A Lifetime Promise

Chapter 23

She lowered her gaze down and bit her lower lip in frustration as she clutched her hands into fists on her thighs. She didn't know what she would do in such a situation, she never had been in one and clearly, she didn't have friends to experience things like this.

"Well?" His voice became harsher, and he could care less about it.

Lin Xinglan only bit her lip harder, and hearing his voice become more harsh, she gave up thinking as she lost her composure and decided to just say whatever she had on her mind.

"It's not like I wanted to fucking leave you in the first place!" She shouted loudly, this made both of the men taken aback, especially by her sudden foul language.

She raise her gaze to look at Qiang Jingyi, "I had reasons, alright?! My village got raided by some shitty bastards of bandits all of the sudden, they killed everyone and burned the whole freaking village just a while after I had left the capital with my dad. I had no fucking place to stay and no money, I basically became a goddamn beggar so I decided to go to the capital and search for job to earn money. My life was harsh back then, no one obviously wanted to hire me, I was seven fucking years old dirty beggar, what the hell did you expect from me, huh?!"

She took a deep breath and continued, "But luckily, there was this nice old man who wanted to hire me to work at his teahouse. And don't fucking tell me shit like why I didn't go to you because you could help me but that's precisely it, I didn't want to show you what I became and I didn't want to depend on you so much!
You're a goddamn prince, you shouldn't associate with a lowly commoner like me so yes, that's why I decided to leave you because it was for the best, for your own good. I wasn't so cruel to not leave you a form of goodbye but I was also afraid to see you so that's why I left you a letter! So don't you tell me some fucking bull-"

Lin Xinglan couldn't stop herself from talking endlessly, and she didn't care how crazy she looked. Now that she had the chance to talk about her problems in the past she didn't want to miss it.

However, after halfway through her talk, Qiang Jingyi suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him. She was caught off guard and lost her balance so she landed on his broad, hard chest.

Qiang Jingyi took this chance to wrap his arm around her waist to make her sit down on his lap while she was faced towards the front of his body. She was so shocked she couldn't utter a word. He quietly laid his head on her shoulder while his arms locked her around her waist.

"That's what had happened to you...So you left me because you had only cared about me? You were only thinking about me even though you should had only worry about yourself instead..." His voice was quiet and hoarse but at the same it held a certain warm feeling. There was a silent pause before Lin Xinglan began to talk.

"Isn't it obvious? You're my first friend in this life so of course I would care about you a lot... I just didn't want to ruin your future by being with you since I don't have a status other than a lowly commoner with no family background..." Her soft voice went quieter as she finished her last sentence.

Qiang Jingyi raised his head only to see she was actually pouting. He thought she was cute and he had this sudden itchiness to pull her soft cheeks.

Lin Xinglan looked at him in confusion, "Why are you staring at me like that? Do I have something on my face?" As she said that, she touched her face with her small hands.

This made Qiang Jingyi chuckle in response, "Silly. There's nothing on your face but the beauty of yours."

"....."

Meanwhile the two of them had their moment, they totally forgot about the other person who sat with them, he was utterly speechless as his body was frozen from shock. The image of the prince he knew for five years was perfectly destroyed, he no longer saw the ruthless, cold, and calm prince.