...
"And then what?"
Bibi Dong took a deep breath, trying to make her voice sound rational and cold:
"Then, we'll both have our own lives. As you settle down and start a family, we won't get together every now and then like before. We'll only occasionally cross paths when there are major events at the Spirit Hall.
But ultimately, the main lines of our lives are two parallel lines!"
"Xuanhao, you need to focus on your own life and on the girls who are devoted to you.
Otherwise, your life will go astray, understand?"
After listening to this long-winded explanation, Xuan Hao not only did not back down, but instead asked a question quite naturally:
"Since it's going to go astray, why don't we just stay together and continue to intertwine into one line?"
"you--!"
Bibi Dong was so enraged by his stubborn and unyielding logic that her chest heaved violently.
She struggled with all her might, only to find that she had nowhere to retreat.
She knew that, faced with Xuan Hao in this state, there seemed to be no other way to bring him to his senses except to speak bluntly and cruelly break through that thin veil of pretense.
But... looking into the boy's eyes that reflected his own image, those heartless words stuck in his throat, like thorns that had taken root, and he couldn't bring himself to say them.
Just as Bibi Dong was torn between her inner conflict and her choice of what to do next, she was caught in a dilemma.
Xuan Hao pressed down, pressing his chest tightly against Bibi Dong's soft body.
Even through the thin purple robe, the two could clearly feel the burning heat of each other's skin.
"Bang!"
This instant of close contact caused Bibi Dong's heart to clench violently, as if she had been electrocuted.
An unprecedented panic and some emotions that had been suppressed for so long instantly exploded within her.
"presumptuous!"
Bibi Dong gritted her teeth and pushed Xuan Hao, who was pressing down on her, away with a sudden burst of strength.
Unexpectedly, Xuan Hao did not use his terrifying physical strength to resist.
The moment he felt Bibi Dong push him away, he obediently released his strength and was easily pushed aside by her.
Regaining her freedom, Bibi Dong quickly sat up, somewhat flustered, and straightened her disheveled purple robe.
She turned her face away, took several deep breaths to barely calm her wildly beating heart, and said in a forced, cold voice:
"Xuanhao, when you're alive, you always have to make choices."
"You can't keep clinging to me like a child forever. You'll have your own family, and we'll become two completely separate entities.
You need to think about your own family, and about the girls who followed you despite everything!"
What is trade-off?
Xuan Hao leaned back at the other end of the sofa.
Although he had been pushed away, his domineering aura remained undiminished.
He stared directly at Bibi Dong's profile and retorted firmly:
Why must we make choices?
Does gain always come with loss?
Why can't I have it all?
"You're too greedy!"
Bibi Dong said through gritted teeth.
"That's because they're incompetent!"
Xuan Hao sat up abruptly, his tone revealing an arrogant and domineering air:
"I know that people like to say that you can't have everything.
But that's because they're not strong enough!
To get something, they have no choice but to compromise and painfully give up something else!"
"But I'm different!"
Xuan Hao stepped forward, closing in on Bibi Dong once more.
"I am powerful enough! I can have everything I want!
I don't need to compromise, nor do I need to lose anything!"
"Whether it's my future home, or... you, I can have it all!"
Bibi Dong's lips trembled slightly, and in the end, she could only utter a pale and powerless ancient proverb:
"Xuanhao…a forced relationship is never sweet."
"Forced?"
Xuan Hao seemed to have heard the biggest joke in the world.
He lowered his head and whispered in Bibi Dong's ear, "Sister, is this really just me forcing it all on my own?"
"Dare to look me in the eye and tell me with your own conscience..."
"Don't you want to at all?"
"..."
Bibi Dong abruptly turned her head away, biting her lower lip tightly, not daring to look Xuan Hao in the eye, let alone answer this extremely pointed question.
Doesn't she want to?
How could I not want to?
She watched Xuan Hao grow up little by little, watching him transform from a homeless orphan into the outstanding, dazzling, and powerful genius that the world looks up to.
