Chapter 712

Especially that sentence:

Emperor Jing once entrusted his other children to Consort Li, saying, "After I am gone, treat them well." Consort Li was angry and refused to agree, speaking disrespectfully, and Emperor Jing harbored resentment in his heart but did not express it.

Before Emperor Jing of Han died, he entrusted his most favored Consort Li to treat his other children well. But Consort Li, due to her narrow-mindedness, did not agree and spoke disrespectfully.

Later, because of this, both Consort Li and her son were deposed.

At noon, Li Heng deliberately read this passage of classical Chinese in front of her; was this not testing her?

Was this not a way of subtly telling her: if she could not be all-encompassing and accept other women, the position of Chief of the Think Tank could not belong to her.

And what did the position of Chief of the Think Tank represent?

It was an existence that could rival Yu Shuheng; its connotation and importance were self-evident.

On one side was her desire to "exclusively enjoy" love, to "exclusively possess one heart"; on the other was his wild ambition, his calculated strategy.

He had painted a picture for her, yet also placed a tightening headband on her; Zhou Shihe was caught in a difficult dilemma.

She had underestimated this man before; he was always smiling at everyone and had no airs, but a single casual move had thrown her heart into chaos.

Suddenly, she wondered: was the scene that just happened in the kitchen, the way he embraced and kissed Sui Sui in the kitchen, part of his design? Was it intentional to let her discover it? To make her jealous? To make her uncomfortable? So that she would lean toward him as quickly as possible and follow the path he had laid out?

The rain grew heavier; when the bewildered Zhou Shihe came to her senses, she used her right hand to brush back her dark hair, discovering that it was already half-wet.

Returning home, she found a dry towel and wiped her hair.

Then, it was just waiting.

Watching the time, it was 6:46.

Time flew by, and just as she was adjusting her emotions and waiting patiently, Li Heng and Mai Sui came to find her.

Hearing footsteps at the stairwell, Zhou Shihe raised her right wrist to check, 7:01.

Had they been kissing for nearly 20 minutes?

Thinking of a certain man's superb kissing skills, Zhou Shihe's chest heaved a few times, and she put away her doubts.

"Shihe, we're planning to go see a movie, let's go together." Just as they reached the second floor, Mai Sui walked over quickly and reached out to hold her arm.

Zhou Shihe had wanted to say she wasn't feeling well and let the two of them go, but upon meeting Li Heng's expectant gaze, she agreed, "Okay."

The cinema was in Wujiaochang; it wasn't large, and there were no new films.

After much picking and choosing, Mai Sui stared at "Red Sorghum" for a while and discussed with them, "How about we watch this movie? I read in the newspaper that last year this film won some big award at the Berlin International Film Festival? Shihe, do you remember what award it was?"

Zhou Shihe said quietly, "The Golden Bear Award. This movie is indeed good."

Li Heng asked, "Have you seen it?"

Zhou Shihe nodded, "Mm, last Spring Festival in Yu Hang with my cousin."

The three reached a consensus, bought tickets, and entered the screening hall for "Red Sorghum."

Coincidentally, they were almost the last group to enter; just as they found seats in the back, the movie began.

Set against the backdrop of Gaomi, Shandong, during the War of Resistance, the film tells the story of the male and female protagonists who, after breaking through feudal traditions and overcoming twists and turns, operate a sorghum winery together, but during the Japanese invasion, both the female protagonist and the winery workers are massacred by the Japanese military for participating in the resistance movement.

Honestly, he had watched this movie with Song Yu in Jingcheng last year.

But now that Mai Sui and the "Great King Zhou" wanted to watch it, he couldn't say "no," so he could only pretend to be watching it for the first time, attentively accompanying the two women.

The three were sitting against the wall.

Mai Sui, who was walking in front, naturally sat on the inside, Zhou Shihe sat in the middle, and Li Heng sat next to Zhou Gu Niang.

