Chapter 979: Every Time It Passes by Ruthlessly at My Side

“Jin…” Baili Xia clenched her palm tightly, her fist pressed to her lips, forcefully suppressing something.

If she didn’t do this, she feared she might not be able to hold back her tears.

Jin, why did you have to be so good to her?

But why now?

After more than a year, she and he couldn’t go back to the past, and now, there was Uncle in her heart.

The better Jin treated her, the more she felt the cruel inevitability of the world.

If she hadn’t met Uncle, if that year had never happened, could everything have been perfect?

Dongfang Jin just ruffled her hair and smiled soothingly.

“Let’s go to the beach for a walk.

Let’s continue picking up shells and catching crabs.”

“I don’t want to see your tears; I want to see you happy and joyful every day.”

He started the car and slowly moved forward.

His gentle voice still lingered around her ears like the wind, not dispersing for a long time.

“Being alive, you can either be happy for a day or unhappy for a day.”

“Life isn’t as hopeless as you think; what’s most important is that you learn to bravely face it.”

“If you don’t have enough courage on your own, then face it with me.”

“I’ll be by your side, accompany you, and walk onwards with you.”

“Trust me, girl; trust me, I can make you happy too.”

…

In the following days, Baili Xia had a fairly calm life.

Mu Xiaojiu hadn’t come to look for her again; since that night, he seemed truly angry.

Even on the odd occasion when they bumped into each other in the yard, he just passed by her with a cold face.

Even when she called out to him as ‘Uncle,’ there was no response.

But since he was an elder in the household and she was a junior, politeness required her to greet him anyway.

Yet, every time he walked by her so indifferently, her heart ached.

However, she really didn’t want to start any conflicts with him these days.

The second round of the competition among the Eight Big Families was about to start soon, and any issues could be dealt with after it was over.

Lately, the vomiting had become slightly better, but sometimes she still felt nauseated to the point of discomfort.

But it was always dry heaving—nothing real ever came up.

This symptom could easily lead to speculation, so recently Baili Xia preferred not to have much contact with people.

During classes, she kept a bag in her purse and sat in the most secluded corner.

She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to help it and would start heaving right there in the classroom.

Fortunately, this had only happened once or twice over many days, and not again after that.

As for other times, if she wasn’t in class, she would hide in her room.

Now unable to help her brother at Feixue, she found some freelance illustration jobs online and was able to earn a bit of extra money.

Life drifted by at a leisurely pace, but the only change was that she hadn’t seen Wu Ming again.

She still went to the back mountain every night, and despite her lack of strength, she practiced the martial arts forms Wu Ming had taught her every night.

But where had Wu Ming gone these past few days?

Had he left on some task away from this family?

Was Wu Ming one of Uncle’s men too?

He never talked about himself, and she never asked.

But his absence these several days filled her with some doubts.

That night, just as usual, she rode Shengxue to the usual spot on the back mountain where she practiced her forms.

Wu Ming was still a no-show; the whole back mountain was desolate, with only her presence.

Without him, the back mountain felt too emptily vast.