Giving You Dawn And Dusk - Chapter 30.1
The actress had a very good figure. Her lower abdomen was tight without the slightest bit of excess fat. Her chest was full, her hips were lifted, and her legs were long and slender.
The chandelier was warm yellow, refracting beams of light like spinning streams, every corner filled with ambiguity and sensuality.
One bed, two people, eyes meeting. Their voices had gradually changed in tone.
Every place where the lights should have faded to black had been filmed by the director without the slightest concealment.
From fingers to mouths, until finally, their hands clasped together and they sank into desire together.
Every detail spoke of desire, yet it was presented so cleanly.
This was probably the highest level of an art film.
The filming style was quite similar to the movie Liang Shi had watched that night. Both had a dim color palette, and the love between the two people was extreme and frenzied.
It was just that when Liang Shi watched that movie that night, she had not felt much. Tonight, however, she felt her entire body burning hot, the heat spreading from her lower abdomen.
She quietly glanced to the side. Xu Qingzhu’s expression was calm as she held a cup of milk and sipped lightly.
For some reason, Liang Shi thought of the scene in the movie—the maid licking the lollipop a few times.
And after that?
After that was a restrained yet lingering kiss.
Xu Qingzhu’s lips were full. Under the warm yellow light, they looked very pink, but not the natural pale pink lips of a young girl. They were more like a mix between rose and strawberry.
A trace of milky white clung to the corner of her lips.
She seemed to notice it too. Slowly, she extended the tip of her tongue. With one light curl, she swallowed all traces of that milky white.
Liang Shi unconsciously swallowed.
She stiffly turned her face away and suddenly felt that a tongue like that should easily be able to tie a cherry stem into a knot.
……
Liang Shi shook her head, feeling that such a thought was far too indecent.
How could she fantasize about Xu Qingzhu?
But the movie was playing such explicit content, and beside her sat a cold beauty. It was very difficult for a person not to have wicked thoughts.
Liang Shi usually did not value these things much, but that did not mean she could completely discard her physiological needs.
Perhaps she was a gentleman, but she had yet to evolve to the level of a saint who could remain unmoved with temptation in her arms.
She picked up the remote. Her hand was trembling, and she could not hide her embarrassment as she asked, “How about we turn it off?”
Xu Qingzhu glanced at her hand. “Why are you shaking?”
Liang Shi: “……”
After two seconds of silence, Liang Shi said, “This is a little too explicit.”
“You were the one who said that if there was anything in it, I should view it from an artistic perspective.” Xu Qingzhu took another sip of milk, her expression calm. “I think it’s filmed very artistically.”
If one listened carefully, one could hear the final note of her voice trembling.
And the hand holding the milk cup was pressing hard against it, so hard that her fingernails had turned pale.
For a moment, Liang Shi did not know what to do.
Fortunately, the shot cut to a distant view, becoming an empty shot of the room. Only the two female leads’ continuous, rising and falling breaths remained, echoing in the room. Liang Shi let out a sigh of relief, thinking that this face-heating scene had finally ended. But before she could completely release that breath, the bedroom door was suddenly pushed open.
……?
Xu Qingya ran in, panting, her voice carrying a sobbing tone. “Sister Liang, stop…”
Her voice overlapped with the sounds from the movie. When she stopped to catch her breath, she heard the female lead’s satisfied sigh as desire was released.
Xu Qingzhu froze instantly, even forgetting what she had been about to say.
The embarrassment spread from her toes all the way to the strands of her hair, making her scalp tingle.
She wanted to hold her breath, but could not help it and coughed several times.
Liang Shi and Xu Qingzhu were both stunned. Xu Qingzhu was the first to react and asked openly, “What’s wrong?”
Xu Qingya: “……”
She forcefully covered her mouth, rubbing her face out of shape, then immediately pulled the door closed and asked unclearly, “Don’t mind me!”
The door closed, and the room returned to silence again.
But it was a strange silence.
The movie had already cut to another scene, and the background music had also become soothing.
Liang Shi and Xu Qingzhu’s gazes met.
