The day we met again after breaking up was completely unexpected.
Four weeks after Ha Yue disappeared, Xue Jing broke the lease on the apartment they shared. After paying the penalty and settling the deposit, the original landlord discovered that a water pipe in the kitchen had burst, affecting the entire house. He then contacted Ha Yue, who had paid his electricity bill via WeChat during that time, to discuss the repair cost.
After confirming that the "other male tenant" mentioned by the landlord had already left with his bag, Ha Yue arranged to meet him the next day.
Unfortunately, the same conversation took place inside the real estate agency.
Xue Jing was the one who signed the contract with the real estate agency, and he was also the one who handled the cancellation. So the agency staff naturally called him to invite him to come and check the damage to the house and sit down to discuss a repair plan.
There are many failed loves in this world, so many love stories that are full of lingering affections. Apart from the two people involved, no one cares whether it is inappropriate for them to meet.
That day was a Saturday, and the agreed time was 10 a.m., but Ha Yue stared wide-eyed at the ceiling before dawn.
The birds outside her bed were still asleep, and she couldn't fall back asleep. So she got out of bed, drank a glass of celery and apple juice, and then put on makeup in front of the mirror.
After choosing the matching dress, she decided to arrive at the apartment early to check if the damage to the floor was really as the landlord claimed, requiring a large-scale replacement of the entire apartment.
Ha Yue had left her key with Xue Jing when she moved out. Fortunately, the spare key that she and Xue Jing had agreed to keep under the doormat when they lived together was still there.
The watch pointed to 7:30, and the sky was just beginning to lighten. Ha Yue had already opened the security door of the apartment and entered the temporary home they had once built with "cardboard boxes".
Upon entering the room, the first thing I did wasn't to head straight for the kitchen, but rather to carefully look around.
Ha Yue walked around the room, opening all the drawers and cabinet doors, before laughing at herself for being hypocritical. Actually, not wanting to be taken advantage of was just an excuse. She had arrived two and a half hours early, clearly wanting to take the opportunity to search for any clues left by Xue Jing in the room.
Xue Jing left no red paint on the white walls, nor did he damage any furniture with the baseball bat. All the glassware they had used was kept intact in the cabinet. Before leaving, Xue Jing even cleaned the room carefully, folded the bedding, and watered the plants on the windowsill.
The imagined terrifying behavior of the lover did not occur; that would be too despicable and not in line with Xue Jing's character.
When they broke up, he went down the same path: no clinging, no spreading rumors, no stalking, polite and restrained. If they weren't compatible, they parted ways without hesitation.
She, on the other hand, took herself too seriously. If she had known that Xue Jing's reaction would be so indifferent, she wouldn't have needed to run like she was being chased by a ghost.
Xue Jing has no shortage of attention from the opposite sex. After her hasty departure, it is believed that new contestants will soon come on stage to show off their skills.
Her new girlfriend must be very outstanding, at least they should be a good match. Hopefully, Xue Jing won't be fooled this time.
Then it's none of her business. In the end, the only person a person can truly save is themselves. Thinking so much is pointless.
The high heels made a crisp "thump-thump" sound on the floor. Ha Yue withdrew her fingers from the potted soil, rubbed off the damp coconut shells from her fingertips, and suddenly felt extremely tired, both physically and mentally.
The reason is definitely that I didn't manage to catch up on sleep on my day off. If I think about it, it might also be because my period is coming soon.
She couldn't stand still.
He bent down to take off the stilettos that were torturing his feet, pounded his chest with one hand, lifted the gauze curtain used as a partition, and walked to the only double bed in the house.
There was no one else in the space, so Ha Yue didn't need to pretend to think about it. She simply put down her shoes and effortlessly lay down on the mattress.
This mattress has individual springs, is just the right firmness, and has excellent elasticity; she and Xue Jing both like it very much.
Ha Yue rolled over and lay on her back facing the window, her arms outstretched, her calves parallel to the foot of the bed, and her toes dangling over the edge of the bed.
The light outside the skylight gradually brightened. There was still some time before ten o'clock. Ha Yue closed her eyes and felt unusually relaxed. Although Xue Jing had already left the room, his scent lingered. He was a man, but he always smelled wonderful.
She could perhaps take a nap here; all she had to do was get up, walk to the entrance, and set an alarm on her phone.
The mattress was so comfortable, it stirred up a lot of loose, bouncy waves, but Ha Yue was too tired to sit up in bed. The moment she closed her eyes, she had already started to drift into a light sleep.
In her hazy dream, she had a very tender dream. In the dream, she and Xue Jing were still living together in a romantic relationship. On Saturday morning, she was off work, and so was he. They were preparing to take a car together to a nearby city for a field trip.
Although he has not yet written a complete work, Xue Jing is very superstitious about the system of field research used by foreign authors in their creative process.
There was still some time to spare, so Xue Jing allowed her to stay in bed a little longer, gave her a kiss, and went downstairs to buy breakfast.
He asked her what she wanted to eat, and she said it was up to him.
With a "click," I heard the echo of the door lock snapping back.
He came back from buying breakfast.
Ha Yue cried out, not having slept enough. She turned to her side on the bed, her toes hitting the edge, and she was immediately awakened from her sleep.
She and Xue Jing broke up, and their cohabitation ended.
She's here today to discuss compensation.
But the sound in my ears wasn't a hallucination; someone really opened the door and came in. The person must have seen the lady carrying her bag in the entryway, because the footsteps stopped abruptly.
