Chapter 109 Your heart is the place I want to return to even if I go to the ends of the earth.
Late September.
It has been half a month since I last saw Yan Shuang at the club.
That day, Young Master Du calculated the time in China and made an overseas call.
It rang for a long time before the other end answered. The background was extremely quiet, with only a cold "hello" coming through the receiver, devoid of any emotion.
"I am Yun Chuan." Du Yun Chuan tried to make his tone sound relaxed and natural. "How have you been lately? Is your injury fully healed?"
There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone before Shangqiu Zhu's emotionless voice came through: "Soon."
Concise and to the point, yet it keeps people at arm's length.
Du Yunchuan, undeterred by the initial rebuff, chuckled and revealed his true purpose: "That's perfect, bro, your birthday's coming up soon, right? Come to Los Angeles, I'll give you a proper celebration. Sunshine, beaches, bikinis... I guarantee you'll forget all your troubles."
He painted a picture of extravagance and decadence.
"No time." Shangqiu Zhu's answer was crisp and concise, without offering a single word of explanation.
Du Yunchuan choked for a moment, then knew it wouldn't be that easy.
His eyes darted around, and he immediately pulled out his trump card, his tone becoming more serious: "No, bro, something really has come up. You can't come to Zhou Dongxun's wedding early next month, so let's take advantage of your birthday to get together in advance and celebrate with you, it's a double celebration!"
A longer silence followed on the other end of the phone.
Du Yunchuan could almost picture Shang Qiuzhu frowning, weighing the options with an expressionless face.
Shangqiu Zhu couldn't very well refuse Zhou Dongxun's wedding, both emotionally and logically.
Just when Du Yunchuan thought he was about to be rejected again, Shang Qiuzhu's voice, which was inscrutable, finally came through the receiver: "I understand."
After saying that, without waiting for Du Yunchuan's response, the call was abruptly ended, leaving only a busy tone.
Du Yunchuan held his phone, stunned for a few seconds, then suddenly slapped his thigh.
There's a chance!
He let out a long sigh, barely giving himself any time to catch his breath, and immediately pulled out another number from his contacts and dialed it quickly.
The calendar silently turned to September 29th.
This is the third year since they separated.
More than a thousand days and nights passed quietly between sunrises and sunsets on both sides of the ocean.
Inside the villa in Beverly Hills, the lights were on, music played by the pool, and the air was filled with the noise and joy of celebrities gathering.
This was a lavish birthday banquet meticulously crafted by Du Yunchuan for Shangqiu Zhu, attracting a large number of guests.
However, the party's protagonist was alone, hidden in the shadows of the spacious open-air balcony on the second floor.
A touch of scarlet light flickered at his fingertips, and wisps of smoke swirled around him, separating him from the decadent extravagance downstairs.
He leaned against the railing, gazing at the ever-burning lights of Los Angeles in the distance, his profile cold and hard, showing no trace of the joy one would expect from a birthday celebrant.
Du Yunchuan came up with two glasses of wine and saw this scene. He sighed, walked over, and handed one of the glasses to him: "Why are you hiding here all by yourself? It's so lively downstairs, everyone is waiting for the birthday boy to cut the cake."
Shangqiu Zhu didn't take the glass of wine, nor did she even turn around. She simply exhaled a smoke ring and said, "You guys have fun."
His voice was as cold as ice.
Du Yunchuan was rebuffed, but not surprised. He moved closer and said, "Really not going down? You'll regret it if you don't."
He emphasized the word "regret".
Shangqiu Zhu finally turned her head and glanced at him, her eyes filled with a hint of mockery and indifference.
He stubbed out his cigarette: "You guys cut the cake, but eat mine."
He's always so stubborn and unyielding!
Du Yunchuan was getting a little anxious: "Hey, Shangqiu Zhu, I'm serious. You'll really regret it if you don't go down. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Shangqiu Zhu clearly didn't take his words seriously, and was even too lazy to respond. She simply turned her gaze back to the night view outside, turned her back to him, and gave him the order to leave.
Du Yunchuan was furious at his pathetic state, but there was nothing he could do.
He stomped his foot and said irritably, "Fine, fine! I'm not going to bother with you anymore. I warned you, don't blame me for not creating opportunities for you later."
