Chapter 96: First Love
“Everyone is doing well. I saw your parents once after the funeral. Auntie and uncle are in good health. Oh, by the way… Su Xi was also rescued in time. I think she has started a new life now.”
“You mean your childhood friend? I’m not very clear about that. But I heard from them at the last class reunion that there was a student from Jiangnan University in our next grade. It seems to be your childhood friend. She’s very good. Jiangnan University is so far away. It’s a pity I can’t see her.”
Xia Qiange was on the other side of the dining table. She was smiling as she recounted the past. A few years had been summed up in just a few sentences. It was like an illusory dream, and he was just a bystander. In the end, he had to rely on the narration of others to describe the life that he should have been a part of.
Even so, Su Yu finally relaxed his tense heartstrings. He swallowed the noodles in his mouth. The bowl of vegetable noodles in front of him looked very good. The soup was fresh and the noodles were smooth, and it was dotted with a few green vegetable leaves. The appetizing aroma was lingering with the heat. But he was eating it like wax. He had only taken one bite of the bowl of noodles, and his stomach was already a little full.
But Xia Qiange was eating very seriously, as if she had been working for too long and was very hungry. The oily and translucent soup was swallowed with the noodles. She parted the loose hair that was falling on her forehead and took one bite after another. A bowl of noodles was quickly finished.
He was stunned and watched her eat. If he hadn’t already taken a bite of the noodles in his bowl, he might have pushed the noodles over. He was afraid that she would dislike it…
He inexplicably recalled the past in his mind.
On New Year’s Eve, it was dead silent. The dark and deep night was suddenly bright and shining. The fireworks were flashing in the sky, and the branches were beautiful. It was a lush spring. The grand scene was flickering in his eyes. The air was filled with the smell of a gas leak, and the gas was mixed in the air and was poured into his lungs. His consciousness was blurry, and he was in a bizarre and chaotic dream. The sharp and cutting knife was in his chest, and it was stabbed into his heart…
He thought that he might not have died on that New Year’s Eve at all. Returning to this life was just a dream that he couldn’t find or touch. When he woke up, there would be nothing.
Going back to the past…
He and his beloved girl had graduated, gotten married, and had children… and had continued their family. She was very busy with work and had to work at her desk until late at night every day. He would cook noodles for her at a certain time. It was a light and sweet vegetable noodle. She was too hungry, so she ate very quickly. A bowl of noodles was finished, and then he would smile and hand her his own bowl…
“What’s wrong? You haven’t even eaten your bowl. Is it not good?”
Xia Qiange suddenly raised her eyebrows and looked at him. Perhaps it was because of the makeup on her face, but her slightly squinted eyes looked lazy and frivolous, as if she were teasing him, and it made his heart itch, but he couldn’t scratch it.
He was so uncomfortable because of this. But the culprit just looked at him with her eyes. She turned her head and left without any sympathy, leaving him alone with an itchy heart. This kind of extremely vicious behavior, he couldn’t refuse at all. She had grown from a fresh and naïve girl into a charming and mature woman. Everything was brand new, and her brand new beauty had once again aroused something called a heartbeat.
“Ah… no. I don’t really eat much at night.”
Su Yu suddenly broke out in a thin layer of sweat on his back, and it was uncomfortably stuck to the skin on his back. He regretted it as soon as he had said it. Wasn’t this just walking into a trap? It made people see through his dirty intentions at a glance. If he didn’t want to eat… then why was he still shamelessly sitting in her room?
“I see. Then… I’m quite hungry. It seems that the little bit of noodles left is not enough.”
Xia Qiange lightly bit the tip of her chopsticks, and her gaze was vaguely on the bowl of noodles that he hadn’t touched. It was clear that a whole day’s work had made her very hungry.
“Then you can have it. I haven’t touched it much.”
Su Yu was glad that he hadn’t put his chopsticks back in the noodles. He pushed the bowl of relatively clean noodles to Xia Qiange and even specially explained it to avoid being disliked.
But in fact, he seemed to have overthought it. The girl didn’t even change the bowl and just ate his noodles.
“Thanks. It’s almost the New Year. This case is really urgent. I have to be busy until very late every day. I’m starving.”
