I'm Rich - 15
Chapter 15
The snow wasn't heavy, but after walking for a while, a thin white layer had still settled on her hair and shoulders.
After turning a corner, Guan Zhiyi looked up and saw Qi Chengyan's front gate appear before her. She swayed on her feet, frowned, and turned in the other direction.
But after a few steps, she still turned back.
Maybe she should just see him once. Just say "Happy New Year" and leave it at that?
She stood there, dizzy and conflicted, for a long while before finally sending Qi Chengyan a message. She deleted and rewrote it several times before settling on: [I have something for you. Come to the door for a sec, gege.]
After sending it, she could barely stand anymore and leaned against the wall beside her.
Saying she had something for him was just an excuse.
Guan Zhiyi reached into her pocket and rummaged around. What could she give him...
A second later, she pulled out a few candies. She'd grabbed them off the coffee table earlier without thinking.
Click.
A few minutes later, the sound of the front door opening came from inside.
"Xiao Wu?" Qi Chengyan's voice carried over.
Guan Zhiyi's heart skipped. Her eyes lit up, and she hurried out from behind the wall. "Here!"
Qi Chengyan stood at the doorway. Seeing the faint dusting of snow on her shoulders and hair, he paused. "You didn't bring an umbrella?"
"Forgot."
Qi Chengyan frowned, stepped forward, and grabbed her wrist to pull her inside.
But Guan Zhiyi planted her feet. "I'm not going in. I was just passing by, and I wanted to give you... give you a few candies."
She pulled some milk candies from her pocket and pressed them into his palm.
Qi Chengyan glanced down, and a laugh escaped him. "You came all this way just to hand me a few candies? Aren't you cold?"
"Not cold. I was already out buying stuff anyway. Figured I'd say Happy New Year while I was at it." Guan Zhiyi took a step back. "Alright, I'm heading off."
She waved, her body swaying as she did. Qi Chengyan noticed something off and studied her more carefully. "Have you been drinking?"
Guan Zhiyi nodded honestly. "A lot, actually."
"Should I be impressed?"
"It's fine when I'm at home. Besides, it was my dad's prized red wine. Would've been a waste not to drink it!"
Qi Chengyan couldn't exactly argue with that. He looked her over and said disapprovingly, "If you've had that much, you shouldn't be out buying things."
"Walking it off."
"Walking where, exactly?"
Guan Zhiyi pointed behind her. "The convenience store in the complex."
"They're open today?"
"Yeah, they've got staff on rotation. There's someone every year. Gege! You've been gone so long you don't even know that anymore!" Her face was bright with laughter, but inside she was forcing herself to look away from him. "Um... anyway, I said what I came to say. I'm gonna go."
"Wait." Qi Chengyan stopped her.
"Hm?"
He didn't say anything, just turned and went back inside. A moment later, he came out with an umbrella. "Let's go."
"Huh?"
"I'll walk you to the store." He opened the umbrella beside her and tapped her on the head. "You can barely stand and you're still set on buying things. Not worried you'll fall?"
The air was cold, and his voice was cold too. So why did the whole world feel warm to her...
"But... Grandpa and the others are still at your place. Is it okay for you to just leave?"
"It's fine. We've mostly finished eating."
"Oh."
"What do you need to buy?"
Guan Zhiyi had no idea what she needed to buy. She thought about it and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "I want ice cream!"
"What?"
"Don't try to stop me! I just really want some all of a sudden. Let's go, let's go, let's buy it!" She grabbed his sleeve and tugged him forward with all her strength, giving him no room to refuse.
The convenience store wasn't far. Ten minutes of walking and they were there. The heater hit them the moment they stepped inside, and Guan Zhiyi felt so dizzy she could barely think straight.
An ice cream to wake herself up was exactly what she needed!
She grabbed three at once and handed one to Qi Chengyan.
He didn't take it. Instead, he scolded her like a child. "I'm not eating. You have one, and put the other two back."
Guan Zhiyi's face fell. "But I want to try two flavors."
"Put them back." Qi Chengyan repeated.
"Can't I just take two bites and throw it out?"
Qi Chengyan looked at her calmly. Nothing about his expression seemed harsh, but an unmistakable authority pressed down on her all the same. After a few seconds under that stare, Guan Zhiyi quietly went back and returned two of them.
