reconciliation
As night deepened, only a few windows in the residential area still had lights on.
Yunxi lay in bed, tossing and turning. The image of Shixu's hasty retreat was like a thorn in her heart. She picked up her phone; the screen lit up in the darkness, showing her chat with Shixu. The last message was the one she'd sent that afternoon, "Are you alright?", and there had been no reply.
She hesitated, then typed another line: "Time Sequence, I don't know what happened, but I'm waiting for you."
My finger hovered over the send button for a moment, but I ultimately deleted it word by word.
At this moment, perhaps silence is the best companion.
Just as she was about to put her phone down, the screen suddenly lit up.
Timeline: "I'm sorry"
There are only three words, but they carry a weight of a thousand pounds.
Yunxi sat up immediately and replied almost instantly: "Where are you?"
Timeline: Downstairs
Yunxi's heart skipped a beat. She quickly walked to the window and gently pulled back the curtains.
In the darkness, Shi Xu stood alone under the streetlamp, the dim light casting a long shadow. He tilted his head slightly, gazing at her window. From the distance, she couldn't see his expression, but she could feel the heaviness in his gaze.
Without hesitation, she turned around, grabbed a coat, put it on, and quietly went downstairs.
When the unit door was pushed open, Shi Xu was still standing in the same position. Hearing the noise, he slowly turned his head. Under the streetlight, his face was still pale, but his eyes no longer showed the panic they had in the afternoon. Instead, they held a deep weariness and a hint of cautious apology.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, his voice broken in the quiet night, “I…scared you this afternoon.”
Yunxi walked up to him and shook her head: "I'm fine. I'm just... worried about you."
A cool night breeze blew by. Shi Xu noticed that she was only wearing a thin coat and instinctively wanted to take off his own coat, but realized that he had left in a hurry and was only wearing a shirt.
"Are you cold?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
"I'm not cold." Yunxi looked at his hair, which was a little messy from the night wind, and asked softly, "How about you? Are you alright?"
Shi Xu was silent for a moment, his gaze fixed on the deep night in the distance, as if he were organizing his thoughts.
“That notebook…” he began with difficulty, “not everything written in it is true.”
Yunxi watched him quietly without interrupting.
“My mother… was indeed ill. But leaving wasn’t entirely due to the need for treatment.” His voice was low, filled with suppressed pain. “It was my father’s decision. He believed there were better medical resources there, and he also believed… that it was a better place for him to start over.”
"Start over?" The gap in the clouds vaguely caught something.
Shi Xu's lips curled into a cold smile: "Leave this place of sorrow, leave...everyone and everything related to my mother, including my grandmother's house, including...that river."
That included her. Yunxi understood instantly. So that parting wasn't just out of helplessness, but also mixed with the cold, cruel cut-off of the adult world.
“At that time… I didn’t know anything.” Shi Xu’s voice carried a belated sense of helplessness. “I only knew that I had to leave, and I was very sad. When you gave me that little wooden bird, I…” He choked up and couldn’t say anything more.
That little wooden bird actually carries a double meaning of separation—it is the separation from his playmate, and also his farewell to the beautiful world of the past.
Yunxi's heart ached subtly. She finally understood why that seemingly ordinary entry had elicited such a strong reaction from him. It had not only stirred up the sadness of parting but also torn open the wounds of being forcibly removed from his childhood and forced to confront family upheavals and his mother's death. That notebook had inadvertently become the key to unlocking all his painful memories.
“It’s all in the past.” She stepped forward, gently took his cold hand, and tried to warm him with her own warmth. “Time, all of that is in the past.”
As Shi Xu felt the warmth from his palm, he closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, the heaviness in his eyes seemed to have been dispelled somewhat by the faint warmth.
“I know,” he said softly, taking her hand in his own. “I just… need a little time.”
She needs time to sort through those chaotic and painful fragments of memory that have been suddenly unearthed. She needs time to separate the pain of the past from her present self, so that she is not affected by those shadows.
“Okay.” Yunxi nodded without hesitation. “I’ll wait for you. I’ll wait no matter how long it takes.”
Her trust and understanding were like the only light in the dark night; though faint, they were enough to guide the way. Looking into her clear eyes, Shi Xu saw no questioning, no fear, only complete acceptance and gentle steadfastness.
He suddenly felt that his past, which was so heavy that it almost crushed him, seemed to have been given the courage to be re-examined and faced because of the person in front of him.
"Thank you," he said softly, his voice less broken and more genuinely powerful this time.
The night remained deep, but the two standing under the streetlights seemed to together create a small patch of warm light. The rift in his heart still existed, but at least for this moment, a glimmer of light was trying to shine through.
"Let's go back, it's cold outside," Shi Xu said softly, letting go of her hand.
"Okay." Yunxi nodded. "You should get some rest too."
She turned and walked up the steps, glancing back at him before entering the room. Shi Xu remained standing, giving her a slight nod.
This time, his figure under the streetlights no longer appeared so lonely.
Yunxi knew that some wounds needed to heal slowly, and some past events needed to be reconciled with slowly. But she was willing to stay with him, just as he had stubbornly searched for her and protected her.
She believed that as long as the two of them stood side by side, even the darkest night would eventually give way to dawn.
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