On a Stormy Night, the Campus Belle Knocked on My Door Seeking Shelter
Chapter 35: Lover, Enemy

Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Lover, Enemy

When Su Yuqing snapped out of her daze, she suddenly realized Chen Mo was no longer by her side.

She instinctively panicked and started looking around.

"Looking for something?" Chen Mo suddenly appeared from behind her, producing a skewer of candied haws as if by magic. "Have a taste."

"But I’m already full." Looking at Chen Mo, Su Yuqing rubbed her small belly, her lips curving into a smile that was equal parts happy and distressed.

"Let me check." Chen Mo chuckled and reached out. His gesture made Su Yuqing shyly take a step back, but then, afraid he might think she disliked his touch, she froze.

Chen Mo hadn’t actually intended to touch her; he was just teasing. He pulled back his hand, a slight smile playing on his lips as he said, "It’s dessert. There’s a separate stomach for that. Besides, hawthorn aids digestion."

As Chen Mo held the candied hawthorn to her lips, Su Yuqing couldn’t resist taking a small bite. The moment she broke through the crunchy sugar coating, a burst of sweet and sour flavor exploded on her tongue, perfectly mirroring the fluttering in her chest.

She stole a glance at Chen Mo, worried that he might have been bothered by her recoiling earlier.

But amid the crisp crackle of the sugar shell, she saw Chen Mo reach out and gently wipe a crumb from the corner of her mouth. The touch of his finger was soft and warm.

As the two shared this sweet moment, Chen Mo suddenly spotted a familiar figure squatting nearby.

"Zhou Hao? What are you doing here?"

As he spoke, Chen Mo followed Zhou Hao’s gaze and saw he was looking at a girl with a ponytail who was helping her father at a barbecue stall.

Hearing Chen Mo’s voice, Zhou Hao froze for a second before quickly trying to laugh it off. "Oh, hey. A friend invited me out. I’m just waiting for them."

Seeing the girl with the ponytail, it all came flooding back to Chen Mo.

He remembered what had happened to Zhou Hao in the previous timeline.

In the previous timeline, Zhou Hao and this girl had gotten together. But her father, having heard about Zhou Hao’s bad reputation, forbade his daughter from being with him.

Zhou Hao had tried his best to change, hoping to alter the father’s opinion of him. But the man was a firm believer in the adages "you can know a man’s face, but not his heart" and "a leopard can’t change its spots." As a result, he had absolutely no trust in Zhou Hao.

The girl, however, witnessed firsthand how hard Zhou Hao was trying to change for her.

Her father didn’t like his long hair, so he cut it short.

Her father didn’t like his tattoos, so he had them removed as best he could. Although they couldn’t be completely erased, he had made the effort.

Her father disliked the crowd he ran with, so he slowly distanced himself from them, keeping only a few real friends. In truth, he’d never had many genuine friends anyway. He was well aware that most of them were just a bad influence; they had all banded together in the beginning out of a need for security, acting tough to protect themselves.

Her father didn’t like him smoking, so he quit.

Her father hated his punk-like style, so he started dressing in a clean-cut way.

But no matter what he did, in her father’s eyes, he was still a wolf in sheep’s clothing trying to prey on his daughter.

The girl had a strong personality of her own; otherwise, she wouldn’t have caught Zhou Hao’s eye in the first place.

The boy she liked was doing everything he could to change for her, yet her father still refused to trust him time and time again. Eventually, the girl couldn’t take it anymore.

So, in a fit of pique, she ran away to live at Zhou Hao’s house.

Zhou Hao’s mother was, of course, thrilled that her son had found a girl willing to stand up to her own father for him. However, she couldn’t bear to see the girl have a complete falling out with her family. She often urged the girl to go home and try to talk things over with her father again.

But whenever she thought about how unreasonable her father was, how he completely refused to acknowledge Zhou Hao’s efforts or see the good in him, she defiantly refused to go back.

Seeing this, Zhou Hao’s mother could only let the girl stay for a few days, hoping she could talk to the girl’s father and help him understand his daughter’s feelings.

But unexpectedly, not only did the girl’s father show no understanding, he went straight to the police. He showed up at their door, screaming that Zhou Hao had ruined his daughter’s virtue and that he was going to have him charged with rape.

The incident caused a huge commotion that day, drawing all the neighbors out of their homes to watch.

Zhou Hao’s mother already suffered from uremia and its related complications, including electrolyte imbalance, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Her health was extremely fragile.

Seeing her son falsely accused of rape and about to be taken away by the police, she was overwhelmed. The thought of how this would destroy his reputation at school was too much to bear. She became so agitated that her blood pressure skyrocketed, putting immense strain on her heart. In that moment, she collapsed and died from cardiovascular complications, brought on by the extreme distress.

In that instant, the girl’s father was dumbfounded. He had only meant to scare Zhou Hao, to make him leave his daughter alone.

He had never imagined it would actually cost someone their life.

When he saw the utterly grief-stricken Zhou Hao look up at him with a murderous glare, he panicked.

The two families, who could have become one, became mortal enemies from that moment on.

Zhou Hao’s mother had been his greatest emotional anchor, the person he loved most in the world besides the girl. And just like that, she had been hounded to her death.

One can only imagine the intensity of the resentment and rage in Zhou Hao’s heart.

If the girl hadn’t thrown herself in the way, he would have tried to kill her father on the spot, police or no police.

After something like that, their relationship was naturally doomed.

Eventually, the girl’s father relented—whether out of remorse or because he finally bothered to learn about Zhou Hao’s true character—and gave them his blessing to be together.

But it was far too late.

Every time Zhou Hao looked at his mother’s photograph, he was reminded of what the girl’s father had done.

He couldn’t live with himself, being with the daughter of the man who had killed his mother.

In the end, they broke up.

He had lost his mother, and he had lost the woman he loved.

Not long after, Zhou Hao dropped out of school and moved away from the city.

Chen Mo didn’t know where he went or what he did in the years that followed.

But Chen Mo knew how it all ended. Years later, while investigating a case, he had run into Zhou Hao. The man he met was a shadow of his former self.

After the tragedy that destroyed his family, he had nothing left to live for. He was like a walking corpse.

He didn’t know why he was alive; he just existed. He had become a homeless man, dressed in rags and sleeping under bridges. At first, Chen Mo hadn’t even recognized him.

When Chen Mo spoke to him, he would only repeat a single phrase: he remembered the man who killed his mother, and he had to get his revenge.

As for why he could never carry it out, he had forgotten.