February 10, 2022

Chapter 70: Pains

Yansheng’s anger reached its peak.

This anger was expressed by her chilling gaze, which only caused Lichen to smile more happily. “I won’t do it!

“If you have the guts, then strangle me.” He provoked her. “Come on! Kill me for your love, that’ll be good!”

But of course, it was impossible for Yansheng to kill him.

Even Yansheng understood in her heart that half of her raging anger was because of Zhiyuan’s incident, and the other half was because of Lichen himself.

At the beginning of her rebirth, Yansheng regarded him as a person who was from ‘three years ago’. They were separated after graduation, each had their own lives and circles, and by the time she died, they never had any contact.

She originally intended to treat Qian and Lichen as if they never crossed each other, like two parallel lines.

But in the same school, in the same corridor, in the same cafeteria, and on the same playground, Lichen’s hot gaze was still the same as in her previous life. Every day, they would run into each other, pass by, and glance back obliquely.

Those memories became clearer day by day.

She couldn’t deny that in her most vulnerable, most sensitive, and hysterical teenage years, when she often collapsed, Lichen had always been by her side.

He held her hand, put his arm around her shoulders, stroked her hair, said the most arrogant and nasty words, and once lent her his shoulders to lean on.

It was only because Qian was in the middle that they failed to become lovers in the end.

He was the one she set up as her speed dial key ‘1’. His speed dial key ‘1’ was also set for her.

This was a little secret that Qian didn’t know. They also had many similar little secrets and tacit understanding.

At that age, for Yansheng, who seemed to treat the whole world as an enemy, Lichen was almost the most important person in her life and the only person she could trust with all her heart. Later on, time and space erased these tacit understanding and trust.

But now, the more time passed, the more Yansheng knew that it was impossible for her to cut off her ties with Lichen in the same way that she had cut off her connection with Qian.

She looked at him angrily and found it interesting. She was happy to see his progress in learning. She saw that he was suffering from a second-grader mindset, and she couldn’t wait to beat him up on the spot like Shuocheng.

This fool couldn’t understand her feelings at all. He had not experienced death and rebirth like she did. After all, he was still a stupid teenager who was only fifteen years old.

He hadn’t grown up yet.

Yansheng stared at Lichen’s arrogant smiling face and made a fierce expression.

People had to grow up, sooner or later. Either it was up to others to push him to grow up, or it was up to her.

She loosened his throat and smiled coldly.

Lichen stared at her with fascination.

He didn’t know why she showed such an indescribable expression. Her eyes seemed to be fierce and sad.

But she stared at him intently. From the moment he was surprised by her in the school hallway, her eyes never seemed to look at him seriously.

The way she stared at him now could be described as cold, fierce, and cruel.

D*mn it! Beauty is really deadly!

Yansheng suddenly grabbed his shirt, crossed it over her knee that was pressing against his chest, and leaned down towards him.

At that moment, Lichen thought she was going to kiss him. The fireworks exploded in his mind, the blood rushed down him like a waterfall, and he had a direct physical reaction.

But the expected soft lips did not kiss his lips, Yansheng’s lips were pressed to his ear.

Her voice seemed to be charming, and the heat of her breathing pierced his ears and eyes. Electric currents ran wildly around his body.

What is she saying?

“You are so arrogant, but don’t you just rely on your family? You think you own the whole world, that the world revolves around you, right? Lichen, let me tell you something…”

Yansheng gently tore Lichen’s world apart.

“You are not an only child.”

[You are not an only child.]

This sentence entered Lichen’s brain, which was both ischemic and hypoxic. After lingering for a long time, it was finally accepted by his cerebral cortex, digested and absorbed, and understood its meaning.

He became sober but lost his voice for several seconds before saying, “What are you talking about?”

He couldn’t believe it and thought it was a joke.

That Yansheng was just teasing him.

Yansheng supported the tabletop with one hand, grabbed his shirt with the other, raised her face, and looked at him. Her face was very beautiful, but fierce and cruel.

“Do you feel that you are living a particularly happy life? Both your parents are an entrepreneurial couple, successful and affectionate, aren’t they? It’s all fake.

“You have a half-brother who is the same age as us and only a few months younger than you.

“Your mother found out about it a long time ago. It’s only a matter of time before your parents tear their faces. The two of them can’t live together anymore.”

The breakdown of Lichen’s world was actually something that should have happened only next semester.

His father finally discovered that his mother was transferring assets, and the two finally stopped pretending to be in love and officially tore each other faces. A tearing battle over divorce and assets dispute kicked off.

It was hard to describe all the bloodshed in this story.

The once perfect and loving couple became hostile to each other. Their methods in dealing with each other were not just ruthless but the most ruthless ones.

The most intense one was when his father went to negotiate at the invitation of his mother. His mother ambushed them and planned to tie up her husband and send him to a mental hospital for compulsory treatment. She had already cleared all the critical points and arranged everything, including fake cases, and he was almost sent in.

