Chapter 15: Discovering His Little Secret

Xia Li's eyes were vacant. She looked up and stared intently at him, her eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings, as if trying to see through him. She bit her dry lips and gave a dry laugh, her throat bobbing.

"good."

The sound is muffled in the throat, using only breathy sounds.

She herself felt like a stranger.

Ji Ling was visibly taken aback upon hearing this. His aggressive eyes narrowed slightly, becoming long and narrow, his gaze sharp and inquisitive.

He didn't expect Xia Li to agree so easily.

In fact, Xia Li's thoughts were very simple. With one thing after another happening recently, she was so tired that she had no extra emotions to compete with Ji Ling.

Moreover, Ji Ling is right. If we continue working, who knows what even more outrageous things might happen? After thinking about it, it's better to take a break for a while and go back after things have calmed down.

The weather turned cloudy and blue after that, and the neighboring city entered a month-long rainy season.

Xia Li has been resting for a week. During this week, Ji Ling has been coming home very late every day, bringing with him the dampness of the rain. The silence that flows between them is like the dampness of the long rainy season, sticky and clinging to every moment they look at each other, intimate, obscure, and filled with an unspeakable sense of oppression and alienation.

It's daytime again, and outside the window it's drizzling incessantly in the early morning.

Xia Qingqing gave me this USB drive a week ago.

The metal casing was icy cold, and the coolness traveled through my fingertips to my heart, thumping and thumping, pulsating with the sound of rain outside the window, its rhythm disrupted once again.

Feeling upset and confused.

Frustrated, she shook her head, ran a hand through her hair, and burrowed into the covers, burying herself under them. The air was thick with moisture, making even the blankets feel stuffy.

The rainy season seems endless.

She wanted to postpone what she had promised Xia Qingqing as long as possible, as she didn't want to do it.

A book she had read many years ago popped into her mind. The weather was perfect for rereading it, so she got up and headed to the library on the basement floor, trying to calm her chaotic emotions through words.

She forgot the book's title, only remembering that it was a story about a deaf-mute person who relied on another deaf-mute person for emotional support.

If she were to actually search for it, it would be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. She didn't have much hope; she just wanted to find something to do so that she could temporarily forget her anxieties when she was busy.

As I descended the stairs and turned the corner, a cool breeze swept over me, carrying the scent of ink, paper, and wood.

Xia Li stumbled along, and finally found a hidden door in a corner of the huge library.

It's locked.

Fortunately, the switch was simple, and she immediately guessed it, unlocking it with a gentle push. The sharp creak of the door opening was drawn out, sounding particularly jarring in the empty and silent basement.

Then another library came into view.

She found it strange that a family would build two places to store books, and even install a hidden door. So, with a sense of curiosity, she dragged her feet toward the inner room.

The room still had a faint fragrance, which was slightly stronger and lingered for a long time due to the rainy season.

Xia Li was particularly sensitive to this unique scent; she often smelled it on Ji Ling, like a plump grapefruit.

To be precise, it doesn't really taste like pomelo, but she felt her vocabulary was inadequate, as if she couldn't find a better word than pomelo.

Reference point.

To put it simply, it's like having a fireball on your head in the summer, being forced to run a lap along the coastline, and ending up covered in sticky sweat and the salty smell of the sea.

Then, after a quick cold shower and back in the air-conditioned room, someone I like brings me a glass of lightly scented grapefruit sparkling water.

The sparkling water with ice still had mist clinging to the glass. It was sweetened and left a sweet, refreshing scent in the mouth, unlike perfume which has a gaudy, powdery feel. It was more like Ji Ling's natural body fragrance, calm yet clean and refreshing.

Xia Li walked inside and finally got a full view of the house.

It resembles a study but not quite. Unlike the library outside, this room has three walls filled with all sorts of strange and unusual items, each one neatly framed and placed with great care on a wooden table.

The books and photos seemed normal, so Xia Li didn't investigate further.

As she walked, she glanced at the other items, paying little attention to them, until she turned her head and saw a small, worn-out, discarded point-and-shoot camera on the cabinet next to her.

Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she moved a little closer to the camera.

She was surprised to see such an old-fashioned item here. She remembered that she used to be very fond of these kinds of things when she was in school and collected a lot of them.

Looking to the side, there was a sheet of white paper covered with densely packed questions.

What is this? A test paper? Ji Ling's?

She looked closely, and the familiar handwriting brought her a strange sense of shame.

Xia Li was stunned.

That was her exam paper.

Following closely behind were the teacher's detailed annotations.

It was terrible; it was the only time she had ever done so badly on a test—it was practically a failing grade.

