Rebirth: My Childhood Sweetheart Came into My Arms

He Ningqiu took a half step back. "I... I don't have anything on my phone, nothing interesting..."

"Torch" wasn't in a hurry; it just watched him quietly, its outstretched right hand remaining motionless.

During the stalemate, a crowd had already gathered outside the door.

Jingran: "Stop pretending, we all saw it, you photographed the manuscript of the Fire Seed."

Jiang Nanqiao: "Why don't you hand over your phone right now so Mr. Fireseed can delete the photos himself?"

He Ningqiu kept shaking his head, muttering "no" over and over again.

He Ziyu couldn't stand his dawdling any longer, so he simply walked up to him, snatched the phone from his pocket, and handed it to "Torch".

"He Ziyu, you..." He Ningqiu wanted to say something, but when he caught sight of the people gathered at the door, he immediately fell silent.

There are just too many people on the other side; even if he had three heads and six arms, he couldn't defeat them...

"Tinder" opened the photo album, and her fingers slowly tightened around her phone.

Perhaps due to time constraints, He Ningqiu did not photograph the entire content, but he included every single page of the story outline and synopsis, and even the creative ideas he deliberately included were brought out.

"What are you trying to achieve by taking these photos?" Huozhong stared at He Ningqiu, his voice trembling slightly.

Faced with overwhelming evidence, He Ningqiu was powerless to refute it and could only admit, "I am very interested in your work and want to take pictures of it to study it when I get back..."

"Research?" Upon hearing these two words, "Spark" couldn't help but laugh. "My work hasn't even been released yet, and I haven't told you the story. You don't even know if it's good or bad, and you want to research it? May I ask what you plan to research, how you plan to research it, and what you'll do after you've done it?"

"What else can you do? Of course, you can plagiarize it and use it yourself." Jiang Nanqiao scoffed. "If you're just interested in Mr. Huozhong's work, you can just tell him to his face. Mr. Huozhong isn't a stingy person; he'll let you see it if you want."

He Ningqiu was fiddling with her hands, her head almost buried in her chest.

Jing Ran: "These things were painstakingly conceived by Huozhong. You think you can just take them away like that? Your skin is thicker than a shoe sole."

Bei Yao: "Baby, don't insult the soles of my shoes."

He Ningqiu felt sad and aggrieved listening to these sarcastic remarks. After a moment, when she looked up again, her eyes were already filled with tears.

"Do you think I wanted this? It's all because of He Ziyu! He doesn't like me, this little brother who suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He's always targeting me. I said I wanted to see the Fire Seed comics, but he wouldn't let me. He even pointed his finger at me, cursed at me, and threatened me..."

As He Ningqiu spoke, tears fell onto the floor in a steady stream.

He Ziyu was stunned by his incredible acting skills and almost doubted that he had actually done such a thing.

"I had no choice but to sneak over here..." He Ningqiu pursed her lips, looking as pitiful as could be. "And I swear, I really didn't intend to plagiarize Huozhong's work. After all, if I did, you would have found out immediately. How could I be so stupid?"

He Ningqiu was a master at feigning helplessness. Seeing his pitiful appearance, He Ziyu was a little worried that others would actually believe his lies.

"Yes, of course you're not that stupid." He Ziyu walked up to him, looked him straight in the eyes, and said, "Plagiarism is something that no one with a brain would do, let alone you."

"Yeah, so..."

"But you can take the core content of this comic and patch it up to make it your own." He Ziyu didn't give him a chance to explain. "Or you can give the outline to someone else and have them write it for you. That way, even if we really investigate, we won't be able to trace it back to you."

Upon hearing this, a hint of fear flashed in He Ningqiu's eyes.

He felt that He Ziyu was like a tapeworm in his stomach, able to know exactly what he was thinking.

This is terrifying!

"Don't slander me. I didn't mean it that way at all, and it's true that you threatened me." He Ningqiu was unwilling to be crushed like this, so she decided to fight to the death and continued to smear He Ziyu. "Before I came to the He family, I heard that you were arrogant and selfish. At first, I didn't believe it and spoke up for you in front of outsiders. Now I realize that I was too naive."

To make her words more convincing, He Ningqiu took out the white lotus pendant from her neck.

"This is the pendant you gave me. I've always worn it, not because it's particularly pretty, but because I consider you my brother, my dear brother. So no matter how you humiliate me, I accept it."

When the crudely made white lotus pendant was revealed, everyone present fell silent, and Jiang Chengyu even frowned almost imperceptibly.

Seeing the subtle change in Jiang Chengyu's expression, He Ziyu immediately had a bad feeling.

Jiang Chengyu accompanied him to buy the pendant, so at least He Ningqiu wasn't lying about this, if Jiang Chengyu really believed him...

Before He Ziyu could finish imagining what was going on, he saw Jiang Chengyu walk straight over, his expression showing a hint of displeasure.

He Ningqiu thought Jiang Chengyu was moved by his heartfelt words, so he quickly pressed on, saying, "Brother Yu, I know you and my brother have a very good relationship, but you mustn't be fooled by him. He actually..."

"Are you finished?" Jiang Chengyu stopped in front of He Ningqiu, coldly interrupting him.

"I..." He Ningqiu hesitated, then nervously swallowed.

