Translated by Eve
Edited by Kara
“Auntie really said that you had to come back with me.” Song Jiani looked up at Song Xuanhe. Her reddened eyes were especially prominent against her deathly pale face. “Xuanhe gege, trust me.”
Song Xuanhe pulled off Song Jiani"s tight hold on his arm. He said in a flat voice, “I do. But, I already promised Zhou Rong to drink with him today. Go back and tell my mom that I"ll come back a bit later tonight.”
“Exactly.” Zhou Rong smiled. “Er shao and I have plans. Besides, it isn"t very appropriate for you to drink with us, considering you"re a girl. You should head back first.”
“No way. Xuanhe gege, you have to leave with me right now.” Song Jiani held onto Song Xuanhe"s fingers, her own trembling slightly. She held them so tightly that he felt like his fingers were about to snap. Song Jiani looked at Song Xuanhe with her red eyes, a sobbing tone to her voice as she spoke, “Xuanhe gege, as long as you leave with me today, I won"t bother you ever again, okay?”
Song Xuanhe furrowed his brows slightly, and Zhou Rong"s gaze darkened a bit. The latter"s voice gained a few degrees of ridicule. “Jiani, you haven"t even married into the Song Family, and you already want to manage Xuanhe? Are you planning on becoming a strict wife?”
“Enough.” Song Xuanhe pulled his fingers out of her grasp. In a meaningful tone, he said, “I know what I"m doing. Don"t worry about me. Go back and let my mom know I"ll be late. She won"t blame you.”
Song Jiani"s eyelashes trembled. She subconsciously looked up to meet with Song Xuanhe"s eyes. When she saw his face, although his eyebrows were slightly furrowed, there was no impatience in his eyes, her originally reddened eyes immediately teared up. She then threw herself into Song Xuanhe"s arms under his and Zhou Rong"s astonished gazes.
“Zhou Rong wants to hurt you.”
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A barely audible sob entered Song Xuanhe"s ears, making his hand freeze in midair. He then patted her on the back. Zhou Rong felt like he had heard someone speak just now, so he turned to look at Song Xuanhe. However, Song Xuanhe only had on a helpless and impatient look as he gestured at him with his chin and pointed to the person in his arms.
The misgivings in Zhou Rong"s eyes disappeared. He smiled. “She"s even crying now. How about you go back with her?”
“It"s been so long since we"ve last seen each other though. I promised not to leave before we"re drunk.” After saying this, Song Xuanhe patted Song Jiani on the shoulder. “I know what you"re worried about. Don"t worry. My mom knows what I"m like. She won"t blame you. I"ll call for someone to take you back.”
Song Jiani hugged Song Xuanhe. She shook her head, face still buried in his chest. Her voice was m.u.f.fled: “I won"t leave unless you leave too.”
When Zhou Rong heard this, he said, “She"s cried so much, let"s just let her stay. In any case, she isn"t much of a bother.”
“Why would she stay while we drink?” Song Xuanhe pulled Song Jiani off of him. When he noticed that her makeup was ruined from her tears, his lips twitched. He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. He clicked his tongue. “Your makeup is ruined. So ugly. Hurry up and head back.”
Song Jiani stared blankly at the handkerchief Song Xuanhe had handed to her. She remembered that Song Xuanhe had once said in disdain that a manly man like him would never do something as girly as carry a handkerchief with him during one of their etiquette cla.s.ses in high school. So, why did he have one now?
However, before she could think much about it, she fully processed Song Xuanhe"s words: “Your makeup is ruined. So ugly.”
Song Jiani immediately forgot about everything else. She promptly pulled out a compact mirror to check her makeup. She saw that her makeup had indeed started to streak. Because of this, her deathly pale face regained some colour, and she used the handkerchief to wipe off the streaks of makeup around her eyes.
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“If you"re going to fix your makeup, go to the bathroom.” Song Xuanhe pointed. “When you"re done, go home.”
Song Jiani paused. She then clenched the handkerchief tightly. She turned her face away so that Song Xuanhe couldn"t see her face. In a quiet voice, she said, “Unless you leave with me, I won"t go.”
