Episode 11

In the guest room on the second floor.

Shen Xi stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by presents. She was surprised at the number of gifts around her and said, "We received so many gifts."

Su Hang leaned against the door frame and looked at all the gift boxes in the room. He became surprised when he saw Shen Xi's smiling face, and tentatively asked: "Do you like them?"

"Of course I like them. Anyone would be happy to receive a gift." Shen Xi said with a chuckle.

Hearing this, Su Hang's rigid face gradually softened.

These wedding gifts have been piled in this room for nearly a week. Su Hang had very few friends, so most of the presents were from Shen Xi's family and friends. But ever since they got married, Shen Xi hadn't asked about them once. He had figured that it was because Shen Xi felt bitter against their marriage, so these presents were also seen in an unfavorable light. Now that Shen Xi suddenly said that she liked these gifts, Su Hang had a thought that maybe she wasn't that bitter about their marriage.

"There aren't a lot of presents with cards. I guess we'll only find out who the sender is after opening them." Shen Xi picked up a few boxes and looked over them.

"Un." This time, Su Hang walked over and picked up a gift too.

"It looks like this is going to take a while." Shen Xi looked around and saw that even the desk and chairs were full of presents, and there was no place to sit. So, in the end, she sat on the carpet and leaned on the foot of the bed. She picked up a pink gift box and unwrapped it.

Shen Xi ripped the packaging, revealing a black jewelry box inside. She opened the box and took out the card inside. "It's a pair of diamond earrings from Amy. It's gorgeous."

Shen Xi turned the box, intending to show the newly received diamond earrings to Su Hang as she spoke. When she lifted her head, she found Su Hang squatting in front of her with a pillow in his hand, and was leaning towards her.

"It's beautiful." Su Hang noticed Shen Xi's body slightly retreat because of his close proximity, and his eyes darkened. He handed the pillow to Shen Xi and said: "The ground is cold."

"Ah? Oh." Shen Xi was surprised and took a while to react. She then put down the diamond earrings she was holding and accepted the pillow from Su Hang.

After Shen Xi took the pillow, Su Hang took a step back. He then sat on the ground like Shen Xi and helped her open the gifts.

Shen Xi put the pillow beneath her and thought that it was a lot more comfortable than sitting on the carpet. She looked at Su Hang, who was looking through a gift. Shen Xi happily said: "Thank you."

"This is a jade bracelet from Song Zong of HaoYuan Technology." Su Hang didn't say anything else, and just handed the gift he had opened to Shen Xi.

"Oh, that can be put up in a charity sale someday." Shen Xi took the gift box.

"Un." Su Hang nodded, his mindset being 'I don’t have an opinion, whatever you decide is good.' He then picked up another gift to open.

Shen Xi secretly glanced at Su Hang and saw that he seemingly didn't react to what she had just said. Feeling somewhat disappointed, she bowed her head and concentrated on opening another gift.

Su Hang didn't care about the actual gifts but instead wanted to look at the cards. Honestly, the words written in the cards were pretty much the same. They were all blessings along the lines of 'may you live a long and happy life together,' or 'wishing you to have a child soon' and so on. But Su Hang liked these standard greetings very much. He patiently read every single one, each card touching his heart.

Every time he opened a gift, there would be a card that would say: 'I wish Su Hang and Shen Xi a wonderful wedding, may you live a long and happy life, may you give birth to a child soon.' And his mood would lift as if the more these words were said, the more they could come true.

"Huh...this one's a notebook? And there's a password lock." Shen Xi looked at the item doubtfully.

"What's the matter?" Su Hang raised his head at her voice.

"Li QingYuan sent us a notebook with a combination lock on it." Shen Xi lifted the notebook.

"Let me see."

Su Hang accepted the notebook, the words Li QingYuan had said during the wedding coming back to him. 'I originally wanted to give you a guidebook that details all the sweet words and endearments you could say to her, but I thought that might not be enough, so I spent a whole week picking out the best words that I could think of and wrote them all down. These are all tested by yours truly, ah. My gift is handmade and full of sincerity, so remember to read it. The code is your anniversary.'

"Do you know the password?" Shen Xi asked Su Hang, curious.

"I don't know. I'll ask him next time." Su Hang replied without batting an eye.

"Oh." Shen Xi didn't pursue it any further, and simply grabbed another gift to open. Soon, most of the smaller gifts around Shen Xi were opened, and only the larger ones were left. Shen Xi opened a few of them and found that they were small and valuable antiques. Shen Xi wasn't really an antique lover, and neither was Su Hang, so she planned to give them to any future charity sales she would come across.

"This one's Miss Yun's gift." Su Hang unwrapped another gift and found it to be from Yun Shu. He knew that Yun Shu was Shen Xi's best friend, so he didn't open the box and handed it to Shen Xi directly.