Xu Qingzhu turned sideways, got off the bed, and put on her slippers. “I’ll go see what happened to her.”
Liang Shi immediately turned off the projection.
Seeing this, Xu Qingzhu still found the time to ask, “You’re not watching anymore?”
Liang Shi: “……”
Still watching?
She secretly wiped the sweat from her forehead, then wiped away the fine sweat from the sides of her nose. “No… no.”
Even her words stuttered uncontrollably. It rather felt like the embarrassment of being caught by the teacher while watching a flashy comic in class.
No, it was even more embarrassing than that.
At least when reading comics, she would not react. She was only looking at them, and would occasionally even comment that the lead artist’s drawing was average and purely done to appeal to male fans.
That was only shame, as well as the humiliation of being dragged out into public and losing face.
But at this moment, she had truly immersed herself in it. It was even more unbearable than the day she had just transmigrated here and been attracted by the Omega’s pheromones, wanting to mark her and join her in a feast of desire.
At least that had only been physical torment. She only had to endure one layer.
But this was torment of both body and mind.
Liang Shi glanced at the empty bed and let out a light breath.
Why did people make themselves suffer like this?
But… why did the housekeeper buy this kind of movie?
Seriously!
Liang Shi wiped away her sweat and went to the bathroom.
Her body’s desire had been stirred up but had not been relieved, so the time she spent in the bathroom was slightly longer. She also took the chance to calm herself down. When she stood up again, the roots of her thighs were still a little weak, and she urgently wanted to do something.
She turned on the faucet, adjusted the water to its coldest temperature, washed away the heat in her palms, and also washed her face.
Her thoughts finally returned to reason.
The cold water did not completely wash the redness from her flushed face. A trace of having just been stirred still lingered around the rims of her ears.
Liang Shi looked into the mirror and could not help smiling bitterly.
What was the point?
If she ever did this kind of thing again, she would be a pig!
Xu Qingzhu was pure-hearted and free of desire, so she had been reassured about her. But what about Liang Shi?
She had been tempted until she did not know what to do, yet she could not do anything.
Liang Shi immediately decided that in the future, if they watched a movie, they must go to a cinema, and it must be an animated film.
Absolutely not a romance film.
While she was at it, suspense films too.
What the hell?
Why were suspense films so explicit?
This was unscientific.
After Liang Shi’s mood calmed a little, she subconsciously scratched the back of her hand again. The dense red rashes on the back of her hand seemed to be reminding her—she was having an allergic reaction.
Liang Shi rolled up the sleeve of her pajamas and found that her arm was also covered in dense red rashes, to the point that someone with trypophobia would be frightened by it.
There were even some below her collarbone, though they were not as dense as on her arms and the backs of her hands.
These little red rashes itched. At first, they did not hurt, but after being scratched for so long, that patch of skin now stung.
Liang Shi frowned and thought about what she had eaten today.
She herself was allergic to green peppers, so she never touched them.
After eating green peppers, her reaction was similar to this, so she suspected she might have unknowingly eaten some green pepper.
But she quickly recalled everything she had eaten throughout the day. There had been no green peppers.
So she began to suspect it was the swimming pool water that had caused her allergy tonight.
Some swimming pools had unclean water sources, or the water was too cold, which could also cause allergies.
Liang Shi planned to apply some ointment and observe it. If she still had this symptom tomorrow, she would go to the hospital.
Generally speaking, her body’s self-healing mechanism was quite good. In the past, when she ate green peppers and had an allergic reaction, she had far more rashes than this, even on her face, but she would recover after a night’s sleep.
It was already late at night, and she did not want to disturb others.
Because the back of her hand was burning, she turned on the cold water again and rinsed it.
After drying her hands, she walked out of the bathroom, only to see Xu Qingzhu leaning against the doorway, raising three bent fingers as if about to knock.
Liang Shi took half a step back, putting a safe distance between them, then turned sideways to leave.
Xu Qingzhu looked her up and down and said softly, “Your cuffs are wet.”
Her voice was cold and clear. The final note of the words she said so casually still carried a hint of flirtatious softness. It was only a simple sentence, yet it made Liang Shi’s heart turn over a thousand times.
