Chapter 2: Lost Love
In late February in Qingchuan, the sky was as white as paper. The continuous light rain had melted the dirty snow and had turned into clouds. The wet and damp concrete road was mixed with dark black mud, and a few tender white small buds had sprouted.
There was not much money left in his pocket. Su Yu had still changed his clothes. He was wearing a gray coat, jeans, a baseball cap, and a mask. Under his long bangs, only a pair of dark eyes could be vaguely seen. His whole person was tightly wrapped up.
The outside was hidden, but it could not cover the boy’s inner clear and handsome, dejected look. He was walking in the crowd, tall and thin, and he was still a little conspicuous.
Qingchuan University was gradually getting farther and farther behind him, and it was blocked by the scattered figures. He stopped at the second bus stop, as if he had run out of strength. His whole person was leaning against the back of the bus stop sign. He took off his mask, revealing his clear and refined features, and his face was pale.
He took out his phone from his pocket and pressed the switch. There was no response. He frowned and pressed it a few more times, and the force of his fingertips increased, and his skin turned red, as if he were competing.
The screen was still black. A person with a home would rarely have a sense of crisis because of the phone’s battery. He didn’t know since when his reliance on his phone had become very weak. Sometimes he would go out with only 20 or 30 percent of the battery left.
But at this moment, he was staring at the dark screen, and he couldn’t even take his eyes off it. He was almost uncontrollably trembling, and the corners of his eyes were red and sore. It was as if something were always hindering him. Even a small matter was like a small thorn, and it was choking him. All his peace of mind and happiness had to be paid for afterwards.
How could he be let go?
After a few seconds, the hand that was holding the phone drooped and hit the side of his leg. He let out a slight sigh of relief and pulled his body out of the quagmire.
He looked out and saw that the downtown area in the distance was noisy and chaotic, and the shops were lined up. Every blade of grass and every tree had a shadow of the past.
Su Yu was standing not far from the entrance, hesitating. The crowd around him was surging. The snow had melted in the spring, and it was going to be cold for a while. The business of the beverage shop was good at this time. A cup of hot milk tea was always reassuring in the winter.
A blue and clear gauze curtain was hanging at the entrance, and a wind chime was on the doorframe. With a gust of wind, a crisp and clear sound was made. It was a private milk tea shop that he had been to before.
If you’re not happy, you can have something sweet. Yeah, what she had said. He suddenly laughed a little neurotically, and a few passersby cast a strange look at him.
A small boat that had been in a shipwreck was in the deep sea. The salty and astringent seawater was about to overflow the side of the boat. Suddenly, it was rescued from under the sea.
He didn’t know if she had been here.
He walked into the shop with this absurd thought. The clerk at the counter was so busy that he couldn’t be bothered. The line behind him was also long, and he didn’t have time to talk to him at all.
A row of sockets under the counter was hanging with the charger he wanted to borrow. He opened his mouth but didn’t dare to ask. A perfectly good person had become timid for no reason. He had been tormented by bad things and was thin. He was sensitive to everything. Anyone who pitied him, comforted him, or sympathized with him would make him fantasize in a panic whether he would be asked for something.
His emotions fell into a brief state of dejection and then suddenly returned to normal.
Su Yu sighed and stood on the side. He still wanted to wait until the line was sparse before he spoke.
There were not many people eating in the shop. He found a seat in a corner, pulled down the brim of his hat, and sat down inconspicuously.
His gaze swept over the wallpaper in the shop, which had been changed again. Many of the posters had also been replaced with currently popular stars or TV shows that he had never heard of. Only the wooden board that was hanging on the wall had not changed. The colorful paper slips were dazzling, and a new board had been added, which was also more than half full.
Su Yu was sitting there and was not idle at all. If he didn’t do something, he would feel uneasy. He was afraid that he would let his mind wander.
He began to read the dense and varied messages. He read them very seriously, word by word. The stories, which had nothing to do with him, filled his thoughts.
