Chapter 5 The Candlestick's One-Time Privilege of Heartbreak.
Liang Yizhi opened her mouth.
She thought she hadn't given herself away, but it turned out he had still discovered her secret.
Just as the rain started to fall.
Receiving no reply, Gu Yinyan spoke again: "If you don't come down, I'm leaving—"
"Get off! Get off right now!" Liang Yizhi hurriedly called out to him.
When the volume suddenly increased, Liang Yizhi realized that her throat felt like it was filled with cigarette ash, making it extremely hoarse.
She cleared her throat and wiped away the swollen, sore corners of her eyes and the half-dried tear stains on her face.
"Wait two minutes, I'll be right there!"
"Put on a coat before you come down."
Downstairs, Gu Yinyan looked up at the dark, overcast sky. He stretched out his hand, and a pool of glistening water quickly gathered in the crisscrossing lines of his palm.
"The rain is getting heavier."
Liang Yizhi still cared about her image and didn't want outsiders to see her in such a disheveled and discomfitured state, not even Gu Yinyan.
She rushed into the bathroom, checked her face, and found her makeup was completely ruined.
Without hesitation, she removed her makeup, washed her face, put on a coat hanging on the coat rack by the door, and went downstairs.
Pushing open the unit door, Gu Yinyan turned to the side.
Liang Yizhi didn't dare look him in the eye, letting him see her swollen eyes. She just lowered her head, covered her chest with her arms, and wrapped her whole body tightly with her coat.
Her clean-washed face was beautiful and charming, though the redness from crying hadn't yet faded from the corners of her eyes and the tip of her nose.
Liang Yizhi has a small, short face. She lowers her head slightly, burying her entire face in the fur collar of her coat, making it invisible.
Seeing Gu Yinyan's car parked across the street, Liang Yizhi made a move to rush into the rain, but Gu Yinyan stopped her.
He opened a long-handled black umbrella, stood behind her, and then raised his chin, gesturing for her to go first.
I got on the bus.
The air conditioning was on in Gu Yinyan's car, and the enclosed space was filled with a warmth that was completely different from the outside world, which warmed Liang Yizhi's body up a bit.
The umbrella was still dripping wet. Gu Yinyan folded it up, put it in the back seat, and then got into the driver's seat.
Liang Yizhi turned her head and saw sparse raindrops on the shoulders of his coat.
She asked, slightly embarrassed, "Um... why did you suddenly come here?"
The man beside him said, "They probably came to see you make a fool of yourself."
Liang Yizhi gave a soft "tsk".
But no matter what, now that someone is by her side, her previously turbulent and disoriented thoughts have finally calmed down a bit.
At the beginning of the call, Gu Yinyan had already noticed that something was wrong with Liang Yizhi. At first, he thought she was just in a bad mood as usual and wanted to chat with him to relieve her boredom.
But she kept talking, her words circling around the point, yet she never got to the heart of the matter.
As the raindrops fell outside, Gu Yinyan heard a few short, very faint gasps.
Mixed with the pattering rain outside, as fine as silk.
It was as if emotions that had been bottled up for a long time and were being carefully restrained had finally been released, bursting forth from that hidden opening.
He was all too familiar with the way Liang Yizhi cried.
When she cries, she always subconsciously breaks down long sentences into shorter ones to mask her sobs, and her voice trembles slightly at the end.
Her crying was different from others; she cried quietly, almost without making a sound, except for the occasional choked breathing sound when she sobbed.
Gu Yinyan once said that she is usually like a loudspeaker, but she becomes mute when something happens.
He asked her, "So what happened?"
Liang Yizhi paused for a moment, then got straight to the point:
"Xie Yun and I broke up."
"We just broke up during dinner tonight."
Gu Yinyan was taking out a few tissues and slowly wiping the rain off himself. Hearing her words, his hand wiping his shoulder paused.
He slowed his movements: "...You suggested that?"
"right."
"Why?"
"...He cheated on me."
Gu Yinyan hadn't considered this aspect.
Liang Yizhi took a breath and continued, "I had his phone with me. Just then, a message came in, so I looked at it."
"Xie Yun and that woman have been in contact for a long time, at least three months. But recently, for some reason, he suddenly wanted to end it. She was furious and kept sending him threatening text messages. She said he would sleep with her and then run away, and that if he really wanted to break up with her, she would tell me everything that had happened between them."
Those text messages were etched into her mind; she couldn't forget them no matter what.
Every line of text terrified her and filled her with uncontrollable rage.
“The most ridiculous thing is,” Liang Yizhi said weakly, “do you even know who he’s cheating on his wife with?”
Gu Yinyan looked into her eyes without saying a word.
“Zhao Ling,” Liang Yizhi said.
"It's that girl he talks about every day, his good friend of several years."
The more Liang Yizhi talked, the more she felt like a clown.
She should have realized it when Zhao Ling said those ambiguous things to her at the birthday party that day.
Zhao Ling was clearly the third party.
But the secret dealings between those two made her feel as if she, their official girlfriend, was an outsider.
Liang Yizhi hates betrayal and dishonest people.
I despise those who trample on others' sincerity even more.
