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121

translator: Eve
editor: kara

Louis and Lisa left tactfully. They were also considerate enough to close the door behind them.

Click. With that, the moderate-sized room once again resumed its quiet. However, the sound-proofing of this room wasn’t very good, so they could still hear the sounds of shuffling and conversations in a variety of languages through the thin door from time to time, which made the silence within this room even more evident.

Xiao Yuanmu stood by the door, and didn’t come any closer. Song Xuanhe also remained standing where he was. The two of them stared into each other’s eyes quietly. Neither spoke; neither broke eye contact.

It had nearly been a year since they had seen each other in person. Both Song Xuanhe and Xiao Yuanmu suppressed their turbulent emotions beneath their calm exteriors.

Xiao Yuanmu had changed drastically. Song Xuanhe hadn’t been able to sense it over the phone before, but he could feel it now, standing in front of the other man. The Xiao Yuanmu from ten months ago gave off an aloof, tranquil impression. The current Xiao Yuanmu seemed unfathomable.

Ten months ago, Song Xuanhe had been able to read the other’s emotions. But now, he couldn’t even tell whether Xiao Yuanmu was happy or not.

Song Xuanhe’s hand twitched as he finally looked away. “Why are you here?”

Xiao Yuanmu continued to stare at him. His chilly voice was heavy and carried a raspy quality to it. “Why didn’t you pick up my calls?”

Song Xuanhe’s pupils trembled slightly. He then looked up to meet Xiao Yuanmu’s gaze. “You should know why.”

“I want to hear it from you.”

Xiao Yuanmu walked over to Song Xuanhe. His handcrafted leather shoes let out soft thumps as they met with the floor. In less than two steps, he stood less than half a metre away from Song Xuanhe.

Song Xuanhe had no choice but to raise his chin slightly now that they stood closer together. His lips were pursed slightly. “You were the one who told Guan Zhi to follow me.”

“Yes.”

Xiao Yuanmu’s reply was straight to the point. Song Xuanhe, who had thought that the other would not admit this, was taken aback.

“Are you angry at me for having asked Guan Zhi to check up on you?”

Song Xuanhe subconsciously replied with a “no.”

“Then, why are you upset?”

“Because….”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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If he had been angry, he should have been angry a long time ago, when he had first found out that Xiao Yuanmu’s people had been following him. He wouldn’t have waited until now to let his anger flare.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t tell Xiao Yuanmu the real reason he hadn’t picked up the other’s calls.

“No reason,” Song Xuanhe looked away and spoke in a cool voice, “I just didn’t want to answer.”