Sweet Temptation: After Rebirth, The Campus Heartthrob Can’t Hide His Feelings Anymore - Chapter 64

Xu Zhizhi was filled with regret, pounding Zhou Xuci’s shoulder lightly. “Why didn’t you remind me?”

“At that time, you were too focused on Shen Yu,” Zhou Xuci said softly, gently pinching her chin, his expression turning slightly cold. “The way you looked at him, I was so jealous.”

Jealous enough to go mad.

“But what could I do with my jealousy?” Zhou Xuci lowered his lashes, concealing the shadows in his eyes. “Your gaze was so full of him, you couldn’t see me.”

He had been heartbroken for a long, long time.

“I acted on impulse once, thinking about whether I should snatch you away, but I couldn’t overcome my own sense of morality.”

Zhou Xuci bent his head and kissed her lips firmly. “Zhizhi, from now on, you can only love me, alright?”

“If you don’t love me, I’ll go crazy,” he murmured in a low, husky voice.

Tears welled up in Xu Zhizhi’s eyes. “Zhou Xuci, how could I not love you?”

Zhou Xuci held her tightly in his arms, lowering his head to kiss her hair again and again, as if cherishing a priceless treasure. “Xu Zhizhi,” he whispered, “every time I saw you walking toward him, my eyes burned with anger, but…”

“What could I do about you?”

Xu Zhizhi sniffled, on the verge of tears. “I was so terribly wrong in the past.”

Zhou Xuci held her close as the cool April evening breeze brushed past them. “Luckily, we finally found each other.”

Whether by chance or by intention, the process didn’t matter, only the outcome did.

No matter how many years passed, Zhou Xuci would always remember the sight of Xu Zhizhi standing on the podium in her blue-and-white school uniform.

The morning sunlight illuminated her, the gentle breeze rustling the hem of her skirt. She radiated the vibrant energy of youth.

Perhaps a little nervous, when she pressed her lips together, the small dimple at the corner of her mouth appeared faintly.

So beautiful.

So beautiful that Zhou Xuci couldn’t look away.

Maybe it was the breeze that stirred his heart, or perhaps it was the spring rain that blurred his vision.

He fell for her in an instant.

So, it was true, love at first sight could happen in just a moment.

Back then, Zhou Xuci didn’t know that this fleeting moment of infatuation would turn into an eight-year-long obsession.

After finishing her speech, Xu Zhizhi let out a relieved smile, bowed deeply to the audience, and hurried off the stage.

She ran toward Shen Yu, her hair flying in the wind, her entire being glowing.

At that time, Shen Yu wasn’t as much of a scoundrel. He nodded slightly at her, a hint of admiration in his eyes.

Xu Zhizhi stood behind him, using her speech script to cover half of her face, revealing a pair of lively, bright eyes filled with unmistakable affection.

It was the look of youthful infatuation, as it should be in adolescence.

Zhou Xuci snapped back to reality, feeling an emptiness in his heart.

The person he liked had someone she liked, and it wasn’t him.

Zhou Xuci was not the type to fight or compete for affection. Since the flowing water had its own course and the falling blossom held no sentiment, he decided to forget this brief encounter.

He chose to pass Xu Zhizhi by, becoming mere passersby in each other’s lives.

The evening wind howled, pulling Zhou Xuci back into the memories of his past life.

In his previous life, after receiving an offer from the research institute, Zhou Xuci resolutely chose to go abroad.

Xu Zhizhi, on the other hand, stubbornly chased after Shen Yu. Even when battered and bruised, she pressed forward with relentless determination, giving it her all.

Letting go was Zhou Xuci’s greatest concession.

After five years abroad, Zhou Xuci returned to attend the wedding of Gu Sen and Ling Shuang.

Ling Shuang and Xu Zhizhi had been college roommates.

From Gu Sen, Zhou Xuci learned about Xu Zhizhi’s current situation, how after graduation, she had joined the Shen Corporation and finally achieved her wish of being with Shen Yu.

But Shen Yu was notoriously dissolute and unrestrained, treating women as disposable. He had a girlfriend in public but indulged in affairs behind the scenes.

That day, Zhou Xuci caught up with old classmates, drank a little, and got carried away in conversation. The gathering ended very late.

As he stepped outside, a torrential downpour was raging. Zhou Xuci raised his umbrella and was about to get into his car when he overheard sympathetic murmurs nearby.

“Such heavy rain, and that young lady won’t listen to reason, insisting on staying out in it. How pitiful.”

“Exactly. She looks utterly heartbroken, crying so bitterly. She must have suffered something deeply painful.”

“Outside a nightclub, no less. Probably got played by some scoundrel. Young people these days are so fickle in love, it’s truly sad.”

Nightclub.

Zhou Xuci tilted his umbrella slightly and vaguely made out a figure crouched in a corner across the street.

The distance was great, and the heavy rain blurred his vision.

Yet, as if propelled by some mysterious force, Zhou Xuci began walking step by step toward that figure, broken and desolate in the rainy night.

Closer and closer.

From illusion to reality, fragments of memory slowly pieced together, reconstructing the image of their first meeting.

Only now, they were twenty-six and twenty-eight.

Eight whole years had slipped by.

The pouring rain drowned out Xu Zhizhi’s sobs, but Zhou Xuci could see her shoulders trembling with grief.

She was devastated.

On the verge of collapse.

Zhou Xuci had heard that Xu Zhizhi hadn’t fared well over the years. To work at the Shen Corporation, she had minored in economics during her sophomore year, abandoning her innate talent for painting.

Her paintings were exquisite.

Zhou Xuci had once watched from afar as Xu Zhizhi sat on the campus lawn, sketching. While painting, her expression was focused, her face lit with contentment.

That was her passion.

Later, for Shen Yu, she gave up the love she once held dear.

Love shouldn’t be about compromise or concession.

Zhou Xuci believed that love was more about fulfillment, you could stand on my shoulders and bloom whenever you wished.

The image of Xu Zhizhi weeping with her head buried transformed into a vision of Zhou Xuci’s own breakdown.

He, too, had once wept uncontrollably in a downpour.

Zhou Xuci walked over to Xu Zhizhi, holding the umbrella. He tilted it to shield her from the relentless rain.

Time and space overlapped and intertwined, as if they had returned to the scene of their first encounter, only with their roles reversed.

Xu Zhizhi looked up in surprise, trying to call out his name, but she couldn’t recall it.

A pang of bitterness stirred in Zhou Xuci’s heart, but he maintained his composure. “Zhou Xuci.”

His name.

Zhou Xuci was about to hand her the umbrella when a sharp honk pierced the air. Turning, he saw a large truck speeding toward him. There was no pain, only instant annihilation.

When he opened his eyes again, Zhou Xuci was twenty, and Xu Zhizhi was eighteen.

Heaven had reshuffled the deck, as if to remind him: go meet her, save her from the depths of despair.

But Zhou Xuci soon discovered that Xu Zhizhi had changed, she had learned to save herself.

“Zhou Xuci.”

Xu Zhizhi’s voice pulled him back to reality.

Zhou Xuci looked down, his gaze tender and profound. “What is it?”

Xu Zhizhi buried her face in the crook of his neck, her eyes slightly red as she spoke with a hint of coquettishness, “It’s nothing. I just feel so proud whenever I think that you’re mine.”

Zhou Xuci lowered his head and kissed her cheek. “I’ll always be yours, and only yours.”

…