“Shen Bingyao, can I ask you something?”

“Mm.”

“Is Shen Bingjing seeing anyone?”

Mo Xuan really didn’t know how to bring it up. After thinking it over, he had no choice but to drag her sister into it.

At the same time, he apologized guiltily in his heart.

The girl blinked in confusion. She tilted her head and thought seriously for a moment before shaking it firmly.

With the kind of relationship the sisters had, where they told each other everything, Shen Bingjing couldn’t possibly hide something as major as dating someone.

Besides, no matter what, the younger sister was very obedient toward her elder sister.

“Then… does Shen Bingjing like any guy?”

“I don’t think so…”

This time, Shen Bingyao hesitated. She’d never heard Shen Bingjing mention anyone, so that was all she could say.

Wait.

What were all these questions from Mo Xuan about?

Why did every question revolve around Bingjing?

She knew the two of them had a good relationship, but surely they weren’t close enough to ask about each other’s private matters.

Could it be that Mo Xuan had other feelings for Bingjing?

Shen Bingyao was startled. Her heart plunged straight into an abyss.

An indescribable pain and despair spread through her body like growing vines, binding her so tightly that she could barely breathe.

Mo Xuan didn’t notice anything unusual about her. He wove excuses together in his mind, then pretended to be making casual conversation.

“What about you? Do you like any guys?”

For quite some time, only then did a weak, bitter laugh sound in the darkness.

“Mo Xuan, don’t joke around. Looking at me like this, how many guys do you think I can even meet?”

Mo Xuan smiled casually, having complete control over how things were unfolding. He put on an apologetic expression and waved his hands repeatedly.

“It’s nothing. We’re just chatting. Look at us right now—we can’t do anything. How else are we supposed to pass the time if we don’t talk about something?”

As usual, Shen Bingyao nodded again and again. Her smile was gentle and pleasing, and she gave Mo Xuan a happy smile.

Those movements seemed to have become a conditioned reflex.

“If… I mean, if…”

Mo Xuan rubbed his hands together. He avoided the girl’s eyes and stammered slightly.

“If you, Shen Bingyao, met a guy you liked one day, what would you do?”

This time, the silence lasted even longer.

Because he felt guilty, Mo Xuan didn’t dare turn around. He was even more afraid to meet the girl’s eyes, worried that one glance would reveal the secret in his heart.

But he had to ask.

The painful lesson from his previous life remained vivid in his mind. Mo Xuan felt that things had developed that way largely because neither side had clearly recognized the heart of the problem.

Just as he hadn’t understood Yun Jiumo’s personality, Shen Bingyao hadn’t understood the person he loved.

All kinds of misunderstandings and mistakes had mixed together, pushing the two of them farther and farther apart.

In his spare time, he would wonder what Shen Bingyao’s love was really like.

Before he saw Yun Jiumo’s true nature, he had only thought something was wrong.

After seeing through Yun Jiumo and comparing the two of them, he could only feel that they were much of a muchness.

Perhaps it was because both of them had unusual pasts.

Find the heart of the problem, then prescribe the right remedy.

That was the approach Mo Xuan had come up with.

He had one year left.

After graduating from high school, Yun Jiumo would start dating him. That would also mark the beginning of Shen Bingyao’s descent into the abyss.

Time was pressing. It waited for no one.

The only sound beside him was their breathing, rising and falling, gradually growing more hurried.

Yet no answer came.

Mo Xuan grew impatient. He carefully turned his head and noticed a fleeting sorrow in the girl’s eyes.

But in the next moment, she once again wore her usual shy, pure smile.

She even lowered her head slightly, looking a little embarrassed.

“Me? As for me…”

Shen Bingyao’s voice was soft and sweet, like honey melting beneath the sun.

Even the air seemed to grow a little sweeter.

Although she hadn’t finished speaking, Mo Xuan could already feel her sincere longing for love and her beautiful hopes for the future.

That soft, pleasant voice seeped into his heart, making his thoughts grow sluggish.

“I want to stay by his side and face every storm with him. I want to experience his joys and sorrows, and understand the thoughts and secrets in his heart.”

Her teeth were white as snow. Her face was as lovely as a peach blossom, and her eyes were pitch-black.

She stared at Mo Xuan’s cheek. Her gaze gradually grew hazy, and her mind drifted into a daze.

