At nine o'clock in the evening, Han Jingchen pushed open the bedroom door.
In the darkness, he skillfully pressed the switch on the remote control.
The starry sky of the planetarium's dome instantly appeared on the TV screen.
In the center of the picture, Gu Youran's fingers were touching the silver eye mask.
He had seen this move countless times, but it still made his heart skip a beat.
The memory goes back to a week ago.
That day, he was reviewing quarterly reports in the office when his assistant Jiang Yuan suddenly rushed in, forgetting even to knock on the door.
"CEO! Check out the live broadcast!" Jiang Yuan's voice was trembling and almost cracking. "Planetarium... Lenna's concert..."
When Han Jingchen looked up, he discovered that Lenna, who had taken off her eye mask on TV, was actually Gu Youran, who had been with him for three years.
“Snap—”
The pen in my hand fell on the table.
"Happy birthday, my love."
Gu Youran on the screen smiled at the camera, her voice as gentle as honey.
It's been a week.
He relies on this video to fall asleep every night, reliving that moment over and over again as if in self-torture.
Han Jingchen filled a glass with red wine, tilted his head back and drank it. The red liquid slid down his throat, but it couldn't quench the burning pain in his chest.
The starry sky, the stage, and...his lover should belong to him.
Now they have all become birthday gifts for another man.
"Why, do you regret it?"
The voice coming from the shadows made Han Jingchen freeze.
He turned his head and saw a blond man slowly walking out from behind the curtains.
"Who are you……"
Before Han Jingchen could finish his words, he was hit hard in the abdomen.
The punch was so fast and fierce that he bent over involuntarily and let out a muffled groan from his throat.
"I really want to cut open your chest and see."
Renault grabbed his neck with one hand and pushed him against the wall.
"How could you be so cruel as to push away the woman who gave everything for you?"
Han Jingchen suddenly raised his knee and counterattacked.
But Renault was prepared and easily dodged it by turning sideways and then elbowing him with his backhand.
After three moves, Han Jingchen was knocked to the ground by Renault with an over-the-shoulder throw.
In this split second.
A silver necklace slipped from his collar, and the pendant on it was the flying eagle emblem.
Renault's movements suddenly stopped.
He pressed one knee against Han Jingchen's chest, pinched the badge with trembling fingers, and took off the necklace.
"This is the Gu family's keepsake, how come it's on you?"
Han Jingchen was breathing heavily, with a trace of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
"When I was eight years old, I was kidnapped. Xia Ke saved me. This is the token she gave me."
"Bullshit!"
Renault angrily thrust the badge in front of him.
"Open your eyes and take a good look! This is Gu Youran's personal belonging! Her birthday is clearly engraved on the back!"
Han Jingchen struggled to focus his eyes, "Impossible... I've checked countless times, and there are no numbers on the back..."
"This is the Gu family's unique dark pattern craftsmanship."
Renault pressed his finger hard on a pattern on the back of the badge.
“Click—”
A soft sound.
The inner mechanism slowly unfolded, revealing the small words engraved inside.
[The seventh day of the seventh month of the Gengchen year]
Han Jingchen stood up suddenly. "I personally went to the Yuncheng Orphanage a month ago. There was no such person as Gu Youran in the files from twenty years ago!"
Renault took out two yellowed photos from the inside pocket of his suit and flicked them lightly with his fingertips.
The photo drew an arc in the air and fell in front of Han Jingchen.
"Because her name at that time was Little Raindrop."
In the first photo, Xia Ke stood under the old locust tree in the orphanage. The eagle badge on her neck sparkled in the sun, and her smile was dazzlingly bright.
In the second photo, a thin girl is standing in front of the dilapidated iron gate of the orphanage. A silver chain is exposed at the open collar of her clothes, which is the chain of the flying eagle badge.
She lowered her head, and her expression couldn't be seen, but it made people feel inexplicably nervous.
"This Xia Ke..."
Renault leaned over to pick up the photo, and rubbed his thumb heavily on Xia Ke's smiling face.
"Could it be that her original name was... Xia Chunhua?"
The nursery teacher’s mutterings from those years suddenly burst into Han Jingchen’s ears.
"It's strange. Chunhua and Xiaoyudian clearly went to the back mountain together that day...how come only Chunhua came back..."
The fragments of memory are completely pieced together at this moment.
Only then did he realize that the girl who timidly said her name was "Xia Chunhua" changed her name to "Xia Ke" after entering the Han family.
"She's an imposter..."
Han Jingchen's voice was filled with deep hatred.
Countless overlooked details suddenly became clear:
Every time Xia Ke saw the flying eagle emblem, the corners of her mouth suddenly tightened;
Her headache always "happened" to strike when he pressed her for details about the cave;
Even when she insisted on locking the eagle badge in the safe, there was a flash of panic in her eyes...
"Bang--"
Han Jingchen slammed his fist into the ground, his knuckles bleeding but he was completely unaware.
On that rainy night three years ago, Gu Youran stood at the door of the ward, with water dripping from the ends of her hair.
"I'm here to apply for the position of nurse." she said calmly.
But her eyes betrayed her.
There are too many unspoken words hidden in it.
But he didn't care at that time.
More than a thousand days and nights.
She massaged his atrophied muscles over and over.
He smashed the dishes in great pain, and she just squatted down silently and picked up the pieces one by one, not even noticing that her palms were cut by the porcelain pieces.
Late at night, when he was shaking with pain, she hummed a song as if she was coaxing a child who refused to fall asleep.
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