As Tang Wu spoke, Shi Lingyan’s gaze was fixed on her eyes the whole time.
Her eyes were calm and dull, her determination and indifference clear.
For the first time in his life, Shi Lingyan felt so suffocated, he barked, "Are you serious, Tang Wu? Do you really think that I killed you?"
"Is it not?" Tang Wu countered coldly, indifferently tugging at her lips.
Suddenly, Shi Lingyan’s mind seemed to connect the dots, a moment of clarity.
She hated him, loathed him—did she truly believe that he had once tried to kill her?
"Including the last time," Shi Mei tried to pull her hand away, but after two tugs, she failed, "Wasn’t the assassin in the forest also sent by you?"
Shi Lingyan recalled that stab.
The scar on his abdomen was still starkly visible, the newly healed wound still occasionally itchy.
That one stab had nearly claimed his life.
Had she stabbed so decisively because she thought he had sent the assassin to kill her?
Shi Lingyan found it extremely absurd. Anger seeped into him like air, infiltrating every gap. He yelled furiously, "Are you fucking crazy, sending an assassin to kill you, then why the hell did I go meet you afterward?"
Shi Lingyan’s outburst tore open the wounds on his chest, causing fresh blood to flow even more freely.
Shi Lingyan’s complexion grew even paler, the severe pain and blood loss making him somewhat unsteady on his feet.
Yet he glared at the woman in front of him, his eyes bloodshot like a wild beast awakened from slumber, his grip tightening fiercely on her arm as he shouted, "Is there a hole in my head? Knowing fully well I couldn’t kill you, did I fucking debase myself to let you stab me? Are you sick?"
Shi Mei, yelled at this way, lost all color in her face and, for a moment, dared not meet his furious gaze.
The presuppositions she had always held had been dictating all her emotions.
So much so that whenever she saw him, the first thought that struck Shi Mei was: Hypocrisy.
But hearing his shout, Shi Mei suddenly panicked, a short circuit flashing through her mind, quickly retorting, "Because you wanted to make sure I was dead!"
Shi Lingyan laughed bitterly, feeling a severe blockage in his chest, his vision growing darker, "And then what? Once you were sure I wasn’t dead, did I fucking humiliate myself and let you stab me?"
"I..." Shi Mei’s face turned pale, and she immediately added, "Because then someone came, and with you there, you couldn’t wash out your suspicion!"
"They were all my people," Shi Lingyan stepped closer, his eyes fierce like a raging beast, yet his sorrow also unmistakable, "Killing you would have been effortless for me."
Shi Mei, pressured by his gaze, backstepped, pausing before responding, "You wouldn’t dare, they probably don’t know what you actually did all those years ago just to kill me!"
"Then you tell me, what did I do?"
"We’ve known each other for over a decade, yet you and Bai Yuejie were childhood sweethearts. To keep her alive, you deliberately..."
"Why the hell would I keep her alive!" Shi Lingyan exploded, his pallid face almost void of color, "Do you fucking know that it was because of you that I even started paying attention to her, because of you that I fucking demeaned myself to befriend her!"
"Cut the crap, do you really think I don’t know anything?" Shi Mei’s voice also involuntarily rose, "You pursued me because of her, lying in wait for five or six years. Because her heart was weak, you compromised to hang out and party with me, so she could continue to live. You personally sent me to hell to show your deep affection, when to you, I’m just a breathing doll!"