The engagement was with the younger brother, but I've fallen for the older brother.

Upon hearing this, He Nanxian turned his head to look at Si Yimian and immediately pressed for an answer.

Why?

A faint frown appeared between his brows, and the gentle warmth in his eyes seemed to have been splashed with cold water, thinning out.

Si Yimian turned to look at him, her tone serious.

"I'm only twenty-three this year. I haven't even figured out how to manage myself yet, how can I manage a family?"

"My review meeting just passed, and the project has just entered the second phase."

"I want to do my current job well and be able to stand on my own before I think about marriage."

She thought for a moment, then added another sentence.

"And I think that marriage isn't something you should do just because you reach a certain age."

"It's time when I'm ready."

"I'm clearly not ready right now."

Zhou Wanqing put down her soup spoon, smiled, and spoke in a gentle but tentative tone.

"Mianmian, three years is not a short time. A girl's prime is fleeting."

Si Yimian curved her lips into a smile, her tone sweet but not cloying.

"Aunt Zhou, the length of a flower's blooming period is not determined by its age, but by its value."

Zhou Wanqing choked for a moment, trying to reply but finding herself unable to.

This girl speaks softly, but every word carries a hidden barb; it doesn't hurt when it goes in, but it draws blood when it comes out.

He Huaipu suddenly laughed.

"Girl, you're twenty-three. It's the perfect age to figure out how to live your life."

"There's no rush to put a wedding ring around your neck."

He picked up his teacup, took another sip, put it down, and looked at He Nanxian.

"Nanxian, did you hear that?"

"It's not that we don't want you to marry her, it's just that she doesn't want to marry right now, so you have to wait."

He Nanxian nodded: "I heard you."

"Let's do as Mianmian says."

He turned his head to look at Si Yimian, his eyes showing no resentment or impatience.

"Three years, I'll wait for you."

Si Yimian met his gaze and paused for a moment.

He suddenly became decisive, unlike the indecisive He Nanxian of the past.

My heart skipped a beat; I suddenly realized something was wrong.

She still smiled politely.

"Thank you for your understanding, Brother Nanxian."

He Huaipu then looked at He Sichen.

"Si Chen, don't just say you don't support me."

"You can offer your opinions on your brother's marriage, but you can't make the decisions for him."

"If he's really willing, waiting three years is no big deal."

He Sichen lowered his eyes, picked up his wine glass and drank the rest of the wine in one gulp without saying a word.

He Huaipu picked up his chopsticks and tapped them lightly on the table.

"Alright, things have been explained clearly, let's continue eating."

"The food's getting cold, everyone pick up your chopsticks."

The atmosphere gradually relaxed from tense.

The sound of chopsticks hitting bowls and plates began again.

Si Yimian lowered her head and ate her food, silently giving the old man a thumbs up.

With just a few words, the situation was brought under control, and no one was offended.

As dinner was drawing to a close, it started raining outside.

It hit the French windows with a thud, like someone outside flicking pebbles.

The ginkgo trees in the yard were drenched and bent over, and the water curtain flowed down the eaves.

When the maid came in to serve dessert, she casually mentioned that the rain was quite heavy and the roads were already flooded.

Zhou Wanqing chimed in, "Mianmian, this rain isn't going to stop anytime soon."

"Both Nanxian and Sichen have been drinking, so it's inappropriate for either of them to open the bottle."

"The old house has many guest rooms. Stay here tonight, and the driver will take you there first thing tomorrow morning."

Si Yimian glanced at the rain outside the window, and muffled thunder rolled in from afar.

She glanced at He Sichen again.

He was holding a teacup, listening to the old man speak, his expression unchanged.

"Okay, thank you, Aunt Zhou."

Si Yimian answered obediently and fed the dessert mousse from the spoon into her mouth.

He Nanxian chimed in from the side, "Have the housekeeper turn on the air conditioning in the guest rooms in advance so it'll be cooler tonight."

"understood."

Zhou Wanqing responded, her gaze sweeping between He Nanxian and Si Yimian, her smile carrying a deeper meaning.

He Sichen put down his teacup and stood up.

"Grandpa, I'm going to the study."

