Marriage Seduction Addiction

Chapter 374 Opportunity
As soon as these words were spoken, the room fell into an eerie silence.

Tang Xu suddenly realized that she seemed to be in too much of a hurry.

Although her expression and tone did not change much, her eagerness to express her opinion probably still seemed strange to Yan Shiyu.
The two stared at each other silently for a long time before Yan Shiyu finally chuckled and said, "You'd be willing to go on my business trip?"

Tang Xu didn't answer. After a pause, she asked in return, "You don't want to take me with you?"

Yan Shiyu rested her elbows on the sofa armrests, her fingers supporting her forehead. She didn't answer her question, her face expressionless, simply looking at her calmly, as if trying to discern something from her expression.

Tang Xu met his gaze calmly. After another round of eye contact, she sighed softly and said, "Since you don't welcome me, then forget it. I don't want to force you. I'll find something to do myself."

As she spoke, she got up to leave, but Yan Shiyu pulled her back, and she fell back into his arms.

"You're so eager to go out?"

"think."

"Isn't tomorrow Saturday?"

Shouldn't we be going out even more on Saturday?

"What about Song Luobai?"

Tang Xu paused for a moment before saying, "Song Luobai is already 1.8 meters tall, he can have his own time and space now..."

"You really think so?"

Tang Xu seemed to be stumped by the question again. After a moment of silence, she reached out and gently tugged at his collar, looked up at him, her eyes filled with tenderness, and said, "I just... want to be with you more."

Yan Shiyu listened and remained silent for a moment.

Tang Xu lay half-reclined in his arms, remained silent for a moment, and then asked, "How many days are you going to be gone?"

"Three or four days, I guess," Yan Shiyu said.

Tang Xu then said, "Isn't Old Master Yan's birthday just around the corner?"

"Is it something very important?" Yan Shiyu asked indifferently.

After listening, Tang Xu thought for a moment before saying, "Then, during the few days you're away, is it convenient for me to call you?"

"What do you say?"

"Will you answer my call anytime?"

"Ah."

“Liar,” Tang Xu said. “If I make more than two calls, you’ll definitely get annoyed with me.”

“Then we can give it a try,” Yan Shiyu said.

Tang Xu gave a soft hum before saying, "I don't care. Even if you annoy me, I'll still hit you. The more annoyed you are, the more I'll hit you."

Yan Shiyu chuckled softly, his fingertips still gently caressing her face, and asked casually, "When did you become so clingy?"

Tang Xu leaned against him, gently closing her eyes to hide the unease in them, and whispered, "People are all spoiled... You want me to stop being clingy now? That's going to be difficult!"

……

The next day, Gao Yan brought his luggage to Yujing Bay early in the morning to pick up Yan Shiyu.

While Yan Shiyu was still in the bathroom, Tang Xu solemnly instructed Gao Yan: "I'm entrusting him to you for the next few days. If anything seems amiss, you must tell me immediately."

Gao Yan was still a little confused. "What's wrong?"

“It’s about his condition,” Tang Xu said. “If there’s anything about him that makes you uncomfortable, you need to contact me immediately. This is very important, you must remember that!”

After listening, Gao Yan paused for a moment before nodding as if he understood, and then couldn't help but say, "Then why don't you go with us? That way, Mr. Yan will definitely be less affected by Miss Ji."

Upon hearing this, Tang Xu could only sigh softly and say, "Do you think I don't want to?"

However, Yan Shiyu never budged on this point. Tang Xu didn't want to appear too unusual, nor did she want to put too much pressure on him, so she could only suppress all her unease and hope that everything would be normal in the next few days.

When Yan Shiyu came out of the bathroom, Tang Xu saw them off, and then he couldn't concentrate for the rest of the time.

When Song Luobai returned in the afternoon, he clearly noticed that something was wrong with her. After hesitating several times, he finally asked her, "What happened?"

Tang Xu finally snapped out of her daze and asked him, "What?"

"Why do you look so distracted?" Song Luobai asked. "Did something happen? Is it...?"

He paused here and didn't continue.

However, Tang Xu had already realized what he originally intended to say.

Some things, though secrets, are already open secrets—those who know each other can easily sense them.

Tang Xu gently shook her head at this, "Don't think too much about it, nothing has happened... I just hope that nothing else will happen next."

Seeing that Tang Xu didn't seem to be forcing a smile or lying to comfort him, Song Luobai frowned slightly and didn't press the matter further.

