“How did it get rubbed off?”

“She got hit by a basketball, then fell and scraped it off on the ground.”

Yun Jiumo’s voice was perfectly calm, as if she were talking about something completely unimportant.

Mo Xuan, the actual culprit, stood obediently to one side. His hands were clasped together, and his face was full of guilt.

It was almost noon, so the infirmary was nearly empty. The young school nurse was scrolling through her phone when she looked up and saw two students rushing in.

They were moving so fast they might as well have kicked the door open.

The beautiful girl obediently sat down in the reclining chair and raised her right leg. The boy stood beside her, sweating profusely as he urged the nurse to examine her.

Only after Yun Jiumo rolled up her pant leg did the nurse realize the injury wasn’t serious. At most, she had scraped off a little skin.

The boy, however, was making a huge fuss, as if he were terrified the wound would leave a scar.

“Your luck really isn’t great,” the nurse said, half-joking and half-serious.

She fetched some iodine and cotton swabs.

According to her, this injury was nothing worth worrying about. But girls were often afraid of scars, so it was better to be careful.

Yun Jiumo wore a faint smile at the corners of her lips. She said nothing and didn’t look at Mo Xuan again.

It was as if she had decided he didn’t exist.

Even when the nurse applied the medicine, Yun Jiumo simply sat down and reached out to roll up her pant leg.

She kept rolling it until her knee was exposed.

This left her entire lower leg uncovered before Mo Xuan’s eyes. Its lines were soft and smooth, her skin delicate and tender, its snow-white glow almost dazzling.

Her dark blue pant leg wrapped around her upper thigh, hiding its fuller, more alluring curves in the unseen darkness.

The faint glimpse of white seemed to tug insistently at Mo Xuan’s gaze.

Mo Xuan knew Yun Jiumo had a great figure.

Back in high school, everyone was wrapped from head to toe in long-sleeved shirts and trousers. There was no way to tell who had a good figure and who didn’t.

Even the girls only wore skirts a few times a year, usually during the school festival.

Under the strict school rules, no girl dared walk through campus in a skirt like she owned the place.

Anyone who tried would be called to the director of discipline’s office before reaching the classroom. Their homeroom teacher would be there too, waiting to hear the verdict.

As the school leaders liked to say, students ought to look like students.

“Everyone else is wearing pants. What do you mean by wearing a skirt?”

In any era, standing out from the crowd was never a good thing.

Anyone bold enough to do it was either extraordinary—or brainless.

So, on the day they graduated from high school, when Yun Jiumo appeared before him in a dark-purple cocktail dress and sheer black stockings, all of Mo Xuan’s attention was stolen by her elegant, rounded legs.

He couldn’t look away.

At the time, he had thought:

I could play with those legs for a whole year!

The iodine-soaked cotton swab carefully brushed against the pink wound.

Yun Jiumo couldn’t help leaning back. Her body tensed and shrank away.

Her eyes narrowed at once. A trace of grievance and resistance appeared on her exquisite, snow-white face.

She moaned, “It hurts.”

“Oh, sorry, sorry. I’ll be gentler.”

The nurse hurriedly lightened her touch. She moved with such caution that she might as well have been performing surgery, as if she wanted to glue her eyes to the wound.

Mo Xuan rolled his eyes from the side.

Come on, Teacher. You can do it without worrying.

This woman had taken more than a dozen shards of glass to the body without making a sound…

He suddenly fell silent.

The smug schadenfreude that had been swelling in his chest vanished without a trace when that scene rose in his memory.

Fragments of broken memories kept surfacing in his mind, rising and falling.

Torrential rain. A pitch-black night. Glass shards scattered across the ground like blades.

He had endured the pain and struggled to get back on his feet.

What he saw beneath him was his wife, covered in blood from head to toe.

Yet she was still looking at him, her eyes filled with worry and sorrow…

At that moment, he never could have imagined that the wife who had imprisoned him and drugged him would throw herself forward in a crisis.

She had willingly wrapped her arms around him, placing herself beneath his body.

She had taken the agony of countless cuts in his place.

And he hadn’t heard her scream even once.

Why?

He slowly raised his head and stared blankly ahead. Everything before him was blurred.

His ears rang wildly, as if countless voices had exploded and spread in every direction.

Yun Jiumo was half-reclining in the chair, her right leg resting over her left.

But she was so afraid that she kept shrinking backward. Even her tall frame had drawn in on itself, almost curling into a ball.

Her curved brows drew tightly together.

Her snow-white teeth bit down on her full red lips. Both hands gripped the chair’s armrests, her slender fingers clenched tightly.

Even without looking closely, anyone could see how much the girl feared and resisted having the medicine applied.

Was she really that afraid of pain?

Mo Xuan stood there in a daze for a long while.

He had never known.

In his memories, Yun Jiumo had seemed capable of anything.

