"Yes, Miss Yin." Butler Shen bowed to her, his demeanor neither servile nor overbearing. "Is this about what happened six years ago?" she frowned.

"It is." "I thought you didn't regret what you did." "Indeed, I do not regret it. If I had to do it all over again, seeing the Young Master lying unconscious and gravely injured in the sickbed, perhaps I would choose to do the very same thing." Butler Shen’s aged back remained ramrod straight.

"However, my actions back then led the Young Master to misunderstand you for so long, caused you to suffer tribulations beyond any reasonable punishment, and resulted in your younger brother being innocently implicated. I should bear the consequences for all of it." "And your way of bearing the consequences is to leave Ouchen?" she asked coolly.

"You are about to marry the Young Master; you must detest the sight of me, the one who hurt you, remaining by his side." Wrinkles deepened around Butler Shen's eyes, as if he had aged five years in an instant. Yin Xia Mo gazed at him.

After a long silence, a complex emotion flickered in her eyes. She said, "If your decision to leave is because of me, then stay—for Ouchen's sake." "..." Butler Shen froze.

"Who was right and who was wrong in the past—it's impossible to say clearly now." A bitter smile touched the corner of her lips. "Although creditors pressing for payment during a crisis felt like adding frost to snow, the debt was what my adoptive father owed the Ou Corporation.

A debt must be repaid; that is only right. And while I resented how heartlessly you let Xiao Cheng lie unconscious outside the villa gate in the pouring rain all night without anyone checking on him, haven't I, too, willfully tormented Ouchen?

Cause and effect—perhaps it is all retribution woven by fate. I cannot claim a clear conscience, so what right do I have to drive you away?" "Miss Yin..." Butler Shen was moved.

He paused, then shook his head. "I appreciate your kindness, but I no longer deserve to stay." Looking at the obstinate old man.

Yin Xia Mo drew a light breath and said, "Even if you leave, what will it mend? ...

Stay. Don't let Ouchen lose another close confidant.

Ouchen cannot do without you, and—I suspect you cannot do without Ouchen either." "As for me," her eyes were as clear as amber, "if necessary, I can train my sight to filter out anything I don't wish to see." With that, she took the suitcase from the old man's hand and placed it back on the table. She walked out of Butler Shen's bedroom.

Yin Xia Mo felt a profound serenity within her heart. In the autumn sunlight, the events of the past, now that the truth was known, seemed like dark clouds gradually being blown away.

She had resented him; she had believed all those actions were his revenge, that his former feelings for her were merely the possessiveness one has for a doll—to have it if one likes it, to destroy it if one cannot have it. But—she had misunderstood him after all.

On that night of their farewell beneath the cherry blossom tree, he had actually... A long shadow stretched across the sun-dappled ground.

She lifted her head abruptly, and the person standing there was undeniably Ouchen. He stood by the full-length glass window in the hallway, no telling how long he had been there.

Light radiated from behind him, seeming to outline his figure with a golden edge, while the green lace on his wrist fluttered softly in the autumn breeze. "Are—are you looking for me?" His voice held a note of suppressed sorrow as Ouchen gazed at her.

When the maid informed him she was waiting in the living room, a brief flicker of joy was immediately followed by a wave of disquiet. He had overheard her conversation with Butler Shen just now.

Though grateful that she had persuaded Butler Shen to stay, he was worried her willingness to overlook things stemmed from the fact that she wouldn't be living with him. She had come to find him.

Summer's Foam III