Chapter 270: WHY ARE YOU SO OBSESSED WITH TRUST?

Guiying stepped out of the room on unsteady legs, the door clicking shut behind him louder than it should have been. His hands still trembled slightly at his sides, adrenaline and grief tangled too tightly together to separate.

Liuxian stood a few feet down the corridor, waiting.

Something in him looked different.

Guiying noticed it immediately, the way his shoulders sat too rigid, the redness rimming his eyes that hadn’t been there before he walked into the room, the muscle in his jaw ticking faintly like he was holding something back by force.

He crossed the distance between them slowly. "What happened to you?"

Liuxian’s jaw worked once before he answered. "Not here. Let’s go somewhere quiet."

He led Guiying down an empty hallway, past two more closed doors, until they reached a small side room, bare except for a single table and two chairs. Liuxian shut the door behind them and checked it once, making certain it had latched, before finally turning to face him.

No cameras here, no listening ears, nothing but the two of them and the silence pressing in from every side.

"Why were you crying?" Guiying’s voice came out sharper than intended, some instinct already bracing itself.

Liuxian’s throat worked visibly. He didn’t answer right away, his hand dragging back through his hair once, twice, buying himself time he clearly didn’t know how to use.

"I heard you." The words finally came out rough. "Through the speaker in the control room. I didn’t watch, I swear to you I didn’t watch, but I couldn’t make myself leave the building, and once your voice started carrying through, I couldn’t make myself turn it off either."

Guiying’s stomach dropped, the floor beneath him feeling suddenly less solid than it had a moment ago.

Shame flooded through him first, sudden and scalding, heat crawling up his neck and into his face. It curdled almost instantly into something angrier, something with teeth.

"You had no right." His hands curled into fists, nails biting into his palms. "I asked you for one thing. One thing, Liuxian. That one one should record or listen. That was between me and him."

"Why do you keep hiding from me?" Liuxian’s voice rose, cracking down the middle, his own hands gripping the back of one chair hard enough to whiten his knuckles. "I could have handled the truth. I already told you I don’t care if this is your second life. I don’t care how strange or impossible it sounds. What I care about is that you never once thought to tell me yourself. When were you actually going to say it? Ever?"

"That’s not the point." Guiying’s breathing had picked up, his chest rising and falling too fast.

"It is the point." Liuxian stepped closer, jaw tight, eyes wet again despite himself. "It broke something in me, hearing all of that secondhand, through a wall, finding out what you actually survived the same way a stranger might have, instead of hearing it from you directly, as your husband. I love you. That’s why I cried."

"I’m angry because you crossed a line I asked you not to cross." Guiying’s voice shook, his own hands trembling now. "You always do this. You’re always crossing my boundaries, deciding what’s best for me, deciding you know better than my own stated wishes."

"And I don’t like that you’d rather confess the truth to your abuser before you’d tell me." Liuxian paced two steps away, then turned back, unable to stay still. "Your husband. I should be the first person you tell things to. Not the last."

"Why?" Guiying’s jaw clenched. "I’m not the only person in your life, and you’re not the only person in mine. Don’t make me feel guilty for that."

"You’re the one making me feel this way." Something desperate slipped into Liuxian’s tone, his pacing quickening. "So it’s fine for you to feel however you want, but wrong for me to feel the exact same thing? What about me, Guiying? Did I ever once force you to do something you didn’t want to do? I used my own judgment to guess this was your second life. If I hadn’t been paying attention, would you ever have told me at all? I deserve to know things too. I’m the one who loves you the most."

"Don’t." Guiying’s voice went cold, flat. "Don’t try to guilt me with that. Don’t make me feel like I owe you access to every corner of my mind just because you love me. I know you love me, Liuxian. But when you’re like this, it feels oppressive. Are you trying to control me because you’ve decided you love me more than anyone else ever could?"

"That’s not what I meant." Liuxian pressed the heel of his hand hard against one eye, his own breathing unsteady now too.

"You’re angry because I didn’t tell you." Tears finally broke free down Guiying’s face, hot and fast. "I didn’t have the courage to. I love you too, and I was ashamed of everything that happened to me, whether it was real or not. I needed to end things with that bastard first, to get closure, to gather enough courage to finally tell you myself. I was terrified you’d look at me differently, that you’d be disgusted by what I survived, and I couldn’t bring myself to risk that. And now I can’t even look at you properly, because you took that choice away from me before I was ready to give it."

Liuxian froze completely, his hand falling slack at his side.

"We just got married." Guiying’s voice trembled, raw and unguarded now, his chest heaving with the effort of getting the words out at all. "We’ve barely had time to understand these feelings between us, to understand each other fully. Why are you so obsessed with trust, with knowing everything all at once? You have to learn, Liuxian. You have to understand that I’m the one person in your life you can’t control."