spare tire

"Xiao Yuan, what do you want to eat?" Before handing the menu back to the waiter, Li Xue finally remembered that there was only one drink in front of her brother that was about to bottom out.

Li Yuan shook his head and asked back: "How old is she...?"

His eyes were on Liangliang who was crawling around on the sofa. The little girl seemed to feel novelty about everything here. She pulled the tassels on the curtains for a while, played with the small ornaments on the table for a while, and finally commented He said: "Mom, this place is really dirty, not half as good as ours."

Li Xue smiled and hugged her well, and said to Li Yuan, "It's almost five years old."

That means she was pregnant with Liangliang not long after she left.

Li Yuan was silent, he drank the green tea in his cup in one gulp, the tea slowly flowed down his throat, making him feel bitter.

Li Xue on the other side was still coaxing her daughter, wanting her to call Li Yuan "uncle", but the little girl's temper is very stubborn, no matter how intimidating or tempting she would not speak, Li Xue felt a little embarrassed, so she took the banana boat Put it where she couldn't reach and said: "Liangliang, call uncle, and mom will give you a banana split."

Who knew that the girl not only did not obey her mother's words, but instead glared at Li Yuan with hatred, and then burst into tears: "If I don't bark, I won't bark! I don't have such a dirty uncle! Whoa, whoa, whoa——"

Li Yuan looked at himself amusedly, wearing a white shirt and dark jeans, and a light gray jacket over it.Well, it's not really fashionable, but it's quite satisfactory, how come it turns into dirt in Liangliang's mouth?

His mind is not so small that he cares about a five-year-old girl, he just pretended to be Tong Yan Wuji and let it go with a smile.However, Li Xue's education didn't seem to be very successful. She couldn't hold back her stubborn daughter, so she had to put the banana boat in front of her to please her. Unexpectedly, Liangliang overturned it all at once, and the plates were turned over on the table. The splashed vanilla juice stained Li Yuan's collar.

"Xiao Yuan, I'm sorry, look at her... I really can't help it." Li Xue's face was a little embarrassed, and she apologized to Li Yuan while comforting her daughter.

"It's okay." Although he felt that Li Xue's education method was very problematic, he didn't say much.He is no stranger to this kind of pampering and indulgence, and his father back then was even worse.

After finally coaxing Liangliang, Li Xue asked the waiter to serve another banana split. The girl happily picked up the spoon and ate it. Unexpectedly, as soon as the soft ice cream was in her mouth, she threw the spoon on the table angrily.

"What's the matter, Liangliang, isn't this your favorite food?"

Li Xue asked with concern, and took out a tissue to help her daughter wipe off the ice cream on the corner of her mouth, but she didn't mean to blame her at all.

"It's not delicious! It's not as delicious as what Jingjing's made!" The girl puffed up her cheeks and looked very angry, but after a while her face drooped, and she asked Li Xue pitifully, "Mom, Get rid of the cook at home, it must be because his cooking is not delicious, so Dad doesn't come to us, you see Jingjing's chef cooks so delicious, that's why he always visits Jingjing and her mother. "

After hearing this, the expressions of Li Xue and Li Yuan changed at the same time.Liangliang's words contained too much information, and Li Yuan quickly drew two conclusions from her childish words: Zhou Jianlong did not marry Li Xue; Li Xue was not his only mistress.

Li Xue's complexion suddenly lost its color, and the rouge on her cheeks could not conceal her paleness.She hugged her daughter in her lap and comforted her tenderly to hide her embarrassment.

"Sister, how have you been doing these past few years?"

This was the first time Li Yuan called her sister 20 minutes after they met, not because he forgave her for what she had done, but because he felt sorry for her and was worthless.In his best years, he betrayed his husband and relatives, conceived and gave birth to a son for a vulgar middle-aged upstart, and five years later, he was still one of his many lovers. How can this not be embarrassing.

"I'm... pretty good." Li Xue smiled awkwardly. She knew what her brother wanted to hear from her, but she chose the way herself. go on.

At the age of 29, she is still beautiful, but she has lost her former glory.Her eyes had long since lost the look that could shock people's hearts, and all that was left was the exhaustion and helplessness that complemented the faint fine lines.

Li Yuan didn't delve into it, but changed the subject and said, "Don't you want to know how Brother Lin has been doing these past few years?"

What surprised him was that from Li Xue's appearance to the present, she had no intention of mentioning the Lin family at all, as if she had never been a Lin family wife. This made Li Yuan unable to bear it any longer. He just wanted to ask Li Xue, has she ever regretted what happened back then?

"Oh...he, how is he?" No matter what, Lin Qingyue's three words are enough to make Li Xue feel ashamed. She lowered her eyes and didn't have the courage to face her younger brother's questioning. If Yuan put the question before her eyes so bluntly, she really didn't want to bring up anything related to the Lin family again.

Li Xue's perfunctory attitude changed Li Yuan's attitude, and he raised his voice slightly and said, "Just after you left, Uncle Lin had a heart attack because of this incident. Fortunately, the operation was very successful and nothing happened. Aunt Lin They all looked at your wedding photos with tears, and as for Brother Lin..." Li Yuan paused, then raised his head and glared at his sister, "You should go and see with your own eyes, what kind of life he has lived in the past five years!"

"Xiao Yuan, don't say it...don't say it..." Li Xue was forced to hide by her younger brother's questioning, she covered her face with her hands to block Li Yuan's angry eyes, but this was not enough In order to let her escape the condemnation of her conscience, she is not a cruel person, but when faced with the choice of family and money, she overwhelmed her conscience and chose the latter.

