Chapter 36 Reprint

There is a lot of traffic outside the tall building, and the lights inside the building are as bright as day.

The double-petaled lily seemed to open up again quietly in those few barely audible seconds.

As they stared at each other in bewilderment, Zong Chi, perhaps intoxicated by the aroma, pointed at them and told the man before him, "When I asked someone to buy them this afternoon, they hadn't opened so many yet."

The lipstick on He Dongli's lips was smudged by his kiss. He looked at her and reached out to wipe it off. She suddenly pushed him away in anger. Behind the washbasin was a bathtub facing the night view downstairs.

Zong Chi, exhausted from his energy, nearly fell in. He slumped over, sitting on the edge of the tub. He smiled at her, "Who told you to lie? He Dongli, I won't let you lie."

The angry woman looked at him with hatred and anger. She hesitated to speak, but finally, Zong Chi stood up, hugged her, comforted her, and told her, "Ali, I'm back."

As Zong Chi moved closer to her, He Dongli raised a hand, almost blocking it. After a moment, she said, still brooding, "Yes, I lied. Zong Chi, I didn't want my mother to know before, and I still don't now. I don't want her to know I'm with you. Just like when you ran to my mother and asked me for an answer, I could never give you a satisfactory answer. I'll never be able to clear myself from that incident at the swimming pool."

She finished speaking in one breath, and Zong Chi looked at her two lines of tears, which calmly flowed down her cheeks.

He then realized that he had pushed her to this point. Five years later, she was still pondering and stating the things that were not clarified at Sangtian Road, but she would never change her confession.

She knew very well that if she changed her words and lied to him, what could he do to her?

Zong Chi took away her hand that was blocking him, and then helped her wipe the tears from her cheek. He wiped it twice with the back of his hand, and finally held her face with both hands. "It's your business if you can't rule it out. What I want is the result I want. Yes, He Dongli, when you were willing to come to the swimming pool to find me, it meant that you came to bow your head to me. The head you bowed was the head you bowed when we quarreled on the corridor bridge. I don't care about the rest. You came to bow your head because you like me. I'm leaving, and you came to keep me, which means you are pursuing me. You can never deny this, and you can't deny it. Because I agreed to spread this news that year, you Do you know how many boys in No. 1 Middle School liked you back then? He Dongli, you were truly popular. Do you know how pissed I was when I saw those nerdy, high-achieving kids gathered around you, discussing problems with you? Do you know how many boys hated me to death when the news got out that you were pursuing me? I watched them hate me but dare not touch me, but it was so fucking good. So, you were the one pursuing me, and you could only pursue me. You once said that the most rigorous and romantic logical symbol in mathematics is "there is and only has." He Dongli, I am your "there is and only has," so try pursuing someone else!

"Let's put an end to this matter regarding the swimming pool today. Okay? It doesn't matter how you came to find me. What matters is that you came to find me, and I'm willing to stay for you. Let's just call this a day, okay? Even when we're eighty years old, we can tell our children, and our children's children, this story is the same, okay?"

He Dongli was given the cold shoulder by Zong Chi. When he heard that it was he who leaked the news that she had taken the initiative to pursue him, he was almost shaking with anger. When he heard about having descendants when she was eighty years old, He Dongli was almost fuming.

She tried to remove his hand, but Zong Chi refused. They struggled like this for several rounds, one trying to break free and the other refusing to let go.

Zong Chi pressed his thumbs against her cheeks and threatened her, "You can struggle, but you can't win anyway. Tomorrow you'll have to go to work with a pair of bruises on your face. I'll see how you explain it."

"I'd say it hit a pig."

"And what about the pig? Did it crash into a tree?" Zong Chi tilted his head, covered her bad mouth with a thumb, and complained to her again, "Who am I? Why am I always connected to animals, huh?"

He Dongli ignored him and tried to pry his hands apart, but he refused. She then cried out, "It hurts!"

The person holding her face finally let go, and held her towards the light, looking at her intently, "Let me see."

Her small face was intact, but her lipstick was a little smudged. Zong Chi didn't want to remind her to wipe it off. Instead, he leaned over, looking at her at eye level, and called her name, "He Dongli."

She didn't say a word, and someone bumped into her face almost without any skill, and then pecked her on the lips.

She was as clueless as she had been back then. Back then, Zong Chi knew nothing, his mind racing. He watched her babble along, recounting details he hadn't caught on their way out of the theater. He didn't want to hear any of it, and the interstellar theme was so boring, so he called out to her. Then, she looked up at him, sipping her Coke, and before he could think, he bumped into her face and kissed her. It was in public, with people coming and going.

That night, when I sent her home, I didn't forget to bring up the kiss to scare her. You can't go back on your word, do you hear me?

