Li Rongrong felt as if all her long-held persistence and beliefs had collapsed.
"Rongrong, I will never harm you," Lu Qinian looked at Li Rongrong with a startled expression, and his dark eyes narrowed slightly. "Just because you're staying by my side, does it make you so afraid of me?"
"Uncle Lu, you've gone mad, you must be insane! You are my uncle, my elder!" Li Rongrong's tears never ceased.
"Rongrong, you're the one driving me crazy! I'm not your real uncle, nor am I your elder!" Suddenly, Lu Qinian stood up and grabbed a diary from the nightstand. He flipped to the last page and faced Li Rongrong. "You wanted to go to a university far away? Did you even choose the farthest place from me? If you could go to the moon, would you fly there directly?"
Li Rongrong trembled. Had Lu Qinian discovered it? How could he have read her diary?
Lu Qinian lifted her chin, his deep gaze penetrating. "You've planned to escape from me, haven't you? Am I not good enough for you? Why do you want to leave? Do you despise me?"
Li Rongrong wiped her face in a disheveled state, speaking as gently as possible, hoping to calm him down. "Uncle Lu, I appreciate and remember your kindness to me! Without you, I wouldn't be where I am today. But, as you said, I have grown up, and sooner or later, I must leave. Besides, we don't have any blood relation. It was because of my mother that you took me away from the Li family. I can't spend my whole life living like this with you. You can't treat me like this..."
Before she could finish her sentence, Lu Qinian interrupted, "Rongrong, I don't want to hear any of this. You know I want someone, and I will have them. You belong to me, and you can only stay by my side."
Lu Qinian's gaze made her feel as if she were his possession. Li Rongrong realized Lu Qinian was beyond redemption. She should have known that someone as superior as him would never grant others the right to choose.
"I can't reason with you. I don't want to see you. Leave!" Li Rongrong was scared and furious. She couldn't believe Lu Qinian had such impure thoughts about her. When did it start? She had always regarded him as an elder, and he had always treated her as a child.
She tried to drive him away, hitting and kicking, but Lu Qinian didn't resist at all. He only spoke softly after Li Rongrong exhausted herself, "You're so strong, want to do something else? Huh?"
The man's fingers provocatively glided across her face. Li Rongrong was instantly petrified, halting her actions and burying herself under the blanket, cautiously observing him. This pervert, what was he saying?
Seeing that she stopped crying and protesting, Lu Qinian raised his eyebrows slightly. "Rest well, and have a good sleep. I'll come to see you tomorrow."
After Lu Qinian left, Li Rongrong sobbed softly. Being claimed as his possession by the elder she had always respected, how could she accept it? Lu Qinian used to be her reliance and source of warmth. Now, everything had shattered!
She glanced at the torn paper on the floor. It was the diary she had written a few days ago. Ever since Yu Xiaoyi got into trouble, she had been planning to leave Lu Qinian!
"Miss Li, those things were our Xiaoyi's fault. Everything that happened to her was her retribution! Now that she has paid the price for what she has done, we will take her away. Please don't come again..."
The words spoken by Mrs. Yu at the hospital kept echoing in Li Rongrong's ears. She wasn't foolish. After some thought, she knew that it was Lu Qinian who had done it.
Xiaoyi was the one who encouraged her to study with Shi Rui at that time. And on Xiaoyi's birthday, she poured that glass of wine. Even those scandalous photos... After all, she had only discussed living in the dormitory with Xiaoyi! There were too many coincidences, but Li Rongrong didn't want to dwell on them. However, she wasn't naive. It would be false to say that she didn't feel heartbroken by such betrayal. Xiaoyi was her first friend in school, and they had been together for three years.
Lu Qinian must have discovered something about the campus network incident, which led him to teach Xiaoyi a lesson. Although Li Rongrong didn't witness the extent of Xiaoyi's suffering, she had a sense of it from the descriptions given by the doctors and nurses. These methods meant nothing to Lu Qinian. However, it was precisely because of this that Li Rongrong had the idea of leaving him!
They were never meant to be together. She appreciated Lu Qinian's attentive care, but his control had made her live cautiously for the past five years. Even if he continued to pamper and protect her, she feared that she would be driven to depression if this situation persisted.