Chapter 911 She Can't Speak
Ruan Xiaoyu trembled, avoiding Qiu Zhiming's gaze, and said in a trembling voice, "I, I don't know what you're talking about."
Seeing her like this, Qiu Zhiming became even angrier, his face turning red. He struggled to get off the hospital bed and lunged at her.
Seeing this, Qiu Linshan and the others frowned: "What's going on? You don't even know who your own girlfriend is, how could you mistake her for someone else?!"
Qiu Zhiming froze, then gritted his teeth and punched the hospital bed.
It turns out that Qiu Zhiming's belated awakening of romantic feelings was quite trendy, as it involved online dating.
Two years ago, when he had just entered university, he chose to go to the remote area sponsored by his parents for his summer social practice to visit the left-behind children there. Beforehand, Qiu Zhiming searched for many travel guides online in order to prepare practical supplies that he would bring with him and that would be helpful to the sponsored children.
It was around that time that Qiu Zhiming saw a photo online.
It was a photo of a child smiling brightly at the camera. The background of the photo looked dilapidated and remote, but the child's eyes were very clear, and the smile was as warm as the September morning sun, instantly shining into Qiu Zhiming's heart.
It's clear that the person who took this photo didn't use particularly good equipment, and the resolution wasn't very high, yet the resulting photo is incredibly moving.
Qiu Zhiming stared at the photo for a long time, and finally, unable to suppress his curiosity, he clicked into the other person's profile.
Once you go in, you can never come out again.
The person who took the photos has the ID "After the Rain". There are no personal updates or traces of daily life sharing in her personal space, only about twenty or thirty photos.
These twenty or thirty photos include landscapes, animals, and all sorts of ordinary people.
Trees swaying bravely in the wind and rain, birds bringing food to feed their chicks, street vendors hunching over in their tricycles at dusk, and sanitation workers appearing on street corners before dawn...
Ordinary people and events in real life seem to become exceptionally moving and beautiful when she takes a picture.
Qiu Zhiming stared at the photos for a long time, and then unexpectedly discovered that the address filled in by the owner of the account was in the same city as his.
Qiu Zhiming couldn't remember what he was thinking at the time. He inexplicably went to follow the person and then went to harass them by sending private messages.
And this harassment lasted for two whole years.
When talking about the events of the past two years, Qiu Zhiming couldn't help but show a hint of disorientation on his face.
The excitement of finally receiving the first reply after waiting for almost half a month, the warmth of exchanging ideas about new photos, the trepidation of mustering the courage to confess to the other person, and the excitement and sweetness of finally receiving a pleasing answer—all of these seemed to awaken at this moment.
All of this reminded him that he had mistaken the person for someone else. The woman in front of him had taken the place of his lover and come to his side, and he was completely unaware of it!
Qiu Zhiming clutched his head in anguish. He couldn't imagine how heartbroken that shy, timid, and even somewhat insecure girl hiding behind the internet must have been when she saw him mistaking someone else for her and showering another woman with affection and kindness.
It's his fault, all his fault! If only he had noticed something was wrong with this woman sooner...
But strictly speaking, Qiu Zhiming is not really to blame. He had been communicating with "Xiaoyu" online for two years, but they had never exchanged photos or video calls, let alone sent each other a single voice message.
After agreeing to meet in person, he was filled with excitement and a surge of unbridled enthusiasm.
He could sense her shyness and inferiority complex, so upon meeting Ruan Xiaoyu, he prejudicially regarded her as a fragile object, treating her with utmost care and daring not to make any mistakes, for fear of accidentally hurting her overly sensitive heart.
The two spent nearly a month together, but Ruan Xiaoyu was probably afraid of being exposed. Apart from the necessary weekly meetings and the few times she took the initiative to bypass Qiu Zhiming in order to get Qiu Zhiming's hair and blood, she mostly used being busy with work as an excuse to avoid contact with Qiu Zhiming.
Even so, Qiu Zhiming still sensed something was wrong, but before he could really suspect anything, he fell ill.
After falling ill, Qiu Zhiming was bedridden and had no energy to think about anything else. In addition, Ruan Xiaoyu took the initiative to take care of him, accompanying him everywhere without complaint.
Qiu Zhiming was unaware of the situation at the time, and seeing her actions, he couldn't help but be moved. At this point, if he were to doubt her, his own conscience wouldn't allow it.
All we can say is that none of the Qiu family members expected that someone would be so scheming for Qiu Zhiming's life, and Ruan Xiaoyu's acting skills were also quite good.
If Qiu Linshan hadn't had a flash of inspiration and invited Ye Wanxi and the other person over, Qiu Zhiming might have really lost his life in vain, while the culprit would have escaped unscathed and reaped all the benefits.
After hearing Qiu Zhiming's explanation, Qiu Linshan and the others were shocked and bewildered: "We really didn't expect you, a usually serious guy, to actually try online dating! Online dating is one thing, but you didn't even bother to ask for a photo of the other person beforehand, and then you mistook them for someone else after meeting in person! I'm really... impressed by you!"
Qiu Zhiming felt embarrassed by his older siblings' disapproving questions and complaints, but he had to admit that it was indeed his fault.
But what he was more concerned about now was: "How did you know where I met Xiaoyu? How did you know our secret code? Why are you in your possession of Xiaoyu's account? What did you do to her?"
Hearing Qiu Zhiming's angry roar, Ruan Xiaoyu trembled again and subconsciously retorted, "No, don't listen to her nonsense, I am Xiaoyu! I am the Xiaoyu you chatted with online!"
"You..." Qiu Zhiming was so angry that he wanted to dismantle the hospital bed and jump off again. This time, even his older brother Qiu couldn't hold him down.
Aunt Qiu and the others were a little flustered when they saw this, realizing that their silly son had really fallen in love with the girl he had never met.
If the Wang family is truly so heartless and ruthless that they plotted against Qiu Zhiming and harmed that girl, his son will likely live with regret for the rest of his life.
"Don't worry, she's fine."
Qiu Zhiming's struggling movements suddenly stopped, and he stared blankly at Ye Wanxi: "Is she alright?"
"Um."
Aunt Qiu breathed a sigh of relief, then frowned and said, "Since everything's alright, why didn't she come looking for Zhiming? Zhiming mistook her for someone else; could she have mistaken her for someone else too?"
Aunt Qiu was suspicious of everything. After learning that the other person was alright, she began to wonder if the other person was related to Wang Dingcai and his group.
Ye Wanxi saw through her thoughts at a glance and sighed, "Perhaps, she can't bring herself to say it?"
(End of this chapter)
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