He offered her the only warmth and companionship in that cold papal palace. Faced with such ardent, pure, and devoted affection, how could she not be moved?
How could she not have indulged in those self-deceiving, unrealistic fantasies during countless weary nights?
But she also knew very well that it was just a fantasy.
She has long lost the right to embrace the light; she... can never go back to that normal life filled with love and warmth.
In the midst of this suffocating silence, a series of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the hall.
"Teacher! I heard that my junior brother has returned.
Is he with you?"
Hu Liena's voice, tinged with urgency and surprise, drifted from outside the hall, accompanied by increasingly close footsteps, instantly breaking the tense atmosphere between the two.
Upon hearing this voice, Bibi Dong seemed to wake from a dream, her panic instantly magnified.
She subconsciously wanted to create an extremely dangerous distance between them, to straighten her slightly disheveled purple robe from the earlier tug, and to put her high and mighty papal mask back on.
However, she had only taken half an inch back.
"Smack!"
Xuan Hao suddenly grabbed her wrist, not letting her escape, but instead pulling her even tighter, forcibly closing the distance between them once again.
"Are you crazy! Nana's coming in right now!" Bibi Dong whispered, "Let go!"
"I won't let go."
Xuan Hao stared intently into Bibi Dong's eyes, his voice low and extremely oppressive: "I don't understand, why are you hiding?"
"If you clearly have feelings in your heart, why do you desperately deny them?
If it's something you can easily reach out and grab, why are you afraid to even touch it?!"
Xuan Hao's tone was filled with a strong sense of hostility and incomprehension:
Why torture yourself again and again?
Why get into the habit of giving up?
"Are you really planning to live such an awkward life forever? Is it even worth it?!"
Hearing these soul-searching questions, Bibi Dong's face turned slightly pale, her lips trembled but she couldn't utter a single word.
"Could it be..."
Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes, looking at her evasive expression, and sneered:
"Are you afraid of what others will say?
Do you think our positions are inappropriate, and that people's opinions are a fearsome thing?"
"joke!"
A savage killing intent flashed in Xuan Hao's eyes, and his handsome face now appeared somewhat arrogant and ferocious.
"Why are there so many people talking! In this Douluo Continent, the rules are set by the strong!
Anyone who dares to utter a word will be killed!
I'll kill until no one dares to make a sound!
Let's see if any of those reckless fools dare to say another word!"
"No...not this one."
Bibi Dong closed her eyes in pain and shook her head violently.
What she feared was never gossip.
As the Pope of the Spirit Hall, when had she ever cared about worldly opinions?
What she truly cared about and feared was her own sordid past, her dark soul corrupted by the power of the Rakshasa God, and the feeling that she was utterly unworthy of this pure and passionate love.
"If it's not this, then what is it?!"
Xuan Hao gave her no chance to breathe. He approached again, his tone domineering and leaving no room for argument:
"I want it, and you want it too, so why can't we?!"
Why is your first reaction to problems always to run away? Why would you rather close yourself off and torture yourself than be honest even once?!
The footsteps outside the door had reached the side hall of the palace, and Hu Liena's calls were almost within reach.
But Xuan Hao seemed oblivious to the commotion around him; his eyes were only on the woman before him whom he both loved and hated.
"I don't care what you're worried about, or what secrets you've been hiding in the past that you can't show to anyone."
Xuan Hao grabbed Bibi Dong's shoulders, forcing her to open her eyes and look at him.
"But I'm telling you, Bibi Dong!"
"I'd rather be a bastard who owns everything than a hypocrite who has nothing!"
"Why do you think I've been cultivating like a madman all these years?
I've become stronger at all costs, stirring up trouble in Heaven Dou City, risking my life, not so that I can compromise with fate when I grow up! Nor so so that I can learn to lose!"
"I want to hold onto everything I desire tightly!"
Even if it means... any means necessary!
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