Chapter 109: I Still Believe He Loves You!

Shi Runrun could bear it no longer.

This man was still the same—always putting himself first, domineering and overbearing, expecting everyone else to believe him without question. What gave him the right?

It was a fact that Huahuan had seen him enter a hotel with another woman. It was also a fact that she had watched him leave that hotel. How could he expect her to believe him?

She did not want to hear any more of his empty, insubstantial words.

Shi Runrun moved her dry, cold lips and whispered hoarsely, “I am tired. I want to sleep.”

Then she closed her eyes, turned her head away, and refused to look at him again.

The man beside her understood what she meant. His deep, dark eyes remained fixed on her for a while, a complicated bitterness flickering within them. In the end, he sighed helplessly.

“Then sleep for a while. It is all right—I will be right here beside you. If you need anything, just call me.”

Shi Runrun endured the movement in her lungs and struggled to turn over, inching farther toward the inside of the bed.

With her back to him, she was willing to leave him nothing but her silhouette.

For a moment, breathing became difficult. Her lungs hurt terribly.

But she endured it all, forcing herself to breathe in small, shallow breaths. With her eyes tightly shut, she compelled herself to sleep.

Only by sleeping well and recovering could the baby remain healthy.

Gradually, she drifted into a deep sleep.

But the next moment, a voice came from outside.

“Mr. Xiao, there is a woman outside asking to see you.”

Shi Runrun heard the word “woman” with perfect clarity.

Whether it was an instinctive reaction or not, her eyes flew open, widening slightly.

The large hand holding hers gently released its grip. Then she heard footsteps.

Had he left her and gone outside?

See? He was always like this. There was never any shortage of women around him.

A successful man like him, a pampered young heir of the capital’s elite, the head of Guangzheng Group—how could he possibly lack women?

Wherever he went, at one event or another, women would inevitably appear at his side, seeking him out and doing all sorts of things for him.

If he ever lost control of himself, she would never be able to guard against it.

In truth, Shi Runrun no longer felt anything.

She had read somewhere that infidelity happened either once or countless times. Since there had been a first time, what difference did a second or third make?

She had simply been foolish. She had foolishly believed that the way he had once doted on and protected her was proof of a love reserved for her alone.

The more she thought about it, the more ridiculous and ironic her present self seemed.

What Shi Runrun could not understand was how he could profess love to her, his lawful wife, while simultaneously flirting with women outside. What kind of mind-set allowed him to move among so many women?

He was truly remarkable.

She could not help admiring him.

The world of the rich—their games and their rules—was indeed beyond her understanding.

Nor did she want to understand it. She possessed neither a mature heart nor the calculating eyes of someone worldly and shrewd. In her eyes, in the way she looked at the world, everything was simple and beautiful.

But when she truly saw the filth in this world, she collapsed within minutes, utterly unable to withstand it.

Shi Runrun suddenly realized how terrifying the world she lived in was, and how frightening the people around her could be.

She did not know what she had done wrong to deserve such a devastating pain.

Before this happened, she had lived in a beautiful dream. But now that she had awakened, she had fallen straight into hell.

In the space of a single night, every longing and hope she had ever held for love had been destroyed by him…

All of it destroyed by him…

So this was what it felt like when love shattered. It was this painful.

At last, Shi Runrun understood. At last, she had tasted the full bitterness of it.

There would never again be bright light in her world, nor would her face ever again carry that innocent, lively smile.

…

About an hour after he had gone out, the hospital-room door was pushed open.

Shi Runrun opened her eyes, assuming that he had returned.

She was just about to summon every ounce of her strength and ask him with a mocking smile who the woman he had cheated with this time was.

When would he cast her aside and elevate the mistress outside to his wife?

But when she turned around, the face before her was not his. It was Qiao Yu’s handsome face, filled with worry and bitterness.

“Brother Qiao…”

Shi Runrun struggled to speak. The next second, Qiao Yu bent over and placed a hand gently over her pale lips.

“Do not talk. You are still very weak. Lie still and rest properly. Do not move.”

Hearing him, Shi Runrun’s heart softened, and endless bitterness welled up inside her.

She blinked, unable to stop her eyes from reddening.

The next moment, Qiao Yu straightened and looked at her with a complicated expression. He let out a heavy sigh.

“Look at you. You have ended up in the hospital again after putting yourself through all this. Why can you not take better care of yourself?”

Shi Runrun said nothing.

A moment later, hot tears slipped from the corners of her eyes.

Yes…

Why had she never taken better care of herself?

For the sake of a cheating man, she had loved until she was half-mad with misery, tormenting herself again and again… until she had ended up like this.

She was truly ridiculous.

With great effort, Shi Runrun raised her hand and wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes. Then she looked at Qiao Yu and whispered hoarsely, “Brother Qiao, I want to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“Brother Qiao, are all men born this way? Eating what is in their bowl while eyeing what is in the pot? Even after having a wife, is one woman still not enough? Do they still long for the women outside?”

Qiao Yu listened, closed his eyes briefly, and curved his lips into a faint smile.

“If the woman I married were the one I loved from the bottom of my heart, I would rather die than betray her.”

His words were firm and resonant, leaving Shi Runrun with an even more tangled storm of emotions.

Did that mean, in a roundabout way, that Xiao Xuezheng had never truly loved her?

Had he married her only because of a momentary mistake one night—and because she had conceived his child?

So this love she had believed in had always existed only in her own imagination?

But the next moment, Qiao Yu continued, “Runrun, there is no absence of light in Xiao Xuezheng’s eyes when he looks at you. The way he looks at you is the same way I look at you. I believe he loves you. As for the affair, I do not think things are as simple as they appear. Sometimes, what our eyes see is not necessarily the truth.”

Shi Runrun said nothing.

Her breath caught and stopped for a brief moment.

What did he mean?

Was he saying that there was another reason behind Xiao Xuezheng’s infidelity?

If there was a reason, Shi Runrun could not understand why he refused to explain it, even after she had given him so many opportunities.

If only he had explained, she would have believed him…

“As for what truly happened behind the scenes, I have no way of knowing. But, Runrun, he has stayed by your bedside day and night these past few days. While you were unconscious, he even shed tears for you. From that alone, I can tell that he was not deceiving you. Perhaps the two of you need to have a proper conversation.”

“Also, Runrun, I came to say goodbye this time. I am leaving for the United States on a month-long business trip. I am sorry to be leaving just when this happened to you. But you know my number. If you need any help at all, contact me anytime.”