He Huaipu waved his hand: "Go on, go on, don't work too late."

Immediately afterwards, He Huaipu called Si Yimian to the tea room.

"Girl, play a game of chess with the old man."

The old man had already set up the chessboard, and the Pu'er tea in the purple clay teapot had just been brewed, its aroma mingling with the rain vapors seeping in through the window cracks.

Si Yimian obediently sat down and took the black piece first.

Her chess skills were average, but she was quick-witted. Even though she was at a disadvantage after a dozen or so moves, she didn't let the old man win too easily.

He Huaipu suddenly spoke.

"I taught Nanxian to play chess when he was a child."

"This child is smart, but too cautious. He has to calculate every move clearly before he dares to make a move."

"Afraid of losing."

He paused, then placed another piece.

"Si Chen is different."

"I taught him to play chess when he was five years old. He couldn't reach the chessboard, so he knelt on a chair."

"He's not satisfied with losing; he insists on playing another round, and he won't go to sleep until he wins."

Si Yimian paused for a moment, her fingers holding the chess piece.

She imagined the scene: tiny He Sichen, kneeling on a chair with a stern face, locked in a fierce argument with the old man.

I couldn't help but smile.

"And then?"

He won in the end.

He Huaipu placed his piece and ate one of her pieces.

"He won once and then stopped playing. When I asked him why, he said it was no fun and he already knew how to win."

"He thought Go was too slow, saying that life is not a game of Go, and there is no time for you to deduce the moves step by step."

"What he wants is a scalpel; once it's down there, we'll see."

Si Yimian chuckled: "That's so Dr. He."

If a five-year-old is saying such things, this man has never been easy to deal with.

He Huaipu raised his eyes, the light of the chess lamp reflected in his cloudy pupils.

"What's your opinion of Nanxian?"

Si Yimian stared at the chessboard and thought for a moment.

"Nanxian is a really nice guy, gentle and kind to everyone."

He Huaipu quickly replied, "He's good to everyone, but he's not good enough to anyone."

Si Yimian looked up at him.

The old man didn't look at her; he was engrossed in the chess game.

"He's not a bad person, but he's easily influenced."

"He was so well protected by his mother since he was a child that he never got wet in the rain."

"People who have it too easy don't know what the cost is. They want everything and can't bear to throw anything away."

Si Yimian didn't reply, but placed a piece.

He Huaipu followed suit, placing his piece and continuing his speech.

"And Si Chen is the one who got soaked in the rain himself."

"I raised him myself. He's been following me around ever since he could walk."

"When he was little, he was very talkative and had a sweet tongue. He would greet everyone and praise them from head to toe when guests came to his house, making them laugh so hard they couldn't stop."

At this point, He Huaipu sighed again.

"If it weren't for his parents' mess, you would have been his wife."

He Huaipu captured one of her pieces, and the piece hit the wooden board.

"Si Chen's name contains the character 'Si,' which means 'Si' in the Si family."

"By incorporating the woman's surname into the names, we hope that the two children will be destined to be together."

"Your grandfather was drinking heavily with me back then, and he slammed his fist on the table and said that if the Si family ever had a daughter, she must marry into the He family."

"This marriage was sealed the day he was born."

Si Yimian's white chess piece hovered in mid-air.

"And then what happened...?"

"Later, when you were fifteen, you came back, and the Si family brought up the marriage again. I talked to Si Chen about it, and he said..."

The old man paused, mimicking He Sichen's tone, and lowered his voice to a flat and indifferent tone.

"I'm not interested, don't waste their time."

He Huaipu put down his teacup, his tone tinged with disappointment.

"How do you know you're not interested if you've never even seen it?"

He said he wasn't interested in those he'd seen before, and even less interested in those he'd never seen before.

He also said that the most successful surgery he had ever performed was a heart bypass, but he couldn't bridge a relationship problem.

Si Yimian's mouth was half open, and she couldn't close it for a long time.

So the man rejected the marriage proposal and the opportunity to be legally bound to her.

Then, after she moved into the apartment across the hall, she started lighting sky lanterns, getting birth control injections, and stockpiling sanitary napkins.

What kind of behavioral logic is this?