Chapter 48 Confessing Your Guilt: Can You Be a Little Gentler Towards Me?
"What if I really cried? Would you stay now?"
The voice had a pleading tone, and it wasn't pleasant to hear.
Zhou Jinqin suddenly stopped moving. She withdrew her right leg, then raised her hand to close the door from the inside, and stood still inside the room, demonstrating her attitude through her actions.
Soon, a not-so-warm hug came from behind, not very strong, even somewhat restrained, as if hugging some fragile, rare treasure.
Zhou Jinqin raised her hand to rub the head that was resting on her shoulder and neck, and asked in a low voice with red eyes, "Then why didn't you come to find me?"
Her voice trailed off, becoming almost inaudible: "I don't remember you being this passive..."
It seems that the labels attached to Liang Minghe are proactive, clear in his likes and dislikes, and unreserved in his emotions, yet he doesn't use these traits to treat her now.
Liang Minghe's voice was muffled, and his breath was heavy: "I'm afraid you don't want to see me."
“It’s not that I don’t want to see you.” Zhou Jinqin said haltingly, “Actually, I was very happy when you came to pick me up yesterday…”
This meant he no longer cared about her meddling in his relationship with Liang Zongqiang, which should have been a good thing. But as if one problem was about to be solved, another arose, and new issues followed one after another, catching the two of them off guard.
Therefore, even if the fire is about to die down and only insignificant sparks remain, we cannot relax easily, because as long as there is dry flammable material scattered around, the slightest breeze or movement is enough to reignite a raging fire.
The woman in my arms seemed to be sobbing; I could occasionally hear her pitiful sniffling.
Liang Ming's heart skipped a beat. He quickly turned the person in his arms so that they were facing each other and could see the emotions on their faces clearly.
Sure enough, the woman's shallow eyes welled up with tiny tears, clinging to her eyelashes, making her already pitiful face look even more endearing.
Liang Minghe cupped her face in his hands, gently wiping her eyes with his fingertips, and asked in a hoarse, pitying voice, "Have you been wronged?"
“Hmm.” Zhou Jinqin lowered her eyelashes and her lips curved slightly downward. “You don’t trust me, you won’t listen to my explanation, and you even went on a drunken rampage. I’m very sad.”
"Is there anything else?" Liang Minghe gently touched her slightly puffed-out cheeks and asked her softly.
"What?" Zhou Jinqin looked up at him, her face blank.
"Can you count all my crimes?" Liang Minghe pressed his nose against hers, a faint smile playing on his lips.
Zhou Jinqin was speechless for a moment. She was surprised to find that she could easily act coquettishly and shed tears now, which was completely different from her former self.
Zhou Jinqin hesitated, her eyes wide open, and finally managed to squeeze out only one sentence: "There is no x."
"Okay." Liang Minghe nodded. "I plead guilty to the above."
“I’m sorry,” he said earnestly. “I know exactly what kind of person you are, but I was wrong to be suspicious of you because of my petty and narrow-minded nature as a man.”
“I know you wouldn’t mess around with him, but I lost my temper and didn’t listen to explanations, which seems to be a problem of mine. You should be able to see this clearly in my relationship with Liang Zongqiang. He always says he has his reasons, but I never listen. Of course, I don’t think it’s a flaw when I treat him like that, because he really deserves it, but I absolutely cannot treat you like that. It was my fault, and I will change.”
"As for my drunken outburst, I was actually quite clear-headed at the time. I just got irritable because I thought you smelled like that man, so I can't blame it entirely on the alcohol. But I will quit drinking no matter what, and I hope you can keep an eye on me."
He listed his crimes one by one, and finally asked her if she could forgive him.
Zhou Jinqin leaned closer to his chest, pressing her ear against his heartbeat to listen, and whispered, "Liang Minghe, do you think you understand me?"
Liang Minghe thought about it carefully, then patted her head and said affirmatively, "Perhaps we haven't known each other for very long, but I feel that I know you quite well."
He pulled her palm to his heart and placed it above his heart: "I think you can't judge a person by time, but by your heart."
"Then I'll tell you now, I've never blamed you at all, do you believe me?" Zhou Jinqin looked up at him, her eyes, still moist with tears, conveying composure and determination.
Liang Minghe smiled, his eyes crinkling: "Of course I believe you, it's my honor."
Zhou Jinqin said in a muffled voice, "Besides, I don't think you should hold a grudge against Jia Yang..."
She recounted the whole story in detail.
It was around the summer before her freshman year was ending. Zhou Jinqin was still taking classes at Campus A. Because she had joined a project early on, her free time was often taken up, so she always went to the cafeteria very late. During that time, she often saw a very thin boy who would regularly get a plate of vegetables and a large bowl of rice from the affordable window. The cafeteria lady felt sorry for him and would occasionally sneak some meat under his rice when the supervisor wasn't around. She would often wipe away tears, feeling sorry for the poor boy.
Students in the eight-year program take non-medical basic courses at Campus A in their first year, and are assigned to the medical school at Campus B in their second year to formally begin their medical courses. The meal cards for the two campuses are not interchangeable. Zhou Jinqin was often busy with her studies at that time and often missed meals. Although she didn't have much money left, there were still two or three hundred yuan left in the money that Lü Jianying had put into her meal card. Instead of going to the window to return the card and get a refund, she handed the meal card to the lady at the discount window and asked her to deduct the meat expense from her card, so that she wouldn't have to worry about avoiding her superiors.
