After The Honest Person Was Discovered For Simultaneously Pursuing Three People - Chapter 89

Chapter 89: Contest

Tao Ning could never have imagined that those two bullets were intended to end his and Zhao Jingqun’s lives. No wonder, when they occasionally slept in each other’s arms, Tao Ning would feel something in Zhao Jingqun’s pants pocket poking his abdomen uncomfortably. He was usually too tired then and fell asleep before he could ask.

Now he knew that it was… a gun.

So, when Zhao Jingqun was hugging him with a gun tucked on him, what was he thinking? Did he truly hate him so much that he wished for his death?

But Tao Ning had no time to ponder Zhao Jingqun’s thoughts, because the next second, to Tao Ning’s surprise, Xu Jun, who had seemed calm all along, rushed toward him.

His hurried steps stopped just in front of Tao Ning. Xu Jun put his injured right hand behind his back and extended his clean, pale left hand towards Tao Ning. “…Come with me.”

In Tao Ning’s memory, Xu Jun rarely spoke to him in an assertive tone. He would always ask if he liked something before carefully proposing a request. Now, he was somewhat forcefully telling him that he wanted Tao Ning to leave with him. If anyone else heard, they would think Xu Jun was a rude and unreasonable person.

But just like that day at the club, Tao Ning was close to Xu Jun. This time, Tao Ning clearly saw the precarious plea behind his lenses again.

Xu Jun was pleading with him.

Tao Ning wanted to say, I’m sorry, I can’t abandon Zhao Jingqun. Just as I told him, I fell in love with him, so I can’t leave him, even though he once intended to kill me.

But the words were stuck in his throat. He couldn’t open his mouth because the gaze of the person in front of him was like a knife that had dissected a heart, and then the handle of the knife was offered to him, as if questioning, “Do you want to brutally dissect my heart, too?”

No, so Tao Ning remained speechless.

“…Trying to seduce him right in front of me,” Zhao Jingqun had already stood up. He brushed off nonexistent dust from his clothes, tilted his head, and looked calmly at Xu Jun. “You’re seeking your own death, aren’t you?”

As he finished speaking, bang! Tao Ning didn’t even see Zhao Jingqun’s movement, yet Xu Jun, a man over six feet tall, flew out like a kite with a broken string and crashed heavily onto the floor. With just that single kick from Zhao Jingqun, Xu Jun curled up on the ground, clutching his stomach, and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

The dazzling fresh blood stained Tao Ning’s eyes. He wanted to rush over and help Xu Jun up, but Zhao Jingqun forcefully pulled him into his arms. “What are you doing?! Let go of me!”

Tao Ning struggled desperately, but the hand gripping his arm was like scorching iron tongs. He couldn’t break free; instead, the grip on his arm tightened.

Zhao Jingqun watched coldly as Tao Ning struggled fiercely in his arms, his mind and heart occupied by the wild man on the floor, even looking at him with an affectionate gaze. Yet, when he looked at Zhao Jingqun, his eyes only held fear, as if Zhao Jingqun was an unforgivable villain, forcefully tearing apart a couple.

This person clearly said that those two wild dogs were just friends, just roommates. He clearly said he loved him and wanted to be with him forever. Now, it seems… it was all lies again. Tao Ning is a liar! He lied to him again…

He lied to me again, he lied to me again…

In an instant, he couldn’t hear any sound. Blood quickly filled Zhao Jingqun’s eyes. His expression was pathologically twisted. His icy gaze fell upon Xu Jun lying on the ground and Song Yucong who was still standing. But in his mind, these two people had become foul, disgusting animals.

Do these two beasts dare to compete with him for Tao Ning?

It’s all because of these two beasts that Tao Ning was taken away! Why don’t these two beasts die? If they die, Tao Ning will be his alone. No one will ever compete with him for Tao Ning again!

Go to hell! Go to hell!! Go to hell!!!

Zhao Jingqun grinned, locking Tao Ning near the heavy wooden table. A figure lunged at him from behind. He turned and kicked them away. The painful groan fueled his inner violence and jealousy. He rushed over and punched the animal on the ground.

One punch, two punches, three punches…

The initially arrogant animal on the ground was now completely defenseless. The curve of Zhao Jingqun’s grin widened. His hands were covered in sticky, foul blood. He murmured with a smile, “You should all die. Why did you try to take him from me? You deserve to die. I’ll send you to your deaths…”

Tao Ning was nearly driven mad by Zhao Jingqun. Zhao Jingqun’s state was clearly very wrong just now. He shouted and begged him to stop, but Zhao Jingqun seemed not to hear. Not only did he not stop, but he also locked Tao Ning next to the table. Tao Ning couldn’t move and watched helplessly as Zhao Jingqun kicked Song Yucong to the ground.

He roared, “Stop! Zhao Jingqun! Stop right now!”

But Tao Ning’s strained voice was useless. The chilling sound of punches continued to echo throughout the room. Zhao Jingqun had grown up in a chaotic place where fists did the talking. He had risen from a street thug to a leading enforcer. His reckless fighting style was on a different level from Xu Jun and Song Yucong. They couldn’t fend him off at all.

Despite this, Xu Jun and Song Yucong ferociously aimed all their resentment and jealousy at Zhao Jingqun. Clatter, clatter. The area where the three were grappling was a complete mess. Only the spot where Tao Ning was remained pristine, as if the three beasts competing for the right to a mate had deliberately left a space for Tao Ning. Only the ultimate victor could approach Tao Ning, stepping over blood.

But gradually, the intensity of Xu Jun and Song Yucong’s struggles lessened.

