Chapter 89

“How’s your work, Shiqing.” She said this while pausing the video, setting down the tablet, and walking over to give her a light hug.

They separated after hugging for a few seconds.

Xie Shiqing suddenly clutched the hem of her clothes, gripping so tightly it seemed she might tear it apart. She tilted her head up, revealing a pale face, but her tone remained casual. “No kiss today either?”

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Zhong Ning hadn’t anticipated this question, but she wasn’t particularly surprised either. She had no clear thought in her mind, but her subconscious had already guessed something.

Before, every time Xie Shiqing came home, Zhong Ning would always go out to greet her, asking whether this trip had gone smoothly, whether the problems at work had been resolved, whether she had eaten lunch or dinner, and finally giving her a kiss.

Counting carefully, since their argument that day, only two days had passed. Just yesterday, Xie Shiqing had already asked this once, and she had refused with the excuse of watching the stars.

Today she had asked again, and Zhong Ning couldn’t come up with any other excuse.

She pressed her lips together and didn’t speak for a moment. The two of them stood face to face without moving, without saying a word. Time seemed to freeze in place.

What unforgivable crime had I committed? So much time had passed. I had already yielded and admitted my fault. What else did she want me to do!

“No?” she asked again. This time, her tone was not the deliberately casual one but pitiful instead. A thin layer of tears brimmed in her eyes, making those lifeless pupils look especially moist, like petals covered in dewdrops.

Her slender little finger rubbed and hooked around Zhong Ning’s hand, the tip of her finger trembling slightly, as if she weren’t holding a warm palm but an ice-cold snowball or icicle, making her shiver uncontrollably.

If only I could see… If only I could see!

Xie Shiqing secretly ground her teeth, hating her own eyes, hating the perpetrator of that car accident, and along with them, hating the whole world.

Why did she have to endure such tribulations, to accept the torment of blindness?

If she could see, she could guess what Zhong Ning was thinking, rather than being so helpless and bewildered like this.

This damned silence was about to drive her insane!

If an ordinary person’s heart was like a box, sealed tightly on all sides, only revealing its contents when the lid was opened, then Zhong Ning’s heart was a glass greenhouse, completely open for anyone to view the flowers and greenery arranged inside, to watch the butterflies fluttering up and down among the blossoms.

Now, this greenhouse no longer allowed visitors. It hadn’t been locked, but the pitch-black curtains had been drawn over the entire structure, so no one could see even a glimmer of light inside.

Xie Shiqing least of all.

If her vision had been intact, if she still possessed that excessively keen observation, perhaps she could have glimpsed some change within. But now she was blind. She couldn’t see anything.

A long silence passed.

Zhong Ning finally spoke. She said, “Shiqing, I’m sorry. I don’t really want to do this right now.”

So blunt it was frightening.

Honesty was a sharp blade. It didn’t wound the one who wielded it but every person who heard the answer.

She really shouldn’t have asked again, Xie Shiqing thought dazedly. She really shouldn’t have asked.

If she hadn’t asked, she could have pretended that the other person didn’t feel well, or had forgotten, or had simply been distracted by something else… There were always plenty of excuses to find, rather than hearing the naked truth. No reason at all—just not wanting to be close to her.

How humiliating.

“Sorry.” Zhong Ning repeated once more.

She might as well have kept her mouth shut and stabbed her straight through instead.

“It’s alright.” Xie Shiqing’s heart was screaming: It’s not alright! It matters a lot!

“I can understand.” Understand what? Was there really such a cold-blooded person in this world? To think she had once believed she was the kindest, best person!

“It’s my fault.” Yes, it was my fault, so what! Even murderers got suspended sentences. Was her crime worse than that?

Too much. This was too much.

What else did she expect her to do?

Hadn’t she already shown every attitude she ought to, earnestly trying to mend this mistake?

What more could she do?

After hearing all this, Zhong Ning didn’t deny it or even soften her words with something like, “It’s not your fault,” or “We both have problems.” She didn’t offer a single step down. In her heart, she truly believed Xie Shiqing bore all the blame. Not even giving a perfunctory acknowledgment was already a form of restraint out of consideration.

Xie Shiqing felt angry.

When she was little, there was a fable about the demon in the bottle.

A hapless demon was sealed inside a bottle.

During the first century of being sealed, the demon vowed: If anyone rescued him, he would grant them a lifetime of inexhaustible riches. In the second century, the demon vowed: If anyone rescued him, he would give them a kingdom. In the third century, the demon vowed: If anyone rescued him, he would fulfill all their wishes.

By the fourth century, the demon said: If anyone released him, he would kill them.

Long waiting and torment could drive a demon mad in four hundred years.

Xie Shiqing didn’t need that long. Two days—just two days—and she was already growing impatient.

If it was said that Zhong Ning had never suffered setbacks because she was lucky, then Xie Shiqing, in truth, also hadn’t endured many hardships, but this was thanks to her wealth and status, thanks to her own capabilities.

That gave Xie Shiqing an extra measure of arrogance.

She was a person who stood high above others. That was the nature in her very bones. She had only ever been struck down once, and that was in her previous life. So the flames of revenge had burned fiercely in her heart.

When had Xie Shiqing ever tried to please anyone? She felt she had already lowered herself and put in so much effort to apologize, yet Zhong Ning still refused to forgive her.

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