Chapter 477 - A Confession
As the couple continued cuddling while watching the sea of stars and talking of random things, a shooting star fell.
Xiong Zhi saw it.
She tugged Linfeng's sleeve.
"A shooting star. Let's make a wish."
She immediately closed her eyes and put her hands together.
'I will marry Linfeng and live with him until we are one hundred twenty-three. Oh, plus healthy children and grandchildren. The more the merrier.'
'I will marry Linfeng, live with him until we are one hundred twenty-three, and have healthy…'
Xiong Zhi continued to pray seriously.
Linfeng: …His serious and cool CEO girlfriend believed in things like this?
"Are you done making your wish?" the woman suddenly asked, still with her eyes closed.
Linfeng fought a chuckle and put his hands together as well, mimicking her, but his eyes stayed on her.
The slender yet shapely figure of a woman under the starry night sky was glamorous. Her lips were swollen by his kissing, but they were tightly pursed right now like she was praying hard. Her brows were locked in seriousness.
What was she wishing so hard about?
"Done?"
Xiong Zhi asked again, her eyes flickered, about to open.
Linfeng closed his eyes and wished.
He had grown up and no longer believed in things like this, because by experience, he knew that one must make his wish happen with his own hands.
Still, seeing how she prayed so seriously, he suddenly felt that there was nothing wrong with it at all. It was not like it would cause any harm.
But if ever there was a force out there that might make these wishes come true…
"I wish that I can always make Xiong Zhi happy and safe, for the rest of my life.'"
"…You should not speak your wish out loud," Xiong Zhi chided with heated cheeks.
"Oh, I said it out loud? Sorry. I will make another one," he unashamedly chuckled.
'That's my first wish. My second wish, please let me marry her and heal the wounds in her heart.'
"Done?"
Xiong Zhi asked when Linfeng opened his eyes.
"Done," Linfeng smiled.
"Your wish. Is it similar to the one earlier?"
"Hmmm… Who knows? Only the stars would know."
He looked up at the stars acting like a mysterious person.
Xiong Zhi lightly poked him on the waist, but there was a smile in her eyes.
"It's unexpected. Who would have thought Her Majesty, the heiress of the Xiong Empire, actually believe in this stuff?" Linfeng teased her.
There was a pause, before Xiong Zhi looked up at the night sky.
Her eyes seemed as if it was filled with stars.
"In that, past I didn't. But ever since that dream…" Xiong Zhi trailed off.
She felt the eyes of the man focused on her face.
She smiled wryly. "I realized that there are mysterious and miraculous things in this world."
In the past, she had never believed in things like superstitions or mystical creatures such as angels or witches.
However, ever since she had met that woman that exactly look-alike of Lu Yin Ze's grandmother in a place and time she could not comprehend, she started believing in supernatural things and miracles.
What could explain her time-traveling or her rebirth?
She was sure of one thing, that life clearly happened and she was given a second chance to fight for her fate.
Linfeng stayed quiet, waiting for her to continue.
Xiong Zhi looked at him.
"Would you believe if I say that, that there is one wish of mine, which should have been impossible to happen, but actually came true?"
"…Something impossible came true?"
"Yes, it did."
The desperate wish for a second chance, to return back to when Linfeng was still alive, and love him back with all her heart.
…And it was granted.
She could feel her eyes slowly warming up.
She blinked the wetness away.
The girl who stood in a desolate mansion, who cried for help, and who sat soullessly under the rain… was now sitting under the sea of stars with her beloved, smiling happily.
The wind was cold, but she only felt warmth.
She was truly grateful.
Xiong Zhi held Linfeng's hand.
"Actually… There, there really is something I want to tell you, all this time."
Her eyes looked down at the interlinked hands.
Linfeng swallowed.
He sensed that the air had changed.
He knew that Xiong Zhi was probably talking about the earlier interrupted confession.
It seemed that she had decided.
Would she be able to tell him until the end?
He squeezed her hand gently to give her strength.
A period of silence passed.
The wind blew coldly while the stars above shimmered.
Xiong Zhi finally spoke.
"I had…a very long dream."
"It was a bad dream. A really… terrible nightmare."
Xiong Zhi did not know how to start explaining about their past life, because it just sounded unbelievable, so she could only use this excuse.
"In that dream, both you and I...died."
The man stiffened.
A kidnapping incident that was kept under wraps, a traumatic abuse during childhood, framed and punished for others' mistakes, and many other dogblood events that could scar a person from a very young age.
Linfeng prepared himself for anything she might painfully admit.
What he did not expect was this.
Xiong Zhi hated the father and daughter pair deeply, because of a nightmare?
