Rumble,
Heavy rain poured from the sky. The tree shades swayed out of shape, turning pale with panic and dismay.
Gao Jiade had no time to think too much. Knowing what choice to make, he took Lin Miao’s hand and explained to her gently, This matter is very complicated. This person is my childhood playmate. He forced me to be with him, threatening to die otherwise. I had no other choice but to stay with him. He then placed Lin Miao’s hand on his chest as a guarantee. I do not like men. The very first moment I saw you, Lin Miao, I fell in love with you.
Xinghui, you see it now. I have someone I love.
Do not pester me ever again.
Meng Xinghui shook his head slightly. It is not like that. You were the one who confessed to me first, Gao Jiade.
Gao Jiade stepped forward and slapped Meng Xinghui across the face.
Meng Xinghui covered his reddened cheek, watching with his own eyes as the once-gentle Gao Jiade turned his back to Lin Miao. At that moment, Gao Jiade became hideous and hateful, warning him with a fierce look in his eyes.
Then, turning his head back to whisper in his ear, Gao Jiade pleaded, Xinghui, I have no choice. I cannot lose Lin Miao. I am sorry, leave quickly.
Meng Xinghui stood frozen in place, his tears welling up uncontrollably. What was everything we shared in the past?
Shen Qiu tilted his head back and sneered after listening to the whole process. What a complete waste of his time. System, are you certain this delicate white lotus needs saving? According to a normal person, he should have gone up and started a fight long ago instead of standing there arguing about love. The cigarette burned down to the butt.
The system said helplessly, Host, perhaps Xinghui still has the possibility of being saved. He is still just a child.
The system had no more tears left to shed, filled with worry over whether the mission could be completed.
Fortunately,
A group of reporters holding long lenses and short cannons came running straight out of the elevator in unison. The glaring, blinding white lights were dense and frightening, startling Lin Miao so much that her facial features scrambled in disorder and she turned pale with fright.
Miss Lin, rumors say you are the third party dating a married man. Is this true?
You just returned to China after studying abroad, and you are already caught in a scandal. Will this affect your status as an heir?
Do you regret this matter?
Miss Lin, please answer.
Gao Jiade did not possess the composure found at the end of the original novel. Losing his footing, he repeatedly denied, No, Meng Xinghui and I have no relationship.
Miss Lin and I are in a normal dating relationship.
Lin Miao slapped Gao Jiade across the face. This is all your fault. She left, abandoning Gao Jiade behind.
Gao Jiade followed closely behind Lin Miao.
Seeing that the protagonists of the incident had fled, the group of reporters picked up their cameras and audio recorders and chased after them.
The people in the hotel watched the scene of someone chasing another, stopped one after another to watch the spectacle, and whispered among themselves. Before long, they figured out the truth.
Xinghui, you see it now. I have someone I love.
Do not pester me ever again. Gao Jiade spouted nonsense, flatly denying his relationship with him.
He dragged Lin Miao away immediately, leaving even before he had time to fetch his luggage.
With dizzy and blurred vision, he could no longer distinguish what was reality from what was fake.
Lowering his head, Meng Xinghui muttered in a low voice, It is not like that. Clearly, you were the one who liked me first. Why must you do this? As his voice trailed off, tears rolled down continuously, mixing with the rainwater.
Why must you do this?
What did I do wrong? Why did you cheat?
The pitiful little white lotus stood drenched in the rain, filled with self-doubt, looking utterly desolate and miserable.
A Rolls-Royce Phantom followed behind Meng Xinghui. In the rearview mirror, Meng Xinghui looked utterly dejected and had lost his soul. The entire person had become a drowned rat, yet he did not even know to seek shelter from the rain.
Looking at his host with a heart as hard as iron, the system said, Host, if this continues, the little white lotus is going to fall sick.
Shen Qiu did not move, his fingertips tapping rhythmically against the steering wheel: Tap, tap, tap,
Time passed bit by bit.
Casting a sideways glance at Meng Xinghui’s pale, colorless face and dull, lifeless eyes, devoid of the smug look he wore during the day and completely drained of vitality,
His sharp brows knitted into a knot. His strategic mind, used to holding everything in control, began to waver and tilt to one side.
Good grief. Seeing your boyfriend cheating right in front of your eyes and you are still here dying for him? Feeding you so much rice was precisely in the expectation that you would go up and throw punches.
He could not imagine what kind of mood Meng Xinghui was in when he later found out in the original novel that Lin Miao was pregnant with Gao Jiade’s child. According to the system, during that period, he had lost a circle of weight and almost cried his eyes blind. For a time, his vision was so blurred that he had to walk with extreme caution, falling and hurting himself at the slightest carelessness, leaving his knees and elbows heavily bruised and purplish.
