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98

Translated by Eve

Edited by Kara

Song Xuanhe flipped over upon hearing the System’s warning and quickly subdued Zhou Rong.

Zhou Rong didn’t bother hiding his surprise. There was even a hint of a smile on his face. “I hadn’t thought that you’d improve so much since I last saw you. Alright, let me go. I was too riled up just now. I’ve calmed down.”

Song Xuanhe raised a brow. Actually, since the moment he had laid eyes on Zhou Rong, he realized that the original host’s wretched ending had been no coincidence. Zhou Rong was not someone the original host could compete with. Putting aside the original host’s physical strength, there was no way he would have been able to compete with Zhou Rong in terms of intelligence and schemes.

After speaking with Zhou Rong for the last half-hour, Song Xuanhe was even more sure that Zhou Rong was an enigmatic and difficult-to-predict person. If it wasn’t because he had fallen in love with Lu Chao and done all these stupid things, a man who didn’t show his emotions on his face like this would have been an outstanding figure.

Love was the most rotten variable that Song Xuanhe had seen ever since arriving in this world. Regardless of whether it was Lu Chao, Song Jiani, Zhou Rong, or even Zhou Nan and Yu Yan—they had all done things in the name of love, and most of them weren’t good things.

Zhou Rong softened his voice. “When I had heard you say that Lu Chao had known that I liked him, I had gotten too riled up. But, he’s already dead. Even if I get riled up now, I can’t afford to lose another friend. Xuanhe, forgive me?”

Song Xuanhe gazed down and saw the other’s lonely expression. His expression flickered. However, before he could say anything, he heard Song Jiani shout: “Xuanhe gege, don’t believe him! He’s been planning on hurting you all this time! He wants to take revenge for Lu Chao!”

“Oh?” Zhou Rong’s expression didn’t change. He retorted back, “How would I get revenge on him? You seem so certain as if you can read my mind. Tell me, what am I planning on doing? And, how do you know what I’m going to do? Maybe it’s because…you want to hurt Song Xuanhe, so you were hoping we could work together?”

Song Jiani’s expression changed. She subconsciously glanced at Song Xuanhe. She parted her lips, wanting to explain herself, but the words became stuck in her throat when she saw Zhou Rong’s covert, ridiculing gaze. She couldn’t say a thing.

“I thought that it was weird that you had insisted on following Xuanhe and I to drink for some baffling reason. You had never liked to hang out with Lu Chao and I when we were young. You would rarely make an appearance when the few of us got together to drink. And yet, here you are today,” Zhou Rong said, “Besides, why did you get so nervous when I had said that someone else was coming? Could it be that you had already made plans and are afraid that they would be ruined if someone else were to come? I think that you’re more suspicious than I am. I think that you want to hurt Xuanhe, because your love has turned into hatred.”

Zhou Rong’s every word tread all over everything Song Jiani had done. In the blink of an eye, he was able to dispel Song Xuanhe’s suspicion of him and instead cast doubt on Song Jiani. Although the last sentence seemed unlikely, if you really thought about it carefully, it did seem in line with Song Jiani’s personality and thus seemed very plausible. With this, he was able to plant a difficult-to-remove thorn in Song Xuanhe’s heart.

If Song Xuanhe hadn’t read the original novel and didn’t know what would happen, or rather—if it had been the original host standing in his place—he might have been tricked by Zhou Rong’s words.