Chapter 43 How to let go? With time, you'll just forget about it.

Wen Feng offered to stay and keep Liu Xin company, but Liu Xin refused. Her expression remained unchanged, and her attitude was the same. For a long time afterward, she didn't mention the matter again. Yu Xue visited her twice after recovering from her illness. She didn't see her once because she had gone to work, and the other time she was reading in her room.

She said she was experiencing living alone.

New Year's Day will be here soon.

The new year has arrived.

Good news! Wen Yuan was out of danger on New Year's Day, left the ICU, and moved to a private room.

Mom and Wen Feng went to visit.

Outside the ward, Wen Feng held his mother's hand tightly, his face full of worry.

Liu Xin pinched his tiger's mouth and said, "Don't worry, I never intended for him to die, and I won't bring this up today."

After she finished speaking, she took the food box and went inside.

Wen Yuan was still asleep and couldn't answer her.

Liu Xin placed the soup aside, bent down, wiped away the tears that flowed from her eyes with her fingers, and looked at Wen Yuan's aged face.

I've lived half my life, and I never imagined that I would reach this point in my fifties.

Liu Xinping said gently, "Old Wen, Happy New Year!"

Wen Yuan made a sound from her nose, but it's unclear whether she heard it.

Liu Xin wiped away her tears again. Before seeing this person, she always thought she could remain completely unmoved.

Despite her strong rationality, her heart was screaming, and she couldn't help but feel resentment and pain.

She really didn't know what to say. After a long while, she left with these words: "Old Wen, get well soon and get discharged from the hospital soon. I have something to tell you. We still have many important things to do. Once you wake up, we'll take care of them all."

After she finished speaking, she straightened up, turned around, and looked at Wen Feng waiting at the door.

Her eyes were a little red.

After leaving the hospital and getting into the car, Wen Feng turned to her and asked, "Mom, the driver is off today, and it's just us in the car. Do you want to cry for a while?"

Liu Xin shook her head. "I already cried when I was alone. The most painful time is over. It's okay. Let's go home. Xuexue said she learned how to make fillings online and is waiting for us to go back and make wontons together."

Yu Xue had a net friend, a girl who studied sports. She had sent her many messages before, but Yu Xue never replied. Today, when she was about to send Yu Xue a Happy New Year message, she suddenly discovered that Yu Xue had deleted her account.

She stopped stirring the filling and looked at the ceiling.

She had some doubts about the authenticity of the online friend on the other end. Could this be a secret account she created late at night?

I don't know, who knows?

She tossed her phone aside and continued preparing the filling.

Today is Chinese New Year, and she doesn't want her family to notice her unusual mood and try to comfort her.

The two returned quickly, bringing lots of snacks.

Before leaving get off work yesterday, my aunt bought all the groceries we need for today, including fish and chicken. Knowing that Yu Xue likes beef, she bought extra beef, and there's also a lot of seafood that Liu Xin likes.

None of the three are particularly good cooks. In previous years, they would hire chefs for the high-paying overtime jobs during holidays. Otherwise, they would just eat some wontons and scrambled eggs with tomatoes, or go back to their grandfather's house for a meal. But this year, Liu Xin didn't want any outsiders at home and wanted the three of them to have a proper New Year together, so she didn't hire a chef.

Delicious food can be enjoyed anytime, but for the Wen family, the joy of New Year's Day lies not in how good the food is, but in the fact that the family is together.

Liu Xin sat outside teaching Yu Xue how to wrap wontons, while Wen Feng went to the kitchen to learn how to cook by watching videos.

Yu Xue remembered that in another world, every year during the Spring Festival, she would make dumplings and cook with her parents. She and her mother would be in charge of preparing the appetizers, while her father would be in charge of cooking.

If another world doesn't exist, where did she get these memories from?

Could it be that she also has fond memories of her parents in this world? Perhaps she just doesn't remember them?

Unbeknownst to her, she had already wrapped two more delicate and pretty wontons and placed them on the cutting board. When she turned around, Liu Xin had already wrapped five and was preparing to wrap the sixth.