He Dongli ran away like a fugitive, then turned back and took her unfinished popcorn from the cup holder in his car. He rolled down the window and called out to her, but it didn't work. As he walked up the stairs, he could see the voice-activated lights slowly lighting up, one after another.

That night, Jiang Xingyuan said she had forgotten where she and her ex-boyfriend kissed for the first time. He Dongli didn't believe it, didn't believe anyone could have such a bad memory. She probably just had a really good memory, so good that she even guessed that Zong Chi was recreating that kiss.

That night she said she was going back to prepare for the classes after the holiday. It was also from that time that she started sending her schedule to Zong Chi every week. Over time, the shared calendar became a sense of security for Zong Chi, and it was more like a kind of mental control that he had developed due to her. He could know what she was doing in the country at this point.

Tonight, He Dongli seemed to have found no excuse to escape. Patients, work, or her mother, she clutched her phone, about to call Yu Xiaohan back when the man who had pecked her suddenly leaned over and snatched her phone away. This time, he remained silent, her lipstick still stained on his lips, his gaze fixed on her with a fierce, predatory gaze. His eyes followed, his breath clinging to hers, his breathing like an invisible spiderweb, seemingly light and transparent, yet crashing headfirst into her, no one escaped.

He Dongli remained silent for too long, and finally, in just a moment, she was bitten by him, and her whole body was nailed to the web, from her limbs to her bones, from her lips to her tongue to her spirit.

*

He Dongli and Jiang Xingyuan had become friends so late that, in the years between her innocence and her transition to love, she had few true friends. Her roommates and classmates weren't up to the point of discussing such intimate topics. Furthermore, they knew Dongli had a boyfriend, a wealthy second-generation man, and they all said she was the one who initiated it. They were all curious: How did someone like you, with your personality, actually pursue someone?

Once, a classmate caught her kissing her boyfriend in the car, and teased her when they returned to the dormitory. It was so sweet.

He Dongli never explained it clearly, nor did she bother to. Could she tell them that it wasn't as gentle as they imagined? That Zongchi wasn't kissing, it was eating people. Apart from the first time he gave her the illusion of tenderness, he had done whatever he wanted the rest of the time.

He will bite, drag you, pull you, mark you like a dog, use his lips, tongue, fingers, anything that can represent him, cover you with his hands when you open your eyes, and suck you hard when you want to retreat...

Then, for the next few days, He Dongli felt pain at the base of her tongue even when drinking water. She was too embarrassed to ask her classmates in relationships if this happened to them too.

*

He Dongli was forced to retreat to the edge of the marble basin. Zong Chi put his arm around her waist and helped her sit on it. The shirt she was wearing was the one he saw when they met again at Liang's house that day. Zong Chi came out of her lips and tongue and went straight to unbutton her collar. His movements were a bit rough and his elbow knocked the vase of double lilies over. As it was about to fall, He Dongli reached over quickly and grabbed the edge of the vase to save it.

Her whole body was tilted because she was trying to put out the fire in a hurry. When Zong Chi saw clearly, she had already tilted out. She grabbed the vase, and Zong Chi grabbed her.

The room was already warm, and the breaths were short and close, intertwining with each other for a moment, like willow catkins falling to the ground in spring, and a spark would strike and start a fire all over the ground.

Just at this moment, He Dongli got into trouble, and Zong Chi was so angry that he laughed, and held her tightly with a smile.

She straightened the vase with a pain between her eyebrows, and then pulled his hand away without any change in expression, but blood was dripping from his ears.

Zongchi complained, "Flowers are more important than me."

She ignored him. He had tortured her like a sloppy cat, but she was still reluctant to part with a vase of flowers, not knowing that she was sitting in front of the lamp and under the flowers, and she was more beautiful than the flowers.

When he went to her collar again, He Dongli frowned and wanted to say, "Can you help me hold the vase first? Can you choose a better place? Why do you have to do it on the sink? Do you know that there is water on the sink? I've got water on my pants!"

As a result, Zong Chi didn't wait for her to lose her temper and took action first, "Don't move, I'll buckle it for you!"

“…”

He Dongli looked at him sullenly, and Zong Chi continued, "I was wondering why you agreed to come so readily today. I get it, you don't have to hint at it right away. I'm not as desperate as you think. Also, you don't think I'm testing you by buying you something shaved off, do you? He Dongli, if you think so, then it's over, you really underestimate me. Do I need to test you in such a vulgar way? I..."

Someone was talking, but he couldn't continue. Yes, Young Master Zong never used dirty tricks. He either took by force or robbed.

Zong Chi admitted he was in the wrong, especially the last time. He had never seen her so angry before. When she wanted to leave that day, Zong Chi was so angry that he almost treated her as if she was running away from home. After all, the property belonged to him and he dragged her upstairs.

