Chapter 22: …Am I Also Someone You Use to Pass Time?

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Of course, Du Henian would not hit her. Tang Man was just joking, but she was indeed a little scared of Du Henian.

Especially when he got angry.

Sometimes, when gentle people got angry, it was even more frightening.

In fact, Du Henian had hardly ever lost his temper when he was with her. This man was really too good at observing others’ expressions and words. Every time, just when she was about to reach the critical point of impatience, he would find a line and quickly retreat back outside the line, leaving her no strength to get angry.

At first, Tang Man actually didn’t notice. Most of the boyfriends she had dated before were still young. Their minds were at most only on the acre of land in front of them. Their daily worries were probably only about exams and grades, and then their secret crushes.

Even Si Jiahe at that time was a clean little white flower, exquisite and transparent. In front of her, he was like transparent, with his emotions showing on his face.

Sometimes when she joked about breaking up, his eyes would turn red, and tears seemed to be about to fall in the next second.

There was no need for Tang Man to guess.

But Du Henian was different. Tang Man was not sure if this was his personality shaped by his experience, or if he was born mature early, with a mind more sophisticated than others, practicing being unperturbed to the extreme.

Tang Man sometimes couldn’t help thinking that if this man were to travel to the ancient palace, he would definitely be a lord who could conquer without seeing blood on his blade.

Therefore, she was afraid of him getting angry, because the unknown was always scary. She was not sure if Du Henian was a grenade or an anti-materiel sniper weapon.

Hearing Tang Man’s joke, Xie Li glanced at her. She didn’t know if it was her psychological effect, but she always felt that this gaze was meaningful.

However, in the end, Xie Li did not refuse and only followed her to the coffee shop.

The coffee shop was just around the corner diagonally across from the hospital. Because it was only two or three o’clock in the afternoon, there were not many people, only a few sitting scattered. So a man sitting alone by the window on an iron chair was particularly eye-catching.

That appearance was enough to attract people’s attention. Compared to Si Jiahe’s delicate and fragile looks, Du Henian’s appearance, like himself, exuded a sense of restraint.

However, today, he was rarely dressed in casual clothes, with some loose hair on his forehead. He didn’t wear those bookish-looking framed glasses, which made him look much younger all of a sudden.

Tang Man rarely saw him in such attire, and her eyes flashed.

She began to suspect whether he had the purpose of □□ her. This look completely hit a certain point of hers.

Because of her sudden pause, Xie Li subconsciously turned his head to look. Just as he was about to ask, he saw the expression on Tang Man’s face, and the question he was about to ask was swallowed back.

After getting along for a long time, he had a good grasp of Tang Man’s personality. After all, he had witnessed her most troublesome teenage years.

He could see at a glance that Tang Man had a moment of distraction. When he turned his head back and saw the appearance of that man Du Henian, he already understood in his heart.

In the end, he really couldn’t help it and muttered a sentence, “Regretting it?”

Tang Man carelessly withdrew her gaze and met Xie Li’s somewhat sarcastic gaze with a smile. She said thoughtfully, “Assistant Xie, I found that you have been very irritable recently.”

Xie Li’s eyes hidden behind the lens flashed, but he still snorted with laughter.

This was the first time she heard such a rude laugh from the man in front of her, which made Tang Man unable to react for a moment.

The man in front of her had already spoken, “Perhaps I can send you an Excel spreadsheet, explaining the list of ex-boyfriends I have dealt with for you over the years.”

Only then did Tang Man lightly cough and feel that there was no such need.

Who doesn’t have a little dark history when they are young?

Seeing that Du Henian had already noticed this side, Tang Man stopped talking and walked over. Xie Li took a step or two back and followed behind her.

As soon as she walked over, Du Henian’s gaze fell on the well-dressed man behind Tang Man.

Strictly speaking, this was the first time Du Henian saw Xie Li, but Xie Li was not seeing Du Henian for the first time. He had seen Du Henian from a distance once before.

That time, Du Henian was presiding over an academic conference and talking eloquently on stage. Tang Man was sitting in the last row, surrounded by a circle of girls. Only she was holding her phone and playing games with her head down, looking bored.

He almost saw her as soon as he entered from the back door, and almost as soon as he looked up, he saw the man sitting on the stage.

A man and a woman, both eye-catching existences in the crowd.

He could even feel the occasional glances from the few boys sitting around Tang Man, as well as the exclamations from those girls looking at the person on stage.

The person on stage seemed unaware, his voice clear. The person sitting in the back row also seemed unaware. As for the praises from those girls around her about Du Henian’s appearance, Tang Man seemed to not have heard them. From time to time, she would poke at her phone and didn’t notice Du Henian’s occasional glances sweeping over this area from the stage.