Xia Qiange didn’t seem to mind at all. She drank the noodle soup in large gulps and was overcome by the satisfaction of having her stomach filled after work. Her soft and simple eyes were curved into an arc, and she squinted into a small crescent moon. She puffed out her pink cheeks, and her words were slurred. It was as if she had taken off the bright and charming makeup on her face, and her essence had become that innocent and romantic little girl again.
So cute.
His well-defined, slender and fair hands were nowhere to be placed. He ridiculously put them in his pockets, and his palms were covered with sweat.
The only sound in the room was the girl’s light chewing. She was eating with relish, but her speed seemed to have slowed down a bit, and it had become a serious tasting.
Su Yu suddenly realized something. The bowl Xia Qiange was using… was his. He had used it.
Her throat rolled, and the fresh and sweet, warm soup was swallowed into her esophagus. Her full lips, which were painted with a bright red lip gloss, were pressed against the rim of the white porcelain bowl, and they were slowly rubbing against the rim. Perhaps she had touched the place he had touched, as if their lips and teeth were touching.
Su Yu was breathing heavily, and he also subconsciously swallowed his saliva.
The nest of tender little deer in his heart seemed to have suddenly grown a lot, and the impact on his heart was even more powerful. He couldn’t help but turn red at the base of his ears. Even though the coat he was wearing was thin, and even though the heating was not on in the room, he was as hot as a red stove in the winter, and there was even a pot of hot water on it, which was boiling, and a pink mist was coming out.
Since everything had changed, why wouldn’t she get better?
Yes, the happiness he had been craving was right in front of him. He could hold happiness in his arms with just a stretch of his arms. Why did he have to hold his head and shrink in a corner and choose to escape?
His spirit subconsciously relaxed, like the continuous acid rain at the turn of spring and summer. It silently corroded the tall and solid fortress. A fierce and strong wind blew past, and in the blink of an eye, it had collapsed into a barren ruin.
When you want to get something, all your reason is so unbearable in front of desire. Only when you can’t get it one day, there will always be countless reasons that will pour into your mind, persuading him to slide into the abyss of desire.
It was all a dream. It was fake. It was a vicious lie that his cowardly self had used to deceive him. The path of this life had already deviated so much that he couldn’t see the end. Why should he wantonly slander? The girl in front of him was still the her that he had been longing for and had loved to the bone. It was he who had wronged her.
He suddenly regretted it, so much. His heart was cramping with pain, as if he had missed some precious craving, and he was full of regret.
His heart had melted into a pool of pink liquid, and he was in a daze.
Xia Qiange, on the other hand, was looking at him with the cover of the bottom of her bowl. The hypocritical smile was still on her lips, and her black pupils were rolling with an unusual excitement. She was biting the tip of her chopsticks and was licking her lips, which were stained with a little bit of soup.
How could she have fallen in so much faster than she had imagined? It seemed that she had suffered a lot. She should have let this day come earlier. She knew… the other party’s little bit of like had always been hidden in his heart. With a light hook, it would overflow into a sea.
She felt that she could barely hold it in anymore. Really… so cute.
“Um… it’s not early. There’s no extra sofa at home. I’m sorry…”
Xia Qiange put down her bowl and chopsticks and pointed to the living room, which only had a few chairs. She was just staying for a while. The things in the house were almost only used by her, and they couldn’t accommodate a second person.
“Huh? Oh, oh…”
Su Yu was as if he had just woken up from a dream. The fire that was burning fiercely in his heart was suddenly extinguished, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head.
He listened to Xia Qiange’s seemingly gentle but actually emotionless order to leave, and he was suddenly awakened.
To fall in love with the same woman twice?
He was so old. Was he in the bloom of youth, or was he delusional and fantasizing? What was he thinking from beginning to end? Did he really think he could be as lucky as in his previous life? He was just a lonely ghost. Why was he still like a child, treating the woman in front of him as his love object?
Don’t be so presumptuous. It’s just an interaction between friends. When he really crosses the line… all he will see is the cold reality.
He should really be ashamed of his naivety.
Su Yu stood up with a trembling hand, took a tissue and wiped his mouth, and forced a smile as he pointed to the door.
“Then… then I’ll be going now. Thank you.”