Liang Shi coughed lightly. “I washed my hands.”
Although the two of them now slept in the same bed, they were still in a guarded state. Xu Qingzhu’s pajamas every day consisted of long pants and long sleeves. Sometimes, she even wore socks on her feet, saying it was to keep warm.
Liang Shi was afraid Xu Qingzhu would think she had improper intentions, so she also wore long pants and long sleeves every day, even though she personally preferred wearing nightgowns.
But when she occasionally had nightmares, her sleeping posture would not be as proper as usual. A nightgown could easily ride up. If she also kicked off the blanket because she was hot, then it would be hard to explain whether she had deliberately exposed herself for Xu Qingzhu to see.
In order to avoid misunderstandings, she solved the problem from the root.
Today, Xu Qingzhu’s pajamas were gray, while hers were black-and-white striped.
They were all silk pajamas, with good stretch and a smooth texture. The only inconvenience was during washing. Even if the sleeves were rolled up, as long as one’s movements were slightly too big, they would fall down and get wet.
Xu Qingzhu’s eyes swept over her casually from top to bottom, her gaze settling on Liang Shi’s hands. “You washed for quite a while.”
There was an indescribable implication hidden in those words.
Liang Shi coughed lightly and pretended to be calm. “It was… all right.”
As she spoke, she turned sideways and left the bathroom. “Go ahead.”
Xu Qingzhu said, “I don’t need to use it.”
Liang Shi said, “Mm?”
“Then did you need me for something?” Liang Shi asked.
Xu Qingzhu nodded. “Yes. The power downstairs went out. You need to have someone come fix it. Otherwise, the things in the fridge will all go bad tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Liang Shi agreed readily, but then paused. “Did you wait for me at the door for a long time?”
Xu Qingzhu thought for a moment and glanced at the clock on the wall. “Not that long. Three minutes.”
Liang Shi said, “Oh.”
That was good.
“The main thing is that I didn’t dare knock,” Xu Qingzhu said casually. “I was afraid you were doing something and that I’d interrupt you.”
“What could I do?” Liang Shi said as she called the housekeeper. “I was just using the bathroom.”
“Only you know that,” Xu Qingzhu shrugged indifferently, opened the door, and walked out. “After all, your cuffs were wet.”
Liang Shi: “……”
Liang Shi instinctively replied along with her words, “If I really were doing something, I wouldn’t come out in three minutes.”
Xu Qingzhu raised an eyebrow. That cold, clear gaze swept over her face, then over her neck, before stopping on her hands.
Liang Shi instinctively pulled her hands behind her back and defended herself. “What I mean is, I was simply using the bathroom. I didn’t do anything.”
Xu Qingzhu dragged out her voice. “Oh~”
There was a slight hint of sarcasm.
Liang Shi coughed lightly and explained solemnly, “Wasn’t what we just watched an ordinary movie? What could I possibly do because of it? It didn’t affect me.”
Toward the end, even she felt guilty, but she still pretended to be calm.
She could not give in.
Xu Qingzhu nodded perfunctorily. “Right. You’re very impressive.”
“Yes.” Seeing that perfunctory expression, Liang Shi could not help trying to clear her name. “No, you have to believe me.”
Xu Qingzhu said, “I believe you. Did I say anything?”
Liang Shi: “……”
You did not say anything.
But your eyes are clearly saying—you definitely did something in the bathroom just now that cannot be broadcast and cannot be spoken of.
Liang Shi had never suffered such humiliation in her life. Frustrated, she said, “I’m just not that kind of three-minute person!”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
Without thinking, she instinctively replied, “Then how many minutes are you?”
Liang Shi: “……”
The atmosphere instantly became awkward.
Liang Shi pressed her lips together, so embarrassed that the top of her head nearly flew off.
Xu Qingzhu coughed lightly. She was just about to say, “Actually, I don’t really want to know either,” but after saying only the first two words, Liang Shi—who had always been Buddhist in temperament and had always given way on various things in the first half of her life—did not retreat at all. Instead, she kept a straight face and stubbornly said, “I’ll tell you after I try next time.”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
She turned her face away. “We’ll talk about it later.”
