Su Liumeng leaned against the doorframe with one hand, body half-bent, panting heavily. Her rain-drenched clothes clung tightly to her skin.
She was trembling uncontrollably.
Barely suppressing the effects of the cold poison, she had rushed back the moment she saw the message on her phone.
Because of that, even though she had managed to push the poison back for now, the cold energy still lingered in her meridians and hadn’t completely dispersed.
She was still cold.
No—she was very cold.
Every time the cold poison flared up in the past, she would spend four or five days using cultivation techniques to deal with it.
This time, just being able to suppress it at all was already satisfying enough for her.
Su Liumeng wiped her face messily, paused to catch her breath at the door, then silently stepped inside the villa. She didn’t turn on the lights in the living room.
It was her own home, yet for the first time, she moved about as if walking on eggshells.
She glanced toward the second floor. Confirming that there was no sound from the room on the right, she finally let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Clatter clatter—
Su Liumeng entered her bedroom and walked straight into the bathroom.
As the hot water cascaded down her face, Su Liumeng’s racing heart finally began to settle.
Boom—
Another streak of lightning split the sky, scattering the dark mist.
She gazed at her reflection in the mirror—exhausted, pale, and utterly worn out—and finally let out a long sigh.
Guess I’ll put on some makeup tomorrow to cover it up.
With that thought, she changed into a silk nightdress and pushed open the bathroom door.
Only the small lamp on the nightstand was lit, casting a faint glow over the bedroom.
The door, previously shut tight, had been opened.
Standing in the doorway was a beautiful girl, her expression unreadable. She said nothing, merely stood there in silence, watching Su Liumeng with wet hair from the shower, water still clinging to the strands.
Their eyes met in the air.
“Xiaoyan, I…”
Facing the girl, Su Liumeng—usually quick-tongued and eloquent—suddenly found herself at a loss for words.
The girl’s delicate brows lowered, and her long lashes shielded her gaze, making it impossible to tell what she was thinking.
A flood of thoughts raced through Su Liumeng’s mind. In that moment, she thought of dozens of excuses to explain where she had been.
But reality had veered far from her expectations.
The girl showed no extra emotion. She simply stepped closer, raising a slender hand to gently grasp Su Liumeng’s arm.
“Does it still hurt?” she asked softly, her voice filled with a tenderness like flowing water.
Su Liumeng’s heart gave a hard jolt.
This… this was too unusual—so unusual it made her uneasy.
Almost instinctively, she lowered her gaze and met a pair of shimmering, expressive eyes.
At that moment—
I was a little angry.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” Su Liumeng replied, for the first time feeling lost for words. “Why did you suddenly come here?”
I shook my head without answering.
“Have you put on any medicine?”
“…Not yet.”
Fifteen minutes later.
I sat in silence, carefully applying medicine from a first-aid kit.
Su Liumeng’s gaze was complicated.
The more I avoided asking where she had been, the guiltier she felt—like she’d been out doing who-knows-what, only to come home injured and seek comfort.
“You… you really don’t have anything to ask me?” she finally couldn’t help but ask.
I held her long, slender fingers, not answering directly. “Your hands are cold.”
Not like a normal human’s.
As I gently grasped her fingertips, she flinched a little, but I simply picked up the ointment again and continued applying it.
The air grew heavier. The shadows beneath us overlapped, and the only movement was the swaying of my lowered hair.
She never saw it—the pain slowly blooming in my eyes, and the silent breakdown on the verge of erupting.
After a while, I blinked hard and finally said, “Was it because you were out fighting someone that you didn’t have time to talk to me?”
I slowly lifted my head and looked at her seriously.
*****
Su Liumeng’s heart skipped a beat. She had a terrible feeling—if she answered this wrong, her future wife would leave her for good.
“I wasn’t fighting anyone.” Her reply sounded feeble even to herself.
I let out a self-deprecating laugh. “Right… after all, I’m not someone important. Whether you reply or not, it’s only natural.”
All those wounds—how could they be fake? I’d already seen her messages on WeChat. Even after she came back, she never once thought to reply to me.
Even a single word would’ve been enough—I wouldn’t have been this hurt.
“Anyone can take me lightly. One-sided affection is the most detestable thing.”
I shook my head bitterly. “My concern—what even is that?”
“The cheapest thing of all.”
In my eyes, at that moment, there was a loneliness too deep to describe.
It was my first time worrying about someone to the point I couldn’t sleep.
