Chapter 52: Meeting Leng Qing Qiu
After Long Qin Xin left, Lu Zhiyin didn’t bother with her own thoughts and lay on the living room floor all night. When she woke up the next day, her clothes were still not dry.
“Achoo…”
Her limbs were cold, and Lu Zhiyin sneezed.
It was impossible not to get sick after sleeping all night soaking wet.
“…Haa…”
She slowly climbed back into her wheelchair, touched the hem of her school uniform, and it was wet. If she squeezed a little, she could even wring out water.
Her left cheek still hurt as if it was burning. Long Qin Xin had slapped her with all her might.
Lu Zhiyin used her phone screen to get a rough look at her appearance. She was a bit disheveled, especially the swelling on her left cheek, which was too obvious.
She touched her face, then opened her phone to send a message to Qin An.
Lu Zhiyin had no intention of bowing to Long Qin Xin. Her goal was to have a confrontation with Long Qin Xin, so what was the point of appeasing her now?
She could roughly guess Long Qin Xin’s current opinion of her, perhaps a mix of love and hate? Love could be worn down, but not that quickly. Lu Zhiyin’s plan was to die in front of Long Qin Xin before her love for her completely disappeared.
This was her revenge on Long Qin Xin. Of course, she couldn’t forgive Leng Qing Qiu and Qin An, but it wasn’t time for revenge yet.
“How are you now?”
With many things on her mind, Lu Zhiyin sent a message to Qin An as she had done before.
This time, Qin An’s reply was slow.
Was she busy with something? Lu Zhiyin didn’t really care.
“…Everything is fine. My father helped me cover up yesterday’s murder.”
Qin An’s message made Lu Zhiyin heave a sigh of relief.
As expected, a biological daughter was still a biological daughter, not comparable to an adopted one.
“Then, he seems to quite appreciate me now? He invited me to stay at his manor. I don’t know if I should agree.”
“Agree to it.”
Lu Zhiyin looked at the message on her phone. She could tell that Qin An’s father wanted to groom Qin An now.
“Mm…”
Qin An quickly replied.
For now, Qin An seemed to completely trust Lu Zhiyin? Who knew?
Compared to the boring issue of trust, Lu Zhiyin was more concerned about Leng Qing Qiu’s life and death.
“Qin An, what about Leng Qing Qiu?”
She asked about the scoundrel she hadn’t seen in a long time.
She hated Leng Qing Qiu, but to complete the “capture”, she still had to meet her.
“Regarding Leng Qing Qiu, I asked my father, and he agreed to have someone take the blame for her. If you’re willing, you should be able to see Leng Qing Qiu this afternoon.”
On the other end of the phone, Qin An sat upright on the single sofa, staring intently at her phone.
When she saw Leng Qing Qiu’s name, Qin An felt some inexplicable emotions welling up in her heart.
Without realizing it, Qin An had begun to see Lu Zhiyin as someone she could be close to, but the name Leng Qing Qiu reminded her that she and Lu Zhiyin were just enemies entangled by mutual interests.
Qin An thought that Lu Zhiyin must hate her, but her hatred hadn’t had a chance to be expressed yet.
Her eyes darkened, and Qin An began to think about how to apologize to Lu Zhiyin and win her forgiveness.
“Then, pick me up at the apartment this afternoon to see Leng Qing Qiu. I’m confined at home by Long Qin Xin and can’t go to school.”
The notification sound from her phone brought Qin An back from her reverie.
Qin An pursed her lips as she looked at the message on her phone, then replied with a light “Mm.”
…
Time flew by, and it was already afternoon. Lu Zhiyin’s clothes were dry, but the fabric was still wrinkled. Her left cheek was still swollen high, displaying an unnatural redness.
When Qin An came to pick her up, she inexplicably felt a slight pang of sadness, even though the harm Qin An had inflicted on Lu Zhiyin before was much more severe.
There was silence throughout the journey. Qin An didn’t ask any more questions. She silently accompanied Lu Zhiyin to the detention center.
In a private room at the detention center, Lu Zhiyin saw Leng Qing Qiu, whom she hadn’t seen in a long time. Qin An stood silently by the door of the room.