The rhythm of reading the text at a uniform speed suddenly stopped. He was almost instantly pale, without a trace of blood. He raised his arm, and his fingertips trembled as he slowly approached a note that was pasted in the far corner.
The handwriting was elegant and powerful, and every stroke was sharp and neat. It was like her directness, bright and dazzling. His fingers were on the name at the end, and his eyes were red again, and a mist was in his eyes.
“Qingchuan is so big. I’ve been looking for a long time. I don’t like it here. I’m going to Jiangnan.”
He was as if he had lost the rescue signal and had no movement.
His chest was heaving, and a chaotic emotion was coming in and out of his heart. It was like a spider’s web, and it was intertwined. The hourglass was inverted, and the memories were chasing after him again. A certain emotion had suddenly won, and it had become extremely strong. His gaze was stagnant, and a circle of red was on his pupils.
Su Yu looked down at his fingers. The lines of his index finger were sometimes shallow and sometimes deep under the light. His eyes were cloudy, and he was dizzy. His stomach had been empty for a day, and his blood sugar was low. His body fell back a little. He held on to the chair behind him and barely supported his frail state.
He wanted to get up, but his knees were weak. A clerk on the side had noticed his abnormality and had walked over to ask about his condition.
“Are you okay, sir?”
“N-Nothing. I’m just having a low blood sugar attack.” He shook his head and dragged his body to sit down on the chair. He looked up at the clerk with his bloodshot eyes. “My phone is out of battery. Can you help me charge it? And I’ll have a dessert.”
…
He had been sitting in his seat for a while. The freshly baked dessert had cooled down after he had only taken a few bites. During this time, he had looked uneasy and panicked. He didn’t know where to put his gaze, and he was looking around constantly, his face full of annoyance and anxiety.
It was not until his weak nerves had slowly regained their sensation that he eagerly stood up and walked to the counter to unplug his phone, which had only been charged a little. He pressed the power button to turn it on. As soon as the screen lit up, his vision was flooded with a mountain of call logs and messages.
From the time he had gotten on the train to Qingchuan until now, besides a few advertisements, all the messages were from the same sender.
He looked at it for a few seconds, opened one of the call logs, and dialed back.
It was connected almost without any pause, as if the other party were by the phone every second.
“Hello? Ah… Ah Yu? Is that you?”, her voice was filled with a deep fatigue and surprise.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“It’s good that it’s you. It’s good that it’s you…”, she kept repeating and murmuring, and then she suddenly became excited. “Where have you been?”
“Qian Ge…”
“Huh? I’m here. I’m here…”
“I know everything. You’ve been lying to me all along, haven’t you?”
The other end of the phone fell into a long silence. It was a long time before she found her voice, but she avoided his question.
“Why is it so noisy over there? You stay there. I’ll come and find you right away.”
“I’ll go back. But I want to be alone for a few days. Okay?”
There was no angry questioning after being deceived, nor was there an aggressive attitude. He had put aside all his grudges and was talking to her on an equal footing, as if he were discussing, and he was asking for the other party’s opinion.
“No!”
The voice on the other end suddenly became sharp, as if a scar had been torn open, and it was gushing with blood. Her tone was filled with a viciousness, but it was suppressed the moment the voice came out. “Ah Yu, be a little more obedient, okay? I love you, really… you believe me. You come back… marry me, okay?”
“I know. But you’re still wrong. Yeah… me too. Maybe it’s too late…”, he was still expressionless, and his eyes were deep. It was a ruin and a vast sea, and he couldn’t find a focus.
“I’m sorry…”
….
Author’s Notes:
(After you’ve read this chapter, go and see the chapter 61 of the second volume. Mu Qing has been here. Now that she’s a madwoman, she’s not afraid of dying. The male lead is currently in a state of being open. He’s actually very rational. He’s not thinking of escaping. He’s slowly finding his state to face these things. Then this requires the pure and good female lead to appear. I’ll write about Mu Qing first.
