Chapter Ninety Twisted Love

Lin Yu dragged his weary feet and pushed open Jiang Chuan's door, kicking off his shoes and stepping barefoot onto the cold floor tiles. The living room was eerily quiet, with only the low hum of the refrigerator.

She recalled several missed calls from Jiang Chuan earlier, but because she missed them, she didn't know when he would be back.

Seeing that the living room lights were off, Lin Yu didn't think much of it, opened the refrigerator, took out a bottle of water, unscrewed it, and took a swig. The ice water slid down his throat, trying to extinguish the restlessness in his chest caused by the alcohol.

As I turned around, a glimpse of the sofa startled me so much that I almost knocked over my water bottle.

In the dim light, Jiang Chuan sat there motionless. His head was tilted back slightly, the back of his neck resting against the back of the sofa, his arms casually draped at his sides, and his legs spread apart.

On the coffee table sat the birthday cake he had bought on his way back. Moonlight streamed in through the open curtains, and the neon lights of the Huangpu River, shimmering and shifting, flowed and shattered outside the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him.

He was like a wild beast lurking in the shadows, his dark, bright eyes regaining the hunter's gaze he had when they first met.

From the moment Lin Yu pushed open the door, he stared at her calmly, without making a sound, poised to strike, his composure terrifying.

Time seemed to flow back to their first night together; the scene was similar, but the atmosphere was completely different.

Lin Yu suddenly felt that Jiang Chuan was like a beautifully bound book, stunning at first glance, but if you rashly flipped through it, you would only be scratched by the sharp pages.

"You startled me," she said, feigning composure, putting down the water in her hand and leaning against the bar, refusing to come any closer.

"Where did you go?" Jiang Chuan asked in a low voice, his expression devoid of emotion.

"I had dinner with some friends," Lin Yu said, avoiding the main point. "My phone was off."

Jiang Chuan let out a cold laugh through his nose. "Friend?" His tone was unusually aggressive. The scene he had witnessed at the entrance of the residential area was now flashing repeatedly in his mind.

As soon as the plane landed, he couldn't wait to call Lin Yu. After two unanswered calls, the phone went straight to being switched off.

He first checked the home security camera footage, which showed nothing. He then drove to her apartment, only to find it empty.

A bad feeling crept into his heart until he drove wearily back to his neighborhood and saw Lin Yu jumping off a motorcycle at the entrance. The person sitting on the motorcycle was the man from the photo.

Thinking of their intimate actions and the provocative look in Chen Guang's eyes, he suddenly remembered what Secretary Bai had stammered to him a few days ago, saying that she had seen Lin Yu entering and leaving a hotel with a strange man.

What was his reaction back then? He didn't even lift an eyelid, and he severely criticized her, saying she had misjudged. But now it seems that might not be the case.

It felt like a block of ice was pressing on my chest, the chill spreading through my veins to every part of my body. Suddenly, I realized that all my tossing and turning, my anxieties these past few days, were nothing but a self-inflicted joke.

He carefully tried to guess her emotions and repeatedly considered every word she said, but in the end, he was trying to protect the feelings of a woman whose heart was no longer with him.

His voice was unusually cold, carrying the chill of the dead of winter. "Friend or ex-lover?"

The living room lights were off, with only a faint light coming in from the window, illuminating the lone cake box on the coffee table—it was from her favorite house.

Now, it lies quietly in the shadows like an ironic decoration, inexplicably making people feel suffocated.

Lin Yu's heart clenched, his scalp tingled, his throat tightened, his mind went blank, and his fingertips dug into his palms.

She opened her mouth, but only felt a bitter taste on her tongue. She didn't know if Jiang Chuan was just guessing or if he had really seen something. Even though she hadn't done anything, she felt inexplicably guilty and nervous.

What are you saying?

Jiang Chuan chuckled softly, his gaze slowly moving downwards until it finally settled on her unconsciously clenched fingers.

“Bad deeds always leave traces, Banban!” he called out gently, but his eyes were clear, devoid of any affection or tenderness.

These words were like a knife tip piercing Lin Yu's taut nerves, and his grievances and anger exploded.

What right does he have to treat her like a judge? He was the one who crossed the line first, and he was also the one who betrayed her first.

"What right do you have to talk to me like that?" She looked up at him, her voice trembling with a sharp edge. "We're both equally guilty; who's more innocent than the other?"

Lin Yu grabbed a water bottle and slammed it heavily on the bar, his eyes red-rimmed, but his voice was unusually sharp. "You act all lovey-dovey every day, but secretly you're transferring money to your ex-girlfriend. What kind of person are you?"

She became increasingly agitated as she spoke, her pent-up anger finally erupting, her fighting spirit soaring to unprecedented heights. "She wants to get back together with you, doesn't she? Go ahead! Take your arrogant faces and get out of my life, damn it."

For the first time, Lin Yu swore in front of Jiang Chuan, venting all the unhappiness that had been weighing on his mind for days. But the expected relief did not come; instead, he felt endless emptiness and deep sorrow.

Jiang Chuan finally rose from the darkness and walked towards her step by step. With each step he took, Lin Yu's aura inexplicably weakened, until she saw him standing before her with extreme repression.

With her back pressed against the cold marble, Lin Yu had nowhere to retreat, watching as Jiang Chuan pressed her toes against his shiny leather shoes.

