091

Lu Yichen felt as though something were lodged in his throat. Aggrieved, heartsick, he suddenly turned over, pinned her beneath him, and in a hoarse voice murmured, “Weiwei…”

Xin Xin was startled by his abrupt movement and cried out, her heart racing. Though she had orchestrated all of this with her own hands, she had no idea what to do now. There was only a strange, unprecedented sensation and a shy confusion. Yet his sudden initiative still left her dry-mouthed and feverish.

But wait... what had he just said?

Weiwei?

Had she heard wrong?

Carefully, forcing herself to overcome her embarrassment, Xin Xin freed one hand and wrapped it around his waist, but her heart was full of unease and doubt.

“Weiwei... I want you... you can belong only to me...” he declared with possessive tyranny, burying his face in her chest, one hand clutching her shoulder as he breathed in greedily, as though trying to drink in her scent.

The next moment, however, he frowned and froze completely.

No... no, this was not Weiwei... not her scent...

His Weiwei was soft; in his embrace she would not be this stiff, nor this obedient...

His Weiwei carried a faint sweetness, an intoxicating fragrance, not this...

Everything was wrong... Suddenly he wanted to vomit...

While Xin Xin was still reeling from the shock of his whispered words, Lu Yichen had already rolled off her and viciously shoved her aside. “You’re not Weiwei... get away from me...”

Caught utterly unprepared, Xin Xin was pushed straight off the bed and crashed to the floor.

Lu Yichen curled up on the bed, retching.

Falling naked onto the ground, Xin Xin’s mind went blank for an instant.

Humiliation, injury, deception, betrayal... all manner of violent emotions surged up within her.

So the woman in his heart was Weiwei. From beginning to end, the one he loved had always been her.

How could she have been so stupid, so unbearably stupid, to let those two spin her around like a fool?

She, Xin Xin, was a top university student with a high IQ. How had she failed to make sense of all the strangeness over these past days?

The first time they met, Xia Yuwei’s odd behavior, the strange expressions when the two of them pretended not to know each other...

His appearance in Xia Yuwei’s bedroom, and her inability to explain it...

Xia Yuwei urging her not to be with Lu Yichen, saying they had known each other since childhood...

When Lu Yichen fell ill, it was Xia Yuwei who sent him to the hospital. If they had no contact, if they were not close, how could she have known immediately that he was sick? And she, his official girlfriend, had been the last to find out?

...all of it, all of it...

Prone on the cold floor, Xin Xin felt every old doubt connect itself in her mind.

At this moment her heart was filled with humiliation, grief, and fury.

He had called Xia Yuwei’s name as he passionately pressed her down, touched her, so fervent that her mind had gone hazy and she had almost been unable to bear it. Yet in the very next second, once he realized she was not Xia Yuwei, he had ruthlessly shoved her off the bed. Worse still, he looked so disgusted by her that he retched at the sight, as if he had swallowed a fly.

Was she not a woman? Or was he not a man?

Xin Xin struggled to her feet and lowered her gaze to her own body: snow-pale skin, full breasts, a narrow waist, long legs. She was a perfectly formed woman, and her face was more than worthy of the word beautiful. In what way was she inferior to Xia Yuwei?

He knew Xia Yuwei far too well. He was far too sensitive to her.

Their relationship must already have gone far beyond propriety.

How laughable. She had thought Xia Yuwei was as pure and spotless as herself. Who could have guessed that she would monopolize two men all on her own? Only she, Xin Xin, was the fool, played in the palms of others. She had even gone to the trouble of using a drug and offering herself to him, hoping to win his heart...

What a joke...

She hated him. She hated her. Hateful, both of them!

So this was how they treated her like an idiot? This was how they joined hands to humiliate her?

Fine. She would make them understand that Xin Xin was not someone to be trifled with.

Gathering her chaotic thoughts, Xin Xin rose to her feet. First she unlocked the tightly shut bedroom door. Then she opened the drawer of the bedside table, took out a sewing kit, withdrew a needle, and, facing the center of the bed, pierced her fingertip with it. She watched the blood drip onto the sheets, one drop after another, staining them red. They said the pain in the ten fingers reached straight to the heart, but why, at this moment, was her heart filled instead with savage pleasure?

Lu Yichen, unconscious and undisturbed, slept quietly, utterly unaware that another person was still beside him...

Xin Xin put the needle away, then lay back down on the bed. Calmly she pulled the blanket over herself as well. She closed her eyes and began to sleep.

Once in the car, Xia Yuwei sat in the front passenger seat with her arms wrapped around herself, saying nothing.

That defensive posture left Ye Lifeng helpless. Was he really supposed to propose to her and give her the ring under such circumstances?

“Yuwei, are you unhappy today? Is it because of me?” he asked softly. “I’m sorry. I acted on my own and arranged for both families to meet. I was too impatient.” Even so, he did not truly believe he had done anything wrong. If he had not done it this way, how could Xia Yuwei’s parents ever have understood how serious and sincere he was?

“Senior, I’m not blaming you,” Xia Yuwei said at last, parting her soft lips and speaking slowly. “How would I dare blame you? I should be thanking you instead.” If he had not so deliberately shown off how excellent he and his family were, if his parents had not spoken so warmly and harmoniously with her father and mother, then her parents’ regard for him would not have soared so dramatically, nor would they now be so obviously trying to match her with him.