He had known her for so many years, and he had seen her in almost every way. Even when she was naked, He Dongli had never felt so helpless in front of him. It wasn't panic or fear, but only helplessness and despair, the exhaustion of not wanting to be tamed. Zong Chi knew that she had never imagined that the Zong Chi in her mind would treat her like this.

Zong Chi felt that he owed her an apology, but it was not the kind of apology that could settle the score. He just wanted to tell her, "Helping Zou Yan is helping Zou Yan, and kissing you is kissing you. They are two completely different things."

"You don't have to wait until you're on your period to see me. I admit I really want to. I want to show that I'm normal, not just for this reason as you said. He Dongli, you said this to me for no apparent reason before, and I was really pissed off. Now, after five years, I think I should clear my name. Am I just for this? Don't worry, I've waited for five years, so these few days won't make a difference. I mean, Ah Li, I promise not to scare you again, okay?"

He Dongli was forced to sit on the marble countertop. She had a strange look on her face, which made Zong Chi feel uneasy. He thought to himself, "I kissed you like this, what have you become? Look in the mirror and try to talk back at me!"

But she just has this kind of natural indifference. When she was in school, she was a maverick who loved to ignore others. When Xu Xilin bullied her, she would fight back even if she blocked Xu's examination room. The next day, Zong Chi vented her anger, but she didn't react at all. Zong Chi didn't dare to admit anything easily at that time. He was afraid that He Dongli would come and break up with him. A nerd like her would definitely do such a thing. Zong Chi, don't say you like me anymore. I don't like it. Her dislike was fatal. Once a boy stuffed a Christmas apple into her desk, and He Dongli's reason for returning it was thank you, but I don't need it. What she doesn't need is just trouble or even disturbance. Zong Chi felt that no one could bear her like this. Not only did he return the gift in front of so many people, but he also emphasized that you disturbed me. From then on, no boy dared to mess with this nerd easily. It was useless for her to be beautiful as a fairy. She was just a fool who had taken the heartless pill.

The year He Dongli was explaining the exams to Zong Chi, she scolded him countless times, "You're taking things for granted, how can I explain this to you?" He had such a carefree personality, yet he always managed to pass every major exam perfectly. Sometimes she envied him, envied that even with a GPA of only 60, his parents still signed his papers with such a casual air; sometimes she felt pity for him. He claimed his parents loved him, but he didn't act like the child of a loving couple. His paranoia, cunningness, and explosive temper all proved that his parents didn't give him much real security. Perhaps it was because of his parents' troubled marriage, his father's preoccupation with proving his abilities and choices, and his mother's unwavering devotion and sacrificial following. Ultimately, the couple was united, but they neglected their children. By the time they realized what was happening, Zong Chi had withdrawn from them, unwilling to even confide in them.

He Dongli acknowledged without disparagement that Zong Chi was a skilled responder and able to handle pressure, but he unfortunately got a zero in Reading Comprehension! He Dongli didn't bother explaining when he misunderstood her as being on her period. Firstly, she couldn't bring herself to admit it, secondly, it might mean she had escaped a disaster, and thirdly, it was a butterfly effect. She had never imagined that a drink from thirteen years ago would flap its wings and cause a new wave of chaos.

He Dongli was willing to go along with this foreshadowing. Thinking of this, she dragged the vase inwards again, and was about to get down from the table.

Zong Chi supported her with both hands on either side. She moved outwards, and her calf accidentally touched him. He used one hand to grab her foot again. He Dongli thought he was going to say something indecent again, but his hand landed on her ankle, letting her rub against him intimately. His body was honest, but his face was a gentleman's split. "He Dongli, I'm helping Zou Yan. I mean, this time I'm helping your male friend. Can you make up for the anger I got against you because of Shen Mingchong?"

He Dongli was truly shocked by him. How could a good person remember an irrelevant name so clearly, after all these years?

That year she sent him a photo of the birthday cake, and he was on the plane rushing back. When he finally landed and found her, he saw Shen Mingchong saying dirty words to her, so he went up and hit him.

That period was the lowest point in their relationship. Zong Jingzhou was dissatisfied with Zong Chi's idyllic personality and put pressure on him to put aside his romantic interests. His words were blunt and his logic was even more blunt, saying that indulging in love would only make one short of breath and harm the body, and that a man without a career was nothing. The most effective way for the father and son to argue was to make a bet agreement. Zong Jingzhou was not optimistic about the project evaluated by Zong Chi, and Zong Chi seemed to be in a period of career growth at that time, so he was bound to make Zong admit defeat. Before he returned to China for his birthday, the relationship had been cold for a month. During this month, Zong Chi ignored He Dongli, and she did not react. He was already disheartened on the plane back to China, but when they met, she had not tried hard to distance herself from Shen.