The person who entered was Xue Jing, who had arrived at the apartment two hours early, for the same reason as her: poor sleep and waking up too early.
The key I used was the same one from before, a spare that was placed under the carpet.
From the moment Ha Yue saw Xue Jing's profile, she jumped out of bed like a cat with its fur standing on end.
The room was too small, with nowhere to hide. She didn't have time to put on her shoes, so she crouched in the gap between the bed and the wardrobe, childishly using the bedside table to cover her figure, desperately hoping that Xue Jing would turn around and leave in the next second.
But Xue Jing didn't turn around. He recognized her bag and saw her high heels that had been taken off on the floor next to the bed. He was stunned for a few seconds, his face showing surprise, but more so joy. He immediately turned around and closed the door.
Xue Jing admired Shakespearean romance, which, for him, was a kind of unseen guidance, proving that their story was not over yet.
But Ha Yue didn't think so. At least as the footsteps got closer, her rationality became increasingly scarce. The fear of being forced to confront her wounds eventually made her act hysterically like a mental patient.
At first, Xue Jing only wanted to talk to her, to start with what happened on the day they broke up, but Ha Yue refused to communicate with him effectively, constantly questioning why he was in the apartment. She unilaterally speculated that Xue Jing had deliberately laid an ambush and was harboring revenge, and refused to listen to any explanation he had to give.
Later, the verbal conflict escalated into a physical altercation. Unable to escape or reason with the other party, she felt like a caged beast. In a fit of emotion, she overturned flowerpots, smashed dishes, and tried to run barefoot out of the apartment.
They had argued like this many times during their relationship, and Xue Jing used the same approach as before: he hugged her tightly from behind, trying to calm her down and wait for her to finally show weakness.
His cheek pressed against her neck, his kisses landing on her spine; his embrace was so intimate, almost to the point of touching her skin.
He wished she would say something nice. He didn't ask for much, just an apology. No matter the situation, he could convince himself to understand her strange behavior.
But Ha Yue had a good teacher since childhood, who taught her by example and was very good at scolding people. One-sided verbal attacks were hard to bear. He began to choke up and used his right hand to stroke her face, trying to cover her mouth to stop her from speaking.
"Please stop talking, please, please stop talking."
"Can we have some peace and quiet?"
This time, Ha Yue was not moved by "love." She only felt that this silent embrace was airtight, including Xue Jing's gentle breath on her hair. Every breath, whether it was a loose or loose plastic film, was like an evil plastic film preventing her from breathing.
Every part of his body that Xue Jing touched hurt, and his heart felt like it was being fried in oil. He was in a daze and began to have the illusion that he was about to die.
She couldn't stop screaming, because if she stopped, she would probably start sobbing.
They both knew the consequences of crying, and they would hug each other and wipe away each other's tears for warmth.
She was going to turn herself out like a tattered old sack, turning her inside out for him to judge.
So in desperation, Ha Yue bit his wrist, biting so hard that blood flowed from the corner of her lips and soaked her clothes.
A person's capacity to withstand harm is limited. Xue Jing had never suffered such an unreasonable attack in his life. He finally let go in pain, and Ha Yue successfully broke free from the embrace that represented reconciliation.
She only discovered it when she ran downstairs to the apartment building. She wasn't wearing shoes or carrying a bag. Her white dress was covered in Xue Jing's blood, and she wiped it from her neck. Her wet hair was soaked with Xue Jing's tears.
As for her face? It was dry and cold, like pebbles on a riverbank during the dry season.
She didn't meet with the landlord that day; instead, she was taken to the hospital by ambulance due to hyperventilation and convulsions.
Everyone says that being loved is a rare kind of happiness in this world, but the afterglow of happiness was so intense that it caused her body to have a shock reaction of alkali poisoning.
As the elevator doors opened, Ha Yue followed Xue Jing out, her steps slightly unsteady.
She seemed drunk, leaning unsteadily against Xue Jing, and he needed to put his right arm around her waist to lift her weight.
The corridor was empty, even the security cameras were fake, and fingers could be inserted into the thick fabric and moved freely along the edge of the ribs.
Their embrace today was not one of despair; on the contrary, Xue Jing's behavior was frivolous and dissolute, with a strong sense of taking advantage of others' vulnerability.
However, despite this vulgar and sordid act, which Xue Jing described as ruining the romance of the past, Ha Yue did not strongly oppose the wrongdoing.
On the contrary, because the desire that was ignited was real, she experienced a simple, swaying pleasure.
If you've been grounded in reality for too long, once you start to feel lightheaded, you're like a kite that's broken free of its string and can't be controlled.
Besides, this was just compensation, a belated apology. Xue Jing would be leaving Suicheng soon, and she couldn't be happier than this fleeting pleasure.
In the past, happiness that seemed impossible to attain was harmful to her health; now, the impulse to have it easily is not. Simple badness makes her heart flutter more than arrogant goodness.
The problem is that the guy playing the good cop wasn't completely rotten enough. When he pulled out the room card, Xue Jing, in his haste, still had a hint of unease. He was speaking to Ha Yue, but he was also providing himself with an escape route to avoid making mistakes.
In the elevator just now, he had already ripped off Ha Yue's hair tie. Now her hair was loose, like a wisp of raven-black mist. He rested his chin on Ha Yue's soft hair, smelling the cheap soapy scent on her, and still asked for verbal permission: "Can I take your silence as consent?"
"Don't make it sound like you're forcing me. We're not that distant. If you don't want to, you can say so. If you really can't say it, you can use force on me. I remember you have pretty good teeth, don't I?"
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