Liang Shi fell silent.
She was thinking, was there a river she could jump into to calm down?
//
The sudden power outage downstairs scared Xu Qingya half to death, mainly because she had still been watching a horror film.
This was what caused her to wail and run upstairs for help.
As a result, she heard some things she should not have heard.
Xu Qingya felt deeply guilty. After the housekeeper restored the downstairs electricity, her gaze kept turning between Liang Shi and Xu Qingzhu, who were standing very far apart.
After the housekeeper brought the workers away, she immediately said, “Sister Liang, you two continue.”
Liang Shi’s face heated. “Continue what? Go to sleep.”
Xu Qingya was thick-skinned. “Continue contributing to the continuation of humanity. The national birth rate is so low now. As newly married wives, shouldn’t you shoulder your responsibility?”
Liang Shi: “……”
Wasn’t that hat a little too big?
“I swear, this time, even if the sky collapses or there’s an earthquake, I absolutely won’t go upstairs and disturb you.” Xu Qingya said, “If I go upstairs, I’ll immediately run to Wujiang River and cut my own throat.”
Xu Qingzhu glanced at her. “Can you say something proper?”
Xu Qingya was righteous. “How is what I said not proper? How about…”
An idea flashed through her mind, and she ran to the kitchen with thumping footsteps. A few seconds later, she came out holding two bottles of wine. “Use these two bottles of wine to recover the mood that was interrupted just now?!”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
“Do you still remember you’re a minor?” Xu Qingzhu said helplessly.
Xu Qingya straightened her back. “Of course. I’m only in high school. But Xu Qingzhu, you’re biased. In junior high biology, I already learned human anatomy. In Grade 10, we were already studying genes and chromosomes. Besides, sex education is knowledge that must be popularized now. Otherwise, the disease rate among Omegas will only get higher and higher. It’s precisely because so many people turn pale at the mention of sex that our country’s birth rate keeps declining. You two are legally married wives. Isn’t pregnancy and childbirth a very normal thing? Why are you saying I’m not proper?”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
This younger sister had been good at talking since she was small.
Xu Qingzhu had never been able to win arguments against her. She only felt embarrassed and smacked Xu Qingya on the arm. “Only you talk so much. Hurry and go sleep. Watching horror films in the middle of the night—who else would get scared if not you? Stop talking nonsense from now on.”
Xu Qingya held her arm and glared at Xu Qingzhu unhappily. She shoved the bottle of wine into Xu Qingzhu’s hand, leaned close to her ear, and said softly, “You really are too much. You’re clearly doing improper things yourself, yet you won’t let me say it…”
“Do you even know what shame is?” Xu Qingzhu was speechless. “Can you act like a girl?”
“Who says girls can’t discuss these things?” Xu Qingya said. “You have marriage certificates. As long as you don’t do anything explicit in public, once the door is closed, you can do whatever you want, okay?”
As she spoke, she handed the other bottle of wine to Liang Shi. “Sister Liang, don’t be shy. Good luck. I’ll leave the matter of making me a little niece to you!”
Xu Qingzhu said, “……Get lost already.”
Xu Qingya pouted. “Tsk.”
Before returning to her room, she was still cheering Liang Shi on. “Sister Liang, charge!”
Liang Shi: “……”
After Xu Qingya returned to her room, the living room became much quieter.
Mainly because the two of them also did not know what to say.
In the end, Xu Qingzhu spoke first. “I’ll go back to the room first.”
Liang Shi followed after her.
After walking a few steps, Xu Qingzhu suddenly stopped and turned back. Liang Shi almost failed to stop in time and nearly stepped on her foot.
She hurriedly withdrew her foot, her eyes drifting. “What’s wrong?”
Xu Qingzhu handed her the bottle of wine. “Put it back. Thank you.”
Liang Shi carried the two bottles of wine back to the kitchen.
The discomfort in her body was growing increasingly severe. Most likely because of the red rashes, her body seemed to be getting dragged downward by something, becoming very heavy.
