Chapter Six: Section Five: The Third Party

"What do you take me for! Xiong Yingguang is clearly your sister, yet you love her to death. I love you so much, why do you ignore me and turn a blind eye to me..." Mu Xinghe shouted in place but could only cry silently.

"Xiong Yingguang, I know we're siblings now, so can we still be siblings?"

"Jing Moran, seeing you reminds me of my father's filth. Please don't let me see you again."

"I……"

Just as Jing Mo Ran was about to leave, a girl suddenly called out to her. Jing Mo Ran stopped in her tracks, as if she had instantly lost all motivation.

"Are you Jing Moran?"

That familiar voice almost pierced my eardrums, made me bleed from all seven orifices, and struck my heart directly.

Jing Mo Ran dared not turn around, for fear of stirring up certain memories.

Are you Jing Moran?

In the end, he turned back and looked at the face buried deep in his memory. Only then did he gradually remember that there was such a girl in his memories.

"Who are you? Why do you know me?" Jing Moran asked.

"Jing Moran, have you forgotten everything? We were once engaged, and you used to play with me a lot when we were little. Have you forgotten all of that? You said you would take me on a trip when I turned eighteen. Have you forgotten all of that? I am Zhou Xin!"

"Zhou Xin?"

Do you remember?

No one expected that Mu Xinghe would see Zhou Xin as soon as she returned from shopping. She quickly stepped forward to stop Zhou Xin from getting close to Jing Moran.

Mu Xinghe pulled Zhou Xin aside and whispered, "Didn't I tell you not to come back? You chose to leave in your third year of junior high, and I only helped you because you said you would stay away from Jing Moran. Why are you still as disgusting as before after three years? How long are you going to keep bothering Jing Moran?!"

"Mu Xinghe, I beg you, please let me go back to Jing Moran's side."

"Are you begging me? Let me tell you, no way. Three years ago, you were the one who said you wanted to leave Jing Mo Ran, so I lent your father five million to tide you over. Do you think you're going to use your pitiful youth to pay off a debt? Your Zhou family owes our Mu family, do you think you can ever repay it all?"

"Does someone have to be so cruel? We're cousins..."

"You still remember we're cousins? Do you remember how your father almost ruined my family that year? Out of respect for us cousins, I'm only giving you the last bit of face by letting you borrow five million from Jing Mozhan immediately. Please stay away from Jing Mozhan."

At this moment, Jing Moran walked over, and Mu Xinghe immediately pretended to be pitiful, whining to Jing Moran that she had been bullied or something.

Mu Xinghe poured water over his head but threw the bottle to Zhou Xin. Jing Moran saw the soaking wet Mu Xinghe, his expression turned serious, and he looked coldly at Zhou Xin.

“That’s just how you are. You come over and start cursing at me. If you can’t win an argument, you throw water at me,” Zhou Xin protested, feeling wronged.

"I don't……"

Jing Moran saw Mu Xinghe completely soaked, while Mu Xinghe only wanted to get Jing Moran to care about him and hated everyone around him.

Jing Moran took off his coat, draped it over Mu Xinghe's shoulders, gave Zhou Xin a cold look, and pulled Mu Xinghe away until Zhou Xin could no longer see them.

Zhou Xin squatted down and cried. She couldn't understand why Mu Xinghe had become like this. She was clearly her cousin, yet she treated her this way. Was it destined that all the good things in her life would be taken away from her, and she would never get anything?

"Here, wipe your tears. It's not good for a girl to cry too much." Xiong Yingguang handed over a tissue.

"Who are you……"

"Hello, my name is Xiong Yingguang, and I am Jing Moran's younger sister. I saw everything that just happened. Mu Xinghe just wanted to possess Jing Moran. Don't be sad."

Zhou Xin seemed to see a light flickering before her eyes, but she knew that no matter how bright or faint that light was, she could not reach it. Behind the light lay the scars left by regret.

"Do you like him a lot?" Xiong Yingguang asked.

"No, it's just that he and I were engaged before, and I don't want to miss him. I can't disobey my parents' wishes and the matchmaker's words."

Xiong Yingguang sat down and chatted with Zhou Xin. The two gradually became friends, and Zhou Xin gradually understood that people need to learn to let go.

To Jing Mo Ran, she was his whole world, the axis of his universe, and what about herself? For all these years, what had he considered her? She hadn't appeared before him for years, yet they were betrothed since childhood. How could he so cruelly tell her that it was all just a dream, something to forget once she woke up? But he didn't know that from the moment he appeared in her life, every single second of her life had been suffocating her.

She understood that she was now merely a dispensable appendage to him, and all her sincerity could vanish in an instant. He wouldn't care how much others had sacrificed for him; he only cared about whether he loved others, and he wouldn't leave any scars on himself. The pain and hurt would be reserved for those who loved him. With just a few sweet words, he could appease others, making them back off and stay away.

That year, she finally understood how exhausting it was to be the third party in his emotional world. If it weren't for others reminding her, perhaps she would have continued to deceive herself and humiliate herself by being kind to him. When the pain accumulated to the point where she could destroy herself, she would become the superfluous third party in his world, and no matter how sad or upset she was, he would not give her a shred of pity or sympathy.