Chapter 671: Love separated by mountains and seas (1)

Xu Tingsheng held his handphone, sitting outside the backstage door.

The performance in the report hall was still continuing…

He wanted to call or text, even directly go to see Xiang Ning.

He got up a few times yet hesitated.

While the feelings expressed at that moment had been heartfelt and spontaneous, it might not actually be appropriate for him to say something in front of Xiang Ning with how things were right now.

Of course, he had at least expressed to her his intention to stay. While I will no longer be by your side in the days ahead, I will definitely not be far away...I’ll be here, neither close nor far...lest you panic, lest you are lonely.

His handphone vibrated.

“Bro Xu, Xiang Ning’s emotions aren’t too stable right now. I’ll send her home first.”

“Don’t contact her first. Wait for her to calm down a little.”

These two texts had been sent by Li Linlin.

So, Xiang Ning had left? Feeling rather worried, Xu Tingsheng went to the entrance and tiptoed over the crowd for a look. Indeed, other people were already sitting where Xiang Ning and Li Linlin had been earlier.

Old Wai squeezed out of the crowd, pulling Xu Tingsheng into a corner outside and asking frantically, “What’s wrong, Bro Xu? Why was Little Sister-in-law crying so? Linlin didn’t let me ask, didn’t let me speak.”

“I didn’t know that Xiang Ning would be here today,” Xu Tingsheng said.

“Huh? Why?”

“There’s been a bit of a problem between us,” Xu Tingsheng no longer continued keeping it from him as he too actually needed someone to speak to right now.

Old Wai shook his head, “How is that possible? Why? Oh...that thing with Apple? Wasn’t it explained clearly? Apple herself clarified it too, didn’t she? She even tagged Lu Zhixin…”

“It’s not just that,” Xu Tingsheng lit a cigarette and sat down, speaking of Li Wan’er’s matter and that promise they had made at the hospital in Paris as he explained, “I actually wasn’t thinking too far ahead, too specifically at the time. I was just thinking that whatever the case, I should first give her hope and courage to complete that surgery and live on.”

“Oh,” Old Wai responded blankly.

While he didn’t really agree with it, he couldn’t just disagree with it or rebuke him too. That was a life, after all.

“Also…” Xu Tingsheng paused midway through his words.

“Also what?”

Xu Tingsheng hesitated for a bit and said, “That’s all.”

With regard to this ‘also’, the perturbed Xu Tingsheng had actually wanted to say: In truth, at the time, now included...I do not know what the future may hold, cannot even be certain that I can last until the time of that agreement. With such a mindset...how could I possibly be ruthless?

Still, he soon regained his wits, knowing that he could not say this to anybody, to anybody at all.

Having himself been reborn, he knew full well just how powerful, just how terrifying Zhou Yuandai who had developed for many years since her rebirth and was virtually mad was...

This could only be his war and his alone.

……

Li Linlin and Old Wai had both gotten their driver’s license in the first semester of their fourth year. After that, they had also bought a car.

Besides that, they had also bought one of Ning Garden’s first phase flats and had long since had it renovated. They would be moving into it when they officially left school.

The two shareholders of Hucheng had only just graduated from university.

Sometimes, sitting together, the two of them would look back on it all. All that they possessed now had actually just originated from Li Linlin wanting to continue working part-time as a home tutor following that incident. Being against it, Old Wai had asked Xu Tingsheng for advice…

It still felt so miraculous, so inconceivable.

And all of this actually originated from that person named Xu Tingsheng.

Now, the girl that Xu Tingsheng cared about most was seated beside Li Linlin in the co-driver’s seat.

When Xiang Ning’s sobs had finally subsided a bit, Li Linlin was finally unable to hold herself back. Truly unable to understand how things between Xu Tingsheng and Xiang Ning could have become like this, she began to carefully ask about the situation…

Li Linlin felt that she sufficiently understood Xiang Ning. After all, this girl was so bright to the point of nearly being transparent. At the same time, she felt that she understood Xu Tingsheng very well too. It was precisely because of this that she was simply unable to understand it.

Perhaps because her heart had been shaken that night, Xiang Ning too actually needed somebody to talk to at this moment.

Finally getting Xiang Ning to speak up with much difficulty, afraid of being distracted, Li Linlin found a place to stop the car.

Li Linlin had originally thought that the most serious problem between Xiang Ning and Xu Tingsheng was Apple’s matter. Still, she heard from Xiang Ning herself now that this matter was instead easiest to get past…

When Xiang Ning told Li Linlin that Xu Tingsheng had promised to give birth to a child with another woman, Li Linlin was dazed for a good while.

“How’s it possible?” She still did not dare to believe it.

“But You Qinglan said it…” Xiang Ning spoke of how the two had gone to attend the Paris Fashion Week, with Xu Tingsheng suddenly saying that something had come up before getting on the plane and staying in Paris...along with how when You Qinglan had passed by Yanzhou and looked for her to play later on, she had recounted the entire process she had accidentally let slip in detail.

Li Linlin sorted out her thoughts.

Subjectively speaking, she was definitely willing to trust Xu Tingsheng. After all, this person had saved her and thoroughly transformed her life. So, her thought process was inevitably biased towards him.

“Xiang Ning,” She said after a long time.

“Yes?” Xiang Ning still looked aggrieved and pitiful.

“I originally wanted to say that with Bro Xu’s current wealth and image...many things are actually already destined. He will receive a lot of temptation, whereas you will definitely also have to face various pressures, such as this time’s matter. I originally wanted to tell you that since nothing happened in the end...since it was stopped, that’s good enough.”

Xiang Ning looked rather incredulously at Li Linlin with reddened eyes, crying as she said, “However it might be for others, however it is outside...I don’t want that.”

The outside which Xiang Ning spoke of was probably the world outside her pure, happy inner world-the so-called realities of society.

As a girl who had once been filled with happiness in her first love, holding the most beautiful and pure illusions about it, it was impossible for Xiang Ning to accept the widely held views about it in society. She could also not allow the purity of love to be stained by money or authority and such.

“I know! That’s why I didn’t say that. I too feel that this shouldn’t apply to you and Bro Xu,” Li Linlin looked apologetically at Xiang Ning, “Then, I thought carefully about it. Don’t you think that this was very deliberate?”

“What’re you saying?”

“I’m saying: How could that famous model possibly pass by Yanzhou? Also, how could she have paid so much attention to you from the start for no reason...even looking for you to play and accidentally letting it slip...doesn’t the entire process feel very deliberate? What do you think?”

“I know that she did it on purpose.”

“Huh?”

“She didn’t accidentally let it slip. She came deliberately to tell me about it,” Xiang Ning said, “I’m not stupid. I can tell.”

“Then, can we assume that the entire incident was intentionally arranged for by someone, with their purpose being to get you and Bro Xu to break up?” Li Linlin asked.