Jiang Yao practically shot up from her bed. She gripped her phone tightly, her countless calls having been in vain. She could easily imagine the scene of her sister confronting Chen Yuan right now.
She didn’t even have time to blame her sister. She frantically grabbed her things, got out of bed, and quickly put on her shoes.
Grabbing her jacket from the coat rack in her bedroom, Jiang Yao was still trying to stop Jiang Ning from blowing up at him over the phone.
"Hello? Can you hear me? Jiang Ning! We had an agreement, and now you’re pulling this stunt on me?"
"I knew I couldn’t trust you! What am I supposed to do if you blow up now? How am I supposed to know what you and he agreed on!? Jiang Ning, you brute, you bitch, are you even listening to me?"
"Assholes! You’re all fucking assholes!"
Jiang Yao frantically grabbed a nearby stuffed doll and took her anger out on it. There was no response from Jiang Ning on the other end of the line, only a silence—a terrifying silence.
Listening for any new sound from the phone, she gritted her teeth and headed out the door.
Her destination, of course, was Fengting District.
Her lovely grey tights and leather shoes flashed past in the apartment building’s narrow hallway, leaving behind a fragrant scent. No one saw her figure disappear like the wind.
...
「Meanwhile, in Fengting District.」
「In the living room.」
Chen Yuan’s face grew paler and paler with each question. His brain froze, and his eyes darted about as he looked at the woman before him.
In the face of the truth, explanations were futile and weak.
He couldn’t wrap his head around how "Jiang Yao" knew he was two-timing them. For a moment, his thoughts were in complete chaos.
"I... I didn’t."
"You didn’t what? Tell me."
His words only made Jiang Ning more furious. Her tone finally became an interrogation, her intense gaze forcing Chen Yuan to look away, unable to meet her eyes.
"What are you still denying at a time like this?" she continued.
"Chen Yuan, now! Immediately! Speak! Weren’t you so talkative just a moment ago?"
’What could he possibly say...’
Chen Yuan looked at Jiang Yao with a complicated expression. Even now, he still didn’t suspect the identity of the "Yaoyao" before him. Perhaps her performance just now had been too convincing, or perhaps it no longer mattered who was standing in front of him.
He clearly felt a scalp-numbing pressure.
"I wasn’t proud of it, and I wasn’t enjoying it. To be honest, I’ve been suffering, too."
"Bullshit!" Jiang Ning cursed, something she rarely did, her delicate brows shooting up in fury.
It had to be said that Ningning was truly gorgeous. Even her angry expression was so captivating it was enough to make a man want to kneel and let her kick him a couple of times...
"...Fine. I admit I lied to you."
"You shouldn’t put it like that, Chen Yuan. You should say you were playing both sides, deceiving both of us! It was not only meticulously planned but also premeditated. You were hiding one from the other, taking advantage of my trust, my love for you... You thought you’d pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes, and now that you’re exposed, what else can you do but admit it? Why don’t you keep up your stubborn act? I want to see you perform... Go on, say you love me most. Say it! Why aren’t you saying it!"
Chen Yuan stumbled backward from the tirade. If not for the sofa behind him, he would have looked for a crack in the wall to hide in.
At that moment, he understood.
’How could this person before him be Yaoyao?’
’Jiang Yao couldn’t possibly exude such an intimidating aura...’
’That chilling gaze, that interrogating tone... who else could it be but the one and only "Divine God Jiang Ning" of their little trio?’
’She really knows how to blow up.’
Chen Yuan felt like a schoolboy being scolded by his teacher, not daring to even breathe too loudly.
He swallowed hard.
"Ningning... I have my reasons for this, really. Can we talk about this calmly? Please stop yelling. I have my own reasons."
"?" A strange, utterly mocking smile appeared on Jiang Ning’s lips. She scoffed, "Oh, wonderful. What did you just call me? Now you know I’m Jiang Ning, you have the nerve to call me Ningning? Weren’t you so happy~ so enjoying yourself~ just now when you were pouting and calling out for ’wifey Yaoyao’?"
"..."
"Speak!"
Chen Yuan flinched and hurriedly said, "I was wrong... I know I was wrong."
