Peach-Orange! – Chapter 177 – Nowhere to Escape

“I… misunderstood Xiaocheng?”

Su Tao stared wide-eyed at the bulletin board’s contents, feeling as if her heart had been gripped tightly.

Chengcheng stood beside her, delivering another blunt remark: “Please don’t phrase it so lightly. You never trusted your Xiaocheng at all.”

Chengcheng turned to face Su Tao directly, locking eyes with her.

“Even though Chi Xiaocheng is already dead, and you’ve expressed regret, saying over and over again how remorseful you are, and though I don’t know the full details, when we chatted, you admitted many things were your fault, right?

“If that’s the case, why are you still unwilling to face those mistakes?”

Su Tao raised her head to meet Chengcheng’s gaze. “I did not!”

“Then what have you done in these past two weeks?”

Chengcheng showed no intention of comforting her, instead pressing further.

“That Ye Liang wasn’t killed by you, was he? You didn’t avenge Chi Xiaocheng, didn’t explain things to her brother or parents, and didn’t dare tell her parents that Chi Xiaocheng had died, correct?

“For two weeks, you stayed holed up in Chi Xiaocheng’s apartment, never stepping outside, thinking crying a few times counted as repentance and redemption.

“Just because she loved you, you felt entitled to enjoy her love without giving anything in return!”

Su Tao took a step back, feeling alienated by her friend’s harsh lecturing.

Her lips trembled. “I wasn’t entitled! I was trying to figure out how to cure Xiaocheng’s yandere tendencies, okay? Don’t act like I did nothing!”

“But wasn’t it all for yourself?”

Chengcheng’s short sentence froze Su Tao’s trembling hands mid-air.

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“Did you ever consider what Chi Xiaocheng wanted?

“Did you ever do anything for her?

“Pretending to like her, deceiving her, coaxing her… don’t tell me ‘curing her yandere tendencies was for her own good.’ Weren’t you just doing it so you could have a better version of Xiaocheng?

“And even after Chi Xiaocheng died—!”

Chengcheng’s voice suddenly rose sharply. “Chi Song and Brother Long were hunted by the Ye family because Chi Song killed Ye Liang in your place, drawing their attention!

“Dongfang Yang is still handling the aftermath of Chi Xiaocheng’s death!

“Si Chen is investigating Xiao Ming and Lin Fangya, while also sending people to take care of Chi Xiaocheng’s parents. He’s so busy his head is about to explode.

“And you? You not only did nothing, you couldn’t even be bothered to visit Chi Xiaocheng in the hospital!

“What, just because Chi Xiaocheng loved you, you think you can do whatever you want?

“Even blaming the already-dead Chi Xiaocheng, saying things like, ‘Ah, it’s all Xiaocheng’s fault, if she weren’t a yandere, this wouldn’t have happened’?”

Each sentence was like a knife stabbing into Su Tao’s heart.

Her shoulders shook, and her fists clenched slightly.

Chengcheng glanced at her and scoffed. “What, angry now?”

“I’m not!” Su Tao shouted at Chengcheng. “I never blamed Xiaocheng! Trying to cure her yandere tendencies wasn’t for myself! Chengcheng, you don’t understand yanderes. You’ve never been loved by one.

“You have no idea—”

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Slap—!

Before Su Tao could finish, Chengcheng raised her hand and struck her hard across the face.

The crisp sound echoed through the campus pathway, startling nearby students.

Chengcheng’s slap wasn’t particularly strong. It barely even hurt Su Tao.

But the disappointment in her friend’s voice cut deeper. “Even now, you’re still saying things like this.

“When Chi Xiaocheng was alive, you treated her love as a joke.

“After Chi Xiaocheng died, you felt regret, thinking you should’ve accepted her confession because that way, she wouldn’t have died. And if she were alive, you could keep enjoying her love like before, without ever considering what you should give in return.

“From start to finish, you believed that because Chi Xiaocheng loved you, she belonged to you. So even in death, you never recognized just how rare and radiant her devotion was.

“That’s why you never learned to cherish her.

“After all, even in death, she’d only love you and no one else, right?”

Chengcheng bent down, picked up the items Su Tao had dropped, and shoved them back into her arms.

“A person pretending to sleep can never be woken up.”

‘Has no one ever tried to wake you?’

Dongfang Yang, Si Chen, Dr. Cheng, the other two psychologists. Even Chen Qian and the perpetually sleepy Xiaowei… they all tried, didn’t they?

‘So why do you insist on staying asleep?’

‘Are you afraid to face reality, or do you just want to keep drowning in that dream?’

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Chengcheng checked her phone, then said flatly, “If you don’t care, plenty of others do.

“I’m disappointed in you, Tao-Tao.”

The familiar, fleeting tone made Su Tao jerk her head up, but Chengcheng was already walking away.

“Why did that… sound like Xiaocheng?”

Those final words shattered Su Tao’s fragile defenses, piercing straight into her heart.

Stunned and overwhelmed, she didn’t even stop to question how Chengcheng, a mere online friend, knew so many details.

She just stood there, clutching the items in her arms, motionless.

Looking back, was there anything Chengcheng had said that wasn’t true?

Even if Xiaocheng’s methods were extreme, she only ever wanted to keep her Tao-Tao by her side.

Going after sister Long and her advisor, wasn’t it all because her Tao-Tao had been wronged? Wasn’t it all for her sake?

And in the end, she’d chosen to take that bullet herself rather than let Su Tao die.

“And what did such devotion earn in return?”

Su Tao murmured the question to herself, as if repeating Chengcheng’s words.

In her blurry vision, a petite figure slowly emerged from behind a nearby tree.

The girl swayed weakly, her lower lip bitten tight.

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Su Tao’s pupils contracted again. She stumbled back, losing her balance and falling to the ground.

It was Fang Ning!

A sudden realization struck her, Chengcheng’s earlier words echoed in her mind:

—If you don’t care about Chi Xiaocheng, plenty of others do.

And wasn’t this girl one of them?

From their last conversation, Su Tao had already sensed it. This child truly saw Chi Xiaocheng as her one and only.

That was why, when Fang Ning had asked where Xiaocheng was, Su Tao had chosen to lie.

She hadn’t wanted to destroy the girl with the truth.

But now….

The lie had been exposed.

She didn’t know how long Fang Ning had been listening or how much she’d heard.

Fear and the urge to escape warred within her, screaming silently for the girl not to come closer.

Yet every step Fang Ning took felt like retribution for Su Tao’s own failures.

With hollow eyes, Fang Ning stopped in front of Su Tao and spoke numbly:

“Su Tao jiejie… is Xiaocheng jiejie really… dead?”