Simple.
However, Meng Ting had never told him that he looked roguishly handsome with his silver hair. With short black hair, he appeared a bit fierce. Despite this fierceness, there was an indescribable quality about him.
Jiang Ren wasn’t conventionally handsome. Unlike the popular, delicate pretty boys, his features were too strong and cold to be considered outstanding.
Compared to her, who would attract subtle glances in a crowd, his handsomeness was much more understated.
But now, as Meng Ting looked at him, she found him rather cute in his way.
The haunted house was eerie, but for a long time, no “ghosts” dared to approach.
Meng Ting sighed in relief. Having finally caught hold of him, she wouldn’t let him go this time, or she’d be angry.
Seeing Jiang Ren silent, only staring at the scarf, Meng Ting said shyly, “I knitted it. I’m not very good at it, don’t look down on it.” She smiled and said, “It’s for you.”
Jiang Ren’s hands that were holding her loosened.
Lowering his gaze, he took off the scarf and put it back on her.
Meng Ting looked at him in confusion, feeling his mood was off. She gently tugged at his sleeve, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Ren didn’t answer her question. Seeing that she wasn’t scared anymore, he said in a low voice, “Happy birthday.”
She was very happy, nodding her head, her voice sweet as honey, “Do you have a present for me?”
“It’s outside.”
“I don’t want that one,” she said seriously. “Can I exchange it for something else, Jiang Ren?”
Seeing him not responding, she extended her hand with blushing cheeks, “Hug me.”
His eyes reflected her pretty face. Meng Ting’s eyes were bright, seemingly filled with starlight. It made his breathing difficult, yet his gaze grew colder. By now, Jiang Ren could barely distinguish whether he was more pained by not seeing her or by seeing her.
He said, “There’s only that one.”
His tone was indifferent, and the protective embrace loosened.
The haunted house floor emitted a ghostly green light, occasionally puffing out white vapor.
She thought he would be happy, but his eyes were colder than the harshest winter. For a moment, she thought winter had brought snow again.
The pink flush faded from her fair cheeks.
Those clear eyes were filled with sadness and confusion, and her small hand dropped.
“I’ll have the staff escort you out,” Jiang Ren didn’t look at her, his expression blank as he took out his phone and gave a few instructions.
Soon, a staff member would come with a light to lead her out, and the employees dressed as ghosts wouldn’t jump out to scare her or look at her curiously.
Before meeting Jiang Ren, Meng Ting didn’t know how to be coquettish.
Zeng Yujie was a hardworking single mother, raising her daughter alone was very difficult. In her early years, she worked as a textile worker in a factory, sewing stitch by stitch. It was only later when she had the idea to start her own business that their family situation improved.
Meng Ting would always be well-behaved when she came home from school, finishing her homework and then helping her mother sweep the floor and massage her shoulders.
As for her father, it was even harder raising three children. Whatever issues arose, Meng Ting would solve them herself.
With the current Jiang Ren, she was already trying her best to learn how to be coquettish.
But he seemed like a block of ice that couldn’t be melted, completely unmoved. Just now when he hugged her, Meng Ting felt his heartbeat, which was rapid, but now he was coldly calling someone to take her away.
She stood there, for the first time unable to understand him at all.
The staff member quickly came in with a flashlight, and then said to Meng Ting, “Miss, I’ll take you out. Don’t worry, don’t be afraid, all the ghosts here are just staff in costumes.” He was a good-natured middle-aged man with a gentle demeanor.
Jiang Ren had been standing still the whole time.
It seemed he was planning to watch her leave with someone else.
She raised her eyes to look at him. Their eyes met, but he didn’t look away, nor did he show any emotion.
Meng Ting bit her lip. She looked at Jiang Ren, “Will you take me out?”
For a moment, Jiang Ren wanted to laugh.
Him, take her out? This wasn’t like that drunken night. No matter how dark the haunted house was, as long as she could see, she would notice his gait was different from normal people.
Limping, how pathetic.
He did laugh, “Before, it was me chasing you. Now it’s your turn to be reluctant to part with me?”
These words were unpleasant. Anyone could tell they weren’t kind.
Any proud and arrogant girl wouldn’t be able to bear it, but she wasn’t proud or arrogant. Sometimes, a relationship is about two people. If Jiang Ren had always been pursuing her, she should at least try to get closer to him, especially since she didn’t know what injury Jiang Ren had suffered and was worried about him.
So although Meng Ting was sad hearing this, she still nodded, her tone sweet, “Mm, I don’t want to part with you, so don’t leave, okay?”
She stepped forward, not going with the staff member, and held his hand.
His knuckles were prominent, carrying the unique coldness of winter.
“You take me out, Jiang Ren.” She looked up at him, obedient and expectant.
Who could bear to say no?
The small hand in his palm was delicate and warm. He suddenly gripped her hand tightly, so forcefully it was almost painful.
“Alright,” Jiang Ren’s tone was icy and desolate.
Meng Ting looked at him in surprise, only to meet a pair of reddened eyes.
His condition had flared up.
