Chapter 729 - 304: Anyway, Pretty Ugly
"???"
"???"
"You guys actually have feelings? To what extent?"
"That’s the next question."
...
Ten minutes later, Jiang Banxia successfully nailed it.
"To what extent are you and Wu Tianqi?"
She didn’t even bother to use ’Fellow Daoist Wu’ anymore.
"There’s not much to it."
"But didn’t you just say there were feelings?"
"Just normal feelings."
"Is that normal too?"
"Yeah! I answered one more question... I refuse to answer further questions next."
...
The drift of the conversation started veering off course.
Jiang Banxia completely forgot her purpose today was to assert her claim and not let Bai Qing become too dominant.
After all, she knew Bai Qing was having another child.
She could tolerate having just one child. It could have been a momentary lapse in the past, and she wouldn’t keep dwelling on it.
A second one wasn’t okay!
She couldn’t do nothing and let the second child matter slide.
At the very least, she needed to let Bai Qing know she wasn’t easy to mess with.
But now, she was completely out of it.
Not only that, Bai Qing occasionally won, and it always tied back to Li Yang and Wu Tianqi, wanting to dig through everything from start to finish.
However...
Li Yang’s answers were vague and left much room for imagination.
"How long have you and Wu Tianqi been like this?"
"Been like this for a long time now."
...
"How did it start?"
"Playing basketball."
...
"And now?"
"Same as before, nothing’s changed, is there?"
...
Jiang Banxia was going crazy.
Back then, she used to play basketball with Li Yang, with Wu Tianqi around.
At that time, she thought Wu Tianqi was the third wheel.
Thinking back now, it’s terrifying; maybe she was the third wheel all along.
Finally, after asking again and again, Jiang Banxia had no interest in playing mahjong.
She stood up and walked straight out.
"Hey, hey, hey... honey..."
"What’s going on?"
Li Yang also got up and followed her out.
Jiang Banxia didn’t go home but ran to the basketball court instead.
Now, when she looked at that basketball hoop, she felt it was a big ’0’.
Li Yang’s voice came from behind, "Why the sudden run?"
Saying that, he put his arm around her shoulder to turn her around.
But as he did, he found that tears were streaming down Jiang Banxia’s face uncontrollably.
"Hey... I didn’t bully you, okay. I didn’t side with anyone the whole time, and besides, weren’t you guys asking me all these questions?"
Jiang Banxia said through her tears, "Why did you and Wu Tianqi have to be like that?"
"What about me and him?"
"Now you want to deny it? Who said being with him was the happiest?"
Right now, Jiang Banxia’s mind was already filling in the blanks, picturing the scene on May 9th, 2014, when Li Yang got heatstroke playing basketball, and Wu Tianqi took advantage of it...
Aaaah...
The more she thought about it, the more she collapsed mentally.
"Who said being with him was the happiest?"
"You, you, you! You said it yourself!"
Li Yang reached out to wipe Jiang Banxia’s tears, only to be rejected and looked down upon.
Helplessly, he said, "You misunderstood. That day was indeed my happiest day, but it had nothing to do with Wu Tianqi, that jerk. There’s no necessary connection between the two."
"I don’t believe it!"
Li Yang asked, "Honey, have you felt I’ve been different since that day?"
"Different how?"
"I started loving to study and wasn’t thinking about chasing girls all the time."
"Yeah... a bit, back then everyone in the class said you were pursuing Wang Manqi."
"That’s right. Because of that, my grades plummeted. Luckily, you helped tutor me, so I managed to get into university smoothly."
Jiang Banxia still didn’t understand.
Li Yang continued, "Actually, on that day, I was reborn."
"Reborn?"
"Yes, the weather was a bit hot that day. After playing basketball for a while, I got heatstroke. Lying on the bench by the basketball court, I vividly felt like I had gone to hell. Because my family was poor and I left no descendants, in hell, I was also a poor ghost. Poor ghosts had to dive into the oil cauldron to get paid in Netherworld Currency. Others had descendants burning paper money for them, and even a little would feed them for ten lifetimes, all in trillion denominations."
"As a poor ghost, the only work I could do was to please the rich ghosts, diving into the oil cauldron for their amusement, performing heart-piercing acts with iron drills for them, daily enduring them trampling on my dignity as a ghost."
"I suddenly woke up, realizing if I continued like that, my life would be in total darkness. Dying as a poor ghost wasn’t the scariest part; the scariest was becoming a wandering ghost. Wandering ghosts have no identity, and anyone can beat or kill them; they’re purely slaves."
"If not for gaining clarity that day, the current me wouldn’t exist. That heatstroke fundamentally changed my life. No matter the past or future, that day I must always be grateful for."
"Honey, would you have liked the clueless me from before?"
Jiang Banxia: "..."
She didn’t know.
Before then, she hadn’t even spoken more than three sentences to Li Yang.
They only smiled and nodded when they saw each other.
"So, you and Wu Tianqi didn’t have that kind of special relationship?"
Li Yang: "???, What special relationship?"
"Just... inappropriate..."
"Ugh..."
Li Yang’s expression changed.
Damn!
How could he have lost his mind like that?
"Look at Wu Tianqi’s ugly face! So ugly you can even think of these things? Did you catch a fever or something? Let me feel..."
Li Yang placed his hand on Jiang Banxia’s forehead.
Jiang Banxia snuggled directly into Li Yang’s arms.
"Actually... I’ve had dreams like this too, where I couldn’t find you no matter what, so I just cried and cried, and in the end, I broke down and jumped from the building."