Kang Ruicheng held Xu Youning’s wrist and said, “A Ning, don’t you believe me?”


  “Believe?” It sounded ridiculous to her. She put her hand down and looked at him with tears in her eyes. “Have you ever been in real despair?”


  He moved his lips, about to say something before he was interrupted by her. “Let me tell you what it feels like—”


  “Real despair feels like this: You sit there, feeling cold as if you would have fallen into an ice cellar. You can’t feel your feet. You can’t stop shaking and shivering. You can’t do anything. You’re hopeless. The only thing you can do is watch the tragedy happening in front of you.”


  It was exactly how she felt when she saw her grandma’s body. For her, death was the only way to escape at that time.

  But she wasn’t allowed to die yet.

  She had to continue living in despair, no matter how hopeless she was, because she had to come back to Kang Ruicheng’s side.

  She had gone through hardship and fought her way back but not to “believe” him.

  Feeling her hands getting colder and colder, he gently held them and tried to make them warm. “A Ning, I hope you believe me.”


  She shook her head and then stared into his eyes. “It’s between me and Mu Sijue. It’s personal. I have my own plan and I’d rather believe in myself.”


  She was the type who only believed in herself. She didn’t need a teammate because one more person wouldn’t be a helping hand but a possible accident.

  He knew her so well that it wasn’t that she didn’t believe him. It was because she had already made her plan before she returned.

  He didn’t ask further. While gently holding her hands, he said, “Remember, I’ll always be with you. No matter what and no matter when, I’ll back you up, unconditionally.”


  “Thank you.” She wiped her tears and said, “I want to kill Mu Sijue by myself, to avenge my grandma!”


  When the word “avenge” came out of her mouth, her eyes were full of hatred and bitterness.

  He was too familiar with the look.

  Some years back, she had told him that her parents had died in a well-planned car accident. The determination and hatred in her eyes were precisely the same as those he saw just then. She made a promise that she would take revenge for her parents by herself, in the same stubborn way.

  And she made it. She passed all the cruel training programs and became the best female student in the same generation of trainees. A few days later, she sent the murderer who killed her parents to prison.

  He then knew that she would do anything for the ones she loved.

  That was why he doubted, thinking that she might renege her task when he noticed that she liked Mu Sijue. She had been trained by him as a weapon. He wouldn’t allow that.

  As a consequence, he played a shell game to make her go back to him.

  Without a doubt, his plan could fail. It was possible that she might find out the truth, becoming enemies after that.

  On this account, he considered two possibilities when he received the news that she had escaped the day before.

  One possibility was that she had realized her errors and was coming back to mend her ways.

  The other possibility, that she had been sent back by Mu Sijue to instigate rebellion.

  If it was the second one, he wouldn’t allow her to go back to Mu Sijue alive. With that in mind, he sent Xue Zhaoqing, her deadly foe, to pick her up in City C.

  If she didn’t complain, Xue Zhaoqing would be able to protect her. If she reneged, Xue Zhaoqing would be able to know that, too.

  Before they took off, Kang Ruicheng received information from Xue Zhaoqing, saying that he didn’t find anything unusual about Xu Youning, but he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure that she hadn’t changed sides.

  But then, when he saw the hatred in Xu Youning’s eyes, he knew for sure that she had believed what the police had found out—Mu Sijue was the murderer who had killed her grandma.

  She surely had a deep-seated hate for Mu Sijue. Otherwise, her eyes wouldn’t be full of hatred, just like the ones he showed when she swore to take revenge for her parents.

  He won the bet this time. Xu Youning, the weapon he made by himself, the one who belonged to him, was back.

  A smile climbed up on one corner of his lips. He said, “Silly, you don’t need to thank me. Just follow your plan. Let me know if you need any help. Remember that you will always have my back.”


  “Okay,” she replied. She kept looking at him. He saw vitality and charm in her eyes again.

  She continued, “We have the same goal. We both want to kill Mu Sijue. Considering that the relationship between Mu Sijue and Lu Boyan is tricky, I only have one request: don’t hurt Jianan and her unborn baby.”


  “You……?” He dragged out the end of the word to show his doubt.

  She explained. “Jianan didn’t kill my grandma. Although she is Lu Boyan’s wife, she has nothing to do with this case. Moreover, my grandma loved Jianan and Brother Yicheng when she was alive. She wouldn’t be happy if she knew that I hurt Jianan for her revenge.”


  “I can promise that.” After a pause, he continued, “In fact, I don’t want to hurt Su Jianan either, if I have another choice.” His quick pause seemed meaningful.

  She stared at him. “What do you mean?”


  “Nothing.” He smiled and changed the subject naturally. “Did Mu Sijue do anything to you when he locked you up?”


  She shook her head. “No. He only asked someone to clean me up.” There was almost no emotions were heard her tone.

  With his understanding of Xu Youning, he knew the reason why she dismissed what had happened. It was probably because she had realized that it would be impossible for her to be with Mu Sijue.

  As he thought about it, he stopped frowning without raising suspicion. He then let go of her hands slowly and said, “Since you’re back safely, let’s not talk about what happened. Take a good rest for a few days. We will talk about these things later.”


