#DeepLove #TragicLove #BE #ModernEra #Romance
Lu Xixi was ugly, but in a rather creative way. Two scars curved on her cheeks, one on the left and one on the right, like parentheses.
Once upon a time, she was a stunning beauty. But in a moment of heated passion, she decided to be a hero like Lei Feng, and the result was those marks on her face.
This proves that not everyone can be a Lei Feng, and that the saying "good things happen to good people" is just a lie.
According to the dermatologist, these parentheses could be removed with a bit of effort.
But Lu Xixi believed there had to be a man out there who valued inner beauty like a mountain and saw outer beauty as fleeting. So she firmly rejected the doctor's suggestion.
After a long period of being ignored by men, she deeply regretted overestimating their depth.
The science guy introduced by the big sister from the logistics department was stunned when he first met her.
Because she was wearing a veil, looking like an unparalleled beauty.
When she took off the veil, the guy stared at her for a long time and finally managed to say, "You should put the veil back on."
Lu Xixi dashed out of the restaurant in a flash.
This event spread through the rumor mill, with multiple versions.
One version said she was so hurt that she ran off covering her face; another said she was so angry that she kicked the guy where it hurts and then fled; yet another version claimed she spotted her crush passing by and couldn't wait to ditch the science guy to chase after him.
Actually, the third version was somewhat accurate.
She did see a man—a tall, handsome man, one who had no business being in T City.
Although Liu Xisheng looked refined, with his black-framed glasses making him seem scholarly, he was actually a brute. He hadn't studied much and was best at giving orders in his own territory, just like a local tyrant.
He rarely left his domain, and when he did, he was always surrounded by a large entourage. If an assassin appeared, they wouldn't even make it close to him before being turned into a pincushion.
If President Lincoln had had such security measures, he probably wouldn't have been assassinated.
So when Lu Xixi saw a solitary Liu Xisheng briefly appear in the twilight, she reflexively ran after him, though she couldn't rule out the possibility that she was seeing things.
If you saw George W. Bush walking past, wouldn't you doubt your own eyesight?
But the more Lu Xixi thought about it, the more it seemed wrong. At twenty-eight (or rather, twenty-eight), her eyesight couldn't have deteriorated that much.
She couldn't shake the feeling that in that 0.01-second glimpse, she even saw Liu Xisheng's thick eyelashes.
She suddenly remembered an old newspaper, which she dug out to find a report on Liu Xisheng. The article was filled with words like "gang warfare," "takeover," and "dominance."
She snorted, crumpling the paper and tossing it on the floor. "No wonder he dares to come out now, with no enemies left."
She was puzzled as to how someone like Liu Xisheng, with his character, hadn't been "tragically cut down" in the crossfire. He should have been a casualty of circumstance by now.
At work, the minister sneaked up to her, spitting out his excitement about how he fought tooth and nail to reserve a top client for her.
Every year, the minister would "fight tooth and nail" for her several times. Although she was ugly, she was the only translator at the agency proficient in four languages.
Whenever a big client came in, the minister would start spitting his excitement at her, as if it took immense effort to get such a high-value client into Lu Xixi's hands.
Actually, the translation agency wasn't much different from a brothel. When a client picked a translator, that translator had to take on the case. Whether it was just translating or something more, depended on personal circumstances.
With her looks, Lu Xixi usually did text translations and rarely went out, for fear of scaring clients.
When she went to the meeting room to see the client, it turned out to be Liu Xisheng, sitting like a lord with his legs crossed.
Lu Xixi had once reminded herself that no matter how she felt when she saw Liu Xisheng, she must smile. Whether it was an innocent smile, a flirtatious smile, or a graceful smile, she could choose freely.
So she immediately smiled, the scars on her face twitching like tadpoles.
But in the next second, Lu Xixi couldn't keep smiling.
Liu Xisheng frowned and asked the minister beside him, "Can we get a less ugly translator?"
Liu Xisheng naturally knew how the scars on her face came to be.
Back then, the one good deed she did in a moment of passion was to take a blade for Liu Xisheng. The foot-long knife slashed across her face, and the pain made her pass out instantly.
Many people said it was a pity, that such a beautiful woman was ruined, and from then on, she would surely fall out of favor.
And she did. Liu Xisheng, bowing to the swirling rumors, severed ties with her.
Before that, she was the only girlfriend that the Fourth Master, Liu Xisheng, openly acknowledged, enjoying the highest level of favor.
