Chapter 161 She Said

Even if Cheng Jiu were to beat He Chuan to death, it would not be enough to vent Cheng Hui's grievance, yet he could not simply stand by and watch He Chuan harm her once again.

Therefore, sitting idly by was completely out of the question.

Especially since Madam Cheng had already brought Cheng Hui back home, and was bound to make a scene with her, all because of He Chuan.

After taking a blow from Cheng Jiu, He Chuan suddenly smiled.

Cheng Jiu said, "He Chuan, you are getting married soon. In the meantime, I must ask you to keep your woman in check. Cheng Hui is my sister, and I don't want her to have anything to do with you ever again."

He Chuan grinned slightly and replied, "Cheng Jiu, have you ever considered that Cheng Hui might still have lingering feelings for me?"

Cheng Jiu scoffed, "That is out of the question. I remember every single promise you made, none of which you ultimately kept. He Chuan, I always treated you as a friend, and when Cheng Hui liked you back then, I didn't stop it. But how did you repay that?"

Blood seeped from the corner of He Chuan's mouth, but as if he felt no pain at all, he said, "I did my best."

Cheng Jiu sneered, "Fine. Remember your own words and never come near her to cause trouble again."

With this, Cheng Jiu made a clean break with him, feeling that the He Chuan before him had become a complete stranger.

Once Cheng Jiu left, He Chuan raised the back of his hand to wipe away the blood from his mouth.

Cheng Jiu had held nothing back; he had genuinely thrown punches.

He Chuan lit a cigarette. After finishing it, he twitched the corner of his mouth in a faint smile and glanced at the bloodstain on the back of his hand.

The assistant pushed open the door to find only He Chuan alone in the office. Spotting the blood on his hand, the assistant gasped and asked, "Boss, you're injured? Should we go to the hospital to get that treated?"

He Chuan lifted his gloomy eyes to look at him and said, "Mind your own business."

"Boss..." The assistant did not dare to say more and instantly lowered his head.

"Get out."

"Yes."

The assistant backed out of the office, closed the door, and let out a long breath, completely baffled by what had just happened.

At around seven o'clock in the evening, He Chuan drove himself to the Cheng residence, but the gates were not opened for him. The only person who came out to deal with him was a household maid, who said, "Sir, there is no one home right now. You should leave."

He Chuan remained unfazed, standing outside the heavy iron gates. The porch light outside was dimmer than the lights within, casting a gloomy glow that mirrored the atmosphere of the Cheng family—deadly silent.

The maid urged, "Sir, please don't stand out here. It doesn't look good. You should leave, especially since it's getting so late."

It was not even eight o'clock yet, still quite early.

The maid seemed to know something and tried earnestly to persuade him to leave without lingering, but He Chuan stood firm outside the Cheng gates, refusing to budge.

The night wind was strong and cold, yet He Chuan stood at the entrance wearing only a thin suit. Seeing him dressed so lightly, the maid grew somewhat concerned and suggested, "Sir, why don't you wait in your car? On such a cold day, you'll freeze. It would be terrible if you fell ill."

He Chuan finally showed some expression and said, "I will stay right here and wait for Uncle and Auntie Cheng to return."

"Mr. He, don't you understand yet? Mr. and Mrs. Cheng will not see you. Please stop coming here and leave immediately. If Madam sees you later, she will only grow angry and take it out on Cheng Hui."

He Chuan lifted his gaze to look at the maid. "How is Cheng Hui?"

"Not very well, though not entirely at rock bottom either. Mr. He, some things simply cannot be explained away. Madam refuses to see you, and it won't make a difference no matter how long you wait. If I may speak out of turn—and please don't blame a hired servant for meddling—I truly pity Cheng Hui. She has already suffered so much. Have some mercy, please let her go, and let the Cheng family go."

Let the Cheng family go?

He Chuan gave a meaningful, bitter smile and said, "I will stay here until Uncle Cheng returns."

"You..." The maid had no way of dealing with him. She let out a deep sigh and, seeing his unyielding stubbornness, said, "Do as you wish then. I have already tried to advise you."

In truth, both Mr. and Mrs. Cheng were inside the house, but they refused to meet He Chuan, which was why they had sent the maid to dismiss him. Yet he insisted on waiting there.

The weather was cold, and the night wind blew with a bone-chilling sharpness.

From the upstairs balcony, Madam Cheng caught sight of He Chuan standing outside the iron gates. Seeing that he still had no intention of leaving, she let out a cold hum and went downstairs.

Cheng Hui was resting in her room. Unable to sleep and lacking her medication, she could only close her eyes and force herself to try to sleep, as there was no other alternative.

At that moment, Cheng Hui had no idea that He Chuan had come.

An hour later, the gates of the Cheng residence slowly opened, and the maid said, "Mr. He, Madam invites you in."

