Was It Really Necessary?

*Thanks to Fu Ka Fu Fu for providing the cover and character designs

*Rekindled romance / bittersweet and tender / intense push and pull / love and hate / ensemble romance / ABO

*A companion novel to To You, Day and Night, Zhao Xuning x Shen Hui

*Cool, aloof surgeon Alpha x dazzling heiress and pediatrician Omega

At a coworkers' get-together, Zhao Xuning drew a dare: [Call the person pinned to the top of your contacts, put them on speaker, and ask, “Can I kiss you?”]

The atmosphere in the private room turned icy.

Everyone knew that Dr. Zhao was a brilliant star in cardiac surgery. Since joining the hospital, she'd risen through the ranks at an astonishing speed.

She'd become an associate chief physician before turning thirty. She was as beautiful as she was cold.

When she first joined the hospital, the Omegas and Betas she'd rejected after they confessed their feelings could have circled the hospital three times.

Everyone thought she was the perfect example of someone who'd renounced love and was destined to spend her life alone.

No one expected her to pick up her phone and open her contacts.

Then everyone saw the usually aloof beauty's ears turn red as she spoke, and her eyes turn red too.

Even her voice was trembling.

The person on the other end of the phone laughed coldly after hearing her question. “If murder weren't illegal, I'd fucking kill you, Zhao Xuning.”

Dr. Zhao, usually so cool and distant, suddenly smiled beautifully. “I'll wait.”

Everyone: “???”

-

Shen Hui was the second daughter of one of Haizhou City's wealthiest families. She was gorgeous, had a loving family, and got along with everyone she met.

At university, she bet someone she could win over Zhao Xuning, the Alpha in her department who looked impossible to pursue.

In less than three months, the department's coolest genius had become her girlfriend.

At first, Shen Hui only meant to have a little fun. Then she fell in love, heart and soul.

Zhao Xuning was aloof and didn't know how to comfort people, so Shen Hui always took care of her.

From university through graduate school, Shen Hui even accompanied her abroad for further study.

She never expected to catch her “cheating.”

Shen Hui thought that was the end of them.

After all, Zhao Xuning would never swallow her pride and ask to make up.

Shen Hui once said to her, “You can spend the rest of your life regretting it and feeling guilty. For me, and for the child we lost. Even if you climb every step on your knees, begging the gods and buddhas for forgiveness until your head is bloody, I will never forgive you.”

Yet a few days before Shen Hui was supposed to get engaged, Zhao Xuning made the news.

The once brilliant young genius was in a crowded temple, climbing three thousand steps from the foot of the mountain, bowing with every step.

Shen Hui thought that two madwomen had turned into two fools, and they'd be bound together for the rest of their lives.

Once, we loved without holding anything back.

Later, we hurt so much we couldn't let go.

An He is a little jinx. Her mother left when she was three, her father died when she was five, and she grew up with a life as stubborn as a weed.

She signed with a talent agency on the strength of her looks, only to earn no money and end up owing eight million in contract penalties.

Just when she was at the end of her rope, she met Zhou Shixun.

Zhou Shixun's life was the complete opposite of hers.

She had loving parents who were business magnates, an accomplished twin sister who was a top-tier star, and then there was Zhou Shixun herself.

She was stunning, graduated from an Ivy League school, returned to China to start a business, and took her company public in less than five years.

People of every gender wanted to marry her. They could have formed a line from Ningcheng all the way to Iceland.

And Zhou Shixun fell for An He.

An He had never met anyone who treated her as well as Zhou Shixun did: patient, gentle, emotionally steady, and always willing to give her whatever she asked for. Even if An He said at three in the morning that she wanted to see the night view, Zhou Shixun would get up, help her get dressed, and take her to the highest place in Ningcheng to admire it in the cold wind.

An He didn't know why Zhou Shixun loved her, but she could feel how much love Zhou Shixun had for her, overflowing at the seams.

They'd been together for two years when Zhou Shixun got angry with her for the first time, because An He had accidentally opened a door.

Zhou Shixun was furious with her.

An He couldn't help wondering what could make the normally composed Zhou Shixun so angry.

While Zhou Shixun was away on a business trip, An He opened that door again.

It was like opening Pandora's box.

The nearly hundred-square-meter room was filled with another person's belongings and photographs.

There were also thousands of pictures of Zhou Shixun with that person. An He had never seen this lively, animated side of Zhou Shixun before.

Childhood friends, deeply devoted to each other.

Now An He knew why Zhou Shixun loved her: she was looking at An He and seeing someone else who had died.

So every time Zhou Shixun tenderly called her An He, she was calling Pei Anhe.

-

Rain poured down as An He prepared to leave the home she had shared with Zhou Shixun for two years.

But she curled up on the sofa and thought all night, crying miserably and spinelessly all night, and still couldn't bear to leave.

So she took a role in a production filming far away on the border.

The other female lead happened to be Zhou Shiyi, a top-tier star recently dogged by dating rumors.

After reading the news, An He thought, Just like her sister. They're both trash who toy with people's feelings.

A few days later, An He ran into Zhou Shiyi in the hotel corridor, where someone was harassing her. Unable to resist, An He played the hero and rescued the woman whose face looked seventy percent like Zhou Shixun's.

As a result, Zhou Shiyi followed her into her room and asked her to bandage her injury.

An He kept trying to find traces of Zhou Shixun in Zhou Shiyi, but she didn't dare answer Zhou Shixun's calls, let alone face her.

When Zhou Shixun returned from her business trip, she discovered that An He, who had always filled the house with noise and bounced around everywhere, was gone.

The empty house had fallen silent.

In the dead of night, she opened the room that had been shut away for so long and discovered someone had been inside.

The photos of her and Pei Anhe had been moved.

Zhou Shixun thought that since the secret was out, they might as well part on good terms.

But three months later, when she went to visit Zhou Shiyi on set, she saw the woman who had appeared in her dreams just the night before kissing her sister on camera.

Zhou Shixun approached with a cold expression, grabbed An He, and started to pull her away.

Zhou Shiyi stopped her. “You see your sister and don't even say hello. Is it polite to drag your sister-in-law away?”

Zhou Shixun stared at An He in disbelief.

An He wanted to try to have a little self-respect, so she turned and rose onto her toes to kiss Zhou Shiyi.

In the lounge, Zhou Shixun demanded coldly, “Are you serious? She was with me for two years.”

Zhou Shiyi smiled. “It's not like she spent two years in prison. What, does she have a criminal record?”

Furious, Zhou Shixun slammed the door on her way out. In the doorway, she saw An He, who had lost a great deal of weight. Her heart ached, but she still asked coldly, “Is this how she's been taking care of you?”

An He shot back, “What does it have to do with you? You're awfully involved in your sister's business.”

Only after Zhou Shixun left did An He turn to thank Zhou Shiyi.

But Zhou Shiyi looked at her tenderly. “I'm not pretending. I really do like you, An He.”

An He was stunned.

Zhou Shixun, who had turned back, stood in the doorway, caught between coming in and leaving.

One-on-one, happy ending, An He x Zhou Shixun

Revenge arc | genuine replacement | sisters fight over her | rekindled romance | classic melodrama

Theme: Love is an echo that answers a thousand times