The Billionaire's Hidden Affection-Chapter 483 - 480: Deeply in Love 11_1

He stared at her, his eyes bloodshot. "Xixi, am I not even allowed to talk to you anymore?"

Her gaze was elusive, never meeting his.

"Xixi, it’s all my fault. It was always my fault for not firmly stopping my mother’s actions. But I’ve learned my lesson now. I will never listen to a word she says again, nor will I let her interfere in our lives in any way... Xixi, please give me another chance..."

She turned away miserably, her voice chillingly indifferent. "Xiaojue, don’t be like this. We’re over."

He took a sudden step forward and tightly grabbed her hand, his voice raspy. "No, how could we be over? Xixi, I’ll take you away. Let’s leave this place. We said we’d go to the United States together—I’ve made up my mind and won’t delay any longer. Last week, I submitted my transfer application to the company. It will just be the two of us, no one else..."

Her eyes were painfully dry, as if from unshed tears, and the bridge of her nose ached with sorrow.

Heaven knew how desperately she had once longed to marry him.

But Yan Xixi remained very cold. "Xiaojue, I don’t love you anymore."

He felt as if struck by lightning. She didn’t love him anymore—this was the first time she had personally told him, "Xiaojue, I don’t love you anymore."

"Xiaojue, I’m sorry, but I won’t go to the United States with you. I don’t love you anymore."

She decisively pulled her hand free, without a moment’s hesitation, and turned to leave.

She had taken only a few steps when Huang Xiaojue suddenly caught up, grabbing her arm forcefully. "Xixi, you’re lying! How could you not love me? You’ve always loved me, always..."

She enunciated each word clearly, "Huang Xiaojue, let’s end it here. I truly don’t love you at all anymore."

His mind buzzed, as if a dull knife were slowly, agonizingly cutting into him.

It was just as Wan Donglin had said: "She was willing to die with me for your sake." Yan Xixi, how could you not love me? How could you?!

He fumbled out a yellowed notebook, brandishing it as if it were courtroom evidence, his voice urgent. "Xixi, you love me. You’ve always loved me, I know it..."

Yan Xixi froze.

She silently took the notebook from him.

It was an account book, the record of a con woman’s exploits—essentially a shameful history—now like evidence presented in court.

She had thought it was lost long ago during the forced demolition and her subsequent move. She never expected it to have been with Huang Xiaojue all this time. She must have dropped it back then, at the friend’s house he had arranged for her after she was evicted from the demolished building.

The sunset in the west had long since grown dim. The golden-red light was slowly receding, casting an achingly pale, desolate beauty through the gaps between the roadside trees, just like the extreme pallor on her slightly raised face.

All old wounds were hidden. Only when the wind lifted her hair did it reveal a faint scar on her high, pale forehead—barely visible, like a delicate beauty mark. It was a remnant from her struggle with Wan Donglin when he held her hostage during the Spring Festival.

He thought, She’s spent her entire life fighting. With lecherous men, with Wan Donglin, with my mother... And I, I’ve never managed to protect her adequately.

It was peak rush hour. Amidst the swirling crowds and the city’s hustle and bustle, no one had a moment to spare for a once-loving couple now at the end of their rope, leaning against a roadside tree.

Yan Xixi flipped through the notebook, page by page.

When her gaze fell on the lines of red markings, it felt as if her heart was suddenly being torn apart.