Leng Qing Qiu looked much more disheveled than Lu Zhiyin remembered, wearing an orange prison uniform, her brown hair messy, her eyes sunken, with heavy dark circles, and she had lost a lot of weight.
It was evident that Leng Qing Qiu had not been doing well during the months she waited for judgment in the detention center.
Seeing Leng Qing Qiu in such a miserable state, Lu Zhiyin could barely suppress the joy in her heart, even though Lu Zhiyin herself was not much better off than Leng Qing Qiu.
“Cough cough… Long time no see…”
Lu Zhiyin coughed twice and looked at Leng Qing Qiu, who was sitting quietly in front of her.
“…Long time no see…”
During the months spent waiting for her death sentence, Leng Qing Qiu had truly experienced despair. She didn’t know yet that someone was taking the blame for her crime. When she was brought into this room, she still guessed that someone wanted to question her about the details of certain cases. She never expected Lu Zhiyin to appear before her.
In the detention center, she had missed Lu Zhiyin, but she didn’t expect Lu Zhiyin to visit her, as she knew how excessively she had wronged Lu Zhiyin.
“…”
Leng Qing Qiu raised her head and glanced at Lu Zhiyin.
Her grayish-white hair was slightly curly, with traces of blood at the ends of her hair. Her left cheek was swollen, and her body was slightly hunched.
Leng Qing Qiu’s eyes trembled. She thought, it seemed she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t doing well.
“Bullying again?”
Leng Qing Qiu raised her hand, wanting to touch Lu Zhiyin’s face, but retracted it halfway.
She seemed unsuited to do such things.
“…”
Lu Zhiyin said nothing, only nodding.
“…You can leave here.”
After a long silence, Lu Zhiyin maneuvered her wheelchair to Leng Qing Qiu’s side and squeezed her wrist.
“…?”
Leng Qing Qiu looked at Lu Zhiyin with surprise, her mind somewhat dazed.
“I found someone to help, paid a price, and arranged for someone to take the blame for you. You are innocent. However, please don’t do anything illegal in the future.”
Lu Zhiyin lowered her head, omitting some details and only expressing what she wanted to convey.
Leng Qing Qiu did not know that she was arrested because of the photos on Lu Zhiyin’s phone.
“……”
Her eyes flickered as Leng Qing Qiu looked at Lu Zhiyin, a slight, strange current running through her heart.
Naturally associating Lu Zhiyin’s injuries with her own rescue, Leng Qing Qiu couldn’t know what Lu Zhiyin had sacrificed to save her, but she was certain that Lu Zhiyin’s importance in her heart had elevated infinitely.
“Why did you save me? Shouldn’t you hate me?”
Leng Qing Qiu asked softly, her heart aching slightly.
She recalled the young Lu Zhiyin who always clung to her, and also the pitiful Lu Zhiyin who was tormented by her in every way.
Let alone Lu Zhiyin, even Leng Qing Qiu herself felt she was beyond salvation.
“…I don’t know. Perhaps it’s because of childhood affection?”
Weaving a false lie, Lu Zhiyin closed her eyes.
“Leng Qing Qiu, I want to ask you a question. Can you like me? Although you are very bad, but… you are the only person I can rely on…”
Sensing that the mood was right, Lu Zhiyin made a direct approach.
The life-saving grace, combined with Leng Qing Qiu’s ambiguous attitude before her imprisonment, made Lu Zhiyin think that the completion of the “capture” was almost a certainty.
The situation indeed unfolded as she predicted.
Leng Qing Qiu responded almost without thinking.
“Yes, I love you, Zhiyin. I will work hard to make up for what happened before, and I will work hard to make your life better in the future. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but please give me a chance to love you.”
Leng Qing Qiu hugged Lu Zhiyin, tears of warmth flowing from the corners of her eyes, her mind somewhat disoriented.
Past events flashed before her eyes, and Leng Qing Qiu suddenly realized that the people willing to accept and love her had always been there, whether it was Lu Zhiyin’s parents or Lu Zhiyin herself.
It was just that she had been blinded by her bloody murderous desires and the emptiness after her parents’ death, not only overlooking what was truly worth cherishing but also hurting those who loved her.
Leng Qing Qiu regretted it more than ever.
