CHAPTER 243: CHAPTER 230 DREAM

"Have something to eat. Even if the child isn’t hungry, it pains me to know you’ve gone hungry for so long."

As he spoke, he wiped her tears away with his rough fingertips.

Li Yanan turned around, intending to go back to the coffee table to fetch the carefully packed soup and meal, but was slowly embraced from behind by Lin Zhenxin.

"I’m sorry," Lin Zhenxin said softly.

"Hmm?"

"I was being capricious, knowing full well the child’s situation..."

"Zhenxin, joy and sorrow are natural human emotions. Don’t be too hard on yourself," Li Yanan said.

But Lin Zhenxin just reached out and held him tighter, as if trying to merge the two of them into one.

"Even if the first half of my life was hard and lonely, even if I’ve cursed fate ten thousand times, I still feel fortunate because I met you, fell in love with you, and can be with you. I have no regrets in life." The world population keeps growing and decreasing daily, and people pass by each other every day. No one can predict who will remain by your side in the end.

He loves you, protects you, shields you from any external storms or harm.

By his side, you feel free, relaxed, certain that he is your only one.

"Don’t die, live with me, live well. I’ll wait for you to grow old with me."

Such a simple sentence, yet it made Lin Zhenxin’s tears, which had just stopped with difficulty, break out again uncontrollably.

How could she have forgotten that he was a master at saying sweet things...

In the emergency room.

Tu Haohao lay on the operating table like a broken porcelain doll.

The doctors were tirelessly stitching her wounds, connecting her blood vessels, continuously infusing fresh blood into her body.

At this moment, she was dreaming.

Tu Haohao seemed to have arrived in another world.

She encountered... another Li Chengze.

At the end of the darkness, he stood at the sole light source, extending his hand toward her with a warm smile she never dared to hope for.

Tu Haohao stood frozen, tears streaming down her face, afraid to move closer.

Instead, Li Chengze held that smile, approached her, and gently rubbed the top of her head with his hand.

"Why are you walking so slowly? Are you tired? Should I carry you?"

Tu Haohao, incredulous, covered her mouth with her hand, staring at him. Did he just ask... if she was tired and even offered to carry her?

"But don’t you... hate me?" she asked, crying.

"Silly, I love you!"

Tu Haohao’s heart felt as though it had been punched hard, unable to tell if it was pain or bitterness.

"I don’t believe it..." Didn’t he like He Nuoxin? For her, he left her alone at the wedding.

Li Chengze placed his hand on the back of her neck, pulling Tu Haohao into his embrace, bending down to kiss her gently.

Tu Haohao’s tears poured out like large raindrops.

"I really love you, Tu Haohao," Li Chengze said.

He held her hand, slowly walking toward the light. She didn’t know how long they walked, but Tu Haohao only felt everything around her brightening.

It was a home.

Li Chengze was cooking in the kitchen for her.

His back was broad.

Everything was absurdly perfect.

"Ouch..." Suddenly, he cut his hand, turned around to see her standing behind him, hurriedly hiding his hand behind his back.

There was an awkward smile on his face.

Tu Haohao walked slowly towards him, while Li Chengze’s expression grew more nervous.

She came up close and saw the pot containing dishes she liked.

Could it really be... something she liked?

"Why... why..." Why was he cooking for her?

"Because I love you!"

"Liar, Li Chengze... How could you love Tu Haohao?" He barely had time to dislike her, how could he love her?

He laughed brightly, like an innocent child, holding her hand, continuing to walk forward.

The scene changed again.

In a dim cinema, a poorly made domestic horror film was playing.

Occasional laughter echoed around, but Tu Haohao instinctively turned to look beside her.

Li Chengze’s expression was stiff, sitting as straight as a rod, not daring to move.

"Are you scared?" she suddenly realized.

"Shut up!" Li Chengze stuffed popcorn into her mouth, glaring at her, though the force was undoubtedly soft.

Tu Haohao chewed the popcorn, and suddenly, her hand was held by the man beside her.

"Isn’t it what you like?"

Tu Haohao paused chewing the popcorn, shifting her gaze from the movie screen back to him.

"Weren’t you the one clamoring to see this!"

Because... she liked it, so was he here to accompany her?

"You..." The self-centered Li Chengze, how could he possibly accompany her just because she liked it?

"Your taste is terrible!"

"Oh..." She lowered her head, her voice trembling slightly.

The man beside her didn’t say anything for a while. She didn’t know how much time passed, but Tu Haohao felt her chin being lifted.

The next second, his cool lips pressed onto hers.

"Fool, I still love you anyway!"

Tu Haohao’s heart instantly felt like it was gripped tightly by an invisible hand.

Even though those words were so sweet, why did they sound more like self-destructive torture to her ears?

As soon as she closed her eyes, Tu Haohao was carried into another scene.

