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Cai Wenchuan only had five days of vacation, and two days of it would be spent on the journey back to China. Therefore, he could only stay with Ye Wenyu for three days.

Although they were supposed to be together for three days, he still lived in his young teachers' apartment, and she lived in his girls' dormitory. They would only meet once a day to catch up on each other's lives.

The two suddenly became distant. Cai Wenchuan didn't know if it was his problem or Ye Wenyu's problem, but he felt that the intimacy and mutual trust had disappeared.

There seemed to be an invisible, thick barrier between the two people.

After three days together, Cai Wenchuan was still preoccupied. Ye Wenyu, sensing his change, remained silent and did not reveal the series of events that had occurred with her foot injury.

It is said that silence is the threshold through which indifference begins.

Three days later, Cai Wenchuan went abroad again to pursue his postdoctoral studies. Ye Wenyu offered to see him off at the airport, but Cai Wenchuan refused, fearing it would affect her studies, so Ye Wenyu didn't insist.

After Cai Wenchuan left, she was alone again and resumed her previous life of going to school and working. However, her enthusiasm for life seemed to have been doused with cold water and cooled down considerably.

It felt as if a thick callus had formed in my heart.

Sometimes she thought that her reborn life was like a brilliant firework waiting to bloom, but it was extinguished by Cai Wenchuan's sudden change of heart.

Sometimes, when she came back from work and sat on the bus back to school, looking at the pitch-black night outside, with the cold wind blowing gently like a mountain stream, she would feel even colder, both physically and emotionally. Her heart felt like an empty eggshell, whereas before it had been full and warm.

She used to think that Cai Wenchuan loved her and only her, so she was full of hope for life and the future. But now, she has discovered that there are two people in Cai Wenchuan's heart, not just her. Who is more important between the two? Not only does she not know, but Cai Wenchuan probably doesn't know either.

Cai Wenchuan and Lin Tingyue were so familiar with each other that she held a place in his heart that no one else could reach.

Ye Wenyu felt pain, numbness, loneliness, silence, desolation, and sadness because she had always thought that Cai Wenchuan was like the only torch in her dark world, the only sunlight in her cold world. But now, she realized that the torch was not illuminating her alone, and the sunlight was not warming just her alone.

So she was sad.

But at the same time, she was a very proud person. She didn't want to be like other girls, going to Cai Wenchuan to cry and make a scene, forcing him to explain the whole story, such as how he and Lin Tingyue met, how long they had known each other, and what kind of feelings he had for her.

These are all unknown.

Old friends change easily, yet people say that old friends are fickle.

She was curious, but she didn't want to go to Cai Wenchuan and force him to explain everything. If he wanted to tell her, he would have done so during his return to China, or even earlier, when he reunited with Lin Tingyue. The fact that he didn't do so only meant that he didn't want to tell her.

Cai Wenchuan's heart is as deep as the ocean, where the darkest secrets are hidden.

So, besides finding out from Cai Wenchuan, who else can we turn to? Lin Tingyue, Yuanyuan? They should know, right?

But--

Why did she need to find out? If she knew that Lin Tingyue was more important to Cai Wenchuan than she was, then such an outcome would only make her more painful and sad.

So instead of trying to find out, let time tell. Maybe one day, Cai Wenchuan will finally understand and know who he truly loves, and then he will make a choice.

Thinking this through, Ye Wenyu became even more silent.

There are plenty of fish in the sea, why be hung up on just one? There are so many men in the world, she believes that as long as she has sunshine in her heart, one day she will find a good man who truly loves her.

Ye Wenyu was depressed for half a month before she picked herself up and faced life again.

Worried about the debts she had to repay at the end of the year, she continued to work day and night, spinning tirelessly like a top, struggling to keep going.

That evening, as she returned home from her tutoring job, a light rain began to fall. She opened her umbrella and walked home, but the rain seemed to intensify, lashing her body like whips. The cold wind howled, making her feel particularly chilly.

She didn't seem to be walking on the street, but rather in an ice cellar.

A woman walked towards the bus stop, hoping to catch the last bus back to school. The temperature outside was very low, but her heart had grown even colder recently because of Cai Wenchuan's situation. So, she was numb to the sudden drop in temperature and the torrential rain.

She was walking quietly alone with a sullen face when she heard a painful groan. She looked up, wondering if she had misheard. It was 11:30 p.m., there were few pedestrians on the street, and this was a very quiet place. Where did the groan come from?

At this moment, the long street feels as lonely as an alien planet.

She was a little scared and quickened her pace, but then there was another painful groan, louder than the first one she had heard. She looked in the direction of the sound and saw a person lying face down on the ground. Because of his tall stature, he was like a collapsed house. The area where he had fallen was probably a blocked drainpipe, where water had accumulated.

Under the dim streetlights, the puddles appeared a dark red color, which horrified Ye Wenyu. If she guessed correctly, the reason the puddles were dark yellow was because his blood was mixed in with them!

Ye Wenyu was stunned.

The rain poured down harder and harder, as if the heavens were releasing a floodgate. The umbrella above made a "pattering" sound, like beans being scattered. Because the rain was so heavy, Ye Wenyu found it very difficult to hold the umbrella. The umbrella swayed left and right in her hands under the onslaught of the rain, and she had to hold it with both hands.

Under the umbrella, she looked worriedly at the man lying face down in the floodwater. Should she save him? If she didn't, he would soon drown. The ground, due to the torrential rain, was like a rushing river, and besides, he was injured and unable to move.

But if she saved him, she would miss the last bus back to school, and she would have to take him to the hospital. These days, hospitals aren't places for ordinary people to go; just getting a simple registration and some medicine could cost several hundred yuan. And right now, she didn't even have a hundred yuan on her. She was poor too, barely able to save herself.