During the film, Li Heng's right hand unknowingly touched Zhou Gu Niang's left hand.

At first, Zhou Gu Niang didn't react, staring straight ahead at the screen without blinking.

After waiting a while and seeing no movement, Li Heng grew a bit bolder and then directly grabbed her hand.

Zhou Shihe reacted this time, moving her left hand subtly, wanting to pull it away.

But Li Heng didn't let her, changing from grabbing to holding, tightly clasping her hand.

Zhou Shihe quickly glanced at him, then peeked at her best friend on her right, lowered her eyebrows, and struggled again, but it was useless; she didn't break free, and then her little mouth pouted slightly, giving him a subtle, sideways glare.

Li Heng leaned over to her ear and whispered, "The most perfect love of my life is meeting you."

A ripple stirred in Zhou Shihe's heart, but she squeezed out three words with an expressionless face, "What about Song Yu?"

Li Heng gave an irrelevant answer, "5 minutes."

His words weren't a lie.

If Song Yu was his trial from a past life, then Zhou Shihe was his nemesis in this one.

Song Yu in the past life, Zhou Shihe in this one; the two women were the only ones he had fallen in love with at first sight in both lives, and the only two he had actively pursued.

Li Heng didn't answer her question; Zhou Shihe seemed to have expected it, and after a few seconds of calming her breath, she raised her right wrist to check her watch, 7:38, then refocused her attention on the screen, cold and distant, ignoring him again.

But her left hand still remained in Li Heng's palm, warm.

During the first minute of holding hands, she felt it was particularly difficult; her mind was a blank, and she was worried about being discovered by Sui Sui, so she stared at the screen without actually knowing what was playing.

In the second minute, her mind was still crashing.

In the third minute, she regained some of her senses, peeked at their joined hands without leaving a trace, and then cautiously peeked at him.

As luck would have it, her gaze happened to collide with Li Heng's, and the latter showed his neat, clean teeth and smiled at her very sunnily.

His gaze seemed to have a lethal poison; Zhou Shihe retreated upon contact and looked forward again.

In the fourth minute, for the first 30 seconds, she was watching the movie; for the last 30 seconds, she was silently counting in her heart, counting the seconds.

As a result, in those short 30 seconds, she had counted out her entire youth.

In that blank youth, his shadow was slowly recorded everywhere.

In the fifth minute, perhaps knowing this was the last minute, she stopped struggling, her heart stopped resisting, and she was held securely by him, her heart filled with the words he had just said: The most perfect love of my life is meeting you.

She admitted to herself that she was a very slow-to-warm person when it came to feelings.

But this sentence was like an atomic bomb dropped into the lake of her heart, sweeping away all reluctance and unwillingness in a crushing manner.

A woman's intuition told her that Li Heng was sincere when he said this just now, without any falsity.

But she also knew that this man was balancing things; he had just spent the bridal night with Sui Sui last night, yet tonight he turned around to comfort her.

As her thoughts reached this point, Zhou Shihe's heart, just softened, felt a trace of depression again; she raised her right wrist to check again, 7:43.

The timing was perfect, exactly 5 minutes had passed.

Zhou Shihe moved her left hand calmly, and then it was just waiting...

Li Heng stared at her profile for a while, and finally, very obediently, let go of her hand, whispering, "It's been almost two months since I heard you play the piano; I suddenly really want to hear you play 'Kiss the Rain'."

It would have been better not to mention it; as soon as the piece was mentioned, Zhou Shihe's nimble little mouth couldn't help but pout again. The images of him domineeringly kissing her several times in the past rushed into her mind like a horse without reins, making her face hot and her shame unbearable.

Fortunately.

Fortunately, the screening hall was very dark, and the strangeness on her face wasn't very obvious.

The moment Li Heng's right hand let go of hers, Zhou Shihe inexplicably felt a sense of loss, but she quickly adjusted her mindset, crossed her hands over her lower abdomen, and watched the movie seriously.