Fortunately, Lu Xixi never considered herself Liu Xisheng's savior. Her moral compass was much higher than his, who hadn't received much education.
She forced a smile and said to the minister, "Alright then, get this gentleman a beautiful translator."
The minister, aware of Liu Xisheng's status, didn't dare say anything rash. He wiped his forehead with his sleeve and explained, "Mr. Liu, the only translator in our agency who is proficient in four languages is Lu Xixi. Please make do with her."
She forced a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
He seemed mildly interested, his gaze sweeping across her face, but what he said wasn't anything nice. "A plain woman with such talent is indeed rare."
Lu Xixi replied, "What can I do? Looking like this, I can't rely on my looks to get by. I have to be self-reliant and self-sufficient."
The minister, sensing the hidden tension in her words, quietly tugged at her sleeve.
But it was at this moment that Liu Xisheng made his final decision, "In that case, I'll make do with her."
He said it so well—"make do with her"—as if she were some rag or something else.
No matter. The current Lu Xixi had an invincible shell, impervious to weapons.
But then, she suddenly thought mockingly to herself, in the dead of night, when Lu Xixi's layers of armor peel away one by one, what's left is a heart full of wounds, hidden deep inside, unseen by anyone.
Not even by the one responsible for it all.
The next day, they met in Liu Xisheng's reception room. He was a busy man, and she waited for a full hour.
If she were waiting for a boyfriend today, Lu Xixi would have slammed the table and kicked up a fuss, but it was different with a client. The one paying is the boss, and even if they made her sit there all day, she couldn't utter a word of complaint.
She even smiled slightly at the late-arriving Liu Xisheng, saying, "It's fine. I wouldn't dare move even if I sat here long enough to turn into a statue."
He lazily leaned back into the sofa and casually remarked, "Your temper has mellowed quite a bit after some time. Back then, if you couldn't reach me, you'd call at least once every ten minutes."
Lu Xixi's eyes curved into crescent moons as she smiled, "Ah, when I was younger, I didn't know any better. Sorry for all the trouble I caused you."
"You see, back then, I was just like a pet dog you kept. You threw me a few bones, and I got all full of myself, thinking I was someone important."
"Now, I'm just grateful you didn't put a bullet in such an annoying thing like me."
Everyone said they had never seen Fourth Master treat any woman as seriously as he did her.
He didn't deny the media photos of them holding hands while house-hunting; he hosted a grand birthday party for her and bought her an expensive set of jewelry...
He did all the most romantic things a man could do for a woman.
But he never gave Lu Xixi a sense of security.
He didn't like to smile and rarely smiled at her. His deep, unreadable eyes always left people guessing.
They had the closest of relationships, yet Lu Xixi was the person who knew him the least.
Sometimes, his gifts would arrive like a steady stream, but he might not show up for days.
When she called him, he would speak gently, "Xixi, be good and wait for me. I'll come over as soon as I can."
The longest she ever waited was on the day of the winter solstice.
She made tangyuan and waited for him in the garden, calling him several times until he eventually turned off his phone.
He didn't arrive until the middle of the night, and by then, she had already fallen asleep in the wicker chair.
He explained that he had an important meeting and couldn't get away.
When she got upset with him, he said, "From now on, no meeting will ever come before Lu Xixi."
Such sweet words, yet with her simple mind, she never could have guessed the dirty truth behind them.
It was only after paying a very heavy price that Lu Xixi began to faintly guess the truth.
As Liu Xisheng's beloved woman, she garnered "attention" from various sides, and eventually, due to a security lapse, she was kidnapped one day.
The kidnappers demanded a valuable piece of land from Liu Xisheng in exchange for her. He reassured her over the phone, "Xixi, don't be afraid. I'll definitely come to save you."
That was the time she waited with the most despair, trapped in a small room, anxious and frightened but still full of hope.
The sun rose and set, light and darkness alternated, and the two-day deadline quickly passed. Liu Xisheng, who had promised to rescue her, failed to keep his word.
The kidnappers, enraged, began to beat her. Curled up on the ground, she felt as if something was leaving her body due to the intense pain.
She overheard the kidnappers, now somewhat scared, discussing, "So much blood... Do you think this could lead to a death?"
It was only then that she realized she had been pregnant.
They dumped her by the roadside.
In the sparsely populated, dim evening, no one noticed the bloodied woman hidden in the bushes.
