"Chen Hede? What are you doing here?"
Xu Zhuohua frowned. Could it be that Xinghua had told him whereabouts?
Chen Hede's lips curved into a casual smile, but his eyes were filled with dark and unfathomable emotions: "I'm not from Dongzhou, and I don't know any other people from Dongzhou, so naturally I'm here to find you."
As the words fell, a smile, like the cracks in ice, spread across his cold face with subtle ripples.
"Looking for me?" She pointed at herself incredulously. "You could have just written a letter or sent a tip. There was no need to come all this way."
Upon hearing this, Chen Hede suddenly threw his head back and laughed. He lowered his eyes and stared at Xu Zhuohua's tense shoulders, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed the words he hadn't finished: "For you, it's very necessary."
Xu Zhuohua felt a chill run down her spine, but forced herself to remain calm and asked, "Is it something very important?"
The wind blew through the corridor, lifting the hem of Chen Hede's clothes. He pursed his lips, his movements slow and almost reverent. The unrestrained smile from before had vanished, replaced by a kind of obsessive seriousness.
He narrowed his phoenix eyes slightly, his eyelashes casting long, thin shadows beneath them, as if weighing the weight of each word. "Did you know that Cheng Muyun married Luo Yunqiao?"
Xu Zhuohua's tense shoulders suddenly relaxed, and a gentle breeze carrying the scent of kapok flowers brushed past her ear, dispelling the last trace of vigilance in her eyes.
Perhaps it was the undisguised concern in Chen Hede's eyes that was too intense, but the corners of her lips unconsciously curved upwards, and that smile was even thinner than a kapok petal: "I know, with Miss Luo, Cheng Muyun will no longer be targeted by the Si family, killing two birds with one stone."
Chen Hede's thick, dark eyebrows instantly furrowed into a tight knot.
He looked at Xu Zhuohua's feigned ease, his throat feeling like it was choked by an unopened kapok bud, "But now, the one whose reputation is ruined is you."
Xu Zhuohua clasped his hands together, his knuckles turning white from the force, but he still said in a light tone, "It doesn't matter, my reputation wasn't very good to begin with."
Pretending to be indifferent is a sign that she truly cares; she cares terribly.
Chen Hede's hand, which was hanging by his side, suddenly clenched into a fist, and his knuckles turned bluish-white from the force.
His long eyelashes trembled, casting fine shadows that concealed the turbulent emotions surging in his eyes. "You say you're a jinx, a weapon smuggler, a menace, a villain, and unchaste—do you care about any of that?"
Xu Zhuohua frowned and thought for a moment, then pouted, "I accept that I'm a jinx to my husbands and that I smuggle weapons, but where did these rumors about Kuiba come from? Am I not pretty?"
Seeing a hint of a smile on Chen Hede's face, Xu Zhuohua continued, "Not a virtuous wife? If you say I don't stay at home to be a wife and mother, then I accept it; I'm not that kind of person."
Chen Hede's smile deepened, and the corners of his eyes curved like crescent moons. "It seems you really don't care."
Xu Zhuohua smiled. "You made a special trip just for this?"
Chen Hede shook his head. "No, it's about Cheng Muyun. A random killing organization appeared in Xinhai City, and Cheng Muyun was ordered to suppress it, but an accident happened."
Before Chen Hede finished speaking, Xu Zhuohua felt a chill run from his tailbone up to the back of his neck, as if his internal organs were being gripped tightly by an invisible giant hand and then violently torn apart.
She staggered forward, her fingertips trembling as she gripped Chen Hede's wrist tightly, oblivious to the sharp pain in her wrist bones.
Her face, as pale as paper, had lost all color, and her pupils contracted sharply, as if she had fallen into a bottomless, icy pool.
"What accident? What...did you say?" Her voice was broken and incoherent, her nails digging deeply into Chen Hede's flesh, tears welling in her eyes but held back by extreme fear. Her throat tightened so much she could barely breathe, and she could only mechanically repeat, "Is he dead?"
Chen Hede was in pain from her grip, but he didn't bother to pull his hand away. Seeing Xu Zhuohua's swaying appearance, he hurriedly supported her limp body. He could feel her uncontrollable trembling through the thin fabric of her clothes.
“No…” he sighed softly, his voice extremely low, afraid of upsetting her further, “It’s just that his methods of suppression were too extreme, which aroused public anger. Now all sides are putting pressure on him, and the situation is tricky, but he is still safe.”
He gently patted her back, trying to comfort her, but his gaze swept over the top of her head and landed on the fiery red kapok tree, his eyes churning with complex emotions.
Xu Zhuohua's tense body suddenly relaxed, her knees buckled and she almost collapsed to the ground, barely managing to stay upright only with Chen Hede's support.
She was panting heavily, tears welling up in her eyes, but with a smile of relief: "You were breathing so hard when you spoke, it scared me to death!"
But before her smile could fully bloom, she suddenly froze.
Cheng Muyun's joy at being safe receded like the tide, and the sharp blade of reality pressed against his heart again—even if he married Luo Yunqiao, the crisis that was bound to come would still arrive as scheduled.
The smile on his lips slowly faded, and the light in his eyes was swallowed by gloom. His heart, which had been pounding wildly just moments before, now plunged into an unfathomable abyss, and the chill spread through his veins to his entire body.
Chen Hede's Adam's apple bobbed, and his hand, hanging by his side, unconsciously curled up as he watched the tear stains remaining on Xu Zhuohua's face gradually freeze.
His voice was hoarse, as if it were wrapped in sandpaper: "There's one more thing. Because of Cheng Muyun's violent suppression, you were also framed. People outside are saying that you two are a devilish couple."
The moment the words left her lips, Xu Zhuohua's pupils contracted sharply, and her tear-stained eyelashes trembled violently.
She opened her mouth in astonishment, a broken, gasping sound escaping her throat: "What the hell?"
The moss in the cracks of the bluestone slabs gleamed coldly in the twilight. She suddenly felt a chill on the back of her neck, as if countless eyes were peering through the fog of gossip, showering her with malice.
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