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nChapter 44

nYi Zeyang gave Gu Anhao a tight slap across her left cheek that was already red and swollen.

nGu Anhao was surprised and she staggered backward after getting slapped by him. She fell onto the sofa in a state of embarrassment.

nHer clothes were in a mess when she collapsed onto the sofa but nothing was revealed. Her hair was stuck all over her wet face, and her petite body and face suddenly looked abnormally pale.

nYi Zeyang suddenly came to the realization of what he had just done. She already had an injury on her left cheek and he had actually given her a slap on that exact same cheek.

nYi Zeyang looked at his hand with a stiff expression on his face. He could feel a warm burning sensation on his palm and this simply showed how heavy his slap was.

nYi Zeyang turned around to look at her, and Gu Anhao was getting up from the sofa. She had her head lowered and she was straightening out her clothes without saying a word.

nGu Anhao kept her head lowered and Yi Zeyang could not see the expression on her face. After a short while, Anhao pulled up the zipper of her coat before she mumbled, “I am sorry. I must have drunk too much… I almost forgot… that someone of my status would never be worthy of the young owner of the Yishi Group…”

nThe pain that Yi Zeyang was feeling in his heart was suffocating him, it was as if he could not breathe. He reached out and tried to help Anhao as she got up from the sofa but she deliberately avoided him, keeping her head down. After she stood up, Anhao felt as if she was floating in mid-air and she staggered as she tried to head toward the exit. When Yi Zeyang saw that Anhao could not even walk in a straight line, he turned around and quickly grabbed hold of her arm. “Anhao!”

nAnhao gave him the cold shoulder and she did not even turn around to look at him. She simply allowed him to hold onto her arm as she said, “Yi Zeyang, if you really care about me, then just let me retain whatever dignity and self-esteem that I have left. You don’t have to do anything for me anymore. In fact, I knew what I was doing all along and I also know how you reacted. You are right. I am simply too naïve and impulsive, and I apologize for my inappropriate behavior…”

nYi Zeyang held tightly onto her wrist, with no intentions of letting go at all. “Okay, I promise not to say anything anymore. We will talk about this when you sober up. Please just let me look at your face first.”

nAnhao shook her head and she turned away from him as he was about to walk in front of her. “I am fine.”

nAs soon as Gu Anhao spoke, Yi Zeyang caught sight of her left cheek and he could see that her left cheek was not only swollen but there was a glaring red mark on her cheek.

nHer cheek was already red and swollen from the slap earlier, and she was probably already injured but he actually slapped her again because he could not control his anger. He could even see a trace of blood at the corner of her lips. Gu Anhao lowered her head as she continued avoiding his line of sight.

nHe had once doted on her and spoiled her, but he was the one who hurt her feelings today with his bare hands.

nYi Zeyang felt so distressed that he wanted to die! However, there was nothing that he could say. He knew that he should have just held her tightly in his arms and comforted her instead of pushing her away and giving her a slap across the face earlier on.

nBut the timing was wrong. Everything was wrong.

nIn this kind of situation, it felt as though his apology would be superfluous.

nTherefore, he chose not to speak anymore. He wrapped his coat around her before he took her out of the night bar. Before leaving the bar, Yi Zeyang instructed the bartender to charge all of the alcohol consumption and any losses that they had caused to Yishi Group.

nAfter getting into the car, Anhao felt her head throbbing painfully. She kept silent and sat quietly in the car, as though she did not exist at all. This was not her usual character.

n“I will bring you to the hospital.”

n“That is not necessary,” she replied.

n“I would be quite useless if I have to go to the hospital just because of two slaps, right? Besides, I need to have some injuries every now and then just to remind myself what a coward I am, and what kind of mistakes I should avoid making.”

n“You always ask me how I have been ever since I moved into the Gu family mansion. Yi Zeyang, all I can tell you is this, I had to learn how to stand up on my own, time and time again. That is when I learnt that having some injuries every now and then will keep me sober and alert. You can accuse me of self-mutilation or abuse but there is nothing that I will say to defend myself. This is how I am now.”