Suddenly, Lu Xixi became strong. She gritted her teeth, her body scraping against the rough gravel as she crawled along the roadside, never daring to look back, knowing that the path behind her was stained with the blood of her child.
To this day, Lu Xixi remembers that hopeless and humiliating struggle for survival, relying solely on her bloodied, raw hands.
Finally, someone found her and sent her to the hospital. As she was wheeled into the operating room, she brushed past Liu Xisheng.
That was the last thing she saw before losing consciousness—Liu Xisheng kissing another female patient's hand and whispering, "Don't worry, no one will notice you. Rest assured and go through with the surgery."
The barely conscious Lu Xixi, who hadn't shed a tear after crawling for two hours, suddenly felt tears roll down her cheeks.
Later, Liu Xisheng also kissed her hand.
But both of her hands were wrapped in bandages, so she couldn't feel the warmth of his lips.
He repeatedly apologized to her, "Xixi, I didn't expect things to turn out like this. I thought it was a foolproof plan that would both save you and capture the kidnappers."
Lu Xixi laughed bitterly inside.
What foolproof plan? He had merely reported it to the police and put on a worried facade.
Everyone thought that Fourth Master Liu Xisheng had been running himself ragged trying to rescue Lu Xixi. In reality, during those two days, he had been at the hospital, accompanying Fan Ruxuan.
He had the kidnappers to thank for using Lu Xixi to draw everyone's attention away.
Her words were sharp and sarcastic, but compared to what Liu Xisheng had done in the past, it was nothing.
If it had been a woman with a weaker constitution, she might have ended up starring in a tragic TVB revenge drama under such relentless pressure.
But Si Ye, having grown accustomed to constant flattery, couldn't bear to hear anything he didn't like.
Usually serious and unsmiling, his expression turned menacing as if he were a mafia boss. He straightened up from the sofa, his dark eyes locking onto Lu Xixi. "A pet dog? You're overestimating yourself."
She burst into laughter, shaking with amusement. "You're right; how could I be a pet dog? I'm probably just a bug. No, an ant, the most insignificant kind, one that deserves to be crushed and scolded for getting in the way."
Perhaps she laughed too hard, as Liu Xisheng frowned. "Stop laughing like that. You're already ugly enough, and smiling like that makes you look like a lunatic from an asylum."
Lu Xixi immediately sat up straight. "Mr. Liu, if you want me to cry, I definitely won't smile. If you want me to smile, I definitely won't cry. You're our translation agency's biggest client, so whatever you say goes."
Unexpectedly, this struck a nerve. A barely perceptible smile crossed his lips as he handed her a document. "This time, the meeting attendees are all renowned figures from various countries. So—"
He dragged out the word, and just as Lu Xixi was wondering if there was some kind of scheme, he delivered the punchline. "So your appearance is crucial. I have a medical team that can handle any kind of cosmetic procedure."
Liu Xisheng's words were so roundabout that Lu Xixi didn't catch on right away. "Huh? Speak plainly."
He suddenly leaned in, gently touching her scar with his fingers. "It's not a deep scar. A minor corrective surgery will fix it."
Lu Xixi wanted to retort, "Bullshit! That cut nearly reached my facial bones."
But she was too startled by Liu Xisheng's actions, her tongue heavy, and she couldn't get a word out.
She had thought Liu Xisheng was merely making a suggestion, but as Lu Xixi was still in a daze, he picked up the phone and instructed, "Prepare for a scar correction surgery."
Did it have to be so sudden? It felt like it had been premeditated for a long time.
She quickly declined his sudden kindness. "No, you probably don't know, but the thing I love most about myself is this pair of parentheses on my face."
"Whenever I see them, I'm reminded of the good deeds I've done, of how I didn't disappoint Uncle Lei Feng, and of how I'm a product of successful education."
Liu Xisheng calmly sipped his tea. "But whenever I see those scars, I feel uncomfortable."
The way he spoke so confidently made Lu Xixi sense that something was off.
She was most afraid of him in this state, as if the whole world was in his grasp while she was left clueless, unable to foresee what was coming.
She forced herself to keep smiling and said, "You're not planning to use me as a shield for Fan Ruxuan again, are you?"
"You need to have confidence in yourself. The newspapers say you're now a dominant force, looking down on all rivals. If you reveal your girlfriend now, no one would dare lay a finger on her."
Her playful attitude was probably infuriating, as Liu Xisheng's eye twitched slightly, and the veins on the hand holding the teacup bulged.
