Standing Next To You-Chapter 532: I have always hated you

Outside the glasshouse, the drizzle had turned into heavy drops, striking the glass walls. The sound of the rain was loud, a relentless pit-pattering. But inside the greenhouse, it was utterly quiet.

Fei Chuan did not know what to say.

What was he supposed to comment on this?

Should he ask her if it was a joke?

Returning to the past... an illness that could be cured by his touch... a ridiculous fate that seemed to come from a children’s book...

None of it made sense.

"I know this is hard to believe. But trust me, it’s real. And I am living proof."

Fei Chuan looked at her in a daze. Bei Sangyun gazed back at him solemnly. He couldn’t see any sign that she was joking. But since when had he ever been able to read Bei Sangyun?

She had always been difficult to read. Not everything she said was what she truly meant, and not everything she showed was the truth. She had led him on before—he couldn’t let it happen again.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he asked slowly, his voice hoarse, "...Returning to the past... is indeed unbelievable. Maybe you’ve mistaken dreams for reality."

"I thought so too at first. But everything that happened in the past is repeating exactly as I experienced it. The things I shouldn’t have known—the future—I know them. Because I have already lived through them." Bei Sangyun’s gaze was steady as she patiently explained, hoping Fei Chuan would understand this absurd idea of ’rebirth.’

"Things only started changing when I changed them. Like with the Lin family—I was supposed to win the heir battle if I had continued fighting for it. But I withdrew and supported Lin Sanju instead."

Fei Chuan studied her. Rebirth... experiencing the future... it was all absurd.

"Have you seen a doctor?" he asked. Maybe... perhaps... her mind was messed up? What if she was sick?

That would be easier to accept. That was far better than the idea that Bei Sangyun was lying to him right now—confusing him, manipulating him with these claims.

Bei Sangyun smiled, but her eyes showed her helplessness. She knew how hard this was to accept. But she believed in Fei Chuan. And she would be patient in guiding him to see the truth.

"I don’t have to. You must be thinking I’m sick in the mind. But I’m not."

"Then why...?" Fei Chuan’s jaw tightened. If she wasn’t sick, then why was she making up this ridiculous story? "...Why? Why are you telling me this?"

"I know it’s hard to understand right now. But I want you to know the reason I left you four years ago. Why I had to reject you so many times. Why I couldn’t hold your hand..." Bei Sangyun began to explain, but her words only had the opposite effect on Fei Chuan.

His hands curled into fists. The anger, the resentment he had bottled up since she left him, seemed to be unraveling, making him lose control.

"...So you left me four years ago because of what a monk said?" Fei Chuan’s eyes darkened with fury. This was the one reason he could never accept. "Are you expecting me to believe that?"

Bei Sangyun had entered his dull life and lit up his world. She had picked up his broken pieces, completed him—only to shatter him again, leaving him more broken than before.

When they reunited, and she kept rejecting him, avoiding his touch—he had nearly lost his mind.

And now he was supposed to believe that he had suffered, drowned in darkness, just because of what some monk had said?

Bei Sangyun was taken aback by his sudden shift in demeanor. She reached for his sleeve, feeling nervous at the crazed look in his eyes. But this was the truth, and she had already decided to tell him honestly.

"I’m telling you this so you can understand. You and I... will only hurt each other if we stay together. I had to leave you because you were slowly dy—"

Fei Chuan suddenly wrenched his arm away, cutting her off. He laughed—a laugh laced with ridicule, irony, and frustration.

"You left me four years ago because of what a scammer said?"

Bei Sangyun curled her empty hands, "He is not a scammer. He is the same monk who conducted a reading when you were born—"

"Exactly!" Fei Chuan’s jaw clenched, his eyes flashing with the madness, his restrain was slowly losing control. "That’s the same scammer who made up some ridiculous story and convinced the very people who were supposed to take care of a four-year-old to abandon him to die! And you listened to that bastard?"

The pain he had concealed for the past four years was laid bare in his eyes.

"What makes you any different from the people who abandoned me and hurt me, Bei Sangyun?"

Bei Sangyun was stunned. She thought they had moved past this. But now, seeing Fei Chuan’s red eyes and the restrained anger erupting from him, she realized—he had been holding onto this all along.

"I..." She was at a loss. She didn’t know what to say or how to comfort him. She could only plead with her eyes. "I might be the same as them... leaving you, hurting you... I’m so sorry..."

