Chapter 20
Could He Be Into You?
Li Shengxia thought the splash would wake Mo Nianchen up, but he barely had any reaction!
Could it be that when he was numb to feelings when he was drunk on top of not allowing anyone to get near or touch him?
A shadow of a smile appeared in the corner of Li Shengxia’s lips. This was the perfect opportunity for revenge! This was all thanks to his childhood friends helping her fulfill her dream of revenge!
She thought about all the pranks he pulled on her in the past, a pesky little idea suddenly came to her. She shouted beside her, “There’s an earthquake—”
Surprisingly — he pulled her into his arms and wrapped himself around her tightly in the corner of the room. He went on chanting mechanically, “Don’t worry, Xia Xia, don’t worry—”
She was completely frozen.
She suddenly recalled back to the year when she was sixteen years old, there had been an earthquake in City Y, a magnitude seven earthquake! She happened to be ill that day and stayed at home, sleeping soundly in her bed.
He suddenly barged into the room, carried her into the corner of the room and repeatedly chanted, “Don’t worry Xia Xia.”
She only realized there was an earthquake when she woke up, the entire world was shaking chaotically. He began to slide on the ground toward the direction where the ground slanted, knocking into countless pieces of furniture along the way but making sure to keep her safe in his clutch. At the time, she barely felt afraid.
The earthquake stopped, the building did not collapse, and he had to be hospitalized for half a month.
When she thought about it, it was that incident that made her realize that perhaps he cared about her. That slowly developed into affection, and as that affection gradually festered in her heart it eventually led to her coming out riddled with scars and bruises…
At the present moment, Mo Nianchen was gently patting her head while he went on and on, “Hmm… It’ll be fine…”
She did not feel disgusted by the strong stench of alcohol oozing from him. She only felt a crack, ever so slight, in her heart. She was not sure if it stemmed from bitterness or heartache.
He seemed to have come to his sense and asked, slurring his words, “Who are you? Are you Xia Xia?”
“…” should she answer?
“You are not Xia Xia… Don’t touch me…” he pushed her off and huddled up with his arms wrapped around himself as if he had been assaulted by someone.
Li Shengxia was petrified!
She even began to doubt what she had heard.
“Hey? Mo Nianchen?
“I am Xia Xia,” her words came out as soft as a feather, only she was not sure if he had heard it.
She touched his shoulders again, this time he did not resist.
A slightly amused expression came upon her face. Had he fallen asleep? He slept peacefully like a child.
She was probably overthinking it, he was tired and fell asleep, that was all it was.
Li Shengxia found a clean, unused towel to wipe his face clean and carried him to the bed.
She observed his eyebrows closely and seemed to have a slight epiphany…
He was once her heart’s desire in her teenage years.
Once…
It was such a long time ago.
He was just right in front of her, but they were not what everyone thought them to be.
This was how he was like, if he could not have something, no one could either.
Even though he did not want her, he would not let her have anyone else.
She never understood it as a child, because all her life she had always had him.
It was around the first year of middle school, he suddenly yanked a boy and forced the boy in front of her. He wanted the boy to repeat what he had said. She looked at the boy in confusion while the boy said with his cheeks flushed beet red, “Shengxia is the prettiest girl in the school, I like her!”
As she looked at the boy with the flushed red cheeks in a daze, she thought he was rather cute.
After that, nobody ever confessed to her for the entirety of her middle school years.
The next incident happened when she had just entered high school.
A boy confessed to her and she thought he was pretty decent so she said yes. The next day, the boy came to school with swollen cheeks covered in bruises and turned tail at the sight of her. Word was it was because she was ‘Mo Nianchen’s woman’.
She found it strange at the time, when did she become his woman? Was the label ‘His woman’ just simply dumped on her just because he had to be hospitalized for half a month trying to protect her from an earthquake?
At the time, he was widely regarded as the Romeo of the school, on top of that, he was the top student from a prestigious family. Girls would form a line from the doorway of their classroom to the school entrance for the chance to be with him. She was the little errand girl who had to pass little love letters for the other girls! She never found it to be a pleasant task, but she had no other choice as she lived right next door to him!
At the time, she could never figure out what exactly was wrong with her. Why was it that she always had to fetch love letters for him? Why was no one at least remotely interested enough in her to write her a love letter so she could at least have something to show in front of him?
Even worse, ever since the boy who confessed to her got ‘taught a lesson’, all of the boys in the school kept their distance from her!
In the second year of high school, a transfer student told her that she was the prettiest girl in the school and that there must be plenty of boys who wanted to date her. She just could not relate, she had been confessed to less than a handful of times growing up, all of them hardly led to anything. It was probably just the transfer student who thought she was pretty.
The transfer student was in utter disbelief, she ended up telling her the entire story from the beginning to the end.
To her surprise, she suddenly became excited and told her, “Oh my God! Shengxia! Could he be into you?”
She was stunned at the idea.
That Mo Nianchen, who always had it out for her, was into her? It was already enough of a blessing to go through a day without him trying to mess with her! But when she recalled the earthquake incident, she became convinced it was true! To her embarrassment, she even began trying out all sorts of relationship tests, picturing him as the partner in every one of the questions.
That phase was probably the best time of her life. One thing she could not figure out was if what the transfer student said about him liking her was true, why did he not confess to her?
She was the top student in her class at the time. When the head teacher talked to her about studying abroad, she suddenly thought about him and had some lingering thoughts.
She settled with writing him a love letter and told him that she would wait for him at the wishing fountain by the musical fountain.
There was a downpour on that day. All she had was a thin short skirt and ended up waiting for hours on end by the wishing fountain.
In the end, she had waited for the entire night, from 7 o’clock that night to 7 o’clock the next morning, she hardly caught a glimpse of his shadow!
In the morning, her shirt was completely drenched. People looked at her like she was mental. What they did not know was that her heart was worse off than her shirt!
Right after that, she packed her belongings and got on the flight to study abroad.
She could not help but chuckle a little when she thought about the love letter she had passed to him. Why would she do something so silly, knowing that he was the devil incarnate?
It was then when she spotted amongst the crowd a tall young man with exquisite facial features. That was a testament to how dazzling he could be, wherever he went, he seemed to illuminate everything around him with his radiance.
Just by standing there, his charm had overshadowed the scenery of the world.
She lowered her head, intending to just pass him by.
However, he blocked off her path and tore the love letter into pieces right in front of her. He said in a stiff tone, “Forget about the letter. I’ll permit you to stay by my side, pretend that none of this had ever happened—”