CHAPTER 159: "MISS QI?"

Mother Qi sighed and offered a gentle smile. "How do you know it won’t work if you don’t try?" she said, encouraging her daughter. But her words only made Qi Jianyi’s expression tighten further.

"Mom..." Qi Jianyi murmured softly.

"I don’t want to take that risk." She shook her head slightly, her voice firm. "I have a life here in this world—my own business, my family. I can’t just throw all of that away," she said, refusing the idea outright.

Qi Jianyi had truly come to believe that her path and Song Chengfeng’s were no longer meant to cross. That truth, she had already accepted long ago.

And now, she needed to make her mother accept it too.

"I’ve made peace with what we had, and I know this is my present—where my future is meant to be," she continued, her lips lifting in a sad, resigned smile.

"You stubborn child!" Mother Qi slapped her daughter lightly on the back and grumbled.

"I wasted all that effort, talked so much, and in the end, you’re still this hard-headed!" Grumbling to herself, she rose from the bed and made her way to the door.

"Think it over on your own since you won’t listen to me. Just remember—whatever decision you make, your father and I will support it. Because in the end, this is your life to live, not ours." With those parting words, she left the room, leaving her eldest daughter alone to ponder the conversation.

Qi Jianyi watched her mother’s retreating figure. Her eyes drifted up toward the ceiling as a heavy sigh escaped her lips.

"Song Chengfeng..." she whispered. His name slipped from her lips like a fragile thread, pulling loose a cascade of memories in her mind.

"How are you doing?" The words floated into the silence, unanswered, fading into the air—heard by no one, and meant for someone who could not hear them.

Far from Qi Jianyi’s world, in another realm entirely, a tall, cold man stood before a glass window. His expression remained unreadable, as always. Yet beneath the stern lines of his face, a deep emptiness could be seen in his eyes.

A soft knock came at the door but was met with silence. After a few moments, the visitor entered the room without waiting for permission.

"Song Chengfeng," a voice called gently—soft, maternal, and filled with concern. It was Mrs. Song, his mother.

Seven years had passed, and time had not been kind to her. The elegance she once carried now bore the signs of age and weariness. She slowly approached her son, who still stood with his back to her.

Reaching out, she placed a hand gently on his back, her eyes filled with quiet sorrow. She had always known her son to be cold and distant. But even in all his aloofness, there had once been a spark of life in his eyes—something that had since vanished.

Now, his gaze seemed void of all emotion.

There were so many questions lingering in Mrs. Song’s heart. She had asked them before. Many times. But no answers ever came.

From the moment Qi Jianyi had woken up seven years ago, something in Song Chengfeng had changed—and it had never returned to how it was.

In Mrs. Song’s eyes, it was as though her son had been mourning. Mourning for Qi Jianyi.

And yet, Qi Jianyi was not dead.

"Are you really so busy that you can’t even come home?" she asked, her voice strained as she gently turned him to face her.

His thoughts interrupted, Song Chengfeng looked at his mother for a moment before replying in a flat, distant voice. "I forgot."

"What are you so busy with?" Mrs. Song asked, her eyes drifting across his office desk. Papers were scattered everywhere, documents piled up with barely any space between them. She let out a sigh and shook her head lightly.

Song Chengfeng lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, then nodded slightly in his mother’s direction. "Mom, why are you here?" he asked, his tone weary but polite.

Mrs. Song let out a sharp snort and shot him a glare, clearly unimpressed by his innocent expression.

"Well, if I didn’t come to see you, would you even bother coming home to visit your parents?" she retorted, a sneer in her voice.

How could Song Chengfeng not notice the slight edge of rising anger in his mother’s tone? Before she could launch into one of her lengthy lectures, he quickly reached out and gently wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"I was planning to come home and visit you tonight," he said, offering a half-hearted smile. It was a lie—one that Mrs. Song didn’t believe for a second.

Both mother and son understood the silent truth: one was lying, and the other was pretending to believe it. Fortunately for Song Chengfeng, Mrs. Song decided to spare him the lecture—for now—and allowed him a graceful escape.

