p.s. Regular readers should all know this. Single quotes ''[the character's inner thoughts]. Double quotes " " are spoken words. There's quite a bit of switching between the two in this chapter, so I'll mention it in advance.
...
It was seeing He Mengxue's aggrieved, lost expression.
Even though Yang Rou and He Mengxue's relationship had previously been just average, Yang Rou still felt a pang of compassion.
She patted He Mengxue on the shoulder and asked, "Do you... like Chen Yan?"
Perhaps because her voice had always been rather cold, although Yang Rou meant to show care, it sounded particularly harsh to He Mengxue.
She forced a smile on her face and then said, "There are many ways to humiliate me. Please don't bring this up."
Yang Rou's hand movements paused.
That was not her intention.
But, after all, she was not good at expressing herself, and seeing He Mengxue's misunderstanding, she fell silent for a while, not knowing how to explain.
