HC Chapter 16 Part 1

Chapter 16 Part 1: I Hate You (V)

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When the meal was half-eaten, Dong Ci’s mother had to go back to the kitchen due to the increasing amount of orders.

With an adult gone, Zhang Yiyi and the company felt more relaxed. However, with no one taking the initiative to chat, the atmosphere at the dinner table gradually cooled down.

Yan Ning Shuang’s posed expression showed that she could care less about others. And, although Jing Rong looked easy-going, Zhang Yiyi had no courage to initiate a conversation with him. Lastly, she glanced at An Cheng Feng, who was quietly drinking the milk tea that was poured earlier, and her eyes lit up.

“Wow, you seem to like the taste of your milk tea.”

Zhang Yiyi found that the drink Dong Ci’s mother prepared for everyone had different flavors. After tasting some from the friend beside her, she couldn’t help but look at Dong Ci.

“What kind of flavor do you have, Xiao Ci?”

“Lemon.”

Looking at the girl’s face, Dong Ci’s expression had a trace of embarrassment. She hesitated and said, trying to sound relaxed, “I’ll get you a cup.”

With those words, the excitement in Zhang Yiyi’s eyes disappeared. She stopped Dong Ci from getting up and quickly reassured, “No, no. I almost forgot that you don’t like sharing your tableware with others.”

“You don’t?” Jing Rong, who had been quiet all along, suddenly intervened. He faintly glanced at Zhang Yiyi then turned to Dong Ci. “Do you have the habit of keeping everything clean?”

Zhang Yiyi’s heartbeat quickened under Jing Rong’s sweeping glance. Sure enough, she couldn’t hold gazes with a boy who was so handsome. She secretly eased her emotions and quickly explained, “No, Xiao Ci doesn’t have a cleaning disorder. She just doesn’t like sharing the same cup or eating from the same plate as other people.”

“Oh?” Jing Rong immediately understood Zhang Yiyi’s meaning. He stared at Dong Ci with a smile, then slowly uttered, “If you don’t like to have intimate contact with others, what happens when someone kisses you? Can’t you accept it?”

“Cough—” An Cheng Feng choked on his tea. He couldn’t help but secretly scold this beast of a friend. The little girl was kissed by someone so many times, but this ‘someone’ was only figuring things out now.

Sure enough, Dong Ci’s face paled when she heard the question, and her mind naturally conceived bad thoughts. Seeing Jing Rong’s innocent smile, she bit her lip then coldly replied, “It’s not unacceptable.”

She clenched her hands into fists and raised her eyes to meet his gaze head-on.

“It’s so disgusting that I feel sick just thinking about it,” the slow but vicious words came one after another.

“…”

Sick?

Very good—

Jing Rong’s thin lips twitched slightly, his head slowly turning in her direction. In the complete silence of the surrounding people, he rose from the seat – creating an illusion of a predator who was about to attack his prey.

Dong Ci was taken aback. Before she could get up from her seat, Jing Rong restrained her and said with a smile, “Be a good girl. I will try to kiss you in a way that isn’t disgusting.”

This is her mother’s restaurant, and the table is surrounded by her classmates. In the full view of all these people, she couldn’t afford to lose to this person.

So she quickly covered her lips with hands and tremblingly pleaded, “Jing Rong, I was wrong. I was really wrong.”

Jing Rong was indifferent. He took her small hands away from her mouth and chuckled with no emotion, “But my anger hasn’t subsided.”

“I will listen to you in the future. I definitely won’t talk back, alright?”

“Not alright.”

The customers, sitting at the nearby table, noticed the unnatural atmosphere. An Cheng Feng also kept winking at Jing Rong to drop the issue.

If the girl was forcibly kissed here and the customers intervened, the matter could escalate and Dong Ci’s mother would come back. The consequences would be unimaginable.

Remembering his plans, Jing Rong frowned and forcibly pulled her from the seat.

Dong Ci stumbled after him all the way to the car. This time, Jing Rong was really angry. As he was pulling her into the seat, he didn’t look out for the girl’s comfort – acting rudely and mercilessly. Dong Ci cried out when her knee suddenly hit the seat’s corner.

“Mmm—” a furious kiss was initiated in her mouth. Her whole body was held down by the other person, and he could do whatever he wanted to her.

He did just that.

It wasn’t the first time that Dong Ci has felt his strength, but today he was fiercer than ever. She was squeezed in his arms and had no choice but to bear with his plunder. Finally, she burst into tears due to her inability to resist.

“Do you think it’s unfair?” Jing Rong whispered, his head leaning against her shoulder as he tried to calm his emotions. However, he still couldn’t resist biting on her earlobe with slight indignation.

His eyes eventually traveled to Dong Ci’s face, which was covered in tears. Jing Rong stuck out his tongue and cleanly licked the wet tracks away.

“Do you still feel sick?”

How could Dong Ci dare to say it now? She whimpered and shook her head, looking as pitiful as a scared little animal. To prevent the hunter from further attacking her, she tightly grasped Jing Rong’s shirt, wrinkling it so much that it was no longer presentable.

“I know that you’re lying, but it doesn’t matter.”

