Chapter 262

Listening to just one story from Ning Ning is better than reading ten years’ worth of books.

In Ning Ning’s nonsense, she managed to encompass nearly every trope of tragic, intense love stories.

All ancient times male and female protagonists could vaguely see a reflection of themselves in her words.

What’s more, she spoke so fluently and in such detail, without any hesitation or delay.

Xie Yu could not find any other explanation except that these things really happened to her.

Xie Yu, indignant, said, “The deeply affectionate are always the ones hurt the most. Zhen Xiao is truly unworthy of being called a righteous sect!”

As he spoke, he lowered his lashes with a hint of mockery, glancing toward the right side of the table.

Besides the few participants in the trial and the Demon Lord Xie Yu, there were two women seated at the table.

These were the two women Ning Ning had seen during the concubine selection.

According to Xie Yu’s introduction, the woman on the left, wearing a gold-threaded moonlight dress, was Gu Zhaozhao, originally a maid of the Zhou family.

She had stayed with him through thick and thin during his impoverished days, their love deep and unwavering, and he vowed never to let her down in this life.

Ning Ning listened, her heart thumping rapidly.

When she heard “deep and unwavering love,” she thought back to the scene of countless beauties at the concubine selection today and almost laughed out loud.

As for the woman on the right, dressed in white, she was Miss Zhou Yimei of the Zhou family.

Xie Yu clearly didn’t want to acknowledge her, but he just as clearly wanted to humiliate her.

With a cold, disdainful curl of his thin lips, he introduced her by name: “Once an unattainable Zhou family young miss, now nothing more than my private property.”

The term “private property” was so archaic, it would be hard for anyone to take it in stride.

It was unimaginable that someone could say such lines with a straight face.

Ning Ning was so embarrassed she almost curled her toes in her shoes and gave this petty and trash man a set of military boxing on the spot, so that the physically and mentally abusive and forced lover could feel the ultimate care from socialism.

At this moment, the reason Xie Yu glanced at Zhou Yimei while talking about “those with deep feelings being the most hurt” was obvious.

He was born into low status, raised as a powerless slave in the Zhou family, and the only person he ever longed for was this unattainably distant young miss.

But alas, his love was unrequited.

Not only was Zhou Yimei indifferent to him, but after he suggested they elope, she betrayed him—

At this point, Ning Ning was confused again.

Even if Xie Yu had given tenfold, a hundredfold of his sincere heart, and even if Zhou Yimei was cold as iron and never moved by him, no matter how you looked at it, she didn’t seem to have done anything terribly wrong.

Even a three-year-old knows that effort doesn’t always yield results.

Xie Yu’s deep affection for Zhou Yimei—was she supposed to fall in love with him just because of that?

Besides “deep and unwavering love,” there’s also a saying: “A toad wants to eat swan meat.”

If the swan doesn’t like him, it doesn’t like him. Can you force her to be with a knock-off frog prince?

As for Xie Yu, to put it bluntly, he was selfish.

He thought he was the center of the universe, assuming that pouring his heart out and relentlessly chasing after her would inevitably bear fruit, but in the end, the only person he touched was himself.

Upon hearing Xie Yu’s words, Zhou Yimei turned pale and lowered her head in silence.

From the start of the banquet until now, she hadn’t taken a single bite.

“This lady’s story aside, as for—”

Xie Yu, deeply immersed in his lovesick delusions, looked to Ning Ning as if he believed her completely.

He raised his eyebrows and turned his gaze toward Bai Ye, who was sitting beside them, “And this young Taoist, what’s your story?”

Bai Ye was devouring his meal when he froze at the question, looking up with his mouth full of rice.

“I…”

Bai Ye slowly swallowed the rice and raised his head slightly to look at the sky.

With Ning Ning having already paved the way, he knew exactly what to do.

“That woman’s name was He Xiaochen.”

From outside the mirror, the elders all let out a disgusted “ugh” simultaneously.

The wrongfully implicated He Xiaochen: ???

“For twelve years, I loved her humbly, but in order to take the fall for the man she truly loved, she had me thrown into prison and took one of my kidneys.”

Bai Ye clenched his fist and slammed it onto the table, “She said she’d marry me once I was out, but it was all a lie! My sincere heart was torn apart by her, left bleeding… so I ran away. But before I left, with my last shred of dignity, I told her: He Xiaochen, this time, I’m the one who stops loving you first.”

Why is there another kidney removal story?

Xie Yu’s gaze grew increasingly complicated as he looked at Bai Ye, initially wanting to offer some words of comfort.

But then came the loud bang of a fist on the table.

“She never knew… She doesn’t know a thing!”

Bai Ye gritted his teeth, his eyes reddening slightly, “It was me who made a lifelong vow with her as a child. It was me who took care of her for three days and three nights in that cave—not my twin brother! She had been mistaken all along!”

This guy’s a pro!!

Caught off guard by this twist, Ning Ning exclaimed in her heart that this guy was an expert.

In just two brief statements, Bai Ye masterfully incorporated the tropes of prison plot, kidney-removal plot, betrayal plot, white moonlight plot, and the classic mistaken identity—an absolute masterclass in dog blood plot, leaving people in admiration again and again.

Gu Zhaozhao, after hearing this, gave a small, awkward smile, the amusement in her eyes quietly fading away.

“How could there be such a heartless and ungrateful person in the world!”

Xie Yu, easily wounded by emotional turmoil, turned pale at the tragic entanglements in the story.

“Love is truly useless. No matter how deep your love, if the other side is just playing along, we’re still hopelessly devoted. In the end, if someone doesn’t love you, they just don’t.”

Bai Ye kept nodding but was inwardly baffled:

“What kind of pig talk is this guy saying? Do people in the real world actually say such cringeworthy lines? Or is he trying to perform a freestyle rap like little monk Yonggui?”

This Futu realm is mainly characterized by deep love and sadomasochistic love, and Xie Yu probably has never encountered anyone better at pouring dog blood than these people. For a moment, he was overwhelmed by an excess of information that couldn’t process and froze in place.

After a brief pause, Xie Yu gave up on this bunch of chaotic ghosts and demons, charging headlong toward the increasingly twisted storyline.

“You’ve all been hurt by love. Now that we’ve come to Chongling, why not drown our sorrows in wine?”