Volume 9: The Acidity of the Setting Sun
Chapter 11: A Liar’s Promise
The double blow of love and family had forced this girl to break free from her cocoon, like a flawed, not-yet-fully-transformed butterfly. She said things she would never have said in her life before and made a decision she had never before considered.
Lu Li suddenly hated his Rebirth. He wished so much that after being reborn, he could have some kind of unreasonable “system,” where with just a thought, he could groundlessly obtain talent and wealth, and could leap over Shenzhou’s millennia-old class barriers like Superman. But he had nothing, except the memories and experiences of his past life. Yet even in his past life, he had never reached the heights of the Chu Family.
A person has at most only a hundred years in their life. A hundred years is too short, so short that it’s hard to change much of anything. And yet it is also too long, so long that one must endure the prolonged pain of wanting something one cannot have.
What kind of power, exactly, would it take to change his current predicament?
Blocking his path, besides the Yan Family, was the even more unfathomable Chu Family.
Chu Jingyi couldn’t bear to leave the warmth of the young man’s arms. She continued to embrace this boy to whom she had once wanted to entrust everything, and whom she would find hard to forget in the future. “Lu Li, my reason for attending this Winter Camp was just to give both you and me some closure. For this one week, I am still your Jingyi. But after we return to Chuanhai from Mulan, we will no longer be boyfriend and girlfriend, okay?”
This kind of clinging would actually only add to the sorrow of the final separation, but Lu Li could understand her feelings: it was like being a child passing by a shop window, seeing a beloved toy and being unable to move, knowing full well it doesn’t belong to you, yet unable to leave, only able to press a hand against the glass to touch it vicariously.
“Jingyi, shall we make a pinky promise?” Lu Li extended his little finger.
Chu Jingyi looked up at him. This innocent girl, who had once taken the initiative to make a pinky promise with him, shook her head. “Lu Li, a pinky promise can’t actually guarantee anything. I’m not as naive as I was last year.”
“I’m still just as naive,” Lu Li said. “Jingyi, trust me one last time, okay?”
Chu Jingyi hesitantly hooked her little finger with Lu Li’s, and then she heard him say, “Jingyi, I promise you, within five years, I will definitely marry you honorably and openly from the Chu family.”
Chu Jingyi, who had just managed to stop her tears, began to cry again. Although she was crying, she was also smiling. “You big liar… a liar’s promise is useless… wuwu… why do you still have to lie to me at a time like this… do you have to make it so I can never forget you in the future… wuwu…”
Lu Li shook their linked hands. “Pinky promise, hang it up, a hundred years, no changing… What happens to the one who changes?”
Chu Jingyi said through her tears, “The one who changes is a little dog…”
The moment the words left her mouth, she threw herself into Lu Li’s arms again and began to wail, no longer caring about the gazes of the surrounding pedestrians.
“Jingyi, I admit I’m a bit of a playboy. But I have never thought of you as a girl I picked up cheaply,” Lu Li said, holding her and feeling the texture of her hair. “I love them, and I love you too. I can’t let go of any of you.”
At a time like this, no matter what Lu Li said, the weeping and confused Chu Jingyi would just accept it all. Lu Li wasn’t being deliberately manipulative; it was a natural outpouring of his true feelings.
Chu Jingyi whimpered softly, “Liar… you just know how to lie to me…”
Lu Li held her tighter, as if trying to knead her into his own body.
“Kiss me one more time, okay?” she said.
Lu Li kissed the young girl’s red lips without hesitation. Some say you should live every day with the passion as if it were the end of the world. Lu Li was now treating this kiss as the final kiss between him and Chu Jingyi. Their lips and tongues met, oblivious to the world around them, until both of them were a little short of breath.
Chu Jingyi said, “Today, you can do anything you want to me…”
Lu Li knew what she meant, and he also knew that this was a conclusion Chu Jingyi had reached after careful consideration. She felt she would never have the chance to see Lu Li again, so she might as well leave her final passion for him. What could be more precious than a maiden’s chastity?
Lu Li put his arm around her waist. “That should be saved for a happy, warm, and hopeful moment, not happen in this dark and lightless time. Jingyi, save it for me, okay?”
“Mm…” Only Chu Jingyi knew how precious her affection was. For this girl who did not lack for love, there was only one love, and there would only ever be one. She wasn’t insatiable in her demand for love like Lu Li; she would only make her one and only love unforgettable.
Lu Li looked at the watery light in her eyes, knowing it was just the rainbow of the sun refracting through a bubble before it burst. He sighed in his heart and helped the girl, who was a little weak from crying, to walk back.
On the way back, they happened to run into the Winter Camp campers and teachers coming out of the barbecue restaurant. When they saw Lu Li and Chu Jingyi’s intimate appearance, they all showed expressions of sudden understanding. Chu Jingyi got on the small bus designated for the girls and waved goodbye to Lu Li with great reluctance. “See you… tomorrow…”
Lu Li also got on another small bus. The few boys he was more familiar with immediately gathered around. “Damn, what’s the relationship between you and Chu Jingyi? You were even hugging? You really know how to hide it!”
In their eyes, this should have been a happy occasion. But Lu Li couldn’t bring himself to smile. He gave a weak “mm.” “It’s that kind of relationship.” Admitting it would at least spare Jingyi from the pestering of suitors during this Winter Camp.
The boys on the small bus instantly erupted, chattering away. When it came to gossip, men were really no worse than women.
Lu Li leaned back in his seat. So, Jingyi wasn’t just angry about what happened that day; she was also lost due to the drastic changes in her family. Fate had played a cruel joke, making this poor girl experience the classical drama of being deceived by friends, lied to by her lover, and turned against by her family, all in a short period of time. During this time, where was he, Lu Li? No wonder she could be so ruthless as to say they should break up.
He sighed. He sometimes truly wondered how fate could be so dramatic. It was as if he were destined to suffer a calamity of love.
The last week… is there only one last week left…
As Lu Li was pondering, he suddenly received a call from Chu Xiaodong. The unfathomable bureaucrat simply stated that the matter with the Yan family had been resolved. As long as Lu Li no longer had contact with Zhu Xi, he would not be targeted by the Yan family in the future. There were no pleasantries, as if he had long anticipated Lu Li’s choice. After hanging up, Lu Li stared blankly at the receding streetscape outside the window.
Once upon a time, he had a dark thought: to use the Chu family’s plane crash to gain their support. But cruel reality had told him that this world could function just fine without him, Lu Li. After receiving the real information, the Chu family could eliminate the hidden danger on their own. The so-called slight advantage brought by Rebirth was even more insignificant than dust in the face of the massive aristocratic clans.
What on earth must he do to be able to stand before Chu Xiaodong on equal footing, and not as a junior?
No one could give him an answer. Perhaps that answer had long been hidden in smoke and dust.
