Chapter 86
Chapter 86
Meng Yuan squatted down, burying her face in her arms: "Believing in you isn't my problem, it's yours. Do you think you can do it?"
Her eyes, as bright as ever, revealed a way of always leaving the decision-making power to him, rather than to herself. He could decide what he wanted, what he desired.
Shang Mang had thought about this question many times, trying to figure out exactly what he wanted.
Shang Mang tilted his head back, keeping his distance from her eyes, so he wouldn't see how he looked in her eyes.
"Whether you can do it or not is not important at all." Shang Mang played with the chain fastened to his wrist, his vertical eyelashes drooping, fanning himself.
Meng Yuan stood up: "I'll bring you food tomorrow."
Shang Mang chuckled and said, "Bring me food?"
Meng Yuan walked out, and just as she closed the door, she suddenly pushed it open again and came back in, lighting the oil lamp in the room. Shang Mang saw this and felt a pang of pain in his heart.
Meng Yuan stepped out the door, but the light inside the room did not dim.
The oil lamp burned, and Shang Mang walked to it, gently blowing on it. The flame flickered. A light shone in his eyes, and he brought his nose closer to the flame, but no matter how close he got, he couldn't feel any heat. Shang Mang then held his hand over the lamp.
The firelight flickered in her eyes. Meng Yuan lay on the table, her eyes opening and closing, but she couldn't fall asleep. She didn't know when it started, but every night she could only fall asleep with her head on the table. It seemed to have started after the ghost appeared in Xinghua Village. She never thought she was afraid; after all, she had lived two lives and was over forty years old combined.
Only now does she realize that she has been afraid every single moment since she came into this world. But fear can't solve anything; only by telling herself that none of this is a big deal can she move forward.
Meng Yuan couldn't sleep at all. She sat up, stretched her arms, moved around a few times, and then lay back down on the table. The flame flickered in her eyes, her eyelids drooped heavily, and darkness enveloped her.
A bright spot appears in the dim light, and sunlight shines on the fluttering white gauze. As it sways in the wind, the hand holding the gauze exerts its strength.
"I should have thrown you out back then." Zhou Xiuqi held one end of the white gauze, tightening and then loosening it.
"Let go." A pair of hands reached out, and Zhou Xiuqi pulled his hands away. The white veil was pulled out of someone's hands and floated away.
Zhou Xiuqi frowned slightly and looked at the person in front of him. The person looked back at him and said, "Isn't this what you've always wanted to do?"
Zhou Xiuqi asked, "What are you doing here?"
Shou Changxing turned to look at the sky: "Every day I watch the sunrise from here."
Zhou Xiuqi followed his gaze to the rising sun, then turned her head away: "Why?"
Shou Changxing leaned against the railing and said, "The sun rises and sets, the moon rises and sets; no one can stop it."
Zhou Xiuqi mimicked him, raising one hand to touch the railing: "No one wants to stop us."
Shou Changxing turned around, a smile playing on his usually dull eyes: "Really?"
Zhou Xiuqi remained silent, while Shou Changxing muttered to himself, "But in my opinion, that's not the case. There are always people who walk on the streets at night with their lights on, and there are always people who stay indoors during the day."
Zhou Xiuqi shrugged his eyebrows: "Why should you judge other people's affairs?"
Shou Changxing has a low-set eye, flat eyebrows and mouth, and an ordinary, unchanging appearance.
Zhou Xiuqi couldn't discern the man's cunning: "Why have you been following us?"
Shou Changxing saw him scrutinizing him and said, "It's not you, it's only Meng Yuan."
The implication was clear, and Zhou Xiuqi slightly raised her eyes: "She has someone she likes."
"What?" Shou Changxing didn't react. Zhou Xiuqi didn't say anything and brushed past him, leaving Shou Changxing standing there trying to figure out what he meant. He immediately blushed and said, "I...I didn't mean that!"
His explanation went unheard. Touching his earlobe, he muttered to himself, "What kind of people are they? They're all the same kind of people."
Zhou Xiuqi walked forward, a corner of his clothes fluttering past as he turned the corner. He quietly followed, the owner of the food box focused intently on carrying it. Heading towards the side room, Meng Yuan touched the still-warm food box. Good food could soothe a bad mood; Shang Mang, tied up, must be in a bad mood. She'd give it to him to try. Reaching the door, Meng Yuan pushed it open, a dim, stuffy smell wafting out.
Shang Mang sat in the chair, one hand supporting his chin, his eyes closed, as if he were asleep.
Meng Yuan subconsciously slowed her steps and walked over slowly. The person on the chair let out a snort and opened their eyes.
Meng Yuan suddenly realized that he didn't know how to sleep at all. She slammed the food box down on the table: "Why are you pretending to be asleep when you don't need to?"
Shang Mang reveled in it: "Watching a fool walk on tiptoe."
She really wanted to punch him. But being a civilized person, she didn't argue with him. She took some food from the lunchbox, and Shang Mang's gaze fell on it: "Is all this necessary?"
Meng Yuan, holding her chopsticks, said, "There's no need. If you're not going to eat it, just let it get cold. Anyway, what I made wasn't very tasty."
Shang Mang paused slightly: "You cooked this?"
Meng Yuan slightly raised her chin: "Of course."
Shang Mang chuckled: "It will poison ghosts."
Meng Yuan reached out and pinched his mouth shut: "I'll strangle you to death first."