"Red Sorghum" was 91 minutes long, but because the content was so exciting, everyone felt it passed in the blink of an eye.

Following the crowd out of the screening hall, Li Heng asked Mai Sui, "Wife, was it good?"

Mai Sui wasn't quite used to him calling her "wife" in public; she looked around hurriedly, then looked at Shihe, who had no reaction, and breathed a secret sigh of relief, "It was good, just too tragic; those workers were almost all killed."

Li Heng sighed, "Indeed, but this was the real War of Resistance."

It was already past 9 o'clock; as the three passed Zhang Bing's braised meat shop, they were surprised to find it hadn't closed yet, and it was very lively inside with shadows moving about.

Li Heng walked over and asked, "Old Zhang, why haven't you closed up and gone back to school?"

At this moment, besides Zhang Bing and Bai Wanying, there were also Wei Xiaozhu, Dai Qing, Wei Sisi, Liu Yanling, Zhou Zhangming, Li Guang, and Tang Dailing in the shop.

Whoa, it was almost a small-scale dormitory social gathering.

Bai Wanying was cleaning paper cranes by the window and interjected upon hearing the voice, "We're going back soon; did the three of you just come from the cinema?"

Li Heng said yes, and looked curiously at the action in her hands.

If he remembered correctly, these paper cranes were folded by Bai Wanying after Li Guoyi's incident.

At the time, she folded a whole jar.

Later, Wei Xiaozhu and Dai Qing also helped fold some.

Seeing his confused expression, Bai Wanying said, "We're planning to find a place in a bit to burn these paper cranes."

Seeing him stunned, Bai Wanying asked, "Didn't you read the newspaper? Li Guoyi was executed today."

Li Heng said, "I haven't had time to read the paper; how could it be so fast?"

Wei Sisi said, "The newspaper said the methods were too cruel, the case was extremely serious, and it was handled strictly and severely."

Bai Wanying nodded, "Actually, it was mainly because Liu An's family exerted pressure; otherwise, how could it be so fast? Following the general procedure, it would have taken at least half a year. Of course, the main thing is that it was handled as a special case during a special period."

Hearing this, Li Heng recalled a sentence Wei Xiaozhu once said: Liu An's family had considerable energy, with people in the provincial government, and apparently connections even higher up. This was also the reason why Liu An's father could remain unscathed after backstabbing Wei Xiaozhu's father.

As for the "special handling during a special period," everyone understood.

The group returned to school together; on the way, Mai Sui and Zhou Shihe kept talking to Wei Xiaozhu.

Li Heng unknowingly fell behind with Dai Qing and asked her, "Manning and Ye Ning are both busy, how do you have time to come here?"

Dai Qing smiled and said, "I'm already the Student Union President; if I had to do everything myself, what would be the difference between me and the freshmen who just entered?"

Li Heng gave a thumbs up, "Very wise; you have the makings of an official."

Dai Qing asked, "Are there any good movies today?"

Li Heng replied, "No, just an old film, 'Red Sorghum'."

Dai Qing said, "There's a big film coming out in a while, 'The Founding of a Republic'; it should be very good."

Li Heng nodded, "I've also seen the news report, but it's still more than 20 days away."

As he spoke, he glanced at Wei Xiaozhu in front and asked in a low voice, "Li Guoyi was executed today; Comrade Wei Xiaozhu's mood wasn't affected, right?"

Dai Qing shook her head, "It's fine. They weren't involved in any romantic relationship; in the past, Xiaozhu was just upset because she was kind-hearted.

It's been almost four months; whether it's Liu An or Li Guoyi, everything has returned to dust, and apart from sighing when she heard the news, Xiaozhu didn't have much of a reaction."

Halfway there, Zhang Bing and Tang Dailing found an empty, deserted spot surrounded by stones. The group watched as Bai Wanying used a match to light the hundreds of paper cranes and burn them.