Chapter 42: Engagement Ring~

The car suddenly fell into a long silence.

Tang Man felt that perhaps the words she had suddenly spoken had a greater impact than she had imagined, leaving Xie Li without a response for more than ten seconds.

“What about Pei Ling?”

Just when Tang Man thought the matter had passed, unexpectedly, Xie Li, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly brought up another person’s name.

“Pei Ling?” Tang Man was still caught up in the phone call incident and didn’t immediately understand why Xie Li suddenly mentioned Pei Ling. “What does this have to do with Pei Ling?”

Xie Li turned his head to look outside. Their car was parked on a tree-lined street. At this time, it was much quieter than during the day. Occasionally, a vehicle would pass by, bringing a sound of car horns. The street lights on the side of the road were suspended high above, casting mottled yellow light on the ground.

This was a very good place for conversation.

Because it was very secluded, even if they argued or questioned each other, they could do so to their heart’s content. But sometimes it could also bring a sense of oppression. The heavy night, the dim light, and the dark interior of the car, once stopped, only the bright spots on the instrument panel could be seen.

But Xie Li remained silent.

He was afraid that once he spoke, all the jealousy and ugly emotions that had been suppressed deep in his heart would be swept away by the flood and unleashed in front of Tang Man, like a hysterical and unreasonable person.

The faces of most jealous people don’t look very good, and Tang Man wasn’t someone who liked the feeling of being bound. So he tried his best to endure, trying to appear as casual as possible.

“You came to the hospital with him today. Did he drive you?” After a while, Xie Li restarted the car and drove onto the road, as if he had already regained his composure, saying this sentence casually.

Tang Man glanced at the man but found that she couldn’t quite see his expression clearly. Half of his face was hidden in the darkness, with his tall nose bridge shrouded in shadow on one side. She raised her hand and turned up the interior light a little.

“We just happened to run into each other at school. I didn’t drive, and your call came in urgently at the time. It just so happened that he had driven, so I let him bring me over.”

She didn’t mention that Pei Ling had specifically waited for her in the classroom, mainly to save some unnecessary suspicion and trouble. With Xie Li’s mindset and her past romantic history, it was impossible for Xie Li not to overthink if she had explained it clearly.

After finishing her words, Tang Man’s gaze remained on the man’s face without leaving. Xie Li in the driver’s seat could even feel Tang Man’s scrutinizing gaze on his face, perhaps trying to see his expression clearly, or for other reasons.

She could always make this kind of thing seem so natural.

Xie Li tilted his head slightly, trying to ignore Tang Man’s strong gaze. He almost felt like he was sitting on pins and needles. Tang Man rarely looked at him like this, so the impact was too great, making him unable to handle it. The feeling of embarrassment spread from the tips of his ears.

He suddenly felt that it was a bit stuffy in the car, not quite sure if the tips of his ears had turned a little red due to this stuffiness.

Because of this stuffiness, his mind also became a little confused, so a sentence came out without going through his brain.

“How did you two meet?”

After asking, he felt it was a bit like an interrogation and investigation. His hand on the steering wheel tightened, and he couldn’t help but tilt his head and glance at the woman in the passenger seat out of the corner of his eye.

However, he found that Tang Man had already withdrawn her gaze and was looking down at her phone, tapping on the screen, seemingly replying to a message.

The other party hadn’t noticed his probing. Hearing this question, she replied without raising her head, “My mother had previously taken her boyfriend to have a meal with me. It just so happened that the uncle of Pei Ling’s stepsister was Mr. Gu. Thinking that Pei Ling and I were about the same age and attended the same school, we might have a common language, so he brought him over for a meal together.”

“What, do you have something to ask him?” Only then did Tang Man notice that Xie Li had asked too much and couldn’t help but think more. “Does the company have a cooperative project with the Pei family recently?”

That’s not very likely.

The older Old Tang got, the more narrow-minded he became. He didn’t look like someone with such a magnanimous heart.

After all, this person had just gotten into a fight with someone from the Gu family this morning. How could he still show intention to cooperate with the Pei family?

“No, it’s just that I ran into Mr. Pei in the hospital corridor when I came out earlier and chatted with him for a bit.”

Only when she heard this did Tang Man’s attention get drawn over. She moved her gaze from the phone screen and raised her head to look at Xie Li, a little curious and puzzled. “What do you two have to talk about?”

Xie Li smiled. “Nothing much, just a few polite words.”

“You two don’t seem like people who can exchange a few polite words.” A few seconds after hearing Xie Li’s words, Tang Man suddenly commented.

“Hmm?” Xie Li turned his head.

“It’s nothing. It’s just that Pei Ling is inherently a bit arrogant, and you don’t have an easy-going temperament either. It’s quite unexpected for me that you two can chat.”

Xie Li suddenly smiled. “I’m so unapproachable in your heart?”

Tang Man raised an eyebrow. “Yes, sometimes you make people feel quite difficult to get close to.”

At least in the beginning, he presented this kind of image in front of her. He was serious, in his early twenties, dressed in a suit, and looked mature. Even on holidays, as long as he came out to see her, he had the appearance of being at work.

Xie Li smiled and didn’t say anything more. He felt that Tang Man was the one who was unapproachable. The coldness emanating from her bones was as if she was sitting on a high platform, so he was now picking a flower from that high platform. If he was slightly careless, he would fall and shatter into pieces.

Tang Man put away her phone, propped her chin with her hand, and leaned against the car window, looking at the side of Xie Li’s face. Cars passed by from the opposite direction one after another, and some slightly white light hit the windshield, passing through and falling on Xie Li’s face.

She tilted her head slightly and narrowed her eyes. In this blurry vision, she looked at the small part of Xie Li’s face. His tall nose bridge and the dark light spreading in the night were like a dividing line, separating the sense of alienation on this person.

When he frowned for a moment, she suddenly remembered the casual side of him that she had accidentally seen before. Tang Man spoke softly.

“Xie Li, actually, I find that casual clothes suit you quite well.”