When she came back, the one remaining ice cream had already been taken to the register by Qi Chengyan. Guan Zhiyi didn't want to show her face, so she waited until he walked out before trotting after him.
The way back was the same. Not long, not short. A few minutes and they'd be there. On nights like this, she used to wish she could get home faster because it was too cold outside.
Now, she wished the road would stretch on forever.
Guan Zhiyi ate her ice cream slowly, trying to think of ways to drag out the time... After a while, she suddenly stopped. "Gege, look over there!"
Qi Chengyan stopped too, following her finger.
She was pointing toward the middle of the lake. Snowflakes drifted through the air, the pavilion and water blending into a single scene, picturesque as a painting. It was a view he knew well, yet somehow it all felt unfamiliar.
"The park's been renovated since you went abroad, but one thing hasn't changed. In winter, the view from right here is still the best. You remember, don't you?"
"I remember. But some things have changed."
"I come to watch the snow every year around New Year's. Sometimes alone, sometimes with my sister. But when I was little, I always came with you. Hmm... actually, I think I was always the one dragging you out."
Qi Chengyan thought back on those old memories, something soft flickered in his eyes. "Your brother said it was too cold to come out, so you came to bother me instead."
"Yep. I knew you'd be willing to come with me."
Qi Chengyan smiled. "You knew you could push me around, didn't you?"
"I would never call you a pushover!"
Qi Chengyan reached to knock her head again, but this time Guan Zhiyi was quick and dodged out of the way. He shot her a look. "Alright, let's head back."
"Wait, wait, wait. Let me finish my ice cream first."
Guan Zhiyi slowly finished off the last of the cone, then ran to the trash can nearby to throw it away and came scurrying back.
Qi Chengyan had been watching her the whole time, both because the ground was slippery and because she was a little drunk. The girl wobbled with every step, and it was honestly entertaining to watch.
A hint of amusement touched his eyes, but worried she might fall, he reached out when she got close and let her steady herself on his arm. "You get this happy over ice cream. Still the same as when you were little."
"It's not the same!" Perhaps because her thoughts had been weighing on her these past few days, Guan Zhiyi no longer wanted to hear that kind of thing. Deep down, she wanted to be different from the child she used to be in his eyes.
Qi Chengyan looked down at her, puzzled by her sudden denial. He was about to say something when the girl in front of him let go of his arm, spread her own arms wide, and tilted her head back to look at him. "It's really not the same. I've grown up. I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm a woman!"
Since appearing on that variety show, she'd lost a lot of weight compared to when he'd first come back and seen her. Her face was still round, but it had a delicate, lovely quality now.
And in that moment, with her head tipped back looking at him, snow falling around them, the alcohol still warm in her veins, her already fair skin flushed pink, her bright eyes shining beneath those dark brows, she was so pretty it was almost startling.
She really was a woman now, not a little girl.
Qi Chengyan's gaze narrowed slightly. He turned his eyes away. "Mm. I know. Xiao Wu has grown up."
"Do you really know, or are you just saying that?" Fueled by the alcohol, Guan Zhiyi wouldn't let it go. "Why does it feel like you don't see me as an adult at all? Just like my dad and my brother. You all think I'm still a kid..."
She'd had too much to drink and was picking a fight over nothing, but he was still patient. "Of course you're an adult. It's just that in the eyes of your brother and your father and me, you can still be a child."
His words were warm and kind.
But they weren't what she wanted to hear.
Guan Zhiyi pressed her lips together. Her eyes were starting to redden. "Why are you being so good to me now..."
The question came out of nowhere.
Qi Chengyan paused, caught between amusement and exasperation. "Was I not good to you before?"
"You were. But... not that good." Guan Zhiyi's voice was small. "If you'd been really, really good to me, you wouldn't have left without telling me. And you wouldn't have stayed away so long..."
In the end, she said it.
She knew that in his heart, she was just a little sister. So when he went abroad, there was no need to explain anything to her, no need to come back for her sake. And now that he was back because of a work transfer, he still treated her like a sister. Still treated her so, so well.
But he didn't know that after he left, she was sad, and angry, and missed him so much it hurt. Then she finally managed to forget about him, managed to focus on doing her own thing, and he came back... and he treated her the same as always, and it threw everything inside her into chaos.
