HC Chapter 16 Part 2

Chapter 16 Part 2: I Hate You (V)

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Ever since Jing Rong’s nightmare-like confession happened, Dong Ci continuously prayed for him to quickly get bored with her. However, the Heavens turned away from her. Jing Rong not only didn’t lose interest in her but became more attached instead.

When the summer vacation began, Dong Ci was forced to move to his mansion. It has already been two days since her arrival.

As she walked down the hallway, which was full of various framed paintings, it seemed that the road was without an end. Although it was summer, the inside of the house was surprisingly cold.

Outside, the night breeze blew over the treetops on the mountain.

Dong Ci stopped her steps right in front of Jing Rong.

Just an hour earlier, he had threatened over the phone that if she didn’t come, he wouldn’t mind tying her up and bringing her in himself – just like last time. But he didn’t seem to care about her presence now that she was here.

He was sitting on the window sill, with his thin white shirt slightly fluttering in the air. It wasn’t clear, what he was thinking about with the dark eyes directed out the window, and the jaw tightly clenched, but there was no light in that gaze.

Jing Rong never told her anything about himself. It was unknown why he lived alone in this villa or where his family was. Sometimes, Dong Ci wondered – what kind of parents would bring up a child with this kind of character? Even when there was such a fragile and confused expression on his face, his thoughts were still a complete mystery to others.

Everything about him was hidden so deeply that Dong Ci had no way of uncovering anything of importance. As a result, she really couldn’t understand what motivated his usual behavior.

“When can I go home?”

Maybe he was free, but she still had a lot of things waiting for her to do. It’s already been two days, and the longer she stayed here, the more suspicious her mother would be.

“If possible, I want you to stay here forever,” Jing Rong replied casually. With the atmosphere broken, he seemed to have recovered from the earlier thoughts and once again displayed the wanton attitude. He bent one leg and patted the other. Then, with his shoulders leaning into the wall behind, he nonchalantly invited, “Come here and sit down.”

Sit on his lap?

Dong Ci was too lazy to care about him. She turned around to leave, but Jing Rong grabbed her arm and quickly pulled her into his embrace.

“Xiao Ci,” he called, looking at her through the lowered eyelids. Today, he was a little different from usual – his eyes were very tender and full of joy. He leaned over and gently kissed her cheek, then said with a smile, “It’s so nice to have you here.”

Jing Rong was like a child who got his hands on a beloved toy.

Dong Ci stared at him, her gaze blank – almost bewitched by the simple and pure smile he was directing her way.

“Why did you want me to come here? Is it to accompany you?”

Jing Rong thought for a while, then extended his finger and tapped the tip of her nose.

“It’s because I live alone, and it gets lonely sometimes.”

“Then why don’t you live with your parents?”

He flicked his finger and explained with a faint gaze, “They are in the United States.”

“Is that why you often travel to the United States? To visit them? But why don’t you just stay there or ask them to come back sometimes…”

“Enough.”

Jing Rong wasn’t prepared to disclose the family matters to Dong Ci, but she still wanted to know. Pretending not to hear the warning, she looked at him and continued questioning, “How long have you lived here alone? Could it be for a long time? A year, or even longer?”

“…”

The air between them stilled for a moment. Dong Ci saw the layers of frost forming in Jing Rong’s eyes, making the previously gentle gaze indifferent. His face was completely expressionless, and even his breath on her cheek felt colder, somehow.

“Are you intentionally angering me?” Jing Rong reached out and pinched her chin, trying to purposely hurt Dong Ci. The corners of his lips hooked up slightly as the finger moved to slide down her cheek. “Do you want me to hate you and let you go?”

“…”

“Naïve,” he spat out with no mercy and pulled her waist closer to himself. “Did you know? The more you hate me, the more I want to keep you close.”

Dong Ci stiffened when she felt something wet touching her earlobe. The arms wrapped around her waist tightened.

“Why do you hate me so much?” Jing Rong asked as his mouth moved to suck on the tip of her ear. His voice was low, stained with a touch of emotion and desire, “I can give you anything you want.”

“I want you to let me go.”

“Let go?” He asked incredulously, as though he heard something funny. Raising his eyebrows, he sneered, “Do you think that I am forcing you?”

“Are you not?”

Once again, this girl was talking back…

Jing Rong touched his forehead, feeling his head beginning to ache, and said, “You seem to have forgotten who asked me for help in getting into the ‘A’ class. If you don’t want to be with me, you can always go to regular classes.”

Dong Ci’s expression dimmed, and she couldn’t help but clench her hands into fists. Those two sentences were so correct that they pierced straight into her heart. At the end of the day, she knew that she would never be able to refute those words.

Should she do as he says and drop out of the ‘A’ class?

Before, she felt that she could enter it through her efforts. But later, she found out that her goal was missed because of the mere 0.5 points. At the time, she was afraid of seeing her mother’s disappointed face. She was also frustrated with herself, anxious about being unable to step onto the path which would help her in fulfilling her father’s dream.

Dong Ci was indecisive. Can she just abandon all of those concerns, which led her to make this choice, to begin with? She has an exit now, but is it the correct choice?

If every decision could be rationally and soberly made, then the world wouldn’t have so many tragedies happening every day.

“Do you still like me?”

Dong Ci closed her eyes and pressed her head against Jing Rong’s chest. His steady heartbeat had a momentary pause.

