Chapter 253 - Second Place

A man in a suit and leather shoes, stood out in the harsh cold wind, facing the tombstone for some time as if lost in thought. A bouquet of white roses was settled in his right hand, while the other rested on the cold stone. The sight would appear normal if it wasn't for the multiple bruises on his face and bandages on his hand.

Placing the flowers in front of the tombstone, Shen Jue crouched down and reached out to gently swipe the leaves off of it. The tomb was very clean, he cleaned it regularly when he had the time. However, recently he was unable to come often.

A gust of wind passed through the leaves scud over the ground and took small flights into the air. As he tossed his head back and raised his eyes to the sky, a genuine smile spread on his face.

In the middle of the cemetery, a girl, wrapped up in a warm coat was smelling the fresh air that was all around her. Her neck-length brown hair flew in wild directions. She reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear and kept walking through the swaying trees and to the man in the suit.

The girl's footsteps crushed the leaves beneath her causing Shen Jue to shift his gaze from the sky to her. When he saw her, he didn't seem surprised.

He squinted his pair of glazed eyes slightly while speaking in a soft and amiable voice, "Hello, little one."

"Hello, creepy bastard," Mimi smirked.

Shen Jue laughed in a low voice, it was ambiguous and charming, "I'm happy to see you're still yourself."

"Oh?" Mimi's brows raised, her eyes darkening. "What made you think I wouldn't be?"

Without explaining, Shen Jue looked at her with a soft look and then looked back down at her sister's grave. While Mimi's expression held her usual calm expression, she studied the change of demeanor in the man.

Somehow he seemed calmer. Weaker if she were to be more accurate. Noticing the bruises and bandages covering his body, her lips pursed.

"Does it hurt?" Mimi walked to the grave and glanced down at the clean stone.

A look of surprise flitted across Shen Jue's face.

"Does the little one pity me?"

"I feel pity it wasn't me who inflicted those wounds." Mimi cut his fantasies short.

Shen Jue laughed softly. The side of his lips revealed gentle dimples, "Indeed, it's a pity."

Meeting his stare, Mimi felt her scalp tingle. Her heart couldn't help but shake a bit, but she still put on an indifferent mask and looked away. She was still filled with unspoken bitterness.

Staring at the white roses on her sister's grave, her eyes dulled for a moment before pulling back and looking at the man staring at the stone.

"Shen Jue...did you love my sister?" The question she always asked, she said again.

Shen Jue stared at her for a few seconds, right until Mimi felt that her scalp became numb and she wanted to look away, he gently smiled, "I love Emily."

Mimi's smiles unknowingly faded to his response. She seemed to be struggling whether he was telling the truth or once again deceiving her.

Shen Jue didn't mind it, he continued to look at her with a sweet smile on his face, "It doesn't matter whether she loved someone else. It didn't even matter if she hated me. Even dead, I love Emily. No one could ever replace her."

The last sentence was said in an unbelievable soft tone that it made one's hair stand on end, and those glazed eyes were unabashedly hot and possessive.

Dumbfounded, Mimi looked at the man with a complicated expression. No matter how you looked at it, it still didn't sound like love.

"I figured that out recently when I tried redirecting my love for Emily on to you."

Mimi's expression stiffened. A strong sense of vigilance raised in her heart.

"You...You what?"

As if his words weren't as shocking as they seemed, Shen Jue sighed softly.

"I thought since you were sisters and had a lot in common, I could grow to love you just as much as I loved her. Hopefully even more."

Please don't, Mimi silently thought.

When Shen Jue looked up at her with a sweet smile, she felt chills run down her back.

"It turns out just as I was to your sister, you will always be second place. Although I'm sure I wasn't second either in your sister's eyes."

Mimi kept her silence.

Second place. If Shen Jue's love for Emily was a strong as she thought it to be...then was that still not dangerous territory for her to be in?

However, processing his words and looking back at the many incidents that occurred between the two of them, she found his words to ring some truth. A creepy, unsettling truth.

"Shen Jue..." Mimi's voice was strangely quiet.

Staring into his dark eyes filled with unreadable emotions, Mimi pursed her lips.

"Unlike my sister I...I don't hate you. While I do I find you rather annoying, I don't hate you. And also...thank you for helping me."

For the first time, a look of genuine shock reflected in Shen Jue's face. He lowered his eyes to hide his expression and smiled crookedly.

"You shouldn't be thanking someone like me." As he talked, his voice couldn't help but crack, mixed with a trace of grievance that he didn't even notice.

"I know." Mimi smiled. "You're a bastard who hurt Emily and me for years. And even if you only helped me for your own selfish reasons, I still believe a selfish bastard like yourself deserves thanks once in a while."

The gloomy sky seemed like it was going rain any second, but the two stayed there, staring at one another. The white rose petals were slightly swayed by the wind, the falling raindrops hitting them, making ripples of water.

Mimi felt a raindrop fall on her cheek, but she didn't seem to notice as Shen Jue stood up from the ground and suddenly embraced her. Eyes wide, Mimi thought to push him away, but the man's soft voice spoke beside her ear.

"Just this once...allow me to hold you, Mimi."

The hands that raised to push him off, fell to her sides. She didn't hug him back or pull away. She just stood there and allowed the man to hug her in the pouring rain.