Chapter 601: When Did It Start

Bo Shuxian’s apology was indeed an act of protecting Zhou Zining.

Bo Yanching ultimately didn’t continue to pursue the matter, but the expression on his face had faded, “There’s no need for sorries between brothers, and you haven’t wronged me.”

Bo Shuxian’s eyes darted around, and his thin lips were pressed very tightly, as if all his strength was tensed up.

After a long pause, he only said one word: “Fine.”

Bo Yanching left with Nan Jiaojiao.

Once they were gone, Zhou Zining behaved unrestrainedly, not taking things seriously at all.

She didn’t even give Bo Shuxian a look, let alone an explanation, and went straight upstairs back to her bedroom.

After showering and coming out, she smelled a thick scent of smoke in the room.

Bo Shuxian was sitting in front of the balcony, and the two sliding doors in front of him were closed.

No breeze entered, and the smell of smoke spread all over the room.

Zhou Zining furrowed her brows and strode over.

“Didn’t I tell you not to smoke in front of me?

You’ve smoked up the room like this, how am I supposed to sleep tonight?!”

She snatched the cigarette from Bo Shuxian’s mouth.

Heaps of ash filled the ashtray on the coffee table, with many cigarettes only half-smoked.

The butts were stubbed out with such force that even the tobacco was protruding, and the half-smoked cigarettes were broken into several segments.

As a result, Zhou Zining couldn’t find anywhere to stub out the cigarette, so she simply tossed it onto Bo Shuxian’s body with a flick of her hand.

“Get out!”

Bo Shuxian looked up, staring at her steadily, “When did it start?”

“What?”

“Your liking for Third Brother, when did it start?”

Zhou Zining’s gaze was evasive.

Her dominating presence from before had completely vanished.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said as she lay down in bed, turning her back to him, “I’m tired and need to rest.

Go sleep in the guest room.”

Bo Shuxian chuckled softly, the laughter light.

He brushed off the cigarette butt from his body, where a small hole had been burnt into his coat.

The cigarette fell onto the carpet, and a small ember quickly began to burn; there was no flame leaping out, yet the burnt area grew larger and larger.

As if a wound was being forcefully ripped open.

He stepped on it, his eyes drooping, and said in an indifferent voice, “It started in the first year of high school, right?

That’s when I fell in love with you at first sight and pursued you.

You didn’t respond to me and left me hanging.

Ever since Third Brother came to pick me up that time, you started approaching me actively.”

Zhou Zining suddenly gripped the blanket tightly, her eyes shifting backward, unable to see what expression Bo Shuxian had.

She felt an inexplicable panic.

“In the first semester of freshman year in college, you came to Rongcheng City to find me, saying you had an argument with your family.

I took you back to the Bo Residence for the New Year, and Third Brother was also there.”

“We did the most intimate things over and over, but I was still just an ordinary friend to you.

It wasn’t until you were pregnant with my child that you agreed to be with me.

I asked Third Brother to come as a family elder to help assess my wife.

I remember you were very happy that day, and you dressed up specially.”

The man’s steady voice carried not a single fluctuation, as if he was merely narrating someone else’s story.

Suddenly, he chuckled mockingly, “So, your happiness wasn’t because of me.”

Zhou Zining’s eyebrows were tightly knitted, and she kept her mouth shut, saying nothing.

The room fell silent, as though deathly still.

“Ten years…”

After a while, it seemed he lit another cigarette, speaking with smoke mixed in his hoarse voice, sounding shattered, “Ten years, Zhou Zining, I admit I made a mistake for ten years, but how could you bear it.”

Zhou Zining bit her lip, her fingers clutching the blanket repeatedly tightening until the knuckles turned white.

Then there was silence again.

Bo Shuxian was smoking, drawing on a single cigarette for a very long time.

The smell of smoke in the room grew stronger, increasingly suffocating.