I thought… I truly thought something serious had happened, something that kept Su Liumeng from responding.
But in the end, she’d just been out fighting. She didn’t even have a moment to reply.
Now she was the one most anxious. Say something, you damn woman!
Explain already!
If you don’t, your wife’s really gone!
What, you lost your tongue?
All those drama scenes she’d read in novels flashed through her mind at lightning speed.
Su Liumeng no longer cared about anything—about keeping her messy, vulnerable side hidden from Xi Xinyan.
She tossed it all aside. Nothing else mattered.
She had only one thought left: Explain everything clearly.
Smack—
Su Liumeng slapped herself across the face, forcibly bringing her scattered thoughts back to order.
“Don’t go.”
Su Liumeng had always been the kind to act first.
She lunged forward and hugged the soft, sweet-smelling girl tightly from behind.
The girl staggered slightly, as if completely breaking down. Su Liumeng watched with unbearable heartache, only able to pull her closer into her embrace.
*****
“Let go,” I said stiffly, my voice cold.
I didn’t want to talk to anyone anymore.
But hearing me speak, Su Liumeng felt a faint chill in her heart—and she knew exactly what it meant.
…Just how angry I am right now.
“I won’t let go! Xiaoyan, can’t you just listen to me explain? I really didn’t get into a fight!”
I tilted my head up, trying my best to calm myself down.
Even now, you’re still trying to lie to me?
I’m not blind. With all those wounds, how do you expect me to believe a word you’re saying?
At that thought, I took a deep breath, my voice turning even colder.
“Let go. I’ve already applied medicine for you. I’ve fulfilled my responsibility as your roommate. Miss Su, please show some self-respect.”
It was over. Completely and utterly over now.
Su Liumeng had clearly gone all in. The girl she was hugging tightly, refusing to let go—her body was so soft and delicate.
But she had no intention of enjoying any of that.
Her knees suddenly gave out, and she dropped to the floor, sliding down to kneel under the pull of gravity.
She admitted fault on the spot, with the utmost sincerity.
“Baby, please… just let me explain.”
She could lose the entire world, but she couldn’t lose Si Xinyan.
Everything happening behind me was reflected in the black metal of the front door.
My pupils suddenly contracted.
Su Liumeng—eldest daughter of the prestigious Su family—how could she…
Was she trying a different way to toy with me again?
I… I didn’t want to be the fool anymore.
I slowly closed my eyes, forcing back the tears that were about to break free again.
“Su Liumeng, you said you liked me, and I believed you…”
“That’s why I’ve been trying to get along with you.”
“I’ve been doing my best to open up my heart.”
“But what about reality?”
I couldn’t bear to look at the reflection ahead, couldn’t face the miserable figure of a girl whose relationship hadn’t even started, already on the verge of ending.
“Do I really look like a clown to you?”
My voice cracked with sobs, hoarse and trembling.
Su Liumeng spoke fast—faster than ever—racing to get the words out.
“I was poisoned by cold venom and was detoxifying it in a cave. I didn’t lie about getting into a fight with anyone. The wounds came from the venom entering my body—I collapsed and thrashed on the ground, that’s how they appeared.”
“The reason I didn’t tell you earlier… was because I didn’t want you to overthink. I didn’t want you to see me in such a pathetic state.”
“The cold poison flared up again because I fought Su Yi.”
“I also have old injuries and can’t use my internal force carelessly.”
“That’s why… I didn’t want to tell you.”
That was exactly the kind of person Su Liumeng was—even if she had done something, even if she was suffering, she wouldn’t tell the people she cared about.
She…
She didn’t lie to me…?
A storm was raging in the sea of my heart, waves crashing and thunder roaring.
Countless scattered clues, now pieced together by Su Liumeng’s explanation, all pointed to one truth.
I had misunderstood her.
Not only did Su Liumeng not lie to me, but even the state she was in now—covered in wounds—was all because I had told her what happened in the dorm.
Her battle with Su Yi was what triggered the cold poison again.
A memory suddenly surfaced in my mind—Su Liumeng laughing and chatting with me as she explained the effects of the bracelet.
Everything had left traces.
How could she be so stupid?
She would rather suffer alone than let anyone know.
One of my small hands at my side slowly curled into a tight fist. In my eyes, a surge of emotion rose—something even I couldn’t quite understand.
My heart skipped a beat. It felt like an electric current, tingling and numbing, rising through me.