Then, the Liu Xisheng in Lu Xixi's eyes began to double, then triple...
As Lu Xixi's consciousness gradually faded, she suddenly realized how could she have forgotten that he was part of the underworld? How could he ever negotiate nicely with someone? There was nothing he couldn't do if he wanted to.
He had just spiked her tea with drugs, and she had fallen for it. How naive she was.
Lu Xixi loathed the sensation of being drugged while her mind remained clear, unable to control her own body, like a piece of meat on the chopping block.
The first time she was drugged, she lost an unborn child.
The second time she was drugged, a doctor was cleaning the fresh, bloody scars on her face.
As she lay in the hospital bed, she vaguely saw a woman named Fan Ruxuan standing beside her, curiously studying her face.
After a while, Fan Ruxuan smiled and said, "Xisheng, the scar on her face looks like a right parenthesis. Parentheses always come in pairs, but she only has one. Let's give her another one."
At that time, after taking a knife meant for Liu Xisheng and being disfigured, Lu Xixi's thick eyelashes trembled as she heard Liu Xisheng pause for a moment before saying, "Sure, Ruxuan, whatever you want."
Fan Ruxuan approached with a scalpel, her smile sweet yet cruel.
Since then, every day that Lu Xixi looked in the mirror, she reminded herself that one of the scars on her face was because of Liu Xisheng, and the other was because of Fan Ruxuan.
She would rather live as a plain woman for the rest of her life than ever again be a foolish girl who would sacrifice everything for a heartless man.
She struggled to hold on to her fading consciousness, gripping the sharp edge of the table so hard that the pain was deep and clear. Desperately, she screamed, "Liu Xisheng, if you go through with this surgery, we're done!"
In front of the Fourth Master, it was a feeble protest and threat.
Yet, her fierce gaze shook him, causing him to waver slightly in his decision.
But he truly hated the scars on her face—so jarring, so glaring, like a constant reminder of judgment and accusation.
Those two scars: one proved that Lu Xixi loved him, and the other proved to Fan Rushan that he did not love Lu Xixi.
"Liu Xisheng, if you remove the scars, then I owe you nothing," he said, as much to her as to himself.
He insisted on restoring Lu Xixi's appearance, only to ease his own guilt.
He thought that human emotions were like sand on a beach—just brush it away, and all traces would be gone.
As Lu Xixi lost consciousness, he carried her into the operating room.
Not long after, the doctor informed him, "Master, Miss Lu's muscles are extremely tense, her body is occasionally convulsing, it seems she's strongly resisting the surgery. In this state, it's not suitable to proceed."
Through the sterile glass, he could see her face under the surgical light, small and resolute, with her eyes moving rapidly beneath her eyelids.
It was said that when people have nightmares, their eyes move like this—the faster the movement, the worse the nightmare.
Ever since she escaped from the kidnappers, she often woke up in the middle of the night, startled.
But she no longer shook him awake to recount the details of her dreams. Instead, she would quietly sit alone, hugging her knees for a long time.
That was when Lu Xixi began to change, becoming more silent, rarely smiling, and often lost in thought, her eyes vacant.
He thought it was because of the miscarriage.
Sometimes, he even thought it was just as well that the child was gone—after all, he would never have allowed her to give birth to his child.
A pawn has no chance of becoming a mother.
Perhaps because of that unborn child, or perhaps because he needed to keep using her to attract attention, he treated her better and better, so much so that the media constantly reported on Fourth Master Liu's deep and unwavering affection.
His public displays of affection for her were actually to protect Fan Rushan.
He was too dangerous—so many eyes were watching for a chance to bring him down.
He used this tactic to mislead and divert attention, and it was very successful. Lu Xixi indeed took many hits meant for Rushan.
He always thought she didn't know.
One night at dinner, she suddenly mused, "Affection and love shouldn't be placed together because affection doesn't equal love."
His brow furrowed as he looked up at her.
She seemed to be joking, her eyes curved into a faint smile.
That smile was like the one she wore now—full of self-mockery and sarcasm, making him want to wipe it away.
She tilted her head, gazing at him slowly, "Xisheng, you shower me with affection, but you—"
She paused, teasing him, and for some reason, he felt a hint of panic, afraid she would tear through the facade and end the charade.
But she was eating and choked on her words, coughing until her face turned red.
He poured her water, gently chiding, "No talking while eating or sleeping. See? This is the result."
The interruption made her drop the subject.
They never spoke of love. Despite their embraces, kisses, and intimacy, he never once told her, "I love you."