Even her head began to feel heavy and dizzy.
When she returned to the room, Xu Qingzhu was leaning against the bed and scrolling through her phone.
Seeing her come back, Xu Qingzhu asked, “Are you okay?”
Although Liang Shi did not know why she was asking that, she still nodded. “I’m fine. Just a little sleepy.”
“Then sleep.” Xu Qingzhu placed her phone by the bedside and slid into the blanket like a fish.
The ambiguous atmosphere from the room earlier and downstairs had completely vanished.
Before getting onto the bed, Liang Shi first turned off the bedside lamp. The room sank into darkness, but after she got onto the bed, she turned it on again.
Xu Qingzhu asked, “What’s wrong?”
Liang Shi only felt her throat was dry and hoarse. Her voice was no longer very clear, and she could barely keep her eyes open, yet she still forced herself to say, “I just want a little light.”
“Are you really okay?” Xu Qingzhu had already turned over. Separated by one blanket, the two of them looked at each other like people divided by the Chu River and Han boundary.
Liang Shi felt that even Xu Qingzhu looked hazy. Her head was heavy, and it felt as if little bees were buzzing beside her ears. She casually raised her hand and placed it on her forehead. Her voice was lingering and soft, carrying a hint of childish coquettishness. “I’m just a little sleepy.”
“Are you sure?” Xu Qingzhu said. “There are red rashes on the back of your hand.”
Liang Shi frowned slightly and turned her hand, pressing the back of it against her forehead. Her voice was still soft. “It’s fine. I’m allergic.”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
She said the word allergic so lightly, as if she did not care at all.
Xu Qingzhu had seen it downstairs earlier too. At first, she had not cared much either.
Liang Shi was already allergic to milk, but Xu Qingzhu was someone used to drinking milk in the morning. Not long after they got married, because she had prepared milk for Liang Shi at breakfast, Liang Shi, after being hungover, had failed to see clearly. She took one sip and spat it out, then fiercely scolded Xu Qingzhu. She even said milk was not allowed to appear in the house.
Even though she had only taken one sip that time, red rashes appeared all over her body. Apart from her face, nowhere was spared.
But they were only rashes, and they faded after a day.
It had never been this serious.
Liang Shi’s face was flushed. Xu Qingzhu wanted to look at her hand, but just as she reached over, Liang Shi brushed her away. She pressed the back of her hand beneath herself and mumbled, “It’s too ugly.”
It was somewhat childish.
Xu Qingzhu looked at her, a little more probing and helplessness appearing in her gaze.
What could be confirmed was that Liang Shi had indeed developed an allergic reaction because of the milk.
Xu Qingzhu reached out to touch her forehead. It was burning hot.
“You have a fever.” Xu Qingzhu immediately got up. “Let’s go to the hospital.”
Liang Shi was feeling hot and restless. She pinched her earlobe, then covered her ears. “Not going.”
Her voice was very low, and the discomfort in her body made it sound somewhat wronged. “I’ll be fine after sleeping.”
“If your fever keeps burning like this, you’ll burn yourself into an idiot.” Xu Qingzhu had already taken out both her coat and Liang Shi’s from the wardrobe. “Get up. I’ll take you to the hospital.”
“Let me sleep for a while.” Liang Shi did not want to move.
Her consciousness was actually already somewhat hazy.
The symptoms had come very quickly. From the moment she touched the soft bed, her body felt as though it had fallen into the deep sea, sinking continuously.
And her consciousness could not resist the heaviness of her body.
Xu Qingzhu pushed her. “Liang Shi, get up.”
As she spoke, she went to help her up, only to find that Liang Shi’s body was limp. With Xu Qingzhu’s strength alone, she could not support her at all. Yet Liang Shi still said, “Really, just let me sleep for a while and I’ll be fine.”
Her bright red lips moved slightly. If one did not lean close to listen, they would not be able to hear what she was saying at all.
Xu Qingzhu struggled for quite a while before finally recognizing reality.
She placed Liang Shi back on the bed, went out, and shouted downstairs, “Xu Qingya.”