She noticed Yu Xue's gaze and smiled, "It's okay, beginners always have to go slower."

"Mom," Yu Xue called out to her.

Liu Xin raised an eyebrow and looked into her eyes.

Yu Xue pinched the wonton wrapper, swallowed for a moment, and said, "Uh... I told Wen Feng before that I forgot some things, such as a few songs from the second album, but a couple of days ago, I remembered one."

"You remembered?" Liu Xin made an exaggerated expression, as if coaxing a child. "Then play it for Mom later?"

"Yes." Yu Xue nodded, "It's written to Mom...and to you."

Liu Xin smiled and pursed her lips. She knew that Yu Xue had always treated her like a mother; she had always known that.

Yu Xue laughed and said, "I let Wen Feng listen to it, and he said it was very good. I've been practicing at home these past few days, and I feel like I've regressed a bit, but I still have the basics. We agreed to go to the recording studio after the New Year's Day holiday. He'll find someone to help me make the cover and poster, and if we work hard for another month, we can release the song before the Spring Festival in February. After the New Year next year, I want to try to resume my work."

"That's great." Liu Xin smiled so much that her eyes narrowed, and the skin at the corners of her eyes wrinkled a few times. "Mom is very happy to hear that you have work plans, but you're not fully recovered yet, so don't overwork yourself. Take it slow. It's best not to go on variety shows for now. Just sing some songs and participate in some music festivals or something. And don't do it too frequently. If you work too hard, it'll be easy to feel unhappy."

“Yes, I know.” Yu Xue nodded. “I’ve been sick for more than four years. I can’t stand having to get up early and work at a high intensity every day. I made a promise with Wen Feng to take good care of my health.”

The two of them wrapped the vegetables for a while longer, and then they heard the sound of stir-frying coming from the kitchen. Yu Xue saw that they were almost done wrapping the vegetables and got up to say, "I'll go see what's good to eat."

“The kitchen smells terrible right now, let’s go later, or I can go,” Liu Xin said, getting up as well.

Yu Xue said, "It's okay, Mom. My hands are sore from making wontons. You rest, I'll go check on them."

Wen Feng made cooking a meal like defusing a bomb, locking the kitchen door behind him. Luckily, it was a transparent door, otherwise Yu Xue would have thought something had happened to him inside.

Wen Feng was mainly worried that someone would come in and let the smell of cooking oil waft out. He remembered that Yu Xue had lung problems, and he was afraid that her condition would relapse.

The wontons were delicious. Wen Feng's dishes were just average, not as good as those made by a professional chef, but for a novice like him, they were quite good, with vegetables, meat, and staple food.

Yu Xue happily ate two large bowls of wontons. After finishing her meal, Yu Xue took out her guitar and started playing her new song, or rather, an old song that she had forgotten for a long time.

The rhythm is slow and somewhat heavy, but the lyrics are cheerful.

The lyrics portray her as happy and joyful, as if she grew up alongside Liu Xin.

Liu Xin wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, took Yu Xue's hand, and murmured, "After hardship comes happiness."

Around 10 o'clock, everyone went back to their rooms.

Yu Xue hadn't drunk alcohol in a long time. While her mother was in the room, she secretly went to the refrigerator and took four bottles of wine back to her room.

She picked up the wine bottle, clinked it against Wen Feng's, and said, "Wen Feng, tell me, does another world really exist?"

She took a deep breath and rubbed her nose. "I feel like everything I experienced before was so real."

Wen Feng looked at her and suddenly couldn't bear to deny her. He said, "I don't know. It might be true, it might be false. Let's just assume it's true, but we definitely can't get through this. We can only stay here. Let's try our best to live a good life in this world."

Yu Xue turned her head and leaned on his shoulder. "I used to have a really good online friend, a girl, a sports student. She suddenly disappeared. Do you think something might have happened to her in real life? Should we try to find her?"

Wen Feng took a sip of his drink, torn between telling her the truth.

