Chapter 42 The Truth of That Year

On her way to Ancheng Airport, Xia Li was suddenly caught in a heavy downpour.

In early August, the Northern Hemisphere is in the cool summer season, with frequent light rain.

She recalled the early morning when she and Ji Ling first arrived in Ancheng. At that time, she was glad that she was lucky enough to have just escaped the continuous rain.

Now, on the day of our return journey, the belated rain arrived without warning.

Sad things always happen during the rainy season.

She thought, maybe someone is crying.

On the day she was born, the rain outside the window was Xia Qingqing's incessant tears, soaking a large patch of the bed sheet, and the rumbling thunder was the baby's cries.

On the day she came of age, it was raining heavily on her way to escape her arranged marriage. During her last conversation with Ji Ling when she was a teenager, it suddenly rained during a break between classes. And on the day Xia Qingqing passed away, there were so many, too many to count. They were clearly coincidences, yet they had a strange pattern.

Her departure was like a rain shower, coming quickly and going just as fast, leaving no trace behind.

My flight back home was at 9 a.m., but due to the persistent torrential rain, many flights were delayed or canceled, including Xia Li's.

She sat in the corner, with a cup of hot water that had long since gone cold beside her.

"Are you waiting for someone?"

Suddenly, a gentle male voice sounded beside me.

Xia Li looked up and saw an extremely delicate face with no aggressive features. The gentle peach blossom eyes almost filled the entire face, which could be described as delicate. This contrasted sharply with his imposing height of nearly 1.9 meters.

"We're not waiting for anyone." Xia Li shook his head and looked around. Many flights were delayed, and in just a short while, there were already quite a few people in the lounge.

She understood why the man had come over, and she gathered the plane tickets and passport scattered in the middle of the table toward her, indicating that he could sit opposite her.

The man smiled at her, his gaze polite: "Thank you."

Xia Li replied, "You're welcome."

For some reason, I thought of Ji Ling at an inappropriate time. In fact, Ji Ling and the man in front of me are not similar at all, neither in appearance nor in temperament.

The only thing she couldn't forget was probably his eyes. The man opposite her had eyes like peach blossoms, and Ji Ling's eyes were like springtime with peach blossoms in bloom.

Their eyes seemed to hold the breath of early spring, a breath that seemed to come after the dead of winter, exceptionally deep, filled with stories and secrets that were hard to fathom.

"Are you staring intently?" The man, instead of being shy after being stared at for a moment, began to tease her.

Xia Li then came to her senses, looked away from his raised eyes, and said awkwardly, "Sorry."

The man smiled and said, "You didn't do anything wrong, so why are you apologizing? I should be thanking you. If you hadn't shared your seat with me, I'd probably still be standing in some corner."

A simple conversation broke down the barrier between them. The man looked her up and down and asked, "Are you here for tourism?"

Xia Li nodded, noticing the man carrying a briefcase. "And you, going on a business trip?"

The man laughed and said, "No, I'm here to gather inspiration."

Xia Li was somewhat surprised: "Photographer?"

The man shook his head and corrected, "A writer. Seeing how surprised you are, are you perhaps a photographer?"

"Yes, it used to be."

"once?"

"I'm currently unemployed." Xia Li didn't really want to go into details.

The man insisted on this statement.

He didn't let go of the question, staring into her eyes: "You just cried?"

Xia Li looked up in surprise, marveling at the thoughtfulness of the man before her.

The man continued, “What sadness can’t be taken away by the scenery here? If you’re feeling down, you can talk about it. After all, talking is a way to vent your emotions. I think you might be a very introverted person, so this method might be helpful for you.”

Xia Li didn't say anything. Actually, she was getting a little impatient and began to regret her decision a few minutes earlier to agree to sit across from the man. She should have refused and told him: "Sorry, there are people here. My boyfriend is in the restroom and he'll be back in a bit."

After all, people were coming and going in the lounge, and she didn't believe the man wouldn't be able to find his place.

The man understood her silence, so he didn't say anything, but got up and poured her another cup of hot water, and put some bread and nuts on the table.

Xia Li held the plane ticket between her fingers, offering no response. She didn't want to respond, as the man might bring up some private matters, and she didn't want to reveal anything.

"It suddenly started pouring rain, causing flight delays. You haven't had breakfast yet, have you?" The man said, reaching into his pocket, pulling out a bag of candy, unwrapping it, and handing it to Xia Li: "Try this. My ex-girlfriend really liked this candy. She often had low blood sugar and would carry a handful in her pocket every day."

Xia Li took it, but didn't eat it.

The man smiled, opened one for himself, and said, "Don't worry, it's not poisoned."

Xia Li stopped being stubborn and put the candy in her mouth.

It's grapefruit flavored.

She thought of Ji Ling again, at an inopportune moment.

At this moment, the man opposite leaned back in the soft leather seat: "I heard that eating sweets can improve your mood. How about it, does it make you feel any better?"

Xia Li frowned, puzzled: "How could it be so fast?"

The man laughed out loud: "I have another way to make you temporarily forget your anxieties, believe it or not?"

"What method?"

"Tell me a story."

"..."

"Of course I'm not going to tell your story, since you don't want to. So let me tell you. Sometimes, listening is also a form of expression."

The man hasn't started a new relationship in almost ten years.

His first and last girlfriend was a sweet Chinese girl who always had slightly wavy hair and loved chewing gum when she was a student.

