Chapter 133: WHY MUST I BE THE ONE TO SUFFER

Guiying nodded, he loved Fangfang’s mindset, she had just the right amount of stubbornness and pride to actually keep pushing.

"What about you? Do you have any ’my life depends on it’ goals?"

Guiying nodded, he had suffered so much in his past life, that was his only achievement.

But in this life? He was already doing so much more.

"I don’t have many goals but the ones I have I’m already 50% done. After that I wish to live in the countryside with my partner and have beautiful kids."

The light in Fangfang’s eyes slowly dimmed when she heard partner and kids.

How many months has it been since her partner left her?

Five?

Six?

She had lost count when work got hectic.

"I wanted the same thing. Heck, I even proposed. She’s so headstrong and never listens to me. I keep telling her, ’My parents will accept you because I love you,’ but she wants to clean up her act and be responsible first. But why? I loved her regardless of what she was."

Guiying understood Fangfang’s partner, he guessed they were kind of in the same boat.

There would be a time when Liuxian would introduce him to his family and he also wanted to be responsible.

But this made him wonder why, why did he want to look responsible in front of Liuxian’s family? Why did he want them to accept him when the time came...

Then it dawned on him, the realization made his heart race.

He wanted that, because he loved Liuxian.

That’s why he wanted to be responsible, so his family could accept him and they could keep being together without issues.

"She loves you and that’s why she wants to clean up her act, even if she didn’t use the best approach. She’s not running away from it, she’s scared your parents won’t accept her so she wants to come back a better person, someone they can trust their daughter with.."

Fangfang shook her head, she got the sentiment but it couldn’t escape the hurt.

"I’ve had sleepless nights, crying, begging, searching. If she loved me and wanted to be a better person for my sake, why didn’t she do it together. Why must I be the one to suffer. I love Arang so much, I get why she wants to clean up her act, wait I’ll show you a picture.." she bought out her phone and opened it.

She didn’t need to search for a picture, she had them everywhere.

Guiying’s eyes widened, he knew this face.

He chuckled slightly.

It was truly a small world.

"So this is your fiance? Who would I have thought.."

Fangfang raised a brow? Did he figure out something?

"I met her this morning.."

Guiying chuckled, now he made sense why someone like her was living in a dump like that.

"You’re not kidding right? You met Arang this morning?"

"I did. Those tattoos are unmistakable. She’s in Bao’an."

Fangfang stared at him.

Then she stood up from the grass so fast she startled Shao Mingye behind the camera.

"She’s in Bao’an.." Fangfang repeated, and it wasn’t a question this time, it was something being processed out loud, her voice doing several things at once. "This whole time she’s been in Bao’an. I’ve been looking for months and she’s been in Bao’an..."

"Fangfang.." Shao Mingye said carefully.

She wasn’t listening. She had her phone out already, pulling up a contact, staring at it, then locking the screen again and pressing it against her chest.

"Is she okay?" she said, looking at Guiying. "Was she okay when you saw her?"

"She was fine.." Guiying said. "More than fine."

Fangfang exhaled, long and shaky, and pressed her lips together.

"That idiot.." she said quietly. Not angrily. Just the way you said things about people you loved so much the frustration and the tenderness had stopped being separable. "That absolute idiot.."

Fangfang chuckled, surprising Guiying.

The irony of it was what made her laugh.

They had met in Bao’an, that was where her gang was, it made sense that she had gone there to end it all.

Fangfang held Guiying’s hands, a bright smile appearing on her face.

"Thank you, XiaoYu. You have me in your debt. Whatever you need, big Sis will help you to the best of her capabilities. You just have to say the word.."

Guiying looked down at her hands folded around his, and a warmth spread through his chest that had nothing to do with the sun hanging low over the lake.

"I’ll hold you to that," he said, and for a moment the words felt less like a reply and more like a promise he wanted to keep.

Fangfang laughed, the sound brighter than before, and she squeezed his hands once before releasing them.

She rose from the grass, brushing at her skirt with a distracted gesture. The atmosphere around her had shifted, as if a weight she’d been carrying without naming had finally been set down on the earth where she could find it again. The light that had dulled in her eyes earlier returned, quieter now, but steady.

Shao Mingye observed them from behind his camera and said nothing.

At some point during their conversation he had lowered the lens without deciding to, caught instead by the way the moment refused to be framed. Now he scrolled through the images he had taken over the last hour, and he felt something he rarely encountered on a shoot.

The photographs did not look like two models performing for a brand. They looked like siblings who had found each other in a place they were not meant to meet. The ease of their conversation, the way they had sat together in the grass, the uncalculated moment when Fangfang’s fingers closed around Guiying’s hands—all of it carried a warmth that could not be staged or coaxed into being.

He moved through the frames slowly, lingering on each one. Every image held that same quiet light. He almost smiled.

Fangfang turned to Jiang Wenxi and said that she needed to leave, apologizing for cutting the day short.

Jiang Wenxi glanced toward Shao Mingye, who gave a single nod. They had what they needed from her, and there was no reason to keep her when her heart had already moved elsewhere.

"Then go," Jiang Wenxi said, and there was no reluctance in her voice. "Thank you, Fangfang. Today was good."