Seeming impervious to the cold, He Chuan followed the maid inside.

After all these years, returning to the Cheng residence felt vastly different from how it used to be. Upon entering, one could immediately feel the deathly silence hanging in the air. Madam Cheng was seated on the sofa in the ground-floor living room, sipping tea and staring at him fixedly.

"Madam, Mr. He is here."

Only then did Madam Cheng withdraw her gaze. She gave a faint acknowledgment and said, "You may go about your work, Auntie."

"Yes, Madam."

This time, He Chuan had brought gifts with him. No matter how precious they might be, Madam Cheng did not even spare them a glance, showing utter disdain.

"Speak. What brings you here?"

He Chuan said, "To apologize. Auntie Cheng, I know this recent incident has nothing to do with Cheng Hui. She knew nothing, she is innocent, and the fault lies entirely with me."

"Anapologies are unnecessary. The matter has already been sorted out. Your fiancée's car accident has nothing to do with our Cheng family. As for who ordered someone to ram her car, the police are still investigating. If you have this much free time, you'd be better off spending it keeping your fiancée company instead of letting her run wild with groundless suspicions."

Madam Cheng was burning with fury. When He Chuan showed up tonight under the guise of an apology, she certainly did not believe he was truly here to make amends.

Before sending Cheng Hui abroad back then, she had specifically sought out He Chuan to make him realize the vast gap between them, urging him to cut ties with Cheng Hui voluntarily and stop associating with her. Even though he hadn't given an explicit promise, he hadn't refused either, which Madam Cheng had taken as tacit agreement. Even if he hadn't agreed, she would never have allowed them to be together.

After packing Cheng Hui off abroad and making sure they had made a clean break, Madam Cheng had finally set her mind at ease. As for the lingering friction between herself and Cheng Hui, that too was entirely on account of He Chuan; Madam Cheng laid all the blame squarely on his shoulders.

He was the root cause of all the calamity.

Because of this, Madam Cheng grew to detest He Chuan more and more. All of Cheng Hui's misfortunes stemmed from him.

If he hadn't led her astray, the relationship between Cheng Hui and herself would never have deteriorated to the point of irreconciliation where it stood today.

Still, He Chuan insisted on apologizing. He said, "This is my fault; I don't deny it. That's why I came tonight to apologize and to offer an explanation. Auntie Cheng, I know that my past involvement with Cheng Hui caused you to treat her poorly. Cheng Jiu mentioned to me that to this day, your relationship with her still hasn't thawed."

"I came to make it clear to you that I now regard Cheng Hui strictly as a younger sister. She is still young; she is not to blame. If anyone is to blame, blame me."

"Stop right there!" Madam Cheng raised her voice sharply. "You don't have the right! I was simply a fool who misjudged a person, genuinely believing you had no ulterior motives, which was why I let Cheng Hui associate with you. And look how you repaid that—committing such a shameless act and then daring to claim you look at her like a sister!"

"He Chuan, let me tell you something: no matter how you claim to view Cheng Hui, I will never believe a single word you say. Back then, when Cheng Hui was wronged and bullied, I trusted you enough to let you take her out to clear her head. And what happened? You had already developed unfaithful intentions toward her behind my back, all the while putting on a righteous facade while taking her out. You know very well what you did!"

At the mention of that incident, He Chuan felt as though his chest had been pierced by needles. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly opened them again. Countless emotions flashed through his gaze, only to be swallowed up by the pitch-black depths of his pupils.

It was true that back then, he had pursued Cheng Hui right under Madam Cheng's nose. Following the ordeal Cheng Hui suffered that year, he had indeed harbored selfish motives when taking her to the hot springs, but it was certainly not in the way Madam Cheng described.

At that time, his feelings for Cheng Hui were genuine. He had thrown away his dignity and his bottom line just to court her, striving to make her notice him—actions that Madam Cheng naturally deemed entirely wrong.

The reason Madam Cheng held such intense animosity toward him was likely because his methods back then were completely inappropriate by any measure of reason or propriety.

Now, he had a woman he was about to marry, just as Cheng Hui had another man by her side.

Their conversation, in fact, had been overheard the entire time by Cheng Hui.

She was sitting on the landing of the stairs. The sensor light on the staircase had malfunctioned and failed to turn on, which was why neither Madam Cheng nor He Chuan in the living room had noticed her quietly walking down.

Although Madam Cheng had brought Cheng Hui back home this time without allowing her to step past the front door, she still enjoyed a degree of freedom within the house. Madam Cheng knew she was no longer a rebellious teenager; no amount of restriction on her physical freedom could ever restrict her mind.

After bringing her back, the only rule was that she was not permitted to step a single foot outside the main gate.

Cheng Hui had no idea what was going through her mind as she sat blankly on the stairs, slowly drawing her knees up and wrapping her arms tightly around herself.

