“You can think of whatever you want. My relationship with Ms. Zhao is not what you think. That’s all I can say. Take what you will from it,” Li Yan said as he turned to leave again.

Lu Shu was stunned for a moment and asked in a panic, “Where are you going?”

“To a place where you don’t exist,” Li Yan hid nothing and said straightforwardly.

Lu Shu was completely unhinged. She was so crazy that he could hardly breathe. If he didn’t find a place to relax, he risked losing his own sanity.

Lu Shu was stunned by Li Yan’s words. It took her a long time to come back to her senses. Staring at Li Yan’s back, she had a feeling that everything would be out of her control once Li Yan left. She might really lose him… and this was what she could not stand the most.

Without any time to think, Lu Shu quickly stepped forward and hugged Li Yan from behind. She pleaded, “Brother Yan, don’t go. Don’t leave me alone. I know I’m wrong. I know I shouldn’t have been so jealous and hurt others for you, but… but this is all because I love you.”

Lu Shu was truly afraid. She was afraid that Li Yan would abandon her. She had paid a huge price to get this man. What would she have left if she lost him?

“Brother Yan, I love you. I love you! It’s fine if you don’t love me, but I can’t stand it when you fall in love with someone else. Brother Yan, please forgive me just this once. This is the last time. I promise that I won’t do this again. In the future, I’ll learn to be patient. I won’t control you anymore. I won’t be jealous anymore. I won’t do anything that is not in my right to control. Can you give me another chance?”

Lu Shu lowered herself. She was so humble and pitiful, but Li Yan didn’t intend to continue indulging her this time.

Li Yan reached out and pulled Lu Shu’s hands away from his waist in a slow, but firm motion.

Lu Shu’s face turned pale, and she called out helplessly, “Brother Yan…”

“Lu Shu, I’m tired.” Li Yan turned to look into Lu Shu’s eyes. His face was filled with exhaustion and sorrow. “I’m tired. I don’t want to listen to your excuses in the name of love anymore. Do you really love me? Even if you really love me, I’m sorry. This kind of love is too much for me. Now, I feel that I need to give us more time to think about whether there’s still meaning to our marriage if it continues like this.”

“I don’t need to think about it. You are my meaning, Brother Yan!”

“You don’t need to, but I do. Lu Shu, what you’ve done chokes me up. It even makes me feel that perhaps our marriage was a mistake from the very beginning.”

Lu Shu was stunned. Her eyes, which were filled with tears, widened to the extreme. She found it hard to believe that Li Yan would say such heavy words to her.

Li Yan felt bad when he saw her like this. However, when he thought about the conflicts between the two of them, Li Yan gritted his teeth and hardened his heart. He turned around and left without looking back.

When Lu Shu came back to her senses, it was too late for her to chase after him.

“Brother Yan, Brother Yan…” A shrill cry echoed throughout the entire house. It was filled with grief and despair.

Lu Shu called out a few times, but she realized that Li Yan did not have a shred of hesitation. He had left their shared home without even turning his head back. He was determined and cruel. The tears that had accumulated in her eyes finally flowed out and fell on her hand. They also fell on her heart.

Lu Shu sat paralyzed on the ground. Her eyes, which had been washed away by the tears, were bloodshot. Her hands, which were placed in front of her, subconsciously clenched into fists. She could not help but mutter, “It’s all because of that woman, it’s all because of that woman. If it weren’t for her, why would Brother Yan leave me? It’s all her fault!”

As she thought of this, the hatred in Lu Shu’s eyes grew more and more twisted.

At that time, she had no idea that she had caused the entire fiasco. She did not feel any better at that moment.

Ever since Zhao Youlin had been hunted down along with Mu Tingfeng and Lu Xiangtian that day, or more accurately, after Lu Xiangtian had asked for the necklace from her for the first time, she had begun to have a recurring, intermittent dream. In the dream, she was still very young at that time, sitting alone on the swing in the corner of the orphanage. No one was willing to play with her, and she did not like to play with others.

In fact, even Mu Tingfeng didn’t know that before she was adopted by her adoptive mother, Zhao Youlin had actually been adopted by another couple, but it had only been for a short moment.

That couple had been married for ten years, but they had never had children, so they had the idea of adopting a child from the orphanage. Zhao Youlin was the child they had adopted at that time.

However, fate was a fickle thing. Two months after Zhao Youlin was adopted, the couple suddenly had a child. Taking into account family factors and other reasons, the couple eventually abandoned Zhao Youlin. They sent her back to the orphanage.

From then on, Zhao Youlin became a bit of a loner. She no longer liked to play with the children in the same orphanage. The most common activity she did every day was either to hide in her room to read a book or to sit in the yard in a daze.

When her adoptive mother appeared, Zhao Youlin would always remember that it was a sunny afternoon. She sat on the swing as usual, and that person walked over, her stray hairs catching the light and forming a halo on her head. The afternoon sun shone on her body, making her look incomparably holy and elegant.

Her adoptive mother was not a particularly beautiful person, but she was the only person who made her feel warm at that time.

The moment she walked in front of Zhao Youlin, the first thing she said was, “Are you willing to come home with me?”

Zhao Youlin answered her back then, “Will there be any younger siblings in the house?”

At that time, Zhao Youlin only had one thought in her mind. If there were younger siblings, she would be sent back sooner or later. If that was the case, what was the point of following her? She would still be sent back in the end.

The woman seemed to be stunned for a moment before her smile became even brighter. She said with absolute certainty, “No, there will only be you and me in our home. There won’t be anyone else. Are you willing?”

Zhao Youlin looked at the woman’s clear and expectant eyes. In the end, she could not resist the temptation and extended her hand to her.

Zhao Youlin still remembered that after living together for a period of time, she had asked the woman why she had been chosen out of all the children in the orphanage.

The woman smiled gently and told her that perhaps it was because she saw the same loneliness and sadness in Zhao Youlin’s eyes as she did.

It had been so long, and Zhao Youlin had thought that she had long forgotten about it. She had not expected that she would dream about it again and again after so many years.