IMGH Chapter 75

The Cruel Reality

Qiu Rui glanced away, that flash of pain too difficult to bear looking at directly. “Chengcheng, love doesn’t have a ‘can’ or ‘cannot’ — there is only love or not love!” Qiu Rui’s eyes suddenly turned gentle and tender, his tone softer and more yielding than ever before. “Even if he had nothing to his name, I would still love him. Besides, he is nowhere near as worthless as you imagine!”

As Qiu Rui spoke, a smile played at the corners of his lips — yet that same smile, in Han Yuancheng’s eyes, was like ten thousand arrows piercing his heart, agony beyond bearing.

Han Yuancheng’s gaze gradually turned dark and ice-cold, the eyes he directed into the distance sharpening into a blade.

Jiang Yi…

This man possessed not a single trace of charm worth lingering over — so what right did he have to win the radiant, godlike Qiu Rui?

His Qiu Rui was so magnificent, so luminous — like the brightest star at the very peak of the heavens.

How could someone so magnificent be tainted like this?

The indignation and fury at the bottom of his heart were like two great hands clenching tight around his heart, a suffocating pain spreading through his chest.

Han Yuancheng turned his head away in bitter resentment, pointed at the man in the distance, and mocked without mercy. “Qiu Rui, just look at him — how could a man like that ever be worthy of you?! How could you fall for such a scoundrel!”

Han Yuancheng’s expression was full of contempt and disdain. The darkness in Qiu Rui’s eyes deepened, and a sharp, cold glare struck Han Yuancheng’s face like a warning. “Chengcheng, take back what you just said.”

Qiu Rui’s tone was frigid — so frigid that Han Yuancheng felt the chill seeping all the way into his bones.

“Qiu Rui, don’t be so blind and obstinate! Don’t forget who you are — you have your duties, you have your responsibilities! You can casually marry any woman you choose, so long as she can give you an heir. But can he do that?”

Han Yuancheng’s fingertip pointed toward the man in the distance like a sharpened, unsheathed blade, trying to cleave open that so-called beautiful and steadfast love and expose the cruel reality hiding beneath.

He wanted to make Qiu Rui see clearly — he and Jiang Yi were impossible. Two parallel lines that could never intersect; even if they met, it would be a mistake.

The hostility radiating from Qiu Rui’s entire body gradually receded, and he regarded Han Yuancheng with a gaze that held something like pity.

Qiu Rui’s eyes were cold and distant, as though he were looking at a stranger.

The strength drained from Han Yuancheng’s body all at once. He stumbled back a step, his body swaying as though it might collapse, and it took quite a long while before he steadied himself.

“Qiu Rui, don’t be so blind — you and Jiang Yi are not right for each other!” The vicious edge had long since gone out of Han Yuancheng’s voice; now it was almost pleading. “You’ve worked so hard to reach where you are today — you can’t let all those years of effort go up in smoke over a single Jiang Yi.”

“Qiu Chen is still watching from the sidelines, waiting for his chance to wipe us out in one fell swoop! If he were to find out about this, he would blow it up into a massive scandal — how would we answer to the board of directors then?!” Han Yuancheng urged with earnest persistence. He could not let Jiang Yi ruin Qiu Rui.

“Chengcheng, we grew up together from childhood — you should know me best of all. No one can change my mind once it is made up. As for the board of directors, I will give them a proper account.” A faint trace of impatience rose between Qiu Rui’s brows; he was clearly unwilling to continue this conversation.

Qiu Rui’s manner left Han Yuancheng feeling utterly powerless. He knew that no matter how much he pleaded, there was never any room for reversal once Qiu Rui had made up his mind.

Reluctant as he was, Han Yuancheng still cut off the subject at the right moment.

The two of them stood facing each other in silence, neither speaking. The atmosphere lay still and heavy, shot through with an underlying gravity.

In the distance, Jiang Yi still leaned against the great tree with his usual ease, as though he had no idea that the fierce standoff which had flared up and died down in an instant had all been on account of him. His eyes were half-lidded, as if he were savoring a rare moment of leisure — his left hand toying with some nameless plant plucked casually from the ground, his right hand resting across his knee, tapping out a light, unhurried rhythm.

Clouds drifted past. The sunlight filtering through the gaps in the forest canopy was cut off by a passing bank of thick cloud, and a pale shadow settled over his face. A shadow of gloom slid past from the corner of his slightly open eyes — swift as lightning, gone in an instant.

His left hand, hanging at his side near the ground, suddenly clenched tight. A faint trickle of blood seeped from his palm and dripped onto the green grass below, gathering into several vivid crimson drops on the lush leaves and stems of the vegetation.