39. Being trapped in the past harms both oneself and others.

Mu Jia stood in front of the sink washing her hands, the water splashing loudly, as if she was intentionally covering something up for someone else.

Suddenly, someone reached out from behind her and turned off the water in front of her. "Oh, it was him."

Mu Jia turned her head and looked at Yuan Yubing with a surprised expression.

Mu Jia was even more surprised. The water on her hands hadn't been wiped away and was still dripping down the back of her hands: "You still remember?"

How could that be? That happened ten years ago, and it was only a brief encounter. How could Yuan Yubing...?

“Of course,” Yuan Yubing said with a sly smile, “How could I not remember someone you cared about so much back then?”

“It’s okay,” Yuan Yubing said, taking a step closer and giving her a gentle hug when there was no one else in the restroom. “But whoever he is doesn’t matter now.”

Mu Jia, her hands still wet, clenched the hem of her clothes as she heard her say, "You're the one who's important."

She pressed Mu Jia's head down, letting her face sink into her shoulder. After a while, seeing that she was still silent, she suddenly asked, "Do you want to cry now? If you don't really want to cry, Shan Shan has already been picked up by his dad and taken home. Shall we go for drinks? Shopping? Or get a spa treatment?"

The soft fabric of the coat clung to her face, warm and gentle. Mu Jia finally buried her face completely in it, her shoulders heaving.

I don't know if I was amused by her silliness or if she was crying.

She saw Chu Chiyi again more than half a week later.

She went to a gathering with some high school classmates who lived in the city that evening. On the way back, there was a bit of traffic, so the ride-hailing driver took a detour and finally dropped her off at the other end of the street, a place she doesn't usually go.

Under the second streetlight counting inwards from the street corner, she saw Chu Chiyi's car.

At the same time, he also saw himself.

I saw him open the door and get out of the car.

He wasn't too surprised that she found out.

The first thing they said was, "If you don't want to park downstairs and be seen by others, is it okay to park here?"

Mu Jia's heart suddenly skipped a beat. It turned out that three days later, the car hadn't disappeared, but had simply moved to a place that couldn't be seen from upstairs.

The two people looked at each other from a few steps away.

She was terrified that Chu Chiyi would say "I like you" to her again, just like that day.

Or, to put it another way, "I don't mind if you date someone else, let's continue."

But this time, he didn't.

He said something she didn't quite understand.

"Have you eaten on time?"

"Did you read the message I left you? Some of the things in it weren't my words, they were what the doctor said."

"Do you actually get a proper night's sleep after turning off the lights every night?"

...

She didn't know why he would suddenly say these things to her, and stood there staring at him for a few seconds in a daze.

As she took a step to leave and passed by him, he suddenly grabbed her from behind and hugged her.

Suddenly, I smelled a faint odor of alcohol.

She had also had some drinks at the party tonight, but she was certain that the substance wasn't on her. This only added to her surprise.

Chu Chiyi started going to bars when he was a minor and had a high alcohol tolerance, but he rarely drank excessively after he became an adult.

In the struggle, she subconsciously turned her head and her gaze met the ring of Aomori on his chin.

Against her pale skin, it was particularly striking.

And right now, it's a very obvious dark color.

Mu Jia's struggling movements suddenly paused for a moment.

She seemed to have never seen Chu Chiyi like this before.

It's often said that after a breakup, you hope to see your ex-boyfriend suffer as much as possible.

But for some reason, she really didn't want to see him like this.

Perhaps it's because he was never her ex-boyfriend.

He held her tightly in his arms, and she suddenly fell silent, able to hear her own heart pounding rapidly behind her back.

It was fast and chaotic.

Sensing that she had finally calmed down, Chu Chiyi suddenly leaned down, pressed his ear to her neck, and took a deep breath.

The evening breeze embraced him, carrying a familiar fragrance. He could finally close his eyes peacefully for the first time in more than ten days.

Suddenly, she said, "Chu Chiyi, I might have been a bit emotional last time. Let me be frank now. Don't come looking for me anymore. Let's both live our lives well, okay?"

"No good." Without her, how could he possibly live?

Mu Jia gritted her teeth, "Let go."

"Let go!" Her struggles suddenly intensified.

