"How could you say it gave you trouble?!" Ning Shuang started to get angry over He Jichen's heavy words. The tone of her voice was no longer as soft as before. "I was clearly trying to help you! The first time I met you at the bar, you were calling her name. When I got off work and came out of the bar, I saw you crouched by the side of the road in a complete daze. I walked up to you and talked to you, but you didn't reply.
"We saw each other again two months later, yet you were the same drunken mess, collapsed by a garbage can. Someone stole your wallet and you didn't even realize it. Those thugs were drunk too, so when they got annoyed after stealing your money, they kicked you! I was the one who ran up to you and took you back home again. Did you know that while I was bandaging you up, you cried her name all night?!"
"From that moment on, I knew she was extremely important to you! I saw you only a few times, but every time I did, you always had a phone in hand, staring at her number. You looked like you wanted to make the call but didn't dare go through with it."
"I don't get it! Why did you leave her if you liked her so much? All I know is that since you love her so much, you should have the courage to love her fully! I admit that I really did come back to China this time to see my dad, but I also lied about having a lot of things I didn't handle right and hoped you would come back to help me. I did that just to get you and her to see each other! However, it was all for your own good! I don't want to see you up alone every night while everyone's sleeping. I also don't want to see you pacing up and down the street and daydreaming whenever you see someone who looks like her!"
Maybe He Jichen was too harsh on Ning Shuang or maybe it was because she mentioned how He Jichen had lived for the past year or so, but Ning Shuang's heart started to ache a little. As she went on, a hint of red surfaced in her eyes. "I didn't mean anything by it. At first, maybe it was because I wanted to help you and I thought I could use the money, so I started to care about you with a motive in mind. But later on, my dad got sick and I begged for an advance with my boss at the bar, yet he wouldn't give it to me no matter what. He even wanted to fire me, but you stepped in and gave me the money!"
"At the time, I thought you were my savior and we became close friends, so I figured I should do something for you. I sincerely hoped you could be happy, so I put all my effort into setting tonight up! I don't understand what happened between the two of you, but I didn't blindly mess things up. I'm sure that if she and you are together, you'd be at your happiest. My objective was simple - I just wanted you to be happy and wanted you to live well!"
Ning Shuang had always been talkative, but now that she was angry, she sounded even more agitated.
She said her long speech practically without taking any deep breaths.
After she finally stopped talking, the hallway instantly slipped into a strange wall of silence.
The anger between He Jichen's handsome brows was still there, but his tone of voice didn't sound as harsh as before. Instead, there was a faint hint of heartache as he spoke. "But did you know that I've never thought about my well-being? I've always cared about hers!"