Sweet Temptation: After Rebirth, The Campus Heartthrob Can’t Hide His Feelings Anymore - Chapter 48

Tears streamed down Xu Zhizhi’s face as she looked at Cheng Xiaoxin through blurred vision, her voice choked with sobs. “I’m sorry… I made you sad.”

“Zhizhi, it’s not your fault. Neither of us did anything wrong.”

If they had to blame anyone, it was fate, for making them endure this ordeal.

Xu Zhizhi shook her head, her cries growing even more uncontrollable.

Cheng Xiaoxin grasped her hand firmly, her gaze resolute. “I’ve already started to move on from him. You know I wouldn’t lie to you. I’ve always been strong-willed, I don’t cling to things that aren’t meant for me. If I like someone, I like them. If not, I move on.”

“But you… when you fall for someone, you become stubborn, even more headstrong, as if bewitched. I used to worry you’d get hurt. But now? I think Zhou Xuci is a good match for you.”

A thousand… no, a million times better than that bastard Shen Yu.

Standing against the wind, Cheng Xiaoxin’s hair whipped wildly around her.

Xu Zhizhi reached out, gently smoothing the tangled strands, her tears still falling, her voice too shaky to speak.

Her heart ached too much to put into words.

Cheng Xiaoxin’s eyes were red as she wiped the tears from Xu Zhizhi’s face. “Don’t cry, you’ll ruin your makeup.”

Xu Zhizhi had been running in the cold wind for so long that her braids had come undone, leaving her looking a little disheveled.

Leaning closer to inspect her makeup, Cheng Xiaoxin said, “I dressed you up like a princess so you could go on your date looking beautiful.”

Unable to hold back, Xu Zhizhi threw her arms around Cheng Xiaoxin, burying her face in her shoulder. “Xiaoxin… what should I do? I feel so awful…”

“I’m sorry… I can’t bring myself to step aside. Zhou Xuci is a person, not an object. I don’t want to, and I have no right, to treat him like one.”

“And… I don’t want to lie to you. Because I really, really like him. Not the way I blindly, uncertainly liked Shen Yu before. This time, it’s the kind of love that makes my heart race uncontrollably every time I’m near him.”

Because I care about you so much, I have to be honest with you.

Cheng Xiaoxin exhaled in relief, a weight lifting from her shoulders as she smiled and patted Xu Zhizhi’s back. “Thank goodness. I was so afraid you’d actually give Zhou Xuci up for me.”

Given Xu Zhizhi’s sentimental nature, she might have done just that.

But Cheng Xiaoxin believed that would have been an insult, charity, not respect.

She didn’t need that kind of pity.

If she wasn’t destined to be a cherished princess, then she’d strive to be her own queen.

She could crown herself.

Xu Zhizhi sniffled miserably and asked, “What if I had?”

“Then I’d have been furious, looked down on you, and gone off on you.” Cheng Xiaoxin replied.

Xu Zhizhi let go and took a step back, standing in front of her with newfound confidence. “You’d never really yell at me.”

Cheng Xiaoxin chuckled and ruffled her hair. “Look at you. What do you call this?”

“What?”

“Spoiled by love.”

Xu Zhizhi finally smiled. “That’s because you spoiled me.”

The tension between them eased instantly.

Xu Zhizhi’s tears stopped, though her eyes were still red and puffy. “So… what do we do now?”

“Your makeup held up, but your eyes are swollen. Still, it gives you this delicate, pitiable look.” Cheng Xiaoxin squinted playfully. “We can still catch the movie.”

Xu Zhizhi shook her head. “We missed the showtime.”

“Huh? What about Zhou Xuci?” Cheng Xiaoxin asked.

“He got stood up by me.” Xu Zhizhi lowered her head like a guilty kitten.

Cheng Xiaoxin paused, then countered, “Won’t he be sulking all day then?”

The way he looked at Zhizhi wasn’t just falling in love, it was drowning in it every second.

In her opinion, though Zhou Xuci was the aloof campus heartthrob on the outside, he was 100% a hopeless romantic at heart.

