Chapter 103

The air seemed to freeze.

Upon hearing this, Guan Nan looked up, her eyes filled with confusion, her hand still somewhat at a loss as she gripped the panel.

Jiang Siyao turned her head and asked to herself, "Is this my one?"

"You're cheating, aren't you, Jiang Siyao?" Jiang Li glanced at her.

"Who cheated?" Jiang Siyao seemed not to understand his gaze and continued, "Isn't this the one I bought? You even played games for me all night so I would write you a note, have you forgotten?"

Guan Nan listened absentmindedly, as if she had remembered something.

Not paying attention to what they were still saying, she was just chewing something to ease the awkwardness when she touched the chocolate on the plate next to her.

For some reason, I remembered Jiang Li and He Jiafen's bickering and the chocolate I had when I had low blood sugar last time.

Suddenly, Guan Nan withdrew her hand, still looking somewhat dazed.

She belatedly realized something.

But being enveloped by these things every day caused her, who was always sensitive to emotional cues, to realize that it was too late.

Grade 11, gift, note.

Along with these words, what appeared before my eyes was the boy's face, which was no longer as lazy and tired as usual, and his eyelids were tinged with a bluish-gray from not having slept for a long time.

Memories of that time flooded her mind, and Guan Nan pursed her lips, her feelings instantly becoming extremely complicated.

That gift of unknown origin, which had puzzled her for so long, seemed like an unsolvable mystery in the flow of time.

The question that had puzzled her for years was suddenly revealed today, and the answer was found.

Guan Nan couldn't remember how many rounds she had lost or won at the card table.

She forced herself to keep playing, game after game.

When the event ended in the afternoon, Jiang Li drove the couple who hadn't driven home. The once lively house suddenly became quiet, leaving Guan Nan alone sitting on the cushion.

A moment later, the door was unlocked and someone came in.

Guan Nan called his name: "Jiang Li".

"I need to get something." The person paused, took off their shoes, and came in, leaving the door open as if to avoid suspicion.

Upon hearing this, Guan Nan turned around in a daze.

Lin Rui nodded to her, walked to the side table, reached in and pulled out a set of car keys. As he straightened up, he suddenly remembered something.

He said, "Did I give you the things?"

"What?" Guan Nan met his gaze, her eyes blank.

After scrutinizing her for a couple of seconds, Lin Rui, seeing that she didn't seem to be faking it, raised an eyebrow nonchalantly and changed his question, still with that same nonchalant attitude: "Didn't Jiang Li ask you to sign anything today?"

Hearing this, Guan Nan, who was still wondering why he had suddenly started talking to her, paused and nodded honestly: "I've signed it."

“It’s fine once it’s signed,” Lin Rui walked over, smiling as he shook her hand. “Boss, please take care of me in the future.”

Guan Nan looked completely bewildered and mechanically shook his hand.

Perhaps her reaction was too calm and composed; she showed no emotional fluctuations from the moment Lin Rui mentioned the issue, or even when he brought up the new owner of the coffee shop.

This led Lin Rui to suspect that what she signed was not the same as what he knew.

Lin Rui frowned: "Did you see it?"

"...The contract?" Guan Nan realized what he was talking about, but his strange and inexplicable expression left her puzzled. "I haven't seen it."

As soon as she finished speaking, Lin Rui looked down at her, wondering if she was lying.

It was clear that her expression was genuine.

Lin Rui said, "You should take a look when you have time."

"Oh, okay." Guan Nan wasn't actually very familiar with him. If it weren't for Jiang Li's presence, the two would have had absolutely no interaction. But hearing him say that, she still agreed, "Thank you."

"You're too kind," Lin Rui waved his hand.

After saying that, he picked up his keys and walked out, just as he was about to leave.

Lin Rui, with one foot on his shoe, turned to look in the direction of the hall and suddenly asked, "Did you work a summer job at an internet cafe during your senior year of high school?"