In front of her, Xie Yun used his silver tongue to defend himself:
"Zhizhi...Zhizhi, let me explain! It was all Zhao Ling's one-sided thing. You saw what she said; I never wanted to be with her. From beginning to end, I've only ever loved you—"
"So... what she said about your past relationship is also true, right?"
"No, that's not how it is..."
Xie Yun was unable to defend himself.
Before my eyes, the windshield was wet with rain, and the view in front of the car was distorted in the rain.
Liang Yizhi recalled the image of Xie Yun kneeling before her.
Do you know what he told me?
"He said it was an accident at first, that he made a foolish mistake, and that he and Zhao Ling were just bed partners, each getting what they wanted."
"He said that although he had cheated on me, he wasn't emotionally involved, and his heart would always be with me. He loves me, so he can't bear to touch me."
“What an absurd statement.” Liang Yizhi tilted her head back, lowered her eyes, and leaned against the back of her chair. “But he could say it with such deep emotion.”
Liang Yizhi never expected that she had so arrogantly thought she had a complete understanding of a person, but she didn't realize that his gentlemanly appearance was just a shell, and that inside he was actually a shameless scumbag with a heart rotten to the extreme.
"Anyone can say nice things." Gu Yinyan remained silent for a while, listening to her finish before speaking.
“Desire is instinct, but whether or not he remains loyal to you is a choice he can make.” Gu Yinyan crumpled several damp tissues into his palm. “He made this decision with his lower body.”
Liang Yizhi pursed her lips, bit her lip, and her nose twitched slightly.
"Gu Yinyan," Liang Yizhi asked, "have I had a lot of failed relationships?"
Gu Yinyan held back, saying, "It can only be said that it wasn't a success."
Liang Yizhi's serious romantic experiences can be traced back to after graduating from high school. Her relationship with Xie Yun was her third romantic relationship.
Her first love was with a classmate from university, the boy-next-door type—handsome and academically excellent. Because it was her first love, Liang Yizhi gave her all, revealing almost everything about herself and showing him her true feelings.
The boy came from a poor family, and Liang Yizhi had always helped him. But in the end, he made an outrageous demand, asking Liang Yizhi to buy a car for his family.
He said nonchalantly, "If it doesn't work out, you can give me your current car. I'm not picky."
Only then did Liang Yizhi see his true character.
The rumors that had been circulating on campus were eventually proven true: he had only approached her because of her family background from the beginning.
That relationship hurt Liang Yizhi deeply, and it took her a long time to start her second relationship.
However, this time the outcome was still inconclusive.
The man was two or three years older than Liang Yizhi and was extremely good at sweet talk. When he was gentle, he could make Liang Yizhi's heart flutter, and when they argued, he could also coax her until she was completely soft-hearted.
But they lived in a long-distance relationship, and once they separated, it was as if the other person had vanished into thin air, and they could not be found anywhere.
Unable to endure this emotional abuse, Liang Yizhi and the two parted ways.
Before getting together with Xie Yun, Liang Yizhi took a very long period of observation. They met through friends, and Xie Yun's character was evident to everyone in their circle of friends.
Xie Yun came from a middle-class family; his parents were ordinary people. From a young age, he was hardworking, down-to-earth, and had no bad habits.
It was precisely this ordinariness and ordinariness that led Liang Yizhi to accept his pursuit.
Who would have thought that this relationship would become a dark chapter in her life so soon?
"Gu Yinyan," Liang Yizhi suddenly asked, "when did you break up with your ex-girlfriend?"
Gu Yinyan said, "Weren't we talking about your business? How did we end up talking about me again?"
"I just want to know how you felt when you broke up?"
"Are you this sad too?"
She knew that Gu Yinyan had such a romantic relationship, but it didn't last long.
At that time, they were both in a foreign country. When Liang Yizhi heard that Gu Yinyan had a girlfriend, she was excited to find out about the girl, asking her what her name was, what she liked to eat, and what her hobbies were.
She was very curious about what kind of person Gu Yinyan's girlfriend would be, and wondered if that girl would become her friend as well.
But when she returned to China for the Chinese New Year, she heard that Gu Yinyan and that girl had broken up.
She didn't even get to see him.
Gu Yinyan remained calm, as if briefly recalling the events, before replying, "It wasn't such a melodramatic scene. It was just a peaceful breakup."
Are you sad?
"fine."
“…Heartless.” Liang Yizhi muttered under her breath.
Gu Yinyan said casually, "What? Want to compete with me in misery?"
"Is that not allowed?" Liang Yizhi blurted out.
But she waved her hand halfway through her sentence and said, "Never mind, that feeling is too unpleasant. I hope you never experience it."
As her friend, she still hoped that everything would go well for them. She had enough of this hardship to bear alone.
Raindrops pattered down, hitting the car roof and knocking off the withered leaves from the nearby trees, creating a natural white noise symphony.
Gu Yinyan didn't answer her question, started the car, and fastened his seatbelt.
"Would you like to go for a walk?" he asked.
Liang Yizhi rolled her eyes.
Shall we take her for a drive?
Liang Yizhi: "Is this the kind of treatment you get?"
"Yes." Gu Yinyan turned on the windshield wipers, wiping away the water stains on the windshield, and the dim yellow lights from outside the car reflected hazily on his sharp face.
"It's a one-time privilege of heartbreak."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
