novelraw Chapter 0129 I'd Rather Be Hated
Chapter 0129 I'd Rather Be Hated
In the study, the air seemed to have stopped moving.
Jiang Ci's finger hovered over the last memo.
My fingertips became stiff and cold from being tense for so long.
That date.
[Date: Month X, Year X, 20XX]
That was the day before Limitless's victory celebration.
It was also the night before Wen Ning left.
Over the past three years, he has reviewed that day countless times.
He thought it was her carefully planned escape, her final choice to pursue wealth and glory.
But now, his intuition tells him otherwise.
What lies hidden here is perhaps a weight he can never bear in his entire life.
"despair."
Fingertips fall.
I clicked on that long message.
On the screen, densely packed text came into view.
It was no longer the same coquettish tone that carried a hint of complaint.
This entry is written in a very messy manner.
The sentences are fragmented and there are even typos.
Even through the screen, you can feel the despair and fear that the person writing the words was on the verge of collapse.
Jiang Ci's gaze was focused on the first line.
The system has issued an ultimatum.
It showed me the ending. If I didn't leave, if I didn't break up with him, he would die.
The word "death".
It was like a red-hot iron nail, driven deep into Jiang Ci's pupils.
His breath hitched.
Keep reading.
The system says I'm cannon fodder, and he's the protagonist. Our love was programmed wrong from the start.
The longer I stay by his side, the more of his luck I absorb.
The recent data breach and funding difficulties at our company are warning signs.
If I continued to cling to his warmth... then came the car accident. I saw that scene... heavy rain, a black car, blood everywhere. Aci lay there, motionless.
I dare not gamble.
I really don't dare gamble with his life.
Jiang Ci's hands trembled violently.
The phone almost slipped from my hand.
car accident.
accident.
Luck and fortune.
So that's why she had to leave.
It wasn't because I thought he was poor, nor because I was tired of him.
It's because... she was saving his life.
He continued reading.
The text that followed was blurred by tears.
【Aci, I'm sorry.】
This is the only way I can protect you.
The system says, "Only by making you hate me, by making you completely give up on me, can your luck return. Only then can you climb out of this quagmire and achieve your grand ambitions."
Therefore, I want to be a bad person.
I'm going to wear that red dress you hate the most. I'm going to humiliate you in public. I'm going to trample your dignity underfoot.
Only then will you hate me. And hate is easier to let go of than love.
I'd rather you hate me to the core than see you lying on a hospital bed, dying.
[As long as you are safe and sound every year, as long as you can stand in the light and become the President Jiang who is admired by all.]
I'd rather rot in the mud.
Even if we never see each other again in this lifetime.
The last line of text.
It was a curse she left for herself.
It was also her final blessing to him.
"Clatter".
A drop of scalding liquid hit the phone screen.
The phrase "Never see you again" has become blurred in my mind.
Jiang Ci looked at the last line of text.
It felt like my heart had been ripped out alive, flesh and all.
pain.
It hurts too much.
The pain was so intense that his whole body convulsed, and he couldn't breathe.
The truth came out.
All the logic is now closed loop.
Why did she say those hurtful things?
Why did she leave with nothing, wanting nothing at all?
Why did she suffer so much abroad, yet never contact him?
Why was she crying and shouting "Don't hurt Aci" in her dream?
original.
This is the truth.
She traded her entire life for his lifetime of glory.
She transformed herself into a gold digger that everyone hated, and into his sworn enemy.
Just so he could live.
And what about him?
What is he doing?
He hates her.
He was cursing her.
After he achieved fame and success, he captured her, shackled her, forced her to eat bitter melon, humiliated her with the most vicious words, and imprisoned her like a canary.
"Oh……"
Jiang Ci let out a broken, breathy sound.
"I deserve to die..."
"I'm so damn stupid..."
He suddenly pressed his phone tightly against his chest.
He curled up in the chair.
He bent over in pain.
His forehead slammed heavily against the cold tabletop.
"ah--!!!"
A heart-wrenching, suppressed scream erupted in the study.
The voice was filled with regret, self-blame, and a violent urge to kill the foolish version of himself from the past.
He's an idiot.
He's a complete bastard.
He actually...
He personally tormented that foolish girl who was willing to risk her life for him.
Three whole years.
He hates an angel.
He was driving his savior to the brink of death.
If it weren't for discovering this phone...
If I hadn't seen these diaries...
How much longer is he going to torment her?
Is he really going to drive her to her death before he'll stop?
"Wen Ning..."
"Wen Ning..."
He called her name over and over again.
Tears streamed down her face.
The table was wet, and so were his sleeves.
All hatred vanished in that moment.
All that remained was overwhelming regret and heartache that threatened to drown him.
He recalled his attitude towards her over the past few days.
She remembered him pinching her chin and saying, "I hate it."
She remembered him forcing her to kneel down.
I remember him tearing her painting to shreds.
Every scene.
Now they've all turned into boomerangs, stabbing him hard back into himself.
To be torn to pieces.
downstairs.
In the living room.
Wen Ning was sweeping up the broken pieces of the water glass he had accidentally broken yesterday.
Sudden.
A suppressed, pained roar came from upstairs.
"Clang!"
Wen Ning dropped the broom in her hand to the ground.
She stood frozen in place.
I looked up at the closed door of the study on the second floor.
That voice...
It is Jiang Ci.
Is he crying?
That desperate cry, like someone who had lost everything.
Wen Ning's heart began to pound violently.
A strong premonition struck her.
That Pandora's box.
That secret about love and sacrifice, buried for three years.
at last……
It's completely open now.