When she thought of her husband who was always obedient to her, her heart ached and she regretted it.But soon she was intoxicated by the luxury and vanity brought by money, and the imagination of that gentle man with glasses gradually faded from her memory.

Her shoulders twitched slightly, and she let out a very faint sob.Seeing her like this, Li Yuan couldn't say anything more, he believed that Li Xue had regretted what he had done, but so what?What is done is done, the past cannot be traced back, and when things are right and people are wrong, what can we do except sigh?

Seeing her mother's crying and Li Yuan's aggression, Liang Liang picked up a spoon and threw it at Li Yuan, cursing: "You countryman, how dare you bully my mother, I told my father to beat you, he is very powerful , there are many subordinates who will beat you to death!"

Li Xue hugged her flamboyant daughter in her arms, silently wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes.Li Yuan couldn't bear it, he believed that time had avenged Brother Lin and made Li Xue understand how stupid his decision was.Looking at her appearance, she knew that the past few years had not been very good, and the vicissitudes of life that had been smoothed by the years could not be concealed by more expensive cleaning and gorgeous clothes.

"When you come back this time, what day do you plan to leave?"

When Li Xue stopped sobbing and calmed down, Li Yuan continued to ask.

"the day after tomorrow."

"So soon?" Li Yuan was very surprised. According to He Shichen, she should have been in City A for a while, why is she leaving all of a sudden?

At this moment, the locks of hair on both sides of Li Xue hung down, covering half of her face, so that Li Yuan couldn't see the expression on her face clearly.And Li Xue didn't pull her hair behind her ears, but just let them block her sight.This action of hers surprised Li Yuan. In her memory, Li Xue has always been a woman who demanded perfect details. She likes to pull all her hair back so that people can see her delicate and beautiful facial features clearly.

"Jingliang and I are living in the south now, and we came back to City A this time to do some business." Her voice suddenly became low, and after she finished speaking, she picked up her coffee and took a sip.

"Oh..." Li Yuan guessed that what she said should be related to Zhou Jianlong, so he didn't bother to ask any more.

In the reunion five years later, there was no tension as expected, and no tears of joy when they met after a long absence. Except for some minor disturbances from time to time, Liang Liang was as indifferent as the glass of clear water in Li Yuan's hand.

Li Yuan, who thinks he is good at chatting, can't find any topic to make the atmosphere lively, because their memories overlap, no matter what they mention, there is Lin Qingyue, and he will make Li Xue's There is nowhere to hide from bad deeds.

"Xiaoyuan, I know I'm sorry for you, and I'm even more sorry for Qingyue and Aunt Lin Shulin, but it's been so many years, and I've also suffered retribution, can you forgive me a little bit?" Li Xue's words were pleading The tone in Li Yuan's ears lacked a little sincerity.

"Retribution?" Li Yuan asked suspiciously, if it was just that Li Xue couldn't marry into the Zhou family, but could only be a shameful and humble lover, he would never sympathize with him.

Li Xue smiled bitterly, avoiding his younger brother's probing eyes, with an extremely lonely expression, "Do you know why I still follow Zhou Jianlong without a name?"

Hearing Zhou Jianlong's name from her personally, Li Yuan felt uncomfortable all over. He had a physical disgust for these three words, and instinctively frowned.

Li Xue continued: "Zhou Jianlong is almost fifty years old. The reason why he found so many mistresses is to want a son. But so far, all his women have given birth to him daughters." After finishing speaking, she glanced at him. Pretty, with love in her eyes but also regret.If it had been a boy, she would be a legitimate Mrs. Zhou by now.

Li Yuan smiled contemptuously. It turned out that his once noble sister had long been reduced to a reproductive tool, but she herself was not ashamed of it, but felt extremely regretful because she did not give birth to a son.

There is no need to continue the conversation, the elder sister in front of her is no longer the apple of her father's eye, Li Xue who is proud of her beauty and talent.What he saw before him was nothing but a vulgar woman whose soul was corrupted by money.

Not long after, Liangliang cried and wanted to leave because she was bored. The disheartened Li Yuan stood up first to say goodbye to Li Xue. He could no longer bear Li Xue's worldliness and depravity. Driven crazy by the huge gap.

"Wait, Xiaoyuan, do you have time tomorrow night?"

Li Yuan stopped in his tracks, turned around and asked, "Tomorrow night?"

"Well, I'm going to meet a friend tomorrow night, you know, my best friend Shanshan from college, so I can only leave Liangliang alone in the hotel, she is so young, I am not sure, can you Come and help me take care of her for a while, it won't be too long, two hours at most."

Li Yuan looked worried at the spoiled little girl, she obviously didn't like him, and he didn't want to get close to his niece, his first reaction was to refuse, "Can you find someone else, I'm not good at raising children. "

Li Xue begged and said, "I beg you Xiaoyuan, I haven't been back for so many years, how can I still have a few friends left, I really have no choice but to beg you."

Her words were sincere and her expression was anxious, Li Yuan agreed after thinking for a while, but only for two hours.

"That's great, Xiao Yuan, thank you, you've done me a great favor! Then at six o'clock tomorrow night, in room 2031 of Dynasty Hotel, I'll wait for you to come before leaving."

Li Yuan nodded to express that he remembered it, then said goodbye to Li Xue, and walked out of the coffee shop.

Looking at the back of her younger brother going away, Li Xue's smile gradually froze, tears poured out of her eyes uncontrollably, blurring the scene in front of her——

I'm sorry...Xiaoyuan...I'm sorry...