Chapter 131 I'm Willing
Huo Yanzhi almost thought he was hallucinating.
She said no.
She said she didn't want to call off the engagement.
How could this be...?
Shouldn't she loathe him, fear him, and flee from this complete fraud like the plague?
"You..." Huo Yanzhi's lips trembled, and he couldn't finish a single word.
Ruan Yao stepped forward and took another step closer.
“I saw that secret room.”
Huo Yanzhi's body jolted violently.
"My photos are all over the walls, and those little things I'd forgotten about are kept in the safe..."
With each word Ruan Yao spoke, Huo Yanzhi's face grew paler.
Those were the deepest, darkest, and most shameful secrets he kept hidden in his heart.
It is evidence of his obsessive love.
Now, she has laid bare everything, piece by piece, in such a bloody manner.
She held the pink umbrella up to Huo Yanzhi.
“This,” Ruan Yao burst into tears, her voice choked with sobs, “this umbrella, do you… remember it?”
The moment that pink bunny umbrella appeared in my field of vision without warning.
Huo Yanzhi felt as if all the blood in his body had frozen at that moment.
Time and space seemed to have been torn apart by this small, tattered umbrella.
More than a decade ago, in the southern part of the city, on a day of torrential rain.
Beneath the muddy slide, a boy covered in injuries and looking utterly disheveled, stood a little girl in a pink princess dress who seemed to have stepped out of a fairy tale.
That was the only light in his life.
It was also the most humble and unbearable starting point that he had hidden for two lifetimes, preferring to keep it to himself rather than let her know.
How could he not remember?
That was everything to him.
Huo Yanzhi stared intently at the umbrella, his eyes instantly turning frighteningly red.
He thought he had hidden it well.
He thought he could keep this secret forever.
“You know…” he muttered to himself, his voice filled with utter despair.
Large tears rolled down Ruan Yao's face, mingling with the rain and blurring her vision. "Huo Yanzhi, do you think that when I saw those things, I would think you're a pervert, a madman, right?"
"You think I'd be so scared that I'd turn around and run away, never wanting to see you again, right?"
Do you think that the reason I went to such lengths to pursue you, treated you well, and tolerated everything about you was just out of guilt and a desire to make amends?
"Huo Yanzhi, do you never believe that I could really fall in love with you?"
Huo Yanzhi gritted his teeth and squeezed out broken syllables from his throat.
"Isn't that... the case?"
"Of course not!" Ruan Yao's voice was filled with pent-up grievances and heartache.
"I'm sorry, Huo Yanzhi, I'm the one who should apologize the most."
“In my past life, you were too good to me, so good that I felt like a sinner.”
"My greatest wish after being reborn is to make sure you live a good life. I don't want to see you locked up in that cold place again, and I don't want to see you end everything that way again."
Her voice began to choke, trembling slightly.
"But you know what? I've always had a regret."
“Every time we kiss, every time we hug, every time you whisper sweet nothings to me, I can’t help but think… I think of Huo Yanzhi from my past life.”
"That Huo Yanzhi, whom I personally pushed into hell, never received an apology or an 'I love you' from me until his death."
"The happier I am, the more pitiful he is."
"But he was so pitiful, and I will never have the chance to make it up to him."
"This thought is like a thorn stuck in my heart. The happier I am, the deeper it goes. I can't enjoy all of this with a clear conscience because I can't get that poor Huo Yanzhi out of my mind."
"I keep thinking, if only he could come back, if only he could know how I feel..."
Huo Yanzhi's heart was clenched by her words.
He never knew that she thought that way.
"So, in the warehouse, when you said 'strawberry candy' to comfort me, I was as shocked as I was relieved."
Ruan Yao's tears finally rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably.
She looked at him as if she wanted to etch him into her soul.
"I'm so glad that God finally did one thing right."
"He brought you back too."
“Huo Yanzhi,” she looked up at him, her eyes brimming with tears, “I finally have the chance to say to you… I’m sorry.”
"And... I love you."
The string that had been taut in Huo Yanzhi's mind for so long snapped completely at this moment.
He turned around slowly, almost sluggishly.
In the faint light of dawn, he saw the girl's tear-streaked face. Her eyes, which were always clear and bright, were now filled with heartbreaking pain and unbelievable...deep affection.
There was no disgust, no fear, no negative emotion whatsoever that he had anticipated.
He thought he would be judged, disgusted, and abandoned.
But what he received was her confession, which was a lifetime overdue.
"What did you say?"
His voice was so dry it was almost inaudible, and every word he spoke trembled.
Just then, on the distant horizon, a brilliant golden ray of light broke free from the clouds and burst forth.
A blinding golden light pierced through the last darkness before dawn.
Looking at his face, which was filled with shock and disbelief, Ruan Yao suddenly burst into laughter through her tears.
She loosened her grip on his sleeve and took something out of her bag.
A delicate little wooden box.
Open.
The two roughly handcrafted rings, strung together from tiny white seashells, lay quietly inside, bathed in the first rays of sunlight, gleaming with a warm luster.
"Do you still recognize it? The clown said that couples who wear it will receive the blessing of the sea god and never be separated."
Huo Yanzhi's pupils suddenly contracted.
She picked up one of them, facing the rising sun.
Under Huo Yanzhi's completely stunned gaze, Ruan Yao raised her tear-streaked face, took his cold hand, and a smile bloomed on her lips, more radiant than the sunrise behind her.
"Mr. Huo, let me reintroduce myself."
“My name is Ruan Yao. Whether in my past life or this life, I have only ever loved one man named Huo Yanzhi.”
She solemnly and slowly slipped the seashell ring onto his ring finger.
"So, Mr. Huo, who has been given a new lease on life, are you willing to cast aside all your anxieties, without lies, without tests, and without reservation, to have a completely new beginning with me?"
"Would you...marry me again?"
The sun had completely risen above the sea.
Golden light shone down on them without reservation.
Huo Yanzhi stood there, staring motionlessly at the girl in front of him.
Watching her hold up that rough seashell ring, it was as if she were offering up the most precious treasure in the world.
She stood there, bathed in the bright morning light, her eyes crinkling with a radiant smile, offering him her whole heart without reservation.
More than a decade ago, she gave him a piece of candy and an umbrella, which saved his life.
More than a decade later, it was she who once again pulled him out of the abyss of self-loathing.
His heart, which had been dormant for too long, began to pound wildly and violently at this moment, as if it were about to burst out of his chest.
A surge of scalding heat rushed from my heart to every part of my body, finally reaching my eyes.
His light.
His god.
Once again, it illuminated his entire dark world.
The man, bathed in golden light, slowly bent down.
He reached out his trembling arms and pulled his girl into a tight, tight embrace.
Scalding tears streamed down her face.
"I do."
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