After Breaking Up, I Married the Dying Tycoon in a Flash-Chapter 390 - 10: Long River of Dim Lights (Part 10)
On the highway, the car stirred up dust, speeding all the way.
Song Nian still felt bewildered, she looked at Jiang Ci’s side profile with some disbelief and murmured softly, "Is it really you? Have you come back?"
Jiang Ci turned his face towards Song Nian and smiled, he said softly, "Yes, Nian Nian, it’s really me."
Song Nian’s eyes reddened, her voice choked up as she said, "I thought you were dead. Why didn’t you contact me all these years?"
Jiang Ci’s brows knitted slightly, he seemed to be pondering something. The next moment, he smilingly said without batting an eyelid, "I didn’t know that you and Lu Zhonian were getting married today. I’m really sorry for interrupting your wedding."
"It’s okay..." Song Nian paused, then said, "Jiang Ci, please take me back first, I need to continue with the wedding."
The smile on Jiang Ci’s face faded.
He pulled the car over to the roadside.
The area was desolate, with wild birds flying by, their wings tracing arcs in the silent air, adding a touch of beauty to the desolation.
Song Nian looked out the window, puzzled, "Why did you stop here?"
"Nian Nian, do you like Lu Zhonian?" Jiang Ci took out a cigarette from his black jacket, rolled the car window halfway down, resting his hand outside, letting the smoke drift away, occasionally retracting his hand to take a deep inhale.
Song Nian was silent for a long time, before saying, "I don’t know... But I have to marry him."
Jiang Ci wasn’t expecting Song Nian to be so definitive with her answer.
He forced a smile and said with a smile, "Why? I’ve come back now, I can take you anywhere you want to go, Nian Nian, I have the ability to protect you now."
Song Nian didn’t know how much Jiang Ci had changed, but she was very aware of her own changes.
The moment Jiang Ci appeared, a knot in her heart that hadn’t dissolved for years finally unraveled.
"I always thought... Lu Zhonian killed you," Song Nian took a deep breath, she smiled, her smile was helpless and desolate, "Funny, isn’t it? But I really felt that way, for this, I was prepared to live the rest of my life with the guilt of having caused your death."
She used the term ’guilt’.
This was far from what Jiang Ci had imagined.
He pinched off the cigarette in his hand, not sure if he was speaking to himself or emphasising, but every word carried an undertone of gritted teeth, "Nian Nian, we were in love back then."
Back then, he left when she loved him the most, didn’t he?
Why did such feelings become tainted?
Song Nian’s eyelashes trembled, she lowered her head and looked at her clasped hands, "Ah Ci, what we had back then wasn’t love, we simply saw each other as another version of ourselves. Love at that age is inherently immature."
Jiang Ci watched Song Nian silently.
He clenched the broken cigarette in his hand, the burning heat scorching his palm, he scoffed and slowly said, "Song Nian, do you know why I disappeared?"
Song Nian was taken aback and silently looked at him.
Sarcasm flashed across Jiang Ci’s eyes as he said, "Because the entire Lu Family treated me unfairly, I wanted them to regret. My life was ruined in their hands!"
Song Nian was at a loss, looking at him, "I don’t understand... what you mean, Ah Ci, don’t scare me."
"My father was once a well-known entrepreneur. It was Lu Zhonian’s business schemes that bankrupted him, made him lose everything. Song Nian, I wasn’t supposed to live so miserably, but Lu Zhonian’s existence made me lose everything."
Song Nian was dumbfounded, she didn’t know what to say, she could only silently look at Jiang Ci.
And Jiang Ci continued, "I had already resigned myself to it, what’s the big deal about starting over? If my life has already hit rock bottom, I’ll just climb up slowly. I’ll do better than my father, and I’ll have everything that I want. But then I met you... Song Nian oh Song Nian, I really liked you a lot, but... you just had to belong to Lu Zhonian."
Song Nian’s mind went blank, she was bewildered, speaking slowly and with difficulty, "You got close to me... because of Lu Zhonian..."
"Yes! I approached you to take revenge on Lu Zhonian," Jiang Ci suddenly looked at Song Nian with eyes full of resentfulness, gritting his teeth as he said, "But you chose Lu Zhonian, after all these years, you still didn’t choose me!"
Song Nian blinked, she was still digesting Jiang Ci’s words when after a while, she slowly said, "That last phone call years ago, what did you and Lu Zhonian say?"
"Lu Zhonian told me to stay away from you, he said he already knew about my background, that he wouldn’t let me get close to you. If I continued to bother you, he wouldn’t mind making me disappear from this world," Jiang Ci sneered, his voice cold, "He wanted me to disappear, so I disappeared. I carefully planned a fake death, and made you suspect him. I wanted with this fake death to make you hate Lu Zhonian, or, if Lu Zhonian can love but never have, that’s fine too. But... you’re actually getting married now!"
Song Nian felt that everything was just too ridiculous.
Why would someone plot for years just for a trivial act of revenge?
Tears welled up in Song Nian’s eyes, her lips trembling uncontrollably, she reached out to grab Jiang Ci’s wrist, shouting indignantly, "Do you know how many nights I haven’t slept well because of your death? Jiang Ci! I’m not the one who wronged you, you plotted against Lu Zhonian, what did I do wrong? Why should I be a part of your revenge!"
"Because Lu Zhonian loves you! He loves you!" Jiang Ci’s smile turned manic, his eyes bloodshot as he bellowed, "Song Nian, you are his only weakness! Besides you, I have no way to harm him! You ask me why! I want to know why too! Why do I have to lose everything, why do I even have to use the woman I’m attracted to! What can I blame? We can only blame our bad luck, Song Nian, we are both pitiful people."
Song Nian’s expression had returned to calm.
Looking at Jiang Ci, the boy before her was no longer the one from her dreams.
He had calculated every move, and now that his stratagem had been exhausted, it was alose-lose situation with her.
Song Nian opened the car door and got out without looking back.
Jiang Ci watched her, still smiling, but the smile was one of despair, he said, "Nian Nian, even if you go back now, Lu Zhonian won’t forgive you, nobody will forgive someone who left them at their own wedding."
Song Nian smiled, she looked at Jiang Ci with such certainty, saying, "You’re wrong, even if I stab him, he will still forgive me. Lu Zhonian will never blame me."
The Lu Family’s lights were bright, with doctors coming and going, giving Lu Zhonian a consultation.
The man lay on the bed, his breath weak, lost in thought until the door was pushed open, a woman in a wedding dress stood at the doorway, and the lifelessness in Lu Zhonian’s eyes finally stirred....
