Chapter 248: Xue Pei: Greenhouse Effect
Tang Qianwan froze instantly, staring blankly at the marriage certificate.
Xue Shufan asked, “And you?”
Tang Qianwan: “I… I’m here to divorce, Shu…”
Before she could finish speaking, Pei Qingji interrupted, “There’s still a meeting at the company, shall we go back?”
His expression held an indescribable gentleness, and his tone did too.
“Mm.” Xue Shufan turned to Tang Qianwan and said, “Goodbye.”
The words were extremely clean and concise, without any unnecessary fuss or extra concern.
Tang Qianwan watched the backs of Xue Shufan and Pei Qingji as they left, her brow furrowing unconsciously.
“Shufan is married, Shufan is married. Does her younger brother know? He probably doesn’t. If he knew, it would be a disaster!”
Exiting the Civil Affairs Bureau, Xue Shufan was clearly a bit absent-minded.
Pei Qingji had an impression of the woman from earlier.
Tang Qianwan, the elder sister of Xue Shufan’s ex-boyfriend Tang Shubai.
Xue Shufan and Tang Shubai had dated for ten years, from their most innocent adolescence to adulthood. She had spent all her best years on him.
It was a relationship that trapped her, demanding much and giving much, almost exhausting all her passion and energy.
“You were talking about moving, right?” Xue Shufan said casually, returning to her cheerful demeanor. “I’ll have to move in a while. The laboratory is quite busy lately, I can’t get away.”
“Okay, good.” Pei Qingji was refined and amiable, always easy to talk to.
Xue Shufan handed him the marriage certificate and smiled, “You keep this for me for now. I’m going to the laboratory later, and it would be terrible if it got corroded by sulfuric acid by accident.”
“Okay.” Pei Qingji took it, carefully wrapped the two marriage certificates in a handkerchief, and put them in his suit pocket.
Xue Shufan glanced at him, showing no particular reaction. He was always cautious in his actions, unlike her own careless and casual approach to life.
Pei Qingji suddenly called out to her, “Shufan.”
Xue Shufan: “Mm?”
“Your hand, let me see,” Pei Qingji said.
Xue Shufan complied.
Her hands were snow-white, with long, strong fingers, calloused from years of rock climbing.
Pei Qingji estimated the size of her finger joints, lightly held her fingertips with his right hand, and then pushed forward with his left, slowly sliding a diamond ring onto Xue Shufan’s ring finger.
The size was perfect, neither too tight nor too loose, and the touch was hard and slightly cool.
Xue Shufan was taken aback.
She hadn’t expected him to have prepared a ring in advance.
“Give it here,” Xue Shufan extended her hand towards him and said directly, “The man’s ring, I’ll put it on for you.”
Pei Qingji chuckled softly without speaking.
Xue Shufan asked in surprise, “You didn’t just buy one ring, did you?”
Pei Qingji said, “Put it on me at the wedding.”
When you willingly tie yourself to me.
Xue Shufan was straightforward. Since she had decided to get married, she wouldn’t be shy. Although she had once fantasized about the romantic scene of exchanging wedding rings with the person she loved at the wedding, that was all in the past.
“Alright.” Xue Shufan took out her mobile phone and bent her head, fiddling with it nimbly.
“How about the two families having dinner together this weekend?” Pei Qingji asked for her opinion.
“Sure, you arrange it.”
They had received their certificates; the legal marriage was officially effective. It was indeed time to formally meet the parents.
“You have a meeting at headquarters and are in a hurry, so you don’t need to see me off.” Xue Shufan raised her phone screen. “I’ve already called a taxi, it’ll be here soon.”
The meeting was just an excuse. He didn’t want her to have any further contact with Tang Shubai. But Pei Qingji couldn’t admit he had lied to her, so he could only nod.
“Mm.”
Xue Shufan lowered her head, holding her mobile phone with both hands, continuing to look at it. Perhaps because they were used to being friends, she had no mindset or behavior of a Mrs. Pei.
Only Pei Qingji, for the first time ever, hugged her in public.
The fabric of the man’s clothes was expensive and soft. Xue Shufan’s cheek brushed against the comfortable texture of the clothes, feeling the warmth emanating from him, and a warm, dreamlike illusion of being in the clouds instantly arose.
When Xue Shufan got drunk, it was mostly Pei Qingji who took her home. Before, as a friend, he had also hugged her, either holding her in his arms while standing or carrying her in a princess carry.
Their bodies had been close countless times, but this time was different.
“Dinner together tomorrow?” Pei Qingji asked in a low voice.
His breath sprinkled on her ear. The moment her body accepted it, a tingling sensation spread almost immediately throughout her entire body. Xue Shufan’s ear twitched almost imperceptibly.
“Okay, I’m done here. I’ll message you.”
It was the time when the sun was setting, and their bodies cast long, overlapping shadows on the ground.
