Chapter 58. [Latest] For now, she merely called it a fleeting infatuation. Main Text…

From the night before, did you want to see each other again?

Tang Man turned her head and looked through the rear windshield, saying to the driver, “It’s alright, you can just drive and stop when we arrive.”

Hu Haiying glanced at Tang Man and said, “I’ll go straight to the hospital. Your mom is likely having surgery in the next few days.”

“Mm,” Tang Man responded.

Hu Haiying got off at the hospital, but Tang Man didn’t follow suit and go upstairs. Instead, she glanced at the car behind them, signaling for the driver to continue driving.

When they arrived at the lake area, she got out of the car and waited for the driver to leave. She stood there for a moment, with Xie Li’s car parked not far away. Ultimately, she turned and left, realizing there wasn’t much left for her and Xie Li to say.

This relationship might have started impurely, with the foreshadowing planted early on.

It was all karma.

In the end, she fell into the trap set by the Tang family, as expected. The cheese she shouldn’t have touched was off-limits for a reason.

However, after breaking up, Tang Man felt lighter, as if freed from a burden, similar to the elation and relief she felt when she first started boarding at high school.

Upon arriving home, she set down her luggage and stood before the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room, drawing aside the curtain to glance downstairs. A car was still parked under the streetlight, and it seemed Xie Li had gotten out and was leaning against it.

After observing for a moment, she averted her gaze, checked her phone, and ordered takeout. She then stood up and looked outside, noting that it had grown dark.

Under the streetlight remained the shadow of Xie Li’s car, which had been parked there for quite some time. Tang Man stood at the floor-to-ceiling window, observing for a while before softening somewhat.

Women tend to be softer, and she didn’t see anything wrong with that. Sometimes she acknowledged her own indecisiveness, but for the most part, this was a temperament inherited from Yang Qing’s genes, making it difficult to change.

She sent Xie Li a message: [Go home and rest early. I’ll inform the Tang family myself, and it won’t affect you. If you need me to intervene with your parents, just let me know.]

Xie Li called her, and Tang Man felt the vibration in her hand. She could sense the person below looking up at her, but she remained standing calmly before the floor-to-ceiling window, her eyelids half-lowered as she observed the man standing below.

About a minute later, she drew the curtains closed, no longer looking outside.

Unlike Si Jiahe and Du Henian, Xie Li was rational enough. He would indulge in emotions briefly but wouldn’t neglect his duties. Such individuals lived the most tiring lives, adhering too strictly to principles.

However, it seemed children from ordinary families possessed this admirable quality. Tang Man was willing to use this phrase to praise Xie Li’s character, as she found such individuals enviable and respectable. She was lackadaisical and irreverent, naturally suited for a life without limits.

People always envy those superior to them.

She had liked many people before, but those feelings came too suddenly, like rushing river rapids, the melted snow from mountain streams, all so abrupt that they ultimately ended without incident.

After showering and exiting the bathroom, she opened the liquor cabinet, took out an opened bottle, and sat on the thick rug before the floor-to-ceiling window. She placed the newly arrived takeout in front of her, crossed her legs, and drew the curtains halfway, pouring herself a glass and taking a small sip.

It had been a long time since she last drank.

Tang Man didn’t have particular preferences for alcohol. In her youth, she emulated the elder Tang, aiming to savor the world’s finest wines. As a young girl, she did many cringeworthy things, acting pretentiously and affectedly, insisting on drinking wines from French and Swiss vineyards with strict requirements on the estates. Privately, Hu Haiying never stopped chiding her mischievousness.

But now, she found even common erguotou quite palatable, seeing little difference between high-end red wines and homemade sorghum liquor. In fact, she even found the sorghum liquor more fragrant and mellow.

She drank crisp, full-bodied juniper berry wine and fresh, austere wormwood wine. She had tasted many varieties, but ultimately preferred the unique bitterness of inexpensive wormwood wine.

Many had advised her to fully embrace love, to love someone wholeheartedly, as if everyone around her was telling her to immerse herself in romance.

But in Tang Man’s memory, her experiences with love weren’t very pleasant. Or rather, whenever that word was involved, everything around her fell into disarray.

So, even now, Tang Man still felt love was best avoided. If love caused one to lose rationality and descend into madness, even if it could melt winter’s ice and freeze summer snows, she didn’t want it.

She had been doing just fine, living freely, and would continue to do so in the future.

Who knows, perhaps one day she might find herself liking someone, not wanting to be apart from them, and feeling comfortable in their company. She might even get married, but that would be far in the future. For now, she was certain the right time wasn’t upon her yet.

Perhaps it was because she grew up alongside Tang Zhengfeng, witnessing too many separations and too much disarray. The relationship between father and daughter couldn’t be summed up by the simple term “relatives” – it contained too many other elements.

The only thing truly connecting their relationship was perhaps that thin thread of blood relation, oh, and Tang Man’s coveted ancestral Tang family estate and the Tang family’s century-old inheritance. But those weren’t hers, and dwelling on them too much would breed obsession. Tang Man felt she had fallen into that trap this time, stumbling head-first and dragging Xie Li down with her.

This incident taught Tang Man a lesson: as long as the elder Tang didn’t die, she couldn’t ascend, and those belongings of the Tang family wouldn’t be hers.

The national revolution couldn’t succeed in one attempt, just as New China couldn’t be established overnight. And the elder Tang wouldn’t just keel over – with that spirit, she would likely continue tormenting Yang Qing for many more years.

With this realization, Tang Man decided to temporarily change her trajectory, revising her career plans and diligently researching if there were any professions where she could earn money while lying down. Of course, she wouldn’t engage in any illegal occupations; she still maintained basic principles.

Perhaps it was the alcohol, but she felt a little tipsy, leaning against the cool glass. At some point, the car that had been parked under the streetlight was gone, leaving only a warm glow of light in the dim illumination.