Sometimes, in the lonely nights, she would ponder what Love truly was.
Her shallow understanding of Love came entirely from her Mother’s lonely, obsessive, and poisonous Love toward her Father.
Back then, in her eyes, Love was something terrifying—it could destroy a person’s mind and turn someone wonderful into something pitiful.
Love was also something false, like the Father’s feigned affection for the Mother.
So many people in this world lived in such hypocrisy; she had no need to live so hypocritically.
She felt that she no longer needed Love, did not need to Love, and did not need to be Loved.
Then what exactly was the feeling she had toward Shen Yao?
From her initial disdain, to the sympathy one has for small animals, then to a vague trust, and finally to the point where seeing his heart-rending pain made her own heart ache like it had been cut by a knife.
It shouldn’t be Love, for she wouldn’t feel jealous seeing him go on a date with Cheng Orange, nor would she imagine spending the rest of her life with Shen Yao.
It was merely a sliver of goodwill, a hope that Shen Yao could live a good life.
That’s what she thought.
That day, she brought Shen Yao back to the Villa and took care of him with great attention.
It was her first time changing someone else’s clothes, her first time taking someone else’s temperature, her first time falling asleep from exhaustion by another’s bedside.
In a daze, she heard Shen Yao’s phone ring.
She remembered—it was the phone she had bought for Shen Yao.
The lock screen password was still her birthday.
Shen Yao hadn’t changed it—was it that he didn’t want to, or didn’t know how?
It didn’t matter anymore.
What mattered was, when she unlocked the phone with her own birthday, a genuine smile surfaced on her face.
That feeling was indescribable, like a lone boat tossed in a storm suddenly catching hold of a thin line moored to some distant pier—unsteady and on the verge of capsizing, yet still enough to bring warmth.
The caller ID read: Aunt.
She had looked into Shen Yao’s background—this person seemed to be Shen Yao’s current guardian.
She hesitated for a moment, then answered the call:
“Hello, hello, Shen Yao, you finally picked up! You nearly scared me to death.”
The mature woman’s voice was even more magnetic than she had imagined, and Qiao Yunxue couldn’t help but compare her voice to her own.
“Cheng Orange said she hasn’t seen you all day, told her Mother, and then her Mother called me. Where on earth did you run off to? I was only on a business trip for a few days, and you already spent the night out?”
She restrained her aura and replied as ladylike as possible, “Hello, Aunt Shen, I’m Shen Yao’s classmate, Qiao Yunxue. Shen Yao went to the swimming pool with me, and now he’s at my house. Do you want me to call him over?”
She didn’t know why she was speaking in such a pretentious voice.
Shen Qingxiao was silent for a long while. “Qiao Yunxue… Are you the one who went ghost hunting with Shen Yao?”
“That’s me.”
Shen Qingxiao seemed to realize something and quickly said, “Oh, oh, so you two went out for a date—no, for fun. I thought something had happened. Alright then, just tell Shen Yao to call me back later. I’m busy on my end, Qiao Yunxue, I’ll hang up now, okay?”
After the call ended, Qiao Yunxue let out a long breath.
But she hadn’t relaxed for long before another call came in.
She looked down: the caller ID read “Cheng Cheng.”
Opening Shen Yao’s QQ, she saw that Cheng Orange had sent more than twenty messages, all asking where he had gone.
Qiao Yunxue hesitated for a moment, then picked up the call.
“Shen Yao, are you okay? I heard—heard from my Mother when I was out walking that you didn’t come home last night. Where did you go? Why aren’t you replying to my messages?”
How insincere. Wasn’t Cheng Orange the first one to notice Shen Yao was missing?
This woman was so untruthful when it came to Shen Yao—had something happened between them?
“Hello.” She lowered her voice and made it even more ladylike.
“……”
Cheng Orange didn’t respond for a long while, and then, the call abruptly disconnected.
Just as Qiao Yunxue was wondering, Cheng Orange called again.
“Hello, Shen Yao? Is that you? Did I call the wrong number?”
So that’s what it was—she thought she had dialed the wrong number. Did she think there wouldn’t be a woman answering Shen Yao’s phone?
At this thought, Qiao Yunxue felt a sudden urge to grit her teeth.
“It’s Shen Yao’s number, you didn’t call wrong.” Qiao Yunxue had never spoken so gently before.
She heard a sharp intake of breath on the other end.
“Who are you? Where’s Shen Yao?” Cheng Orange asked.
“I’m Qiao Yunxue. Shen Yao is sleeping.”
Qiao Yunxue changed her story on purpose, intentionally wanting to anger Cheng Orange.
Even though she knew she shouldn’t do it, she still did so on instinct.
As expected, Cheng Orange’s voice took on a note of anger: “You’re lying! Shen Yao would never tell anyone his phone password. What did you do to Shen Yao?”
How clever. Shen Yao really hadn’t told anyone his phone password—unfortunately, it was Qiao Yunxue who set it.
“I said Shen Yao is resting. If you have something to say, I’ll pass it along to him later.”
“Let me talk to Shen Yao!” Cheng Orange was even angrier.
“Saying it to me is the same.”
Cheng Orange finally couldn’t take it anymore.
She was never someone who could endure being wronged: “It’s not the same with you! You’re the woman who’s making Shen Yao less and less like himself—you have no right to answer in Shen Yao’s place!”
Qiao Yunxue wasn’t angry. “Oh? I have no right? Then what right do you have to question me? Are you his girlfriend? His wife? Or his beloved? Which one are you? Or, in other words, what right do you have to be angry?”
Cheng Orange was left speechless.
Yes, she wasn’t Shen Yao’s girlfriend or wife. For Qiao Yunxue to answer Shen Yao’s call… what right did she have to be angry?
“I—I’m his good buddy…” Cheng Orange weakly argued, “Of course I have the right.”
“A good buddy wouldn’t get angry. Or is it that, deep down, you want more than just that spot as his good buddy?”
“I… do not!”
“Whether you do or not, only you know.” Qiao Yunxue sneered.
Cheng Orange didn’t argue further. Such a conversation would go on endlessly: “You’re the one making Shen Yao less and less like himself. If I were you, I wouldn’t cling to Shen Yao, making him worry about you every day!”
Those words struck Qiao Yunxue’s sore spot. She narrowed her eyes and showed a dangerous smile: “It’s Shen Yao clinging to me like a pitiful little puppy.”
“That’s nonsense!” Hearing such words come out of a girl’s mouth was simply unbelievable to Cheng Orange.
“If you hadn’t deliberately strung Shen Yao along, he wouldn’t be running circles around you! I don’t know what you’ve said to him, making him so secretive these days, no one even knows where he is. If Shen Yao fails the University Entrance Exam in the future, you absolutely won’t escape blame.”
University Entrance Exam? How childish… Qiao Yunxue thought. With her, he didn’t need to take the University Entrance Exam—he already had more wealth than he could ever spend.
She could have easily refuted Cheng Orange, but as she looked at Shen Yao sleeping soundly on the bed, turbulent emotions rose within her.
A certain thought in her heart grew even more firm: “If Shen Yao is attracted to me, don’t blame me—blame the people around him. Like you.”
“Me?”
“Though I haven’t known him long, even I can see the immense pressure buried deep in his heart—sometimes, he even seems self-destructive. Haven’t you ever noticed?”
“Shen Yao… self-destructive…” Cheng Orange was stunned.
Of course, she knew what Shen Yao had been through—she thought he’d long since emerged from the shadows of his past.