Love in the Midst of Mistaken Identities

Xia Ruoxin looked at the box in his hand. That rectangular box seemed familiar, but she didn’t know of anything else she had left behind.

The rain continued to fall, but the two of them remained unmoving. At last, Xia Ruoxin took the box from him, and Chu Lui retracted his hand. He clenched his arm, which felt slightly numb.

Xia Ruoxin opened the box, revealing a white pearl necklace.

“I thought it broke.” She ran her fingers lightly across the pearls. Yes, he broke it with his own hands.

“It did. I wove it together. It’s yours. You forgot to take it.” Chu Lui’s fingers throbbed. They were almost full of pinpricks. He almost became a porcupine, trying to string the pearls together.

However, Xia Ruoxin closed the box without a sign of nostalgia or happiness.

“This isn’t mine. You said that I had no right to take anything from the Chu household so this doesn’t belong to me. I don’t want it.” She stretched her hands out and held the box before him. She vividly remembered every word he said before.

Chu Lui smiled bitterly. It was finally time to pay for everything he had done. “It’s yours. If you don’t want it, then throw it away.”

Xia Ruoxin retracted her hands. “Tell me. What are you plotting again?” She wasn’t to blame for thinking so. To her, Chu Lui was a scheme himself. Everything about him wasn’t genuine.

“I’m not plotting anything. I just want to return you some stuff.” Chu Lui swallowed, a hint of regret in his eyes. This was his retribution. He deserved to go through it all now.

Xia Ruoxin gently touched the box in her hands. She still remembered how he had forcefully yanked apart this necklace.

“This isn’t mine anymore. It broke, and that was it. Even if you strung it together, it still isn’t the same necklace as before. You don’t know what that necklace meant to me. It stood for happiness. How are you going to return my happiness to me? Can you even? I want a home, a home that belongs to me. I want my family. Could you give me all that?”

“I…” Chu Lui choked and his eyes darkened. No, he couldn’t. He couldn’t give her anything she wanted. He was already married to a wife, and he had promised her that he wouldn’t divorce another woman in the same way. Everything was his fault. Four years had passed, and he wasn’t the same cold-blooded man he was before.

Therefore, there was no way he could be ruthless once more.

“I understand.” Xia Ruoxin couldn’t tell where her heartache was coming from.

“You could treat me cruelly and dumped all your hatred and revenge on me, but you can’t do the same to Li Manni?”

Chu Lui was stunned. He shut his eyes at last. “She’s innocent.” Thus, he couldn’t do the same thing once again.

“So I was guilty?” Xia Ruoxin smiled bitterly. So she was guilty. She wasn’t supposed to appear in this world in the first place anyway. Did she only exist just to be accused and trample upon by others?

“Ruoxin,” Chu Lui called out, a conflict expression on his face that never appeared before. Why didn’t he notice that her tears made his heart ache so? He had actually experienced heartache four years ago, but why didn’t he admit it? Why was he so adamant and only realized there was a woman whose tears made his heart ache and whose smile he cherished when all the damage was already done?

Would he still have a chance?

He reached his hand out to her face to wipe away the rain that had fallen. He was scared she was feeling cold, for she wore very little.

However, Xia Ruoxin took a step back and avoided his hand.

“I’m returning this to you.” Xia Ruoxin held the box in front of him again. The rain formed a curtain between them, blurring their vision. She looked at his tightly clenched jaw and the black hair that stuck messily to his forehead where drops of water trickled down.

“Here.” The rain fell on her arm, making her body shrink uncontrollably.

Chu Lui placed his hands on his hips and furrowed his brows. He stood motionless and waited. “I said it’s yours. If you don’t want it, then throw it away.”

His voice pierced Xia Ruoxin’s ears sharply.

Xia Ruoxin retracted her hand and stared at the box.

“Throw it away?” Her lips trembled slightly, and then she let go. The box dropped on the ground, and the pearl necklace broke with a thud. The pearls rolled everywhere, making Chu Lui’s eyes turn red slightly.

She really threw it away.

Xia Ruoxin walked past him. Chu Lui just looked down at the pearls scattered on the floor. He finally understood what she felt when he broke the necklace. It was as if someone had ripped his heart into two. No one could understand the kind of pain that felt like a part of him was cut away unless they experienced it themselves.

So it was actually this bitter, this excruciating.

“Ruoxin…” A man’s voice said from afar. Xia Ruoxin raised her head and saw Gao Yi’s figure walking towards her through the curtain of rain, his silhouette getting clearer as he walked closer. He was wearing the light grey shirt she bought him the other day. His eyebrows were wrinkled as he took her hand hurriedly and pulled her into his arms.

“Do you think you’re made of steel? You’re gonna catch a cold if you stay in the rain like this.” He scanned the man standing in the rain discreetly and then looked at Xia Ruoxin’s face, reaching a hand out to wipe away the rainwater on her face.