“She won"t leave even when her makeup"s been ruined.” Zhou Rong laughed, “Just let her stay.”
Song Xuanhe pursed his lips. His gaze swept over Song Jiani"s faintly visible earlobe. He suppressed the complicated expression in his eyes and spoke in a flat tone, “If you want to stay, then stay. But, don"t meddle in what we"re doing.”
Zhou Rong opened the door, his smile bright. “Come in.”
Song Jiani glanced at Zhou Rong and then walked in with her eyes on the ground.
The atmosphere became strange after the three of them had sat down. There was a faint scent of wine in the air, making the odd atmosphere even weirder.
“Jiani, the wine over there has low alcohol content,” Zhou Rong said, “You can choose one on your own.”
Song Jiani didn"t even look towards the wine. She said, “I"m not drinking.”
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“If you"re not drinking, what was the point in coming here? To sit here and stare at each other?”
“It"s not appropriate for her to drink with us,” Song Xuanhe said blandly, “Just let her sit here. We"ll drink on our own.”
Zhou Rong"s gaze swept over Song Jiani. He then poured a gla.s.s each for himself and Song Xuanhe. “Alright, let"s continue.”
“Right, what were we talking about just now?” Carrying the gla.s.ses over, Zhou Rong asked, “Did I tell you that aside from us two, someone else is also going to come over?”
Song Xuanhe looked up, his eyes travelling over to Zhou Rong. He swirled the gla.s.s of wine in his hand and said, “No.”
“Guess I forgot.”
Song Jiani, however, widened her eyes in surprise. “Didn"t you say that it was just going to be you and Xuanhe gege? Why is there another person coming?”
Zhou Rong said with a smile on his lips: “Originally, it was just going to be just us two. But, someone else insisted on coming along when he had heard about it. He said that he had something to discuss with Er shao. I thought that, since everyone was friends, I might as well let him come.”
“Who is it?” Song Jiani"s eyes were fixed onto Zhou Rong, her voice a bit sharp.
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Zhou Rong kept them in suspense. “You"ll know when you see him.”
Song Jiani"s expression changed slightly, faced with Zhou Rong"s bright and upright smile. She suddenly stood up and pulled on Song Xuanhe"s arm. “I only agreed to stay here with you, because you said that it was just going to be you and Xuanhe gege. I didn"t think that there would be others too. I don"t like hanging out with strangers. Xuanhe gege, let"s leave.”
“They"re not a stranger.” Zhou Rong raised a hand to stop Song Jiani. “Actually, you also know him. You know him quite well.”
Song Jiani: “Even so, I don"t want to drink with him. What, you planning on stopping me?”
Zhou Rong raised a brow. “You"ve also called Xuanhe "Xuanhe gege" since we"d been young. And, you"ve always been soft around him. Meanwhile, you call the rest of us by name and raise your temper towards us. You"re unlikable no matter how I look at you. I really don"t get why Lu Chao liked you.”
Song Jiani subconsciously shifted her gaze to Song Xuanhe. When she saw that he still had no expression on his face, her eyes dimmed. She then said to Zhou Rong, “How would I know why he liked me? In any case, I didn"t like him.”
When Zhou Rong heard this, his smile dropped at once. His gaze cooled down too. “But, he liked you so much. He did so many things for your sake. Because of you, he changed.”
“But, I had never asked him to do those things for me!” Song Jiani quickly turned to look at Song Xuanhe in apprehension after saying that. She explained, “Xuanhe gege, as soon as I had found out that Lu Chao liked me, I told him that I would never like him. There"s nothing between us.”
“You had never asked him to do things for you? Hahahahahaha….” Zhou Rong laughed. His gaze was sinister as he stared at Song Jiani. “That"s right. You hadn"t asked him, but he had still been very happy to do those things for you. That was why he had tried to teach the eldest young master of the Xiao Family a lesson. He had fallen out with Song Xuanhe for your sake. And, what had that gotten him? Other people had thrown stones at him after he had lost the Song Family"s protection. In the end, even Lu Yue had been brought back home. Finally, he had senselessly lost his life.”
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“Everything…” Zhou Rong took a step forward and lowered his head towards Song Jiani"s. “…Was for you, Song Jiani. You killed Lu Chao.”
