She looked at the man before her in almost disbelief. At this moment, Yu Zexiao seemed to have lost all the fury he had just now, as well as the arrogance, disdain, resentment, and various other negative emotions! His eyes were like two deep pools that seemed to drown someone with just a glance.
"What, what did you say?"
"Anning, don’t leave me. I care about you—" His last word was swallowed between his lips and teeth as he had already stretched out his arms, holding her tightly, his lips gently approaching hers.
Only when he was holding her, her body in his embrace, his lips touching the corner of hers, did all the unease, anxiety, anger, and jealousy of the past few days seem to vanish.
It was as if something had been cleaned away, and he held her tight, feeling himself suddenly calm down.
Perhaps, even to this moment, he still felt that this reassuring power wasn’t love. Shouldn’t love be like catching a cold or a fever, dizzying and exciting? This feeling of peace he got from having her, just like a child in its mother’s arms, breathing contentedly.
But even if it wasn’t love, he deeply realized—
It wasn’t she who couldn’t live without him; it was he who couldn’t live without her.
That was enough, just having her was enough, even if it wasn’t love, he had the confidence to keep going.
Jian Anning gently pushed him away: "Enough."
"Why?" Yu Zexiao looked at her, puzzled.
He had confessed so meekly. Why then, did she still push him away? Could it be that she truly had fallen for Situ Xuan and was rejecting him?
"Who knows if what you say about caring is just you lying to me?" Having been toyed with by him too many times, Jian Anning felt uneasy.
She was afraid—afraid that the recent calm was nothing more than Yu Zexiao’s way to coax her into changing her mind, a pretext for wooing her back! She needed to observe, to assess, before deciding whether to forgive him this time!
"I need proof! Proof that what you just said wasn’t meant to tease me!"
"How do you want to prove it?" The feeling just now was too wonderful, and Yu Zexiao, unable to resist, stepped forward again, wanting to continue tasting her sweet lips.
"I need to assess!" This time, although she still firmly pushed him away, her expression had softened a lot.
"If you truly care about me. During the assessment period, you are not allowed to touch me inappropriately, you can’t get angry arbitrarily, and you can’t announce our relationship to the public! If you break the agreement, I will never get back together with you!"
This time, she managed to turn the tables beautifully! Even the light in the corner of her eyes seemed to sparkle.
"Who knows what you want to assess?" Yu Zexiao was somewhat irritated. He wasn’t about to agree to Jian Anning’s ’impractical’ ideas! The kiss just now was too good, and he hadn’t had enough!
If they made up and he couldn’t touch her, then what was the point of reconciling?
"That’s out of the question! If you keep this up, I absolutely won’t be with you!" Jian Anning said with determination: "Accept the assessment, or break up immediately, the choice is yours!"
-------------------------
When they got back, as per the agreement, neither of them mentioned anything to Shen Lanxiao.
Yu Zexiao simply said that after meeting with Nie Anni, they realized they were not quite suitable for each other.