There was no problem in this world she couldn’t solve or face. She handled everything in life and work perfectly.

Mo Xuan had never needed to worry about her.

He had simply lain at home like a plump, useless parasite, eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating, waiting for her to return.

Naturally, he had never seen her injured.

Rather, even if she got hurt outside, she would never tell Mo Xuan.

Whenever she came home, he was always greeted by that bright, captivating smile and her fair body dressed in all kinds of alluring lingerie.

He slammed his back against the wall.

“Thump.”

The nurse and Yun Jiumo both turned to look at him.

“I’m going to use the bathroom.”

He hurriedly came up with an excuse and rushed outside.

Not far from the infirmary was a public restroom. It wasn’t large, and it was hidden among lush green trees.

Its design made it look like a tiny temple.

Mo Xuan rushed to the sink, turned on the faucet, and splashed water over his face several times.

The cold water running over the back of his head helped clear his thoughts.

Mo Xuan raised his head and glared at himself in the mirror. His eyes were rimmed with red.

The turmoil in his heart slowly settled.

He began wondering what he truly felt for Yun Jiumo.

Did he like her?

He believed he did.

From high school to college and then graduation, he had pursued Yun Jiumo all because he liked her.

He had agreed to one willful, even unreasonable demand after another.

No matter how late it was, he waited for her to come home every day.

Was he afraid of her?

That was certainly true as well.

After learning that she had drugged him without his knowledge for such a long time, a chill had indeed crept through his heart.

Back then, Mo Xuan hadn’t thought of anger or blame.

He had only desperately wanted to hide somewhere far away and never see her again.

But aside from those two emotions, was there really nothing else?

Mo Xuan couldn’t say.

He only felt that things weren’t so simple.

He lifted his damp fingers and touched the mirror, then let out a deep sigh.

Yun Jiumo, if you love me, why did you drug me just to keep me by your side?

If you don’t love me, why did you throw yourself forward back then?

Why were you willing to endure that torture in my place?

Mo Xuan realized that, in his previous life, he had never truly understood what love was.

A pair of hands crept toward him from behind.

While Mo Xuan stood there with his head lowered, lost in thought, the attacker struck with lightning speed.

“Smack!”

The hand slammed hard against his shoulder.

Mo Xuan sprang up as if electrocuted. At the same time, he whipped around, his face filled with horror.

A lively young girl stood there, grinning smugly.

“Shen… Shen Bingjing?”

Mo Xuan nearly choked on his breath. His face flushed bright red.

“Scared?” Shen Bingjing asked triumphantly, planting both hands on her hips.

“…What are you doing here?”

“Activity period.”

She raised her snow-white chin and looked at him sideways.

“Our class has activity period at the same time as yours.”

What a coincidence.

Mo Xuan gave a bitter smile.

“You look like something’s weighing on your mind,” Shen Bingjing said. “I came up behind you, and there’s even a mirror here. How did you not notice me?”

Shen Bingjing clearly wasn’t the type to hold a grudge.

That morning, Mo Xuan had teased her and messed up her hair. Yet before noon had even arrived, she had already forgotten everything.

Just like usual, she came over the moment she saw him, her large eyes blinking brightly.

“Yeah. I ran into some annoying trouble.”

“Then can you tell me about it and make me happy?”

“Go away—”

Mo Xuan was still troubled and had no time to bicker with this girl.

Unfortunately, she clung to him like chewing gum. No matter how he tried to shake her off, she wouldn’t leave.

It gave him a splitting headache.

“Why aren’t you in class yet?”

“I could ask you the same thing. Why are you still here?”

“I brought a classmate to the infirmary.”

“Did you two get into a fight?”

The girl’s eyes widened, sparkling brightly.

“No. I hit her with a basketball.”

“Tsk. Your skills are terrible.”

“Seriously? You’re the last person who gets to say that!”

Whenever Mo Xuan and Shen Bingjing were alone together, they were bound to bicker and squabble.

They were like two overenergetic chicks, determined to prove who was better.

If Shen Bingyao wasn’t there to mediate, they would always end up refusing to speak to each other.

Then they would storm off in opposite directions.

By the next day, they’d be laughing and playing together again.

Mo Xuan was just about to make up an excuse to send her away when Yun Jiumo’s voice came from the direction of the infirmary.

“Mo Xuan—”

Her voice stretched through the breeze, like a summer note passing through lotus blossoms.

Shen Bingjing looked puzzled.

“Who’s calling you?”

Mo Xuan’s expression darkened as he looked at the girl standing before him, completely unaware of anything.

He instinctively thought of his previous life.

Back then, whenever Yun Jiumo and Shen Bingjing met, they had nearly fought to the death.

“This is bad. Come with me.”

Before Shen Bingjing could react, Mo Xuan grabbed her by the collar and dragged her straight over.