Being the serious man that he was, she never took it to heart, even firmly telling him, "People who talk about love all the time are the ones who care the least."
In the end, when he gave her a sum of money and cut ties with her, she said, "So, people who never talk about love aren't necessarily good either."
That was the harshest thing she ever said to him. He thought that after treating her like this, she would hate him to the core, they would tear each other apart, and exchange bitter words.
But she was always different from what he imagined.
When she left, she didn't take anything but a small suitcase packed with the money he had given her. She even joked with him, "If I get robbed, it'll be bad luck for me. I kind of hope I do get robbed, so I won't have anything left that's connected to you."
To this day, he remembers her lonely figure walking away, trying to appear carefree but radiating a loneliness and despair that was hard to watch.
Snapping out of his long reverie, Liu Xisheng tiredly waved his hand, "Forget it, cancel the surgery."
The doctors under him were surprised, complying but not daring to ask why.
He had once placed great importance on this surgery, demanding they practice it over and over, striving for perfection.
Lu Xixi probably didn't know that the two scars etched on her face were also deeply engraved in his heart, ensuring he would never find peace.
He always told himself that the urge to see her again was driven by guilt, that preserving her room just as she left it was also driven by guilt.
He explained all the feelings he couldn't understand as guilt, even when Rushan left him, crying, saying, "No, no, you've already fallen in love with her."
He still wouldn't admit it was love.
His subordinates were clever enough to read his mood. When finding a translator for the conference, they casually mentioned, "Turns out Miss Lu is now the chief translator at the T City Translation Office—quite impressive, she's fluent in four languages."
He finally found an excuse to see her again, finally had a reason to deceive himself.
Lu Xixi woke up with a cheeky grin, looking into the mirror and pretending to be overwhelmed with gratitude. "Mr. Liu, you really are the reincarnation of Buddha, with the heart of a Bodhisattva. When I get back, I'll definitely set up a shrine for you and light incense every morning and night."
The remnants of the anesthesia still lingered in her system, making her walk unsteadily, needing to support herself against the wall.
As he looked at her irritatingly cheerful face, an unnamed anger rose within him, burning his insides with a scorching pain.
"You must really hate me, don't you?" He couldn't hold back any longer, blurting out as he gripped her arm tightly. "Isn't it exhausting to keep smiling at me so insincerely?"
She had always described his eyes as a calm, deep sea, but now they were raging, with dark currents swirling like a typhoon had struck.
Lu Xixi met his gaze for a long moment before flashing a grin. "Hating you would be too tiring. I'm already too ugly to be anyone's pawn now. If I wasted more energy hating someone, I'd probably starve to death."
"This isn't just any smile—I've practiced it for a long time. Even if I faced an enemy I wanted to skin alive, I could still smile brighter than a flower."
His face twitched with anger, and he threw her to the ground.
Unable to stand, she crawled, dragging herself to the sofa, where she struggled to sit up.
He gritted his teeth. "Lu Xixi, you're doing this on purpose."
She widened her eyes in mock innocence. "How could I be doing it on purpose? If I weren't dressed so nicely today, I would've crawled all the way back."
"Unlike that day, when I was filthy, covered in blood, discarded like garbage—no one could tell there was a person in the bushes."
"I just kept crawling and crawling. My hands hurt so much, and my stomach hurt too."
"But I'm a coward who's afraid to die. I thought, if I don't crawl to where there are people, I'm dead for sure, so no matter how much it hurt, I kept crawling."
"Oh, have you ever seen a sea cucumber? The way I crawled probably looked just like that."
With a loud bang, Liu Xisheng slammed the door as he stormed out, afraid that if he stayed any longer, he might lose his mind.
Finally, she was quiet, hugging her knees as she waited for her strength to return.
After a long while, she touched her face and felt tears. She was puzzled—why was she crying? Hadn't she promised herself she would smile?
Both he and she were masters of maintaining appearances. During the meeting, they worked together seamlessly. She translated with ease and occasionally flashed him professional smiles, making it seem to outsiders like they were close friends.
Life had pushed Lu Xixi into this role. Once full of arrogance and defiance, unafraid to show her true feelings, she had once dared to yell and throw tantrums at him. Now, even though she privately despised him, her face was always adorned with smiles.
As he watched her lively face from behind the files, he momentarily felt that the scars on her face had vanished, and she was as beautiful as ever.