Xu Zhizhi shrugged. “I was worried about you, so I just…”

At this, Cheng Xiaoxin suddenly remembered, “Right, why did you suddenly come to the training room?”

Xu Zhizhi pulled a crumpled love letter from her pocket and handed it to Cheng Xiaoxin. “Hu Chen came to me and gave me this.”

Cheng Xiaoxin grabbed it, crumpling the embarrassing relic into a ball, muttering curses. “That bastard Hu is a damn lunatic, a waste of oxygen just by existing.”

Xu Zhizhi giggled, linking arms with her and whispering, “Xiaoxin, you should’ve told me.”

Cheng Xiaoxin sighed in frustration. “I didn’t want to pressure you. I thought I’d just tough it out for a few more days. If it got too much, I’d drink a little, sleep it off, didn’t want to drag you down with me.”

Xu Zhizhi gently touched Cheng Xiaoxin’s face. “How about I drink with you today?”

“You hate the smell of alcohol, don’t you?” Cheng Xiaoxin eyed her skeptically.

Xu Zhizhi said earnestly, “Not today.”

Cheng Xiaoxin didn’t refuse again. “Fine, I’ll let you be bad just this once.”

She had always been the obedient type, sticking to the rules, never crossing the line.

Xu Zhizhi smiled, linking arms with Cheng Xiaoxin as they strode forward.

Between them, there was always an unspoken understanding, an unconditional trust in each other.

“Xu Zhizhi.”

“Yeah?”

“Listen, while you like Zhou Xuci, you’ve got to keep liking me just as much as before, got it?”

“How could I ever not like you?”

“Then do you like me more, or him more?” Cheng Xiaoxin threw out the ultimate trap question.

“Different kinds of love. You’re in the left atrium, he’s in the right, I love you both,” Xu Zhizhi answered cleverly.

“Hmph, master of diplomacy,” Cheng Xiaoxin laughed. “I’ll let you off.”

“Xiaoxin, you’re the best,” Xu Zhizhi leaned against her, resting her head on her shoulder. “The absolute best in the whole world.”

Cheng Xiaoxin let her lean in and murmured, “Zhizhi, you have to remember, it’s because you chose me, again and again, that I even made it this far.”

She had attempted suicide three times before.

In her despair, she had slit her wrists over and over.

Each time, on the brink of death, it was Xu Zhizhi who firmly held her hand and pulled her back to life.

After surviving the darkest times, she had grown into the toughest rose.

Xu Zhizhi was the only person in Cheng Xiaoxin’s life who had chosen her so resolutely, yanking her out of the abyss.

The two went to a cozy little bar, truly indulging as promised.

Cheng Xiaoxin ordered plenty of drinks, downing them one after another.

Xu Zhizhi, with her low alcohol tolerance, was already wasted after five glasses, babbling nonsense.

Cheng Xiaoxin took her phone and held it up to her. “Unlock it.”

Xu Zhizhi pressed her fingerprint, and the screen lit up.

“Can I look through your phone?” Cheng Xiaoxin asked.

Xu Zhizhi nodded dizzily. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

Cheng Xiaoxin opened WeChat and found the contact labeled “Crush.”

“This is Zhou Xuci, right?”

It seemed she really liked Zhou Xuci.

Xu Zhizhi grinned, her eyes curving into crescents. “Yes, yes, yes.”

She was utterly drunk.

Loved repeating words.

Cheng Xiaoxin directly called Zhou Xuci on voice chat, casually putting it on speaker.

Zhou Xuci answered almost immediately.

“Hello?”

He paused. “May I ask who this is?”

A single word was enough for him to recognize it wasn’t Xu Zhizhi’s voice.

“Hi, I’m Zhizhi’s friend. She’s drunk, could you come pick her up?” Cheng Xiaoxin said.

Xu Zhizhi, slumped over the table, mumbled Zhou Xuci’s name in a daze.

Zhou Xuci quickly asked for the address.

Just as he was about to hang up, Cheng Xiaoxin spoke again. “Zhou Xuci.”

She hesitated, then stared at the drunken Xu Zhizhi beside her, her eyes slightly reddening as she said firmly, “Please, love her fiercely.”

She really, really needs to be loved.

…