Because I Cannot Hurt You

Chapter 70 – Step Out Of The Illusion

"Now I understand everything, Xiaosi. Every time I think that you cannot get more pathetic, you always exceed my expectations."

Caihong laughed. "Now I get why you hate Zhiyuan so much. It's because I loved him and not you. You were jealous of him. Here you pretended as if you suffered and felt wrong because of his hypocrisy, but in reality, you were hiding your disgusting feelings!"

Xiaosi quietly stared at her. 

She pushed him back in all her anger. "You…you forced yourself on me just because you couldn't handle rejection! You ruined my life. You ruined my future with Zhiyuan! I lost my dignity, I lost my love, and what was I left with? This unwanted marriage and that unwanted child in me at that time!? Is this what you call loving someone? This is not love, but selfishness!"

Caihong felt her knees go weak.

"And Xinyi. She looks so innocent, but even she turned out just like you. And Grandpa liked a woman like her for Zhiyuan? On the cruise, I felt happy for Zhiyuan that he got a wife like Xinyi. That at least he was happy. But even those were all lies! Everything is built upon by trampling on Zhiyuan and my feelings!"

"Are you done?" Xiaosi plainly asked.

Caihong looked at him in disbelief.

He leaned towards her and tilted his head. "I asked, are you done with your nonsense? You have been babbling garbage for a while and honestly, I have lost my patience now."

He held her chin and burst into a chuckle. "You know? This is the problem with you rich heiresses. You think that everything is about you. You think that everything revolves around you. Why not? You are spoiled, rich heiresses after all."

His gaze turned cold. "But do you know the ugly truth? Life is not the same for orphans like me. Listen to me very carefully, my dear wife."

She gasped as he suddenly pulled her towards him. "I will never fall for someone like you. You think I love you? You think I will love someone from that class who has always looked down upon me like Zhiyuan? Or do you want to just get the satisfaction of knowing that two men vy for your love?"

Caihong trembled. Her misty eyes teared up once again.

"You know like those kinds of women who feel proud that so many men are after them? I see, you are one of them."

"You…"

"Shut up," he coldly cut her off. Xiaosi clutched her jaw and forced her to look at him. "Before jumping to conclusions, you should use your head a little bit. If I really loved you, then would I have refrained from touching you in the last seven years? Do you think I would have been so kind?"

She froze.

He sneered. "I mean I had already slept with you once. What does it matter if I slept with you more especially if I had feelings for you? If I could force you one time, I could have forced you the other times too if I wanted, again and again, and you could have done nothing to resist me."

His lips curled into a mocking smirk. "But do you know why I didn't? Because I already got what I wanted. I wanted to snatch Zhiyuan's woman and I did. I didn't want to waste any more time on you. So, please get out of your illusion."

"I married his woman because I wanted to see the despair on his face. I wanted to see him madly searching for us like crazy, but still not getting any answers. I wanted to see him utterly destroyed and defeated."

"And as for forcing you to give birth to Chyou? Of course, I would. You wanted to abort my child. My daughter had got nothing to do with what happened. Why should I punish her and end her life? She is my daughter. I decided to sleep with you, so it was my responsibility to raise her. You had no right to decide to kill her or not."

Caihong felt chilly.

Xiaosi released her chin and she stumbled back. He picked up the phone she threw at him and gave it back to her. "Tell your dear aunt to pay more attention to what she is recording."

Caihong glared at him. "I am not stupid! You are spinning all these lies to save yourself."

"Save myself? From whom? You?" Xiaosi raised his brow in amusement. "Even if it had been true, what would you have done about it? You would have just shouted and yelled for sometime, but in the end, would have still remained married to me because I wouldn't have divorced you," he smiled.

She stiffened and dug her nails in her palm.

"I said those things to confirm my suspicion about Xinyi's feelings about Zhiyuan. And her expression said it all. She indeed loved Zhiyuan from the beginning."

He touched his chin. "I was thinking of testing her. It looked fun and I got to know her secret that she wants to hide from him. It could prove useful in the future. Tsk. Tsk. Now that I have burst all your bubbles about my imaginary love for you, I think you should head back to your Aunt and advise her to do things more thoroughly next time."

—

Han villa.

As Zhiyuan was about to head back to his room to check on Xinyi, he was suddenly stopped by Zizi on the way.

"Zizi. What happened?"

Zizi said, "Bro, I always said that Xinyi was fooling us all! But you didn't believe me."

Zhiyuan narrowed his eyes. "Zizi, enough. If you have to talk about the same thing, then I don't have time for it. I said I don't want to hear anything against her."

"No, bro! Today you have to make time. Today you got to see her true face she has been hiding all this time. She confessed it herself and I have the evidence this time."

Zizi took out her phone and opened the recording Han Guang had shared with her.

"See this!"

"I will not look at anything, Zizi. Get away now."

But she forced her phone in his hand. "Just see this once and you will know everything!"

"What joke is this Zizi?" Zhiyuan pressed his brows.

Zizi said, "I am not joking! This video is the truth! Xinyi has confessed here!"

"Confessed what? Where is Xinyi? I don't see any recording here."

"Huh?"

Zizi checked her phone, but the recording she had saved a few minutes was gone. She widened her eyes and rechecked the video folder. But she couldn't find it anywhere. She checked Han Guang's message on Wechat where she sent the video clip, but it was erased from that place too.

"Where is that video?" She panicked.

"That is what I am asking. Zizi, is this your trick to trouble Xinyi?" He coldly asked. "How many times should I tell you to stop bothering her?"

"B-Bro… believe me. Aunt had recorded Xiaosi and Xinyi's conversation in the hospital and Xiaosi had exposed that she always loved you since nine years!"

For a moment, his heart shook.

Always loved me…

But he knew it wasn't the truth. Han Huizhong had forced them into this marriage after all.

Zhiyuan felt a strange flutter in his chest, thinking about that possibility.

Then he stiffened.

What was I expecting? Don't be so foolish, Zhiyuan. This is strange.

Why am I feeling disappointed?

"Bro, trust me! Xinyi always loved you and that's why she did something to gain Grandpa's favor! How can it be a coincidence that you got married to her who she loved!"

He looked at Zizi and folded his arms. "And you are trusting whose words? Xiaosi's? You know that he is here for the sole purpose of destroying me. He said those things just to create a misunderstanding and look, you and Aunt fell for it. He wants turbulence in our family. That means he just wants unnecessary fights and arguments to make me weaker."

Ziz was frustrated.

How can this be! How can the video get deleted!

"Bro, Xinyi is not as simple as she looks like. I saw her expression when Xiaosi said that. She had that guilty look on her face as if she was caught red-handed! She was panicking! Bro, I am telling you, Xinyi and Xiaosi had colluded together to separate you and Caihong."

Zhiyuan had enough. "Stop it. Even if you had the evidence, I would have still believed Xinyi. Please, Zizi. I don't force you to accept her as your sister-in-law. But at least don't cause any trouble either."

"Bro…"

"Leave!"

She jolted and her tears rimmed in her eyes. "How long would you sacrifice your happiness and compromise in this marriage!?"

Zizi ran away.

Zhiyuan quietly stood in the long corridor.

In the beginning, he may have felt that he had compromised his happiness for the sake of his grandfather's, but now…

Compromise?

I don't feel that way now. 

Even at the time when Han Huizhong had thrown the divorce papers at his face, he felt himself resisting. There was a force in his heart, a prickly sensation that refused to look at those papers.

He knew it was Xiaosi's ploy to cause disturbance in his life, but Zizi's accusations brought one question into his mind.

Xinyi was forced into this marriage. Neither did she love me. But then in college…was there someone else that she liked?