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Li Zhiyu had a bit of a headache. He never thought that his impulsive act of seeking out Chu Xinhe that day would be known by so many people.
However, it was a fact and his problem, and he wouldn’t argue. He just couldn’t involve innocent Chu Xinhe and Si Tingyan.
Li Zhiyu, still hungover from last night, pinched his eyebrows: “This has nothing to do with Chu Xinhe.”
Cheng Mi was very clear-headed: “I know, she wasn’t very willing to cooperate with you that day.”
It was obvious that day that Chu Xinhe had been caught by Li Zhiyu and forcibly kissed, trying to push him away the entire time.
“So don’t worry, I won’t bother her.”
Li Zhiyu looked at her, nodded, and at this moment, there was a gentleness in him that Cheng Mi had never seen before: “Thanks.”
Cheng Mi also looked at him: “But even if she really had something with you back then, I wouldn’t go after her. I’d still come after you.”
Her issue with Li Zhiyu was for the two of them to resolve.
Li Zhiyu didn’t interrupt her.
Cheng Mi said: “You, on the other hand, just used me as a tool to provoke Chu Xinhe.”
Li Zhiyu looked at her for a long time: “Cheng Mi, have you ever thought about why you can analyze our situation so rationally?”
“I know what you want to say,” Cheng Mi said, “Indeed, just like you, I wasn’t initially interested in love. There’s no deep affection between us.”
She paused after speaking, then told Li Zhiyu: “But I just don’t like being cheated on.”
“At least before I took that photo of you, I wasn’t two-timing, was I?”
Cheng Mi wouldn’t do such a thing. Regardless of who she was with, even without feelings, she wouldn’t flirt with others during that period.
If the other person did that, she wouldn’t compromise. An eye for an eye was the best way to end it.
“Also, if you’re going to play, play, but don’t use me as a tool to fuel your relationships without my knowledge.”
This was Li Zhiyu’s fault; he really had nothing to say.
However, touching Si Tingyan was touching his bottom line. When that was mentioned, he lost a bit of his composure: “You can retaliate against me, but you can’t touch Si Tingyan.”
Cheng Mi also looked him straight in the eye: “I told you, who I want to pursue is my freedom.”
Both of them had strong auras, and when they confronted each other, an invisible gunpowder smell permeated the air.
Li Zhiyu stared intently into Cheng Mi’s eyes, his expression cold, and he articulated each word: “Anyway, Si Tingyan is off-limits. You can mess with me all you want.”
“But not Si Tingyan.”
Cheng Mi directly met his eyes, which seemed almost intent on killing her.
They were faintly bloodshot, and his pupils were very dark.
Her voice was slow and unhurried, much more relaxed compared to Li Zhiyu’s.
Despite such a calm tone, her presence didn’t diminish in the slightest, remaining an iron shield against Li Zhiyu’s sharp spear.
“Mess with you, huh.”
Cheng Mi said: “But I’m only interested in Si Tingyan.”
Li Zhiyu’s face darkened: “Cheng Mi, I’ve said it before, don’t involve others when there’s an issue. Our business, we’ll settle it ourselves.”
Two girls walked into the stairwell, laughing together. They bumped into the two of them, and the atmosphere, like an oppressive storm cloud, hit them. The two girls immediately dared not make a sound and hurried downstairs.
Cheng Mi said to Li Zhiyu: “You don’t really think I went to all this trouble just to cuckold you?”
Li Zhiyu: “Do you think I’d believe you saying you’re interested in him at this point?”
“It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not,” Cheng Mi said directly, “The most important thing is that Si Tingyan believes it.”
This sentence made Li Zhiyu’s brow furrow even more sharply.
Cheng Mi didn’t want to say anything more: “Li Zhiyu, this is over. We’d best keep to ourselves from now on.”
After saying this, Cheng Mi walked down the stairs.
Li Zhiyu stopped her: “Are you sincere about him?”
Cheng Mi paused, then turned to look at him.
After a long time, she said: “I believe I have the right not to answer you.”
With that, she left the stairwell.
________________________________________
Upon reaching the classroom, before she even stepped through the back door, she heard several girls who hadn’t left yet chatting about gossip, gathered around a desk.
“So Cheng Mi is really pursuing Si Tingyan?”
“I think so, yeah. When was the last time you saw her waiting for Li Zhiyu after school? My friend is in sophomore year, and she says she always sees her on the sophomore floor.”
“How awful, that’s two-timing!”