She then realized that he hadn't even changed his shoes. He had been sitting in the dark, waiting for her for who knows how long.

Jiang Chuan's burning hot hands gripped Lin Yu's waist tightly. He leaned closer and sniffed her neck. "Have you been drinking?" Lin Yu stubbornly turned her face away, her eyelashes trembling uncontrollably.

They were so close, exchanging breaths with each other, yet she refused to look at him, fearing that if she met his eyes, she would waver and fall for him.

Lin Yu tilted his head, listening to his question, word by word: "Who told you that?"

"Nobody!" Her voice trembled, and her nails dug into her palms once again.

Jiang Chuan loosened his grip, raised his hand to pinch Lin Yu's chin, forcing her to look directly at him. "Why didn't you ask me?"

The question was asked in a way that could almost be described as gentle, yet it instantly brought tears to Lin Yu's eyes.

He didn't care about the source of the information, nor about her suspicions; he was only fixated on the simplest question: why didn't Lin Yu come to find him immediately?

He felt he had done enough, but perhaps he hadn't given it his all. He looked at Lin Yu with longing, hoping to find the answer in her eyes. What else did he need to do to gain her complete trust?

"What do you want me to ask you?" Lin Yu looked up, two lines of clear tears sliding down her cheeks and into her earlobes.

"The ex-girlfriend is fake? The money transfer is fake? The chat history is fake? Or is her attempt to reconcile fake?" Every word was like shards of glass, piercing Lin Yu and drawing blood.

Why don't you ask me what I think?

Lin Yu's words were all true, but they were difficult to explain in a few words. Jiang Chuan's brows furrowed tightly, and he swallowed hard before finally managing to utter, "Am I a fickle person in your heart?"

"Think what you want, whoever you are." Lin Yu forced a bitter smile. "I can't figure it out, and I don't want to!"

"Then tell me, are you doing this to rekindle old feelings, or to get revenge on me?"

If it's the latter, everything will become very simple. But if she has someone else in her heart, Jiang Chuan dares not think about it; just imagining it causes him immense pain.

For the first time, Jiang Chuan felt such disgust for his own reviving senses. He had come to believe that Lin Yu was his lover, so in a sense, he had handed her the power to abuse him.

Only then did he realize how terrified he was of losing her.

But to Lin Yu, this answer sounded like an admission of guilt and a counterattack; every word was utterly repulsive.

Her heart was like a leaky house, cleaved open by Jiang Chuan's words, from which a hollow hunger, as if abandoned by the whole world, welled up.

She suddenly realized that she seemed unable to get anything from anyone, such as love, trust, or warmth.

“You don’t trust me either, so…” She paused, forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace. “We have nothing to talk about.”

Jiang Chuan's arms tightened suddenly. "Am I not good enough to you?" he asked, seemingly unwilling to end the conversation so abruptly. "After all this time, even a stone would have warmed up by now."

He couldn't understand how, just a few weeks ago, the two of them were still immersed in the sweetness of their relationship, and how they could turn around and become so tense and confrontational.

Lin Yu wiped her face hard with the back of her hand, but more and more tears welled up, blurring her vision. "You're good to me?"

She suddenly struggled, her fist slamming into Jiang Chuan's chest. "Jiang Chuan, you just can't accept things getting out of control, and you can't stand anything not being done perfectly."

"Ask yourself honestly, do you really like me? Who can fall in love with someone so quickly?" Bai Qianhe in the red dress appeared before his eyes again, and Lin Yu gradually lost control, shouting at Jiang Chuan without regard for anything else.

"You can't even taste anything, how do you know what love is? Do you even know how to love someone?"

"I don't understand, and I'm not as free and at ease as you are." Jiang Chuan said coldly, his fingers gripping Lin Yu's arm trembling slightly.

The last sentence struck them like a slap in the face. Lin Yu suddenly laughed, his laughter tinged with sobs. "I must be crazy to agree to be with you, to give you the chance to play with me like this."

Jiang Chuan pursed his lips, letting Lin Yu's fists rain down on him, his nails scratching the skin on the side of his neck, leaving a shallow mark.

In the struggle, Chen Guang's painting slipped out of his pocket and gently landed on Jiang Chuan's instep. Lin Yu froze for a moment, instinctively trying to bend down, but Jiang Chuan beat him to it.

He slowly untied the rubber band, unfolded the drawing paper, and calmly examined it. A chilling smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Who's really the one being played?"

Too many misunderstandings existed between the two. Lin Yu was speechless, wanting to explain but feeling it was pointless.

She just looked at him with red eyes, watching him pick up the painting with two fingers and casually toss it on the ground like he was throwing away something dirty.

"Lin Yu".

Jiang Chuan's gaze was as deep as a still pool, as if he wanted to see through all her thoughts.

"I am not a transitional phase connecting the past and the future for you."

His eyes turned icy cold as he reached out and grabbed her chin.

"It's not like I can't live without you either."

Deep down, he probably believed that Lin Yu's hysteria was just an excuse to rekindle their old flame, and that her ultimate goal was to leave him.

But his proud pride wouldn't allow him to admit it. This suddenly reminded him of his father, and a sense of absurdity arose in his heart, as if the son was paying for the father's debts.

The door to communication between the two slowly closed, locked shut with an unbreakable lock.

Perhaps at this moment, they can only vent their pain in a more direct way, using their bodies to more honestly express their distorted love.