If I remember correctly, she had argued with Xia Qingqing at the time. She was in a bad mood, and there was a quiz in the next class. Thinking that the quiz wouldn't affect her grade, she just gave a terrible grade to spite Xia Qingqing.

Ji Ling had teased her at the time, and her laughter left her speechless: "You're just like a little kid, so cute."

Others say she's childish, he says she's cute, but I don't know if that's a compliment or an insult.

As he spoke, Ji Ling fed her another sweet candy to shut her up.

"Here you go, it's grapefruit flavored."

However, not long after, she couldn't find the test paper. She had always thought that she had forgotten it in another classroom and hadn't brought it with her. She never expected that it would appear here.

She looked up as she recalled the memories.

Above my head was a sweet romance novel, its cover tattered and its title page wrinkled, like an old thing pulled out of the water, but that didn't detract from its pinkish color.

Xia Li was extremely ashamed.

This novel completely captivated her at the time; she was constantly thinking about the male and female protagonists in it.

What was Ji Ling doing back then? He gritted his teeth and threw the book into the small pond to the left of the school gate right in front of her, accidentally hitting a big white duck playing in the lake.

With a quack, the big white duck kicked the half-floating book into the lake bottom, splashing and causing several bubbles to rise to the surface.

“My book…” she said regretfully.

Ji Ling was furious. Pointing at the big white duck, she said angrily, "You mention him all the time, he's always on your mind. You've been with him, so why are you coming to me?!"

"He" refers to the male lead in the book. Xia Li felt wronged. She didn't understand what Ji Ling was arguing about. It was too exaggerated. Who talks about the male lead all the time? She always mentioned both the male and female leads together. Can you only ship one person when you're shipping a couple?

Her memories came in fragments, and Xia Li forced herself to return to reality.

How could there be so much of her dark history in this hidden compartment! If I hadn't accidentally discovered it today, I probably would have been kept in the dark for the rest of my life.

She muttered to herself, and as soon as she looked up, she saw the book she was looking for.

She actually managed to find a needle in a haystack. She was so surprised that she couldn't speak for a moment. She blinked awkwardly and rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

It's not surprising that this book appeared here, since Ji Ling recommended it to her.

Even this hidden compartment, though many things there could evoke memories, she told herself not to be presumptuous. What could evoke her memories could also evoke Ji Ling's memories. Perhaps Ji Ling was a sentimental person with a penchant for collecting old things.

After finding the book, she was about to move the book ladder when she suddenly noticed a series of exquisitely framed photos displayed at the bottom of the wall.

Her gaze immediately fell upon her own photos, and not just one.

When was this? She couldn't even remember.

Xia Li squatted down and could even see the reflection in the glass frame. It was very clean, as if someone came to clean it every now and then, paying attention to even the details.

The light also framed her, and at twenty-five, she looked like a grown-up, overlapping with the youthful and innocent face of an eighteen-year-old in the photo. What had changed was her age, but what remained unchanged was her soft facial features and the restrained and gentle temperament in her eyes.

Beside her were photos she had taken of Ji Ling, as well as some landscape photos. At that time, she had just started taking photos and was full of enthusiasm. She loved taking pictures, both of people and landscapes. She would even greet a cat she saw on the street and take a picture with it. She didn't care about the composition; as long as the picture was beautiful, she would take the camera to record it.

Upon reflection, she realized that she hadn't photographed landscapes for many years. Seeing these photos of natural scenery felt somewhat unfamiliar, reminding her of her initial dream of becoming a free and unrestrained landscape photographer.

Things have not gone as planned.

Not all the photos displayed on the bookshelf were hers; her gaze followed the order and moved to a set of slightly familiar photos.

I saw these photos not long ago.

"Summer" is an unsigned work in the photography exhibition.

That day was also the first time they had reunited since they parted ways.

Does Ji Ling like these photos that much? He stood there for a long time back then, and now that the photos have reappeared here, it seems he has contacted the photographer.

For some reason, she felt a little down and lost the will to continue reading, so she moved the book ladder and prepared to take down the book above her head.

But after climbing only two floors, the corner of her clothes knocked the photo over.

"don't want!"

The moment the glass shattered upon hitting the ground, it emitted a muffled, piercing sound, almost simultaneously with Xia Li's loss of voice.

The frames of those glacier photos were smashed to pieces, the snowscape and glass shards mingling together.

Xia Li loosened her grip on the ladder, immediately climbed down, and with her hands on her forehead, she squatted down, brushed aside the debris, picked up the photos one by one, held them in her hands, and gently blew away the scum stuck to them.

What's the other side?

She noticed a line of strong handwritten notes on the back of the photo, so she turned it over to look at it.

At a glance, she recognized that it was made by Ji Ling.

A note from the author:

----------------------