“Do you still remember? When you finally made your relationship with her official, your mother was the first one who opposed it. Your mother came to Song Luili to break you two up, yet she stood by her love for you. Your mother persisted, doing everything in her capabilities to drive a wedge between you. She introduced a couple of young ladies to you in front of Liuli. Liuli knew what your mother was up to, yet you were so indifferent about it. The ladies would come to make trouble with Liuli, you didn’t even notice it. Your mom, Song Liuli, those ladies - they heard nothing from you so things continued as they were.”

Bai Minglan knitted his brows when he heard his best friend say those words to him. He didn’t know about these things. While he knew that his mother didn’t like Liuli and was introducing girls to him every now and then, he has always ignored them and kept a distance. After all, even if his mother introduced these girls to him, he would only have his eyes on Liuli. Those girls don't have the right to do anything to ruin their relationship because he, for one, won't allow them to do so. But it seems that he was wrong. This was the first time he heard that those ladies have gone to look for trouble with his woman!

“The thing is, Song Liuli endured them all.”, Shen Tianyi continued while sadly chuckling. “It was your mother who gave up first.”

“I think it was during the fourth year of your relationship? If I remember it correctly. Your mother thought that you are indifferent to all girls, Liuli included. She even thought that you are using Liuli as a shield so that the matters of marriage and the likes won’t bother you anymore. She grew quite sympathetic, as a woman, to Liuli so she didn’t come to find trouble anymore.”

The two of them were silent, both nursing their own thoughts. After a while, Shen Tianyi continued talking.

“The matters with Xia Lina too. Although now I know that you don’t feel anything towards her, in the past, I would sometimes doubt that. You see, there were many times when you chose Xia Lina over Song Liuli.”

“There was this one time when you and Xia Lina has to go together on a business trip. I understand that because Xia Lina holds an important position in your company, you have to be together with her. But, of all times you have to be together with her, it has to be on Song Liuli’s birthday! Xia Lina, too, I don’t know what she wanted to do, but she caused a misunderstanding between you two. Song Liuli called you back then, hoping to hear your voice or a simple birthday greeting from you. Xia Lina answered the phone and said that you were showering, basically implying that you were cheating on Liuli.”

“When did this happen?”, Bai Minglan’s hands shook when he heard that. He didn’t know about this!

“Song Liuli’s 25th birthday.”, Shen Tianyi answered as if he was reminiscing the past. “A couple of our common friends were there to celebrate with her. Coincidentally, I was nearby when Song Liuli called you. Do you know what she said on your behalf? She said that you would never cheat on her. That unless it comes from your own mouth, she would never believe that you’d be a bastard who would be with a different woman while in a relationship with another one. She even told me not to let you know about it.”

“Then, a year later, when Song Liuli won her first award as a fashion designer. You were supposed to walk down with her on the red carpet. Everything was confirmed and all. Yet, at the last minute, you canceled on her because Xia Li Na got drunk and you said you have to bring her home. Do you really have to bring her home yourself?”

“That event started the rumor that you were cheating and that you are really not serious with Song Liuli.”, Shen Tianyi bitterly told him. “I was also wondering what you planned to do about it, but you did nothing. You didn’t refute the rumors. Worst of all, you didn’t even do anything to make it up to Liuli.”

Then a blanket of silence fell between the two of them. No one spoke up.

In a while, Bai Minglan agitatedly stood up while rubbing his face with his palms. He paced back and forth in front of his friend, before stopping.

“Why didn’t I know any of this?”, Bai Minglan asked in a pained voice. In his voice, you can hear a mixture of sadness and disbelief.

Shen Tianyi was half-sighing and half-snorting at his response. “Perhaps if you paid a quarter of the attention you give to your company to Song Liuli’s affairs, you’d become aware of this too.”

Suddenly, Bai Minglan punched the wall in a frustrating manner. He then shouted at Shen Tianyi accusingly, “If you knew all of this, why didn’t you tell me?! Why did no one tell me about it?!”

“I did try to tell you about it once!”, Shen Tianyi snapped back. Realizing that he, too, is about to lose control of his own emotions, he took a deep breath to calm himself. After calming down, he continued his words. “I told you once to take good care of Liuli, to pay attention to her, cherish her. I even told you that she may be hurting with the current state of your relationship. But what did you tell me? You got everything under control and that I should not poke my nose in your relationship.”

Upon hearing his words, he did remember something like that. At that time, he did tell Shen Tianyi to stay out of his relationship with Song Liuli. He had noticed how this best friend of his had gotten way too concerned with his girlfriend. In a moment of jealousy, he had snapped at him, not wanting to hear her name coming out of his mouth.

Bai Minglan couldn’t stop the wave of frustration, regret, and madness rushing up to his head at this moment. All he wanted to do was to turn back time. He wanted to undo his past indifference and shortcomings. He wanted so much to clarify all the misunderstandings and erase all the heartaches. Yet, he knew that he was too late.

It was extremely too late for regret.

Knowing that he could no longer do what he wanted to do, he could only vent physically. He turned to the wall and punched it a couple of times.

Seeing that, Shen Tianyi immediately stood up and stopped him from his rage-induced self-harm. “Calm down, Bai Minglan! Get a grip of yourself!”

Gu Baicheng, upon hearing the commotion, immediately rushed inside the room. He then sprung into action when he saw Shen Tianyi trying to hold Bai Minglan down. “What happened?!”

“Help me hold him down!”, Shen Tianyi said. “We need to calm him down or else he’ll just harm himself!”

Gu Baicheng does as he was instructed. With two people holding Bai Minglan, they were able to keep him from punching the wall. Seeing as he was still out of control despite being held down, Shen Tianyi has no choice but to sedate him. It took a couple of seconds before the tranquilizer worked. Soon, Bai Minglan succumbed to the effects of the drug and drifted off to sleep.