Chapter 9 A Three O’clock Family Drama (Revised)

People…

Human memory is truly strange.

Tang Man reminisced for a long time before suddenly recalling some details in a flash.

She actually didn’t have the habit of deleting her ex-boyfriends’ contact information unless they had done something she despised too much. Generally, if they broke up peacefully, she would preserve a bit of decency.

As a result, there weren’t actually many ex-boyfriends’ numbers stored in her phone.

But Si Jiahe was one of them.

In Tang Man’s heart, their breakup at that time was considered peaceful.

It seemed that one late night, Si Jiahe had suddenly called her.

By then, they had been apart for two weeks.

In her hazy and lengthy memory, Tang Man confirmed that somewhat uncertain time.

Both ends of the call were silent when it was picked up.

She wasn’t sure why Si Jiahe didn’t make a sound, but Tang Man knew why she herself didn’t – because at that moment, Du Henian was on her bed, panting heavily.

All her attention at the time was on the man beneath her.

It seemed that from that moment, everything started to go awry.

Si Jiahe slowly began to disappear from her life from then on, like an ink painting washed away by time, gradually becoming blurred, with his presence being scraped away layer by layer by invisible things.

Of course, this wasn’t without the result of her letting it happen.

Although that breakup was somewhat unexpected for her, Tang Man’s personality had always been like this. She rarely looked back, which was one of the few things her mother, Madam Yang, had taught her.

Watching the busy figure in the kitchen, she suddenly became a bit curious. Amidst the clanging sounds constantly emerging from the kitchen, she softly inquired, “Jiahe, how have you been doing these past two years?”

The kitchen noises stopped. Si Jiahe’s hand unconsciously curled up a little, his face turning slightly pale. After a long while, he smiled and replied, “I’ve been doing alright.”

Tang Man walked over and leaned against the kitchen island, sitting on the swiveling stool. Her gaze fell upon Si Jiahe’s face as she casually thought that this wasn’t the expression one should have when saying they were doing alright.

So she looked intently at the person behind the island.

The tableware here hadn’t been used for a long time, always stored in the disinfection cabinet. Now that it was taken out, it needed a thorough cleaning.

After watching for a while, Tang Man felt bored. She wasn’t someone who enjoyed cooking, so she went to the living room alone, turned on the TV, and began playing on her phone.

Therefore, she didn’t see Si Jiahe’s other hand hidden behind his back instinctively tugging at his sleeve when she turned away, as if hiding something. He stared at her retreating figure for a few seconds until she disappeared from view before pursing his lips, his complexion unusually poor.

If Tang Man had seen it, she might have sighed “poor thing” and tenderly used her kisses to comfort him.

She knew that what Si Jiahe liked most was her intimacy. Countless times in the past, whenever an argument was about to erupt, as long as she gently leaned over, placed her hand on the boy’s wrist, and perfunctorily brushed her lips, all the anger would vanish in an instant.

Sometimes Tang Man couldn’t help but speculate that Si Jiahe must have had an exceptionally love-deprived upbringing to crave his partner’s company and touch so much.

But now she didn’t see it.

Messages kept refreshing in the WeChat group on her phone, nothing more than some school handover matters and internship recruitment information from major companies.

Tang Man had no intention of clicking in. She lay on the soft sofa, opened Weibo, but exited after browsing for a bit.

Du Henian had sent her a message on WeChat.

This made Tang Man instinctively frown.

She disliked being unusually entangled by others after a breakup, in other words, being pestered relentlessly. It was undignified and troublesome.

She hated trouble.

Wasn’t a peaceful breakup good?

That way, it wouldn’t be too awkward when meeting in the future.

The message from the other party was asking where she was, in a tone as usual, as if he hadn’t heard her say the word “breakup” during the day.

It was a bit like those TV dramas where the husband cheated and the wife checked on him in various probing ways. The difference was that she was the scumbag cheating husband and Du Henian was the wife checking up on her.

Tang Man suddenly had this feeling.

But now they weren’t in a relationship where this kind of feeling should arise.

Tang Man furrowed her brows.

Moreover, Du Henian wouldn’t be the kind of person to humbly keep probing whether she cheated or not. After being together for a long time, Tang Man gradually understood the man’s desire for control hidden beneath his gentleness and calmness.

Perhaps it was because the two of them had started off on the wrong foot back then, with this relationship beginning before another one had completely ended. At that time, Du Henian thought he had taken advantage of the situation. After they officially got together, Du Henian instead had a feeling of unease.

After all, his rise to her side wasn’t very proper, having used some underhanded means. He had fallen for a woman with a boyfriend and a harmonious relationship, secretly hoping for the day their relationship would fall apart.

Until he heard that the two had broken up, he almost couldn’t wait to climb into her bed, enticing Tang Man in an awkward manner.

So when the two of them weren’t together, Du Henian couldn’t help but suspect whether there would be other men beside Tang Man during those times he wasn’t with her, coveting her like he once did.

Therefore, they rarely fought. Once there was a conflict, Du Henian would be the first to relent.

He was afraid of repeating Si Jiahe’s mistake.

As a result, he was tormented inside. That was not long after their relationship was established. The changes in his emotions even affected Tang Man’s daily life. But at that time, she was still interested in Du Henian, infatuated with his appearance. In this relationship, she was willing to give in a step.

Thus, Du Henian obtained her schedule and even came to the apartment she rented near the school, gradually entering her life, which obviously stabilized the man’s mood.

However, as a result, she made many concessions.

The bottom line kept retreating step by step. Once you took a step back, you would quickly reach the edge of the cliff.

She stared at her phone for a while, but in the end, she still didn’t reply and directly ignored this message.

Once she replied, the man on the other end would clearly get cocky.

She didn’t want to waste time dealing with Du Henian right now. After a week of work and going out again in the afternoon, she felt that all her muscles and bones were limp and needed a good rest.

So she thought for a bit and felt that not replying like this wasn’t okay either. Since a peaceful breakup was no longer possible, then—

Tang Man directly replied with a sentence: [We’ve already broken up, don’t contact me again in the future.]

Then she directly blocked Du Henian, a one-stop service, directly blocking all contact methods. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief and lean against the sofa cushion, watching the family drama currently playing on the TV. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were arguing in a mess, the husband was keeping a low profile on the side, and the father-in-law was silent, as if it was a complete portrayal of early Chinese families.

How come there aren’t any new ideas in TV dramas nowadays? The plots are all the same, as if they never get tired of it.

A sentence abruptly flashed through her mind: When a relationship makes one feel fed up, there’s no need to continue it.

Her relationship with Du Henian had obviously long reached the point of weariness, but it had gone on for too long, so long that she had formed a habit. Surprisingly, she hadn’t brought up breaking up for a long time. Otherwise, with her past personality, just Du Henian touching her phone would have been enough for her to propose breaking up.

Back then, that was how things ended with Si Jiahe.

Du Henian must have known, but that man still did it.