A breeze blew in from outside, and Meng Yuan's hair brushed against Shang Mang's cheek, subtly brushing it away. Meng Yuan released her hand and instead covered his mouth, staring only into his eyes: "Someone like you has such a pair of eyes that know how to smile."
Shang Mang feigned a smile.
"But you don't laugh."
Shang Mang's eyes narrowed slightly: "Your senior brother can laugh?"
Meng Yuan was puzzled. Why was Zhou Xiuqi being brought up all of a sudden? She said, "What does it have to do with my senior brother?"
Shang Mang took the chopsticks from her hand, poked around in the rice, picked up a piece of lotus root, and chewed it with a crunchy sound. Meng Yuan listened to him chew, forgetting her question, and asked, "Is it good?"
Shang Mang picked up a slice, about to say it was awful, when his eyes met hers, and her expectant look melted in his eyes. He couldn't bring himself to say anything discouraging, and forcefully put it in his mouth, biting down: "Delicious."
"Then you—" don't eat.
She swallowed the rest of her sentence, and only then did Meng Yuan realize that he wasn't being sarcastic this time, which made her heart skip a beat.
Shang Mang kept his eyes down, picking up pieces of food one by one and putting them into his mouth. It was impossible to tell how he felt about the taste, but he ate very attentively. Meng Yuan couldn't help but quiet down and admire the way he ate. His lips were thin, and he would bite them when he put the chopsticks in, leaving a white mark that quickly disappeared. He didn't smack his lips, didn't speak, and ate quietly.
Meng Yuanxin felt a pang of sadness for some reason. When she was little, she used to eat alone in the house, with no one to talk to her or light a lamp for her.
No matter how dull and boring the life is, anyone would go crazy in that situation.
He's not crazy, he just occasionally acts a bit sarcastic, Meng Yuan thought, as she sat in front of him watching him eat.
Shang Mang's hands were just the right size; the bones in his fingers protruded beautifully when he moved, and the veins stretched out gracefully. She carefully observed every inch of Shang Mang's skin. Her smile froze when she saw the chain on his wrist. The jingling of the chain reached her ears, and she suddenly remembered that Shang Mang used to like to adorn himself with all sorts of ornaments.
Countless quiet moments are disrupted by the clanging of these chains.
Her heart felt like it was being pricked by a fine needle once again. She took a deep breath: "Shang Mang."
Shang Mang looked up, and her eyes had changed their emotions. It was no longer expectation, but a faint sadness. She herself did not realize that her brows were slightly furrowed. Shang Mang reached out and flicked her eye.
Meng Yuan winced in pain, clutching her forehead: "What's wrong with you?"
Shang Mang said, "There are insects."
Meng Yuan didn't believe he was so kind as to help her get rid of the worms. She reached out and rubbed her forehead a few times to make sure there was no color.
Shang Mang suddenly said, "Let's go."
Meng Yuan got up and packed up the food box: "If you're bored, I can keep you company for a while."
Shang Mang leaned over and buried his face in the table: "Let's go."
Just like yesterday before she left, Meng Yuan lit the lamp and stepped out the door. The moment the door closed, Shang Mang slid off the stool and fell to the ground. Cold sweat poured down his back, and his chest ached terribly. He bit his lip hard, letting out a low groan. The ground was cold, but his heart was burning. It was excruciating. Shang Mang couldn't help but roll on the ground, tearing open his shirt and digging his hand into his chest.
Blood stained his hands, and his left eye gradually turned red, but he suppressed it again.
Shang Mang lay on the ground, black blood gushing from his chest and splattering onto the ground. He collapsed weakly.
Sand and gravel rolled on the ground. Zhou Xiuqi stood at the doorway. Meng Yuan asked, "Senior Brother, what are you doing here?"
Zhou Xiuqi asked, "Why do you want to marry him?"
Meng Yuan, holding the food box, asked, "Does it have to be original?" Zhou Xiuqi had asked this question several times since yesterday, and the answer was simple, like, "I like him." Meng Yuan couldn't bring herself to say it; she had never expressed herself so clearly to anyone before.
Zhou Xiuqi: "Marriage is not a game."
Meng Yuan said, "Perhaps he's a bit childish?"
Even Meng Yuan herself got goosebumps after saying that, and Zhou Xiuqi was no exception, showing an expression of incomprehension, but she truly thought so in her heart. Shang Mang was sometimes quite adorable. His unusual stubbornness, his fake smile, every flaw of his was a bit childish—adorable.
Zhou Xiuqi said, "If he fails, he will die."
Meng Yuan gripped the food box tightly. Zhou Xiuqi had said the same thing, and Shang Mang had said the same thing. It was hard not to have wild thoughts. She said, "That's his fate."
"Since you made your own choice, you have to pay the price yourself." After saying that, she left without looking at Zhou Xiuqi.
I felt a little angry; why did everyone think Shang Mang couldn't do it?
The words slipped out in anger, something she would never have done before. Meng Yuan walked forward blankly, like a child without her parents' protection. She would swallow her emotions, and over time she learned not to throw tantrums, cry, make a fuss, or whine.
Since arriving here, Meng Yuan has been walking on the edge of despair at every step, and breakdowns are commonplace. If it were before, she would have said what Zhou Xiuqi just said: "What if he didn't die? What if he actually did it?"
Zhou Xiuqi kept asking and asking, as if her choice was wrong.
She just said that this was his fate. Meng Yuan clearly wouldn't accept fate, and didn't believe that everyone's fate was predetermined.
When did her personality undergo such a dramatic change?
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