Qi Chengyan had no idea what was going through Guan Zhiyi's mind. He looked at her red-rimmed eyes and only knew that he'd hurt this girl once.
But back then, everything had happened so suddenly. He'd had no time to react before he was sent abroad. Later, so many things happened that he couldn't find a single moment to come back. Certain relatives in the country had also pulled every trick to keep him from returning.
"Not telling you before I left was my fault. But after that, I had Yuanbai get you to pick up the phone, and you wouldn't. I sent you gifts a few times, and you didn't seem to like them either. Then you moved into the dorms when you went to high school, then college."
Qi Chengyan remembered how Guan Yuanbai had told him to stop sending things because Guan Zhiyi wouldn't even look at them. The memory was equal parts frustrating and funny. "Xiao Wu, you ignored me back then. How come you're blaming me now?"
She'd ignored him at first because she was furious with him. By the time she wanted to talk to him again, he'd already gotten too busy.
Back then, she'd thought: he doesn't care about me that much, and he's never coming back.
So she stopped reaching out.
"So it's your fault..." she mumbled.
Qi Chengyan was helpless against that. He really had been swamped back then, and eventually he'd stopped having time to think about anything or anyone else. But he hadn't expected this little girl to hold such a grudge.
"Fine, fine, fine. My fault." Qi Chengyan patted her head. "You little drunk..."
"Hmph."
"Stop hmph-ing. Time to go home."
"You still haven't said why you're so good to me!"
Qi Chengyan looked at her, determined to wring an answer out of him. He opened his mouth, then realized he couldn't actually put it into words.
It was like a habit. Before, he'd thought of her as his good friend's little sister, someone he'd watched grow up, so of course he was good to her. And now? He felt close to her, felt she was different from everyone else. So he was good to her.
Pure habit.
"I guess... because you're kind of a dummy."
Guan Zhiyi's eyes went wide.
Qi Chengyan laughed. "Enough with the silly questions. You get talkative when you drink."
"......"
"Come on. I'll walk you home."
Qi Chengyan started walking. Guan Zhiyi was fuming for no reason at all, but she had no choice but to follow.
The snowy ground was slippery, and she was distracted, not paying attention to where she stepped. Her foot landed on a patch of ice, and she lurched, tipping backward. Luckily, Qi Chengyan was close. He moved fast and caught her.
After steadying her on her feet, he frowned. "Watch where you're going."
"Oh."
Qi Chengyan shook his head. "Hold onto me."
A hand appeared in front of her. Guan Zhiyi looked down at it, something tightened in her chest. Some wire in her brain short-circuited, and she suddenly grabbed his hand.
Palm to palm, holding tight.
Qi Chengyan froze.
He'd meant for her to hold onto his arm. He hadn't expected her to take his hand directly.
Such a small hand. Beneath his fingertips, her skin was fine and soft, cool to the touch...
"Let's go!" Guan Zhiyi didn't wait for him to react. She pulled him forward. "Hold on tight. Don't let me fall!"
For a few seconds, she was practically dragging him along. Surprise flashed through Qi Chengyan's eyes. Something about it felt... off.
She really had grown up. Holding hands like they used to when she was little felt strange now.
But looking at Guan Zhiyi's profile, flushed red from the alcohol, he thought maybe he was overthinking it... The little brat probably just felt as unguarded around him as she always had.
Qi Chengyan pressed his lips together, pulled her a little closer under the umbrella, then slid his hand out of hers and rested it on her shoulder instead, steadying her so she wouldn't slip again.
Guan Zhiyi went still. Her palm was empty now.
Soon, Qi Chengyan walked her to her front door.
"Get some rest. Don't go running out in this cold again." His voice came from behind her.
Guan Zhiyi didn't turn around. She raised a hand and waved to show she'd heard.
Then she heard him leave. His shoes against the ground, producing the faint crunch of snow.
Guan Zhiyi stood there for a long time. In the end, she turned around.
Qi Chengyan's figure was already receding. In another moment, he'd round the corner and disappear from view. She watched and watched, her nose started to sting. She wanted to cry, but she forced the feeling back down.
That's enough, Guan Zhiyi. Everything you feel for him right now is just an illusion. An illusion born from your dependents on him.
He already has someone he likes. So from now on... stop being so willful.
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