Chapter 58

At this moment, Jiang Chao’s impression of Sheng Huaixi became clear again.

Sheng Huaixi was a jealous madwoman. She had never changed.

There was no before or after, no so-called trigger; it all rose and fell with her mood, hidden or laid bare, slow or blatant, all of it displayed openly before Jiang Chao.

Jiang Chao had tried to figure out Sheng Huaixi’s purpose and guess at fragments of what she might be thinking. But no matter how she looked at it, she had never imagined Sheng Huaixi would be this direct.

“Can’t you at least lie to me and fool me for now...”

Jiang Chao raised a hand to her forehead, her low voice tinged with a helpless sigh.

Every time Jiang Chao thought she had finally understood Sheng Huaixi well enough, Sheng Huaixi’s excessive honesty would scatter her assumptions like snow in the wind.

The more familiar they became, the less Sheng Huaixi seemed to bother hiding anything from her. It was as if she wanted to force all her ugliness and all her thoughts straight into Jiang Chao’s eyes, straight into her body.

“No.” Sheng Huaixi flatly rejected Jiang Chao’s soft complaint. She took the mirror from Jiang Chao’s hand, turned her face slightly, and looked at the mark on her cheek; it was redder than she had expected.

Why did it look uglier now?

Sheng Huaixi’s brows drew together, a trace of displeasure crossing her face.

At first, she had thought it was only a faint red mark, but now that she could really see what had been left on her face, Sheng Huaixi understood why Jiang Chao had gone soft this time.

Half her face was flushed with fading red, as if that slap had been a searing iron plate, splitting her jade-like beauty cleanly in two.

She’d find a chance to hit her back next time.

Sheng Huaixi shifted, her fingertips unhurriedly hooking the hair behind her shoulder and bringing it forward. Meeting Jiang Chao’s worried gaze, she smiled and shook her head to show that she was fine.

Her fingers pressed into her palm as Sheng Huaixi recalled Jiang Chao’s question from earlier. After a moment, she slowly added, “I will lie to you, but I wouldn’t lie to you over something like this. It’s not worth it.”

Her jet-black lashes lowered coolly under Jiang Chao’s gaze; her tone was sincere, and the look in her eyes remained calm and restrained. Precisely because of that calmness, the contempt hidden beneath her words stood out all the more clearly.

It was only Bai Xiangshu, after all; annoying, but not enough to make Sheng Huaixi go this far.

“You really are... openly bad, aren’t you.” Jiang Chao licked her lips, almost laughing from irritation at the certainty in Sheng Huaixi’s words.

She knew exactly what would make Jiang Chao angry; she knew Jiang Chao hated being lied to; yet maybe she would still do it later.

She would say one thing and do another, stubbornly playing both sides right in front of Jiang Chao.

But.

Knowing was one thing, understanding was another. Even if Jiang Chao could understand it, that did not mean she could calmly accept Sheng Huaixi’s scheming.

Her emotions were complicated; her thoughts rolled and swirled like a hazy cloud, covering both of them beneath a black curtain. And beneath the occasional sparks flickering in her eyes, there was the silent tension of something waiting to be triggered.

Neither of them looked as calm as they seemed, yet neither spoke. They only stared deeply at one another.

As their gazes held, their eyes darkened further.

Jiang Chao’s chest felt packed with something heavy, blocking her breathing and trying to slow her thoughts, to make her give up on the ideas forming in her head.

But under that deep, dark gaze, her scattered thoughts only grew clearer.

That included what she thought about Sheng Huaixi’s explanation.

Jiang Chao could understand why Sheng Huaixi would do this, and Sheng Huaixi was willing to tell her plainly what her purpose was.

The problem was that Sheng Huaixi was too frank, while Jiang Chao could not accept the way that frankness was carried out, nor the madness hidden inside it.

Everything Sheng Huaixi did could be understood under Jiang Chao’s logic, but being understandable did not mean it could be accepted.

At the very least, Jiang Chao would never accept this method. Never.

