A seemingly random statement nearly prompted Xu Niannian to blurt out, "I like men too."
Fortunately, she held onto her rationality and guessed that Zuo Qing hadn’t finished speaking.
Zuo Qing spoke slowly, "He’s been the only man I’ve liked since my naive early days, but he doesn’t like me. I’ve known this from the beginning..."
As she spoke, Zuo Qing felt discomfort as the image of Jin Ruiyang glancing at her and Xu Sisi, his eyes only for Sisi, emerged in her mind.
Feeling distressed, she unwrapped the oil paper around the Liuyue Su and took a bite.
The sweet fragrance seemed to disperse some of the bitterness in her heart, and Zuo Qing continued at a slow pace, "I thought that if I just waited quietly, stayed by his side, one day he would notice me, but..."
"But he has someone he likes now, doesn’t he?" Xu Niannian chimed in.
Zuo Qing froze, staring blankly at Xu Niannian, the tears in her eyes threatening to fall.
Xu Niannian quickly handed her a tissue, glad for her habit of always carrying tissues with her.
Her tear-filled eyes not yet releasing the tears, Zuo Qing came back to her senses and accepted the tissue from Xu Niannian, "Thank you."
After expressing her gratitude, she asked Xu Niannian, "How did you know he has someone he likes?"
Xu Niannian was stumped, wasn’t it obvious?
"You’ve always known that he doesn’t like you, and something probably as significant as that would make you cry," she reasoned.
If he always didn’t like her, how much worse could the reality be? It must be that he has feelings for someone else, right?
Of course, there could be another possibility, that the man she liked had unfortunately passed away.
But judging from her expression, that didn’t seem to be the case.
Meanwhile, Jin Ruiyang was sparring with Jin Yu and suddenly shivered all over. He forgot to dodge, and Jin Yu’s dagger promptly jabbed him in the buttocks.
Immediately, a muffled grunt escaped him. Had there not been women around, that grunt might have transformed into a scream of agony.
Zuo Qing laughed ruefully at Xu Niannian’s answer, the tears she had been holding back finally fell.
A beauty in tears is still beautiful.
Especially someone like Zuo Qing, whose demeanor was as gentle as water, her crying evoked pity.
Too bad Xu Niannian wasn’t a man.
There were no other emotions but wonder.
"Yes... he has someone he likes. Unfortunately, it’s not me."
What could Xu Niannian say? They weren’t close.
Yet seeing Zuo Qing cry so sadly softened Xu Niannian’s heart. As a woman, she couldn’t help but offer consolation, "There are plenty of good men in this world."
Zuo Qing wiped away her tears, her smile uglier than her crying, "But the one he likes is my niece, in name."
Xu Niannian was confused, "???"
"May I ask how old your niece is?"
She appeared to be in her early twenties.
Zuo Qing shook her head, "I don’t know."
Xu Niannian’s eyes widened in astonishment, you don’t know?
Zuo Qing understood what Xu Niannian was surprised about and explained with a smile, "It’s not what you think. She should be around 16, not my biological niece, but we’ll be living together in the future."
Xu Niannian instantly grasped the implied meaning.
She probably felt heartbroken at the thought of frequently seeing her beloved man with her so-called niece in the future.
Xu Niannian didn’t know the full story and wasn’t in a position to comment.
Confessing one’s feelings to a stranger turned out to be simpler than Zuo Qing expected.
The moment she began talking, it was as if a floodgate had opened, and she felt uneasy until she spoke her mind.
"I’m very jealous of her, and I can sense that my beloved man doesn’t have a fixed affection for her. I really want to disrupt their budding relationship before it grows."
"I want to, very much, very, very much."
By the end, Zuo Qing grew agitated yet still spoke softly and gently.
Imagine a very gentle woman confessing her desire to wreak havoc in front of you.
At that moment, Xu Niannian’s head was spinning.
She pursed her lips and asked Zuo Qing, "What kind of disruption do you want to cause?" ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel⚑fire.net
"I want to... I want to..." Zuo Qing bit her lower lip, "I want to tell my so-called niece that he loves me, to get rid of that notion in her mind."
Xu Niannian waited quietly for the rest of the story, "And then what?"
"And then..." Zuo Qing’s voice dropped, "But he doesn’t love me. Even if I ruin their chances, he might end up liking another woman, not me."
After all, if he hadn’t fallen for her in so many years, it seemed a bit difficult now.
Suddenly, Xu Niannian felt that this woman was incredibly reasonable, but for some reason, she found the character of the woman before her a bit amusing.
Who thinks about so many things when they want to do something bad?
Zuo Qing added, "Moreover, that girl is my godfather’s biological granddaughter, very important to him. I don’t want to do anything that might harm the people I love."
After saying all this, Zuo Qing continued, "And... I don’t want to hurt that girl. She isn’t to blame."
Having heard everything, Xu Niannian concluded that this was a woman who wanted to do bad things but didn’t have a bad heart.
She couldn’t help feeling a sense of adorable contradiction.
When Zuo Qing felt overwhelmed, she stuffed the entire Liuyue Su into her mouth, an action that didn’t fit her ladylike image at all.
Sure enough, someone used to eating delicately suddenly stuffing such a large morsel into their mouth ended up choking on it.