"Hmph. Then I’ll tell the chef to prepare your favorite dishes," she replied enthusiastically, nodding in satisfaction as if she believed him. Mrs. Song walked over to the couch and sat down with ease.

As she settled in, she glanced over her shoulder, her eyes narrowing slightly at her son, who still stood by the glass window.

Catching the pointed look in her eyes, Song Chengfeng sighed and reluctantly followed her lead, walking over to take the seat across from her.

"Mom, is there something you want to say?" Song Chengfeng asked bluntly, cutting straight to the point. He wasn’t in the mood for a conversation full of subtle hints and roundabout talk.

Sensing her son’s impatience, Mrs. Song didn’t push his buttons. Instead, she got straight to the purpose of her visit.

"You’re turning thirty-three this year. Are you really planning to stay single forever? If you don’t have anyone in mind, then let me help. I have plenty of friends with daughters your age. They are smart, beautiful, and unmarried," she said all at once, not giving Song Chengfeng a chance to interrupt.

But the moment she finished speaking, she noticed the displeasure etched across his face. Mrs. Song sighed softly, already knowing that her effort had failed—again.

"Mom, we’ve talked about this before," Song Chengfeng said with a sigh, rubbing his face with one hand. Fatigue was written all over him, softening his normally unreadable expression into one of quiet exhaustion.

"I don’t have the time for a relationship right now. So please, stop worrying about my marriage," he added, his tone cool and distant. But Mrs. Song wasn’t so easily swayed.

Her eyes narrowed sharply, and she snapped, "Is it really that you don’t have time—or is it because you still can’t move on from that girl, Jianyi?"

After years of skirting the issue, she had finally asked the question aloud.

She caught the slight pause in her son’s movement at the sound of Qi Jianyi’s name. That brief moment of hesitation didn’t go unnoticed. Clicking her tongue, Mrs. Song pressed further.

"Be honest with me, Chengfeng. What exactly happened between you and Qi Jianyi?" she asked, her tone softer now, layered with concern. "You acted like you were mourning when she had that accident. But then the moment she woke up, you disappeared from her life."

Her voice dropped even lower, laced with disappointment. "Do you know how many times your father and I had to come up with excuses every time Qi Jingxuan and He Ling asked about you? You pursued their daughter, made her fall in love with you, and then vanished the second she woke up? They even thought her changed behavior was because you broke her heart."

Song Chengfeng let out a low, mocking laugh at Mrs. Song’s last remark. His reaction instantly earned a sharp glare from her.

"What’s so funny?" she asked, her tone pressing. Lifting his gaze, Song Chengfeng looked directly at his mother. As his eyes settled on the fine lines that now etched her once youthful face, he was struck by the quiet passage of time.

So many days had slipped by unnoticed—seven whole years since Qi Jianyi had left him. And yet, the anguish of not being able to stand by her side one final time still clung to him like a shadow.

"Miss Qi’s change in attitude has nothing to do with me, Mom," he replied calmly, choosing his words carefully. "So you and Dad don’t need to feel guilty or make excuses anymore. We didn’t do anything wrong."

"Miss Qi?" Mrs. Song repeated, stunned. Her eyes widened in disbelief, her voice tinged with shock. "Is that what you call her now?"

It was hard to believe. The way he spoke of Qi Jianyi with distant, polite formality made it seem as if they were complete strangers. No history. No heartbreak.

As if they had never been anything to each other at all.

"Sometimes, I really don’t understand you," Mrs. Song confessed, her voice growing soft.

"You’ve been a shadow of yourself for the past seven years. You’ve lost weight, and your eyes... they’ve turned hollow, like there’s no life left in them." She paused, searching his face, then continued.

"You carry her photo in your wallet, everywhere you go. Don’t ask me how I know—I’ve seen it. You never really tried to hide it anyway. And yet, you were the one who left her." Her voice cracked slightly with emotion.

"So tell mom honestly. Why did you even leave her in the first place, if you were going to live like this? Alive, but not really living?"