Due to the vacation given by Lin Qiang, Eleven took the opportunity to visit West Shadow, witnessing something she had experienced many years before.
However, this time she was merely an observer.
Bai Xiaoxiao came out from West Shadowâs campus, with people around whispering and pointing fingers at her.
Someone intentionally bumped into her, uttering curses.
Unlike Eleven, who always remained calm, Bai Xiaoxiao couldnât bear humiliation. She immediately started fighting with the girl.
However, she forgot that she was the target of public ridicule and no one would come to her aid. She ended up encircled, attacked by the girls in public.
Whoever is pitiful must also be hateful in some way. The pathetic situation she was in today was due to her own past wrongdoings. If she hadnât harmed herself, Eleven would have stood by her side despite the worldâs scorn, just like how Feiâer had once stood by her.
But the reality was different, at some point, Bai Xiaoxiao had ceased to consider her as a friend.
Eleven watched for a while. Then, a person appeared.
Jin Xiangbei scared off the girls with his gaze, reaching out his hand to the suffering Bai Xiaoxiao.
Watching as the two got into a car, Eleven took a deep breath and thought, "Itâs none of my concern anymore."
...
Sitting in the passenger seat, Bai Xiaoxiao nervously gripped her hands, occasionally glancing at Jin Xiangbei.
Jin Xiangbeiâs expression was not good, and Bai Xiaoxiao sensed that something bad was coming.
"Why did you mislead me, about Eleven being kept by someone?"
If it were not for Bai Xiaoxiao swaying him in the first place, he wouldnât have misunderstood that Eleven was trading herself for money! How many times had he hurt her during that period?
Bai Xiaoxiao was startled.
He knew?
She knew she couldnât keep this a secret forever, as long as Eleven told him, he would eventually find out. However, Eleven was always stubborn, she never explained even when wrongly accused, preferring to swallow all the bitterness.
Thatâs the Eleven she had known for more than a decade.
"I..."
"As her good friend, donât tell me you didnât know about her marrying Gu Liancheng!" Jin Xiangbeiâs voice was chillingly cold.
She hadnât met Ye Fei back then. How could she have concealed it from Bai Xiaoxiao? She surely needed someone to confide her secrets to.
Bai Xiaoxiao fell silent.
"Because of you, I almost committed an irreversible mistake!"
Luckily, he pulled back in the nick of time, and didnât further hurt Eleven.
Otherwise...
He would have had deep regrets.
Bai Xiaoxiao tightly bit her lips, hesitated and finally called out, "Itâs all because of you!"
Because of him?
"For all these years, didnât you notice anything at all?" Bai Xiaoxiao swallowed her humiliation and turned to look at him, her eyes tearing up, "Jin Xiangbei, canât you really feel, I like you too?"
Jin Xiangbeiâs expression changed.
Bai Xiaoxiao... liked him?
He hadnât noticed it at all.
With a choking voice, Bai Xiaoxiao continued, "I just met you a little later than Eleven... I always think, if I was the one who went to buy ice cream instead of Eleven back then, would everything be different? I regret so much for winning..."
The fate of Jin Xiangbei and Eleven began at the snack shop in West Middle.
It was a hot day, they played rock-paper-scissors to decide who would buy ice cream under the scorching sun. That was the only time she regretted winning.