"You know? No, you don’t. You don’t know a single thing. I really don’t want to recall the look on your face just now. What ’reasons’ could you possibly have? You were clearly having the time of your life... More than once, truly, more than once, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night and Jiang Yao wasn’t in her bed. Where did she go, huh? Can you tell me that? Do you really take me for an idiot, Chen Yuan?"
’Did she want to explode like this?’
’She didn’t.’
’She didn’t want to make the situation so ugly, to lash out at the boy she liked most, the one who had given her the sweetness of love... Instead, she’d been making up excuses, coaxing herself, turning a blind eye in the hope that time would help Chen Yuan mature and learn to make a choice.’
’Wasn’t that magnanimous and tolerant enough?’
’What girl could accept sharing a boyfriend with another woman, no matter who that other woman was?’
’She and Jiang Yao had indeed hidden their relationships from Chen Yuan before, but that was always with the understanding that only one of them would remain in the end.’
’From the very beginning, she could never accept this kind of relationship. She had continuously broken her principles and lowered her standards, and in the end, it was all because of love.’
After the brief storm, Jiang Ning’s eyes were red.
Chen Yuan’s heart was also twisting in agony.
’From the moment he chose this path, he knew that to do what ordinary people wouldn’t even dare to imagine, he had to endure pain that ordinary people could not bear. Otherwise, how could he possibly deserve two such wonderful girlfriends?’
Chen Yuan had considered the consequences of his deception being exposed, but Jiang Ning’s perceptiveness had exceeded his expectations.
After her outburst, Jiang Ning was eager to hear what Chen Yuan would say. She fell silent, crossing her arms as she watched him.
"I don’t want to lie to you," Chen Yuan sighed, knowing there was no way to argue his way out of this. "Everything you said is true. I did all of it. That day by the river, I promised you I would sort things out with Jiang Yao as soon as possible. That was a lie. When I said I’ve only ever loved you from the beginning, that was also a lie..."
"Hah." Jiang Ning turned her head away, fighting the urge to slap him.
"I love Jiang Yao. I love her a lot. I can’t imagine my life without her. Ever since I got together with her, every day has been so happy. She’s like sunshine to me. Do you understand that feeling? Even though she has a completely different personality from you—she throws tantrums, she’s willful, and sometimes she does absurdly silly things—I just really love her. I want to stand by her side and watch her live so carefree and happy, like watching a flower bloom."
"If you love her, then what am I to you?" Jiang Ning shot up in a rage, her hand poised to slap him across the face.
However, Chen Yuan said calmly:
"Go ahead. I won’t dodge."
"Don’t think I can’t bring myself to do it. Right now, I want nothing more than to chop you into pieces and throw you in a pot," she said hatefully.
"But I love you, too. My love for you is even more sincere than my love for Jiang Yao. At the very least, I’ve never thought of giving you up for her, but I *have* thought about giving her up for you... Jiang Ning, do you know how tormented I’ve been since I had that thought? I feel so agitated every day. She’s so good to me, and yet I think such things... With you, I feel like I’ve met an equal soul. Our love for each other isn’t bound by anything in this world. This is what I’ve always yearned for... respect, equality, and always envisioning a future whenever we hold hands..."
"You don’t have to make it sound so poetic," Jiang Ning said, sitting down coldly.
Although her words were harsh, she was indeed somewhat soothed by his confession.
"I know what I did was wrong. I apologize to you, and I can apologize to Yaoyao, too. I took advantage of your feelings for me to deliberately create this ’balanced’ situation. If you want, I can even write a letter of confession."
"That’s not necessary!"
"But even if I wrote a thousand confessions and apologized ten thousand times, I would still want to tell you this, Jiang Ning..." Chen Yuan’s tone grew more and more serious as he stared into her eyes. "Marry me. Will you? Along with Yaoyao."
"What did you say???"
"I know saying this will probably get my face slapped swollen, and I know it’s not romantic or well-timed, but I have my reasons."
"Bullshit reasons, my ass! Get over here!"
The next second, Jiang Ning grabbed Chen Yuan by the ear, making him howl in pain.
Apparently, the thick skin Chen Yuan had cultivated recently was beyond her imagination. She hadn’t even finished holding him accountable for his outrageous mistakes, and yet he dared to say something so ridiculous.
Jiang Ning felt she had truly been too gentle with Chen Yuan from the very beginning, letting him forget who she was when they first met.