Luo Yu felt an icy chill spread through him.
Outside, heavy snow was falling.
He stood in the snow, snowflakes landing on his forehead and cheeks. He was freezing, and a shiver ran through him.
It felt like a nightmare from which he couldn't wake. In the deepest snow, he had lost his rose.
He dared not look back, his palms trembling slightly. His voice was dry.
"Proceed with the original plan. The Xia family will go bankrupt."
"Everything belonging to the Xia family will be lost."
This was originally just his revenge – his revenge was against the Xia family, and Xia Ciluo was merely the Xia family's ostentatiously arrogant fake eldest daughter. He should have been indifferent to her, but why, at this moment, did he feel... his heart being ripped apart?
Luo Yu couldn't understand it himself. He reached out, his fingers slowly pressing against his chest. He could feel his heart aching, making it almost impossible to breathe.
He smiled wryly, tears almost welling up in the corners of his eyes, only to be wiped away by his own hand.
He turned his head, thinking.
Since he couldn't forget her.
And couldn't let her go.
Then he would find a way to make amends. He would do everything he could to be good to Xia Ciluo. He was sure he could do it.
That girl was very well-behaved and obedient. Although she appeared to be an arrogant young lady on the surface.
But he knew she was actually very timid. She was afraid of thunder, and she was also afraid of the cold. Every time he blindfolded her, she pretended to be calm, but the slight tremor in her fingers betrayed her true feelings.
She was scared, but she forced herself to act as if she wasn't at all.
Thinking of this, Luo Yu felt a throbbing pain in his head. He knew she was most afraid of the cold, yet he had left her in an unheated room for three days and three nights. She had a fever so high she lost consciousness, and she had almost died.
Had she also felt utterly helpless in that room?
Had she also wanted to call his name?
Luo Yu didn't dare to think about it.
Just thinking about it made his heart ache.
He took a deep breath. Luo Yu turned around and strode back towards the hospital room.
The young girl had already fallen asleep. The nurse wouldn't let him near, and he had no intention of disturbing her.
He simply watched the door quietly, keeping vigil all night.
It was only when the nurse changed shifts the next morning and found him still there that she felt a pang of sympathy. But then she remembered the young girl's previous words and the look of terror in her eyes when she saw Luo Yu.
The nurse's expression immediately turned serious!
This man must have tormented the beautiful young girl in the room severely. That was why the beautiful young girl had shown such a terrified expression the moment she saw him.
This man was definitely not a good person!
The nurse's expression turned cold in an instant. She let out a cold snort and adopted a professional attitude.
"Visiting patients is prohibited here. And who are you to the patient? You'd best have her direct relatives come over."
Luo Yu's eyes lowered. He remained silent for a moment before saying to the nurse.
"Her direct relatives..."
"Are not able to come."
"You can consider me her guardian. I want to take her away, and I will take good care of her."
The nurse on the other side paused slightly, then became somewhat indignant.
This man in front of her, though handsome and well-dressed, she felt more and more that he was like a beast in human skin. She spread her arms, blocking him like a mother hen protecting her chicks, and said coldly without hesitation.
"No!"
"Unless you bring proof of guardianship."
"Otherwise, you won't get near her. I heard clearly what she said earlier. You are the devil who tormented her. Do you want to take her away and torment her again?"
Her gaze was filled with vigilance as she looked at the man coldly.
Luo Yu glanced at the nurse. He was certainly capable of taking Xia Ciluo away. A mere nurse couldn't possibly stop him. But what Luo Yu was thinking about more was whether Xia Ciluo would genuinely not want to see him at all.
He found it hard to be certain of this fact.
He was also afraid that her psychological trauma would truly worsen.
He remained silent for a long time and then spoke.
"I will prepare food for her... Hospital food, I'm worried she won't be used to it."
"Could you help me send it in? Don't tell her it's from me. Just use the hospital's name and say it's catering provided for the ward."
He took a deep breath, his voice low, even carrying a hint of pitiable pain.
"Don't mention me in front of her."
The nurse hesitated as she looked at him.
She was probably suspecting if he would poison the food.
After much deliberation, the nurse finally nodded, grudgingly agreeing.
Luo Yu turned and walked away.
He desperately wanted to see her, to see that young girl, but he dared not approach, fearing she would be angry. He could only watch her from a distance, his heart stirred by wave after wave of emotion.
He missed her... he missed her dependence on him like a kitten, missed her gentleness, missed the proud young lady whose eyes were always filled with him. But his young lady was gone, destroyed by his own hands on a snowy night. She had burned with fever, unconscious, in an empty villa.
He had wanted to punish, but he hadn't expected that he himself would be the one punished in the end.
He smiled bitterly.
How could he possibly approach his little rose again?
He was utterly helpless.
...
In the ward, Lin Munci, diligently playing the role of Xia Ciluo, was not as helpless as Luo Yu imagined. On the contrary, Lin Munci stretched lazily.
A calm and rational light flickered in the depths of Lin Munci's eyes.
She chuckled, a faint, cool smile on her lips.
"Is he incredibly flustered right now?"
"Is he terrified that I will hate him?"
She was speaking to the system in her mind, and the system gave her a thumbs-up, full of admiration!
"Host, you are truly prescient. How did you guess that he would know the truth and fall into complete panic?"
"He truly has no way out anymore—Host, you guessed it perfectly!"
The system felt the host was too much of a tormentor.
"His current state is indeed hysterical. He wants to get close to you, but he's afraid you'll be angry, so he doesn't dare to approach you."
"Host, you are truly driving him crazy. He can't hold on much longer. He'll definitely sneak in to see you."