nYi Zeyang raised his hand to caress her forehead while he continued driving with one hand on the steering wheel. The heaviness that he was feeling in his heart made it really difficult for him to continue arguing with her. Therefore, he turned his car around as he changed his destination. “I will bring you to a nearby hotel. You should rest and have a good sleep first before…”

n“Just send me back to school.”

nYi Zeyang frowned as he turned to look at Gu Anhao. “Are you sure that you want to go back to school now?”

n“Chunchun and Huang Amao are the only two people living in the same dormitory as me. They know everything about my life and they probably know the surname of the eighth generation of my ancestors. I do not need to hide anything from them because I will not feel embarrassed or awkward with them. On the contrary, I will feel much better if they are by my side.”

nYi Zeyang did not say a word but when he heard that she would feel better with her good friends around her, he glanced at her one last time before making his decision. He finally chose to compromise before driving her to A High in his Mercedes-Benz.

nAnhao continued staring out the window as she stared at the street lights while the silver-grey Mercedes-Benz cruised on the road.

n***

nAbout five to six years ago, Anhao had just entered her teenage years and she started wanting to be close to Yi Zeyang wherever he was. Although she called him her elder brother, she could not stop herself from developing feelings for him. The reason was because she felt as though he was her sunshine, and that he brought her all the warmth and happiness in the world. That was why she was so attracted to him.

nThere was one incident at a basketball tournament where Yi Zeyang won the game because of his gameplay, and Anhao was so happy and excited that she ran through the cheering crowd and jumped into Yi Zeyang’s arms before kissing him.

nAt that time, Yi Zeyang did not put too much thought into the situation and he merely patted her head gently as he smiled. After that, Yi Zeyang started to realize that Anhao would constantly be by his side. When Anhao heard some rumors that Yi Zeyang was having a scandal with one of the most beautiful girls in school, she played the rogue. She would ask him to pick her up from school every day just so that he would not be able to spend any time with that girl after school.

nAs time passed, Gu Anhao’s possessiveness became more and more obvious. She did not expect herself to develop this kind of feelings for Yi Zeyang because she was still young and he was eight years older than her.

nThere was no way that the both of them could avoid one another because they were living under the same roof. Therefore, they would just avoid any topics that were related to relationships and Yi Zeyang would always pretend not to know how she felt about him.

nWhen Gu Anhao came home with first class honors during her first year of junior high school, she quietly ran into his room that night. When she saw that he was sleeping, she kissed him gently on the face.

nAs Anhao was retreating after kissing him, Yi Zeyang suddenly raised his hand and stopped her as he placed his hand on her shoulder. At that time, Anhao was stunned as she thought that Yi Zeyang was fast asleep.

nAfter that, Yi Zeyang opened his eyes as he whispered to Anhao, with the moonlight shining through his bedroom window. He told her that he would be going to the United States in a few days’ time and he wanted her to concentrate on doing the things that she should be focusing on at her age. He also told her not to overthink it, and do things that she should not be doing.

nAnhao was still young and naïve and so she asked him, “I would have already grown up by the time you came back from the United States. Can I do what I want to do then?”

nAt that time, Yi Zeyang simply looked at her without saying anything. He ran his fingers through her hair before he replied that he would consider the possibilities after she had finally grown up.

nNeither one of them rejected the other party but even though the both of them were not related, everyone in the Yi family had always regarded the both of them as siblings.

nSome emotions blew by as breezily as the wind, and it was impossible for things to change overnight. Moreover, the only reason Yi Zeyang refused to reject her feelings, but instead said that he would consider it in the future, was because he was mature and he did not want to hurt her feelings. At that time, Anhao was very happy because as an ignorant fourteen-year-old, she was filled with expectations, and she was more than willing to wait for him.

nAfter that, Yi Zeyang went to the United States and a short while later, Anhao and her mother were eventually kicked out of the Yi family’s mansion. That was when Anhao fell from heaven to hell.

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