Chapter 75 Can I go up to the attic and take a look?
She suddenly felt that she was about to get caught up in something else.
He knows everything.
Yet, they said nothing.
They were forcing her, in the calmest and most ambiguous way, to admit, firsthand, to the past that they had tacitly buried long ago.
In the end, Ye Yuying still chose defeat.
She suddenly stood up, and because she moved so quickly, she even forgot that she had difficulty walking. She staggered and almost fell.
"It's nothing... I was just asking." She steadied herself by holding onto the back of the sofa, and made up an excuse. "You're not going back to Jiangcheng today, are you?"
Cheng Mingdu's eyes were unfathomable. He no longer dwelled on the answer to the previous question and spoke casually.
"It's easy to drive while fatigued at night. Tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year, and my aunt invited us to make dumplings together."
Ye Yuying: "?" How come she didn't hear this invitation?
Oh well, she already knew she'd most likely be staying overnight in Chengdu anyway.
"Is there a place for me to sleep?"
There were countless rooms in this house, and she knew she was asking a question she already knew the answer to.
Cheng Mingdu pointed to his white villa where he lived alone and said firmly, "I'll live there."
She had intended to ask about her own attic, but after glancing at the villa, memories flooded her mind, and after a few seconds of hesitation, she simply acquiesced.
Cheng Mingdu has his own separate building with many rooms. The housekeeper cleaned one up for her, but it's not very big and is separated from Cheng Mingdu's master bedroom by a corridor.
The Cheng family prepared everything for her daily life. Aunt Zhang knew her and made the preparations according to her usual habits.
This was truly a home away from home, yet she slept very restlessly.
The heating was on full blast, and with her recent diligent care for her legs, the pain at night wasn't too severe; at least the painkillers could suppress it.
She tried to close her eyes tightly to fall asleep, but her mind remained clear.
This villa was clearly the one she used to gaze at from the attic window. Countless times she secretly longed to be closer to him, feeling that his side was perhaps the safest and most beautiful place in the world.
But even after she moved in, she couldn't fall asleep peacefully.
The person who was once so familiar is now so close, and beautiful memories of the past flash through my mind, but now we can only keep our distance.
She thought all long-awaited reunions were like dry tinder igniting a passionate flame, but a true long-awaited reunion is actually one where people look at each other in silence.
You are doing well, I am doing well, but unfortunately we have both changed and can't go back to where we started.
She tossed and turned violently, still unable to fall asleep, so she got up, put on her coat, gently pushed open the door, walked through the quiet corridor, and went into the courtyard.
The Cheng family lives a very healthy life. They don't have the custom of staying up all night to welcome the New Year together. Instead, the aunties go back to the lounge early to play cards and watch the Spring Festival Gala together. The atmosphere is lively, and cheerful laughter can be heard from time to time.
The laughter drifted through the grand mansions and disappeared with the wind in the winding corridors and pavilions.
On New Year's Eve, the backyard was unusually quiet. It was too far from the residential area and completely isolated from the New Year's festivities of ordinary people.
In the dead of night, the Cheng family's old house had long since lost all the hustle and bustle of the day, so quiet that you could hear the wind blowing through the eaves.
In the courtyard, several dim red lanterns, lit to mark the festival, cast eerie shadows on the artificial hills and bamboo groves.
Ye Yuying, leaning on her cane, walked step by step on the cold, wet bluestone path.
She raised her head, her gaze passing through the intertwined branches and landing on the small, dark attic window on the top floor of the main building.
The attic window remains exactly as it was, with the curtains half-drawn, as if one's younger self might push open the window and look out at any moment.
That place was once her refuge.
Yes, it was the cage she wanted to escape from.
More importantly, it was a turning point in her life.
She couldn't resist the urge to go up and check, but then she felt it wasn't a good idea. Her legs started to ache faintly in the cold wind, and even the ants in her bones seemed to come alive.
She stopped and hurriedly took a pill from her pocket, then put it in her mouth without hesitation.
Only then did she feel relieved and continue on her way, arriving directly at the entrance of the attic.
Just then, I heard light footsteps behind me.
Ye Yuying turned around and saw Cheng Mingdu standing in the deepest shadow forgotten by the lantern light. It seemed that he had been standing there before, because she had not heard his footsteps approaching from afar.
He didn't know how long he had been standing there.
I don't know how long I've been watching her.
Staring at him with those sharp, piercing eyes that still seemed intense even in the darkness, Ye Yuying felt her breathing become somewhat labored again.
"Why did you come out?" Cheng Mingdu looked up, his deep voice particularly clear in the quiet courtyard.
Ye Yuying paused for a moment, then said softly, "I couldn't sleep, so I came out for a walk."
Cheng Mingdu remained silent, his gaze fixed on the silver metal box in her hand. Under the dim lantern light, the faint light it reflected was so clear and dazzling.
She immediately gripped the tin box in her hand, casually slipped it into her coat pocket, and turned her gaze back to the small attic, her tone filled with nostalgia: "The attic... is anyone still living there?"
Cheng Mingdu followed her gaze and looked over as well.
"I can't." His voice sounded somewhat hoarse in the quiet night.
"A few years ago, Jiangcheng experienced a very strong typhoon. The old locust tree on the back hill was broken by the wind, and a huge trunk landed right on the roof of the attic."
"Later, although we found some very good craftsmen and repaired the old house for a long time according to the original blueprints, it was not until it was restored to its original appearance." Cheng Mingdu looked at her and said slowly, "However, the main structure was damaged after all, and for safety reasons, no one has lived there since."
Listening to his bland, emotionless narration, it seemed as if he was carrying some other emotions.
Ye Yuying's heart, which was connected to her collarbone, was suddenly clenched. She felt as if what he was talking about wasn't that attic.
Rather, it was their past, which had also been shattered beyond recognition by the storms of fate.
Although it has been carefully repaired, it is no longer habitable.
A tremendous, indescribable sense of loss instantly overwhelmed her.
“…I can,” she looked at the small window and asked softly, in an almost pleading, humble tone, “go up and take a look?”
Cheng Mingdu looked at her for a while, his gaze filled with a complex emotion, and slowly nodded.
"Let's go, I'll go up with you."
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Author's Note: Sorry, it's not finished yet. Please bear with this for now. My break was too short, and I have to go back to work.
The last few chapters have truly delighted me.
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