The meeting ended as night fell, and a heavy rain began. Before he could speak, she said, "Given our past connection, Mr. Liu, may I ask for a ride?"
In reality, it wasn't a matter of convenience. His hotel and her apartment were in opposite directions.
She fell asleep shortly after getting into the car, clearly exhausted.
The rain-covered window had a thin layer of mist, obscuring the world outside.
Everything had changed, but her habit of falling asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow remained, as if it were from a different lifetime.
As he drove slowly, he found himself wishing that time could stop at this moment, even if she was asleep.
He didn't know exactly when he had fallen in love with her. Maybe it was when she threw a tantrum, or when she stubbornly refused to compromise with him, or when she waited with a stern face for him to show up.
Yet, women have a keen eye for detail. Ru Xuan had likely noticed early on and once asked him, "It seems like you're avoiding someone."
He had used work as an excuse to avoid her for days, hoping that this obsession would fade away.
But instead, her smiling face kept appearing in his mind, with the lines of her smile etched clearly.
In the past, Ru Xuan would joke about Lu Xixi's beauty, "Lu Xixi is quite pretty. You wouldn't really like her, would you?"
But eventually, such jokes stopped.
When Ru Xuan was undergoing heart surgery, Lu Xixi was being kidnapped.
Ru Xuan said to him, "Let's leave it at that. Your opponents are nearly all gone, and my health will soon be restored."
"Let's leave it at that. Let her die at the hands of those people, giving your story a natural conclusion and giving me a clear reason to stand by your side."
He agreed.
He had never refused any of Ru Xuan's requests.
He was desperately trying to prove that he still loved Ru Xuan and that Lu Xixi was merely a disposable pawn.
He hated the feeling of things being out of his control and was determined to return everything to its original state, even deceiving himself in the process.
After Lu Xixi escaped, he thought she must have seen through it and was unwilling to be a pawn anymore.
But she had been quiet for a long time, even believing his lies about being unable to rescue her.
Only later did he realize that she had been waiting for an opportunity to repay him.
After all, it was he who had rescued her from arms dealers, and he had told her he wanted to keep her by his side.
Lu Xixi chose a brutal way to repay him.
When their negotiations with the other side broke down and they faced each other in battle, she had jumped in front of him to block a knife, which sliced from her brow bone to her chin.
She bled heavily, staining his hands, but she still smiled weakly and said, "It's nothing. Much less blood than when I miscarried."
She was taken to the hospital, and in the operating room, Ru Xuan and he stood by.
He hid his trembling hands behind his back, pretending to be inscrutable, and couldn't even bear to look at Lu Xixi's face.
Ru Xuan glanced at him and suddenly said, "I was wrong last time. After all, having been with you for so long, it's too harsh to have her leave this way."
"Now that she's disfigured, I'm sure everyone will understand why the Fourth Master would not want such an ugly woman. No one will suspect."
She added, "The scars on her face look like a right parenthesis."
"Parentheses come in pairs, but she only has one. Let's give her another one."
"To ensure that she won't be bothered by anyone after she's gone, she must be made utterly unattractive."
She smiled, "Xisheng, are you feeling heartbroken?"
His hidden hand had clenched into a fist. "Let Ru Xuan do whatever she wants."
He never wanted to experience such painful torment again, an ache that gnawed at his bones and lingered endlessly.
Liu Xisheng reached out to touch Lu Xixi's face, but before his hand could make contact, she suddenly woke up, staring at him without moving, causing his hand to freeze.
She smiled, "Oh, it seems there's something about me besides my face that keeps Mr. Liu on his mind, trying to take advantage while I'm asleep."
He swallowed hard and stammered, "I... I can compensate you... if you stay by my side, I..."
"How will you compensate? By becoming your woman again? Oh, that's not going to happen." Her smile grew wider, pressing on her chest, "Without my clothes, this place is just a hole—no heart."
But her eyes remained serious, unwavering.
He suddenly understood that every time she wore a playful smile, it was like reopening a wound to let it bleed again.
She would rather endure the pain anew than let him see her suffering through those self-mocking words.
Who said she no longer hated him? Her hatred was just more sophisticated.
It turned out he was powerless, unable even to look at her.
His presence only served as a reminder of her past pain.
Lu Xixi opened the car door and stepped out with a graceful demeanor, "Goodbye, Mr. Liu. Remember to settle the money and the translation fees. My rates are quite high."
He rolled down the car window, the rain wetting his face, and said, "Goodbye, Miss Lu."