Chapter 22: Chapter 22 Preparing to Break Off the Engagement
“Xia Chuyi, you are so crude and overbearing, you’re practically a shrew!”
“How can you even compare to Lanlan? Lanlan is kind, fragile, and gentle, totally not in the same league as you!”
“How could I possibly dislike Lanlan and fancy you?”
He Qing’s words felt eerily familiar.
Two lifetimes now, some things had changed, but others had not.
“Xia Chuyi, I, He Qing, will definitely not like you, will not marry you, just give up already!”
He Qing’s gaze made it seem as though Xia Chuyi was some sort of abhorrent creature.
“You!” Wang Xiaofang couldn’t stand it anymore, her eyes blazing with anger.
Xia Chuyi felt somewhat touched inside.
With just a handful of peanuts, she had bought her loyalty, used her, yet she had some real affection towards her.
If there was a chance, she would surely repay her for this kinship.
Bringing her thoughts back to the moment, she continued to confront He Qing, “If you dislike me so much, then why accept the watch and radio my uncle sent, and why accept the clothes, shoes, and food I sent you?”
At the mention of wealth, He Qing instantly lost his temper, pointing at her, his voice several notches higher.
“What do you mean, Xia Chuyi? You think I covet those trifles from your uncle and you? That’s just normal courtesy between families! Has my family not given you things?”
Such courtesy indeed.
Xia Chuyi felt like applauding He Qing for his audacity.
A few hair ties, a piece of cloth, a few bundles of vegetables were his idea of family courtesy?
“Speaking of which, Xia Chuyi, I must criticize you!” He Qing continued angrily.
“Your uncle and you are always spending money left and right, living it up! But what about your sister?”
“Lanlan is your own cousin, and look at the life you live compared to hers! She came with you to visit me and couldn’t even afford a meal! Why can’t you help Lanlan out?”
He Qing grew more self-righteous as he spoke.
“Xia Chuyi, you’re such a failure as a sister!”
Spending money left and right, living it up?
And I’m the one who’s a failure as a sister?
A storm brewed in Xia Chuyi’s eyes.
“He Qing!” she snorted coldly, “My uncle drives long distances, toils and moils, just to earn the money to ‘lavishly’ buy gifts for you!”
“And I, I get by on the pension my father earned with his life on the battlefield, that’s how I manage to live ‘so comfortably’!”
“As for Xia Lan, her parents are both alive and well, yet you expect me, who lost my father young and has a sickly mother, to help her out?”
Each word was like a hammer, and as Xia Chuyi reproached He Qing, she was also blaming herself.
She had always been this foolish, struggling through her own tough life while still helping out Xia Lan, whom she thought had it worse than herself.
Even though I’m the younger cousin, even though Xia Lan is supposed to be the elder one.
But in the end, all it led to was Xia Lan taking advantage of her, culminating in Xia Lan’s repeated plots and betrayals.
“That’s too much! You’re not proper with others and turn around to blame Chuyi?” Xiao Fang was nearly in tears listening at the side.
Watching Xiao Fang’s face flush with rage, as if she was about to explode and beat He Qing, Xia Chuyi somehow felt her anger dissipate.
See, these facts, this logic, anybody who heard them would know right from wrong.
“He Qing, regardless of how I live or what my personality is like, since we are incompatible and look down on each other, let’s call off this engagement.”
Xia Chuyi said to him, her voice cold.
“However, the reason for canceling it will be that you and Xia Lan have become intimately involved.”