Chapter 41: We Broke Up!

When Tang Man said this, she suddenly felt a little dazed, mainly because she had never thought there would be a day when she would take the initiative to say this sentence before.

On such a calm and bright day.

In an old noodle shop with decades of history, surrounded by white steaming mist and the loud and boiling sound of people, she said to Xie Li, “Let’s get engaged.”

It was equivalent to directly skipping the dating stage, and their relationship was about to undergo earth-shaking changes.

Often such changes are both terrifying and delightful, but Tang Man’s heart was much calmer. Perhaps she had never thought that marriage was so sacred from the beginning.

After a while, in the silence that was not quite silent, Tang Man only heard the voice of the person beside her when she lowered her head to eat the noodles.

“I won’t accept an open marriage relationship.”

Tang Man swallowed the food in her mouth before looking up at the man beside her, raising her eyebrows slightly in confusion. “Hmm?”

Xie Li looked at her, his expression carrying a kind of sincerity. “Tang Man, I don’t accept an open relationship. I hope that our marriage will only involve you and me, one-on-one, without the involvement of other people.”

“Perhaps we haven’t continued our marriage relationship yet, but I hope that when you agree to get engaged to me, you can maintain loyalty in this relationship,” Xie Li said after a long silence. “This is my only requirement.”

Tang Man didn’t respond immediately. She looked at Xie Li for a while and suddenly felt that she didn’t know what reaction she should have or what she should say.

Seeing that Tang Man hadn’t spoken for a long time and didn’t even express any intention, Xie Li’s face finally changed. He couldn’t help but laugh self-deprecatingly. “Tang Man, you want to get engaged to me, but you don’t even have this little bit of sincerity? You’re not even willing to agree to this sole request of mine?”

He suddenly put down the soup spoon in his hand, his whole body feeling as if it had been drenched in a cold rain from head to toe, chilling him badly, even his bones ached a little.

It hurt so many times, but he still couldn’t get used to it.

He looked at the woman in front of him and couldn’t help asking with a light laugh, “Tang Man, am I really that lowly in your eyes?”

Perhaps when he made this request, he had already placed himself in the lowest position. No man, when getting engaged, would require their other half to be exclusive to them and maintain loyalty, because this is the most basic thing in a marriage relationship and doesn’t even need to be said.

When asking, he had most likely already prepared himself to accept the humiliation.

Tang Man looked at the man in front of her. Actually, she had thought about many things in an instant, including the expression on the other party’s face when he made that request, which kept flashing through her mind.

Just as Xie Li was about to stand up and leave due to her long silence, Tang Man seemed to suddenly react and grabbed Xie Li’s hand.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t agree.”

When Tang Man pulled the person back to sit in the seat, she looked at him and said, “I just didn’t expect you to make this request.”

Xie Li said that she thought of him as lowly, but in fact, it was only Xie Li who placed himself very low, because no one’s requirement for their other half when getting engaged is not to maintain an open marriage.

“I agree.” Tang Man smiled lightly. “I never had any intention of maintaining an open marriage from the beginning.”

Xie Li looked at Tang Man for a long time, not knowing whether he should believe this woman or not. In the end, he let out a soft “hmm” and suddenly became much more docile, retracting the protruding thorns on his body. He lowered his head and slowly and earnestly finished the remaining bowl of noodle soup.

Seeing the other party’s suddenly softened brows and eyes, Tang Man smiled slightly and also lowered her head to finish the remaining noodles earnestly. She even drank the soup clean. This seemed to be the first time in days that she had eaten so fully.

By the time they came out, it was already a bit dark. They had spent a lot of time in this noodle shop. When they came out, Tang Man had a layer of sweat on her forehead. Pot noodles were more comfortable to eat in winter. It was still a bit hot to come in this season, and there was no air conditioning inside the shop.

Xie Li also had sweat, with a thin layer of sweat on his face, but it made his skin appear even more fair and delicate. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to his forearms, revealing slightly thin but firm muscles.

However, after leaving the shop, a breeze blew over, dispelling much of the strong smell of noodle soup and the heat on their bodies.

They walked out of the alley along the entrance, with an old streetlight every few steps on both sides, sometimes flickering due to poor contact. From time to time, they would meet a few office workers who had just gotten off work and were walking hurriedly, holding their phones.

Tang Man glanced at Xie Li. “Still going back to the company to work overtime today?”

“No more overtime.” Xie Li raised his wrist to glance at his watch. “After sending you home, I need to come back for a bit and tell my parents about this.”

Tang Man glanced at Xie Li. The other party’s jawline was very obvious under the dim light, as if it had been cut out by a knife, with a sharp edge.

She seemed to suddenly realize something. “You said you’re coming back. Your family lives here?”

“My parents live here.”

Previously, he had spent most of his money here to buy an old house for his parents, mainly because his parents had lived in this area for most of their lives and were already familiar with this area. It wasn’t good for them to go elsewhere, so he simply bought an old and shabby house, then did some simple renovations and put the house under his parents’ names, giving the two elderly people some security.

After a moment of hesitation, Tang Man still didn’t bring up whether she should go and meet the other party’s parents. Firstly, she wasn’t ready yet. Secondly, she felt that if she suddenly showed up at the door like this, the ones who would be shocked would definitely be Xie Li’s parents, not her.

She could almost imagine what kind of image the parents who had raised someone like Xie Li would have.

From some of Xie Li’s past, one could also guess a thing or two. Just like many ordinary working-class people in this city, they had supported their children’s education from a poor situation, hoping for them to become successful. Such parents usually also had some common problems of Chinese parents.

Hardworking, simple, able to endure hardship, but also hoping that their children could settle down and have children at an appropriate age, and then pass on from generation to generation like this for a lifetime.