Tang Xu remained in this state until the next day.

That day, Yan Shiyu called her several times: once in the morning, once at noon, once during lunch, and once before going to bed... After several such calls, Tang Xu finally confirmed that Yan Shiyu was in a relatively normal state, and her heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally calmed down a little.

On the third day, the condition remained good, but a strange thing happened—

She actually received a phone call from the Yan family's housekeeper.

"Excuse me for disturbing you, Miss Tang. Tomorrow is the old master's birthday. I am here on his orders to invite you to the old house for a gathering."

Tang Xu never expected to receive such an invitation.

The old man just celebrated his 80th birthday last year, and he obviously didn't plan to hold a big birthday banquet this year. In addition, given Yan Shiyu's current attitude, he deliberately chose this time to go on a business trip, clearly intending to avoid this day.

But isn't it too strange that Old Master Yan would actually send someone to invite her?

"Old Master Yan's birthday is a big event for the family. It is not appropriate for an outsider like me to go and join in the fun. Please pass on my message to Old Master Yan."

“Miss Tang, you are too modest. How could you be an outsider?” Butler Li’s voice sounded calm and without any ripples. “The old master specifically instructed that he still hopes to meet you.”

Tang Xu suppressed her slightly pounding heart and calmly said, "I'm sorry, I already have plans for tomorrow, so it's really inconvenient for me to attend."

"That's such a pity. I will pass on the message to Grandpa Yan."

After hanging up the phone, Tang Xu stared at the phone in her hand, still somewhat dazed.

At this moment, Old Master Yan should have realized that Yan Shiyu would not come back to celebrate his birthday, but he still insisted on inviting her. What was he planning?
There are many possibilities, and Tang Xu has no way of knowing them all.

After all, this seemingly venerable eighty-year-old man possessed an extraordinary ability to control other people's lives—

Under his control, it wasn't just Yan Shiyu who was ruined. Tang Xu wasn't ready to face him.

Similarly, she did not tell Yan Shiyu about the phone call.

Four days after Yan Shiyu left, Old Master Yan's birthday arrived as scheduled.

Because of the phone call last night, and the fact that Yan Shiyu was currently out of town, Tang Xu still felt a vague unease. Fortunately, Yan Shiyu had kept in touch with her all day, so Tang Xu didn't sense anything unusual and stayed in the office until the end of the workday.

But she never expected that she would see Ji Yan when she walked out of the company.

Ji Yan sat in the back seat of the car, looking up at her with a cold expression. She seemed extremely unwilling, but she still had to speak: "Grandpa invites you to the Yan family for dinner. As a junior, you shouldn't refuse, right?"

As they were talking, the driver got out of the car, came to Tang Xu's side, and opened the car door in front of her.

However, the next moment, Tang Xu reached out and closed the car door that had already been opened.

Ji Yan couldn't help but glance at him slightly.

Tang Xu looked at her calmly and said, "You probably didn't want to see me either, but you had no choice but to come because the old man gave you this task and you couldn't refuse, right?"

Ji Yan didn't answer, but simply said, "You mean, you refuse?"

"Yes, I refuse."

Ji Yan sneered, "You want to be with him, but you don't even dare to eat a meal with his family?"

Tang Xu bent down slightly, letting her see his entire face, before speaking, "If it's with you, I'd be happy to. But if it's with that old man, I'm sorry, he's not considered family to me, so I'm not willing."

"You're feeling guilty, aren't you?" Ji Yan said. "You also feel that your affair is something you can't show to others, and that you can only do it secretly, so you don't dare to go, right?"

“If you insist on hearing the answer, then I admit it, I don’t dare to go,” Tang Xu said frankly, “because I don’t want to give him any chance.”

Ji Yan sneered, "What opportunity does Grandpa need you to give him?"

"The chance to hurt me, the chance to control him."

Upon hearing this, Ji Yan couldn't help but glance at her with slightly narrowed eyes.

Tang Xu said, “We are all adults and should know how to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. This old man and I have never had any interaction, but he wanted to see me when he was leaving. I don’t know what he will say or do to me, but I know that what he wants to achieve will definitely affect him. I don’t want him to be affected in this way, so I will not give this old man the opportunity.”

Ji Yan glanced at Tang Xu as if she had heard something absurd, "You think Grandpa is the one who wants to harm him, but you don't think at all that you are the one who dragged him down?"

