After Breaking Up With the Scheming Bad Woman 117

Chapter 117: The Morning Light Stretched Their Shadows.

After Huai Xing had said “I want to be your mom again in the next life,” she had said “okay” and had slept with the letter in her arms all night.

When she woke up, she flipped through the letter over and over again. Her eyes were as red as two strawberries that had been soaked in the rain, red and swollen. Looking at the letter, her tears still couldn’t stop.

Just as she had finished washing up, Lu Xianyue entered the password and came in, calling out to the second floor, “Xiao Xing, are you there?”

Huai Xing came out of the bathroom. “I am.”

Lu Xianyue looked at her as if her soul had been taken away, and she quickly ran up the stairs, asking with concern, “What’s wrong with you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Huai Xing asked back, “Did Auntie Lu ask you to come?”

“Yes…” Lu Xianyue said, scratching her hair. “Auntie told me that you might not be in a good mood today and asked me to come and check on you.”

“You didn’t have something to do at the last minute yesterday. You just had Auntie Lu come and comfort me.”

Lu Xianyue: “We were worried about you.”

Huai Xing let out a breath and then revealed a smile. “Be happy for me, Xianyue.” She hugged her friend and closed her eyes. “You don’t have to worry about me anymore. I’ve figured everything out.”

Lu Xianyue: “Hmm?”

Huai Xing asked, “Have you ever been to the coffee shop opposite the company?”

“I’ve been there twice. What’s wrong?”

“I want to go and have a cup of coffee.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“No need,” Huai Xing said, releasing the hug. “I can go by myself. But I have to wait until my eyes are not so swollen.”

Lu Xianyue looked at her eyes and, after confirming that her smile at this moment was much more lively than usual, she raised an eyebrow. “You do need to wait a bit. Otherwise, I’m afraid someone will call the Chengdu Panda Base and say, ‘Hello? Is this the Panda Base? Report! There’s a giant panda in Haicheng! Hurry up and catch it and take it to the base!'”

“You’re really so exaggerated!” Huai Xing couldn’t stop laughing.

But it was a bit difficult for the “Haicheng Giant Panda” to reduce the swelling in her eyes this time. During the day, she wore sunglasses to work at the company, and Ding Rong had even specially asked her what was wrong in the middle of it.

She curled the corners of her lips. “It’s nothing. I’m just pretending.”

The corner of Ding Rong’s mouth twitched. “…Little President Lu’s dry humor has also been passed on to you.”

When she returned to her apartment at night, Huai Xing would take out that letter and read it over and over again.

Every time she read it, she would have a different experience. Her feelings for her mothers’ pain were even deeper, and the words her mother had said to her to not be afraid also made her accumulate more and more strength.

That’s right. In this relationship, she was just afraid of repeating the same mistakes, afraid that Chu Wantang’s sincerity would turn out to be a pretense in the end, and afraid that she would once again become the little pet that Chu Wantang had talked about, coming when called and going when shooed.

Even if she liked Chu Wantang again, she did not want to betray her former self who had been hurt and fall into a deeper self-struggle.

But her mother had told her that it was not a betrayal, but a firmer belief in herself, and that she had the courage to face everything no matter what.

A few days later, when she looked at this letter again, she finally no longer cried.

On Friday, the sun in Haicheng was bright, but according to the weather forecast, it would enter the humid plum rain season again tomorrow.

After work, she did not drive the dark green car away from the company. Lu Xianyue looked at her back as she walked outside and did not call out to her.

Facing the vast colorful clouds, she gripped her phone tightly. She first stood by the side of the street and looked at the coffee shop opposite, across a street. The plane trees stretched out their dense branches and leaves, forming a green shade. The sunset glow shone through the gaps in the leaves and slanted on the glass surface of this coffee shop, reflecting even more brilliant colors.

Huai Xing stood by the side of the road for a while before she lifted her leg and crossed the traffic light, walking towards the coffee shop.

This coffee shop had been here for a full six months. In the past, she had not dared to look in this direction, but now she was walking over step by step. She heard the rustling of the leaves and also her own heartbeat and breathing.

As she got closer and closer, she heard the crisp sound of the wind chime hanging in front of the coffee shop.

She saw her own reflection on the glass wall, but she couldn’t see her nervous expression clearly. Her breathing lightened, and only then did she lift her leg again, pass through the pedestrians, and push open the door of this coffee shop.

The decoration was not much different from the main shop. The warm and cold colors were intertwined, and the prices on the price list were also the same as the main shop. But at the window, there was an extra locked booth.

The staff saw her and greeted her enthusiastically, “Hello, what would you like to drink?”

She ordered a cup of coffee and sat down at a seat by the window and next to the booth.

She didn’t look at her phone, but just looked at the main gate of the “Silk Season” company opposite, watching the employees who were getting off work a little late come out slowly, chatting and laughing, and then walking together towards the subway entrance or the bus station under the light and shadow.

She could smell the obvious coffee fragrance in her nasal cavity. She propped her chin on her hand and sighed in her heart. It turned out that this was what it felt like to look at it from this perspective.

A lonely, time-losing, expectant, healing, and a little disappointed… a complex feeling.

The staff made Huai Xing’s coffee and brought it over and put it down. She retracted her gaze and curled her lips into a smile. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Huai Xing pointed to the booth behind her and took the opportunity to ask, “Hello, I’d also like to ask, what are the conditions for sitting in this booth? For example, how much do I have to spend?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the staff said, scratching her head. “This booth is prepared for our boss’s partner. Only she can use it.”

Hearing this, Huai Xing fluttered her long lashes.