An endless beach, with salty sea breezes brushing against a light beach dress, Tu Haohao looked around blankly, seemingly unable to understand why she was there.

From afar, specks of light appeared at an unknown time.

The closer they got, the clearer Tu Haohao saw...

It was Li Chengze.

Holding a sparkler, lighting it, letting it burn out, lighting it again, over and over...

Until... he stood in front of her.

The smile on his face was still the warmth she thought she’d never see.

"Tu Haohao, I’m proud yet also self-conscious, hot-tempered, and don’t know how to respect people!"

Li Chengze spoke as he lowered his head.

"I’m like a spoiled child who doesn’t listen to anything anyone says."

The smile on his lips grew more bashful.

"I know, I’m really not likable," Li Chengze said, slowly kneeling on one knee.

"I want to ask, this me... Miss Tu Haohao... will you kindly take me in?"

With a snap, the box containing the ring was opened, revealing her beloved pink diamond.

"I will be loyal to you, give you the best of everything in this world, and never let anyone hurt you. So please, show me pity, will you?"

Li Chengze’s eyes held tension and anticipation, looking at Tu Haohao like that.

Tu Haohao couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She found herself starting to distinguish less between what was reality and what was a dream.

—I never asked anything of you! Tu Haohao, from beginning to end, it was you who followed me like a shadow, it was you who said you liked me, it was you who proposed to me, it was you who said you’d help me... I never asked anything from you!

—It’s your own fault!

—I never liked you, Tu Haohao!

The same voice, uttering heart-wrenching words in a different tone.

Tu Haohao lowered her head, looking at Li Chengze still kneeling on the ground.

At some point, a moth had started circling around him, and after an unknown length of time, the moth finally landed on the tip of his hair.

Yet it seemed like a spark capable of starting a prairie fire...

Flickering flames began to burn, Li Chengze’s face started to crack and deform, even though he was still smiling...

Yet his whole being was burning like paper!

—Fool, but I still love you.

—I love you.

—I love you, Tu Haohao.

—It’s your own fault!

—I never liked you, Tu Haohao!

The flames burned fiercely, igniting the starry sky, causing the scene to start to curl.

Tu Haohao covered her mouth with her hand, retreating continuously as tears rolled down her face.

The howling cold wind suddenly resounded in her ears, and Tu Haohao instinctively looked down at her chest.

But was terrified to see her eyes widened!

Where was her heart?

Such a large hole, with the wind blowing cold...

"Ah..." A piercing scream echoed through the skies...

Beep beep beep...

The instruments emitted a piercing alarm.

"The patient’s blood pressure is dropping rapidly!"

As her body involuntarily twitched.

Tears continuously slid down from the corners of Tu Haohao’s eyes on the operating table...

In the dead of night, Li Yanan left the lounge after receiving a call from Xun Chen.

Lin Zhenxin lay on the bed, her body heavy, drowsy.

Half asleep and half awake, she suddenly felt the lounge door opening from the outside. She thought Li Yanan had returned and didn’t mind.

The footsteps were light, and in a blink, they were at the bedside, standing there.

After an unknown length of time, Lin Zhenxin felt someone touching her neck, the hand was clammy and small...

She suddenly opened her eyes!

She looked around, but there was no one there.

Lin Zhenxin sat up, instinctively gently touching her neck. Could everything that just happened be a dream?

But when she looked down again, a curled long hair was in her line of sight.

Slowly picking it up, Lin Zhenxin couldn’t help but shiver...

Tu Haohao had yet to be out of danger, but the Tu Family led by Tu Shaohong had already begun their intense retaliation.

Tu Shaohong ordered the Tu Family to sell off all the Li Family’s stocks they bought during the market rescue at a nearly giveaway price.

And threatened the Li Family’s major cooperative enterprises that if they didn’t sever ties with the Li Family, they would face the same retaliatory strike as the Li Family.

And Xun Chen, who had been prepared all along, began acquiring at prices much lower than expected!

The Li Family faced consecutive incidents, and this time no savior was willing to take on this hot potato...

Without the least effort, Xun Chen easily helped T.N.C Group acquire most of the Li Family’s shares.

This might already be considered the easiest acquisition case in his life.

And at this moment, Xun Chen finally understood why, when the Tu Family intervened in the Li Family’s affairs, Li Yanan wasn’t the least bit despondent.

Instead, he calmly told him to wait and see.

Perhaps at that time, Li Yanan had already known that the Li Family, including the entire Li Corporation, would fall at the hands of Li Chengze!

In the dead of night, Xun Chen reported the results of the battle to Li Yanan over the phone.

The call had lasted for twenty minutes, during which Li Yanan on the other end responded simply and in a low voice.

Until...

"Brother Yanan..." Suddenly, a familiar and soft female voice came from Xun Chen’s phone receiver.