While Xiang Ning was speaking very softly such that those outside were unable to make out her words, all one needed was a single glance, but a single glance to know that this little girl was truly feeling pain, down to the very core as her hurt was no lesser than that of anyone else present.

  Really anyone who was seeing her would all realise that perhaps they should not consider this matter through a ‘dirty’, unreasonable perspective.

  This girl was so pure. Those tears were so pure……

  She was so pure it caused one’s heart to ache.

  “How about we try to coax her? Tell her that Tingsheng’s fine. Otherwise, I think she might just faint at any moment,” Sensing Little Xiang Ning’s sorrow, Mr Xu asked Mrs Xu rather worriedly.

  Mrs Xu felt sorry for Little Xiang Ning too as she nodded and entered the room, walking over to her and speaking to her in a low tone.

  Little Xiang Ning’s emotions finally eased somewhat.

  Feeling greatly reassured, she asked, “Can I still accompany him then?”


  Facing those teary eyes that were swollen from crying and that oh so pure gaze……how could Mrs Xu possibly say no?……

  Outside the sick ward.

  Li Linlin finally caved in to Old Wai’s pestering as she uneasily revealed, “I think Bro Xu had a crush on her……and Little Ning probably came to like him too. Still, I don’t think they have been dating or anything. There was one whole year back then when they possibly never even met.”


  “Crush?” Old Wai’s attention was focused completely on this word as he asked in shock, “You’re telling me that Xu Tingsheng had a crush, and on such a young girl too……what? How is that even possible?”


  “That’s not it. Apart from being a little young, Little Ning is really very good in all other aspects, like her personality. I myself super like her too,” Li Linlin unconsciously defended Little Xiang Ning whom she truly did like a lot.

  “But you say he just had a crush on her……”


  “Yeah! It should be the kind where he wanted to quietly take care of her while doing something for her. That’s why he became her home tutor, and asked me to take over for him afterwards. Before Xiang Ning’s exams, when that Ning Garden was nearly about to begin its sales, he even wrote some dozens of pages of revision materials and passed them to me. I think he probably must have spent a few days and nights writing them……”


  “Oh hey, wait a second……Ning Garden……the hell……”


  Old Wai was already completely flummoxed by now.

  Similarly unclear on the situation were Ye Qing, Wu Kun and Fang Chen. They went over to Huang Yaming and the other three to see what was going on.

  After listening for a while, Fang Chen laughed.

  “What the heck are you laughing for? Your……we can understand even that, so what’s this now?” Fang Yuqing sacrificed kinship for brotherhood as he retaliated firmly against the old demoness.

  “But, really?” Ye Qing asked.

  “What’s there to be so surprised about? Even you and Tan Yao can be together. The difference in their ages is much smaller than for you two, okay? It’s just five, six years at most. If even the two of you being together is fine, aren’t they perfectly normal then……” Huang Yaming said, thus earning a kick from Ye Qing.

  They were still very protective of Xu Tingsheng in front of others.

  Despite that, though, they were actually really thinking: Really too much of a beast……when Xu Tingsheng’s woken up, a trial’s inevitable! It wouldn’t be acceptable otherwise! Really……beast, beast, what a beast he was!

  Yet, as everyone thought about it, consolidating everything that had just been said, coupled with the news that Old Wai had just transmitted over on what Li Linlin had done for Xu Tingsheng and what she knew about this, especially that ‘Still, I don’t think they have been dating or anything. There was one whole year back then when they possibly never even met’.……

  A pure, innocent crush? Despite not even meeting her, he had quietly put in effort and cared for her from behind the shadows……

  While they thought that it was crazy freaking insane, they could already more or less understand that Xu Tingsheng should be serious about this, and wholly serious at that. He was not cheating a little girl to satisfy a fetish or something like that……

  If it had really been something like that, there would have been no need for him to go to such lengths at all. All that had transpired over the past two years……really, even the very heavens would be moved.

  The sole problem that remained was that the more Xu Tingsheng was devoted to Xiang Ning, the more they were unable to wrap their heads around it as the same question plagued them as did Old Wai: Just what had overcome Xu Tingsheng? Was that young girl really worth it?

  “I really can’t think of anything. We can only ask Tingsheng after he’s awoken,” Fu Cheng said.

  “The problem is that he’s Xu Tingsheng, the guardian of our rice bowls! What can we do if he just refuses to say anything no matter what?” Tan Yao asked.

