Ivy felt the man's concern, her strained body softened, and she collapsed into his arms.
She hugged him tightly, refusing to let go.
Looking up, their faces were inches apart, their eyes meeting. Her eyes were misty, and she choked out, "You clearly care about me, you clearly have me in your heart."
Ivy could no longer hold back, and she cried into Rong Jingyang's arms, "Don't let go of me. Don't push me away."
"A Jing... woo woo woo..."
"I like you, I love you, I don't want to leave you."
"Never to be separated from you."
"Woo woo woo..."
Rong Jingyang listened to the woman's helpless and heartbroken cries, his expression stunned, "—"
He...
He was just comforting her as a friend, doing what a friend should do in her pain, how could she, in her eyes, see it as him having feelings for her?
Rong Jingyang didn't hear what Ivy was mumbling through her tears; he was shocked by this realization.
Could it be that his actions had caused her misunderstanding?
But—
He asked himself, between him and Ivy, he had never done anything that crossed the boundary of friendship.
Rong Jingyang's face turned cold, and he forcefully pushed away the woman who was crying uncontrollably.
Ivy: "—"
Suddenly pushed away, she seemed frozen mid-cry, tears hanging precariously from her eyes, staring blankly and woodenly at Rong Jingyang.
Rong Jingyang frowned deeply and said, "In the past, I thought that if Du Ruoxin wasn't around, perhaps I would marry you."
Ivy's gaze fixed, he would marry her? Really? He would marry her?
She blinked, wiped away her tears, and stared at Rong Jingyang, holding her breath, waiting for his next words.
"But, no."
That thought was so absurd.
"I don't like you."
"Ivy, I have never liked you."
If he didn't like her, how could he marry her into the Rong family? How could he defy his mother for Ivy?
If he had even a little bit of liking, he wouldn't have agreed to marry Du Ruoxin.
If he had even a little bit of liking, he would have found ways to gain his mother's favor to be with Ivy.
But there was none.
He didn't like her.
That was the answer.
"No, no, no, no..." Ivy's lips trembled.
The panic in her heart was about to drown her, plunging her into an abyss, "But... no... you told me... when you married Du Ruoxin, you didn't like her either!"
Why was it that with the same lack of affection, he could marry Du Ruoxin but not her?
Rong Jingyang: "Because my mother liked her."
Similarly, because his mother didn't like Ivy, and he had no feelings for her, he would never marry her in his lifetime.
Ivy: "Pfft—"
She spat out a breath, feeling as if Rong Jingyang had stabbed her chest with a knife.
In the end, it was all because of that old witch Feng Linwan!
Damn, old, witch!!!!
Rong Jingyang: "You rest well, recover, and go back where you belong."
Perhaps, there was no such thing as true platonic friendship between men and women?
After speaking, he turned and left.
Without any hesitation.
He thought he had said all that needed to be said.
"No—"
"Rong Jingyang!"
Ivy stared at his resolute and heartless retreating back, screaming with all her might, "Come back, come back..."
"Don't go, please, don't go."
She knew that if he left now, she would never see him again if she wanted to.
Never see him again.
"Rong Jingyang..."
But no matter how Ivy cried out, how heartbrokenly she wept, the man left the ward without looking back and closed the door.
From then on, he and she became people on parallel lines.