Chapter Fifty-Eight: Let Me Love You

“How could I ever bear to kill you? I like you so much…” Shen Yanlie whispered, pressing his soft lips to hers, kissing her fiercely. In an instant, every word he had ever spoken seemed to dissolve into thin air, leaving Mai Xijun feeling as if none of it were real—remote, intangible.

He had once told her that he was gradually starting to like her, but she had never understood… She did not know what he meant by those words.

Now, his fiancée, Xie Yunting, had returned. She could no longer turn a blind eye and continue their passionate entanglement. If he could guarantee a safe distance between them, she would no longer harbor expectations, or perhaps she could convince herself that he had never appeared in her life at all and simply go on living…

Whether her indifference was cold or detached, whether she scattered and lost herself, what was truly hers would never escape, and what was not hers would one day become a burden…

In every life, there are people who pass quickly through one’s heart, trampling the green fields, stirring ripples, and then returning to silence… But even if she were destined to lose something, even if she could never recover it, tomorrow she would still need to live calmly, gracefully, and with poise.

At this moment, although she longed to demand a clear answer from him, she seemed to have no standing. Or perhaps he was merely seeking revenge? Revenge for her once telling him to get out of her sight and severing all ties?

But that seemed unlikely… If he truly wanted to take revenge, he had plenty of means and would not need to resort to this.

“You know, I am not the kind of woman who can share a man with another woman!”

Mai Xijun’s arched brows and faint, beguiling smile made her irresistible, her allure and enchantment heightened on this night thick with ambiguous desire. Her beauty made him want to shut out the world, to claim her entirely for himself, hidden away from all others.

The tender depths of her intimacy, aching under his relentless thrusts, felt pain mixed with pleasure. The symbol of his masculinity lingered at her entrance, probing but not entering, testing her, making her squeeze her legs together as if to refuse him, which only amused him. “Are you already impatient?”

“Hmph~” Shen Yanlie snorted coldly, gazing down at the woman beneath him, her face flushed deeply with desire, her eyes languid and seductive.

“Why don’t you fight for it? But… don’t you think I’ll make you beg for me, ask for me?” Shen Yanlie’s lips curled with playful mockery, though his heart was heavy, despite the calm on his face.

All these years, he had hypnotized himself to a godlike state, almost able to forget the past. Yet the woman beneath him always managed, time and again, to stir up memories he had buried. Her every careless word struck deep into his soul. How he longed to forget it all…

Mai Xijun bit her lower lip, her fearless eyes blazing at Shen Yanlie. “Give me clarity!”

Shen Yanlie suddenly laughed, his resolve matching hers. “Say you want me, and I’ll give it to you!”

The emptiness within her and the strange sensations made her restless. She tried to rise, but Shen Yanlie pressed her shoulders down. “Let me love you. Say you need me!”

Mai Xijun felt an urge to cry but no tears came, her fragile, sorrowful expression betraying her discomfort.

She had once asked him to love her, and he said he never could. Now he said, “Let me love you.” What did he mean by “love”? Love on the bed? She wasn’t so desperate as to need a man, and certainly not him in particular!

Her lips curled in reluctant, dim sorrow—a bitter smile. He was the one who said he didn’t love her, and now he was the one claiming he did. He played with her, capricious, raising her to the heavens, only to smash her to pieces.

“Before you fall in love with me, I absolutely will not love you!” With biting sarcasm, Mai Xijun faced him, unyielding, her delicate face showing neither awe nor fear.

In a woman’s life, the most important thing is to live well. If she can live well, all past grievances, all hurts, all scorn, every debt of love and hate, will one day become mere laughter. The pain, the tears shed before, are nothing more than inevitable trials of life.

Now, after tasting the betrayal of love, she no longer wished to expose her true heart so openly. At the very least, she needed to keep something back, not let love be her entire existence. Because only then, when she lost him suddenly one day, she wouldn’t lose everything.

Love cannot be the sole spiritual sustenance of a person’s life; love needs to have a spiritual foundation.

The kind of woman who most attracts men is always the one who can live well even after leaving a man—though it may hurt, time heals all… Perhaps, years later, when that tremor of the heart is gone, you still feel your love for the one you once cherished is as profound as ever, steadfast to the end. But love should belong to two people, a joy shared. So, in a woman’s life, what matters most is to live well.

“Is that so?” Shen Yanlie’s lips tugged into a disdainful smile, his face dark and sinister, eyes fixed on Mai Xijun’s flushed cheeks.

“No!” Mai Xijun resisted, squeezing her legs tighter. Shen Yanlie’s long leg lifted gently, immobilizing her, his fingers deftly teasing her most sensitive places, alternately gentle and rough. Mai Xijun arched her body, unable to endure any longer, desire nearly consuming her.

“Say you want me, and I’ll give it to you!” Shen Yanlie persisted in his demand. In truth, everything he did was to please her. He was never short of women, but he didn’t want unpleasantness with this one before him.

She was special to him. Beyond the times she had risked her life for him, her latent qualities had long since stirred something inside him. In the five years since Xie Yunting left, he had never been moved by any other woman—not for anyone.

She had angered him repeatedly, and when he was close to mental collapse and needed her by his side, she coldly pushed him away, severing all ties, wanting nothing more to do with him. He, so proud…

As outsiders said, if he truly wanted to destroy someone, he wouldn’t need to exert much effort; a flick of his finger, a single command, and her life would be ruined forever. Just like the Lu Corporation—after years as a business legend, it vanished completely in mere days. But…

With her, he played tricks and schemes, standing before her when she needed him most, lifting her chin, straightening her spine. Even though she had spoken such harsh words to him—and indeed, for a moment, he had wanted to crush her bones, break her wings, so she could never escape his grasp—he had never really carried out those cruel intentions…