Upon hearing his mention, Guan Nan instantly recalled that peaceful, long, and reassuring summer vacation, the happiest time she had ever known since she was old enough to understand.

It was something that Guan Nan had almost forgotten.

Guan Nan didn't know why he asked that, but she still answered, "Yes, that's right."

"Jiang Li contacted you?" Lin Rui then asked.

Guan Nan hesitated for a moment, then nodded again: "Yes."

“That’s it,” Lin Rui said, having received the answer. He looked down and put on his shoes as he spoke. “Jiang Li spent his summer vacation in internet cafes and accompanied you to and from get off work every day. Do you know why?”

"I don't know," Guan Nan said softly, her eyes closed.

Lin Rui put on his shoes and casually rested his hand on the doorpost. "Because a murderer escaped from Meilin Reservoir. As soon as he heard that the summer camp in Guangdong was not over, he called his mother, forced himself to quit and rushed back. He didn't even go home after getting off the plane; he went straight to an internet cafe."

He spent the entire summer, including the remaining two weeks of his summer vacation, in internet cafes.

Punctual, arriving at and leaving get off work on time, rain or shine.

Guan Nan considered many reasons, but she never expected it to be this. Although the news of a murderer escaping from the reservoir caused quite a stir at the time, she only found out about it much later.

But this knowledge is not the same as that knowledge.

“Some things, some things, really shouldn’t be my business,” Lin Rui sighed softly. “But you know Jiang Li, he doesn’t like to talk about anything, and every time someone else does something, they find he’s already done it, without a word or taking credit. During the years you were at Green Camp, our band toured there quite a bit. If it weren’t for Ye Na telling him you were coming back, he was even planning to shift his focus to Green Camp…”

Everyone knows he's a master of spreading rumors.

But no one knew that the colossal lie that exposed the truth was actually fabricated by Jiang Li, the one among them who was least inclined to engage in such activities.

What ex-girlfriend? What about her giving up on him?

However, all this self-directed and self-acted drama was merely a pretext for him to get involved alone and share the burden of the mess for the person at the center of the storm. He went to Green Camphor Tree himself, recklessly drugged himself, and shamelessly kept pestering them.

The band he single-handedly carried almost disbanded due to an accident, which was the only time Jiang Li had a conflict with someone after he became an adult.

He said there are so many people who need to work and eat. This is my responsibility, my responsibility as Jiang Li alone! I have to live up to the expectations of everyone who follows me!

He has so many fans; he needs to live up to their love.

Even so, after that incident, Jiang Li still did something outrageous despite everything.

To this day, Lin Rui still remembers him staring at the coffee for a long time with red eyes, and finally whispering, "I'm sorry."

Fei Jiu is his child, but what Guan Nan means to him is something Lin Rui neither knows nor wants to know. He can't stand seeing a woman so easily squander the hard work Jiang Li has built up over so many years.

Only he knows how much Jiang Li has done to get to where he is today, and how he has gritted his teeth and persevered until now.

At first, he didn't understand what Jiang Li was after.

So many years have passed, even the deepest and most intense feelings should have faded by now, and besides, Guan Nan is too cruel.

He had been gone for so many years without ever saying goodbye to Jiang Li. When they finally met, they acted like strangers and old enemies, bickering and finding fault with each other at every turn.

Only now, at this very moment, does Lin Rui realize that Jiang Li doesn't like Guan Nan.

Jiang Li'ai and Guan Nan.

Love runs deep in my bones.

It's not a superficial, verbal liking, but an obsession with possessing some youthful, unattainable ideal.

This person's love is too deep and too intense; no one else could handle it, and perhaps he couldn't let go of it either.

If it's not this person, then it can't be anyone else; there can't be anyone else.

None of them could get into Jiang Li's heart.

Yet, this same person always restrained himself when facing Guan Nan, clearly devoted to one person year after year, yet always felt that he was incapable of loving anyone.

He felt that his meager love was insignificant and worthless.