CHAPTER 448: CHAPTER 448 SURFACE 2

"Everyone has different sides to themselves. Why can’t you accept this version of me? I will still treat you well."

Ji Yu shook her head, "You wouldn’t understand. I trusted you completely before and believed there were no secrets between us."

But the situation before her told her that things were not as simple as she had imagined.

Perhaps there would be more unexpected events to come.

Ji Yu wasn’t sure if the person she had once known ever truly existed.

"Gu Qixiao, give me some time. I promise I’ll think carefully about the situation between us. Since you already know about us, I don’t want to keep hiding it anymore."

Her expression turned helpless as she spoke.

"Actually, we were once a couple. It’s just that something happened—you were traumatized, and you forgot about me."

"What happened?" Gu Qixiao was eager to know about the past.

Lin Zhiyuan was a little confused. Why had Ji Yu suddenly shifted the tone of the conversation?

"Because I fell for someone else. You couldn’t handle that." Ji Yu said this without blushing or faltering, looking entirely serious.

For a moment, everyone fell silent, perhaps because they hadn’t expected this outcome.

"Now you understand why I’ve been pushing you away, don’t you?" Ji Yu didn’t want to waste any more time here.

"Ji Yu, I don’t believe what you’re saying is true. If it were true, why can’t I seem to hate you?" He trusted his instincts—they told him that the person in front of him was someone he deeply cared about.

"Maybe it’s because, after the trauma, you forgot about my infidelity."

She could only use such a method to temporarily drive him away.

Gu Qixiao indeed appeared devastated, looking as though he couldn’t understand why things had turned out this way.

"Just look at yourself, Gu Qixiao. Have some dignity."

Ji Yu didn’t want to continue discussing these matters.

After she left the restaurant, Lin Zhiyuan followed her.

"Are you really sure about this? Using such an excuse might only deepen the misunderstandings between the two of you. What if he never remembers?"

Perhaps this was something that would depend on fate.

"I have no other options. Treat what I just said as the truth. I hope he won’t come looking for me after this."

She needed time, and she needed space.

"Since your mind is made up, I won’t say anything more. I just hope you’ll eventually find happiness and not let this situation bring you down again."

Lin Zhiyuan patted her shoulder, clearly not wanting to bother her further because of this matter.

But Ji Yu never expected Gu Qixiao to be so relentless.

When she learned about Lin Zhiyuan’s disappearance, the first person she thought of was Jiang Huai.

When Jiang Huai heard about it, he laughed even more gleefully.

"It seems you don’t know your fiancé very well." He had mentioned before that they were the same kind of people; it was just that Ji Yu hadn’t realized it.

"Now do you believe me? We are the same."

The two of them shared too many similar experiences, which made them only trust themselves.

"Jiang Huai, don’t think I’ll believe your nonsense. There’s no way you and Gu Qixiao are the same kind of person." He was a mad dog—how could he be like Gu Qixiao?

"Stop trying to align yourself with him. The two of you will never be the same." She still believed in Gu Qixiao.

Though his actions may have been extreme, he had simply been provoked.

"Ji Yu, even now you’re making excuses for him. Why can’t you make even one excuse for me? If we can’t be lovers, we could at least be friends."

What he resented wasn’t that Ji Yu abandoned him—it was that she hadn’t abandoned Gu Qixiao as well.

They were so alike. Why was only one of them allowed redemption?

"You should understand what I mean by now. You could have saved me too—why did you only save him?"

That’s why he was so jealous.

So unwilling to let go.

"If you had saved me too, maybe none of this would have happened."

"But I don’t even know how to save you. I can’t give you my heart." Ji Yu had long since given her heart to someone else.

From that moment on, the two of them were destined to be entangled in an endless cycle.

"So you won’t even compromise—not even a single false promise to comfort me. Yet, you’re this stingy."

Ji Yu was momentarily at a loss for words, perhaps because the situation in front of her was so painful.

The childhood bond they shared had been completely worn away over time.

"Jiang Huai, stop it. You’re not just tormenting yourself—you’re tormenting me too. I don’t want to deal with this anymore."

The things he had done left her feeling utterly helpless.

"So? You’ve abandoned me again, just to choose him, haven’t you?" Jiang Huai couldn’t quite process his emotions.

"I never even had you—how can you say I abandoned you?" There was never any ambiguity in their relationship, so these words were unnecessary.

From the start, there had been nothing between them.

"The redemption you want, I can’t give you. Go find someone else."

Ji Yu said this with complete calm, as if devoid of ulterior motives.

She couldn’t empathize with his pain or stand by idly while he did such cruel things.

"You have so much blood on your hands—you know that better than anyone else."

"Then this must all be karma," Jiang Huai said bitterly. He didn’t believe in karma, but at this point, he would rather accept that their separation was the result of divine retribution.

"Blood on my hands means we can’t be together. But what about his? Does his not count?" Jiang Huai hung up abruptly after saying this, catching Ji Yu completely off guard.

She didn’t even know how to respond.

Maybe it was because the pain of the moment was too much to bear.

"Gu Qixiao, why have you turned out like this? We could’ve just sat down and talked things through..."