He had done what he did, yet he was still trying to make excuses. Xu Su had no desire to deal with him. The moment she turned her head away, she saw the door to their private room swing open and Xi Zirong walk in.

He had been in another room. Perhaps he’d heard about the commotion over here from someone and came over to check on things...

The moment Xi Zirong walked through the door, Zhou Mochen, whose sanity was already at its breaking point, shot bolt upright. He was like a fully drawn bow, radiating a hostile aura so intense it could practically cut a person.

Xu Su glanced nonchalantly toward the door, her expression not fluctuating in the slightest. When she turned back and saw the stormy look brewing on Zhou Mochen’s face, she let out a laugh of pure exasperation. "What, are you going to blame our problems on someone else again?"

Music was playing in the room, so no one else could hear their conversation. After Xi Zirong came in, their classmates waved him over to play cards.

In the dim lighting, Zhou Mochen’s expression was obscured...

Her face cold, Xu Su continued to taunt him. "Zhou Mochen, our argument this time has nothing to do with anyone else. I’ve already explained everything that needed to be said. You yourself said we were moving on. If you’re still going to cling to the past, then this is just getting ridiculous."

Her tone was filled with undisguised impatience, and her intent—to protect Xi Zirong from him—was something Zhou Mochen heard loud and clear.

’She really isn’t afraid of me at all,’ he thought. ’Even when I feel like my own sanity is about to shatter, when even I don’t know what I might do...’

’But she still dares to keep testing my teetering self-control...’

Zhou Mochen couldn’t help a bitter laugh. ’How did I end up like this?’

’Letting a woman toy with me so brazenly, as if she knows I have no limits...’

’Am I supposed to just accept this?’

Of course not. He was so full of hate he could grind his teeth to dust, but the words that came out were unnervingly calm.

He turned his head to look at her. "Whatever you have to say, we can say it when we get home. Unless you want to make a scene in front of your classmates."

’A threat, right from the start...’

Xu Su hated this tone of his more than anything. How could she possibly understand the pained fury filling his heart right now? She just glared at him, and for a long moment, they locked eyes, neither willing to back down.

Suddenly, she shot to her feet, grabbed an unopened bottle of red wine, opened it herself with a corkscrew, and slammed it down in front of Zhou Mochen.

Mimicking his tone, she said with a smirk, "You want me to go back with you? Fine. Drink this entire bottle, and I’ll think about it."

The song playing in the room happened to end at that exact moment. In the few seconds of silence as the next track cued up, Xu Su’s words rang out, heard perfectly by everyone.

Huang Chao, who had been watching them the whole time, shot to his feet, his expression rigid as if facing a great enemy.

Even the drunkards like Huang Feng and Rao Lu, who were already completely wasted, were sobered by the strange atmosphere and didn’t dare utter a word.

For a moment, aside from the low thrum of the music, the entire room was dead silent.

Xu Su stood her ground, looking down at Zhou Mochen with a provocative smile. "Well? Are you going to drink it or not?"

Huang Feng, in a drunken fit, threw her arm up and was about to say something when Huang Chao grabbed her and clamped a hand firmly over her mouth.

Zhou Mochen lowered his gaze, sitting silent and motionless for a long moment. It was as if he had dissolved into the darkness of the room...

Xu Su remained standing, waiting for his next move.

After a long while, Zhou Mochen let out a soft chuckle. He undid a button to loosen his collar, then reached out, grasped the wine bottle, and, tilting his head back, began to chug it straight from the neck.

Huang Chao was utterly dumbfounded...

He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Xu Su was a little stunned herself... 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

’I only did it to humiliate him,’ she thought. ’I never actually expected him to drink it...’

This was the first time Xu Su had ever seen Zhou Mochen chug straight from a bottle. He wasn’t like Shen Chen; he was always calm and self-possessed, and he didn’t like to mess around with the other rich playboys in their circle.

He could hold his liquor, but he never did things like this. Even when he was just hanging out with friends, he would drink politely, one glass at a time...

Let alone chugging an entire bottle under these circumstances.

To put it bluntly, he was trampling his own dignity into the dirt in front of a bunch of teenagers, all for a woman.

Xu Su watched in a daze as Zhou Mochen’s Adam’s apple bobbed with each rapid swallow. A trickle of crimson wine ran from the corner of his mouth...

Before long, he set the empty bottle down, casually wiped his lips, and stood. He grabbed the back of Xu Su’s neck and pulled her toward him. His voice remained eerily steady. "Made up your mind? We’re going home?"

There was still a smear of wine on his lips he hadn’t wiped away. Pinned by his icy gaze, Xu Su’s fingers twitched. She raised her hand to wipe it for him, but Zhou Mochen turned his head, avoiding her touch.

Xu Su realized it instantly. ’He’s angry...’

’Well, of course he is. Anyone would be angry after being provoked like that, let alone the proud Young Master Zhou.’

’When has he ever been subjected to this kind of humiliation? He was never a patient man to begin with...’

Her hand hung awkwardly in mid-air. Xu Su froze for a long moment, then suddenly hooked her arms around Zhou Mochen’s neck and pulled him down. Rising onto her tiptoes, she pressed her lips to the corner of his mouth, licking away the last traces of wine, bit by bit.

’If he won’t let me use my hand, I’ll just have to find another way...’

Xu Su had done it partly out of defiance, but the moment their lips touched, she almost lost control.

She hadn’t kissed him in days. The sudden proximity, the familiar scent of him, was enough to make her forget everything else...

It was only in moments like this that Xu Su was certain she truly loved Zhou Mochen. How much did she love him?

Enough that the moment she was near him, she couldn’t stop herself from wanting to be closer, to just melt into his arms. If this wasn’t love, Xu Su couldn’t imagine what was.

’Why do we always have to fight? I don’t want to fight with him...’

’I just want to hold him, to kiss him...’

Just as Xu Su was losing herself in the kiss, the grip on her neck tightened, and Zhou Mochen pulled her away.

He stared down at her for a moment, then let out a soft, humorless laugh. "Xu Su, when are you going to understand that I don’t owe you anything? I love you, but that doesn’t mean I deserve to be tormented by you. This trick of yours—slapping me and then offering a piece of candy—it doesn’t work every time."

’Offering a piece of candy...’

Xu Su stared at him, stunned. So that’s how he saw it? Her impulsive kiss was just a piece of candy she was offering after the humiliation?

The private room was utterly silent. Everyone was staring at them, but Xu Su couldn’t spare a thought for her classmates’ opinions. She stood there, numb, not understanding how things had escalated to this point.

Her mind flashed back to her previous life, to the man who had let her do whatever she pleased. Speaking of humiliation, she had subjected him to far worse.

In those ten years, she had never said a single kind word to him. Everything that came out of her mouth was cold mockery. Thinking back now, she realized she’d only dared to act that way because she was taking his indulgence for granted...

Xu Su’s face was deathly pale. Her lips parted and closed several times, words unspoken. Finally, she took a step back, her arms falling from his neck. "It was my fault."

’I got the wrong person,’ she thought. ’How could I have confused the Zhou Mochen of this life with the one from the last?’

’Is a person with different memories and different experiences still the same person?’

’No...’