Shui separated him from Cai Lingyun. "Stop it Jin. Why are you beating him up? Jun will already take care of what happened. If anybody sees you acting so violent-"
"So? What's it to you?" Jin spewed out rigid and unyielding words.
Shui gritted her teeth. "What's got into you, Jin? One moment you say that you don't want to apologize to Jun for how you behaved and now you are getting furious at Cai Lingyun for insulting him? Why do you care about him now?"
"None of your business," he coldly rebuked.
Shui balled her palm. She stared down at Cai Lingyun with displeasure. "Leave. Do you want to stick around for him beating you even more?"
"Also, don't act like a jerk for everybody's sake. Don't mess with our families. You are already in deep trouble for targeting Jun and me like that," she icily remarked. "Trying to bring me and Jun into a bad light won't get you anywhere, and you will soon face the consequences for doing that."
Cai Lingyun felt agitated and irked by her tone and threat. But before the pain which shot up in his stomach and arm, he had no energy to retort or fight back. He struggled to stand on his feet. Giving Jin a nasty glare, he limped and left.
Shui let out a breath. She then stared at Jin and exclaimed in frustration. "People still pass by this lake. Did you want to cause a ruckus by beating up a man for no reason?"
Jin sneered. "I don't need to explain myself to you."
"You do! You have a lot of explaining to do! Why are you acting with Jun like that? Why are you suddenly ignoring me and saying that you hate me? You don't have to love me back if you don't feel the same way for me, but why so much hatred for me?" Towards the end, her eyes were beginning to tear up.
"Bro Nian told me how you ruined Zhou Ai's meal purposely yesterday that Jun cooked for her. Clearly, you have some enmity with Jun. But now you wanted to punish Cai Lingyun for messing with him. Just what do you want, Jin? Sometimes you behave one way and other times, you behave completely differently!"
Jin turned the other way and headed to leave when Shui blocked his way. "Jin, I am talking to you!"
"But can't you understand that I don't want to talk to you? Get out of my way."
"Jin please…tell me what's going wrong. I know that Grandpa chose Zhou Ai for you and you…" her heart ached to admit it, "You might have developed an interest in her. But isn't this going too far? You just met her only once. You don't even know anything about her. Will you really hate Jun so much because he is dating her?"
"Heh so does it automatically mean that I should date you?" Jin mocked her.
She clenched her jaw tightly. "You know I don't mean it that way! Why are you giving things a different direction? I mean that your interest in her cannot be so deep enough for you to resent your own brother, especially Jun whom you always followed since childhood more than Uncle, Aunt, Bro Jian, Bro Nian, Sis Nuo or anybody else in the family."
Jin stared at her in deep thought. He then slowly approached her with light steps, making her heart skip a beat. It reminded her of the time when he leaned closer to her at the restaurant.
"Even after telling you so many times, you refuse to stop interfering in my life. Do you like me so much that even after my rejection, you continue to bother me? You already stalked me to Shanghai. What more do you want?"
Shui slightly trembled. She was unsure if it was because of the chilly wind or Jin's heartless words.
"I didn't stalk you here."
"Oh? Then what is the purpose of your great presence here?" He chuckled. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel-fire.ɴet
"That I-...I came here to meet my online friends who invited me to the fest."
"And who is this online friend?"
She wanted to say Warlord, but Guiying didn't want that secret to be out.
"Heh. Some imaginary excuse of yours?"
She glared at him. "I met him at the fest! Just because you didn't see him with me doesn't mean that I am lying! If you want, I will show you the chat!"
But her phone had already run out of battery.
"It got switched off, but I will show my chat. Do you really think I will stoop so low to stalk you?" More than anger, she felt hurt for his distrust towards her.
Jin laughed. "Do I really think that? Yes, I do. You can go to any lengths," he emanated even more of a deadlier aura as he trembled. "Even if it would hurt others, as long as it got your work done, you would go as far as you could."
She looked at him, bewildered.
"Say Shui…" he smiled as he twirled her hair. "What will it take for you to get the hell out of my life?" He bent and whispered, "Will it be enough for you if we slept together?"
"That should satisfy your-"
The sound of a loud slap thundered in the air, forcing Jin to separate from Shui.
"Is it that you don't understand things until you get a slap on your face?"
Jin faintly touched his cheek and chuckled as he recognized Ai's voice. He faced her, narrowing his eyes. "Can you not barge in with slaps whenever you wish?"
Ai dangerously stepped forward, not looking away from him. "Then you have to stop acting like a despicable man first."
She glanced at Shui, who was trembling hard with what she had just listened to Jin asking her.
It was fine if he said he hated her.
It was fine if he was ignoring her.
But asking to have sex just so that she could let him go? It was as if he was implying that…
Ai firmly held her hand and pressed her palm against hers. "Please snap out of it, Shui. You don't have to waste your tears on a man like him who doesn't respect your love."