It's likely that her aunt didn't keep the secret, or perhaps Jia Yang was just naturally meticulous. In any case, the meal card ended up in the other party's hands, which led to what happened last night.
Liang Minghe remained noncommittal about this, not because he lacked compassion due to his own lack of experience of hardship. He deeply sympathized with Jia Yang's plight and applauded his efforts to overcome adversity, but he did not believe that this was a legitimate reason for Jia Yang's innocent feelings for Zhou Jinqin.
Frankly speaking, this added reason only made him feel that Jia Yang's mind was not at peace.
Put yourself in their shoes. When you encounter someone who selflessly helps you during your most difficult time, it's hard not to have some thoughts. Gratitude, gratitude, and affection follow closely behind gratitude.
Just like the way Liao Zhengqing looked at Ziqing, Liang Minghe was convinced that he had also caught that same emotion in Jia Yang's eyes.
Besides, that's Zhou Jinqin; falling in love with her would be an easy thing for him.
Liang Minghe did not offer any opinions, but simply listened patiently.
Zhou Jinqin poked his cheek and asked, "Are you still jealous?"
“Yes.” Liang Minghe admitted, “You know, love doesn’t rely on money, looks, time or other trivial things to win. He has qualities that I don’t have, so it’s normal for me to see him as a rival in love.”
“They might not even see you as a rival in love.” Zhou Jinqin blushed at his straightforward expression of affection. She turned her face away awkwardly and said, “Besides, the only one I like is, cough cough… you.”
Liang Minghe suddenly smiled and said, "Well, next time you can just say the last sentence."
"You're such a lemon!" Zhou Jinqin muttered, blushing, then couldn't help but ask, "So you hope I won't have to associate with him at all in the future?"
"No, I'm not that petty." Liang Minghe shook his head. "It's your freedom to date whoever you want."
His eyes were bright as he looked at her, and he tilted his head and winked at her, clearly teasing her maliciously: "Besides, I know you don't love him, you only love me, and that's enough."
Seeing that Zhou Jinqin was about to be burned through, he smiled and stopped joking.
He pulled up a chair and sat down, then patted his thigh to indicate that Zhou Jinqin should sit sideways on his lap: "Alright, let's not talk about him anymore. I don't want our time together to always revolve around irrelevant people."
“Okay, let’s not talk about him.” Zhou Jinqin wiped her burning face, composed herself, and spoke again, “Now it’s my turn to apologize to you.”
She said solemnly, "I shouldn't have meddled. Knowing that you and your father don't get along, I still interfered without knowing anything about it. I was wrong to think that way. I'm sorry."
Seeing that her tears, which she had just stopped, were about to well up again, Liang Minghe hugged her and shook her like he was comforting a child: "After we get married, my affairs become your affairs, so this is not meddling. It just shows that you care about me."
He kissed her wet eyes: "You don't need to apologize. Thinking about it later, it should be considered my fault. I didn't handle the family conflict well and dragged you into it. In the end, it was my fault."
Zhou Jinqin disagreed. She always felt that Liang Minghe handled family relationships very well. For example, knowing that she didn't want to communicate too much with her parents, he didn't interfere much, and he remained calm and composed even when her mother scolded him for no reason. He even secretly mediated between his own parents, so Zhou Jinqin hadn't been pressured by her maternal grandparents to meet with either set of parents even after being married for so long. She wondered how much pressure he had withstood.
Afraid that she would cry, Liang Minghe teased her, saying, "Okay, stop crying. Do you want to go to work tomorrow with swollen, red eyes? People will think I've bullied you."
Zhou Jinqin deliberately rubbed her head against his clothes, wiping her tears all over them. She muttered in a low voice, "Hmph, you've already bullied me..."
The neckline of her summer pajamas was low, exposing her shoulders, neck, and chest. Zhou Jinqin's once smooth skin was now covered with horrifying hickeys.
Liang Minghe gently kissed the marks and asked guiltily, "Does it hurt?"
Zhou Jinqin shook her head, afraid that he would think she was lying to comfort him, and then raised her head and offered her lips to him.
Their lips touched lightly, and she said, "I didn't reject you yesterday because it hurt, but because my heart was aching. But now that we've talked things out, I won't resist you anymore."
Liang Minghe lifted her up by her hips and adjusted her so that she was straddling his lap facing forward.
He pressed his forehead against hers and whispered guiltily, "I'm sorry I was so unreasonable last night, making you hate me."
The man's dark circles under his eyes overshadowed his natural rosy complexion, suggesting he probably didn't sleep well last night.
Zhou Jinqin took the initiative to wrap her arms around his neck and offered her lips to him again. This time, the kiss was no longer superficial, but went deeper.
The kiss, completely under Zhou Jinqin's control, was gentle. When she pulled away, her breathing was still even, but her eyes were already glazed over, and her voice was indistinct: "I don't hate you. I want to do it with you."
"But..." her voice was soft and gentle, as if shrouded in a pink mist, "Could you be a little gentler with me?"
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Author's Note: Work will be much lighter starting next week, and I plan to start paying for chapters from chapter 15 on Sunday. Thank you all for your support! [Sprinkling flowers]
To summarize the locked chapters:
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Legs on Shoulders, the Battle of Red Cliffs (Indirect)
Chapter 42: Xiaoqin took the initiative to pull Xiaoming under her clothes to touch the bear (directly), and Xiaoming, in a moment of passion, kissed it, possibly biting it (indirectly).
Chapter 47: Knee pressed between legs (indirectly)
[Directly it refers to something without any obstruction; indirectly it refers to something being hindered by thin clothing.]
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