Chapter 51

The window wasn't closed tightly, and the wind made the curtains flutter slightly, with a faint smell of smoke lingering in the air.

Ye Yan grabbed nothing.

At first, he didn't realize something was wrong, assuming Qin Su had gone out, so he threw back the covers, got out of bed, and called out, "Su Su?"

No one answered.

Ye Yan went to the bathroom and balcony, calling out, "Su Su, where are you?"

Still, no one answered.

Ye Yan was stunned for a moment, and his mind finally came to a clear.

Qin Su is not in the room?

Confused, he turned and went back to the bedroom to look for Qin Su's phone, only to find it missing. The necklace she had taken off and placed on the bedside table before going to bed last night was also gone.

He glanced at it and felt that something seemed off, but he didn't think about it in detail.

"Really went out?" He frowned as he reached for his phone, unlocking it and checking the notifications, wondering, "Why didn't you call me?"

When the message popped up, Ye Yan was stunned for a moment.

Why is the chat box with Qin Su that he always pinned to the top gone?

He hurriedly searched, but couldn't find Qin Su.

He frowned, and just then saw the butler passing by the window, so he casually asked, "Uncle Zhang, has Su Su gone out?"

The butler looked up in surprise: "Who is Su Su?"

Ye Yan was even more surprised: "Qin Su, I just woke up and found that she was gone."

The butler vaguely felt that the name "Qin Su" sounded familiar, but after thinking about it, he couldn't recall it at all.

Seeing Ye Yan's matter-of-fact expression, as if he should know "Qin Su," he became even more confused: "But... who is Qin Su?"

Ye Yan was completely stunned.

Who is Qin Su?

These four words are like a bucket of cold water, poured over your head in the cold winter.

Ye Yan's blood froze.

A thought flashed through his mind like lightning, and he turned his head inch by inch to look at the bed in the room.

Ye Yan finally realized what the problem was that he had vaguely sensed when he picked up his phone.

There was only one pillow on his bed.

The sheets beside him were flat and wrinkle-free, showing no signs of anyone having slept on them.

It was as if no one had ever been in his arms, or slept in his embrace.

...

Qin Su disappeared.

It took Ye Yan a long time to be completely certain of this fact.

She didn't simply disappear; rather, no one in the entire world, except Ye Yan, remembered her.

Ye Hongchang, like the butler, was surprised: "Who is Qin Su?"

Ye Yuanqing rubbed his nose and muttered, "Strange, why does this name make me angry just by hearing it?"

Ding Bo was puzzled and cautiously asked, "Madam? Do you mean Mr. Ye's current wife?"

Xiao Xiao was stunned, and murmured, "This name sounds familiar, but I really don't know it."

Qin Yao exclaimed in surprise on the other end of the phone, "Sister? I don't have a sister. I'm an only child. Mr. Ye, are you sure you're not mistaken?"

Ye Yan then thought of the brain chip, but the news that came up in the search results showed that the chip was developed by the Ye family.

I don't remember.

Nobody remembers.

It was as if Qin Su had never existed in the world.

He doesn't have this contact in his phone, his phone case isn't the blue dog, he's single, there's no claw machine in his office, and the cute little yellow duck on his desk is gone.

His ocean-view apartment had no mistress, his basement had no jet skis, his room remained a monotonous black, gray, and white, his private chef's custom menu remained unchanged, his wardrobe had no leopard-print underwear gift set, and his perfume sat forlornly on the table...

It's amazing how many traces a person can leave in the world.

However, now all traces have disappeared.

Everything about Qin Su seemed to be Ye Yan's own delusion, or a beautiful dream he had.

His search for Qin Su was so grand that it alarmed everyone he knew, and those close to him worried that he was under too much pressure and was hallucinating.

Ye Yan even doubted his own sanity.

Until he officially resumed his work and sat down at his desk, he suddenly noticed two letters on the back of a file on his desk.

— “yy”.

Before the Chinese New Year, Qin Su often played the claw machine at Ye Yan's place. Once, when they were talking about the name of the chip she released, Ye Yan asked what the abbreviation "yy" in the chip meant. Qin Su raised her eyebrows and smiled: "Try writing it down."

Ye Yan then wrote it down as instructed.