Meng Ting didn’t have time to be surprised, not understanding why Jiang Ren would have an episode when nothing had happened.
This condition was supposed to only occur when his emotions were extreme.
But in the next second, she understood.
The young man was almost death-gripping her hand, pulling her forward. The veins on the back of his hand were bulging, his face expressionless as he strode forward.
He pulled her along at a pace she could barely keep up with.
Regardless of anything else, he led her out with an attitude of utter despair.
The faster they went, the more obvious the impairment in his foot became.
Even though she was stumbling, her steps were normal. While he…
Meng Ting’s gaze lowered, falling on his problematic right leg. For a moment, she could only hear her heavy heartbeat, one after another, her heart aching.
The hand holding hers was deathly tight, as if not allowing her to escape.
The staff member and the hidden employees were all stunned.
The staff member didn’t dare to follow. The other employees didn’t know, but he did – this man was Young Master Jiang from Junyang. Their boss’s friend. The current situation wasn’t good.
Outside, there was no sunlight. It was a cold winter day, with dark clouds looming in the sky.
However, as soon as they came out, they were met with dazzling light.
Because it was Christmas Eve, there were many apple sellers in the amusement park, with exquisitely beautiful packaging.
He stopped, breathing heavily. The cold air pierced his lungs, colder than the snowy winter of last year. He let go of her hand.
Jiang Ren turned to look at her, his tone unexpectedly calm: “Did you see? Have you seen enough?”
Her eyes were dazed, looking at him with tears.
“So what do you want me to do?” He almost wanted to shout, what do you want from me? What else could he do?
He could no longer suppress the earth-shattering feelings in his heart. Jiang Ren lifted her chin and shouted, “What other demands do you have? Speak! I’ll give you anything, do you dare to take it?”
His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice was not quiet. The children in the amusement park were frightened and didn’t dare to come near, all hiding behind their parents.
Even the visitors who had reached the exit of the haunted house didn’t dare to come out, only peeking out from inside.
Meng Ting had never imagined that the price of her standing here unharmed was Jiang Ren’s leg being injured like this.
It was as if she was suddenly back at the fire station six months ago, with the young firefighter scratching his head: “He was the one who handed you over to me. The glass exploded, you were in his arms, he couldn’t stand up.”
You were in his arms, he wanted nothing else, just to hold you tight.
Did she dare?
She almost didn’t dare anymore. If no matter how many lifetimes passed, the unchanging thing was the human heart, then in this life, Jiang Ren’s right leg was impaired for her sake. What about Jiang Ren in the previous life?
She guessed it.
He had become a murderer.
For her sake, he had become an extremely cruel murderer.
For a moment, Meng Ting’s body turned cold. The person he killed was Wen Rui. In her previous life, when she heard about the young entrepreneur committing murder, it was just news.
She was curled up in her small rented room, eating fried rice with eggs, watching the handcuffed man being arrested on TV.
He was the youngest entrepreneur, owning almost a mountain of gold and silver in an era of soaring house prices. His voluntary surrender to the police had caused a national uproar. The media wasn’t restricted, following the police with cameras.
He didn’t wear a mask or hood, his strong and cold profile expressionless.
The media speculated wildly about what could make such a promising young man commit such a brutal murder.
No paper can wrap up a fire forever. His condition was uncovered, and that illness that had made him infamous since his youth seemed to become everyone’s catalyst for speculation about him.
She sat in her small rented room, quietly eating her egg fried rice, looking at that familiar yet strange face on TV, only then realizing that this was a hoodlum boy who had once pursued her.
The social outcry was immense. Most people thought that given his mental illness, his lawyers would likely plead not guilty on the grounds of his mental state.
Scum, brutal methods, rich person who doesn’t value human life – all sorts of negative labels were suddenly attached to him.
She gently touched her own burned face.
At that time, everyone thought Meng Ting had already died, died on the small road back to her hometown. Because the car she didn’t board had overturned on the mountain road, and not even the bones of the passengers could be found.
Shu Yang was still out there working hard to earn money, wanting to cure her face. Even though Meng Ting was optimistic, she feared burdening her brother and sister, so after that incident, she broke her SIM card and lived alone.
It wasn’t until later when she heard that there was a sudden mudslide at Shu Yang’s workplace that she frantically found Shu Lan and went to look for Shu Yang together.
Unexpectedly, in the end, they didn’t find her brother. He had died there, and when she opened her eyes, it was the second year of high school again.
In the short distance Jiang Ren had walked her out, she had figured everything out.
Jiang Ren killed someone because he thought she had been burned in the fire and later died.
He avenged her.
Killed Wen Rui.
The fire in her previous life might not have been set by Shu Lan but was done by someone on Wen Rui’s orders. It’s just that in this life, Shu Lan had the same intention.
For a moment, Meng Ting felt her eyes grow warm. What was Jiang Ren’s final fate in the previous life? She had been so preoccupied with Shu Yang’s situation that she hadn’t followed up on this case which had shocked the entire country.
Did he face the world and admit he was insane, so he killed?
Or did he say he wasn’t insane, but consciously committed a crime for her sake?