A few seconds later, Xu Qingya ran out in a panic. “What? Is there a fire or an earthquake?”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
“Come up and help me,” Xu Qingzhu said.
Xu Qingya was stunned. While walking over, she kept nagging, “What are you doing in the middle of the night? Aren’t you afraid such a loud voice will wake Sister Liang? Besides, instead of striving hard to create the next generation of humanity, why are you calling me? It’s not like I can help with anything.”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
She said coldly, “When a duck dies, only its mouth is left, is that it?”
Xu Qingya: “……Then if I’m a duck, what are you? Duck Sister?”
Xu Qingzhu said, “Shut up.”
The moment Xu Qingya followed Xu Qingzhu into the room, she saw Liang Shi lying on the bed, motionless. Her face was turned toward the balcony, and she looked like… she was dead.
Her heart jolted. “Xu Qingzhu, what did you do? Don’t tell me you killed someone and called me to help dump the body? This is too much. My heavens, I have to put righteousness before family and call the police immediately!”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
After a long while, she faintly asked, “Are all the people in your grade idiots?”
Xu Qingya did not react. “What do you mean?”
“How did someone like you get first place?” Xu Qingzhu asked sincerely.
Xu Qingya: “……”
She rolled her eyes and fired back, “Talent.”
“Hurry and come help,” Xu Qingzhu said. “She’s allergic.”
“Allergic?” Xu Qingya immediately ran over. “This serious? What did she eat?”
“Milk,” Xu Qingzhu said calmly, taking the opportunity to laboriously put Liang Shi’s coat on her.
“Milk? There are actually people in this world allergic to milk?” Xu Qingya helped Xu Qingzhu support Liang Shi while talking nonstop. “Then Sister Liang was so calm downstairs earlier. Does she not know she’s allergic to milk? And with an allergic reaction this severe, a person would basically remember after one time.”
Xu Qingzhu fell silent.
The two of them supported Liang Shi downstairs.
When Xu Qingya reached the door, she suddenly stopped. Her tone was serious and solemn. “Sister, so you knew she was allergic to milk and still let her drink it?”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
She had merely wanted to test it.
Who knew Liang Shi truly did not remember anything and calmly drank that cup of milk?
“Sister.” Xu Qingya questioned her angrily, “Why didn’t you stop her? Severe allergies can kill people. If Sister Liang really died, this would be murder, do you understand?”
Xu Qingzhu glanced over coldly and did not explain. She said in a cold voice, “Hold her. I’ll go drive.”
Xu Qingya: “……”
//
It was already late at night.
The white Porsche sped along the wide road and soon arrived at the hospital.
Xu Qingzhu had called Zhao Xuning on the way there. As it happened, Zhao Xuning was on night shift today. So the moment they entered the hospital, Zhao Xuning had already brought people over and directly sent Liang Shi to the emergency center.
After examination, it was a severe allergic reaction that had triggered a high fever.
Zhao Xuning first gave her a fever-reducing injection, then put her on an IV and prescribed medication.
By the time everything was done, it was already two in the morning, and even the hospital had quieted down.
Xu Qingzhu booked a room for Xu Qingya at a nearby hotel. Considering that she still had school tomorrow, she told her to go rest first.
Xu Qingya glanced at the ward and condemned Xu Qingzhu’s cold behavior. “Cold-blooded animal!”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
She did not defend her behavior and only told Xu Qingya to hurry and leave.
Xu Qingya looked at her distrustfully. “You’re not planning to send everyone away, then secretly smother Sister Liang to death, are you?”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
She swept a cold glance over Xu Qingya, her voice cool and clear. “Murder is illegal.”
Xu Qingya lightly snorted. “As long as you remember.”
After Xu Qingya left the hospital, Xu Qingzhu sat on the bench outside the ward in a daze.
At first, she was thinking about why Liang Shi had become allergic.
After that, she gradually started to believe that amnesia could cause a person’s personality to change drastically.
Then she overturned her initial thought in her mind again, only feeling that this was not the same person.
The old Liang Shi had never had such a pleasant, comfortable, reassuring scent on her body.