She just wanted to send him in with a dozen sedatives and a few bottles of medicine. If he was not mentally ill, then he would be mentally ill in no time.

Losing his civil capacity, the guardian had the final say.

Fortunately, Lichen’s father brought a few bodyguards. The bodyguards were all retired special forces. Although they were outnumbered, they tried their best to protect their boss from the opponent’s hands and escaped. The driver also fought and knocked over a person.

This incident caused a sensation in the business community of K City back then.

Neither of them went back to live in the current house later as both felt unsafe.

Lichen was the only one living in that big house. He often took them there to party all night long.

“That’s a f*cking b*llsh*t!” Lichen stared at Yansheng with extremely wide-opened eyes.

“You are talking f*cking nonsense!” Lichen’s eyes were incomparably wide, staring at Yansheng fiercely.

Yansheng sneered. “Do you think your father treats you very well? If you fail the exam, your mother will scold you, but your father never cares. He’s so good to you, right?

“Have you ever played a game for a long time until your account became a waste? When that happens, will you open a new account?

“Your brother was in the same year as us. Do you know how awesome he is? He graduated from elementary as the city’s third-best, and he was recruited into a key middle school. Do you know how many Olympiad certificates and trophies he has won? Do you know how much your dad loves him?

“Your dad has your brother in his hands, a perfect son, so who the hell cares if you fail the exam?”

[I thought I was my father’s favorite person in the world.] At that time, Lichen told her that. [But I’m just a f*cking loser to him.]

That was the first and only time Yansheng saw Lichen cry.

She offered her shoulder for him.

As a result, he refused to lean on it. He was so sad, there was snot coming out of his nose, but he still wanted to pretend to be f*cking cool.

She accompanied him to sit on the road while drinking beer and smoking cigarettes.

The eyes of passing pedestrians looking at these two vicissitudes of life were hard to describe, and the parents holding their children deliberately detoured with disgust in their eyes. However, the two of them did not care.

It was getting dark and it was so late that no one called him to go home, nor did anyone call her to go home.

No one cared about them, and of course, they didn’t care about the others.

Lichen’s chest began to rise and fall, and his breathing became unstable. His gaze on Yansheng became fierce.

Yansheng looked directly at him without fear.

He suddenly pushed her abruptly, turned over, and sat up.

Fortunately, Yansheng had prepared a long time ago, and the moment he pushed her, she quickly supported herself, jumped off him, and stood still on the ground.

Lichen was sitting on the messy coffee table, his chest heaving violently, and the corners of his eyes were a little red.

He seemed to want to hurt people violently, but after taking a few deep breaths, after half a minute, he managed to control his emotions.

“F*ck you, Yansheng!” he forced a smile and cursed her. “It’s my fault to hit your classmate, but you can’t make jokes about this kind of thing!”

Yansheng’s dark eyes looked at him, which made the back of his neck cold. He wanted to say something more to expose her nonsense, but Yansheng said, “He didn’t attend your elementary school graduation ceremony.

“He said that he had to accompany a client from D Country. So you’re the only student in your class whose mother came and a father who didn’t come.

“But in fact, that day was your brother’s graduation ceremony as well. He went there instead.

“He made a time difference and attended the ceremony first, then met with the client afterward, which deceived your mother too.”

Lichen stood up. As soon as he stood up, he was taller than Yansheng.

“D*mn you, show me the evidence!” He struggled in the end, gritting his teeth which made his cheeks become deformed.

He didn’t want to think deeply about how Yansheng knew so many details.

Yes, he still remembered that graduation ceremony because he was very angry at that time. Later, his father bought him something, so he calmed down.

He suddenly found that he couldn’t remember what his father had bought to compensate him that time. He had too many things and he could get whatever he wanted. After three days of playing, he would lose interest and just throw it somewhere, and he wouldn’t remember it anymore.

Those details were mentioned by Lichen’s half-brother when Lichen confronted him. This younger brother was malicious.

He was outstanding but he was burdened with the identity of being an illegitimate child, so he hated Lichen so much.

Lichen was also cruel, and directly caused him to fail the college entrance examination.

The younger brother still wanted to retake the exam.

But Lichen said with a smile, “Okay, then we will do it again next year. It doesn’t matter how many years we toss each other.”

The younger brother did not retake the exam in the end, fearing that Lichen would ruin it again. Lichen would not let him go. If he really kept on taking the exams year by year, his mentality would collapse and it would only get worse and worse.

He ended up going to a very unsatisfactory school.

Yansheng said, “I have evidence, come to me on Monday to get it. Let’s have a fair trade.”

She turned around and walked out, stopped after a few steps, and turned her head.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t go to your father to question him, that would only scare the snake, so it is better to persuade your mother to transfer all the assets as soon as possible.

“You are your mother’s only son and those assets will be yours sooner or later. It’s different on your father’s side since he has another son.

“Keep your mind clear.”