Chapter 1499 - 1488: The Cannon Fodder Older Brother in an Old-Fashioned Romance Novel

Chapter 1499: Chapter 1488: The Cannon Fodder Older Brother in an Old-Fashioned Romance Novel

Gu Wanqin was picked up by Ye Yanting, and when she left she still looked a bit out of her wits. Tan Nana put away her gloating expression and looked at Ye Qiu with a questioning gaze, "When did you ever act coquettish with me?"

"Didn’t I?" Ye Qiu chuckled lowly as he looked at her. "That day right here, I didn’t act coquettish with you?"

Tan Nana was pushed by him down onto the soft sofa, and her face turned red little by little. Everything from that day flashed through her mind. Thinking of those coaxing, tempting words he’d said to her made her even more shy. That day, although they hadn’t gone all the way, they had almost gotten there. She herself had already fallen; if it hadn’t been for Ye Qiu’s strong self-control, who knows, maybe that day they would have just...

Tan Nana fell into her memories, but Ye Qiu didn’t let her off because of that. Instead he grinned wickedly and said, "Want me to help you remember?"

"I don’t want that." Tan Nana glared at him, her face flushed. "Get up, now."

"No." Ye Qiu let out a soft hum, acting spoiled. "I’ve been wronged; I have to get it back."

Every time he used this tone, Tan Nana couldn’t take it. She wanted to agree to all his shameless demands, and at the same time her heart felt sweet, because she knew Ye Qiu would never be like this with Gu Wanqin.

She was starting to believe it now, believing that Ye Qiu had never truly liked Gu Wanqin. Perhaps because Gu Wanqin had been his fiancée he’d had a slight fondness for her, but that was definitely not love.

Tan Nana suddenly had the feeling of having picked up a treasure. How did such a good man end up meeting her, and even getting tricked back home by her?

She thought, maybe it wasn’t a trick. After she saved his life in her rebirth, their fate was already bound together.

What the two of them didn’t know was that though Ye Yanting had finally managed to bring Gu Wanqin back, the conflict between them hadn’t been resolved. On the contrary, it had become even more serious. Gu Wanqin’s absent-mindedness made Ye Yanting start to suspect that she regretted it, that she still had lingering feelings for Ye Qiu.

But he couldn’t bring himself to question her. He was afraid her answer would hurt him, so he just kept cooling things down in silence. By the time Gu Wanqing realized what was going on, Ye Yanting hadn’t been intimate with her for a long time. Every time he came back from the company, he would have worked until very late; after coming home, he would take a shower and then go straight to sleep, without even a single extra word for her.

With her sensitive nature, it was hard for Gu Wanqin not to overthink. When once, Ye Yanting came home carrying another woman’s perfume on him, Gu Wanqin had another big fight with him and then took the child back to her parents’ home.

By now, Ye Zhiliang and Ren Zhen were already used to it. At first they would urge their son to hurry and go after her, but gradually they stopped bothering. For one, they’d seen this kind of scene too many times. For another, they knew these two would definitely make up again before long, so there was nothing worth stepping in for. Anyway, they couldn’t make sense of young people’s relationships these days.

The Old Lady would often treat the relationship between these two as a joke to tell Ye Qiu and Tan Nana. She snorted, "The so-called well-bred lady doesn’t look like a well-bred lady, the so-called good husband doesn’t look like a good husband. Every few days they’re at odds again. Can’t they just explain things clearly? Always guessing this and guessing that—watching them leaves even an old woman like me speechless."

Ye Qiu and Tan Nana didn’t feel it was their place to comment. They only smiled in agreement, but at the same time they had some doubts in their hearts. Back then, those two had made such a scene to be together, wasn’t their hearts full of love for each other? Why torture themselves like this? They really couldn’t understand, because the two of them would always talk to each other about anything. If they had differences of opinion, they would respect each other. They had never even had a real fight. Sometimes when Tan Nana threw a little tantrum, it wasn’t a real tantrum, just the small playful squabbles between a couple.

Tan Nana thought that after she married Ye Qiu, she probably would never have one of those situations where she gets angry and takes the child back to her parents’ home. Not only because she couldn’t bring herself to do something that would worry her parents, but also because with Ye Qiu’s intelligence and emotional insight, he simply wouldn’t give her the chance to walk out.

The Old Lady wasn’t a gossip, it was just that sometimes when she came by to see Ye Qiu she would casually mention things from home. And talking like that, two years passed just like that.

By this time, Ye Qiu’s company had already made a name for itself. The man who had once been mocked for giving up the Ye Family had now once again made others sit up and take notice, becoming a legend in A City’s circles. Almost all the elders used him as a model for their children. He was that proverbial "child from someone else’s family."

Though he made the rich sons of noble families grind their teeth in frustration, not a single person actually hated him, because his ability was right there for everyone to see. What most people felt was admiration. Asking themselves honestly, could these second- and third-generation heirs dare to abandon the foundations their families had laid and venture out on their own?

If anyone’s feelings were the most complicated, it had to be Ye Yanting. He had thought that once he took over the Ye Family he would usher in a different life, that he could shake off the fear of being suppressed by Ye Qiu all those years.

Yet he was only excited for a few months. After that, Ye Qiu’s games went public one after another, and everyone started showing that "as expected, Ye Qiu is still the most capable one" look. It was as if he was the one who’d gotten the easy bargain, making him feel even more ashamed.

Sometimes he even found himself thinking, "Since there is Yu, why give birth to Liang?" Compared to the average rich heir, he was already considered extremely outstanding. But unfortunately, there was still a Ye Qiu—and this man was his real older brother. When people mentioned him, he was forever "Ye Qiu’s younger brother," "little Mr. Ye," rather than being addressed independently as Ye Yanting, as Mr. Ye.

And so Ye Yanting’s mood grew worse, and he carried that kind of emotion back home. Not only did Ye Zhiliang and Ren Zhen watch him with words on the tip of their tongues, even Gu Wanqin couldn’t take it anymore.

"You are you, he is he, what’s the point of comparing?" Gu Wanqin comforted him softly. "You’re already very outstanding. Dad was still praising you today."

"That must have just been in passing." The anger in Ye Yanting’s chest wouldn’t go down. "Is my dad regretting letting my brother go back then?"

"No, how can you think that of Dad?"

"No? That day I heard everything my dad and your dad said when they were talking. They’re regretting it. They both think I’m useless." The more Ye Yanting spoke, the angrier he became, and then he gave Gu Wanqin a hard shove. "Don’t touch me. You think the same way, don’t you? You also regret being with me, don’t you?"

"Ye Yanting!" Gu Wanqin raised her voice. "If you keep talking like this, I’m really going to get angry. You know exactly how I feel."

Ye Yanting said in a fit of pique, "All I know is that people are fickle. Are you very envious of Tan Nana now? My big brother practically gave her half his company outright."

Gu Wanqin took a deep breath. "I’m finding that I have nothing left to say to you now. How many more of these hurtful things do you plan on saying? Do you distrust my feelings for you that much?"

"I..." At this point, Ye Yanting also felt a bit remorseful for having been too impulsive, but his temper wouldn’t allow him to admit he was wrong so easily. Because of that, he didn’t notice the look of disappointment on Gu Wanqin’s face once again.

Gu Wanqin knew that Ye Yanting loved her, and she loved him just the same, but she couldn’t understand why the two of them had turned into what they were now.