Chapter 88: Would you accept me as your girlfriend?
While he couldn’t recall those words to make any sentence, Lin Fang suspected that Leng Xuenyi could have been the one who saved him and took him to the hospital.
His grip tightened on the bedsheet. "I should meet her and confirm it."
After a brief pause, Lin Fang’s brow furrowed. "But isn’t her involvement in my life lately... Too much of a coincidence?" he muttered under his breath.
First, they were paired together on a team. Then, she just happened to own the building he’d leased. And now, she was there at the harbor where he was assassinated.
"I could think the Exam and the store lease might be a coincidence, but there’s no way it could be a coincidence that she was there at the harbor, too. But, then again, there is no way she could’ve known I’d be there at that time, unless she was in cahoots with the assassin," he whispered. "But, what would she even gain from me by doing this... she herself is an innate soul who owns a legendary grade wolf. I highly doubt that she did all this because she thinks I’m an innate soul and have a spirit king latched onto me. Does she know that I have a system, perhaps?"
He sat in silence for a while, thoughts looping like an endless echo. Finally, he exhaled and shook his head. "Well... that seemed even more absurd. I guess it really seemed like a series of coincidences. Maybe it’s fate." A wry smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
Closing his eyes for a moment, he steadied his thoughts. "Anyway, let’s just focus on recovery. I don’t have much time before the fourth trial. Everything can come afterwards."
Drawing in a deep breath, he summoned the system interface and opened the pet inventory.
The familiar screen flickered into view, where his four monster companions were resting. His eyes were momentarily fixated on one of them, the one that looked like a wolf, but with one of its eyes violet and the other golden, its pupils had vertical slits.
"Perhaps, you were the one who saved this time again, Xuan Hei?" he murmured, fingers brushing the screen as if the dark beast could somehow hear him through the interface. But no reply came from the monster resting in the inventory.
A long sigh escaped him.
By evening, the ward door opened to the sound of familiar voices.
Li Liu entered first, followed closely by Hao Bin and Yu Xiaofei. They asked about his injuries, their worry plain and unguarded. Li Liu seemed to have a lot to tell, and he could see worry and concern in her eyes, but she held her back, didn’t speak much, well, atleast until an hour when Yu Xiaofei informed him about reporting back to work. Hao Bin added that he will drop her.
But, Li Liu then gave him the keys instead of following them, telling them about her decision to stay back for a while. Once they left and the door was closed, Li Liu’s expression changed. The tears she held back for an entire door suddenly burst out of her eyes as she walked heavily to him. She spoke in a hushed tone, sounding like a heavy whisper. "I’m sorry. I heard that you were assassinated because of my impersonator."
Lin Fang managed a faint smile, patting the back of her hand, "It’s not you who did it. So, you don’t have to feel sorry for it."
"But it is because of me you left without thinking." She replied, with a bit of frustration, "If it were someone else..."
Before she finished that sentence, she realized what she had blurted out, and she paused for a moment. Her head hung down in a bit of disappointment as she added. "I guess you would do it even if it were anyone else but..."
At this, Lin Fang cut in, "No."
"Eh?" As Li Liu looked at him in surprise, Lin Fang weakly smiled as he said. "If it were someone else, I wouldn’t have been worried that way. I know that you don’t want anything between us other than friendship or business partnership, but I like you, Liu’er. It doesn’t matter whether you like me or not. It doesn’t matter whether we were in a relationship or not. It doesn’t even matter whether we have a future together or not. My feelings wouldn’t change because of circumstances or some other women."
Li Liu stiffened on the spot, staring at him. She blinked. Once. Twice. And Thrice... Flabbergasted by a sudden confession from him. Unlike before, when he just said that he fell for her at first sight, this one seemed more sincere and serious.
And then once again, her eyes welled up, but this time, it wasn’t in worry or regret. This time, it was something else.
Seeing that she wasn’t saying anything but only becoming emotional, not knowing her thoughts, Lin Fang let out a deep sigh and further said, "It’s alright, Liu’er. I’m not asking you to date me, atleast not in this situation. It would make me feel like I was taking advantage of the situation. I just want to express these feelings of mine, which I couldn’t say last time. Maybe it is because I myself wasn’t that sure back then, probably because we didn’t know each other. Now that I come back from the dead, I’m sure of what my heart is saying."
Lin Fang stared at her for a few more seconds. Seeing no reaction from her, he could only sigh and turned his head to look away.
But a couple of seconds later, a warm touch responded to him before his head was moved to the side.
As his eyes met Li Liu’s, who leaned toward him while grabbing his head, the latter replied in a hushed tone. "I, too, am going to listen to my heart, Gege..." She leaned even more, letting out a smile as tears dropped down her cheek. A kiss was planted on his lips, and she confessed. "I like you too, Gege. But I cannot hurt Yan’er. If I say we will have to keep our relationship a secret from everyone, if not, atleast from Zhi Yan, until I am ready to say it myself, would you still accept me as your girlfriend?"