He had never seen Jiang Chengyu so serious before; he exuded a chilling aura, and his gaze was so cold it seemed capable of killing.

"I've known A-Yu for over ten years. No one knows him better than me. Arrogant and selfish—are you sure those words describe him?"

Seeing Jiang Chengyu standing firmly on He Ziyu's side, He Ningqiu felt even more aggrieved.

"Everything I said is true! He just doesn't like me and doesn't want me to stay in the He family, that's why..."

Before I could finish speaking, I felt a tightness around my neck.

Jiang Chengyu grabbed He Ningqiu by the collar with his left hand, ignoring the many people watching, and threw him onto a chair next to him, saying coldly, "Do you know, I've been putting up with you for a long time."

He Ningqiu looked bewildered upon hearing this.

"Brother Yu, what did I do wrong? Why are you being treated like this too..." Being treated like this by the person she liked, He Ningqiu felt like dying. "I know, it must be He Ziyu. He's the one who's smearing me behind my back, isn't he?"

Jiang Chengyu looked at him and sneered, "Do you know what's the most pathetic thing for a person?"

He Ningqiu: "..."

"The most pathetic thing about a person is that they never know how to look for the reasons within themselves." Jiang Chengyu looked down at him with an extremely cold expression. "When you chose to hang out with Lan Yuan and Liu Wen, you should have known that you had already drawn a line between yourself and us. At this time, playing the victim card and saying that you treat him like a brother is disgusting, even if it doesn't disgust you."

He Ningqiu: "No, Brother Yu, no..."

"Whether in the past, present, or future, I only believe in A-Yu, and I will always stand by his side. If I hear you slander him again, I guarantee that you will suffer the same fate as Lan Yuan."

After Jiang Chengyu finished speaking, He Ningqiu was completely dumbfounded.

He slumped in the chair, his pale face streaked with tears.

Caught red-handed stealing, and then Jiang Chengyu said those things to him, He Ningqiu felt like the sky was falling.

After a while, He Ziyu pulled Jiang Chengyu away and said to him, "I'll take your phone first. I'll give it back to you after I've deleted the photos."

After saying that, he turned and left the room.

……

After everyone had left, Jiang Nanqiao appeared in front of He Ningqiu, humming a little tune.

When He Ningqiu was acting out a tragic scene, she was actually a little worried. After all, she had read many stories about innocent girls framing their lovers, and she was afraid that the melodramatic scenes in novels would actually happen in real life.

As it turned out, she was overthinking it.

Jiang Chengyu not only didn't believe it, but also lectured the little white lotus, which was absolutely scathing!

"Why aren't you going with them? What are you doing here?" He Ningqiu asked Jiang Nanqiao, her eyes slightly swollen.

"Of course, I'm keeping an eye on you, you little white lotus," Jiang Nanqiao said, half-sitting on the table and lightly tapping the surface with her fingertips. "What if you suddenly have a change of heart and destroy the workspace we've worked so hard to set up?"

He Ningqiu sneered and remained silent.

Now that things had come to this, he knew that no amount of explanation would make a difference.

He Ziyu and those people were like a tangled rope, impossible to untangle or cut. He alone could not possibly fight them off.

He Ningqiu felt increasingly distressed, as if the battle had already been lost before it even began.

A moment later, he stood up from the chair and rushed out of the room.

"Hey, where are you going?" Jiang Nanqiao jumped down from the table and chased after him to the corridor, only to find that he had already disappeared.

……

the other side.

He Ziyu asked Jingran and Beiyao to help calm "Fire Seed" down, and then pulled Jiang Chengyu to the bedroom.

"Brother Yu, thank you for believing in me." He Ziyu looked at Jiang Chengyu with eyes full of gratitude.

Although he felt from the bottom of his heart that Jiang Chengyu should not and could not possibly misunderstand him, he was, after all, someone who had been hurt by his closest relatives in his past life, and his inner vulnerability would be exposed from time to time. Just now, he almost thought that he was going to be pushed into the abyss by He Ningqiu just like in his past life. For a moment, he even had difficulty breathing.

Fortunately, Jiang Chengyu did not disappoint him.

"Don't say things like that again," Jiang Chengyu said, gently smoothing He Ziyu's hair with his left hand. "I may seem like I have a good temper, but I'm actually very stubborn. Once I make a choice, I'll stick to it. You're the most important person to me, unless one day you stab me in the back, or I die..."

Upon hearing this, He Ziyu immediately and instinctively covered Jiang Chengyu's mouth.

"Pah, pah, pah! Don't talk nonsense! We'll all live to be a hundred!"

He had kept the fact that Jiang Chengyu had lost his life for him in his past life buried deep in his heart, never daring to touch it. Now, hearing the word "death" immediately stirred up bad memories again.

Jiang Chengyu was a little puzzled by He Ziyu's exaggerated reaction.

This guy used to talk about death and life all the time, why is he reacting so strongly today?

Just as he was wondering what was going on, He Ziyu suddenly stood on tiptoe, moved his right hand away, and kissed him on the lips.

"Jiang Chengyu, promise me something."

"What?"

He Ziyu looked at him, his gaze soft and devout, "Promise me, you will live longer than me in this life, you will..."