"Shen Zhengfeng used the excuse that you can’t establish your career until you’ve started a family to pressure you into getting married. Then your mom came to see my parents and suggested we have a fake marriage first. Did you know about this?"

"I knew." Shen Yi nodded. "Basically, Shen Zhengfeng was using that ’start a family to establish a career’ thing to threaten me, and my mom’s idea was for me to get married as soon as possible. But I didn’t want to just marry some random person. I only wanted you, so I refused."

Shen Yi’s survival instinct was strong. Seeing Qin Jiao confronting him so directly, he was sure this was what it was about.

Their relationship had just started to thaw, and he didn’t want to push her away again over this.

Sure enough, after hearing him out, Qin Jiao looked up at him. "You refused?"

Shen Yi nodded. "Right, I refused. I said I would do my best to pursue you, but I didn’t want to use this method to emotionally blackmail you. I really want to marry you, but I don’t want you to marry me for a reason like that."

Qin Jiao asked him, "Do you still want to marry me?"

"Yes. I want to make up for all the unhappiness I caused you in our last life. I want to give you a happy and fulfilling marriage."

Qin Jiao studied Shen Yi’s expression; he didn’t seem to be lying. Besides, ever since they had their cards-on-the-table talk, she had thought back on all the little moments they’d shared over the past year. Shen Yi really had been doing everything in his power to be good to her.

Qin Jiao said, "When did you start liking me? Why didn’t you say so in our last life? And if you liked me, why were you always losing your temper and picking fights with me for no reason? Shen Yi, don’t you dare tell me you were like some elementary school kid who bullies the girl he likes."

Shen Yi clutched his water glass, a sheepish look on his face. "I was sick back then, wasn’t I? I couldn’t control my temper. Honestly, sometimes I didn’t want to hurt you, but I just couldn’t stop myself."

This was exactly what confused Qin Jiao.

She said, "But in the year or so we’ve been interacting, you seem to have it under perfect control. I haven’t seen you lose your temper even once."

"Yeah, I’ve been constantly working on it, but I think my temper really has gotten a bit better than before. That time I came back to North City, when my mom and Shen Zhengfeng were getting divorced, I saw a therapist and talked with him for a bit. He said if I could properly control my temper, it wouldn’t develop into a full-blown anger disorder."

Thinking about his condition, Shen Yi was suddenly terrified that Qin Jiao would look down on him. He hurriedly promised, "Jiao Jiao, I swear to God, I will definitely not be as bad-tempered in this life as I was in the last! After we get married, you’ll be the boss at home. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do. Unless you cheat on me, I won’t argue with you no matter what happens!"

"Who said anything about marrying you!"

Shen Yi immediately shot back, "Not right now, but maybe someday."

Qin Jiao was a little speechless. She looked up and saw a few people pressed against the glass window outside, seemingly trying hard to hear what was being said inside. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

When they were spotted by Qin Jiao, the two of them gave an awkward smile, then immediately turned and left.

It was Du Liya and Beidou.

Qin Jiao was sure they couldn’t make out the content of their conversation, only whether their emotions were running high or not.

Qin Jiao said, "Shen Yi, be serious. I have something important to talk to you about. In our last life, I was muddle-headed and you were hot-tempered, and we both ended up in a bad way. Don’t you find that strange? It’s like something was invisibly controlling us in our last life."

Shen Yi was very sharp and understood immediately. "Are you talking about that dream Lin Nian had? That this is a novel?"