Translated by Aiki
Edited by Aiki and Xia
Having already returned home for half a year, from late summer to early autumn, the temperature change in the bustling coastal city of City A is just as distinct as before. It is unlike her study abroad in New Zealand, where all year round is warm like spring and shockingly beautiful.
Shangguan Ning is wearing a sky-blue sweater and dark blue jeans, sitting in a white Audi A4, driving neither fast nor slow.
Her complexion snow-white, her figure tall, the simplest clothes worn on her could still show off her pure and fresh temperament.
The night scene is hazy. The sea breeze enters through the half open window and blows her long supple hair, and in the moonlight, the car's music echoes in the ear, inexplicably softening the bottom of a person’s heart.
A pair of lovers embrace each other in hibernation beneath a Yulan Magnolia tree. With sparks colliding, as if there was no one else present, and with tender and romantic sentiments, people can feel their blazing love from far away.
Envy, jealousy, remorse, pain.
Shangguan Ning's heart was suddenly seized and tears claimed to fall. She was completely deaf to her brain's discouragements.
Somewhat flustered, she pulls out a tissue, wiping away the shedding tears.
Didn't you say that you wouldn't think about him anymore? You must not be foolish again and yearn for the past. Forget everything that was good. Everything will pass.
She breathes in through her nose, trying hard to make herself calm.
However, some people are destined to oppose her and don’t want to allow her to be calm.
Opposite to her, in the driver’s seat at the front of a black Land Rover is a handsome man wearing a light green checkered shirt with a cultured and refined temperament. In the co-pilot seat is a woman dressed in a pink dress, with long shoulder-length hair, gentle and beautiful.
The two figures are happy in dialogue, but in an instant, stabbing pain is felt in both of Shuangguan Ning's eyes.
She naively thought, she can meet them once again with a smile, but why now at this moment, does her heart ache to the point of suffocating?
If she can, she hopes she would never have to see them again in this lifetime, because every time she sees them, she is reminded of how stupid she was before!
"Xiao Ning, you mustn't cling. I thank you for taking care of me for so long, but I don’t love you. You are like my younger sister. Xiao Xue is the person who I love! She is kindhearted. You must not bully her again. I owe you myself."
His voice echoed in her ear and crushed her heart.
How ridiculous. They didn't meet for only a summer vacation. Later when school started again he already had a sweetheart, found true love!
Four years, she did not forget the previous four years at all. Shangguan Ning, you good-for-nothing!
Her hand tightly grasps the steering wheel. The excessive force makes her knuckles white.
She wanted to step on the accelerator and quickly leave, but the people across the street had already discovered her.
The two voices sounded at the same time, with surprise and guilt.
"Older Sister!"
"Xiao Ning!"
Shangguan Ning's whole body froze, seas and rivers overturned in her heart, but her face is expressionless as she scrapes past their car, just as if they didn’t exist.
Sitting in the Land Rover, Shangguan Xue couldn't help but shout out to her: "Older Sister!"
However, the white Audi used up the dust and left.
Shangguan Rouxue's exquisite and small childlike face is instantly covered with teardrops, her pleasant voice is thick with self-blame and guilt: "Zhou Jun, Older Sister must still blame me. I am no good. I am sorry to her. I should not……"
Xie Zhuojun looked at Shuangguan Rouxue's sad look, his heart aches endlessly, and afterwards the guilt he felt towards Shuangguan Ning is instantly less than half of what it was originally.
He parks the car on the roadside. Reaching out to embrace Shangguan Rouxue in his arms, he gently wipes away the sparkling clear tears on her face, and comfortingly says: "There is no relationship with you. The person who owes her is me. In the future I will compensate her nicely and fairly. The person I want to take as my wife is you."
Listening to his words, Shuangguan Rouxue's heart is moved. She was just about to say something, but hears Xie Zhuojun hesitatingly say: "When did she return to the homeland?"
"I don't know, Older Sister, she…… even changed her phone number. I sent her an email and didn’t get a reply. Mom and Dad are worried about her. Don’t know the past few years if Older Sister lived well or not. She was one person abroad. If sick, she had no one to look after her. In that way she is strong-minded, just she…… I am no good, I should not…… should not love you. What to do ah, Zhuo Jun. My heart feels so sorry……"
Xie Zhuojun did not imagine he would ask this one sentence, and let Shuangguan Rouxue sink into blame. He felt that the words he spoke were wrong. His handsome face pulls a smile, comforting her by saying: "We did not talk about her. Let's talk about something happy."
Shuangguan Rouxue tries to make herself look happy and responds to him with a nasal voice: "Mn, okay."
Xie Zhuojun looks at the person in his chest who hides their emotions just to make him happy, his heart finally settles with firm determination.
"Xiao Xue, let's go decide on a dress tomorrow."
"Mn? What kind of dress, are you going to attend your company's activities?"
"No, it's our engagement dress."
Shuangguan Rouxue slightly raised her surprised, delicate face. She knows, this angle makes her the most beautiful.
Her big eyes burst into tears, movingly she calls to him: "Zhuo Jun……"
Her honey-sweet childlike voice seems to bring in profound love. Almost all of Xie Zhuojun's fluctuating emotions because of Shuangguan Ning’s appearance and emergence rapidly disappear.
He lowered his head, impatient to plaster (his lips) on her slightly puzzled lips, from shallow to deep, from gentle to intense.
Two people quickly entangled together, clothes gradually dropped, and the temperature inside the car rose rapidly.
Shuangguan Rouxue's cheeks and lips are bright, eyes flowing with waves, she softly whispers: "Zhuo Jun, we must not do that here. We go home alright……"
With good performance the Land Rover quickly launched, driving in a certain direction.
And that woman called Shangguan Ning, is merely nothing more than a cloud, fleeting and transient.
Shangguan Ning's vehicle that started quickly, do not know how long passed until she recovered from the sad mood.
Without needing to look in the mirror she also knows that at this moment she must be pale, broken, and pretending to be calm.
Strangely, although her heart feels like it is submerged in seawater as if in sorrowful suffocation, no more than a teardrop had shed. She thought she would be like before, her eyes crying into a peach.
She smiled self-deprecatingly, laughing. She already let them hurt her to the point of becoming numb?
She parked the car on the side of the road and closed her somewhat tired eyes. Leaning feebly against the seat, she forces herself to think of nothing.
A gentle and cheerful tune sounded. Shuangguan Ning opens her eyes and looks at her phone. The screen shows three words, "Guo Shuai Teacher."
She quickly becomes alert, suddenly remembering that she stood up this man tonight.
Bad. She is certainly late. Guo Shuai, this person, has a very strong sense of time. He must be angry.
Shuangguan Ning looks at the time. They agreed to half past seven. Now it is 7:40, and she, because of her emotional instability, had driven far away from her destination.
From here to their agreed upon Western restaurant, probably takes 15 minutes.
She connects the phone, trying to make her voice calm: "Hey, Guo Teacher, you arrived?"
There was an unhappy male voice on the phone: "Shangguan Teacher, I have been waiting for you for 13 minutes. This is the second time you are late. Do not blame me for being supercilious (overbearing)!"