"You still don’t understand, Bei Sangyun..." Fei Chuan didn’t want to hear her apology. In fact, he didn’t know what he wanted to hear at all. He was just... mad.

"Your ridiculous story of rebirth... the fate you believe in because of that monk... You blame them, but the truth is, it’s all on you."

Fei Chuan’s teary eyes darkened. "To be honest, it’s laughable how easily you believed me when I said I had forgiven you. It only made me see how unfeeling you are. You forget the past so easily—completely forgetting the ’me’ that you broke. And now that you’ve returned, you think you can just go back to how things were, just because you want to?"

Fei Chuan smirked. "You’re wrong, Bei Sangyun. If you can lie and make up stories, then so can I."

A silver streak of lightning slashed across the sky, followed by a deafening clap of thunder, but neither the two could care about it. The rain grew heavier, and the sky darkened rapidly, as if it had never been sunny just moments ago.

"The truth is, I never forgave you." Fei Chuan’s voice was cold, cutting through the sound of the pouring rain. "Did you really believe I liked you again? Only a fool—a stupid person—would do that, Bei Sangyun. And I am no longer the naive teenager you could drag along at your own pace."

Bei Sangyun’s body trembled. A chill spread through her veins, freezing her in place. It felt as if her soul had turned to ice.

Fei Chuan’s fists clenched, reopening the wound on his finger. Blood began to spill again, a single drop hitting the ground.

Then, he uttered the worst words he could ever say to her.

"I have always hated you, Bei Sangyun—I’ve wished I had never met you."

....

Additional Scene:

It was supposed to be like this.

When he left that year, she thought she would never see him again. After all, she was destined for greatness—striving and fighting her cousins to stand at the top of the pyramid and conquer the family.

As for him... he looked like someone who had already accepted his fate, resigned to mediocrity, forever away from the spotlight of this world.

However, she never expected to meet him again after several years. And that gloomy, thin boy had transformed into a casanova—one admired by both men and women alike.

At first, she felt no resentment or hatred toward him. Instead, it was guilt. In her ruthless pursuit of the top spot, she had made Fei Chuan the target. It was because of her that he had been bullied so cruelly during high school.

But over time, her guilt twisted into irritation, then into hatred.

This man was always in her way.

Snatching her business. Stealing her clients. Taking the spotlight.

He competed with her at every opportunity, ensuring that whatever he did, it would inevitably affect her.

Thanks to him, she never had a chance to truly savor her victories.

Even after reaching the top, her life was anything but smooth. Plagued by insomnia, her health deteriorating, and with no one to confide in, Bei Sangyun’s personality became even more twisted.

Then, one day, she finally snapped.

She cornered him against a wall.

"Why do you keep standing in my way? Is this about what I did to you in high school? You still can’t move on from it?" she sneered.

Fei Chuan remained unfazed. In fact, he seemed to enjoy seeing her in this disheveled, broken state. He smirked.

"It might have been years ago for you," he said, stepping closer, towering over her, "but for me, it was like yesterday. How else could I forget all the things you did to me?"

Bei Sangyun’s eyes darkened. "I never knew you were such a coward—still holding a grudge after all these years." She scoffed. "Fine. Bring it on. I’m not afraid to take you on."

"Good." His voice was dangerously low. "Because my hatred for you runs deep. This won’t end until I see you on your knees, begging me for mercy."

"Hah. That will never happen." Bei Sangyun took a step forward, closing the distance between them. There was no romance in their proximity—only fire, tension, and seething hatred. "And for the record," she added, her voice dripping with venom, "the feeling is mutual. I hate you too."

....

Bei Sangyun smiled at the distant memory as she weaved daisy stems into a bracelet.

Looking back, she and Fei Chuan had been through so much.

In their previous life, they had hated each other to the bitter end—swearing oaths to destroy the other and claim ultimate victory. But in this life... they had become lovers.

She could no longer imagine living as enemies with Fei Chuan, not like before.

Their path wasn’t smooth, and there were still things they had to fix. But she believed they could overcome them.

That they would be together.

The hopelessness in her heart had completely vanished, replaced by hope and unwavering belief.

From afar, she spotted Fei Chuan, standing with his back to her.

She smiled.

That’s right.

The past no longer mattered. Fate could be rewritten.

She believed that in this life, they could start anew—together, in love.