Chapter 56: Choosing to Trust You Without Hesitation

Gu Zhenzhi hesitated for a few seconds before closing the door, but when he looked into the girl's eyes, shimmering with unshed tears, he forced himself to remain calm.

This was just one of her tricks.

She was best at playing the victim, at eliciting pity.

Gu Zhenzhi’s dark eyes were like a bottomless abyss, shadows swirling in their depths.

His silent gaze fell upon Ruan Cha.

Two seconds later.

The door slammed shut with a heavy thud.

With that echoing sound, Ruan Cha felt her heart plummet into the abyss.

She lowered her head, the clear brightness in her eyes dulling to lifelessness.

A while passed.

Her calves began to go numb.

Ruan Cha slowly dragged her small body to the edge of Gu Zhenzhi’s bedroom door.

She lifted her porcelain-white, slender hand and knocked lightly. “Gu Zhenzhi, I know you’re right by the door. Will you listen to me…”

Ruan Cha changed her approach, her voice soft and gentle.

“I know you’re angry because I didn’t tell you in advance. But I thought, since you’re so smart, you would figure it out. My mother disappeared when I was very young. For as long as I can remember, I was the child eating at every neighbor’s table in the countryside…”

Thinking of those memories, Ruan Cha’s heart ached with sourness.

When she first arrived in this book’s world, she had been full of hope and longing.

She had a mother who loved her, a woman of ethereal beauty. She even knew the direction this world would take, she knew their destinies.

She thought she had the whole world in her hands.

But reality had ruthlessly ground her into the dirt.

After her mother vanished, Ruan Cha was left with a neighbor’s family. The sharp-tongued, bitter woman saw her as nothing but a burden, forcing her to take on all the household chores. If she didn’t work, she wouldn’t eat. If she disobeyed, she’d be beaten.

Later, when she was in elementary school, a renowned professor came to their school to select the most outstanding students.

That was the first time she ever touched a computer, and her extraordinary talent shone through. She submitted her programming results.

The professor was amazed, intending to take her to the city to study and pay all her tuition from elementary school through university.

Filled with hope, she thought her life was about to change.

Yet the neighbor who had taken her in sent her own daughter to the city in her place, stealing her identity for the chance at a better life.

Back when she read the book, the author had glossed over those sixteen years of misery with a few strokes. Now, she had lived every moment of that suffering.

Since then, she understood that in this unfamiliar world, she had to grow strong if she wanted to protect herself.

“I never meant to hide anything from you. It’s just… I didn’t want to bare all my darkness the very first time I met you, to say, ‘Look, I’ve had such a miserable life these past years…’”

Ruan Cha knocked on the door again, her voice trembling ever so slightly. “This isn’t deception. It’s just that we don’t know each other well yet. Just like I don’t know what you went through as a child, but when Gu Jiayan spoke ill of you, I chose to believe you without hesitation. So… you should believe me too!”

As soon as she finished, she paused.

She thought of what Gu Zhenzhi had endured as a child.

A dull ache twisted in her heart.

Compared to what he had suffered, what was her own pain worth?

Her hand, resting on the door, slowly fell away.

Ruan Cha sat down on the cold floor, her voice soft and gentle. “I’m sorry, Gu Zhenzhi, I didn’t mean to bring up your past. Please don’t take it to heart.”

With those words, she picked herself up off the floor and hurried back to her own room not far away. She rummaged through her things for a long while before finally finding a piece of fruit candy.