“I want to be his steadfast supporter. Whatever he does, I’ll follow him willingly. I’ll listen to anything he says.”

“I want us to share our thoughts and dreams with each other, then walk forward hand in hand.”

After saying this, she turned her gaze away in embarrassment. Her cheeks flushed bright red, as if she had a fever.

Mo Xuan’s figure was silent as a reef.

His face was shrouded in chaotic darkness, making his expression impossible to see.

After a long while, he finally spoke with difficulty. His smile was somewhat forced.

“That’s what you think? Really?”

Shen Bingyao stared at the bedsheet and nodded hard. Her fingers clutched the blanket tightly.

Mo Xuan couldn’t smile anymore.

You’re lying!

That was the only sentence in his heart.

It echoed again and again, drifting back and forth until it struck his chest with a painful ache. He could no longer say a single word.

He didn’t know why Shen Bingyao wanted to hide her true feelings from him.

Even if she had her own reasons and couldn’t say them aloud, why give such a beautiful excuse as her answer?

If he hadn’t been reborn, he might have believed her.

No matter how he looked at it, those words perfectly matched the girl’s personality.

Anyone who heard them would be moved to tears. They would shout that any man who married a girl like this must have saved the galaxy in his previous life.

But Mo Xuan had been reborn from his previous life. He had already witnessed all the unbelievable things the girl would do.

After hearing those words, he felt only a chill run through him.

He even wanted to leave the bedroom.

Because not one of her final actions matched the beautiful ideals she had described.

Some of them were even the complete opposite.

If Shen Bingyao had said she didn’t know or hadn’t thought about it yet, Mo Xuan wouldn’t have reacted so strongly.

But she had smiled while saying those things.

To him, it was as horrifying as Yun Jiumo, still straddling his waist midway through the act, cheerfully pulling out a knife.

Still, he couldn’t conclude that she was lying.

Perhaps she was still normal at this point—a girl with innocent, beautiful fantasies about love.

Maybe her later experiences had twisted her into someone obsessive and warped.

Maybe no one had ever reached out to save her, allowing everything to spiral out of control.

Yes. It had to be like that.

How could anyone become that kind of person?

Yun Jiumo, who had drugged him and tried to make him die with her, was abnormal in his eyes.

Shen Bingyao was much the same.

The difference was that Yun Jiumo had him by her side, while Shen Bingyao had nothing except her sister.

Later, even her relationship with her sister grew distant.

If someone could go through all that without being affected, Mo Xuan would never believe it.

While he sank into the terror of the past and the anxiety of the present, Shen Bingyao carefully studied his expression.

She felt uneasy.

She didn’t understand why Mo Xuan had suddenly fallen silent.

The look on the boy’s face made her anxious and restless. It gave her a sense of crisis, as if he were about to disappear from her side.

She wanted to take his hand, but she was afraid he would refuse.

Did I say something wrong?

“That’s surprising.”

The boy’s sigh seemed to pin her to the bed.

What did he mean?

What was he trying to say?

The girl raised her head in confusion, trying to find the answer on his face.

But Mo Xuan’s smile seemed unfathomable. For a moment, she couldn’t make sense of it.

Her feminine intuition told her that he was wearing a mask.

His true meaning lay on the other side of it.

She felt a little disappointed, a little regretful, and a little lonely.

In the past, Mo Xuan had always answered every question they asked. He never hid anything from them.

But now, he had begun guarding himself and avoiding something.

Perhaps he had his own troubles.

After all, they were still outsiders. It was normal that he didn’t want to reveal everything.

She kept making excuses to improve her mood, then forced a smile.

“I really don’t think there are many girls who think like you,” Mo Xuan said, scratching his hair.

He sounded like an honest, simple man filled with emotion.

“Whichever guy marries you in the future probably saved the galaxy in his previous life.”

In that instant, Shen Bingyao almost blurted something out.

Fortunately, she hadn’t lost her reason.

Before the situation could become impossible to salvage, she clenched her teeth and swallowed every word back down.

Then she turned toward the boy and revealed a dazzlingly cute smile, lying obediently on the bed.

The sight made Mo Xuan’s eyes grow hot, and his heartbeat involuntarily quickened.

He opened his mouth.

But in the end, he still couldn’t say anything.