After saying that, he turned around and angrily headed downstairs.
Just as his foot was about to step down the first step, Shangqiu Zhu's cold voice came from behind him.
"Don't let them come up here and cause trouble."
He paused, then added in a lower voice.
"Especially, don't touch my room."
Du Yunchuan abruptly stopped in his tracks.
He knew which room Shangqiu Zhu referred to.
It was a room with a huge wall of crystal glass cabinets.
There were no luxury goods or famous paintings there, only rows of meticulously designed display shelves, densely packed with thousands of blind box figurines.
Various series and styles, some are popular, but many more are rare and hidden pieces.
The sheer number and comprehensiveness of the series make it outrageously extravagant.
He had never opened them; all these expensive figurines remained intact in their boxes, without even the outer plastic wrap being torn off.
Du Yunchuan turned around and gave a complicated look to the person on the balcony who had lit another cigarette.
"knew."
Shangqiu Zhu finished smoking the cigarette on the balcony and returned to the master bedroom on the second floor.
The room was exactly the same as when he left.
However, the moment he took off his coat and casually tossed it onto the back of the sofa, an indescribable sense of unease washed over him.
His deep gaze swept silently over every corner of the room, finding no signs of movement or intrusion.
Just as he was trying to pinpoint the source of that strange feeling, a faint, almost imperceptible scent of gardenias brushed past his nose.
It highly overlapped with a certain deep-seated feeling in his memory.
Shangqiu Zhu paused almost imperceptibly.
But the next second, a faint hint of self-mockery flashed across that cold face.
He almost immediately dismissed the absurd idea from his mind.
That faint, ambiguous fragrance was probably just a similar floral scent drifting in from outside the window, playing a cruel joke on him, mocking the pathetic illusions arising in his subconscious.
He pursed his thin lips, his eyes regaining their usual coldness and indifference. He stopped looking at the unsettlingly empty master bedroom, turned around and headed straight for the bathroom, intending to wash away his fatigue and the smell of smoke.
But just as he raised his hand to unbutton the first button of his shirt, the words that Du Yunchuan had repeatedly emphasized on the balcony suddenly rang in his ears:
"You'll regret it if you don't come down!"
You'll really regret it if you don't come down!
"I warned you!"
regret?
What will he regret?
He stood silently for a few seconds, and finally, he changed direction.
As if drawn by a torrent, his steps involuntarily led him toward the always-closed door at the end of the corridor.
He stood in front of the door, paused for a moment, and then pushed open the heavy solid wood door.
The main light in the room was off; only a few recessed warm yellow LED strips lit up automatically, softly illuminating the crystal shelves that resembled museum display cases.
From floor to ceiling, rows of custom-made shelves hold thousands of unopened blind box figurines standing quietly in the light and shadow.
He stood at the doorway, his gaze slowly sweeping over the room full of figurines.
Each one was placed perfectly inside, completely sealed in plastic.
None of them have been opened.
He gave an extremely slight smile, but the curve was filled with boundless bitterness.
What is he delusional about?
Deluding myself into thinking she would come back, deluding myself into thinking she would discover this room?
He still fantasized that she would be willing to reach out and open any of the little boxes he had carefully collected.
Even just one would be fine.
He just wanted to see her reaction, to see if she would hold her breath in anticipation, and whether her eyes would show surprise or annoyance the moment she pulled out the card.
When she picks up that little doll, will the childlike smile he remembers appear on her face?
These boxes, however, remained perfectly intact for three whole years in this dark and sunless room.
These objects, bearing witness to his hopeless waiting, reminded him of his futility day after day, and he had long since become numb to them.
He shouldn't have had any expectations in the first place.
Those faint hopes should have long since been exhausted in the long silence.
Shangqiu Zhu closed her eyes slightly, preparing to turn and leave, locking everything back into darkness.
However, just as he turned around, he caught a faint reflection on the ground out of the corner of his eye.
His gaze fell and settled on the carpet at the bottom of a display shelf near the corner.
There, lying quietly, was a very small diamond stud earring.
Shangqiu Zhu stood there, stunned. The scent of gardenias that she had smelled in the bedroom now lingered clearly in her mind again.
He bent down very slowly. The cicadas' chirping and the light and shadow of that summer day, which had long been covered in dust, now silently unfolded before his eyes the moment he lowered his head.