  “One day will be enough,” she said in a cold voice, “It would only be torture for me, if Mu Sijue continued to live in that world for another day.”


  “Okay then. Have a good rest today.” He slightly placed his hand over her shoulder. “I’m going to arrange part of the things we have to do next. We’ll discuss and come up with details tomorrow.”


  As soon as he uttered those words, a young girl walked over and made a “please” gesture to Xu Youning as she spoke, “Miss Xu, please follow me. We’ve prepared a room for you upstairs.”


  Xu Youning was startled and looked at Kang Ruicheng in surprise. “You’re going to let me stay in the old house of your family?”


  “Mu Sijue immediately sent someone to follow you the moment you escaped. He will know that you’re staying in City A sooner or later. You have no place to go except the old house of the Kang family. I’d be worried if you stayed in other places.” Kang Ruicheng didn’t allow her to reject his offer and continued, “Stay here. Let me take care of you.”


  She bit her lips and said, “Okay. I’ll stay.”


  He then said with a smile of satisfaction, “Go upstairs with A Hong.”


  Xu Youning followed the maid to a room on the second floor. She said to the maid immediately after she went in the room, “I’m going to sleep. You can leave now.”


  A Hong was sensible and knew how to behave in such a situation. She nodded her head and said, “Miss Xu, feel free to call me if you need anything.”


  Xu Youning replied with a “Yes” and sent A Hong away. She leaned against the door and slid down to the ground weakly.

  She had exerted all her strength to the performance she had just displayed in front of Kang Ruicheng, in which she not only had to show her hatred toward Mu Sijue but also the “undying attempt” to be with Kang Ruicheng.

  What she needed right then was a good sleep because the things she was about to face might not only require a good performance, but also actual strength.

  As she thought about this, she threw herself onto the bed and closed her eyes.

  Later, she wasn’t sure whether she was asleep or awake because she saw Mu Sijue and her grandma’s faces suddenly flash by in front of her by turns.

  Seeing the familiar faces, she suddenly felt empty and depressed. She clenched her fists tighter and tighter……

  She subconsciously looked down at her hands when she woke up in the afternoon. She had already unclenched her fists but there were a few light bloodstains left on her palms; they might not be far from each other.

  She clenched her fists again and found out that each fingernail matched a bloodstain.

  It was true that she had seen her grandma and Mu Sijue in her dream.

  She clenched her fists because of her determination to take revenge for her grandma.

  Then why did she feel empty…… Was it because of Mu Sijue?

  She looked at the drowsy sky outside the window and pressed her hands to her chest. She was unable to fill the hole in her heart.

  Mu Sijue was then her only love alive in the world.

  But they were doomed to not fall in love.

  Thinking about that, she curled up on the bed subconsciously while in the darkened sunset.

  After nine in the evening, she heard a knock at the door. She then said, “Come in.”


  It was Kang Ruicheng walking in. She sat up on the bed to turn on the light. The warm yellow light suddenly lit up every corner of the room.

  He followed the light, going straight to the bed and asking with concern, “It’s late. Are you hungry?”


  She shook her head. “I don’t feel like eating anything.”


  He furrowed his eyebrows discontentedly. “How could it be? You should know that health is as important as an ability, especially for people like you. Come down with me and eat something.” He then stretched his hand to her. He sounded tough but a little bit spoiled.

  She pursed her lips and got out of bed. “Okay.”


  He touched her head with satisfaction and said, “There you go. Go downstairs.”


  It made her hair stand on end. She felt the biting cold running down from her head and spreading all over her body.

  For her, the hand that was touching her head was like a sticky tentacle clinging to her hair. She cried out with disgust while using the loudest voice inside her head.

  Still, she had to pretend to be well-behaved. She looked up and made her eyes look as bright as possible, as if stars had suddenly fallen inside them.

  She smiled at him and turned around to go down.

  Looking at her light steps, he thought in silence for a moment.

  What he was familiar with was not only Xu Youning’s resentful look, but also the one full of love.

  He still remembered that he did pay more attention to her at the beginning of her training, asking her instructor about her situation from time to time.

  After one week of training, the instructor suddenly told him that Xu Youning had seized every opportunity to ask about him. She had always asked some intentional questions, for example, if he had a girlfriend.

  When he met her after that, he found that her look was quite different.

  No matter how exhausted she was in training, she would immediately recover her vibrant self whenever she saw him. Her eyes were twinkling as deer’s, gleaming with love when she looked at him.

  He was old enough at that time so he knew what that look meant. But he didn’t say anything. He only encouraged her to focus on her training.

  But somehow, he started to care about her more. When they were alone, he would show some vague affection to her.

  At a time like that, she would react the same way—she would bite her lips while she smiled, with her eyes shining like two stars.

  If eyes could speak, her eyes would definitely say: I like you.

  He had made the right bet: Xu Youning who liked him had returned while the name “Mu Sijue” had become a synonym for “enemy”.

  Because of that, the corner of his lips was curved, making a satisfied smile. He then followed her steps and went downstairs.