Chapter 215: Straw

Residual warmth. 

An Qing gently touched her own cheek. 

An Yu’s warmth still lingered there.

In her previous life, An Yu had said the exact same words to her.

Don’t be sad. Here, there are no enemies of yours.

An Qing recalled An Yu’s words once again. 

Back then, An Yu’s tone had carried traces of gentleness.

It was completely different from the cold indifference just now. 

The exact same sentence, yet its meaning was entirely different.

In her previous life, An Yu had been comforting her, telling her that An Yu was her ally.

But this time, An Yu was simply reminding her that she didn’t care about the things An Qing valued, so An Yu was not her enemy.

Back then, An Qing’s relationship with An Yu had been completely different from now.

On the night after the birthday party ended, she had run to An Yu’s room and wasn’t turned away.

At that time, An Qing was still wearing the intact cheap hairpin, facing An Yu full of hope.

And An Yu had also acted as a good older sister.

An Qing took out the broken hairpin from her pocket. 

Even now, she still hadn’t repaired it.

The hairpin could perhaps be fixed, but what about the feelings between them?

They wouldn’t be having conversations in a place like the living room, nor would they be so distant.

An Qing subconsciously turned her head and looked toward An Yu’s already closed bedroom door.

Unless she sneaked in, An Qing no longer had the right to enter that room.

Why had things come to this point?

The more An Qing thought about it, the more lost she felt. 

Even though she had taken the initiative to ask and gotten an answer, she still couldn’t do anything.

All she had learned was that An Yu didn’t care about those things. 

She still had no understanding of An Yu’s behavioral logic.

An Qing lay alone on the sofa, staring blankly at the broken hairpin in her hand.

Her emotional breakdown had made her ask that final question.

But the question hadn’t been meaningless.

At the very least, An Qing now knew what An Yu thought of her personally.

Not about the An family or anything else—just her own view of An Qing as an individual.

To An Yu, An Qing was not an enemy. 

She had never been one.

If something happened to An Qing, An Yu would even choose to come help.

How could someone like that possibly choose to hurt her over trash like the An family or the Chen family?

An Qing closed her eyes and carefully began recalling every detail from her previous life.

From the moment she returned to the An family in her previous life until the An family’s destruction.

From the very beginning, An Qing had not been valued. 

No one in the An family cared about her, and even the ordinary servants looked down on her.

Only An Yu would choose to help her.

When she ran out alone, An Yu would abandon the lively birthday party and follow her to help.

When she was depressed, An Yu would allow her into her room.

When she was insulted by others, only An Yu would come to her side.

An Qing remembered every single detail clearly.

It was precisely because of this that she had become so angry and filled with resentment.

An Yu was the only emotional connection she had ever had in her life.

And it was precisely because of that that An Yu’s betrayal had hurt her so deeply.

An Qing had heard it with her own ears from An Yu’s mouth. 

An Yu had said she cared more about the An family and more about Chen Guang.

It wasn’t hearsay. 

It was something An Yu had said face-to-face in a real conversation.

An Yu had spoken with complete seriousness, and An Qing had heard every word clearly.

That was why she had felt such despair.

In that instant, An Qing had broken. 

She had always wanted to prove to An Yu that those things were nothing but garbage.

No one could compare to her.

So why wouldn’t she choose her? 

An Qing had never been able to understand it.

Now she understood it even less.

Had An Yu been lying back then?

But no matter how she looked at it, An Yu’s expression had been extremely sincere. 

She had even done so many things because of it.

It was hard to imagine that kind of behavior was a lie.

Because even until the very end, right before her death, An Yu had still been complaining…

That resentment had been real.

Yet the current An Yu didn’t seem to be lying either.

Perhaps because of her despair, An Qing had instead become calm.

She finally noticed some clues.

Maybe neither of the two An Yus had been lying.

An Qing slowly opened her eyes. 

A hint of light returned to her crimson pupils.

“Maybe…”

The current An Yu said she didn’t care about anything related to the An family, and from all her behavior, it didn’t seem fake.

But the previous life had been the same way too.

Perhaps the An Yu of the previous life had also not cared about the An family at this point in time.

She would have unhesitatingly chased after her when she left.

Even though it was An Yu’s important birthday banquet.

Wasn’t that exactly the same as this life? 

In this life, An Yu had left the birthday party for Ning Wanciu.

It was just that the person had changed from An Qing to Ning Wanciu.

There was essentially no other difference.

In neither life had An Yu ever cared about this birthday.

An Qing had forgotten that in her previous life, she had never asked An Yu during this time period whether she cared about the An family.

So subconsciously, when An Yu said the An family was important, she had assumed it had always been that way.

She had never considered that people could change.

There had been a reason for everything!

An Qing gripped her own arm. 

Color returned to her eyes.

Although the two An Yus had done completely different things, An Qing knew this was only because the course of events had differed, leading to different outcomes.

At their core, there was no difference.

An Yu was An Yu.

An Yu had never cared about the An family, nor the Chen family. 

Her feelings toward her must also be…

An Qing clenched her fists tightly, as if she had grasped the last lifesaving straw.

Maybe An Yu hadn’t lied to her. 

Maybe she hadn’t been playing with her.

There must have been some reason why An Yu acted that way, or some accident had changed her.

It must be like that! 

It had to be!

Just like a broken electric toy that suddenly started working again due to some unexpected event.

Even without repairing it, the toy could still be used.

But she had to be careful. 

If it got bumped or knocked, it might never be fixable again.

Right now…

An Qing was in exactly that state. 

She had already reached the edge of collapse. 

Her entire being was tottering on the brink.

Yet relying solely on her own speculation, she had found a new ray of hope for herself.

But perhaps she was walking the right path after all.

An Qing took out her phone and calmly looked at the number displayed on it.

No matter what, she needed more information.

She had to find out why An Yu had become like that.

She would start the investigation with the An family.

But if she wanted to investigate the An family, she definitely couldn’t use the An family’s own forces.

She just didn’t know whether that strange man would be willing to lend her a hand.