“No…” Tao Ning was desperate. “No…”

Finally, with three loud thuds, all three men collapsed to the ground. After a moment, Zhao Jingqun gasped for air. He staggered to his feet, wiped the blood from beneath his nose, and with heavy breaths, looked down contemptuously at the two motionless figures on the ground. He let out a scornful laugh, and finally, a sliver of recovered sanity appeared in his eyes.

Great. These two beasts are down. No one will ever compete with him for Ning Ning again. Ning Ning is his. Ning Ning is finally his… Ning Ning, Ning Ning, Ning Ning…

…Where is Ning Ning? Zhao Jingqun snapped his head back. In his vision, blurred with overlapping images and blood, the slender figure by the table collapsed to the ground amidst the spinning world—

“Ning Ning!!!”

A wave of intense dizziness swept over Tao Ning. He wanted to shout at Zhao Jingqun to stop, but he couldn’t utter a sound. The metallic taste of blood was blocking his throat. Just before he was enveloped by darkness, he saw Zhao Jingqun, his eyes splitting with fury, rushing toward him.

Zhao Jingqun… what will it take… for you to believe me?

Tao Ning dreamed again.

But this time, he didn’t dream of those bizarre things. Instead, he clearly saw himself being picked up by the Tao family, his adoptive parents passing away, him being taken away by Tao Yuan, and finally, him marrying Tao Yuan off, and Xiao Meng’s birth.

It was a winter day. Tao Ning was in junior high school. Because the path to and from school in the mountains was difficult, Tao Yuan wanted him to board at the school, even though it cost more. Tao Ning refused.

Tao Ning said, “I want to exercise. It’s not tiring.”

In the clear memory, Tao Yuan clearly had tears in the corners of her eyes, but she laughed heartily, holding her stomach. She rubbed his head and said, “Silly boy, I know you’re worried about the milk money for the little brat in my belly later. It’s not a big deal. Your sister still has money. Why are you, a little kid, worrying about this? The road is hard to walk in the winter. You’re the only sprout of our old Tao family. If you fall and hurt yourself, how will I face Mom and Dad underground after I die?”

Tao Ning mumbled, “Don’t talk about that.”

“Fine, you little stinker. You’re acting like an old man at such a young age. Be careful, no girl will want you later… Fine, fine, you’re shy, aren’t you? I won’t talk about that anymore. Your sister here is going to live for over a hundred years. You have to work hard for me. Your sister doesn’t want to go to a nursing home. I want to live in a big house, drive a big car, find seventeen or eighteen men, and the little brat in my belly will all depend on Ning Ning to live a good life…”

“Mmm, I will.”

Perhaps the stubbornness of the Tao family ran in their blood. Not only could Tao Yuan not win against Tao Ning, but Tao Ning also couldn’t win against Tao Yuan, because his decisive older sister threatened him with herself and his future nephew. Tao Ning reluctantly went to board at school.

But Tao Ning put in a little effort and managed to coax the due date out of Tao Yuan. A few days before Xiao Meng’s birth, Tao Ning, for the first time, became the “bad student” that his classmates talked about, which involved climbing over the school’s back wall using a mound of dirt at night.

Every night during those days, he traveled more than ten miles of mountain road in the wind and snow to the county hospital to see Tao Yuan. Because Li Xiangdong, like them, had no parents, and no relatives wanted anything to do with their family, only Li Xiangdong was taking care of Tao Yuan.

Li Xiangdong was snoring on a chair in the hospital corridor, wrapped in a quilt. Tao Ning knew why. They didn’t have money to stay at a nearby hotel and could only sleep outside with a quilt. When Li Xiangdong wasn’t attentive enough in caring for Tao Yuan, Tao Ning would quietly and meticulously wash the things Tao Yuan had used and eaten, tuck her in, massage her swollen legs, and stare at Tao Yuan’s sleeping face, worrying that something would happen to her in the middle of the night.

He experienced the taste of worry.

Until the last day, Tao Ning climbed the wall again and rushed to the hospital under the cover of darkness, only to see Li Xiangdong smoking outside the delivery room. Without a word, he punched Li Xiangdong, not using much force. Li Xiangdong spat his smoke and saliva on the ground, his eyebrows furrowed, cursing him for being heartless and wasting money, but he didn’t fight back.

Tao Ning ignored him, his eyes fixed on the delivery room with the red light on.

Finally, at dawn, the nurse came out holding a newborn baby, congratulating them on the safe delivery of mother and son. It was the first time Tao Ning had seen a newborn. It was a tiny bundle held in someone’s arms, wrinkly and not pretty at all.

But a very strange feeling welled up in Tao Ning’s heart. The thought that flashed through his mind was—Is this what humans look like at the beginning? What did I look like when I was little? But these two thoughts quickly flitted away, too fast for Tao Ning to contemplate. He only knew that another important person had been added to his life.

He didn’t know how to love, only that this wrinkly baby was very important; he was his nephew.

The scenes in the dream flashed by quickly, until Tao Ning met Zhao Jingqun, dated him, kissed him, separated, reunited, and finally, until Zhao Jingqun hugged him, crying and saying he wanted him to love him.

At that moment, Tao Ning looked at Zhao Jingqun’s bloodshot eyes and thought, He has another important person.

So, this is love?

Darkness and light followed one after the other. Tao Ning opened his eyes, half-dazed and half-conscious. Above him was the familiar white ceiling. Tao Ning knew he was in the hospital again.

Without thinking, Tao Ning quickly climbed up, pulled out the needle from the back of his hand, and ran out amidst the nurse’s surprise. The hospital room door opened, and outside stood Xu Jun, leaning on a crutch, his entire body wrapped in bandages.

The two stared at each other for a long time. Xu Jun looked at him and said, “You weren’t looking for me.”

Tao Ning was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

After a long while, Xu Jun gently shook his head, didn’t speak, and limped away with his crutch.

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