Chapter 158: Ye Qingchang, Xiao Yi’an (44/55)

“Your love mission—I’m your mission’s target.”

Xiao Yi’an’s words made Ye Qingchang, who was about to break free, stop her movement. “You don’t need to hide it from me anymore. That apprentice goddess couldn’t reach you, so she called me. I already know everything.”

“If you don’t become a couple with your target, you’ll die.”

His voice still carried deep guilt. “I didn’t know about this before. Otherwise, even if you weren’t her, I never would’ve treated you that way.”

“I don’t believe ignorance is an excuse. All I see is the fact that you did something wrong.”

Ye Qingchang frowned.

“So, what, you’ve changed your tune now? You’re not using yourself to threaten me anymore, now you’re going to use my life to threaten me?” She gripped Xiao Yi’an’s collar tightly.

She knew that as soon as those four words, apprentice goddess, came from his mouth, it was probably all true.

“I can’t watch you die. I have to save you.”

“Classmate Xiao, do I have anything to do with you now?” Ye Qingchang unconsciously raised her voice. “You live your life, I’ll live mine. Do you have to go back to that life from before? Do you have to keep clinging to me like this? Do you have to be so selfish?”

“I can’t be apart from you. You’ll die.” Xiao Yi’an still didn’t let go of Ye Qingchang’s hand.

“Then just let me die already!” Ye Qingchang shouted. “Now you know how to live your own life, but you insist on going back to those muddled days circling around someone else? Do you insist on making me spend my whole life feeding you with my emotions?”

“No. This time, let me do it.” Xiao Yi’an’s bangs hung down, soaked by the rain, but the light in his eyes couldn’t be hidden by the curtain of water. “Let me be the one to experience all your emotions, let me love you. It should’ve been my turn long ago, shouldn’t it?”

“All I want now is for you to stay away from me.” Ye Qingchang punched Xiao Yi’an’s chest, but he still wouldn’t let go.

He knew that if he let go this time, he would never see Ye Qingchang again.

“Give me time, give me a chance—just one chance to love you.”

“How am I supposed to trust you? How could I ever believe you?”

Xiao Yi’an reached out, as if to brush aside the black hair covering Ye Qingchang’s bright eyes, but Ye Qingchang dodged away.

Right, someone who only leeches off love and emotions—how could he possibly give anything back, like a crow feeding its mother?

He didn’t expect Ye Qingchang to trust him. But he couldn’t just watch Ye Qingchang die, couldn’t just let her go.

Ye Qingchang had saved him once. He ought to save her, too.

Only then could it really be, as she said, that they owed each other nothing.

“One year—give me a year out of the three years of your mission.” Xiao Yi’an raised a finger. “Within this year, I’ll do everything I can to become a complete person, to pursue you, to love you.”

He wouldn’t keep pestering Ye Qingchang shamelessly, wouldn’t stick to her like glue. He was only pleading for one last chance to try.

“Are you insane?”

“Just take me as insane.”

Ye Qingchang gave a sharp, almost amused snort. “You’re that confident you can win me over? You? Or are you just so muddled you want to use this as an excuse to stick around me a little longer?”

“I’m serious, whether you believe me or not,” Xiao Yi’an said. “I won’t demand you, or force you to keep caring for my feelings. Now, it’s not you loving me, it’s me loving you. If you get fed up, you can tell me to get lost—but I’ll still come back, until either we’re a couple, or the year is up.”

The rain kept falling.

“So what if you don’t succeed? When this year is over, then what?” Ye Qingchang laughed quietly.

She thought she knew this boy who treated her as his whole world inside and out.

Those words just now were probably just to stay by her side a while longer.

Forget a year—if it was like before, with him just as a sickly doll she had to care for, she couldn’t last a month.

She was tired.

All she needed was Xiao Yi’an’s next answer to decide his true intent, and then she could leave him behind for good.

“If I fail after a year, I won’t force anything. I’ll leave straight away, and try to meet that apprentice goddess. If I never meet her, after you die, I’ll remember you forever—but I won’t bother you again before that.”

Ye Qingchang was stunned.

In today’s rain, she had more than once thought Xiao Yi’an was insane.

“So, you’re still someone who can only live with someone as your center? You can’t live without me? What about the other people you care about? What about your aunt?” The black-clad girl looked even more somber in the rain.

“Then, in the time after leaving you, after failing, I’ll stay with my aunt. I’ll explain to her what you meant to me. I’ll be the last person in this world to forget you.”

He continued, “To be forgotten is true death. I’ll stay with you till the end.”

Through the curtain of rain, Ye Qingchang couldn’t see Xiao Yi’an’s face behind the water-splattered glasses.

She suddenly realized she couldn’t quite see Xiao Yi’an anymore.

If he was the Xiao Yi’an she remembered, at this point he would’ve said something like: If she died, he’d follow her in death.

That kind of love sounded noble, but in reality, he was just using his feelings and his life to shackle her.

But Xiao Yi’an didn’t say that.

He said he’d remember her till the last moment—until the last of three deaths.

Longing and living on is more painful than death engraved in stone.

He wasn’t loving her in the old, self-centered way, but truly standing in her place, thinking of how to love her.

All it took was a single loss—and now, with a second chance before him.

For a moment, Ye Qingchang was speechless.

“Classmate,” Xiao Yi’an spoke before her. “Here, take this back.”

He held out a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

Long ago, back when Ye Qingchang was still acting out the role of Literature Club President helping others in love, the two had swapped glasses.

Now Xiao Yi’an was returning them, without any hesitation or lingering attachment. What Ye Qingchang cared about more was that unfamiliar way Xiao Yi’an addressed her.

She watched him let go of her hand, then pull out his phone.

Right in front of her, he registered a brand new account.

“Classmate, it’s nice to meet you. Can we add each other as friends?”

Ye Qingchang was momentarily dazed.

Xiao Yi’an continued, “Classmate, what should I save your name as?”

“Ye Qingchang.”

Not Literature Club President, not White Moonlight.

Just Ye Qingchang.

“Xiao Yi’an.”

Not an electronic pet, not a club member.

Just Xiao Yi’an.

The black-clad girl took a deep breath, and as if not seeing Xiao Yi’an at all, picked up the umbrella nearby and left without looking back.

Because the umbrella had been tossed aside, a lot of rain had already collected inside. So when Ye Qingchang opened it, it rained hard outside, and rained softly inside.

“Classmate Ye, do take care after being out in the rain. I’ve left something in the Literature Club room. Before the club disbands, I hope you’ll take a look.”

Ye Qingchang didn’t look back. “Thanks for your concern, I don’t have time.”