This was something he got along with. As a teenager, he studied in the US at a young age, free from his parents' constraints, and lived in a host family. He picked up quite a few bad habits, but his character was still considered good among his peers. When others around him started trying new thrills, he would just open a pack of chewing gum, pop it into his mouth, and chew it. After class, he would mischievously stay in the teacher's classroom. When the next class started, new students would enter the classroom, and the unlucky student would have a skin-to-skin contact with his "imported" chewing gum.

"He's done his fair share of bad things." The man smiled bitterly, as if telling this story for the first time, composing words in his mind.

His biggest regret happened during the summer of his eighteenth year at S University.

S University is a top-ranked university in the world in every aspect. His parents wanted him to apply to this school. During his visit, he bumped into a girl who was attending a summer camp.

A bittersweet and forbidden romance unfolds.

Unlike most ordinary couples, they didn't have a long period of getting to know each other.

They met, got to know each other, held hands, and kissed—all within a single day.

Like lightning before a storm, things progressed swiftly, and then naturally, something more intimate happened. The girl said she would apply to this school in the future, and he promised her that he would follow her.

But what happened before the promise was fulfilled was an unexpected event.

When the news broke that the girl was pregnant, a thunderous roar erupted.

He had been arrogant his whole life, and this was the first time he had ever known the word "fear."

He had never felt he ran so fast before. He finally returned safely to his shelter before the rain started, comforting himself: "I was just visiting S University, and I just happened to run into her on the way. This isn't running away; it's just that after the visit, we're all going our separate ways. She's so casual, sleeping with people so easily. Who knows whose child it is? What does it have to do with me? Yes, it has nothing to do with me!"

He was determined, and he encouraged himself from the bottom of his heart.

"And then?" Xia Li listened intently, her emotions drawn by the man's words, but the man suddenly stopped, pursing his lips and saying nothing more.

"What happened later? I'm the kind of person who does half of what I do and keeps half of what I say. We'll talk about what happened later if we have the chance."

Xia Li was a little angry. They had only met by chance at the airport, so there was no future. She felt that the man was being a bit strange. However, after hearing the man's story, her depression did lessen a lot. She stopped thinking about Ji Ling, but her heart seemed to be replaced by another kind of emotion.

She felt something was wrong and suddenly remembered the message Shishi had mentioned two days ago. She hadn't had a chance to check it because of various things. Just as she was about to search for it, a staff member came over and reminded her that she could board the plane now. When she looked up again, the man who had told her the story was gone.

Xia Li boarded the plane, settled everything in, put on an eye mask, and squinted to rest, preparing for a flight that would last more than ten hours.

At this moment, the last passenger in the cabin arrived late.

She didn't pay much attention, only hearing the man accept the champagne from the flight attendant and politely say "thank you." His voice sounded somewhat familiar, but she didn't think much of it until she caught a glimpse of him changing into his own silk pajamas instead of the sports pajamas provided by the flight attendants. A short while later, he passed by her seat and went to sit at the bar at the back of the cabin.

Such exquisite features, coupled with the broad back of a man nearly two meters tall, made Xia Li almost immediately stand up and unconsciously follow him.

"We meet again." She sat down next to the man and poured herself a glass of hot milk. "Can we continue what we didn't finish talking about last time?"

The man took a sip of his drink, looked up and smiled: "I never expected to have such a coincidence."

"Hmm, last time we talked about you running away, what happened next?"

"And then...and then..."

"You won't regret it, will you? Don't want to talk anymore?" Xia Li was somewhat suspicious when she heard his words were intermittent.

"I did regret it a little," the man admitted, but continued, "Then the girl found me."

He thought the girl would scold him or beat him up. He thought that if that happened, he would accept it and they would be even.

But the girl didn't. She simply told him that she had given birth to the baby, which was premature.

He paused for a moment, then asked the girl what she wanted: money, a luxury car, a house—anything was fine with him, he could provide it.

The girl also fell silent, and finally said that something unexpected had happened in her family, and she couldn't keep her previous promise.

But he had long forgotten their promise and took it as just a girl's sob story, coldly asking, "What do you really want?"

The girl didn't answer, but changed the subject, saying that she would give the child a Chinese name, and as for nationality, the child could choose it when he/she grew up.

He didn't take it immediately, but decided to do so after the girl left, and soon after sent the child back to China.

He knew the girl's family couldn't afford the expensive tuition, so he offered to pay for all her future expenses after she went to S University.

The girl refused. Her mental state was very bad during that time; she was sometimes cheerful and sometimes sinister.

Finally, he offered her the opportunity to study in the country, and the girl silently accepted.

They lost contact after that.

But he kept a close eye on everything about the girl and knew that her personality had changed drastically. He felt extremely guilty, but apart from guilt, he couldn't change anything. He had ruined the once kind girl.

To make amends, he secretly helped her.

The girl needed money, so he provided scholarships; the girl needed resources, so he gave them to her; the girl had mental health issues, so he brought in renowned psychiatrists from home and abroad…

He felt helpless for the first time when the girl wanted to be in a relationship.

But he had no choice, since he was the one who ruined the girl's life, so he had to ask his brother to take care of her for him.

Not long after, their daughter passed away unexpectedly. Just like the name he had given her, Morning Dew, Morning Dew, is as fleeting as the morning dew, which will dissipate as soon as the sun comes out.

The girl's name was the opposite; she was called Qianqiu, but her surname was Meng. When put together, it didn't sound good, as if all the beauty was just a dream of Qianqiu.

His cowardice and weakness caused a hole in a meticulously arranged net, affecting those on it to varying degrees. So he wove one white lie after another to mend the hole in the net.

It wasn't until Chiaki's mental state improved that she revealed the truth from many years ago.

The information Shishi mentioned online was Qianqiu's way of revealing the truth about the photography competition back then.