Chapter 81

“Even if I could lower my guard, given our past, the harm you once caused me—how could I possibly dare to recklessly entrust you with my true feelings?”

She eventually raised her hand to wipe the tears from her face, but the tears still did not stop and continued to fall intermittently. “Do you really not remember? Your hostility toward me, your mockery, how you and those friends of yours, whether openly or behind my back, laughed at me for being blind—have you forgotten all that? But I haven’t. I don’t even know why you agreed to the engagement in the first place, or why you suddenly changed and started treating me so well.”

Xie Shiqing’s eyes were swollen and red, her voice fragile. “Do you really love me, Ning Ning?”

Her question was nothing short of a head-on blow, crashing heavily against Zhong Ning’s mind.

“Of course I love you,” she said.

Looking at Xie Shiqing’s unstoppable tears, Zhong Ning felt her heart shatter.

“I apologize for my reckless behavior. I didn’t understand your past, didn’t realize how difficult it was for you to be open, but my love for you is absolutely genuine.”

She said so many things, yet Xie Shiqing never heard the sentence, “This isn’t your fault, I forgive you.” Somehow, it made a bad premonition rise in her heart.

“But,” Zhong Ning said softly, “you’ve really made me sad. I’ve never felt this way before. I’ve never been this heartbroken.”

Xie Shiqing felt her heart sink with a thud.

Zhong Ning fell silent for a while, as if she was sorting out her thoughts. After a moment, she spoke. “This is a mistake. If you want to continue this relationship, then it must be resolved.”

“Perhaps giving your trust is truly hard for you, but if two people who love each other can’t even trust one another, how can that be called love? What do you think?”

Xie Shiqing couldn’t deny it. She could only agree. “You’re right.”

“I can take the first step. I’m willing to wait for you. But I also need to see your change and your honesty.”

If she had to rebuild a bridge between them, one called sincerity and trust, she was willing to take those ninety-nine steps herself. Xie Shiqing only needed to take the final step.

If she truly wasn’t willing, then this love would end here.

Through her growth, Zhong Ning had learned many things, except how to hurt herself.

Having made up her mind, her gaze became instantly resolute. “I’ll confess first, then you also share one small thing, all right? Just one tiny thing, as a start. Can you do that?”

“Shiqing, I really want you to know that in fact I’m not actually…”

Xie Shiqing sprang up at the fastest speed of her life and lunged forward, trying to cover Zhong Ning’s mouth. Her heart was pounding violently, slamming out of control against her chest.

What was she about to do!

What was she about to say!

Was she insane!!

The shock made her tears stop at once, leaving her even more flustered than before.

Zhong Ning was an honest person—she knew that—but she hadn’t known she could be honest to this extent. She really had gone mad.

She couldn’t possibly be about to reveal her origins!

Xie Shiqing found it unbelievable, nearly driving her crazy.

How could someone offer such an extreme degree of trust? How could she willingly hand over the rope that was strangling her throat?

Panic turned into anger, so fierce it made her bones feel weak with fear.

Wasn’t she afraid that she might do something to hurt her?

How could she dare!

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Zhong Ning (spinning in circles) My life is full of sunshine and love (sees Zhong Zinuan) (kicks away with one foot) Great, my life is full of sunshine and love (happily running around) What, this person treats me badly, kick them away! How wonderful, another day surrounded by love

Still Zhong Ning (after being hurt by Xie Shiqing) Wuwuwu I am a crying little puppy (can’t bring herself to kick) (prepares to pack up and leave on her own)

Certificate Awarding Segment

Zhong Ning received an Honesty Certificate, a Self-Love Certificate, and an Apology King Certificate.

Xie Shiqing received a Distorting Truth Certificate, a Blaming the Victim Certificate, a Talking Nonsense Certificate, and a Fake Crying Master Certificate.

Let’s congratulate Xie Shiqing for winning this round by sheer number of certificates! (applause)

Chapter 37

For someone accustomed to using lies to disguise herself and wielding them as a convenient weapon, honesty was not a virtue. It was poison, it was thorns, it was a cliff—a terrifying thing that would bring death the moment it touched her.

How could there be someone who didn’t understand how to hide herself at all? Had her bloodline, when it evolved, completely abandoned any sense of vigilance?

It was too absurd!

Don’t tell me this was so-called love, Xie Shiqing thought, panting. This was clearly a horror story!

How long had they even known each other? Just a few months. If you went outside and pulled a random stranger in to ask, this amount of time wasn’t enough for two strangers to become close confidants, yet it was enough for Zhong Ning to lay her heart bare for her to see.

It was completely brainless, utterly incomprehensible!

In Xie Shiqing’s eyes, this wasn’t some touching scene of heartfelt confession. It was a downright horror show.

Too terrifying. Truly too terrifying.

She almost wanted to scream and run away from this place.

Some people believed that flying in an airplane, admiring the scenery from ten thousand meters above the ground, was a very enjoyable experience. They would even deliberately book a window seat, and when they looked down, they felt the vastness of heaven and earth open before them.

But for some others, leaving the ground and rising into the sky meant isolation and helplessness, placing their life entirely in someone else’s hands.

It was suicide.

Zhong Ning was committing suicide.

And the subconscious impulse behind this act was to make her come along too. Fish died when they left the water. If Xie Shiqing left her lies, she would meet the same end.

Had the apocalypse arrived? Was there no tomorrow left? Was death coming in the next second? Perhaps only at such moments could Xie Shiqing even begin to consider the possibility of telling the truth.

After all, whether she died a few minutes earlier or later didn’t make much difference.

Xie Shiqing clamped her hand firmly over the other’s mouth, using all her strength to push her back. She didn’t want to hear any confession. She didn’t want to know this person’s secrets.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep