His eyes turned cold and his face contorted with rage. “I’ve never said that you’re a pawn!”
“You’re willing to be engaged with your so-called ‘pawn’, but you can’t even give me a legitimate title; am I not even worth a pawn in your eyes?!”
She laughed coldly. Her retort made his face even darker.
He was frozen in that instant.
“What do you mean?”
She smiled as she tried to remain calm, but a tremble could still be perceived in her voice. “Mu Yazhe, I like you. What about you? Do you like me, too?”
His lips parted, but no words came out.
The word ‘like’ was stuck in his throat, unable to be voiced out.
He was a proud and arrogant man, so he could not easily utter the word ‘like’ before the woman he had feelings for.
At his silence, the smile on her face slightly cooled.
“I’ll tell you this, too! Since I like you, I can acknowledge you and even give you my heart, so what about you? Can you do the same?”
He could.
Although that was what he thought, he could not convey it in words.
He stared at her ferociously. For a moment, it was all quiet.
“Do you know who I just met?”
With her face slightly pale as her lashes drooped in disappointment, she said weakly, “I met Song Enya. She righteously accused me before a crowd – ridiculed me for being the third party. Mu Yazhe, are my feelings cheap, or in your eyes, am I also merely a pawn for you to exploit and be at your beck and call? You can give Mu Wanrou a proper engagement, yet you can’t give me a legitimate title! I don’t want romantic dates or beautiful diamond pendants, and I don’t want you going through all this trouble to please me!”
She raised her eyes at him with a pale face.
Their eyes met.
She looked at him, then suddenly closed in on him, and pressed herself against his front. She lifted her finger and lightly tapped against his chest.
Right there was his powerful heartbeat.
“I want this; can you give it to me?”
He stared at her intently.
Her throat felt parched, but she persisted in her questioning. “The love I desire, I hope that it will have a legitimate title; can you give that to me?”
His continued silence gradually made her feel disheartened. She gave a hollow laugh and suddenly found this interrogation to be ludicrous.
She mentioned his heart.
In his heart, was she really a pawn that was there to do his every bidding?
“Do you know what marriage means to me? If you can’t even give me a legitimate title, why should I keep liking you?”
She gritted her teeth and weakly declared, “I don’t like you anymore!”
That one declaration was like an icicle stabbing deeply into his flesh. In that moment, his heart seemed to have been pierced fatally.
Did she just refuse to like him?
D*mn this woman! How could she act on her own?
Did he permit her not to like him?
He stood rooted to the spot. Along with the stiffening of his massive and proud frame, his facial expression also froze as his eyes showed puzzlement, humiliation, and anger.
Unable to accept his continued silence, she turned to leave.
He reached out to grab her arm tightly and pulled her back.