Shen Xi became curious when she heard it was from Yun Shu. She hadn't been in the best of moods when she got married in her last life, so she had never opened any of the gifts. Later on, she gradually forgot that they even existed. It seems that Su Hang eventually dealt with them, but as to how exactly he did it, Shen Xi didn't much care, so naturally, she didn't know.

Shen Xi accepted the box and opened it, only to find two white t-shirts, with an over-the-top villainous-looking chibi printed on the shirts.

(T/N: the original text translates to a 'FaceQ' which is similar to a Mii creator for Nintendo, or those simple icon/character/face creator apps)

This cartoon character vaguely looked like her, and at a glance, Shen Xi could tell that it was personally drawn by Yun Shu. After all, this style was exactly the same as Yun Shu's drawing style during high-school. Shen Xi happily picked up a shirt and showed it to Su Hang: "Look, look, Yun Shu drew me. Does it resemble me?"

Su Hang lifted his head and made eye-contact with the character on the shirt. His eyes narrowed, and his face looked somewhat unnatural.

"What's wrong?" Shen Xi saw that his expression looked weird, so she turned the shirt towards her. When she saw the entire shirt, her face turned red with embarrassment. It turns out that while the t-shirt was folded in the box, the entire graphic on the shirt wasn't visible. There was a line of words underneath the chibi Shen Xi that said:

[Su Hang, if you dare treat me badly, you're dead!]

"T-this, this must be some prank Yun Shu is trying to pull...ignore all this, ah." Shen Xi hurriedly put the t-shirt back in its box.

As Shen Xi tried to close the box, Su Hang reached out and took out the other t-shirt in the box. The one Shen Xi showed him was a women's shirt, so the other one must be his. He unfurled the shirt and saw a cartoon character that looked like him, with hearts in his eyes. Underneath the chibi were the words:

[Shen Xi, I will always love you.]

"Er..." Shen Xi looked at the calm Su Hang, who was still looking at this silly shirt and felt cold sweat on her back. She quickly tried to explain: "Don't mind all this, Yun Shu just likes to joke around."

"Oh." Su Hang nodded his head to show that he understood. Then he folded the shirt and hid it behind him.

"..." Shen Xi blinked, then blinked again, wondering whether she should explain to him that hiding something so blatantly was pretty embarrassing.

Su Hang's expression went taut, and after being stared at by Shen Xi for ten seconds, he finally lowered his head and said in a muffled voice: "It was for me."

"What?" Shen Xi didn't understand.

"It was for men." Su Hang's voice sounded obstinate as if he was a brave man facing the most torturous of interrogations.

"I see." Shen Xi took back her gaze and lowered her head to close the box that contained the women's shirt. She then absently began to open another gift. The image of Su Hang hiding the shirt behind him and then pretending as nothing had happened kept repeating in her mind. As she thought about it, She Xi couldn't resist the smile the blossomed on her face.

If she had opened presents with Su Hang like this in her last life, would she have found out what Su Hang was actually like?

Su Hang kept his head lowered, and didn't dare look at Shen Xi. His ears were already quite red, and he was quite worried. Was Shen Xi angry because of what he just did? He hadn't been thinking and grabbed the shirt in reflex.

Su Hang continued to open the gifts around him, and soon unwrapped a pair of matching watches, one for men and one for women. Su Hang handed the women's watch to Shen Xi and said in a matter-of-fact tone: "One of the gifts was a pair of matching watches. Here's the women's watch."

Shen Xi looked at Su Hang and solemnly accepted the watch, thanking him as she did so.

Su Hang immediately regretted his actions after letting the watch go. He felt like he was being stupid. Wasn't the fact that he was trying to cover things up made it all the more conspicuous? Su Hang felt that he couldn't stay any longer. With his left hand holding his watch, and his right hand clutching the white shirt, Su Hang hurriedly said: "I-I just remembered a few more things I needed to deal with today. I'll be going first I need to get back to my study."

"Oh, alright."

As Shen Xi nodded, Su Hang had already rushed out of the guest room and was running downstairs.

Shen Xi heard his hurried footsteps as he fled down the stairs. She couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.

Su Hang ran all the way back to his study. He went through the door, slam it closed, then leaned against the door. After a full five minutes of self-loathing, he excitedly unfolded the somewhat wrinkled shirt that he had practically stolen.

Without much thought, he took off his coat and put the silly white shirt on. He then stared at his reflection on a nearby mirror for a long while.

Su Hang felt that if he wore this shirt, the cartoon version of him would be given some sort of life.

That the sentence 'Shen Xi, I will always love you' would somehow come to life.

Because it was something Su Hang had always thought, and something he always wanted to say but never dared to.

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The Su Hang in her past life opened all the presents alone. When he saw the shirts, he secretly bought a pair of stuffed toys, put them in the guest room, and then put the shirts on them. He would sit next to the stuffed toys and foolishly smile, all by himself.