“—Yu Juan.”
As Yu Juan’s words fell, the atmosphere instantly became quiet.
He lowered his head to look at Zhou Huiyue who wasn’t far away.
Zhou Huiyue sat by the window. Probably due to a lack of people to take care of him, his figure was excessively thin– the wrists that were resting on the windowsill clearly showed the protruding bones. However, even though he was injured, his face was still as handsome as before. Both his legs were strapped with braces that had some dirt on them. The black straps perfectly bound his legs from top to bottom, as if forcing together something that had completely broken.
Yu Juan recalled their last meeting before his death, when Zhou Huiyue held the crutches and walked with a slight limp. It was the sequela of the car accident.
In the novel, Zhou Huiyue’s first appearance was at a banquet– under a different name, and as a gentleman who had come from afar to prepare to invest. Everyone had surrounded him, deliberately ignoring his physical disability while making comments behind his back. However, even then, this slight disability had no impact on his demeanor.
Unlike the novel’s setting, this was the real world. Perhaps Zhou Huiyue’s legs could have completely recovered originally, but being in such a remote and dilapidated manor meant it was very difficult for doctors to provide timely check-ups, making him miss that opportunity.
Su Li’s brazen actions were because Zhou Heng didn’t care. Zhou Huiyue had been missing for many years and had no resources in Baicheng. Both friends and cooperative partners alike were swayed by money and betrayed Zhou Huiyue when he was still unconscious. Now that Zhou Huiyue was unable to even stand on his feet, it was naturally impossible for him to escape from her supervision and expose her lies.
Zhou Huiyue didn’t ask why Yu Juan had come here. He seemed to have no interest and turned his head back, looking through the empty window frame at the garden outside.
Those overgrown weeds and tall trees didn’t seem to have any meaning and were merely there to look at.
Yu Juan pressed his lips together lightly.
On the way upstairs, Yu Juan had stretched in advance and was prepared to act directly– to catch Zhou Huiyue off guard and settle the score so that they didn’t have to meet again in this life.
As a result, he was the one caught off guard by reality.
Zhou Huiyue’s condition far exceeded Yu Juan’s imagination. When he had first arrived, Yu Juan believed that since Su Li dared to put Zhou Huiyue into such a desolate place, he should at least be healthy– otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to explain it to Zhou Heng if Zhou Huiyue were to die here.
Even if Zhou Heng didn’t care about Zhou Huiyue at present, he still wouldn’t allow the other to die under unclear circumstances.
In regards to this segment of the past, Yu Juan didn’t understand clearly since the novel had no specific descriptions about it.
This wasn’t an abusive novel, but rather a feel-good revenge novel, and the plot began with the protagonist returning to Baicheng to make a name for himself. As for the events of more than ten years ago, there were only the minor details mentioned by the supporting characters. After all, the villains only remembered their own wrongdoings and didn’t look back at their victims.
Although Yu Juan really had a grudge against Zhou Huiyue, he thought that was from before his rebirth– nothing had happened yet for now, so his hatred wasn’t as deep as the sea. He definitely did want revenge, but he someone who had the habit of bullying the old, weak, sick, and disabled. His morals hadn’t stooped that low. It was impossible to carry out the thoughts he had on the way, of beating up the protagonist and running away.
In fact, Yu Juan didn’t have the slightest idea of how to handle the current situation.
An unknown amount of time later, Zhou Huiyue suddenly asked, “Did you come here to break off the engagement?”
He used a tone that was like stating a fact– as if he understood that everyone, whether it was his relatives, friends, or even that stranger he was engaged to, would all without exception break off their relationships with him.
This sentence pulled Yu Juan back from his daydream.
“I just…”
Yu Juan paused, and, for a rare moment, wavered.
He was really good at making decisions without regretting any of them. However, at this moment, there was too much of a gap between reality and what he had imagined.
Yu Juan had seen the male protagonist’s life in the novel– but that story seemed too distant, ten years away. At this moment, the one in front of him was the twenty-two year old Zhou Huiyue who had lost everything and was someone who looked like they could silently die at any time.
It was like the growing pains he experienced at the age of thirteen and fourteen. He clearly understood that the pain would make him grow up, but he still couldn’t sleep well all night and didn’t want to endure even a second of this kind of misery.
Yu Juan let go of the luggage that only had a few things in it in his hand and let it fall to the ground.
He knew that he should’ve left– the instant he saw that Zhou Huiyue’s condition wasn’t suitable for him to take revenge, the second Zhou Huiyue hadn’t answered, the moment before Zhou Huiyue spoke.
Now, it was too late.
Yu Juan could no longer just turn around and leave.
Probably because he personally experienced death not too long ago, his heart trembled slightly and made him unable to just watch someone die in front of him.
Yu Juan made an impulsive decision.
He said, “No.”
At this moment, there was no one else who could take care of Zhou Huiyue other than his nominal fiancé and enemy.
He decided to treat it as an investment for the sake of revenge. If Zhou Huiyue didn’t follow the plot and accidentally died, Yu Juan would never get to take his revenge.
Then wouldn’t he remember this for as long as he lived?
There was no joyous occasion such as reaping without sowing, he comforted himself in his heart.
Yu Juan went a bit closer and stood in front of Zhou Huiyue. The shade of the trees covered him while his own shadow covered Zhou Huiyue’s face. The distance between them obviously couldn’t be considered close, but their shadows overlapped.
He could smell a very faint medicinal scent on Zhou Huiyue.
It was bitter, and it was something Yu Juan didn’t want to smell again.
Yu Juan looked down at Zhou Huiyue with half-lidded eyes and said, word by word, “How can my fiancé have such a dejected and listless appearance?”
He didn’t intend on pretending to be a good person nor did he want to bow his head to anyone, much less towards an enemy.
As for what Zhou Huiyue would think… Surely the protagonist’s mentality couldn’t be so fragile, right?
On his path to revenge, whether it was the villains using the fact that he had been betrayed by his people and had nothing left to his name to stimulate and insult him, or how they used Kang Mian’s name in an attempt to make him soft-hearted, Zhou Huiyue had no reaction and wasn’t the slightest bit shaken.
He was a person with a heart of stone.
When he heard Yu Juan’s words, the protagonist of <The Count of Baicheng>, the Zhou Huiyue who was at the lowest point of his life, finally raised his head to look at Yu Juan.
The second their eyes met, Yu Juan’s heart seemed to have skipped a beat.
In fact, as far as Yu Juan was concerned, that last meeting he had with Zhou Huiyue before his death was blurry. The deepest impression he had was of the other’s seemingly bottomless eyes.
Would a person’s gaze remain unchanged even after fifteen years?
The instant this thought passed in his mind, Yu Juan felt that he was thinking too much.
Zhou Huiyue had raised his head, his gaze fixed on Yu Juan’s body.
Yu Juan didn’t wait for him to say a word and bent down. The strands of hair on the side of his face hung down, making his facial features appear even more beautiful. He then lazily said, “So I’ll stay here and watch you become a fiancé who can meet my standards.”
Yu Juan spoke in a natural manner, as if there was nothing more important than satisfying his own desires in this world, and that the fiancé he doesn’t even remember meeting before had to accept his requirements.
Zhou Huiyue looked at the Yu Juan who was acting like this, and an indescribable expression flickered in his gloomy eyes. He suddenly smiled and said, “Okay.”
It was as if there was finally something that was a little bit worthy of his interest.