One girl said: “I feel like the worst off is still the class monitor. Li Zhiyu used to come looking for Cheng Mi every day, and she saw it all.”
Another girl chimed in: “She even got transferred to our class because of Li Zhiyu.”
“But she was the one who wanted to break up with Li Zhiyu.”
“That’s because her mom wouldn’t let her! Chu Xinhe’s mom is our grade director; normally, we’re scared to death of her. Chu Xinhe even gets watched by her mom when she goes home. Just thinking about it makes me feel like I’m going crazy. Someone even saw Chu Xinhe get slapped by her mom in the office when she was with Li Zhiyu.”
“Li Zhiyu used to really like Chu Xinhe. He’d accompany her to and from school every day and go to Class 1 to see her after class, like he was afraid of losing her.”
Girls tend to empathize with other girls, and one girl spoke up for Chu Xinhe: “Clearly, Chu Xinhe liked Li Zhiyu more. After he broke up, Li Zhiyu’s girlfriends never stopped, but Chu Xinhe only loved him.”
Cheng Mi, walking into the classroom, heard all of this. She suddenly remembered when she first started dating Li Zhiyu, and he came to her classroom. The atmosphere in the class at that time was a bit strange.
It turned out everyone knew about Chu Xinhe and Li Zhiyu’s past, and only she didn’t.
No wonder everyone in the class was so quiet back then.
With such a big love triangle right in front of them, it was hard for their ears not to pay attention.
Also, when she first came to this class, there was one time she walked into the classroom during class and saw Chu Xinhe looking at her, noticing her without any malice or strong emotions.
At that time, Cheng Mi didn’t know why Chu Xinhe was looking at her, but now everything was clear.
In fact, even before hearing those girls talk, Cheng Mi had probably guessed the nature of Li Zhiyu and Chu Xinhe’s relationship and could tell that Li Zhiyu cared deeply about Chu Xinhe.
That’s why she knew Li Zhiyu was just using her as a tool.
While the girls were talking, Cheng Mi’s steps never stopped; she walked directly into the classroom.
The girls were in the middle of their lively chat when a figure suddenly entered. They turned around and were startled to see her. Since they had just been talking about Cheng Mi, there was a hint of guilt on all their faces.
Cheng Mi could handle Qi Yunmiao and her group’s antics calmly, let alone these minor things. She walked to her desk, picked up her backpack, and left.
________________________________________
Next to the horizontal and parallel bars on the sand, Li Zhiyu and Si Tingyan stood facing each other.
Li Zhiyu’s nicotine craving flared up. He lit a cigarette and leaned against the horizontal bar, but then, remembering Si Tingyan’s health, he put it out, holding it only between his fingers.
Si Tingyan also leaned against the opposite parallel bar, hands in his pockets, a completely different type from Li Zhiyu.
One was wild, the other cold, yet neither seemed to have a weaker presence.
Li Zhiyu suddenly spoke: “You saw Cheng Mi that day, didn’t you?”
Si Tingyan knew which day he was referring to—the day he and Chu Xinhe were kissing downstairs. He didn’t beat around the bush: “Yes.”
Li Zhiyu instantly felt a bit agitated.
In fact, Li Zhiyu knew Si Tingyan was present that day. Because after kissing Chu Xinhe, he looked up and saw Si Tingyan in the fourth-floor window of the experimental building, knowing he had seen everything.
At that time, Li Zhiyu just thought it was a coincidence and didn’t say anything.
Until today, when he found out Cheng Mi had also seen it.
The experimental building and the teaching building weren’t far apart, with trees in between, so Si Tingyan could indeed see Cheng Mi.
Li Zhiyu said: “So you saw her, and you could have reminded me. Why didn’t you?”
If anyone else heard Li Zhiyu say this, they might think he was blaming Si Tingyan for not warning him, leading to his exposure in front of Cheng Mi.
But it wasn’t that. Li Zhiyu was angry about something that he might learn later, something rooted in Si Tingyan’s very being.
He asked Si Tingyan why he didn’t tell him that Cheng Mi was there. Si Tingyan replied rather coldly: “Why should I tell you?”
Li Zhiyu chuckled: “So you intentionally let Cheng Mi watch, didn’t you?”
Li Zhiyu’s smile slowly faded as he looked at Si Tingyan.
No longer beating around the bush: “If she saw, she would break up with me and go to you, wouldn’t she?”
Cheng Mi happened to be passing by this area at that moment; she needed to go through here to reach the school gate.
