Chapter 523: Chapter 524: He wants to strangle you, yet you still worry if he is hurt

Xia Yangyang frowned, a faint hint of reproach permeating her tone: “Why did you have to hit him so hard? I know you and my eldest brother were both in the international special forces, but he’s just a regular person now. Couldn’t you have been a bit gentler?”

Li Zhiqian was both annoyed and amused: “Yangyang, he was trying to strangle you and you’re still worrying about whether he got hurt?”

Xia Yangyang fell silent.

She didn’t expect Gu Qichen to react so furiously.

Because of Gu Qichen’s response, Xia Yangyang was even more certain.

She could not by any means let Gu Qichen discover the existence of Xia Ye.

If he were to find out, it would inevitably result in a bitter conflict.

And Xia Yangyang wasn’t sure she could win.

Li Zhiqian drove Xia Yangyang to Xia Family’s villa.

The car stopped, and Li Zhiqian asked, “Will you be alright staying here alone? Do you want me to stay here and keep you company tonight?”

Xia Yangyang shook her head with a smile: “I know you are busy. Just go on, this is my home, I will be fine.”

Li Zhiqian nodded, “Call me if you need anything.”

Xia Yangyang got out of the car.

Li Zhiqian drove away.

Xia Yangyang went inside.

When she left, the only thing she took with her was the key to the Xia Family’s villa.

She turned on the lights.

She had been abroad for a number of years,

but before leaving, she had paid twenty years’ worth of utility bills for the villa in advance.

As the lights flooded the room, Xia Yangyang felt a sense of unreality.

The villa had been deserted for four years.

All the furniture and floors were covered in a layer of dust.

Xia Yangyang walked in step by step, going up the staircase.

With each step, a footprint appeared on the floor.

When she left, she forgot to close a window in the hallway.

The wall, already covered in ivy, had let the vines creep into the house over the past four years, spreading layers upon layers.

The white marble railing of the stairs had been completely obscured by nature.

The sprawling vines were like the traces of those four years.

They covered the past and obscured what before used to be.

But Xia Yangyang was back.

She would eventually clear these vines away, revealing all as it was before.

First, Xia Yangyang went to Xia Liangdong’s study.

When Xia Liangdong was alive, the study was where he spent most of his time at home.

But right now, it was lost in a haze of dust.

All the objects on his desk remained as they were.

There was even an unfinished box of cigarettes.

The room had a stale smell of dust and decay.

Spider webs covered the corners of the room.

When Xia Yangyang reached Xia Liangdong’s desk, she saw a photo of herself with Xia Weiwei.

Probably the only one of her and Xia Weiwei together.

She and Xia Weiwei never got along well since childhood.

The photo was taken during one of their childhood trips, when Xia Liangdong snapped the two of them on the beach with his DSLR.

The two girls were standing side by side in the frame, each collecting seashells.

Xia Liangdong always loved this photograph.

To him, both girls were his children.

However, until his death, he never saw the two of them get along.

Xia Yangyang had kept tabs on Xia Weiwei and Liu Ruyan all along.

Not intentionally, she just couldn’t avoid it.

Shortly after Xia Yangyang left, Liu Ruyan married Xi Jiaxin.

When Xia Weiwei drove into her, causing a severe car accident, she didn’t know what happened afterwards.

Xia Yangyang had heard, however, that Xia Weiwei had been very active in Beijing high society over the years and is currently working at the Jiang Group. It seems that nothing too serious must have happened in the accident.