She suddenly laughed. “Then when was the last time this partner came? Do you know? I want to discuss it with her.”

“It’s been a while,” the staff said, recalling carefully. “Probably in April? She’s busy with work and doesn’t come very often.”

Huai Xing: “Okay, thanks.”

“If you need anything else, please call me again.”

“Okay.”

Huai Xing stirred the coffee in front of her, thinking of what the staff had said about Chu Wantang being busy with work and not coming very often, and first canceled the idea of sending a message to Chu Wantang.

Perhaps Chu Wantang was still on a business trip abroad at this time. Her message might disrupt Chu Wantang’s rhythm, and she also wanted to quietly experience Chu Wantang’s past feelings on such an evening.

When she was halfway through her coffee, she took out her phone and sent a message to the ceramic intangible cultural heritage inheritor she had met at the intangible cultural heritage conference before.

The next day, the plum rain season arrived, and Haicheng was drizzling.

This weather continued. Huai Xing would go to that coffee shop every day after work. She would still ask the staff about the partner, but the partner still did not appear.

Time came to mid-July. Huai Xing had been on a business trip for a week, and when she came back, it was three days before her 28th birthday.

She appeared at the coffee shop again, ordered a cup of coffee as usual, and sat here, and also asked the staff about the partner.

This time, she got a different answer. The staff said, “She came last night, but she hasn’t come today.”

The staff scratched her head embarrassedly. “I told her that you were looking for her to discuss wanting to go into the booth.”

“What was her reaction?”

“She was wearing a hat and a mask, so I couldn’t see her face. I don’t know what her reaction was.”

Huai Xing: “Thank you.”

She pointed to the conspicuous message board in the middle of the shop. “Can I leave a message on it?”

“Of course you can.”

Huai Xing walked over, took a pen, and wrote with a flourish: [I have never forgotten the promise of where to go this season.]

After putting down the pen, she said to the staff, “When she appears again, please tell her to take a look at this message board.”

The staff nodded. “Okay.”

Huai Xing asked Lu Xuerong for a week’s leave, booked a flight to Nancheng. Since Chu Wantang was playing this game with her, she would cooperate.

The two-hour flight was not hard for her, because she had downloaded all the “work vlogs” from before and had watched them from beginning to end. As she was watching, the corners of her lips curled up.

She understood the netizens. They were really shippable.

The plane landed in Nancheng. The weather here was still the same, the wind was light and the sun was warm, and the UV rays were still so strong.

She hadn’t told Lin Youmeng that she was coming to Nancheng. On this trip, she hadn’t told anyone, not even Lu Xianyue knew where she had gone.

This was her and Chu Wantang’s promise.

She wanted to rush over quietly, and only the two of them would know.

After checking into the Junling Hotel, that night, she drove the car she had rented and drove around Chaoyin Road a few times.

Before dawn, she drove to the seaside again and came to the fixed spot where they had watched the sunrise together. This time, she also ran into several lesbian couples who had come to check in. When the sunrise came, one of the couples even asked her to help them take a picture.

After she had taken the picture, she asked her, “Miss, are you traveling to Nancheng alone?”

“No,” Huai Xing said, blowing in the wet and salty sea breeze and shaking her head. “I’m waiting for a very important person.”

She was actually a little anxious and wanted to directly send a message or call Chu Wantang to ask, but she held it in.

So she repeated her previous actions, going to Chaoyin Road at night and getting up early to watch the sunrise.

At midnight on July 17th, her phone received many messages, but none from Chu Wantang. She hummed lightly, pulled up last year’s birthday wish from her chat history, and closed her eyes in satisfaction.

But she was also a little nervous in her heart. What if Chu Wantang had not gone to that coffee shop again?

If that was the case, then tonight, she had to contact Chu Wantang.

The deadline for this game was on her birthday.

With this thought in mind, a few hours later, she drove to the seaside again.

The sea surface, from which the tide had receded, was shimmering. In the distance, at the junction of the sea and the sky, the night was being slowly swallowed. The waves were gently lapping against the reefs, like a fine murmur.

Huai Xing stood on the shallow beach and closed her eyes.

The moist sea breeze, wrapped in a salty and bitter smell, brushed past her cheeks, with a unique coolness before dawn. Her straight hair was blown by the wind and swayed.

The laughter of tourists could be heard from nearby from time to time. She listened to the sounds from all directions, and at this moment, she suddenly didn’t want to continue to play this game.

She wanted to express her longing for Chu Wantang.

In the ten months they had been separated, she had not been able to “forget” Chu Wantang well.

Anyway, she had not agreed to this sentence back then.

The longing was constantly fermenting, and when a golden line cracked on the sea surface, it reached its peak.

She unlocked her phone, scrolled through her contacts, and Chu Wantang was pinned at the top. Her fingertips hesitated for a moment, and then she resolutely opened it.

She thought angrily: if Chu Wantang was still sleeping at this time, then it was deserved to be woken up.

The “beep” sounded in her ear, in time with the sound of the waves.

Not only that, but she also heard the violin ringtone that Chu Wantang had set for her, right nearby.

This made her body and nerves tense up. Her posture of holding her phone did not change. She followed the sound and looked over.

The orange-red light and shadow were jumping on the crest of the waves. She saw Chu Wantang holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand and her phone in the other, answering her call.

The morning light stretched their shadows, and no one spoke first.

It wasn’t until Chu Wantang was standing in front of Huai Xing, her gaze fixed on the person in front of her, a faint dimple on her lips, that she said into the phone receiver—

“I have never forgotten coming to Nancheng to see the sea in the summer.”

“Can I wish you a happy birthday this year?”