“I’m sorry,” He Ran stared into her eyes, “I didn’t expect you to be thrown out because I resisted. If it still hurts, I’ll accompany you to the hospital again, okay?”

“…” Gou An looked at him as if he had turned into a strange creature, “I just went there last night, what do you want me to do there again?”

Are you this bored or what?

He Ran sat down next to Gou An, moved closer, and smelled the familiar scent from her body, which had entered in his nostrils countless times before.

He didn’t know when he had become so accustomed to it.

Gou An did not chase him away. He glanced at her cautiously and wanted to say something with a smile, but he pulled the wound at the corner of his lip and hissed instead.

Gou An turned her head and glanced at him because of the strange noise he made, but He Ran’s mind was full of other things. For example, at such a close distance as they were now, she could definitely see that he was seriously injured, so as a courtesy, shouldn’t she also ask about his injury?

He was looking forward to it, but his expectations were once again dashed.

Gou An turned her head back and began discussing with him the bodyguards in the folder in her hand, her tone natural.

This one was too fat and would get heat stroke in summer; this one was too thin and looked insecure; this one’s baldness was suspected to be contagious; this one didn’t even look like a good person…

She chatted with him enthusiastically about all sorts of things.

But she didn’t say a single word about him.

No concern or complaint, as if nothing unexpected had ever happened last night.

… … advance chapters available @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

At first, He Ran patiently sat beside her and talked to her for ten minutes or so. 

Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore. He Ran got angry but he couldn’t scold her, “You’re so worried about this bodyguard getting heatstroke but why don’t you care about me??”  

He could only ask her in a roundabout way, “Don’t you think that you don’t need a bodyguard?”

Gou An: “…

“I do think so.”

He Ran: “…”

He originally wanted to say, “You have me, I will protect you,” but she didn’t speak according to the script.

The two stared at each other for a long time, one with innocent eyes and the other with fiery eyes. 

In the end, the one with the fiery eyes couldn’t help but say the words, “It’s enough for you to have me. As long as I’m here, I won’t let you get hurt again.”

Gou An stared at him for a few seconds.

When He Ran almost thought that she would either scold him for being shameless (even if it was fine) or feel a little touched, the little miss sneered without warning—

She really laughed, her eyes curved, enjoying hearing something really amusing.

She slowly withdrew her gaze and muttered to herself quietly, “Now I suddenly feel that it’s not such a bad idea to have a bodyguard.”

He Ran felt a vein popping up on his forehead.

He couldn’t beat around the bush with this woman anymore. She was an expert at this and could even move things from the South Pole to the North Pole.

He Ran said, “I’m not here to quarrel with you today, Gou An, I want to make peace with you. Can we not quarrel? I will treat you well in the future and will no longer contact other women. I promise that there will only be you in the future, and I will only protect you—“

Gou An sighed, “No.”

He Ran: “…”

Gou An slammed the folder shut and put on a reasonable tone, “He Ran, I ask you to think about this carefully. When has my bad luck not been directly or indirectly related to you? 

“I was holding Jiaojiao and he was doing perfectly well that day, but you insisted that I go and watch over your inexplicable champagne tower so that it wouldn’t be knocked down. Otherwise, I would not have given Jiaojiao to Lu Wan…”

She paused.

“In the aftermath, there were all kinds of scandals and gossips. I was strung up on the city wall for three days and three nights, everyone saying I was devoted to you and I was jealous of her, and I was being petty about the scholarship. I got something thrown at me during the freshman welcome speech. I only went to Endless Night for your birthday. I was drinking in a bar last night, but I ended up in the police station and then in the hospital. That’s two injuries in a row—”

She counted his sins one by one.

He Ran was left speechless by her words.

“For Lu Wan, it was probably pretty cool for you to smash a bottle of wine and say a few harsh words in front of so many people.” 

Gou An tilted her chin up, her tone as calm as if she was talking about someone else, “But you probably didn’t think for a second about me sitting in the same box, your fiancée— of course, that changed soon—. Anyway, did you think for a moment how embarrassing it was for me to be there with all those people, watching you get angry for another woman.”