He had even worn himself out into a stomach ailment; whenever he ate anything spicy, he would faint and vomit from the pain.
Passersby and a constant stream of traffic shuttled back and forth, forming a sharp contrast with Meng Xinghui’s frail body. He looked exceptionally pitiful, causing the system to shed tears of heartache.
Opening the car door, rainwater poured into the vehicle driven by the wind.
Shen Qiu strode forward, grabbed Meng Xinghui by the wrist, and commanded with a cold look in his eyes, Get in the car!
Without a single thought, Meng Xinghui tried to shake him off. The mouth of the person before him was moving, yet Meng Xinghui could not hear a single word Shen Qiu said.
His heart was dead, broken into two halves, smashed completely into tiny pieces.
He stood there in a daze, letting pearly tears fall.
Unable to hold back his anger, Shen Qiu berated this love-struck fool. What is so good about this scumbag? Exactly what do you like about him? Do you like his fake, pretentious skin, or his meager, worthless devotion? You degrade and belittle yourself like this, Meng Xinghui! He forcefully dragged Meng Xinghui toward the direction of the car.
His luxury leather shoes stepped into the muddy water, and his dress pants became stained with filth.
Hysterical, Meng Xinghui roared, I cannot live without him! Amidst the struggle, he lost his balance and crashed heavily onto the ground, biting his lip until it bled, then clutched his sprained ankle and wailed loudly.
Stubbornly, he pushed away the hand Shen Qiu extended to help him up. You are bullying me too; all of you are bullying me.
With water dripping from his strands of hair, Shen Qiu’s expression turned gloomy and dark. I am bullying you. What are you going to do about it?
Staring fiercely at him with puffed-up anger, Meng Xinghui finally processed today’s six-hundred-yuan remark. With eyes swollen and red from crying, he choked out, You did this on purpose. You knew very well they would be at this hotel today; you knew,
So what if I did? I just wanted to wake you up so you would stop pinning everything onto a single person.
Tilting his head up with tears hanging on his eyelashes, Meng Xinghui cried out, But he is my everything!
I have no home left!
Rumble, lightning flashed across the sky.
The bright flash of lightning illuminated Shen Qiu’s cold, sharp yet softening face. A trace of an indescribable and unclear meaning crossed the depths of his eyes. His clenched fist suddenly loosened, and his hand reached out to stroke Meng Xinghui’s head in comfort, only to stop midway in the air.
Drenched all over with his clothes covered in mud spots, Meng Xinghui sat on the ground, burying his face in his knees and sobbing, completely ignoring the pain in his ankle.
When I was little, I lost my parents, and the relatives from both sides did not want me either. My aunt and uncle cheated me out of my parents’ compensation money. I was all alone, and only Gao Jiade protected me.
I have nothing in the world, only him! I just wanted a home, a home that truly belonged to me.
Did I think I finally had a home? Meng Xinghui asked himself sorrowfully, feeling that the question was pale and powerless as the corners of his mouth forced upward in a painful stretch.
Shen Qiu squatted down to accompany him in silence. When the person had cried until he ran out of strength, Shen Qiu scooped him up in a bridal carry. The body weight of the person in his arms was negligible, skinny and devoid of flesh. Landing on Meng Xinghui’s red-rimmed eyes, he heard him still muttering something under his breath.
Placing him in the back seat, Meng Xinghui hugged his knees, curling up insecurely into a ball while shivering violently from the cold. Water streamed from his damp clothes, and his cheeks were flushed red as he began to talk nonsense, crying again midway through his murmurs.
Shen Qiu sighed, Are you a crying bag reincarnated? Flexing his finger, he wiped away Meng Xinghui’s teardrops, his fingertips brushing against a scorching temperature, before taking a blanket from the trunk to cover him.
In a drowsy state, Meng Xinghui vaguely sensed warmth, burying his cheeks into the blanket while leaving only his head exposed.
Buzz, buzz,
Shen Qiu’s personal doctor and good friend, Yang Wenlun, was sipping fine wine when he unexpectedly received a call from Shen Qiu. Yo, is the great Young Master Shen sick?
Hearing his friend’s teasing tone, the outer corner of Shen Qiu’s eye glanced toward Meng Xinghui sleeping in the back seat. Not me. Arrive at my place in half an hour. Someone got caught in the rain and is running a fever.
Someone? Yang Wenlun keenly sensed that his friend had a situation developing. You don’t mean?
Stop letting your wild imagination run loose; I am hanging up. Rubbing the space between his eyebrows, Shen Qiu drove back.
The low-beam headlights illuminated the dim road ahead, while faint, mumbling sounds lingered by his ear.