Love for You

"How much did you miss me?"

His breathing was slightly ragged, the corners of his eyes tinged with faint red: "A lot..."

"How much is 'a lot'? How long have you been missing me?"

The man's voice was hoarse and low, lingering like lit cigarette smoke, unclear whether it was a deliberate provocation driven by physiology or a deeply buried confession: "For a long time, day after day, year after year."

Chapter 40: A Clean, Sharp Slap

The words dragged from his throat, deep as a subwoofer, hazy and sensual, plucking at heartstrings.

Before the trailing notes faded, Miao Jing's expression turned frosty. She raised her hand and delivered a clean, sharp slap across his face.

The slap was crisp and heavy, swift and sudden, carrying fierce strength and resentment. Her palm and arm went numb from the impact. In this abrupt move, Chen Yi's face was violently jerked aside, a bright red handprint blooming on his cheek, mingling with the blood from the fruit knife's cut... There was nothing sensual or ambiguous about it—only awkward humiliation.

...

The unexpected slap was genuinely painful. Chen Yi grimaced, instinctively wanting to touch his stinging face, yet his arm felt too heavy to lift. He seemed dazed and sluggish, completely stupefied.

Had she... slapped him senseless?

The lingering romantic thoughts in his heart instantly vanished. His handsome face twisted slightly, his complexion rapidly turning ashen and dark. Fury burned in his chest, his eyes dark and shadowed, unconsciously carrying a trace of ferocity.

Damn it!!!

Couldn't she just follow the usual script?

Seeing her stubborn, ice-cold face, her cool, sharp bright eyes, and the sudden flush of redness in Miao Jing's eyes, the fire in Chen Yi's gaze extinguished with a hiss. He half-closed his eyes, grinding his molars with a low, heavy sound.

The grinding was audible.

In this lifetime, only this one person dared to treat him like this.

Miao Jing's expression was icy to the extreme. She raised the sharp blade, pointing it directly between his eyebrows, and challenged him coldly: "If you missed me so much, why didn't you contact me for six years? After missing me all these years, it didn't stop you from being intimate with others. Since I returned, I haven't seen any less of you flirting with women."

Chen Yi gritted his teeth, then gritted them again. His handsome face was taut to the breaking point, veins bulging, with a strong impulse to throttle her.

He snorted heavily, ignoring the sharp blade at his brow, and opened his eyes to stare coldly at her: "What did I miss? Missing sleeping with you? Is my brain only fixated on that? Yeah, I thought about it too, but what then? Should life just stop? Should I stop living? What else could I hope for? On holidays, thinking about the person who used to wait for me to eat every day—is that not allowed? Seeing high school students on the street and remembering that little ingrate in her uniform—is that not allowed? Even if we're not related by blood, we lived together for so many years. Damn it, if I raised a dog, I'd burn some paper money for it when it died on Qingming Festival. Having raised a person with my own hands, can't I think of anything else?"

His tone was flippant and indifferent, yet there was an unmistakable, faint trace of bitterness.

On nights filled with the glow of countless household lights, he would light a cigarette and think of that stubborn girl, the days they spent together—collecting scrap with her, taking her on reckless drives, living together, their final moments of madness. Then he'd toss the cigarette butt and crush it underfoot, striding toward the distant figures.

Chen Yi turned his face away from her, his Adam's apple bobbing heavily. The blood on his neck hadn't stopped, leaving a messy, winding trail of dried blood.

Miao Jing closed her eyes for a moment, silent for a long while, then lowered the knife tip back to his waist, lightly teasing open the drawstring of his pants.Chen Yi had no such intention. He stopped, shifted his legs, and urged her to get off.

Her eyes held a soft, lingering light as she asked him quietly, "In your eyes, am I a sister? Family? Or a woman you've slept with?"

He remained silent for a long time before finally murmuring, "Who knows? The two of us have lived in such a mess at home. If we were real siblings, we wouldn’t have done those things. And what do you take me for? Surely not a real brother."

It was a twisted and unrestrained relationship that had grown over time, its emotions too complex for either of them to clearly define each other’s place in their hearts during their youth.

Miao Jing’s mood gradually settled. Her dense lashes lowered as she gazed at the knife in her hand, whispering softly, "Do you know how I’ve lived these past few years?"

"How did you live?"

"In my sophomore year, my mother contacted me. She came to see me and cried for a long time in front of me. During those years without news, she had actually been doing okay, but the insurance money was swindled by a man. She had no money and went through a long period of hardship. She said she didn’t mean to abandon me—she just had no other choice. Actually, she had secretly inquired about me once. By then, I was already in high school, studying, doing well academically, and still living at home, which was much better than following her. Later, when her situation improved a bit, she met her current husband. Before returning to her hometown, she came to see me, talked a lot, apologized, and said she was relieved to see how I’d turned out. After that, we kept in touch intermittently, occasionally calling each other."

"Life at school was good too. I studied engineering in college, where there were more boys than girls in the department. The dormitory atmosphere was harmonious, and both teachers and classmates were very supportive. The campus was beautiful and lively, with all kinds of activities and clubs keeping life fulfilling. Studying wasn’t too difficult either. Besides attending classes, I did internships and part-time jobs, learned how to apply makeup and dress well, participated in various events, and met many interesting people and experienced many things. I climbed mountains with friends in the middle of the night to watch the sunrise, volunteered at the International Convention Center, and discussed topics with teachers over coffee. That kind of life was worlds apart from before… completely different. I was like a small fish from a ditch suddenly swimming into the ocean—a vast, dazzling world… No one knew where I came from, no one knew about my past. It was so carefree, so liberating… I really loved it…"

As she reminisced about those days, she looked at him, a smile playing on her lips and joy shimmering in her eyes. That radiant glow affected him too. He stared blankly, his heart tinged with both bitterness and sweetness, and couldn’t help but grin.

"I saw you won scholarships every year and even received some science competition awards."

"How did you know?" she asked, curling her lips.

"Aren’t those things posted on the school website? Lists, tables, news updates… There were even photos from university events where you stood in the crowd, showing your profile—pale and slender. Some people commented that you were the department’s beauty, both pretty and aloof, hard to chase." He sighed idly, a hint of envy in his tone. "It seems you really were doing well."