Chapter 99: Eternity
"Hm? I know. You have mentioned it before." Ni Mengxue tucked her hair behind her ears, her eyes never leaving Meng Xiaoni’s.
She watched as his stiffened shoulders relaxed, and her lips curved into a smile.
When he didn’t leave right away and stubbornly stood in front of her, she said with amusement, "Anything else?"
"I... who is King?" Meng Xiaoni gently touched the hollow of his collarbone, his eyes darting around.
Ni Mengxue’s smile became a little wider as she noticed his body language. He was seeking comfort from her and, at the same time, was worried that she had just spouted nonsense before.
"Why did you decide to trust Mo Beichan in the first place?"
Meng Xiaoni subconsciously looked toward the door, as if he wanted to escape the conversation altogether.
"You can run away if you want. The next time you ask for my answer, it will still begin with this question." Her melodic voice was filled with patience.
The faint fragrance of lavender assaulted his senses, and suddenly he walked toward the chair opposite Ni Mengxue. On settling down, he placed his elbows on his thighs and clasped his hands.
"You are very different from her." Meng Xiaoni admitted; his voice was calm as a still lake. "I apologise. I shouldn’t have tried to categorise you as the same as those women."
Some words, though unsaid, were easily understood by Ni Mengxue.
Ni Mengxue’s eyes softened. "It’s alright."
Yet a question was lodged in her throat. ’Did you have feelings for Su Yao?’
Meng Xiaoni of this world had been engaged to Su Yao since childhood. It was inevitable that he had developed certain feelings.
In her previous life, he met her first. And she still remembered his philosophy: "You were the first person to reach out while I was in the dark. So if it isn’t you... I will remain single for the rest of eternity."
At that time, for Ni Mengxue, eternity was just a word. But when it became a reality... she truly realised the weight of his words.
Sometimes she was thankful... that it was she who survived, not them. The terrifying nightmares, the mesmerising illusion of them, the years of guilt, resentment, and loneliness mixed with hope... all these were too hard to carry.
Even when life gave her a beautiful opportunity... she knew... she was still late.
In this life, Meng Xiaoni’s first ray of light was Su Yao, not Ni Mengxue.
"Mo Beichan was my senior during university years. Since I was young and highly praised by my teachers, I was a thorn in many people’s side." Meng Xiaoni’s pleasant voice echoed, breaking her train of thought.
"He protected me and shared his unique ideas. For me... he was once my idol." Meng Xiaoni gave a bitter laugh as he leaned back.
"After graduation, I invited him to my self-funded lab. There we used to brainstorm many ideas and chemicals. We made inventions and gained fame..."
Midway through his sentence, he paused, his eyes flickering with recognition. "Not him... I became famous. Our inventions were labelled under my lab and my name... he became a supporting character in everyone’s story."
"So rather than communicating, he decided to betray you?"
"He did... But I was too busy with my curiosity that I ignored all the signs. All of his desperate pleading... all of his desperate efforts." Meng Xiaoni closed his eyes.
He was suddenly reminded of the time when he was 16 and had just entered the university. Being a child prodigy, he was praised, and so was bullied.
His family was too busy earning money to support his dream. So he could only swallow down the humiliation.
Because of his robotic appearance and way of thinking... no one understood the horrors he suffered. Until... he sat beside an 18-year-old young man with blonde hair.
The young man with blonde hair noticed him accidentally. After the lectures were over, he stopped Meng Xiaoni. "You... are you being bullied?"
Meng Xiaoni’s shoulder stiffened. Lying was hard for him, so he remained silent.
"I understand." The young man with blonde hair left the classroom.
The naive Meng Xiaoni thought that was the end of the matter until the dean of the university punished all of his bullies.
Turns out that from that day, the blonde young man had been following and noting down all of Meng Xiaoni’s bullies. When everything was over, Meng Xiaoni asked with confusion,
"Why? Why did you protect me?"
"Because you are a child who needs protection." The young man with blonde hair smiled and extended his hand. "Hello, I am Mo Beichan."
When Mo Beichan first betrayed Meng Xiaoni, he was still confused and in disbelief. He almost believed that someone was manipulating Mo Beichan until the same Mo Beichan himself laughed and told him,
"Meng Xiaoni, how does it feel to be in my place?"
.......
"He still shouldn’t have betrayed you." Ni Mengxue calmly stated.
Meng Xiaoni slowly opened his eyes and asked, "Who is King?"
"Your university bully." Ni Mengxue leaned towards him. In the original novel, King held a deep grudge against Mo Beichan and Meng Xiaoni.
When he ended up in prison, his own friends started to blame him. They planned a jail escape, but due to an accident, King and his friend fell off the cliff.
His friend died, but King survived. The tragedy was so... the cliff, hailed as dangerous by others, was an illegal gang’s hideout. The boss worried that King would reveal the truth and was about to kill him too.
King begged him and promised to do anything to show his loyalty. In the end, King underwent plastic surgery. He was tasked with posing as the boss in case they ever got caught.
From there, he suffered multiple tortures until the cops found the hideout and everyone was killed. King killed the boss and ran away.
With nothing to his name and even his identity being altered, he decided to go after the two people who ruined his life.
Mo Beichan and Meng Xiaoni.