  “.……” Huang Yaming was rendered totally speechless as he could still remember how Xu Tingsheng had previously threatened him when he had wanted to drop out of university.

  “I suddenly realised something,” Fang Yuqing said.

  “What?”


  “It’s still fine with me, it’s more about you. Won’t you have to call her (elder) sister-in-law in the future? Or is it little (elder) sister-in-law?”


  “Hmm……”


  The other four began imagining themselves addressing that young girl as (elder) sister-in-law……

  Old Wai thought about how she and Li Linlin might address each other in the future……‘Hi, Ms Li’.……‘Hi, little (elder) sister-in-law’.……ohmygod……

  He felt like vomiting blood just thinking about it!

  There was actually someone who was basically considering the same issue as Fang Yuqing. It was Xu Tingsheng’s little sister, Xu Qiuyi.

  “She should be younger than me, right? Little (elder) sister-in-law?” Xu Qiuyi blankly asked Wu Yuewei beside her before immediately realising her mistake as she now exclaimed, “Sorry, I……”


  “It’s okay. I’m actually still fine right now,” Wu Yuewei forced a smile.

  She was really doing okay. This was not because she had really already moved on completely from Xu Tingsheng. If that had truly been the case, she would no longer fear seeing him again, no longer fear the aching of her heart.

  It was just that it unexpectedly did not hurt as much as she had thought it would. It was strange. She had previously believed that with Xu Tingsheng’s newfound success, he would choose the celebrity Apple or the capable career woman Lu Zhixin. As compared to that……this now actually felt a little easier to bear in all its mystique……

  That girl who might be an ordinary girl just like her made Wu Yuewei willing to believe that Xu Tingsheng was still Xu Tingsheng, that he never bore underlying motives in his relationships.

  And the more inconceivable a relationship was, the more one would easily feel that it might indeed be deep and unshakeable underneath.

  Of course, the study queen Wu Yuewei had no way of knowing that not only was Little Xiang Ning an ordinary girl like her, she was even a ‘study flunkie’.

  Wu Yuewei had already previously come to accept the ending between she and Xu Tingsheng. At this point in time, while she inevitably felt despondent, the pure pain from before had been replaced by an urge to just smile wryly at the absurdity of it all as it was no longer so painful.

  She shook her head, smiling wryly, “If senior wakes up, even I would feel like asking him.”


  Apple too knew not whether to laugh or to cry as even though Song Ni pulled her far away, she was repeating over and over again that she did not believe it.

  Apple did not know how she was supposed to get herself to believe and accept this. When that little girl called Xiang Ning had suddenly appeared before her just like that, it had not been pain but rather an uncomprehending daze that had primarily overcome her.

  Actually, Apple had already been faced with the idea of ‘Xiang Ning’ for two years. Even as she had never actually seen her before, she had already mentally prepared herself to painfully face this woman one day, potentially suffering the high-and-mightiness of a victor.

  Ever since she had come to love Xu Tingsheng, over these two years, this name had always been like a mountain, a shadow over her heart that she was unable to surmount or get rid of.

  Apple had once considered simply waiting for him, always. She had also once been okay with the fact that Xu Tingsheng who had been by her side over that period of time actually also had someone hidden within his heart. She would have no justification in requesting even more from him……

  Afterwards, after having suffered and then recovered from depression, she had actually already become a much more optimistic, cheerful person.

  Yet, she really felt like crying now, also wanting to laugh hysterically.

  She had fantasised countless times what sort of woman ‘Xiang Ning’ would be like. She could imagine a thousand faces, a thousand figures, a thousand personalities……after all, that was a woman whom Xu Tingsheng loved but was unable to obtain!

  Yet, never would she have imagined that things were actually like this. This was really too inconceivable……

  Her broken heart was temporarily replaced by not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.

  There would definitely not be any ‘high-and mightiness of a victor’ that appeared.

  Even the sense of defeat that she felt was a little strange, no longer wholesome.

  Apple already did not know how she was supposed to view and face this matter.

  “What a time to be unconscious. I definitely can’t let him go so easily after he wakes up. If he can’t explain even this, that would really be too much.”


  “Right, she looks like she still doesn’t know anything at all! It looks like I properly ‘threaten’ Xu Tingsheng a little.”


  Because of how ‘inconceivable’ it was, along with the fact that Xu Tingsheng was injured at the end of the day, amidst his comatose state, countless varied emotions, everyone around him-all was tinged with a subtle elusiveness.