Living Only For Myself: Make Those Who Hate Me Regret It-Chapter 217: "That Wasn’t His Fault!

Just as Xu Su was trying to think of something to say to soothe this unreasonably jealous man, Zhou Mochen spoke first.

The corners of his lips quirked into a smile, but his eyes were dark and menacing. He spoke through clenched teeth, "Fine. We’ll set aside this ’dream’ excuse for now. Let’s take things one by one. We’ll start by continuing our discussion about your ex-boyfriend. Was he in your dream?"

Xu Su quickly shook her head. "No, not at all. You have no idea how terrifying the dream version of you was. There was no room for anyone else."

"It sounds like my methods were wrong," Zhou Mochen said thoughtfully. He slowly turned his gaze to the girl before him, a girl he had spoiled until she had become a bit headstrong. "I shouldn’t have given you so much freedom. Look, the moment I loosened my grip even slightly, you found a Xi Zirong to provoke me."

"!!!" Xu Su was so scared she scrambled to sit up straight, warning him gravely, "Don’t you get any funny ideas! You have no idea how much I hated you in that dream. Zhou Mochen, if you want me to ever look at you nicely again, you’d better give up any thought of using your power to trap me!"

Afraid he was hatching some terrible plan, Xu Su quickly added, "I told you, didn’t I? No girl likes being forced. The you in the dream was miserable. Don’t be like him."

Zhou Mochen asked curiously, "Miserable in what way?"

Xu Su paused. "You were a little... unhinged. You might not understand what I mean by that. You were... gloomy, obsessive... a bit pathological."

’Come to think of it,’ she reflected, ’I hadn’t seen Zhou Mochen smile in a very long time in my past life.’

The man who seemed invincible to the outside world grew more silent and more somber with each passing day.

Aside from the first two years they were together, when she would occasionally see him smile, Xu Su couldn’t even recall the last time Zhou Mochen had laughed.

’Was it... at their wedding?’

A tightness constricted Xu Su’s chest. She reached out, wrapped her arms around Zhou Mochen’s neck, and buried her face in the crook of his shoulder. "Please, don’t ask any more, okay? I don’t want to think about it. Zhou Mochen, don’t get so worked up over a dream. I won’t let you become like that."

"It seems it was a very realistic dream indeed." Zhou Mochen stroked the back of her head. His expression turned inscrutable, his thoughts impossible to guess.

So much had happened this afternoon. After being subjected to this one-sided interrogation for so long, the sun had already set, and the red glow of twilight illuminated half the room.

Hearing Zhou Mochen’s words, Xu Su felt a flicker of inexplicable unease. She began replaying their conversation in her mind. ’I didn’t say anything I shouldn’t have, did I...?’

’As long as I didn’t say anything beyond what I’ve experienced so far in this life, it should be fine. So what if Zhou Mochen is a bona fide genius?’

’Could he really figure out I was reborn just based on a dream?’

While Xu Su was stewing in anxiety, Zhou Mochen suddenly released her, lifted her by the waist, and set her aside. He stood up. "You don’t need to go to school for the next few days. In a little while, you’re coming back to Beijing with me. I’ll arrange a school for you."

It was a direct order, not a question.

Xu Su’s eyes widened. "No! I’m not transferring! Zhou Mochen, I have less than a year until the college entrance exams. Why would I transfer schools?"

A thought struck her, and she quickly added, "Besides, the current policy is that you have to take the exams in the same city as your household registration."

Zhou Mochen chuckled, looking down at her from his position by the bed. "I’ll arrange it. If you want to transfer your household registration, I’ll move it to Beijing. If you don’t, I can still make it so you can take the exams in Beijing. You don’t need to worry about these trivialities."

In Xu Su’s eyes, transferring schools was a monumental issue. But Zhou Mochen’s nonchalant attitude made her temper flare instantly.

She shot up from the bed, and now standing on it, she was taller than Zhou Mochen. Mimicking his tone, she looked down at him, furious. "You’ll arrange it? What do I need you to arrange? I’ve been studying here for over two years, and with less than a year to go, you think you can just say you’ll arrange a transfer and that’s that?"

Xu Su’s eyes were red as she glared at Zhou Mochen. "I don’t agree! You can be a tyrant, I know you have your ways. My parents sold me to you without my consent, so why don’t you just tie me up and throw me on a plane!"

"Sold to you?... Are you really this angry?" Zhou Mochen’s smile faded. He watched her quietly as she bristled with rage. After a moment, he asked in a cryptic tone, "Xu Su, are you unwilling to leave the school you’ve attended for two years, or are you unwilling to leave that person at the school?"

At the mention of Xi Zirong, Xu Su’s momentum vanished. She felt a pang of guilt.

’Whatever their relationship was before, the fact that she had been deceiving him for a year was true...’

Even though she knew she was in the wrong, she put on a brave front. "Get your timeline straight! I already broke up with Xi Zirong. I broke up with him without you even knowing about it. If I couldn’t bear to leave him, why would I have broken up with him?"

Xu Su continued, her words sounding like something a player would say. "You didn’t even know he existed. I could have just not broken up with him, right? Think about it, Zhou Mochen, doesn’t that make sense? I broke up with Xi Zirong for you. What more could you possibly be worried about?"

Her words made Zhou Mochen laugh in anger. "For me... Xu Su, should I be thanking you for granting me this favor? For choosing to end things with him before I found out?"

He yanked Xu Su’s wrist, pulling her down from the bed so they were eye to eye. He spoke slowly, "Then tell me this: when you saw him kissing another girl, what were you so upset about?"

Zhou Mochen’s tone was calm. He cupped her chin and placed a soft kiss on her eyelid. "You still care about that Xi Zirong, don’t you?"

".....That’s not it."

Xu Su was silent for two seconds. She denied it quickly, just before his expression could turn dangerous.

She tried to explain it away. "I wasn’t upset. It was more that I couldn’t process it right away, you know? Let me break it down for you. Xi Zirong and I were together, after all. So when he was being so intimate with another girl right in front of my eyes, isn’t it normal for me to feel a little... weirded out?"

Fearing her argument wasn’t convincing enough, Xu Su quickly added, "I really don’t care. It’s like I said before: if I cared about him being with other girls, I wouldn’t have broken up with him, right?"

Even as she said it, Xu Su didn’t believe it herself.

’She did care. A lot...’

’She just didn’t have the right to care anymore.’

Zhou Mochen seemed to believe her. He nodded slowly. "Since that’s the case, then whatever happens to him in the future has nothing to do with you, right?"

"...!" Xu Su’s heart jumped. She sensed the chilling implication in his words. "Don’t you dare touch him. Xi Zirong didn’t do anything wrong. Leave him alone."

"How has he done nothing wrong?" He brushed a kiss against her lips, his voice eerily calm. "He had the title of your boyfriend for a year. He kissed you. He held you. Xu Su, are you saying he’s done nothing wrong?"

"That wasn’t his fault!" Xu Su was on the verge of a breakdown. ’We’re never going to get past this, are we?’

"I can’t stop you from doing whatever you want to him. But Zhou Mochen, think about it. If something really happens to him because of me, do you think I could ever forget him for the rest of my life?"