Zong Chi's words were sometimes so hurtful that only when he calmed down did he realize his mistake. He'd said something that night that was unkind. He felt she didn't love him at all, not at all, so heartless that his return would be a joke. So, he was determined to drag her into the mire with him, accusing her of saying, "If I don't like you anymore, you'll be nothing."

He Dongli calmly broke up with him. She had always called Shen Mingchong "brother," saying he was in the same relationship as Ah Sheng. The phone she used was given to her by them both. She felt no shame in dealing with someone from her hometown, and she didn't want to explain anything else. If their relationship had reached the point where she needed to prove her innocence, then, Zong Chi, let's break up. You're so suspicious of me that you're asking me to sever all ties with all men, but I can't do that. You're not asking me for a sense of security anymore; you're trying to control me.

Zong Chi thought she'd said something serious, even that she was taking sides. He asked her bluntly if she liked Shen Mingchong. He Dongli was finally coerced into doing what he wanted. She said she felt at ease and comfortable with Shen Mingchong and the others, at least she was herself. It was the worst birthday Zong Chi had ever had. He'd managed to pull off such a difficult project, only to find that the most uncontrollable risk lay with him. He couldn't do anything about her, so in a fit of rage, he smashed the phone Shen Mingchong had given her.

Both of them were angry and said many things that showed they wished they would never see each other again in this life.

The cake He Dongli had made for him was in the refrigerator. One had returned to the hospital, the other had flown away. The cleaning lady couldn't contact Xixi, and she didn't dare to throw the things in her refrigerator away, so she had to call Mr. Zong. Zong Chi was in Zurich at the time, and for a moment he felt that it wasn't the orange cake that had expired and spoiled, but his heart. The person he kept questioning was so busy that she worked day and night, and it was easy to imagine how much time she had taken to make this cake and send it to him at midnight.

After that incident, Zong Chi returned to China and could already feel that they were walking on thin ice. However, the more this happened, the more he refused to bow his head and did not want to hear a word from her. From beginning to end, he never made a sincere apology to her for what happened to Shen Mingchong.

"I know you don't like him, but I feel uncomfortable when he's around you!" Zong Chi brought up this matter again after so many years, and even when he was reviewing it, he was full of territorial consciousness.

Today, while setting up the stage, Old Lu had complained to them about how the worst thing about arguing with women is bringing up past issues. He Dongli had already thought Old Lu was a bit of a straight man, constantly perpetuating gender stereotypes. She whispered, "The root of bringing up past issues is that they haven't been resolved. You always don't take your sister-in-law seriously, but of course she brings them up from time to time." Unexpectedly, she'd get her comeuppance that night. So, she couldn't contradict herself when she gave someone else advice. "Just help Zou Yan, and don't bring up irrelevant people."

She was about to get off. Zong Chi, upon hearing her words, leaned forward and scratched the sweat off her nose. "Who is that irrelevant person? Shen Mingchong. How is he? He's still pretending to be close to your cousin and coveting his best friend's sister."

"Well, thanks to you, I have a happy family, a wife and daughter."

"Oh, so he likes you so much that he can marry another woman and have a daughter."

"Zong Chi, are you done yet?" He Dongli suddenly yelled at him. She no longer let him do what he wanted and pushed him, wanting to get down by herself. The person who was scolded came to carry her down without saying a word. There was water on the table. He Dongli instinctively touched her pants and wanted to turn her head to see if it was dirty. In the eyes of someone, it looked more like she was on her menstrual period.

When she washed her hands again and looked in the mirror, she realized she looked completely out of shape. She took out a tissue and wiped the redness from her lips. Zong Chi followed suit in the other basin. When he was done, he shamelessly reached for the lily stems. He Dongli looked up. He was standing by, looking at her in the mirror. Their eyes met. The man fiddling with the lilies said in a very sarcastic tone, "If you really love someone, you won't have children with another woman. Mouse is more like that."

He Dongli was not very happy when he heard his words, but resented him in his heart, "You can't give birth either. You can only give birth to lions, tigers, peregrine falcons, spiders, and pigs."

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The author has something to say: I didn't leave any comments in the last chapter in order not to ruin the atmosphere of the young couple, so I'll leave one for this chapter. I've been a bit busy recently and my drafts are officially gone. Hey, I mainly revised the chapter about the phone quarrel several times, which took me a whole week.

After thinking about it, I decided that in order to maintain a relatively stable rhythm, I have to go back to updating every other day.

I'm afraid that readers who haven't read my work might misunderstand me, so I'd like to say sincerely that this update is already quite fast. I've already said hello to everyone before the beginning and before the V-ing. In short, resuming the update every other day is to complete the story more stably. Thank you everyone~

This chapter sends 200 red envelopes ~ [Red Heart][Red Heart]