He had been away for two weeks yet he had not been where he had told her he was going?
"Your plans changed?" asked Qingshan, concentrated on keeping her tone light.
She still had no clue as to why Haoran, if he had not called to say goodbye, had put off making this call. But she was more astonished than surprised when at last he answered. "I never intended to go to Hongkong."
At last, he had confessed.
"You lied to me?" The lightness had gone from her tone.
"I — could not help it,' Haoran admitted.
Qingshan's feeling of astonishment went up tenfold and, at his next three words, it mingled with a sudden familiar sickness in the pit of her stomach. "Lifen and I…"
"Lifen?" Her voice had risen in her shock. "Lifen? As in Ma Lifen? My cousin?"
"Yes. Well, we just could not help it. We fell in love, and…"
"You have been seeing Lifen behind my back?" Qingshan stared at the black screen television dumbfounded. It was hard to take it in. "All the time you have been ringing me, dating me, you have been going with her too?"
"Only for the last two months," Haoran jumped in quickly. "At first, it did not start out like that."
Two months? He had been fooling around with her and her cousin for two months?
Qingshan was boiling. Yet it was not due to jealousy, it was due to pride. She felt that what he had done dented her pride a little. "I am sure it did not. It started out with me introducing you to my family over dinner two months ago, was it not? Have you been dating Lifen since then?" she questioned him sharply.
"Yes. I mean, no!" he protested. "It did not start out as a date. Lifen was near my home when she had a flat tire. You must have given her my phone number because she called me, asking for my help. She said she had no clue what to do."
"I had never given her your number," Qingshan answered flatly. Repeatedly, she informed herself that the only reason she was listening to all of his blabbers right now was to make this a lesson so this would never happen in the future.
"Oh, right." Then as if he miraculously just remembered what had happened, he clarified his earlier statement. "She and I had a talk during that dinner and we exchanged phone numbers."
"You never mentioned this to me."
"I did not think that was important. I have never asked you if you exchanged phone numbers with anyone," he replied sarcastically.
"No." Qingshan calmed herself and regained her composure back. "I am referring to her accident with her flat tire."
In all honesty, why would her rich cousin call Haoran? She could have called her home and someone would pick her up or even brought a new car to her. Ma Lifen, being the daughter of the Ma Fenghuang's firstborn, was that rich and powerful. She could snap her fingers and even a unicorn would show up. Then it made me realize that perhaps she had liked him since that dinner.
"Lifen asked me not to. She thought you might be upset that she called me. I said you would not be but Lifen said she would feel better if it was our little secret."
"Okay. So you asked her out and…?"
"I did not. We —er — that is, Lifen found a key in her car and she thought it was mine so she called me again. She said she was passing by my office and, since it was close to lunchtime, she suggested that the least she could do after I had helped her was to take me to lunch. And then everything just sort of happened." He ended with a contented sigh.
"Thank you for at last having the decency to tell me." All of the sudden, Qingshan did not want to hear any longer. She could easily guess the rest. "Goodbye, Haoran," she added with quiet dignity.
To her surprise, Haoran was not finished. "That is it?" he asked incredulously to which she answered, "Pardon?"
"That's just it, huh? I thought you would finally invite me to your bed once you know even your cousin wants me."
Qingshan closed her eyes and sighed. "Are you delusional?"
For the next quarter of an hour, she had to listen to Chen Haoran talking impolitely and calling her names. It was rather odd how his name meant 'a person who is grand in the manner and has a great goal' yet his manner was anything but. Still, Qingshan kept her mouth shut. Her pride would not allow her to stoop to his level and started using profanities.
"You are a bitch, you know that?" Haoran laughed in dry humor. "You made me waste my seven months and did not even let me taste you?! Lifen was right. You are just like your mother!"
Qingshan's eyes immediately flew open at the mention of her mother. "What did you say?"
"That is right!" Haoran sounded happy that he finally could inflict a reaction from her. "I know your mother was a courtesan! She was a prostitute! And the only reason your father married her was that she was pregnant with you and your grandfather could not let her take the abortion. How long are you planning to keep it a secret, huh? Everyone will know especially when they find out how you never want to visit the bedroom. Why? Are you trying so hard not to be like her?"
Without so much as a reply, she cut off the call. She did not need to hear him saying another word. He had hurt her and foolish that she was, she had let him. She had let his words affected her. Her hand clutched on her chest yet the pain would not go away.
Only hours later, when her head had finally cleared and the pain was bearable, she had made a decision that she would never fall in love with anyone. Heartbreak was too painful and too troublesome. Even if she did not and would not admit that she had feelings for Chen Haoran, in truth she truly had or else it would not hurt this much, would it?
"If I ever decide to marry, it will not be for love. It will be for other things, for other reasons. Anything but love," vowed Qingshan as she closed her eyes and rested for the night.
Not long after, a reason had presented itself to her when during family dinner, her grandfather had informed everyone about his fifty-year-old promise to Cedric Summers that their families would be reunited through marriage. Surely there was nothing more honorable of a reason to marry than to preserve family's dignity and maintain a good relationship.
* * *