Using self-harm as the price of someone else’s concern—Jiang Chao could chalk that up to Sheng Huaixi’s lack of love and her obsessive tendencies.

She understood Sheng Huaixi’s mindset, and she was willing, within reason, to accept it and give her what she wanted.

But if Sheng Huaixi got used to demanding her concern this way, Jiang Chao could never keep accepting it.

Even if Sheng Huaixi was doing it for her—or rather, precisely because Sheng Huaixi was doing it for her, Jiang Chao could not easily accept a Sheng Huaixi like this.

Sheng Huaixi was Sheng Huaixi. She was already outstanding, beautiful, and far better than Jiang Chao. There was no reason for her to twist herself into something else for Jiang Chao’s sake.

Such an excellent person, reduced to this miserable state for the sake of a result that was doomed to fail...

Jiang Chao tried to make herself cold, tried not to care, but the sight of Sheng Huaixi deliberately tormenting herself again and again for her made it impossible to ignore.

Sheng Huaixi could be better.

“Sheng Huaixi, we talked about this before, didn’t we? About how you’re not allowed to hurt yourself again.”

Jiang Chao pulled that memory up between them and set it right in front of Sheng Huaixi.

Sheng Huaixi looked perfectly calm. She nodded in acknowledgment, then looked at Jiang Chao and stated her case.

“I also said I wanted your concern to be unique to me.”

After a pause, Sheng Huaixi’s eyes took on a faint air of grievance. She looked quietly at Jiang Chao, and when she spoke again, her tone carried accusation.

“You were the one who didn’t fulfill our agreement first.”

“?” The corners of Jiang Chao’s smile froze. She looked steadily at Sheng Huaixi, her expression faintly strange. “Are you kidding me?”

Ever since Sheng Huaixi moved into her home, Jiang Chao’s twenty-four hours a day, aside from a very small portion, had basically all been taken up by her.

Jiang Chao’s day could be divided directly into: Sheng Huaixi by her side, and Sheng Huaixi in the office.

On top of that, Jiang Chao’s mind was constantly occupied by those unannounced suitors of Sheng Huaixi’s, so much so that it felt like she was working two jobs a day for Sheng Huaixi.

Maybe it wasn’t 100 percent concern, but at the very least, Sheng Huaixi occupied 99 percent of Jiang Chao’s attention.

If that still didn’t count as unique, Jiang Chao felt the missing 1 percent was probably just empty space she had no way to fill.

“Being together doesn’t automatically count as concern.”

Sheng Huaixi emphasized this. She straightened up and sat properly, looking right into Jiang Chao’s eyes as she reached out and closed her hand around Jiang Chao’s knuckles. “This level of being together doesn’t count.”

Got it.

Jiang Chao hooked her fingers back and pressed their intertwined hands into the sofa, raising an eyebrow. “So what you mean by concern is concern with physical contact?”

Sheng Huaixi blinked, neither denying it nor struggling, tacitly agreeing with Jiang Chao’s interpretation.

“Including, but not limited to, that.”

Being able to hold her hand all the time in daily life would of course be best; keeping her in her heart was also indispensable.

Jiang Chao was speechless, only feeling as if she had boarded a stolen boat called Sheng Huaixi.

The concern she understood was thinking about Sheng Huaixi’s affairs, paying attention to her moods and daily life, and eliminating risks around Sheng Huaixi before they could appear.

The concern Sheng Huaixi wanted was kissing, hugging, holding hands—every kind of intimate physical contact, including but not limited to all of it.

“That kind of concern doesn’t really sound like the level a cohabiting friend should have.”

Jiang Chao pressed her lips together into a soft smile, hoping Sheng Huaixi would understand what she meant.

Sheng Huaixi was unhurried. Her fingertips slid lightly across Jiang Chao’s palm; with dangerous allure on her face, she leaned closer, her breath brushing Jiang Chao’s cheek.

“It’s fine. We can change our relationship.”

“Lovers, sweethearts, bedmates, sugar mommy... which one do you want, Jiang Chao?”