He had said the same thing twice before Song Qingchun realized what he was talking about. She looked at him with a blank gaze.
Breaking through the layers of caution and fear in her eyes were surprise and relief. Even though she tried her best to hide them, they were glaringly obvious in Su Zhinian's eyes.
As if unable to believe her ears, or perhaps unable to trust him, she asked cautiously after a short pause, "What?"
He had long since known that she did not like him and detested him touching her and that she would be naturally overjoyed when she heard him promise her that. He expected such a reaction, so he shouldn't have been sad, right?
Regardless, Su Zhinian still averted his eyes from her face to focus on the blurry light filtering out of the night lamp beside her bed. His expression was as airy as the fog in the early morning. After some time, with a flutter of his eyelashes, he opened his lips. "I said…"With just those two words, his chest was already roiling with a great deal of emotions. The collision was so strong and severe that his breath was caught in his throat, and his heart wrenched from acute pain.
He took a deep breath to sooth his breaking heart and forced himself to finish the rest of the sentence. "For the rest of the remaining days you have to stay at my house, I swear to not lay a finger on you. As the contract dictates, you will be responsible only for my living arrangements."
Actually… he really wanted to tell her was that, if she felt like staying at his place was true torture, she was welcome to move back home, and after a hundred days, he would still return to her a revived Song Empire. However, he could not bring himself to say that, and the words seemed to change on their own when they left his mouth.
At the end of the day, he was unable to say goodbye to her just like that even though he knew farewell was inevitable.
He believed the greatest pain in the world was none other than realizing he had been causing the person he loved the most in the world immense pain. Separation had always been hard because even though he knew it was time to let go, he could not help but grip that much tighter.
He sounded serious and not like he was joking. Furthermore, in Song Qingchun's mind, the only person in the world who did not know how to joke was Su Zhinian.
Song Qingchun felt like she was dreaming. She unconsciously pinched herself, and she recovered only when she felt pain. Her lips moved, but in the end, she could only nod silently.Su Zhinian continued speaking after a long pause. "You do not need to worry about me acting like a few days ago…"
He paused as if he had no idea how to continue.
Song Qingchun knew he was referring to the drunken night he almost raped her. She lowered her head and bit on her lips, then his toneless words drifted into her ears. "…Don't worry, it will not happen a third time; I will lay off the alcohol."
After that, he turned to look at her. There was a flood of emotions in his eyes, like they were drowning a host of secrets. Before Song Qingchun could understand what they were, he grabbed the door knob behind him and closed the door softly as he exited her room.
