The man tightened his grip on her waist slightly and replied, word by word, "Wanwan, it's me, Jiang Tingzhou. I'm back."
These words had appeared countless times in Xu Wan's dreams.
Every word, every intonation, is exactly the same as it is now.
But every time she dreamt of rushing over to embrace the man, all she ever held in her arms was emptiness.
When she turned around, she realized that she was standing on a dark blue sea, the surface of which was calm and boundless, but the waves were surging beneath.
Every time she tries to find a man, she feels like she's plummeting.
I'll wake up in the next second.
Even though she believed she could distinguish between reality and dreams, she still dared not let her guard down. She raised her hand and pinched her right cheek hard with her thumb and forefinger.
What are you doing?
Jiang Tingzhou was startled by her behavior and reached out to stop her, but the woman had already pinched his cheek hard.
Ignoring the soreness in her cheeks from pinching herself, Xu Wan opened her arms and hugged the man in front of her tightly, hiding her reddened eyes. "I've heard this sentence countless times. I'm afraid I'm dreaming again."
The woman's voice had become heavily nasal when she spoke.
In just a moment, Jiang Tingzhou felt his shirt become warm and damp.
"Wanwan..." The man's hand slowly landed on the woman's back, his movements like coaxing a child. "I'm sorry for being gone for so long. I wasn't by your side during your pregnancy and the difficult time of childbirth, and I left you to take care of Xiaoxiao all by yourself."
The man gently kissed the woman's ear, "I'm sorry for leaving you alone for so long..."
The man's voice was gentle and tender, a quality he hadn't experienced in a long time.
The gentle words were like pebbles falling into the lake of her heart. At first, they only caused small ripples, but from some sentence onward, these ripples turned into surging waves in her heart.
Xu Wan simply buried her face completely in the man's shoulder.
In just a few moments, the shirt on the shoulders was soaked with sweat.
Jiang Tingzhou didn't say a word, but gently stroked the woman's back with his palm, as if coaxing her.
She didn't know how much time had passed. Xu Wan's voice was hoarse from crying. She looked up and asked unwillingly, "Five years have passed. You don't want to just let it go with a few 'I'm sorry,' do you?"
Jiang Tingzhou looked at the woman's swollen eyes from crying, raised his hand to wipe away her tears, and after a long silence, said, "Wanwan, my legs may never be able to stand up again. I may not be able to accompany you and protect you like before. I may not be able to take Xiaoxiao to the amusement park, ride roller coasters, and drive go-karts like other fathers..."
Xu Wan's voice was still hoarse, but her eyes were already filled with anger. "If you mind this much, then pretend none of this ever happened, and I'll leave right now..."
"No." Jiang Tingzhou wrapped his arms around the woman's waist and kissed her hair with a devout gaze. "Before I returned to China, I had thought countless times that if I couldn't stand up, I would never appear in front of you. I didn't expect to meet you as soon as I got back. During this time, I told myself countless times that I should not disturb you before the surgery was confirmed to be successful, but I found that I simply couldn't do it."
"What can't be done?"
"I can't imagine you falling in love with someone else and marrying someone else."
The man answered truthfully.
Xu Wan tilted her head and looked at the man's face.
She had previously thought that Jiang Tingzhou, whose appearance had changed, didn't look much like before, but now, at such close range, she realized that the man's face didn't seem to have changed much.
She looked at him and deliberately said, "You've been gone for so long, haven't you ever thought that I might have given up everything and married someone else? Where are you going to cry then?"
"I have no idea."
Although Jiang Tingzhou said this, another answer couldn't help but pop into his mind.
If Xu Wan really marries someone else, his first thought would be to win her back.
Even if she doesn't want to, he will take her back.
If she tries to escape, threaten her with what she cares about most, or get her current husband imprisoned.
As a lawyer, he could do this entirely without the law.
But he suppressed that thought in an instant.
If Xu Wan really gets married, he won't be able to completely ignore her, but he definitely won't disturb her life.
"Don't know?" Xu Wan raised an eyebrow slightly, wrapping her arms around the man's neck. "Then maybe I can give you a chance. You tell me everything that has happened over the years, one by one, without missing a single detail. If I think it's okay, then I won't hold it against you for disappearing for a few years, letting me get pregnant and give birth to Xiaoxiao alone, and being a single mother for a few years. If I don't think it's okay..."
"Um?"
“My ex-husband Jiang Tingzhou is dead, and this Ryan who is returning to China has nothing to do with me.”
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