Wen Feng had always wanted to know what kind of deep-seated hatred could drive someone to chase Yu Xue for ten years, just to see her ruined.

No, I won't ask anymore. Some hatred is just for no reason. Asking Yu Xue will only make her doubt herself more.

Wen Feng shook his head and said, "Let's not look for her anymore. Some beautiful things should remain on the internet. If we really find her, we might discover that the person you know is just a persona she uses to make friends online. Maybe... she's actually a guy. Even if something really happens to her, there's nothing we can do."

Yu Xue kicked her feet, making the swing sway.

She wrapped the blanket tighter around herself and said, "Yes, we're not looking anymore."

She took another sip of her drink. The moon wasn't very full tonight. "I suddenly remembered when I was in junior high, I was holding a blank map and writing down the names of provinces from memory. Suddenly, a few classmates came over and asked if I could give them a few. I thought to myself, why not give them some? If I do, they'll see what kind of person I am and won't believe those rumors anymore. They might suddenly realize and think, 'Oh, Yu Xue is actually a really good person.'"

She covered half her face, "But the next day, when I brought them the five blank maps I had printed, that girl snatched them away and said, 'Okay! Thank you, Sister Gouzi.' I...I..."

Wen Feng wanted to wipe her tears, but she wiped them away with her sleeve.

Yu Xue said, "Oh dear, how could I have been so stupid? I regret it so much now. Why did I give them those maps? I even printed them with my own pocket money..."

She chuckled self-deprecatingly, "It feels like good people don't get rewarded."

Wen Feng grabbed her hand and, just like before, embraced her countless times.

She lowered her hands from her face, her voice choked with emotion, "I know, I must have said similar things countless times, this scene has repeated itself countless times, I'm like... like a broken record..."

Wen Feng quickly took her hand and gently comforted her, "What about Xianglin's wife? Xianglin's wife's suffering wasn't caused by herself, it wasn't her fault. Fortunately, times have changed, and our resistance will no longer be extinguished. Xuexue, I know this is something hard to let go of, and it may take a lifetime to process. It's not your fault, no matter what, I'll be with you."

Yu Xue took out her phone and showed him her private photo album on social media. "Look, look, I still have screenshots of them insulting me. They photoshopped my pictures into ugly images and made them into memes. Look, I've saved them all. I know I can't get back at them... but I still kept them. Back then, I was thinking, 'What if, what if?' If there really is a god, would a god give me a chance to get revenge on them... But, but, but we've never met again. If we did, I definitely wouldn't dare to post all of this. I can't..."

She cries every time she brings it up, and once she starts, she can't stop. She has to keep talking and talking, "Actually, I've also been spying on their social media. I want to see if they're doing well. Actually, actually... actually, everyone is doing quite well. Some of my classmates didn't get into university, so they might not be as well-educated as me, but they're all living very happily. They have friends and family who love them, and they have jobs that allow them to make a living."

She knew she shouldn't look. She knew that the more she looked, the deeper she would fall, the harder it would be for her to escape, and the more she couldn't let go of them, the harder it would be for her to let go of herself.

But she couldn't help it; she couldn't help but watch.

Her heart was always on her mind.

Wen Feng took the phone and said, "If you want, I can disrupt their lives. As long as it makes you feel better..."

"..." Yu Xue was stunned.

She looked at Wen Feng and silently shed tears.

She didn't know, she didn't know.

Although she always talked about getting revenge and wanted to get revenge, now that the opportunity to do so was right in front of her, she hesitated again.

She didn't want to become a despicable person who abused his power, nor did she want Wen Feng to become that kind of person.

She needs to make a decision, a decision that will truly allow her to let go.

Ten minutes passed, then twenty minutes passed...

Finally, she pressed down on Wen Feng's wrist, and in an extremely sorrowful tone, made the decision: "No, please help me delete their social media accounts. Don't block them... I might accidentally unblock them. Just delete them, I can't remember their numbers anyway... Maybe, in time, I'll forget them."