She couldn't help recalling the period when she was bullied and tormented by Tang Que. Paradoxically, that might have been the time she felt most composed and detached; He Chuan had been able to come and go freely from the Cheng residence back then, without the bitter, fire-and-water hostility he shared with Madam Cheng today.

As Cheng Hui reminisced, her stomach suddenly spasmed into a sharp, cramping knot of pain, accompanied by a tightening in her chest that left her gasping for air, choking as if suffocating.

She felt as though she were dying a slow death, living each day like a year. She was hanging on by a mere thread, completely devoid of any purpose or goal to keep going. Deep down, she felt an extreme aversion to this existence that was worse than death; both her physical body and her psyche were like unexploded time bombs, ready to detonate at any moment.

She had no idea when she might completely break down. What was actually left of her life?

Just dragging out an ignoble existence?

Relying on the handrail, she managed to pull herself up. Her complexion was exceptionally pale, yet she gritted her teeth against the physical discomfort, raised her head, and walked down the stairs.

Down in the living room, the moment Madam Cheng saw her appear, she immediately furrowed her brows and scolded, "Why did you come down? Go right back to your room; this has nothing to do with you."

Turning around, He Chuan caught sight of her. His blood seemed to run backward, his jaw tightened, and his throat bobbed a few times as he swallowed. Yet he merely stood there, gazing at her in silence without stepping closer.

Steadying her emotions, Cheng Hui said, "Mom, don't be upset. Listen to me first—I heard everything you two just said."

Madam Cheng immediately called out to the maid, "Quickly take Cheng Hui back to her room. She needs rest and quiet. Without my permission, she is not allowed downstairs."

The maid hesitated, glancing back and forth between Madam Cheng and Cheng Hui, caught squarely in a dilemma.

Cheng Hui spoke up, "Auntie, aren't you supposed to be brewing my herbal medicine? You should go tend to the stove; if you leave it unwatched for too long, it might boil dry." With that, the maid quietly slipped out of the living room.

He Chuan had remained silent throughout, though his gaze never once strayed from Cheng Hui.

Cheng Hui swept her eyes across the room and spotted several gift bags sitting on the table, which looked undeniably expensive. She gave a faint, bitter laugh and said, "Brother He Chuan is certainly generous, but no one in our family has any use for the things you've brought. You should take them back; don't waste your money."

He Chuan replied, "They didn't cost much, just a small token of regard. You look terribly pale—are you sick?"

"No need to doubt it, I am indeed sick." The fragility in Cheng Hui's appearance was impossible to disguise, nor did she bother hiding it anymore; keeping secrets only made people more suspicious. "Just an old ailment, and it has nothing to do with you, so don't overthink it. As for your coming here to offer explanations, the police will investigate everything thoroughly. Your fiancée's car accident genuinely has nothing to do with me; I didn't do it."

Madam Cheng was already losing her patience entirely. "Go back to your room to rest. You don't need to explain anything."

"Mom, please let me finish. Don't worry, He Chuan and I have nothing between us anymore. He has his fiancée, and I have my fiancé; each of us has our own lives to lead. It was simply a misunderstanding, and once the misunderstanding is cleared up, there is nothing left to discuss."

Madam Cheng had assumed that Cheng Hui still hadn't given up on He Chuan, which was why she was so adamantly opposed to them associating or even seeing each other. But hearing these words now, did it mean Cheng Hui had truly given up on him completely?

He Chuan's expression looked no better. Even though he had roughly guessed in his heart that Cheng Hui harbored no romantic feelings for him anymore, actually hearing her say that each of them had their own lives made a heavy pressure settle uncomfortably in his chest.

He hated hearing her speak this way.

Feeling too weak to stand any longer, Cheng Hui walked over and sat down on the sofa, hugging a cushion to press against her aching stomach and conceal her physical distress.

"Brother He Chuan, the only reason I can still bring myself to call you 'brother' is out of regard for our past. You were very good to me once, and I know that. As for what happened afterward, let's not dwell on it; the past is the past. Now that your fiancée has misunderstood our past association, you should go explain things to her. She is your girlfriend; your words carry much more weight than mine. Women are actually quite easy to coax—spending a little effort to sweet-talk her and offer explanations will be far more effective than coming here to explain things to my mother."

"I have a fiancé of my word as well, and I don't want this matter reaching his ears or the ears of his family, as it would negatively impact our relationship. You should find some time to spend caring for your fiancée; she probably needs your attention right now."

"As for the two of us, isn't it all in the past?"

Having spoken such a long stretch in one go, she had exhausted a large portion of her remaining physical strength. Yet she forced herself to keep standing—at least until He Chuan left. She could not afford to collapse in front of him.