Before she got close, a furious roar from Li Zhiyu reached her ears.
“Si Tingyan, why do you have to fall for her yourself?!”
Cheng Mi paused, then looked over.
Even though tree shadows obscured them, she could still see Si Tingyan and Li Zhiyu.
“You even calculated that Cheng Mi would come to you, knowing she’s just playing with you. Why would you still go to her and court disaster?”
As Li Zhiyu’s voice fell, the air seemed to press a stop button.
In this suffocating silence, Cheng Mi’s mind suddenly felt like it had been struck, briefly going blank.
What did he mean, her coming to Si Tingyan was all part of his calculation?
Li Zhiyu’s voice broke the silence.
“You’ve been like this since childhood. There’s no dirty thought in anyone’s mind that you don’t know.”
Just like when they were children, due to their family’s heavy financial burden, five-year-old Si Tingyan, who had heart disease, was taken by their stepmother, Chang Mei, and abandoned at the train station.
Si Tingyan knew everything their stepmother did and thought.
That year, Li Zhiyu was seven, Si Tingyan was five. At that time, Si Tingyan was still called Li Tingyan.
That year, their father’s business had just gone bankrupt and was starting to recover. The family was struggling financially, and Si Tingyan’s health was worsening daily due to his heart condition, with extremely expensive treatment and surgery costs.
It was under these circumstances that Si Tingyan was taken to the train station and abandoned.
Li Zhiyu also went that day. Stepmother Chang Mei said before leaving that she would take the two brothers out for delicious food.
At that time, Li Zhiyu never thought that a seemingly ordinary outing would become his deepest regret towards Si Tingyan in his entire life.
The three of them went to a fast-food restaurant near the train station. Halfway through their meal, his younger brother was taken away by their mother.
Later, his younger brother never returned.
Finally, he saw his younger brother on the bus home.
Through the car window, his small younger brother stood alone amidst the bustling crowds at the train station, looking at him in the car.
Li Zhiyu tapped on the car window, telling their mother that it was his younger brother, that his younger brother hadn’t gotten on the bus yet, and that they needed to take him home.
At that time, his mother, Chang Mei, told him: “Your younger brother is going to a better place.”
Li Zhiyu asked her: “What is a better place?”
His mother said: “There, your younger brother will have enough food to eat, money to treat his illness, and he won’t be in so much pain that he can’t sleep anymore.”
Every one of these was a wish Li Zhiyu had made on his birthday since childhood.
He asked: “Really? Then will my younger brother be able to play football with me later?”
His mother nodded, smiling: “Yes, your younger brother will be fine with everything later.”
That day, Li Zhiyu watched his younger brother get further and further away from them through the car window.
Five-year-old little Si Tingyan at that time wasn’t even half the height of the adults passing by. His small face was pale and pretty. He stood there watching his mother and brother slowly disappear, neither crying nor shouting.
Until finally, he couldn’t see anything anymore.
Li Zhiyu later grew up and realized that his younger brother knew then: they didn’t want him anymore.
He knew that when his mother, Chang Mei, took him to the train station entrance before he had even eaten half of his hamburger, and told him to stand there obediently and not wander off, she was lying when she said she would come back for him.
He knew that his brother and mother in the car would not come down to pick him up and take him home.
...
Spanning over a decade of blank time, Li Zhiyu looked at his younger brother standing before him now.
“You’ve been smart since childhood,” he snapped the cigarette in half between his fingers. “One time, you knew I didn’t take you out because I found you annoying, unable to run or move, dragging me down. You went back and caught a small snake, which I’m most afraid of, and put it in my bed.”
“Like Cheng Mi, you know perfectly well what she’s thinking.”
“But why would you still put yourself out there?”
“You can like anyone, but why does it have to be Cheng Mi?”
Cheng Mi, listening a few meters away, could actually understand Li Zhiyu. She had indeed approached Si Tingyan with a purpose at first.
Having a purpose meant this relationship could die at any time, could be manipulated by the other party at any time.
It was normal for a brother to not want his younger brother to like someone who was playing with his feelings.
However, the very next second, Cheng Mi heard Si Tingyan coldly say:
“Li Zhiyu, it’s not up to you to tell me what I can or cannot do.”
Footsteps quickly sounded from inside.
The rustling of sand.
Cheng Mi stood her ground and directly met Si Tingyan, who was walking out.
Si Tingyan’s gaze fell on her face.
Cheng Mi, likewise, stared intently back at him.
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