Her voice didn’t even sound angry at all, but rather calm, which made He Ran’s heart sink and throb weakly with every punctuation she said, making him more and more desperate.

“Wanna guess what they were thinking, how they were looking at me, how they were silently laughing at me in their hearts?”

“No!”

He Ran could only refute loudly.

In fact, he couldn’t even give any examples to convince her that her conjectures were wrong, and his rebuttal of ‘no’ seemed powerless and empty.

But Gou An didn’t seem to care at all whether he had an excuse or not — had no interest at all whatsoever.

She even smiled at him, sporting a speechless expression on her face that said, ‘You really had to talk about this, didn’t you?’. 

After a while, she said, her voice as casual as ever, “Oh, is that so? Okay, if you say it’s not true, then it’s not true.”

Not taking him seriously at all.

Such perfunctory words were used all in a row.

He Ran lost his voice once again, his hands fell to the sides of his body — he could no longer muster the courage to grab her hand that was so close, nor did he dare to force her to stand in front him like he did before and make her listen to him carefully…

“But you have to understand one thing. Whatever conversation you will have is based on the current situation: Gou Yu’s daughter no longer belongs to you”

Don’t force.

Don’t be willful.

Don’t… touch.

He Ran’s Adam’s apple rolled with difficulty.

“That day at Endless Night, I didn’t mean to abandon you. I didn’t even know when you left the box. I always thought you left with Zhou Yanji and the others—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Gou An interrupted him without hesitation, “Anyway, I did come out safely, thank goodness.”

The two people were standing together, but they seemed to be separated into two worlds by an invisible barrier.

Miss Gou looked calm and composed, while Young Master He looked ashen.

They were still fine a month ago. She would smile and tug on his sleeve and say, “At the coming-of-age banquet at the end of the year, do you want to dance the opening dance with me?”

How did it become like this?

How did it come to this?

He Ran felt like he was punching cotton. No matter what he said, she seemed to be able to respond with a smile. That feeling of powerlessness turned into a heart full of resentment directed at someone he didn’t know who.

He told himself again and again that this was the last chance and he should have a good talk with Gou An.

But her relaxed lips and nonchalant tone seemed to be telling He Ran all the time, ‘It’s too late, you are a complete idiot’.

“Gou An, I—”

He Ran stood up quickly and instantly felt dizzy.

Oh.

He seemed to remember that when he went to the hospital yesterday for a check-up, they told him he had a mild concussion. The doctor said he needed to rest physically, but also in terms of his emotions, he shouldn’t get angry.

He closed his eyes, and his originally purple and swollen face turned visibly pale. He felt dizzy and seemed like he might fall down at any time.

He could only breathe heavily and sit back in the chair. Cold sweat broke out and dripped down his forehead. He suddenly felt that he might really be injured, more seriously than he thought before.

At this time, He Ran felt Gou An poking him.

He opened his eyes.

He looked into a pair of almond-shaped eyes.

She blinked.

“He Ran, instead of talking nonsense here, if you are really free, can you go to Manxianglou in advance and tell them to add candied taro to tomorrow’s family dinner?” Gou An said, “I suddenly want to eat this, but I’m afraid they haven’t prepared the taro in advance and it won’t be served.”

“…”

At this moment, He Ran suddenly felt a surge of despair, realizing that he was powerless to change the situation.

Look at her.

She really didn’t care about him anymore.

She didn’t care at all.

From the Day the Engagement was Broken translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

---

T/N: Taro is root vegetable widely consumed in Oceania; Africa; and Southeast, East, and South Asia. It’s similar to yam or sweet potato. Both the leaves and the root bulbs are edible.

The root bulb part can be boiled, roasted, or—as Gou An likes them—candied. Skinned, cubed, deep fried, dipped until coated in oil-heated sugar.

I feel like I’m being Gou An here. He Ran is miserable and I can only talk about taro 😂

If you’re enjoying my translations, do consider buying me ko-fi and get access to advance chapters as reward. Thank you for your support! ☺️
Chapter 28.1 — Even if He Died, She Would Not Care
Chapter 28.2 — Even if He Died, She Would Not Care