Then, at that time, Xie Li felt his phone in his pocket vibrate. Taking it out, he found that it was a message from Tang Man, asking where he had arrived.

Xie Li didn’t go over, only quietly retreated from the back door and sent a message to Tang Man, saying that he had arrived.

Before that, he and Du Henian actually had a contact, through a phone call. Tang Man should have been in the bathroom at that time, so the only one outside to answer the phone was Du Henian.

That was the first time Xie Li heard Du Henian’s voice. Unlike Si Jiahe’s usual softness and stickiness, when this man Du Henian spoke to others, he always had a politeness of a lofty flower, or a sense of alienation, a gentle alienation hidden within.

In stark contrast to him, his aloofness was the usual courtesy in the business world, while Du Henian’s aloofness was a true coldness that kept people thousands of miles away.

At this time, that obviously colder gaze fell on Xie Li. The man sitting by the window stood up and smiled, asking Tang Man, “Manman, who is this?”

Hearing Du Henian’s form of address, Tang Man frowned for a moment, but immediately relaxed. She already knew that Du Henian would not end it so easily today.

“A person from my dad’s company.”

Hearing Tang Man’s words, Xie Li seemed to smile, or maybe not. Meeting Du Henian’s gaze, he finally put on a smile for dealing with partners and said, “Mr. Du, hello, I’m Xie Li, Assistant to Miss Tang’s father.”

The expression on Du Henian’s face remained unchanged, but he subconsciously felt that the voice of the man in front of him sounded a bit familiar.

After thinking for a few seconds, his eyes flashed as he recalled two phone calls from long ago.

To be precise, a phone call received on an evening.

Because the timing was too ambiguous.

In Du Henian’s opinion, noon and five or six o’clock in the evening were both very ambiguous time points. If someone called at these times to discuss something, if one party had intentions, they could hardly avoid an invitation to a meal.

And a call from the opposite sex at these time points was enough to make him, at that time, be on guard.

Moreover, Xie Li was vague at that time. Especially because it was a male voice answering the phone on this end, Du Henian only said that Tang Man was not available at the moment and asked what the purpose of his call was. The other party didn’t even explain and only briefly said that they would contact again later before hanging up the phone.

Du Henian sensed something in the first instant.

However, he would never say anything in front of Tang Man. He would only imperceptibly eliminate the other party, reducing Tang Man’s contact with Xie Li’s side.

He even intentionally made a phone call to Xie Li later. At first, he intended to invite the other party to meet in person, also wanting to see who that man was. But at that time, Xie Li only said one sentence in response to that incoming call, “Mr. Du, you misunderstood.”

Then the person on the other end of the phone hung up.

Author

What Du Henian didn’t know was that it was also from that time onward that Xie Li never took the initiative to call Tang Man again. But he might know. He didn’t care much because from Tang Man’s later reaction, the Xie Li at that time was not even considered a rival in love in Du Henian’s eyes.

No, it was quite a blow to the Xie Li at that time.

That phone call from Du Henian almost made him feel that he had lost face. He realized that he was intentionally or unintentionally destroying someone else’s relationship, as if he were a third party trying to intervene in someone else’s relationship. This was undoubtedly an immoral behavior, and without a doubt, such behavior would have been despised by his former self.

And at this time, Xie Li, who had been in the business world for many years, had learned to be unperturbed. Under Du Henian’s gaze, he naturally said to Tang Man beside him, “I’ll wait for you over there.”

He then walked away and sat not far from them, ordering a cup of black coffee.

Only then did Tang Man sit down.

Du Henian also sat down opposite her, his gaze falling on Tang Man. He smiled, “I thought you would come alone. After all, this is our matter.”

Tang Man flipped through the hardboard menu placed on the table and said casually, “He’s not an outsider.”

She meant that he was a person from Old Tang’s company, so he was not an outsider.

But Du Henian obviously misunderstood. The smile on his face faded a little. He tapped his finger on the menu Tang Man was browsing and said, “The coffee here is not good. You probably won’t like it.”

Tang Man also ordered a cup of black coffee. She said, “Anyway, it’s just to pass the time. Since we came in, it’s not good to not order a cup. After all, we’re occupying their space.”

“Is that so?”

In an instant, before Tang Man could react, Du Henian suddenly attacked. Half of the man’s face was enveloped by the sunlight outside the window, shining on the fine fluff on his face that could be seen, making his fair skin even more fair and his features much softer.

But the words he spoke were exceptionally sharp, not gentle at all, like a sword stabbing into one’s heart, “So… Manman, was Si Jiahe also someone you used to pass the time?”

After saying this, the man even smiled.

Because the sunlight today was very gentle and not glaring, it appeared even more tranquil through the glass window.

Under such rendering, Du Henian’s face actually showed a look of peaceful years.