Song Tingshen was holding Little Wang, who was wrapped up in a towel, and walking by Ruan Xia's side.
She whispered, "Put your arm over my shoulder or hold my hand."
"... Okay." Song Tingshen could only free a hand to hold hands with Ruan Xia while holding the chubby kid with his other hand.
They held each other's hand with their fingers interlocking.
Ruan Xia could feel the thin calluses on his palm. As she listened to Little Wang's childish chattering by her ear, she felt moisture on her palm. She didn't know if the water was from sweat or from the pool.
From the back, they truly looked like a warm family of three: a tall, handsome father, a pretty, magnanimous mother, and a delicate, cute kid.
Ruan Xia didn't know if it was her misperception, but she felt as if Qin Yu was staring at her from behind, making her extremely uneasy.
---
There were three bathrooms in the mansion. At the moment, none of her coworkers had come back yet. Song Tingshen took Little Wang to take a bath. Ruan Xia went to a separate bathroom to take a shower. When the family of three returned to Ruan Xia's room with wet hair, it wasn't 9 PM yet.
Little Wang had gone to play with Ruan Xia's female coworkers this afternoon, so he hadn't taken a nap today. He had also recently played in the pool for over an hour. Ruan Xia didn't even need to tell him a bedtime story tonight. He went straight to bed after Song Tingshen dried his hair.
Once Little Wang fell asleep, Ruan Xia and Song Tingshen looked at each other. In the end, it was Song Tingshen that broke the silence. He glanced at the clock and said, "It's still early and Little Wang is asleep. Want to go out for a walk?"
Ruan Xia hadn't had time to think about anything else due to matters related to Qin Yu. Hearing Song Tingshen's suggestion, she suddenly thought of something. Wasn't there a brief cold war between? Well no, to be accurate, she was the one unilaterally giving Song Tingshen the cold shoulder.
She didn't know what Song Tingshen wanted to talk to her about. She didn't want to be a fool with an overactive imagination and try to guess his thoughts anymore. If one day she became the queen of imagining things that didn't exist, she would cry herself blind.
"Okay."
It was very windy at night on the island. Ruan Xia was wearing a long dress and slippers. She followed Song Tingshen out of the mansion and happened to bump into her coworkers that were coming back.
They teased them for having the romantic mindset to go walking on the beach together in the windy night. That was pretty romantic for a couple that had been married for a few years.
Ruan Xia smiled and went along with their teasing. "You guys are allowed to walk on the beach, but we're not?"
The mansion was close to the sea. After they crossed the road, they reached a large stretch of sandy beach. Although it was past 9PM, they were still people strolling on the beach, extremely leisurely.
The two of them didn't say a word on the way here. It was only when they reached the beach, and there were increasingly few people around and the sea wind grew chillier that Song Tingshen finally broke the silence.
He slowly said, "I'm not a woman. I don't understand the way a woman thinks. So Xiaxia, I think we can be more candid with each other. If I said something wrong or did something wrong, can you be merciful and just tell me what I did wrong instead of having me guess?"
He had realized it now. Studying the way a woman's mind worked and analyzing the meaning of their words was more challenging than talking business or undertaking a project. At the very least, there was logic in businesses and projects and a general direction too. It was very difficult to guess what a woman was thinking. He couldn't guess it either.
Be merciful... this wording was truly accurately used.
Ruan Xia had wanted to restrain herself, but in the end, she wasn't able to stop her smile from slipping out.