Sweet Temptation: After Rebirth, The Campus Heartthrob Can’t Hide His Feelings Anymore - Chapter 95

Xu Zhizhi received the traffic accident liability report.

Around 22:43 on June 18, 2013.

Two small passenger vehicles had a severe collision, resulting in serious casualties.

The driver at fault was female, pronounced dead at the scene, while another female was left in a coma with critical injuries.

Tests revealed that the driver’s blood alcohol content was 30mg/100ml, constituting drunk driving.

The driver: Li Anning.

It was her mother.

Black words on white paper, stamped with a red seal.

The evidence was indisputable.

Xu Zhizhi’s hand trembled as she held the liability report, barely able to stand. Her gaze fell on Sun Xiuya’s legs, and she choked up, unable to speak.

“Xu Zhizhi, you must still find it strange, don’t you? One thing is one thing, your mother’s mistakes shouldn’t be paid for by you, her daughter.”

Sun Xiuya’s wheelchair was parked by the swing, the light casting a sorrowful and lonely aura around her.

“Do you know why she was driving drunk?” Sun Xiuya’s hand gripped the swing’s rope, faint blue veins bulging on the back of her hand.

Xu Zhizhi lowered her head, reading the contents of the report over and over, confirming the details again and again.

There were no discrepancies.

“It was because of you,” Sun Xiuya said.

Xu Zhizhi looked up, her tear-filled eyes meeting Sun Xiuya’s intense gaze.

She felt a crushing weight, as if a thousand-pound stone were pressing down on her heart, suffocating her.

“You’re severely allergic to soybeans,” Sun Xiuya said softly, lowering her head and gently stroking her legs, which had been useless for twelve years. “On the night of the accident, you accidentally consumed a large amount of soybeans, causing anaphylactic shock. You were rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.”

“The hospital issued a critical condition notice, informing your mother to see you one last time. When she got the news, she was in the middle of negotiating a major project and had been drinking a little. She thought she was fine. In her frantic state, she still drove under the influence.”

Was she wrong?

Yes.

But what mother could remain perfectly calm upon hearing that her child had been given a critical condition notice?

She only wanted to get there as quickly as possible to see her child one last time.

She was only afraid that if she delayed even a moment, they would miss each other, separated forever by life and death.

But no one could have anticipated that on the night of the accident, heavy rain would fall, obscuring visibility and causing the car to skid severely.

Tragically, Li Anning died instantly in the crash.

She never knew that the doctors had managed to save Xu Zhizhi, who had suffered cardiac arrest, snatching her back from the jaws of death.

Xu Zhizhi’s tears fell, drop by drop, onto the liability report in her hands, weeping uncontrollably.

Sun Xiuya looked up at the overcast sky, where dark clouds obscured the moon. “I’ve blamed myself too, why… why did I have to go out that night? Why did I take that particular road on my way back? Why did it have to rain so heavily that day?”

“I was just invited to attend a dance troupe gathering that evening. I was only discussing the upcoming performance schedule with the troupe leader. I simply went out on an ordinary rainy night, and I lost my legs.”

Sun Xiuya’s expression turned numb, a bitter smile forming as tears streamed down her face. “I wasn’t the one driving drunk. I wasn’t the one at fault, I was the victim. So why is it that in the end, I’m the one who lost everything, living in agony?”

In that moment, a heavy aura of sorrow and desolation enveloped her.

An accident shattered two families.

Such a heavy price to pay.

“You know, blaming myself is truly exhausting. Every day, I sit in the yard, touching the rope of this swing, and so many times I wished I could tear it down and strangle myself with it,” Sun Xiuya said.

“I fell ill, gravely ill, teetering on the brink of madness every day. Later, you were taken back to the Shen family,” Sun Xiuya said calmly, looking at Xu Zhizhi. “I admit, I’ve always held resentment toward you, but…”

A sudden clap of thunder echoed across the sky.

It seemed rain was coming.

Xu Zhizhi stood in place, like a helpless child, unsure of where to go.

“I’m so tired, I don’t want to go on like this anymore. For twelve whole years, all my energy has been drained. I don’t have the strength to hate anymore.”

Sun Xiuya turned her head away, gazing at the distant lights. “Xu Zhizhi, you and A-Yu should go abroad to study together.”

“All the past grievances between us…”

“Let’s just forget them.”

Lightning tore through the sky, followed by a loud rumble, as heavy raindrops began to fall from the thick clouds.

The long-anticipated downpour had finally arrived unexpectedly at this moment.

Xu Zhizhi did not respond. She turned and stumbled away, running into the pouring rain.

Aunt Zhang wanted to push Sun Xiuya back inside, but she stopped her.

Sun Xiuya lifted her head, letting the rain fall on her face, and said to the dark sky, “This heavy rain is just what we need, it can wash away all the filth on me.”

The night of the car accident had also been a night of torrential rain.

Accidents are so cruel, dragging people into desperate situations, letting you live but forcing you to exist in despair.

Xu Zhizhi ran forward through the rain, drenched and disheveled.

She was actually very afraid of rainy nights like this.

Because in the past, Sun Xiuya would have an episode on such nights, lashing out at her again and again.

Now, she felt the weight, it was on a rainy night like this that a severe traffic accident had trapped them in a cycle of despair and pain.

“Zhizhi!”

Shen Yu’s voice cut through the heavy rain, reaching her.

Xu Zhizhi turned and saw Shen Yu running toward her through the rain.

“Why are you standing in the rain?” Shen Yu said with concern, reaching out to grab her wrist, trying to pull her under the eaves nearby.

Xu Zhizhi shook off his hand and raised the accident liability report in her hand, now soaked and smudged into a blur.

“The accident liability report,” Xu Zhizhi lowered her head, her voice choked. “Shen Yu, you knew about this a long time ago, didn’t you?”

Shen Yu looked at the blurred paper and fell into a deep silence.

His silence was the best response.

When he was sixteen, his mother found out he liked Xu Zhizhi.

She went mad and, in a moment of losing control, revealed this terrible truth to him.

From that moment on, Shen Yu was dragged into hell. He couldn’t like Xu Zhizhi, and the suppressed emotions led him to self-destruction.

Shen Yu placed his hands on Xu Zhizhi’s shoulders. “Zhizhi, listen to me…”

Xu Zhizhi shook her head, broke free from his grasp, and stepped back, her eyes red. “Please… don’t come near me.”

The rain poured down relentlessly. Xu Zhizhi stood in the vast, rainy night, once again losing her direction.

Where should she go this time?

Shen Yu stood behind Xu Zhizhi, keeping a certain distance.

Staying with her, drenched in the rain.

Xu Zhizhi gazed at the rain-blurred world, where everything seemed distorted through her eyes.

Suddenly, a black umbrella appeared within her line of sight.

…