That afternoon, amidst the bustling street noise, there was that chivalrous girl.
His fingertips trembled slightly as he finally picked up the earring. When the cool touch felt incredibly real on his fingertips, all the blood in his body rushed to his head in that instant.
Shangqiu Zhu didn't have time to think it through. She gripped her earring tightly, turned around abruptly, and strode out of the room, heading straight for the noisy banquet hall downstairs.
Inside the enormous banquet hall, the loud music and laughter almost lifted the roof off.
Just how many people did Du Yunchuan call?
His appearance immediately attracted everyone's attention.
People kept coming up to him warmly, raising their glasses in congratulations and trying to exchange pleasantries.
"Happy birthday, Mr. Shang!"
"Mr. Shang, it's been a long time..."
"Qiu Zhu, over here..."
But Shangqiu Zhu seemed not to hear at all. His gaze swept anxiously and frantically across every face in the crowd, across every corner, searching for that figure.
No.
That beautiful, smiling face was gone, as were those bright, sparkling eyes that always gazed at him.
He pushed aside the people trying to strike up a conversation with him, strode through the noisy banquet hall, and headed towards the connected back garden.
Poolside, under palm trees, beside a warm fireplace—everywhere possible.
No matter how eagerly he searched, how unwillingly he swept his gaze over familiar or unfamiliar faces, he could not find the one figure he longed to see.
Amidst the cacophony of blessings, his heart sank little by little.
The lively banquet hall, the joyful crowd, the exquisite decorations... everything suddenly became incredibly jarring.
He stood there, his face gradually turning pale, standing out starkly from the festive atmosphere around him.
The fleeting illusion brought about by this earring turned out to be nothing more than another ridiculous struggle of self-deception.
How could she possibly be here?
He stopped his futile search, slowly turned around, and listlessly prepared to leave the bustling scene.
Just as he lifted his foot...
"Smack!"
All the lights in the banquet hall and garden were turned off completely at the same time.
The music stopped abruptly, plunging the entire space into darkness and a brief silence, prompting a few surprised gasps from the guests.
Shangqiu Zhu stopped in her tracks, her brows furrowing unconsciously.
Then, as if a carefully arranged curtain had been raised in a stage play, a soft beam of light shone from the entrance on the side of the garden.
In the center of that beam of light, a graceful and familiar figure emerged, a figure so striking it made his heart stop.
She was wearing a pearl white dress and holding a birthday cake that wasn't particularly fancy or extravagant.
The flickering candlelight illuminated her face, softening her sharp features.
A captivating smile spread across her face, and her bright eyes gazed intently at him through the crowd.
Shangqiu Zhu stood frozen in place.
He almost held his breath, staring motionlessly at the figure slowly walking from the boundary of light and shadow.
Yan Shuang stopped in front of him and tilted her head slightly.
Happy birthday, Shangqiu Zhu.
Her cheerful voice pierced clearly through the still-unsettled commotion around her, and through the darkness in the banquet hall that seemed like nothingness to him.
Shangqiu Zhu dared not blink, for fear that if he moved, the girl holding the cake and smiling at him would disappear without a trace in the next second.
He almost began to doubt once again that this was just another hallucination that was too realistic to be real.
Is it a combination of the brain's longing for him over the years and the cruel trick of this special day?
Or did he not actually go downstairs at all, and is still trapped in that room full of blind boxes?
Yan Shuang looked at him in this rare, almost bewildered state, and her heart melted completely.
Just how stupid and slow-witted is she?
It took such a long and distant separation to finally cross the ocean and return to the starting point, so that she could clearly see his true feelings at this moment.
It took her three years, through twists and turns, to finally stand before him again and utter this simple blessing.
Yan Shuang really wanted to make a lighthearted joke, and asked him with a smile, "What are you standing there for? Don't you recognize me?"
But before she could even utter a word, her eyes immediately welled up with tears.
A tear fell without warning.
Before she could even blink, her vision went completely blurred.
This scalding tear finally roused the man, who seemed to be frozen in place, immersed in immense shock and disbelief.
Shangqiu Zhu finally woke up from his dream. The next moment, he strode forward without hesitation, stretched out his arms, and tightly embraced the girl in front of him who was smiling and crying.
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