. "Those five years I chased you, I was sincere too. Did you accept me?"
His whole body shuddered. He looked into my eyes and said, "It's fine. I'll wait.
"You chased me for five years. I can do the same.
"You'll always have needs, physical or mental. I'll wait until the day you need me."
I saw my reflection in his eyes. That nauseating pain of disgust in my chest was gone.
So it could disappear.
I said, indifferent, "Then why would I come to you?"
"Because I'm good in bed and not clingy."
I widened my eyes. "Are you sick in the head?"
Xiao Yuan smiled. "I've always been sick. It's not like you don't know."
"Xu Zhiyi." He coaxed, step by step. "You might as well pick me, even if it's just to kill boredom."
I looked him over without hiding it and gave my verdict. "Why would I pick you? Are you the only man alive? What gives you the right?"
"The ones better looking than me don't have my body. The ones with better bodies don't have my money. The ones with money aren't as generous. And the generous ones—" Xiao Yuan paused, looking at me, and said softly, "None of them love you like I do."
"Not necessarily." I turned my face away. "Maybe I'll take a liking to someone and marry him on the spot."
"Oh," Xiao Yuan said. "Then I'll be the other man."
I was so mad I laughed. That Xiao Yuan ease made me furious. "This is how you chase someone?"
"Crying your eyes out and kneeling to apologize is the most useless move, and the one that costs the least," Xiao Yuan said. "I have plenty of ways to ask for your forgiveness, plenty of means to win you back and treasure you.
"And if I really cried and knelt in front of you, it would only make you despise me more.
"It wouldn't help."
I raised a brow. "How do you know it wouldn't help if you don't try?"
The words had just left my mouth when Xiao Yuan rose from his seat and dropped both knees to the floor in front of me.
Too sudden. My legs stepped back on instinct.
He took my hand, looked up at me, and said seriously, "Xu Zhiyi, will you give me one more chance?"
I looked down at him and said, word by word, "Xiao Yuan, you've got some nerve."
His brow lifted slightly in that instant, like he wanted to say something, but he swallowed it.
I kicked his knee with my toe. "Were you about to make a dirty joke?"
"We haven't even hugged. How would I offend you." Suddenly it was like he gave something up. The spine that had been kneeling so straight bent. He looked at me. "These past six months I've wanted to see you so badly, but I knew the moment we met you'd push me even farther away."
"But I couldn't hold back anymore." He smiled like he had accepted it. "I haven't dressed this formally in nearly ten years. When I tied the tie I realized I was doing it to please you, and I actually felt happy."
I folded my arms over my chest, a defensive pose, and said nothing.
The sad scene didn't last a few seconds. Xiao Yuan suddenly said, "I have another advantage. I'm a virgin."
I said, "..."