CHAPTER 245: CHAPTER 232 DISTORTED LOVE 2

The youths who stayed up all night had mostly fallen asleep on their desks, with privacy ensured by partitions on each side.

When Li Chengze walked in, the internet cafe attendant couldn’t help but scrutinize his outfit, processed his card, pointed in the direction, and continued dozing off.

He walked carefully and found his spot.

Whether it was because the internet cafe was warm, his limbs, having been cold all night, started to itch and ache.

The computer screen lit up.

Li Chengze, however, sat staring blankly at the pink USB drive in his palm.

After a while, he inserted it into the USB port at the back of the computer.

A reminder icon for a removable disk popped up on the screen, and with trembling hands, he opened the USB drive.

There was only one file in the USB drive, a video clip.

Li Chengze froze for a moment, then looked around for headphones and put them on.

He double-clicked, and the video opened.

"Li Chengze, if you are seeing this video, it proves that our wedding... didn’t go as planned, just as I thought."

In the video, Tu Haohao sat quietly by the bed, wearing a white sweater with a pink cardigan over it.

Li Chengze never expected to see Tu Haohao again in this form.

She was noticeably much thinner than when he first met her, and it was ridiculous that he only realized it now.

After saying the first sentence, Tu Haohao shyly and bitterly lowered her head and smiled slightly.

"You must have broken my heart." She had foreseen everything yet still smiled gently.

"I used to imagine countless times how the two of us would reunite. I imagined a hundred scenarios, but never once did I imagine it would be like this... so embarrassing." Tu Haohao tucked the hair falling by her cheek behind her ear.

Almost simultaneously, Li Chengze also raised his hand, but what he touched was only the cold screen.

"If on the wedding day, I said something to anger you, please forgive the me of that time now, alright? Give me some final rights to be willful with you because I fear... there won’t be another chance like this in the future!" At this point, Tu Haohao seemed a little choked up, and the image paused for three seconds.

— Even if I did it, so what? What? Heartbroken?

— Li Chengze, think clearly, if you walk out of here to find He Nuoxin... the Li Family will be finished, and so will you! The only one who can help you is me, only the Tu Family backing me. Are you sure you want to risk angering me and proceed stubbornly?

Li Chengze’s mind went buzzing and chaotic, striving to suppress the remorse surging in his heart.

"No matter what has happened between us, in my heart, Li Chengze, you... are still the hero who descended from the sky to stand before me back then... still the boy with a sunny smile, a kind heart, but a sharp tongue." Tu Haohao continued softly, her words tearing at Li Chengze’s heart little by little.

"There’s something I don’t dare tell you face-to-face, but I think at this moment you should also know."

Li Chengze clearly saw Tu Haohao’s eyes in the video gradually turning red.

"I’m pregnant, but I’m sorry... I can’t keep this child!"

Tears slid down Tu Haohao’s cheeks, dripping onto the back of her hand.

"My health is too poor. Since the surgery, I’ve been on constant medication. The doctor told me that even if I forcefully keep it, the child might be deformed..."

Her sorrow was evident, yet these were things that Li Chengze never knew.

"I’m sorry, for bringing him into this world out of my selfishness and inability to take care of him properly. And I’m sorry to you. If it weren’t for me pestering you all along..."

Li Chengze repeatedly caressed the screen with his hand, cold and devoid of any warmth.

"No matter what happened on the wedding day, Li Chengze, I want you to know I don’t hate anyone, naturally... I wouldn’t hate you either."

Li Chengze could no longer suppress his surging emotions, fists clenched at his sides as if to draw blood.

"The fate between us was sustained solely by my efforts, and now... I’m tired."

"I set you free, to love the person you want to love, alright? Likewise, I ask one thing of you..."

Tu Haohao reached up to wipe the tears from her face and turned around to take the wedding dress at her side.

"I think, on the wedding day... you didn’t have time to appreciate how I looked in the wedding dress. Now... I’m wearing it for you; please, remember me as I am now..."

She choked up again, yet forced herself to smile.

Before long, Tu Haohao returned in the wedding dress, sitting at the bedside, and lifted her head to gaze at Li Chengze through the screen.

"Is it beautiful?" she asked him cautiously, knowing full well she wouldn’t get any response.

Li Chengze’s handsome face flushed, unable to control his tears as they gushed forth.

"I’ve left you some money, not much, but I think... given my grandfather and mother’s characters, you might need it..."

"This is... the last thing I can do for you."

Tu Haohao waved her hand slowly.

"Li Chengze, goodbye."

That was the last sentence Tu Haohao said in the video.

Suddenly, a heart-wrenching sob broke the silence in the internet cafe...

After nearly twenty hours of tireless emergency rescue by medical experts, even the blood in her body was almost entirely replaced...

