My Ex-Husband Is Proposing Again

Chapter 534: Chapter 534: No longer as before: I was the one who caused your suffering_1

At noon, Su Hongxing headed to the restaurant where she and Qiao Qiao had arranged to meet.

From a distance, she spotted Qiao Qiao sitting near a window, appearing heavy-hearted.

“What’s so interesting outside?” Su Hongxing took a seat across from Qiao Qiao, attempting to lighten the mood.

Snapping back to reality, Qiao Qiao forced a smile, “Let’s eat first. Otherwise, I’m afraid the sight of me will spoil your appetite.”

Overcome by amusement, Su Hongxing responded, “You make it sound so serious – now you’ve scared me.”

As they chatted over lunch, Su Hongxing felt a wave of nostalgia for their carefree university days. However, time had flown by, and they were now both 27, far from the young girls they once were.

After they had almost finished their meal, Su Hongxing looked at Qiao Qiao, “You’ve kept me waiting long enough. It’s time you told me.”

Looking at Su Hongxing’s radiant smile, Qiao Qiao found herself unable to return the gesture.

“Three years ago, at the event where Ye Qilan was selecting his future wife, the reason you were there was because I drugged you with sleeping pills and personally delivered you to Ye Qilan. Without me, you would never have met Ye Qilan, and would not have suffered so much at his hands. Su, I was the architect of all your suffering. I deserved everything that’s happened to me. Do you understand? I’m the one who ruined you…”

Qiao Qiao lowered her head, too scared to look up at Su Hongxing.

After a prolonged silence, Qiao Qiao looked up and hesitantly asked, “Do you hate me a lot?”

Su Hongxing recalled numerous occasions on which Qiao Qiao had apologized; she hadn’t understood then, but now she got it – Qiao Qiao had been apologizing for this all along.

“I only want to know why you had me delivered to Ye Qilan. How did you know for certain that he would choose me? Was Ye Xiandong responsible for this?” Su Hongxing questioned calmly.

What Qiao Qiao didn’t understand was that, even without her involvement, Su Hongxing would have met Ye Qilan sooner or later. After all, Ye Qilan, who held memories from a previous life, had proclaimed that she was his predestined lover since childhood.

Their bond spanned three lifetimes; she couldn’t escape it, let alone avoid it.

This life, she seemed to have altered her destiny, but at the same time, the destinies of many others, including Qiao Qiao’s, had also shifted because of her.

All she wanted to know was whether this had been a trap set by Ye Xiandong from the very beginning.

“I don’t know who it was either. The person merely instructed me to deliver you to a designated location, clarifying that it was the venue for Ye Qilan’s wife-selection event. They assured me that if I could accomplish this, they could make Ye Xiandong notice me. I betrayed you for the sake of my own love. Only now do I realize that what I perceived as love was nothing more than my own wishful thinking. Isn’t this retribution?”

Su Hongxing kept a straight face for a while before finally bursting out laughing, “What’s done is done. The relationship between Ye Qilan and me isn’t that simple. Even if you hadn’t intervened, we would have met sooner or later. Who knows? Perhaps your actions have even saved me from a disastrous fate.”

She clasped Qiao Qiao’s hand, “Stop blaming yourself. We must move on. Now that you know Ye Xiandong isn’t the one for you, shouldn’t you hasten the process of divorcing him?”

Qiao Qiao stared at Su Hongxing in disbelief, “Su, you don’t hate me?”

She had thought Su Hongxing would completely sever ties with her and they would no longer be friends.

“Hating others is exhausting because you didn’t know that Ye Qilan would take a liking to me, or that I would encounter so much pain because of him. Yes, our friendship was not as important as your love, which did hurt me somewhat, but didn’t I harm you too? If it wasn’t for me, would Cao Shiyu have been interested in your man?”