CH 83

“What are you talking about?” said Yin Zejing.

Xia Wennan stared at him unspeakingly, not wanting to show the slightest hint of guilt.

Yin Zejing studied Xia Wennan’s face by the light of the street lamp. “Did you really get your memories back?”

Xia Wennan sneered.

“Even after regaining your memories, that’s how you think of me?” said Yin Zejing. His words were tinged with grievance. “Seriously? Why would I ever want you dead?”

His words rang with genuine sincerity, to the point where Xia Wennan’s gaze gradually became skeptical. “It wasn’t you?”

Yin Zejing squatted on the curb. His cigarette quickly burnt up. “I didn’t do anything, okay?”

“Then why did you pretend to be a poor student to stay at Ming Qin’s side? Don’t tell me you’re broke—or that you really love him.”

Yin Zejing looked up at Xia Wennan. “You never believed that, otherwise you wouldn’t be asking me these questions.”

Xia Wennan said nothing. It could be considered a silent admission.

Yin Zejing propped his arms on his knees. He stretched out his arm and snuffed out his cigarette on the ground. “He misunderstood me from the get go, basically,” he said after a while. “I didn’t deliberately pretend to be poor to seek him out.”

After he said that, Yin Zejing became silent for a long time.

The two stood in the bitter cold, under a lamppost on the side of the deserted street, a two-to-three-man distance apart. One was standing, the other squatting; their shadows extending towards the road.