Xue Shufan watched Pei Qingji get into his car and saw it drive away. In less than two minutes, her taxi also arrived.
She didn’t know that Pei Qingji’s car hadn’t driven away. The sedan was parked in a hidden spot not far away, the windows not rolled down. The man in the back seat leaned against the seat, staring at her intently.
Pei Qingji took the marriage certificate out of his suit pocket, confirmed it several times, and then carefully put it away.
Ever since Pei Qingji proposed marriage to her, Xue Shufan had developed an indescribable feeling towards him.
It was like pure friendship mixed with the camaraderie of shared suffering, or perhaps another way of living born from desperation, or a new beginning that broke and reshaped.
Upon arriving at the laboratory, Xue Shufan changed into her white lab coat and discovered that not only their relationship as good friends had been reshaped, but all the equipment in her laboratory had also been replaced.
“Sister Shufan, a deity has descended!” The junior colleague touched the brand-new experimental equipment, his eyes shining. “I never even dreamed of having this equipment in the real world! It’s so precious! I’d sell myself and still couldn’t afford it.”
“The funding for research projects has also skyrocketed!”
Xue Shufan understood immediately and quickly took two photos to send to Pei Qingji: 【President Pei, quite generous】
The conversation was the same as before, but Pei Qingji looked at it three times before typing a reply: 【Happy newlywed life】
Xue Shufan raised an eyebrow: 【Same to you】
Xue Shufan put down her phone and immersed herself in her experimental research. She was so focused that she didn’t feel hungry until a middle-aged man in a suit vest delivered a meal.
The restaurant was one of Sijiucheng’s high-end establishments and never usually offered delivery services, yet this time the manager personally delivered it.
Xue Shufan washed her hands and, while eating dinner in the break room, sent Pei Qingji a thank-you message.
He replied almost instantly: 【Don’t go hungry. If you find it delicious, we’ll go to the restaurant together next time.】
Xue Shufan ate the delicious food, scrolling through the messages with one hand. Although the content was no different from before, for some reason, the conversation seemed particularly ambiguous.
Was it because they had gotten their certificates?
It was probably because she was going to spend the rest of her life with her good friend, and her body was slowly secreting hormones to adapt to the new life.
Xue Shufan went into seclusion in the laboratory as soon as she entered, and apart from meal times, she had no feeling of being married.
The next day, it was time to have dinner with Pei Qingji, and she only remembered when she was almost late.
Xue Shufan hurriedly packed her things and came out of the laboratory. Her junior colleague was still laughing at her in her mobile phone, saying she was like two different people in her personal life and in the laboratory.
She was no longer at Jing University; she had transferred to a research institute.
Xue Shufan called Pei Qingji. Although she was in a hurry, she wasn’t out of breath: “I almost forgot. Wait for me. I’ll be there soon!”
During their time as good friends, they rarely apologized or thanked each other. Now that they were married, they wouldn’t be polite to each other either.
“No need to rush,” Pei Qingji said gently. “I’m driving over. I’m at the Experimental Animal Monument.”
“The Experimental Animal Monument… Oh, I see it!”
Xue Shufan walked over quickly. Pei Qingji saw that she was thinly dressed and immediately got out of the car with a scarf.
She had thought about marrying him for a long time. It was now late autumn, and the temperature dropped sharply at night. The wind, carrying the cold, attacked her skin, making her shiver.
Xue Shufan walked up to him, holding her bag and phone in both hands: “Let’s go.”
Pei Qingji saw her exposed neck and frowned, “Aren’t you cold coming out like this?”
“You know I’m resistant to the cold,” Xue Shufan said with a dismissive smile, “Don’t make a fuss.”
Pei Qingji unfolded the checkered scarf in his hand and slowly and gently tied it around her. Due to the height difference, he lowered his head slightly, and she tilted her head up slightly. Their eyes met in mid-air, and a hint of romantic atmosphere suddenly arose.
The man’s hand brushed aside Xue Shufan’s hair, seemingly unintentionally touching her neck, sending a subtle electric current through her, both ordinary and strange.
Pei Qingji had even helped her put on her jacket before. Xue Shufan hadn’t thought much of it before, but now, tying the scarf felt like an intimate boundary had been crossed.
Pei Qingji looked into her eyes, saw the change in her expression, and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I just remembered, you used to tie a scarf for me too,” Xue Shufan said, adjusting the scarf. “We were teenagers then.”
As her words fell, she felt a coolness on her cheek and looked up at the sky.
Flurries of snow, small flakes drifting in the air, falling slowly.
The first snow of the year.
Xue Shufan looked up, and the white snowflakes landed on her red lips. A touch of white against the vibrant color, particularly clear and conspicuous.
“It’s snowing.”
Xue Shufan turned to look at Pei Qingji, wanting to confirm if he realized it was the first snow.
Pei Qingji lowered his head and kissed her lips—
The snowflake on her lips melted quickly.
