Chapter 222: Love And Expressing

"Really?"

Xie Rong’s cold voice came from behind. He approached slowly and stopped beside Wang Gege, his gaze settling on Bai Ruoxi.

"Could someone who loves another person act indifferent and cold every day?"

Bai Ruoxi fell silent.

Wang Gege turned toward Xie Rong, noticing the faint change in his expression.

His voice remained calm, but there was something unusually heavy beneath it. "For as long as this one can remember, everyone said my father never truly cared about my mother."

His fingers curled slightly at his side.

"He rarely stayed by her side, never spoke much to her, and after she passed away..." He paused, his jaw tightening. "He barely showed any grief."

Wang Gege’s expression softened.

Xie Rong had never spoken about this before.

Perhaps that was why he had always been so cold toward Xie Zheng. All the memories of Xie Rong were of his father who had treated his mother with indifference even while she was alive, and after her death, he had taken that silence as proof that she had never meant much to him.

"So this one always thought..." Xie Rong lowered his gaze slightly. "That he simply never loved her."

Bai Ruoxi looked at him quietly. Then she shook her head. "No."

Xie Rong’s eyes lifted.

"You were wrong about him."

The simple words made him stiff.

Bai Ruoxi’s expression remained gentle, "Xie Zheng may have been a terrible man when it came to expressing his feelings, but that does not mean he did not have them."

She glanced toward Xie Zheng in the distance, "Perhaps what you saw as indifference was simply the only way he knew how to carry his grief."

Xie Rong remained silent for a moment before shaking his head. "I still don’t understand."

His expression became colder, "If he truly loved my mother, then why did he keep leaving her behind to come and see you?"

Bai Ruoxi’s expression froze slightly.

"What kind of love is that?" His voice was calm, but the resentment he had carried for years was impossible to hide.

"Whenever my mother needed him, he wasn’t there. Yet he always seemed to have time to come and meet you." His eyes darkened. "Even after he married her, he still came to you. How could this one possibly believe that he loved my mother?"

Wang Gege quietly looked at him. She had never seen Xie Rong speak about his father like this before.

Bai Ruoxi sighed softly. "So that’s what you believed all these years..."

"Was it not true?" There was obviously anger in his voice.

"No." Bai Ruoxi shook her head. "You misunderstood the reason he came to see me."

Xie Rong frowned.

Bai Ruoxi lowered her eyes for a moment before continuing, "After he married your mother, Xie Zheng did come to me quite often. But he wasn’t coming because he still had feelings for me."

She smiled faintly, "He came because he didn’t know what to do with his wife."

Xie Rong stared at her. "What?"

"Your mother was very different from me. Her temperament, her habits, even the way she handled certain matters... Xie Zheng often found himself at a loss." Bai Ruoxi chuckled softly. "So he would come and ask me what I thought."

"He asked you... about my mother?"

"Yes." Bai Ruoxi nodded.

"Sometimes he would ask what kind of gift he should buy for her. Sometimes he would ask why she had suddenly become quiet or whether he had said something that upset her. There were even times when he would sit there for half an hour just complaining that he couldn’t understand what his wife was thinking."

Wang Gege couldn’t help widening her eyes. "He did that?"

Bai Ruoxi smiled. "Quite often."

Xie Rong’s expression became complicated.

Bai Ruoxi looked at him gently, "He wasn’t coming to me because he wanted to see me, Rong’er. He was coming because he trusted me enough to ask about the woman he loved."

She paused, "Perhaps he should have stayed beside your mother and asked her those things himself. Perhaps he should have learned how to communicate with her instead of relying on someone else to understand her."

Her smile faded slightly. "But his reason for coming to me was never what you thought it was."

"Yes..." Xie Rong’s voice came out cold. "Perhaps he should have asked his white moonlight."

Bai Ruoxi’s expression stiffened.

Xie Rong lowered his gaze, his hands slowly tightening at his sides.

"My mother suffered for years because she believed the man she married was still in love with another woman." His voice remained controlled, but the bitterness beneath it was unmistakable. "She watched him leave her side again and again to meet you, while everyone around her knew that you were the person he had loved before her."

He let out a quiet, humorless laugh, "That sadness followed her every day until it slowly consumed her. She became ill, and in the end, she died."

Wang Gege’s heart tightened.

Xie Rong finally lifted his eyes toward Bai Ruoxi.

"So whatever reason he had for coming to you, whatever he wanted to ask, and whatever feelings he truly had for my mother..." His voice grew colder. "None of it can bring her life back."

Silence fell over the room.

"You can tell me that he loved her. You can tell me that every time he came to see you, he was asking about her." Xie Rong’s jaw tightened. "But my mother never knew that."

Bai Ruoxi lowered her gaze, unable to immediately answer.

"She only knew that the man she loved kept going to another woman." Xie Rong’s expression hardened. "And that was enough to break her."

He gulped, slowly wetting his dry throat before continuing.

"And, Madam Bai Ruoxi..." His voice softened slightly, though the coldness in his eyes remained. "I would like to ask you for a favor."

Bai Ruoxi looked up at him.

"Could you... please stop coming here?"

Wang Gege’s eyes widened slightly.

Xie Rong lowered his gaze, his fingers tightening faintly at his side.

"I may look as though your presence has never affected me all this time, but the truth is..." He paused, his voice becoming hoarse. "Every time I look at your face, it still brings back the hatred I have carried in my heart for so many years."

His eyes slowly closed for a moment before opening again.

"So, please... don’t come here anymore."