"Yeah," answered Ji Yi honestly.
She really did like it. She had forgotten just how long it had been since she received a pleasant surprise like this.
Hearing her answer made He Jichen feel overjoyed as he stared right at the night scenery in front of him. The corners of his lips seemed to vaguely curve upwards and his voice sounded relaxed as he said, "Good. As long as you like it..."
His voice sounded naturally pleasing, but with this intonation, it made Ji Yi's heart race. She couldn't help turning her head and glancing over at him. Then, all the confusion and suspicions she had in the room earlier filled her heart once again. She pursed her lips and hesitantly asked, "He Jichen, why... did you do it?"
Her question came a little suddenly, so He Jichen didn't quite know how to react and looked clearly caught off guard.
Ji Yi spoke again. "We obviously..."
Ji Yi didn't quite know what she wanted to say next, so all she did was say those two words and stopped.
He Jichen understood what she meant. He knew she wanted to say that obviously their relationship was awful and he treated her terribly, so how did that change overnight?
Yes. He admitted his attitude towards her changed a little quickly. Rather than saying his attitude quickly changed, one might say that he had completely come to terms with her.
When he saw that she risked her life, under his watch, just to retaliate to Qian Ge and protect herself, he felt sorry for her and he blamed himself.
When he learned that she almost lost her life on the operating table four years ago as a result of their drunken night together, he felt remorseful and a sense of lingering fear.
On that night when he couldn't control his own emotions and held her tightly in his arms, he learned that to truly love someone wasn't to possess them but to hope that they were happy.
Whatever honor and grievances he had were all tossed away. He just wanted for her to be happy, to make her happier...
Ji Yi looked at He Jichen but didn't say anything. Seeing how difficult it was for him to get the words out, she suddenly thought back to his apology that night.
Four years ago, she confessed to the wrong person, and the first thing he said to her was, "Name a price." She didn't want anything from him and just evaporated from his world...
At that thought, Ji Yi looked like she just understood something. She stopped waiting for He Jichen to talk and said, "...You did all this just to make it up to me?"
Make it up to her? In her eyes, she thought I did all this out of guilt just to make it up to her?
A pang of sadness filled He Jichen's eyes. "No... not to make it up to you, but..."
Mid-sentence, He Jichen suddenly stopped the last half of the sentence from coming out: Because I like you, and I just want you to be happy.
Like... She took my good-will for some kind of compensation, so if I tell her that I like her, how would she ever believe me?
Who's to say she won't turn around and try to get herself out of trouble after I tell her? She may not have any feelings for me and, after so much difficulty to bring us closer, she might try to pull further away.
He Jichen's fingers instinctively curled into a fist as he tried hard to resist the painful feeling inside. He stared straight ahead and changed his sincere words to say: "...no no, not to make it up to you. Well.. not just to make it up to you..."
Not just to make it up to you... so it did have something to do with making it up to her or maybe it was because they'd known each other for some time. It could be just like how she hated He Jichen's guts but she never forgot that he was once her most important friend back at Sucheng Yizhong.