Madam Cheng was equally stunned, failing to react for a moment. It turned out that Cheng Hui had seen through everything long ago and had no intention of rekindling old flames with He Chuan; it was she who had misunderstood the situation all along.

Seeing this, Madam Cheng turned to He Chuan and said, "You heard her. What's in the past is in the past. He Chuan, you should leave now."

Lowering her gaze, Cheng Hui stared fixedly at a spot on the floor and did not look at him again.

Her fingers were actually trembling ever so slightly, a fine quiver before she clenched them tightly into fists.

She told herself not to be afraid—she had nothing left to lose anyway.

She and He Chuan were destined to be impossible; the very beginning had been the end.

And they had truly ended three years ago.

Today was merely making things explicit one last time.

He Chuan noticed her subtle trembling. His profound gaze lingered on her for a long time, and once he confirmed that every word she spoke was sincere, he said indifferently, "Indeed, it was all a misunderstanding. I apologize; the way I handled things was flawed from the beginning, leading my fiancée to misunderstand and inadvertently dragging Cheng Hui into it."

As for anything else, neither of them dwelled on it further, keeping their focus strictly on clarifying the matter of Wen Liang's car accident.

He Chuan understood Cheng Hui's stance clearly now: she was dead set on making a clean break and cutting ties for the rest of their lives.

After a moment, Cheng Hui spoke up again, "I heard that your wedding with Miss Wen is set for the end of the year. Miss Wen seems to harbor some resentment toward me. Putting myself in her shoes, I understand her feelings, though things were never clear until now. Now that they are, there's no need to send me an invitation; I'd rather not cause you both any further trouble."

Madam Cheng shot a cold glance her way, though she refrained from interrupting Cheng Hui's words.

He Chuan wanted to say something, but Cheng Hui gave him no opening. She stated, "It's getting late, and I'm not feeling well, so I won't see you out."

She was giving him a direct dismissal.

Before leaving, He Chuan cast one deep, lingering look at her.

Pretending not to notice, Cheng Hui kept her head lowered, lost in her own thoughts.

...

Cheng Hui's stomach began to ache even more violently than before. As soon as He Chuan left, she could no longer hold back; the pain drove her to collapse onto the sofa, drenched in cold sweat.

Madam Cheng rushed over to fetch her pain medication, feeding it to her while chiding, "If your stomach hurts this badly, why did you run downstairs? Wouldn't it have been better to rest in your room?"

"Mom, I'm sorry," she whispered.

Madam Cheng was genuinely thrown off guard. Accustomed to Cheng Hui rebelling against her at every turn, she found it hard to get used to this sudden apology.

Cheng Hui continued, "I truly am sorry for causing you so much grief. I was insensible, which made things hard on you and brought you endless trouble."

"Just stop giving me heart attacks, and I'll thank the heavens," Madam Cheng replied, before adding, "It's better for you to see things clearly now. He Chuan is not the one for you."

Cheng Hui remained silent. Worn out to the core, she returned to her room.

Once inside, she crouched by the door, clutching her chest as she panted heavily.

The physical pain paled in comparison to the agony in her heart.

She was beginning to regret coming back.

...

After that day, He Chuan did not contact her again. Cheng Hui surmised that he had truly let go this time.

She figured that his coming to pester her earlier hadn't been out of lingering affection, but rather out of a sense of unwillingness or physical attachment.

If he truly loved her, he wouldn't have discarded her back then.

That proved there was no genuine place for her in his heart.

Yet, upon reflection, he loved himself far more than he could ever love anyone else.

She even thought with a trace of bitter sorrow: in He Chuan's eyes, had her own once-fervent devotion ever been anything more than a joke?

A joke right from the start.

...

In early November, Yongcheng officially stepped into winter. Amidst the biting, frigid wind, Wen Liang was finally discharged from the hospital to recuperate at home. As for the police investigation, it quietly faded into nothingness.

That was largely due to outside interference.

Wen Liang could easily guess whose hand was behind it, but since she had already achieved her goal, she saw no reason to push further. With someone stepping in to sweep it under the rug, she let the matter drop, as it no longer affected her.

Ever since the fierce argument she had with He Chuan that day, he hadn't come to the hospital to see her, though he showed no intention of calling off the wedding either. As long as he didn't mention it, it meant the wedding was still on.

Wen Liang eventually decided to humble herself slightly. Taking the initiative to call him, she sought reconciliation and apologized for the quarrel.

He Chuan's reaction caught her completely off guard. He said, "You don't need to suspect that there's anything between Cheng Hui and me. I only look at her as a younger sister. Stop going after her."

Wen Liang pleaded, "I know you two used to be together. I'm apologizing again for my rashness that day, He Chuan. It was my fault for misunderstanding that you and Cheng Hui still had lingering ties. I'm sorry, please forgive me."

"He Chuan, let's make up. I love you so much, really—I've loved you ever since our university days."