Qin Su asked, "Don't you think it looks familiar?"

Ye Yan looked completely bewildered.

Qin Su laughed and said, "You're so stupid, it's the initials of your name in pinyin."

His name...

Ye Yan stared blankly at the paper.

Ding Bo handed him a pre-made to-do list and said awkwardly, "I don't know what happened, there's another thing on it: replacing the red claw machine. Maybe I wrote it wrong."

They held a technical department meeting in the morning. After the meeting, a young man named Fang Zhixin left but then came back.

"Mr. Ye, although it's offensive to ask, have you bought any jewelry?" He scratched his head, uncertainly asking, "Maybe a necklace? A blue one?"

Ye Yan felt as if something was blocking his throat.

He stared at Fang Zhixin, moved his lips, and finally shook his head.

Fang Zhixin said, "Okay."

He left the meeting room, muttering in disbelief, "That's amazing, does my boss really look like that?"

He felt that his boss should be very beautiful, with a smile as scorching as the sun, arrogant and lazy.

Was it just an illusion after all?

Ye Yan also met Zhao Nuannuan.

As Ye Jingming's girlfriend, she was taken back to Ye Jingming's home for a meal.

She called Ye Yan "Uncle" along with Ye Jingming.

"Where is Madam Ye?" Zhao Nuannuan blurted out. "Isn't Madam Ye here?"

Ye Jingming tugged at her: "There's no Mrs. Ye, my uncle isn't married."

Zhao Nuannuan paused for a moment: "Is that so? I have a feeling..."

Why does she feel that Ye Yan seems to have a wife?

There isn't one?

Zhao Nuannuan didn't know why, but she felt a deep sense of regret and heartache that she couldn't quite explain.

In the summer, Ye Yan visited Baoluo Temple again.

The marriage tree in the backyard is lush and leafy, with sachets of varying shades of color hanging from its branches. When the wind blows, they create a halo of light like the sunset.

Ye Yan couldn't tell which one was the one he and Qin Su had hung up.

He was lost in thought, wondering if it was because he later told Qin Su about his wish that it didn't come true?

Inside the octagonal pavilion halfway up the mountain, a middle-aged man was selling ice cream and watermelon, while a worn-out speaker played love songs.

In the hot summer, people come and go in front of the uncle's stall.

Ye Yan watched for a while, then went over and paid for two watermelons, without taking anything else.

When he reached the foot of the mountain, he subconsciously raised his hand and made a grasping motion.

Last time he held Qin Su's hand, but this time only the wind flowed through his fingers.

...

Does it really not exist?

If she truly didn't exist, why do all those who had contact with her still remember her in their souls?

If it really existed, why is he the only one who remembers it?

Ye Yan recalled what Qin Su had once told him: "A great dream will eventually end."

Did she hope he would just treat it all as a dream?

Su Su.

You plunged me into a sea of ​​love, but now you want to jolt me ​​awake from my dream.

How cruel you are.

...

Ye Yan lived for a very, very long time.

He went on and on, replaying every single thing he and Qin Su had experienced and every single word they had spoken, countless times.

Memories never fade with time; they only become more etched in our hearts.

Many things that were previously overlooked gradually became clear through this repeated recollection.

Her changing personality, her appearance that no one had noticed before, her taste in food, and her scientific research abilities that were ahead of their time.

Perhaps there was no Qin Su from the very beginning, only a beam of moonlight that happened to fall upon him.

But who can restrain the moonlight?

Ye Yan never married.

He is simply focused on investing in technological research and development.

Perhaps deep down he still hoped to find a glimmer of hope through this method.

He had already bought the burial plot and the coffin for the couple to be buried together.

He had no descendants, and the entire Ye family business was handed over to Zhao Nuannuan and Ye Jingming's grandchildren.

The young man, a man of deep affection and loyalty, wept bitterly by his bedside.

Ye Yan finally revealed a slight smile.

He said slowly, "Don't cry...it's a good thing..."

Why are you crying?

He had lived long enough, ever since the new year of his twenty-fifth year.

But he has never dared to die all these years.

If he dies, there will truly be no one in this world who will remember Qin Su.

Now he finally couldn't hold on any longer.

That's settled then.

In another sense, he disappeared along with her.