"You could've just taken me straight to her," YiHan mumbled. He didn't want to think at all about the whole journey he'd spent in a princess carry. "Why bring me here?"
Darned JingYuan! That one carry ruined all the dignified rage he'd accumulated! How could he properly exude his presence and suppress his rival when they meet later?
JingYuan nodded to Chen Feng, who'd followed them into the room, and the bodyguard turned and left the room. Only then, did JingYuan turn to face YiHan.
"It's too cold in the basement," JingYuan said with a slight smile. "You've been getting injured a lot lately. Your body's weakened. It's best you don't go to a place like that."
YiHan nodded in assent. While it didn't feel nice to be treated as a fragile porcelain doll, he still loved the feeling of being worried over by his lover.
A few moments later, Tao Qi was brought into the room by Chen Feng, held tightly by the arms. YiHan looked up to find a stranger looking back at him. Her face looked the same as before but the gentle innocence had vanished. The Tao Qi he remembered disliked makeup. Her smile was always refreshing and sweet. She always wore a long white dress or skirt. Her entire being exuded with positive energy. Even if she suffered a little or was mildly taken advantage of, she didn't mind. She would constantly have a smile on her face and tell him, "being able to be taken advantage of is a blessing in disguise". She never once hated or begrudged her family for the unjust manner they treated her in. She told him her parents gave birth to her and raised her. Now that she's grown up, it's her duty to pay it back. As YiHan said to JingYuan before, YiHan can't fall in love with such a girl but he had to admit Tao Qi was a good woman that was rare to come by.
The woman before YiHan's eyes however had crumbs of makeup remaining. Her hair was in a mess. Combined with the wrinkly and revealing outfit she had on, she looked extremely haggard. Her face twisted and wrinkled as her eyes shot poisonous hate at him. While she had the same face as the Tao Qi he knew, she was an utterly different person.
"You're not Tao Qi," YiHan growled. His brows balled up. "Who are you?"
Tao Qi had been locked up for a whole day and night. She had never ever gone through this much suffering in her life. The chilly basement nearly gave her a mental breakdown. She didn't understand why. She was the protagonist of his world. Why can't she stand at the top of the world without any pain and savour in the wooing of all the excellent men around her? Instead, she was thrown down into the mud over and over again. Why was her plot armour not activating at all? No matter what she did, nothing went as she wanted! She told that maniac to go kill Chen TianYang. For that, she had to sacrifice a few nights of sex to that crazy and disgusting man! But why was Chen TianYang not dead yet? Why was she the one captured for the crime? Wasn't it Chen TianYang's destiny to die under the wheels of that lunatic? Why was everything different to the novel? This was not how it's meant to be!
Her thoughts kept churning and churning in her mind during the hours she'd spent in that cold underground room. Where did she go wrong? No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find a reason why or how. She thought that as long as she talked to Mu JingYuan, her male lead would rescue her. But Mu JingYuan wasn't even willing to sit and listen to her talk. Before she was done with her speech, he'd turned and left! Why was her fated man this heartless to her?
She could only seek help from Bai YiHan now. She adamantly believed she must be the YiHan's first true love, his perfect dream lover. She never could've imagined she'd resort to begging for help from a dead man. She's the great female lead of this world! How could she accept that?
To her surprise, YiHan wasn't furious or horrified by her ragged state. He actually interrogated her, questioned her. She could feel her patience being shattered.