Upon hearing this, Tang Xu simply looked at her quietly, until Ji Yan's expression changed slightly. "What are you looking at?"

Tang Xu smiled slightly and said, "He takes meticulous care of you, tries his best to satisfy everything you want, and never forces you to do anything based on his own wishes. On the contrary, this old man disregards your wishes, knowing that you hate me to the extreme, yet still makes you come to pick me up... Between the two of you, who do you think truly cherishes you?"

After hearing this, Ji Yan's expression turned cold once again.

She looked at Tang Xu for a long time before finally speaking: "I have always known that Miss Tang is eloquent."

Tang Xu gently shook her head and said, "I've never been good at speaking. You might think I'm eloquent because I'm telling the truth. Because it's the truth, you can't refute it."

"Since you have such a reasonable explanation, what are you afraid of? Come back to the Yan family with me."

“I’ve already explained the reasons,” Tang Xu said. “If you feel that answer isn’t convincing enough, that’s none of my business. Because that’s really what I think.”

"It's rare that you're willing to go to such lengths for him..." Ji Yan's eyes still clearly revealed mockery, "Is he worth it?"

Tang Xu laughed out loud and said, "I'm sure you won't like to hear my answer, but I still have to tell you. In my opinion, he is worth it, very worth it."

Upon hearing this, Ji Yan turned her face away from Tang Xu and instructed the driver, "Drive."

Looking at her cold profile, Tang Xu was momentarily stunned, but when she came to her senses, she smiled slightly again.

"Perhaps one day, you will agree with my answer."

Ji Yan didn't answer her again, rolled up the car window, and then the car drove straight away from Tang Xu.

Tang Xu watched the car drive away until its taillights disappeared completely before getting into her own car. She stared blankly at the steering wheel for a while before unlocking her phone and calling Yan Shiyu.

Yan Shiyu answered the phone quickly.

There was a slight commotion in the background on the other end of the line, as if there were quite a few people around. Tang Xu heard it clearly and couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing?"

"In a meeting," Yan Shiyu replied.

Tang Xu's expression changed slightly. "I didn't know you were busy. I'll hang up now—"

"It's nothing," Yan Shiyu said. "You can talk."

This situation is unprecedented.

The two of them rarely even talked on the phone before, let alone under these circumstances.

Tang Xu listened intently for a while, only to find that the people in the background seemed to be discussing something in hushed tones, without interacting with Yan Shiyu at all.

Over the phone, Tang Xu had no idea what was going on on the other end, but she inexplicably felt that the situation was a bit strange.

Fortunately, it was just eerie, and there was nothing that made her feel uneasy.

Before Tang Xu could decide what to say, Yan Shiyu asked, "Just got off work?"

Tang Xu responded softly, "I was just about to go back."

"What are you planning to eat tonight?" Yan Shiyu asked again.

"I haven't decided yet," Tang Xu said. "I'll think about it on my way back."

After answering that question, Tang Xu suddenly realized something was wrong—

The background noise on the other end of Yan Shiyu's phone suddenly seemed to disappear.

She couldn't help but gently bite her lower lip. Even though she knew Yan Shiyu wouldn't turn on the speakerphone, she was still worried that her voice would be heard by the person on the other end of the phone.

She could almost picture what was happening on the other end of the phone right now—

It's likely that everyone in the room is now staring at Yan Shiyu, straining their ears to listen to the phone call—although they can only hear Yan Shiyu's one-sided conversation, the content of such a call is something that no one ever imagined would happen to Yan Shiyu.

Tang Xu couldn't help but feel a little nervous and said, "I have to drive now. I'll call you back when I get back... after you've finished your work."

Yan Shiyu responded softly, and in that quiet environment, she added a word of advice: "Drive carefully."

Tang Xu only had time to say "okay" before quickly hanging up the phone.

She didn't know what Yan Shiyu was doing on the other end of the phone, but as long as he was busy in a calm and peaceful environment and there was no bad news from Gao Yan, she felt much more at ease.

Similarly, Tang Xu was unaware that Ji Yan had been stuck on the elevated road for three or four hours due to an accident on her way back, and hadn't had time to return to the Yan family's old house to celebrate Old Master Yan's birthday.

She had no idea that although several tables were set up at the Yan family's old mansion that evening, only a handful of people came to celebrate Old Master Yan's birthday. As a result, Old Master Yan spent the most desolate birthday of his life...