Dong Ci’s eyes once again began to water. Jing Rong frowned with dissatisfaction and reached out to help her wipe the tears away. But for some reason, more and more of them appeared.

“Don’t cry anymore.”

Before, when he saw her crying, Jing Rong didn’t feel anything. But this time, he was irritated. He didn’t know why.

He said those words to scare her into stopping the waterworks, but the effect wasn’t the one he desired. The little girl shuddered in fear, and subconsciously tried to move away from him.

She could be afraid of him or even dislike him, but Jing Rong couldn’t stand her trying to escape from him. He took her whole body into his hands and tried to ease his expression as the soft question escaped his lips, “Xiao Ci, will you always be with me?”

There was a place, somewhere deep in his heart, that felt very soft and helped in calming the previous rage. At this time, Jing Rong wished to hold her for the eternity, never letting her go.

Although Dong Ci didn’t answer him, the rejection in her eyes was very obvious. Jing Rong knew: if she hadn’t been threatened into submission earlier, she would’ve immediately chosen to escape from his side. And this undeniable knowledge made him extremely upset.

“What to do, I seem to have taken a liking to you,” Jing Rong muttered. He seemed to have remembered something – he blinked and smilingly said, “Although I don’t know, how long this feeling of ‘like’ will last, right now it seems that it should be very long.”

It was obviously a confession, but coming from his mouth, it felt more like a curse. As though countless chains were binding her, Dong Ci continued to struggle, but they only further tightened until she couldn’t breathe anymore.

She must get rid of him!

Dong Ci once again woke up from the nightmare. Her fingers tightly clutched the thin blanket as her eyes traveled to the night sky outside the window – she was determined.

After graduation, she must escape from Jing Rong!

June was the time for the college entrance examination, and Shi Ze was about to take it. In the days approaching the exam, her mother requested Dong Ci to pass him the daily meals she prepared.

It’s been a long time since she quit the job at the dessert shop. Since opening the restaurant, they barely met.

Shi Ze was still the same – cold and gentle, surrounding himself with an almost alienated atmosphere. Dong Ci could admit to herself that her feelings towards this teenager were a bit unclear. But because it was difficult to guess his thoughts, she has always been careful in his presence.

“Have you lost weight?” Shi Ze frowned as soon as he saw her. He lifted her small face and carefully observed it. “Recently, is your appetite bad?”

“No. It’s probably because there’s been a lot of pressure to study well,” Dong Ci denied with a smile. She sat down next to Shi Ze and supported her cheek with her hand to watch as he ate. After a while, she asked, “Brother Shi Ze, have you thought about which university to select?”

“J, in the capital city. Remember? I told you before that I will have to help my dad manage the company in the future. This university is one of the best in the area I need to be familiar with.”

Shi Ze quieted down for a moment. Noticing her dazed expression, he couldn’t help but inquiringly ask, “What’s wrong with you today? You seem a little abnormal.”

He could be regarded as her childhood friend. Although now they weren’t as close as before, after so many years, Dong Ci’s habits were still very obvious to him. Generally, she liked to chat with him when there was something in her heart.

“Is there something wrong at Aunt Song’s restaurant? Or are you not used to the new class? Maybe someone is bullying you?”

She couldn’t talk with Shi Ze about Jing Rong…

Dong Ci’s eyes dimmed. She faked a light smile and shook her head, “No, everything is fine. I was just thinking about your graduation. When you graduate, it will be very lonely here.”

After all, the two of them were in the same school. Although they rarely met and had little communication, as long as Dong Ci knew that he was here – there was a sense of security. After he leaves, all of her support will disappear.

The road ahead was confusing and dark. Whenever she thought about it, Dong Ci’s breathing sped up a little.

“Isn’t your goal the F University? We will be right next to each other in the future,” Shi Ze softly reassured. He knew that this girl may sometimes appear strong, but was actually weaker than anyone else. “Don’t think about anything else. As long as you concentrate on your studies, the time will quickly pass. Before you know it, we will meet each other again.”

Can a year pass quickly?

Dong Ci only felt that the first half of the year passed quickly, while the second half was dragging on as though it was twice as long.

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When the scorching heat of the summer crashed into the city, the restaurant was installed with a fan. However, many customers still complained that it was too hot. As days got hotter, there were fewer and fewer people coming to eat.

This was the restaurant’s worst time ever since it was opened.

Because the customers were scarce, the left-over vegetables and meat were slowly rotting, and it was impossible to use them. Dong Ci’s mother calculated the expenses several times, but the numbers still showed that there would be a loss that month.

She had to hold it for a month.

She looked at Dong Ci, who was lying beside the fan and doing her homework, and there was a struggle in her eyes.

When the dream is far away, I can still bear it. But when one day, I get what I want – it’s hard to let it go.

She knew that during Dong Ci’s college entrance examination, there had to be some spare money for unexpected expenses saved up. But as the desires continued to expand and there were more things she wanted, she got more irrational.

Of course, everything was still in the future.

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T/N: This chapter is very long, there’s already almost 2k words (and it’s only half-way), so it has been divided into 2 parts. Thank you for your support! ^^

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