But the facts also proved that this was indeed Liang Shi.
It was only that she had hit her head before and lost her memory.
The two little people in her mind kept fighting. By the end, Xu Qingzhu’s thoughts began to drift.
She entered a state where she did not know what she was thinking about and was simply spacing out.
Until Zhao Xuning came over after checking the wards.
Zhao Xuning handed her a bottle of water. “Still thinking about Liang Shi?”
Only then did Xu Qingzhu come back to herself. She took the water and drank a sip, then told Zhao Xuning her guesses.
Zhao Xuning looked at her. “Didn’t we agree before? It doesn’t matter who she is, as long as everything is normal. In any case, you also plan to divorce.”
Xu Qingzhu was silent for a moment. “But I’m too familiar with the old Liang Shi. So whenever she does something now, I always unconsciously compare them. This might have something to do with my curiosity. I always feel this matter is too strange. Even if I want to get through this period with her and then divorce, even though I know her matters have nothing to do with me, when we lie in the same bed and interact countless times every day, I still can’t help being curious.”
“Then what do you suspect now?” Zhao Xuning asked straightforwardly.
After thinking deeply, Xu Qingzhu let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. “I don’t know anymore.”
The facts proved that Liang Shi was still allergic to milk.
She was still the Liang Shi from before, apart from her completely different personality.
“Wouldn’t it be better to let yourself go?” Zhao Xuning said. “Why force yourself to think about things that are difficult to understand? In the end, you’ll still go separate ways anyway.”
Xu Qingzhu pursed her lips. “The impact she’s had on me is greater than I imagined.”
“So you like her?” Zhao Xuning raised an eyebrow, her tone somewhat incredulous.
Xu Qingzhu immediately denied it. “I’m not crazy.”
“That’s good.” Zhao Xuning relaxed slightly. “I thought you were going to step into the same river twice without hesitation.”
Xu Qingzhu: “……”
She smiled bitterly. “Impossible. Right now, all my energy is on work. Minghui is my maternal grandfather’s life’s work. I don’t want to let it decline like this.”
“Is your company going smoothly?” Zhao Xuning asked.
Xu Qingzhu nodded. “There are some small problems, but they can be overcome.”
“That’s good.”
The atmosphere suddenly sank.
After a long while, Xu Qingzhu sorted through her thoughts and said to Zhao Xuning, “Do you remember me telling you that the first time I met Liang Shi was when I was five?”
Zhao Xuning nodded. “Back then, you were kidnapped. You and Liang Shi escaped together. After Liang Shi came back, she was abnormal for a period of time, but no one paid attention.”
Especially Zhao Xuning. She had not cared at all.
She had simply felt that Liang Shi had gone mad.
At that time, she had even been a little happy.
Xu Qingzhu said, “That year, I was five and Liang Shi was seven. When we were kidnapped, she took care of me a lot. She even roasted sweet potatoes for me in the wild and encouraged me to live well. She said life would definitely get better, because we would definitely have a lot of love.”
Zhao Xuning listened quietly.
Xu Qingzhu also sank into that memory. Her cool voice carried a hint of lingering tenderness.
“At the time, I thought this sister was very strange. We had clearly been bullied so miserably. Those people whipped us, slapped us, grabbed our hair, and slammed our heads into the ground, leaving bloody marks one after another. One child was beaten to death just like that, and there was so much blood.”
When she spoke to this point, Xu Qingzhu’s voice trembled.
Clearly, she had remembered the tragedy from that year again, but she was restraining her emotions.
This was the first time she had mentioned the details of the kidnapping case to anyone other than her attending doctor.
Zhao Xuning clearly noticed her abnormal state too. She frowned and reminded her warmly, “If you feel uncomfortable, you don’t have to say it. Otherwise, in a while…”
“It’s fine. I can control it.” Xu Qingzhu let out a light breath and continued, “I also personally saw a child’s finger chopped off and thrown to feed a big wolfdog. And because Liang Shi kept smiling, the kidnappers found her unpleasant to look at. One slap knocked out one of her front teeth.”
Hearing this, even Zhao Xuning felt somewhat angry.
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