The next morning, Tu Haohao was pushed out of the operating room and sent to the intensive care unit.

Although the surgery was considered successful, some regrets were beyond the doctors’ ability to remedy.

For instance, a portion of Tu Haohao’s liver was removed, and due to the miscarriage and fall from height, her uterus was severely damaged, which, with the family’s consent, was ultimately removed.

When Li Yanan conveyed Dean Xun’s words to Lin Zhenxin, she remained silent for a long time.

On the way home, Lin Zhenxin fell asleep heavily in the car.

Last night, it was He Bainian who forcibly took He Nuoxin away from the hospital.

As she left, the look of resentment and hatred in her eyes was deeply etched in Lin Zhenxin’s mind.

He Nuoxin’s pathological extent was beyond her imagination, much like Lin Zhenxin had said...

He Nuoxin was truly the most frightening woman she had ever seen!

Having stayed up all night, there was not a hint of fatigue on Li Yanan’s chiseled face, instead, he exuded depth and restraint.

During the red light interval, he leaned his elbow on the car window and turned to look at Lin Zhenxin.

— You know very well that the man that night... was not Li Yanan at all!

— You know very well that the one who got you pregnant was not Li Yanan!

— You know very well... that the child is not Li Yanan’s!

He could no longer tolerate the way things were with He Nuoxin, even if there was still He Bainian in between!

In the past, due to his guilt towards He Nuoxin and He Bainian, he kept stepping back and giving in, allowing He Nuoxin to repeatedly overstep bounds!

Things had progressed to this point, and he knew he bore an inescapable responsibility!

Last night, Zhenxin’s words woke him up.

All these years, was He Nuoxin really unaware of the truth of that night in the slightest?

Or...

Had she already seen through everything?

"He Nuoxin..." Li Yanan looked at himself in the rearview mirror; his thin lips slowly opened.

"It’s time for it all to end."

He Bainian sat smoking in the living room all night until the ashtray was filled with cigarette butts.

He Nuoxin, in a dark green silk nightgown, stretched lazily as she exited the bedroom, immediately beginning to cough due to the smoke.

"Brother, what’s wrong with you?"

She went over and opened the window, unable to breathe due to the intense smell.

"Was everything Zhenxin said last night... true?"

He Nuoxin turned around; at some point, He Bainian had stood behind her, giving her a fright, which made her pat her chest.

"Lin Zhenxin, Lin Zhenxin... Do her words always become the ultimate truth for you guys? Yannan is like that, so are you... Whose brother are you really?"

He Nuoxin pushed past He Bainian and went to the fridge, pulling it open with a clang to get a bottle of mineral water to drink.

"Nuoxin, I’m willing to do anything for you, but... you can’t lie to me!"

Over the years, He Bainian did all kinds of opposing actions against Li Yanan, all for He Nuoxin. But as he gradually began to realize that the reasons for his past conflicts with Li Yanan were unfounded, He Bainian started reviewing whether he had truly made a mistake, again and again.

He began questioning whether his unconditional indulgence towards Nuoxin over these years was also wrong!

"Brother, I didn’t lie to you. Every word I said is true!"

He Nuoxin stood at the junction of light and shadow; her expression and tone made people feel eerie and sinister.

For a moment, He Bainian said nothing, just looking at her, and the two remained in eye contact for a long while until He Nuoxin grew impatient.

"You are my brother, don’t forget... if you hadn’t left me alone back then, how could I have possibly endured all that? Now... are you really going to doubt me for the sake of an outsider? Didn’t you see with your own eyes back then? It was Yannan... it really was Yannan..."

He Nuoxin’s side profile still bore the mark of being slapped by Lin Zhenxin the night before, her eyes red-rimmed, appearing terribly pitiful.

"Nuoxin, the reason I happened to be on the attic then was because of your message. All this... I didn’t notice back then, but now..."

Now, when he recalls what happened that day...

There were kinds of coincidences and external guides!

"Brother, I said, every word I said... is true!" He Nuoxin impatiently interrupted him, evidently unwilling to continue this topic further.

"Nuoxin, I truly hope every word you say is true!"

Because only then, his errors wouldn’t be so irredeemable.

"Additionally, I only have one more thing to say..."

They faced each other across a distance.

"The ones you can deceive... are always those who trust you the most!"

Li Yanan’s car came to a sudden stop at the entrance of the community.

Lin Zhenxin opened her eyes, and when she saw the man obstructing the car, her face instantly turned solemn and cold.

She instinctively reached out to hold Li Yanan’s large hand, the weariness between her brows overly apparent.

Li Yanan turned his hand and grasped her small hand, while the man blocking the car had already become impatient, stepping forward to fiercely bang on the car window.