Chapter 109: I Want Him to Pay for His Crimes

"Xiaoxiao..."

"Yes?"

He turned her body toward him, his face serious. "I'm telling you all this so you'll understand: there is a time to live, a time to die, a time for love and hate. If you can't change something, you must learn to accept it—but that isn't the same as resigning yourself to fate."

"What are you trying to say?" Xiaoxiao knew that Lin Shuo always had a purpose behind everything he did; she understood him too well.

As expected, Lin Shuo glanced at the gravestone, took her hand, and led her down the steps. "Let's talk as we walk."

The sky was streaked with wisps of white cloud, like brushstrokes from a traditional painting. Occasionally, the fleeting shadow of a bird crossed overhead. The cemetery was so tranquil, it seemed untouched by the noisy, ostentatious world beyond. A cool breeze rustled through the bamboo grove, making the leaves whisper.

"I know your father's situation very well now. If I help you, will you accept it?"

She shook her head, unwilling to complicate their already ambiguous relationship with vulnerabilities that would invite gossip. He had money, and didn't care about it—but she did.

"Then let's make a trade," Lin Shuo said at last. Her palm began to sweat. She shouldn't, she mustn't. With a sigh, he went on, "My father is gone, but yours still has a chance. There is more than one road in this world. Perhaps it's cruel for me to bring this up now, but if you hesitate, the ending will only be more cruel."

"I understand what you mean, but you don't understand my feelings." She gradually loosened her grip, and Lin Shuo didn't force her, so their joined hands simply became shoulders walking side by side. She lifted her head, her heart filled with emotion. "When I was little, my father often played with me in the flowerbeds. He would say, 'My darling, your future is right here.' I didn't understand then, but now I think perhaps that was his way of expressing his hopes. No matter how hard things were for him, he could always dig some gold out of that flowerbed. It was thanks to what the flowerbed provided that I could stand here before you, not having tasted too much hardship."

He had already stopped walking, simply gazing at her. He couldn't remember how long it had been since her face had held only childish smiles. Now, after all the days and nights they had spent apart, she seemed to have been baptized by sorrow, and even time itself no longer seemed so kind to her. He gently scratched the back of her head, his voice full of tenderness. "How you lived before, I can no longer change. But now I've come back. Please, give all your worries to me. Can you?"

But she had her own resolve. She buried her face in his warm palm, reluctant to let go. After a long while, she finally spoke. "If something must be done, I'd rather not discuss it with you. Let someone else handle it."

Every tiny compromise from her filled him with wild joy. He cherished this relationship so carefully, letting her have her way in everything.

On the desk lay the documents Zhao Jun had collected. Lin Shuo read through them again and again, each time feeling as if a knife twisted in his heart. He would never have imagined the truth would be like this. If only he hadn't been so brash and unforgiving in his youth—if only he could have tolerated even the smallest speck of sand—would there have been so many sleepless nights afterward?

In the end, how could one not regret?

There is a time for love and hate. The words he had memorized so often only truly made sense to him now.

Lin Shuo summoned Zhao Jun and instructed him not to breathe a word of this. He had intended to ask about the reliability of the information, but stopped himself. In truth, even if everything from the past was real, what did it matter now? All the hatred had long since been smoothed away by longing. He loved her, with a force that was irresistible and mysterious. And now, there was only more agonizing regret.

Pointing to the man in the photograph, he ordered coldly, "I want him to pay for his crimes. And I want him to suffer twice as much pain as we've endured these past four years."