What the system said was not wrong. A week later, Lin Munci indeed saw Luo Yu. He stood at the doorway, wearing a white shirt, his figure gaunt, like a wet stray dog abandoned by its owner.
He had told the nurse earlier that he would never fall ill, but he had overestimated himself. He had a high fever for several days, but he felt it was the punishment he deserved.
Even when his fever wouldn't break.
The only thought in his mind.
Was—
Would his young lady feel scared when she endured such suffering back then?
And after finally recovering, unable to bear the torment of lovesickness any longer, Luo Yu had eagerly appeared before Lin Munci. His gaze was almost heavy as it fell upon her. He was about to speak.
But the young girl opposite him looked at him, her eyes filled with confusion and fear. Her voice trembled.
"You... why are you here?"
She timidly raised her head to look at him, her eyes filled with confusion and fear.
"Please... let me go, okay?"
She frantically tried to hide, ducking behind the curtains. Behind the curtains was the girl's frightened face. Her voice was even hoarse. She looked at him as if he were a devil, the most terrifying and sinister ghost, ready to devour everything!
The man opposite took a deep breath. He looked at the young girl before him. Her panicked expression made him somewhat lost.
He even felt dejected.
Did she really hate him that much?
He walked over, his fingertips feeling somewhat heavy. His fingers slowly brushed through her hair, and then he spoke.
"Don't... don't be afraid."
"I mean no harm..."
His voice was very, very low. The girl opposite him looked up at him, tears streaming down her face.
"I really know I was wrong. Why won't you let me go?"
"Please, please let me go."
"Will you?"
"Wuuu..."
Her voice was choked with sobs. Her tears dripped down her cheeks, almost burning hot, searing into one's bones, making them ache. He reached out, wanting to hug her, but the girl shook her head desperately. She just wanted to escape his embrace.
She hated him so much.
She... she hated him so much.
Luo Yu felt his heart breaking into countless pieces. He had to admit one fact: the girl before him truly didn't love him at all. She even hated him, wishing she would never see him again.
He slowly released his hand.
"It's okay... I promise, I won't hurt you. Don't be scared, don't be nervous..."
"Xia Ciluo, I will never hurt you. I will always be your bodyguard, I will protect you..."
But the girl opposite couldn't listen to his promises at all. She shook her head desperately.
"No!"
Her tone was extremely cold. She rejected him icily.
"You can't protect me... You only want to hurt me... You don't believe me at all. You don't believe a single word I say. You only torment me..."
Her tears fell hotly, scorching wounds in his heart. But he knew it was what he deserved, his own fault.
He slowly knelt by her hospital bed, his gaze filled with despair.
"Please, believe me."
"Will you?"
His voice even had a hint of a sob that he himself didn't notice.
"I won't hurt you."
But the girl merely turned her head away blankly. Then her voice paused, carrying a deep sense of unease and fear. The girl spoke.
"I want to go home."
"I don't want to stay here anymore—it smells of disinfectant."
"And I don't want to see you."
But the man opposite seemed to suddenly perk up. He completely ignored the latter half of the girl's sentence, instead confirming her desire to go home.
"You want to go home?"
"Which home?"
"The place you lived for a long time, the Xia family villa?"
"I'll arrange it immediately."
The girl hesitated, then continued.
"I don't want to see Xia Yingying."
The man opposite said.
"The Xia family has already gone bankrupt, and the villa has been auctioned off. I bought it. You wouldn't have seen Xia Yingying anyway. Don't worry, she won't appear and soil your eyes."
The man's words were decisive, and then he immediately made a phone call, instructing his subordinates to prepare the villa.
Then he looked at her.
"Shall I carry you there?"
The girl shook her head resolutely.
A shadow of dimness crossed the man's eyes, but he wasn't too disappointed. He was already overjoyed that she agreed to return to the villa.
As for other things, he would take it slowly.
He couldn't rush. He couldn't scare his little rose again.
...
The Xia family villa was furnished exactly as it had been when Xia Ciluo was the Xia family's eldest daughter. Nothing had changed.
What Luo Yu didn't tell Xia Ciluo was that he had personally arranged the furnishings based on his own memories. After the Xia family went bankrupt, he bought back the villa and had already redecorated her room.
The reason he hadn't brought her back then was to temper the temperament of his rose with thorns.
He hadn't expected that he would almost kill her.
His dark eyes were deep, like turbulent seawater. He escorted her to her room, but the girl shivered, her voice trembling.
"I don't want to live here..."
"The memories here are all unbearable."
She looked at Luo Yu opposite her.
"You lied to me... you tormented me every night. You must have hated me, hated me so much that you wished I were dead."
"I was locked in your villa, burning with fever and close to death. I thought, after I died, you wouldn't care. You wouldn't even glance at me."
"Even if my corpse lay in the snow, you would have walked past without a second look."
The girl's voice was laced with sobs.
"You hate me, you resent me. I saw the news on television. You have a deep enmity with the Xia family, so you want to take revenge on the Xia family. But what did I do wrong?"
"The Xia family doesn't want me, my biological parents dislike me, no one loves me. I might as well die."
Luo Yu felt as if thousands of needles were piercing his heart simultaneously.
How he wished he could tell the girl before him that he never, ever didn't love her—he loved her, loved her pride and spirit, loved her delicate, bright radiance like a rose. He was clearly deeply attracted to the girl before him, but he just hadn't told her.
He had forgotten to tell her.
That was why she felt he didn't care about her at all, that he hated her.
He was so heartbroken he could barely breathe! He could only murmur a defense.
"No... Young Lady..."
"I don't... hate you."
A single moment of indecision, a game, he lost his heart, completely defeated.
Could he kneel before her to atone?
Could she be his young lady for a lifetime?
He just wanted to grovel at her feet forever, to protect her.