“Of course I like you,” he answered without thinking, as though those few words didn’t matter.

Every time, the confession was so casual, that Dong Ci was afraid to believe it.

“Do you know what the feeling of ‘like’ is?” she asked gently.

“This feeling is the desire to possess the other person, never letting them go.” Jing Rong answered, his dark eyes becoming hazy with thought. He tiredly stared at the little girl in his arms, and gently helped to brush off a stray hair from her face, whispering, “I want to possess you, I want you to stay with me all the time – that’s my feeling of ‘like’.”

“…”

“Knowing that you don’t like me, but still circling around you and giving you the best of everything – this is my love.”

Jing Rong’s fingers moved away from her cheek. His dark eyes narrowed as a scornful smiled appeared on his lips.

“Love is selfish, and it can’t be casually transferred to others,” he continued with a sneer as his palm clenched around the beads hanging on the other hand. “I am not an exception to this feeling.”

The moon hanging in the night sky outside the window was clear. Jing Rong silently looked at the solitary astronomical body among the many small stars, its cold light reflecting in his dark orbs.

The little girl in his arms fell asleep. He didn’t know whether she heard what he had said just now. Jing Rong didn’t bother to show a smile, but his hand moved gently as it touched the crown of her head, moving along her chin. The cold atmosphere dissipated, and there was a small presence of tenderness in his gaze.

He remembered the first time he met her when she was weakly laying on the hospital bed, with tears pouring out of her eyes.

She was so fragile and helpless. The water droplets fell on the pillow as a needle was being inserted into her slender wrist, which could break with just a little bit of force. For a moment, she reminded him of Qiao Qiao.

Like a pot of delicate flowers, she seemed to require the gentle care of others to survive. At that time, he wanted to hold her in his arms and carefully plant her into the soil.

But this idea lasted only for a moment. It was only later when he reached out and embraced her, that he found out that he could never let her go.

Since he didn’t want to let go – he wouldn’t.

“Xiao Ci,” Jing Rong quietly called with an enchanting smile. He leaned over and lightly kissed her between the eyebrows, before murmuring, “If you stay with me, I will fulfill all your dreams. But if you want to escape—”

His voice trembled slightly, and the long fingers reached to trace the outline of her face.

“I don’t mind sending you to purgatory.”

But don’t be afraid.

After all, I will be there with you.

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When Dong Ci woke up, she was momentarily confused. Her nose smelled a familiar scent, and she arched towards the nearest source of heat, sleepily wondering why it was so cold in summer.

It should be an early morning, but she was freezing with cold. Dong Ci kept her eyes closed the entire time as she searched for the quilt, but instead of finding it, she touched a strange thing beside her.

Dong Ci’s drowsiness dissipated as she opened her eyes and hurriedly sat up from the bed. The room was dark, and it was difficult to see anything. She tentatively stretched her hand and touched the warm ‘thing’ laying near her. It seemed to be a person.

Jing Rong?

Dong Ci couldn’t remember how she got back to her room last night. For the past few days, she has been sleeping in one of the guest rooms. So how could she wake up and find someone sleeping together with her?

Without any reservation, she felt up the body beside her to make sure that the earlier guess was correct. If she was completely awake, she would’ve realized what was going on, even before her hands were caught and the night lamp was lit up.

“What’s the matter?” Jing Rong drowsily asked as he drew her back into his arms.

“Go back to your own room to sleep!” Dong Ci grumbled with dissatisfaction.

As they were sleeping, Jing Rong’s clothes were messed up, and a few of the pajama’s top buttons were undone, exposing a large piece of his chest. When Dong Ci struggled, she accidentally touched the naked skin.

The feeling of the smooth piece of flesh rubbing against her palm scared her into instantly pulling her hand back – as though she touched a forbidden fruit.

Jing Rong snorted. His misty eyes opened, slowly clearing up from the sleep. He vigorously moved to trap Dong Ci under his body, and said whilst holding her wrist, “You should be responsible for waking me up…”

He leaned closer to her, revealing an evil smile.

“Xiao Ci, want to do it? You just have to say it – I would never refuse.”

As Jing Rong moved closer, Dong Ci felt his body rubbing against her in an unusual way. Feeling panicked, she grabbed a handful of his hair, and tremblingly explained, “I don’t mean anything else. You, you should go back to your room and sleep there.”

“This is my room.”

Dong Ci was even more flustered. She rolled away from under him and quickly got up.

“I’m sorry to bother you. I shall go back to my room.”

“Don’t you think that it’s a little late to go back?” Jing Rong raised an eyebrow and hugged her waist from the back, pressing her into his arms. One hand rose to soothingly stroke her hair as he pulled her into the bed and turned off the light in the room. “Stop being so noisy and go back to sleep, or see how I will sort you out.”

The room returned to darkness. Dong Ci laid there in a daze. After a while, she tried to stretch out her hand. As a result, the arm around her tightened as a quiet voice came from above her head, “Do you really think that I will spare you?”

“I, I am cold. I want to find the quilt,” Dong Ci explained with a sigh – she also wants to sleep.

“It’s already so warm, how can it be cold?” Jing Rong answered impatiently. He pressed down Dong Ci’s head and buried the whole person into his chest, then lightly said, “If you are cold, then hold on to me.”

“…”

Dong Ci was speechless.

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