Song Jiani trembled upon being looked at like this by Zhou Rong. She parted her lips, wanting to say something, but nothing came out because of her fear. She could only subconsciously take a step back. After this one step, she felt someone pull her behind them.
Song Xuanhe obstructed Zhou Rong"s view of Song Jiani. His face had lost all of the carefree, casual air that it had had on before. “Lu Chao died while street-racing. It has nothing to do with Song Jiani.”
“Nothing to do with her?” Zhou Rong looked up and met with Song Xuanhe"s gaze. It seemed like he had suddenly thought of something. He made an “oh” sound and then sneered. “I almost forgot. Actually, the main culprit behind all of this isn"t Song Jiani but you.”
After saying this, Zhou Rong watched Song Xuanhe"s face carefully. He wanted to see the expression he"d been antic.i.p.ating. However, Song Xuanhe seemed unmoved. He didn"t even look surprised. Instead, he raised a brow in interest. “So what? Do you plan on taking revenge for Lu Chao?”
When he thought about how he and Lu Chao had promised to drink together when he came back to China the last time they had seen each other, Zhou Rong clenched his fists. He had just been about to say something when he heard Song Xuanhe speak again: “With what ident.i.ty?”
Zhou Rong was taken aback. The sinister light in his eyes disappeared and was replaced with confusion.
But before he could work through what the other had meant on his own, he heard Song Xuanhe continue: “As Lu Chao"s long-time secret admirer?”
Zhou Rong was shocked. He stared at Song Xuanhe, stunned, and asked, “How did you know?”
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Song Xuanhe smiled, a hint of ridicule in his voice. “You said that Song Jiani had changed Lu Chao, that Lu Chao had done a lot of things he shouldn"t have for her sake. Hadn"t you actually been talking about yourself?”
“Song Jiani used Lu Chao. I….”
“Did you think that he hadn"t known about your feelings?” Song Xuanhe"s eyes widened slightly. His eyes were pure and limpid like that of an infant. However, his words made Zhou Rong furious. “He had known. Not only had he known, but he had also been disgusted by it. He had been so disgusted that he had wanted to break off all relations with you.”
“You"re lying!” Zhou Rong shouted. He threw a punch at Song Xuanhe: “Shut up!”
Song Xuanhe pushed Song Jiani onto the couch. He then dodged to the side, avoiding Zhou Rong"s fist. However, he was slightly too slow, and the other"s fist grazed the corner of his lips. Song Xuanhe wiped at his mouth casually before throwing his own punch back.
The two of them were entangled in a fight. Song Jiani was so scared that her face turned white. When she saw Zhou Rong stick out his leg, wanting to trip Song Xuanhe, she screamed: “Xuanhe gege, watch out!”
Song Xuanhe had originally been prepared to dodge Zhou Rong"s leg. However, Song Jiani"s shout startled him, and he ended up falling onto the ground.
Just as Zhou Rong"s fist was about to slam into Song Xuanhe"s face, Song Xuanhe rolled away. He also thought:【I just knew that things would be a hundred times more annoying with Song Jiani here.】
The System：【My data tells me that if you hadn"t pushed Song Jiani onto the sofa, you would have had a 95% chance of subduing Zhou Rong. Furthermore, even if you hadn"t pushed her out of the way, the probability that Zhou Rong would have hit Song Jiani was only 8.56%. You didn"t need to push her away at all. 】
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Song Xuanhe kicked Zhou Rong, who had pounced towards him, and replied：【What are you trying to say?】
【What I want to say is that I had updated your file after you had beaten up Song Jiabao. Just now, I have updated it again. Your danger rating has been downgraded from S to C.】
【What does that mean?】
【It means….】
The System was confused. Its data couldn"t tell it what the rating actually meant. It just seemed to prove something. However, it would take more data and time for it to a.n.a.lyze this.
However, just as it had been about to collect more data, it suddenly perceived a new heat fluctuation：【Hurry up! I sense someone coming!】
The author has something to say:
Song Xuanhe: What does that mean?
Xiao Yuanmu: It means that you"re cute.
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Eve: Omg that author"s theatre hahaha.