For a moment, the man's eyes were blank.
Then, the small hand that was holding his hand trembled.
He sensed her uneasiness in the air.
Linfeng recovered and slowly patted her trembling hand.
He did not know what else to say.
"A nightmare... Then it must be a truly frightening one."
Although shocked, he did not refute her claim, because it was her, Xiong Zhi.
Another person might lie about this, make up stories or anything like this, but Xiong Zhi was definitely not that kind of person.
He could also see the seriousness in her eyes. Which was why he was confused.
Xiong Zhi lowered her head slightly, her eyes distant.
Her pale face was apparent in the darkness.
"…Yes. So terrifying, that I remember every detail of it. I lived with it for many years, Linfeng. Whenever I thought of that... dream... It all returns back to me. The grievance, the heartbreak, my hatred, my fear, all of it! Sometimes, I even wonder if what is happing right now is all just a wishful dream."
Her voice trembled with every words.
There was an inexplicable anguish in her tone that made Linfeng's heart ache.
He pulled her to his chest gently and patted her back.
He was still in a state of shock.
This was the first time that Linfeng saw Xiong Zhi show such a strong array of negative emotions with a lost expression and tone.
It distressed his heart.
From his chest, her hoarse, muffled voice came out tremblingly again.
"In that dream... My grandfather died. The treaty between our families was broken off. You once turned your back on me..."
Linfeng felt that his heart thumped strangely.
"But you returned and stayed by my side. However, it did not last long..."
Silence fell on them.
The man kept patting her back, but his mind was in chaos.
Earlier, Xiong Zhi told him that she had this dream for many years, long before the treaty was dissolved.
Not too long ago, they also discovered that her grandfather, Master Xiong, was given a slow-acting poison for many years.
Although they discovered it in time and was able to nurse the old man's body back to health, in fact, they would not have discovered it if not for Xiong Zhi's initiative.
If she did not 'discover' the poison, then Master Xiong truly could have gone ill and died suddenly.
The dissolution of the treaty as well, it was very unusual that she would have a dream about it, but then it came true.
He himself knew that he was about to turn his back on her long ago for the sake of his ambitions. If not for her resilience and patience, he truly would have…
Also, Xiong Zhi seemed to know a lot of the secrets of the father and daughter pair.
He never made mention of these, but he did wonder how she was able to know many secrets.
Now, she was saying that it all came from a highly vivid and terrible nightmare which she had been having since young, for many years.
Not mentioning the fact that a nightmare could be so persistent and detailed, just the accuracy alone was terrifying.
Linfeng normally did not believe in the supernatural things, but now, his back chilled.
Could it be… a prophetic dream of what was supposed to happen?
Xiong Zhi's voice continued again, this time colder.
Linfeng could also feel his insides turn colder with each word.
"Xiong Wuyue—" Here words became slower but heavier. "She kidnapped me."
"She sent me to that beast."
"To Guan. Gao. Huan."
The hand patting her back stilled.
He had not yet recovered from shock, but was again met with another bomb.
Guan Gao Huan?
How could Guan Gao Huan be in that dream as well?
No—the real question was, how did Guan Gao Huan enter the picture and cause her to hate him terribly?
There was ominous thought in his mind, which made his breathing become unstable.
"Xiong De and Xiong Wuyue made a deal with him. Before grandfather died, he arranged a marriage between me and Guan Gao Huan that when I turn twenty three, I would have to marry him," she went on in an expressionless tone, but the coldness and hatred was palpable.
"But the evil pair of father daughter could not wait. They wanted to eat the Xiong Empire whole as soon as possible. Since the inheritance battle was almost about to be decided at that time, with Xiong Bilan at the top, Xiong De decided to use me, his reserved winning card."
"He and his daughter fooled me, hurt me, and sent me to Guan Gao Huan's doorstep. They sent me to hell."
Her tone was eerily cold.
Xiong Zhi was too naive at that time.
She actually welcomed that bitch to her home and foolishly allowed the bitch to play her.
She could still remember how Xiong Wuyue beat her body and scratched her face, while maniacally laughing that Xiong Zhi's title as well as Linfeng was going to become hers finally.
"It turned out, she had been targeting at me from the very beginning. She wanted everything that belonged to me. My title, my status, and you, Linfeng." She looked up at the frozen man.
Although she no longer reacted as bad she did before when recalling the memories, there still remained a strong hatred in her eyes.
"Linfeng, she succeeded getting all of it. I… was even made to think that you had also abandoned me and chose her."
Linfeng looked at her in a daze.
Xiong Zhi bit her paling lips. "You might not believe it, but this is the reason why I had such a strong hatred on them."
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