Mu Jia didn't want to get entangled anymore and tried desperately to break free from his embrace, but he grabbed her wrist again.

In the ensuing struggle, she accidentally slapped him.

The slap startled her first.

In the less than two months since she returned to China, how many times has she slapped him?

The sound of footsteps could be heard from not far away.

That phrase, "Let's part amicably," was left unsaid—this is the line that couples who have been together for a real time would say after breaking up.

They've never had a good time together, so how can they expect to part ways amicably?

She looked up, unsure of what else to say.

She thought Chu Chiyi would be angry, but to her surprise, he looked at her and smiled, "Hit me a few more times."

Go ahead and hit her, whatever the "kicking the cat effect" may be, as long as she still considers him her closest person, she can vent her anger however she wants.

He even wished she could vent as much as possible.

"..." Mu Jia looked at him in disbelief: "Are you crazy?"

Unfortunately, she didn't know then that he could actually be even crazier.

A few days later, Mu Jia calculated the days and realized that she had less than three weeks left before her vacation back home was coming to an end.

So I decided to seize the last days of the holiday and indulge in a few days of unbridled living.

For the next week or so, she went on a wild ride that even Xiao Yu, who was used to big events, was scared. He advised her that even if she wanted to vent her emotions, she should take it easy.

She shook her head innocently, "No, I just wanted to have some fun while I'm still on holiday."

That evening, Xiao Yu helped the drunken man out of the club again, only to bump into Chu Chiyi in the underground parking lot.

He already knew the true nature of his relationship with Mu Jia, and since they had been spending almost all their time together these past few days, although Mu Jia hadn't explicitly told him, he could roughly guess from her attitude and snippets of conversation what had happened between her and Chu Chiyi recently.

So when Chu Chiyi reached out to him, wanting to take away the person who was leaning on him, completely drunk and unconscious, he didn't want to pretend to be tactful and well-mannered anymore: "Mr. Chu, Jiajia probably doesn't want to see you, please leave."

The man opposite him raised an eyebrow at him. "She told you?"

Xiao Yu stared at him and noticed that compared to their previous meetings, the sense of control he once had seemed to have disappeared, replaced by a more difficult-to-deal-with feeling.

The man opposite him chuckled again, "Having a few meals and drinks with her, a few diving trips, a few games of ball... and you think you're her spokesperson?"

Xiao Yu looked at him, and he was implying that they were just fair-weather friends, and even if they had a chance to take things further in the future, they would only be superficial lovers.

Chu Chiyi was implying that he had no official status and no right to be recognized.

A surge of anger rose within him. And what about him? What were he to her? What right did he have?

In his anger, he half-supported, half-carried the person in his arms and took a few steps forward. "Mr. Chu, you probably have no right to say these things. Whatever happened between you two before is in the past. People should look forward. Jiajia has moved on, so please don't stay stuck in the past and hurt yourself and others."

The other person seemed unfazed by his harsh words, and instead casually asked, "Are you pursuing her?"

"..."

Did she agree?

"..."

"If you haven't agreed yet, have you considered why?" He knew how to kill someone by destroying their spirit.

Xiao Yu didn't want to hear another word. He picked up the person in his arms and tried to walk past him.

But Chu Chiyi did not move aside.

The space between him and the concrete pillar beside him was very narrow. If he didn't move aside, either Xiao Yu would turn around and change direction completely while carrying the person, or they would be stuck in a stalemate.

Half a minute later, I suddenly heard him ask with concern, "Is it heavy?"

"What?"

"Do you think she's heavy? If so, I can help you carry her."

"..."

"Chu Chiyi, I think Jiajia mentioned you're a lawyer, right? I hope you won't break the law." He looked up at him intently. "I can't let Jiajia go with you tonight. She has to come back with me!"

Xiao Yu himself did not expect that these words would actually have an effect.

Because in the next instant, Chu Chiyi actually stepped aside from them.

Xiao Yu was briefly surprised, then walked to his car, opened the door, put Mu Jia in the back seat, and got into the driver's seat himself.

But just as I fastened my seatbelt, a beam of headlights suddenly flashed in front of me.

He turned his head following the light source and saw that the dark green sports car in the distance had made a U-turn and was heading straight for him.