In the military compound in 1980, Fu Hanzhou suddenly felt a little weak. The inner fatigue made his knees unable to stand straight, and he barely managed to stand by holding on to the old locust tree.
The leaves rustled, and the wind blew the dead leaves, which fell on his shoulders.
Looking at Wei Zhuolan's distraught look, he couldn't believe that Qin Ying disappeared like that without any warning, and without even saying goodbye to him!
"I'd wake up in the morning and she'd be a different person."
Fu Hanzhou looked at Qin Ying who had been standing aside timidly and suddenly spoke.
"My mom doesn't remember Qin Ying, the top scorer in the college entrance exam. The people at the publishing house said they've never hired a bilingual proofreader. Even Xie Fangyuan, who ran the stall with her..."
His Adam's apple rolled:
"When I went to the publishing house this morning, she didn't even recognize me! It was as if she had been wiped out from this world..."
Wei Zhuolan's pupils seemed to have an earthquake. His gold-rimmed glasses had slid to the tip of his nose, but he was completely unaware. The veins on the back of his hands, which were tightly gripping the edge of the stone table, bulged.
When Fu Hanzhou said, "She seemed to have been wiped out from this world," Wei Zhuolan suddenly started coughing violently. The smell of rust mixed with the smell of dead leaves came out of his throat, breaking into a hoarse laugh in the wind:
"Fu Hanzhou, do you think I'm a three-year-old child?"
"Or rather, it's not about erasing her, it's about her not belonging here at all!"
Fu Hanzhou grabbed his shoulders:
"Look at Qin Ying now----"
He pointed to the timid girl beside him:
"She can't even write her own name!"
Wei Zhuolan's strength seemed to be drained away. He suddenly pulled off his glasses and threw them on the stone table. The crisp sound of the shattering lenses startled the sparrows on the branches and flew away.
"Impossible... How can a person change? How can he become a completely unrelated person?"
He stood up excitedly and looked at Qin Ying who was standing aside.
"What's going on? I don't believe it! Qin Ying..."
He slowly approached her:
"Don't be afraid. Do you think you're sick? I'll take you to see a doctor..."
He slowly stretched out his hand towards Qin Ying, and just as he was about to touch her face, his wrist was suddenly grabbed by Fu Hanzhou:
"She's not sick!"
Wei Zhuolan looked at Fu Hanzhou sinisterly and suddenly shook off his hand.
"Let go. I want to take her for treatment. She will definitely become the original Qin Ying again. If you can't protect her, I will do it!"
Fu Hanzhou staggered after being thrown by him, took a half step back, and steadied himself:
"Calm down, Wei Zhuolan, she's not sick, she's gone! Do you understand? She doesn't belong to this world!"
Wei Zhuolan's expression froze, and he looked at him blankly. After a while, he let out a laugh that was even uglier than crying:
"Fu Hanzhou, if you don't want me to take her away, you can make up anything!"
"Edit?"
The veins on Fu Hanzhou's neck crawled upwards like a winding earthworm. He suddenly leaned close to Wei Zhuolan, his breath filled with a fiery warmth:
"Do you think I don't even remember the temperature of the person next to me? She said yesterday that we would watch the moon for the rest of our lives..."
He sat dejectedly on the stone bench with a gloomy look on his face, and slowly recounted Qin Ying's identity as a time traveler, his dream, and everything related to it.
Wei Zhuolan listened quietly to this bizarre story. His world seemed to be silent. His back was pressed against the edge of the stone table, and a taste of rust rose in his throat.
The old locust tree in the yard was trembling in the wind, and its dead leaves hit the back of his neck, but they were nothing compared to the chill surging in his heart.
"So she never belonged here?"
He suddenly laughed out loud, and his laughter was so broken that it sounded like he was coughing up blood.
His fingertips unconsciously stroked the scratches on the back of his hand - that was left when the two of them were pulling each other when he last saw Qin Ying, but now it has become an illusory mark.
He suddenly ripped open two buttons on his collar, and the veins in his neck rose and fell violently with his breathing:
"No wonder she said such strange things that day. Did she know she was going to leave?!"
Fu Hanzhou looked at him suddenly:
"What did she tell you?"
Thinking back to what happened that day, Qin Ying's attitude towards him was indeed not as resistant as before. Could it be because she was leaving that she became like that?
Wei Zhuolan smiled bitterly and looked at the sky in the distance painfully:
"She... taught me to cherish the person in front of me!"
He lowered his head, pinched the back of his hand fiercely, and the next words he said seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth:
"Why? Why didn't I hear the farewell in her words!"
He clenched his fist and smashed it hard against the stone table, as if he felt no pain.
Fu Hanzhou stared at Wei Zhuolan's annoyed look, and for some unknown reason he took out two yellowed ticket stubs from his pocket.
The scent of ink from "Lush Mountain Love" has long faded, but it still glows strangely in the sunlight:
"We watched a movie together yesterday, and she was so moved after the show. This movie ticket can't be fake. She is not a dream of mine, she existed."
He turned his gaze to Wei Zhuolan, his expression thoughtful:
"If she doesn't exist, then the things she left behind..."
Wei Zhuolan's body stiffened, as if he had thought of something, and the confusion in his eyes became even more intense:
"What do you want to say?"
Fu Hanzhou lowered his eyes, looking thoughtful:
"The things she left behind should also disappear! Since Xie Fangyuan doesn't admit to opening a shop with her, the shop doesn't exist!"
Wei Zhuolan suddenly touched his wrist, where he often wore a red rubber band, which he had pulled from Qin Ying's hair...
Having not worn it for the past two days, he suddenly stood up and rushed out in a panic. Thinking of the possibility that Fu Hanzhou said, Qin Ying's traces would disappear with her departure, he felt extremely anxious!
Absolutely not allowed!
He must keep everything about Qin Ying, no matter what the cost!
So now, he wants to go back and see if the rubber band is still there - that is the memory of him and Qin Ying, and he must not let it be lost!
Fu Hanzhou looked at Wei Zhuolan, who had lost his usual composure, his steps unsteady and flustered, and did not ask any questions.
As for Qin Ying's existence, Wei Zhuolan now testifies that it is not a dream, and that is enough.
He held the movie ticket stub and slowly walked into the house. Qin Ying watched the two of them finish their conversation and then leave. Thinking of Fu Hanzhou's panicked look when she got up in the morning, she still looked uneasy and spoke timidly:
"Brother Fu, are you... okay?"
Fu Hanzhou came back to his senses and looked at her concerned expression. He wanted to raise his hand and casually say "It's okay".
The ticket stub held between his fingertips suddenly fell to the ground.
He bent down to pick it up and met Qin Ying's doubtful gaze as she stared at the ground.
"Fu...Brother Fu, are you exhausted?"
"I'm fine."
Fu Hanzhou said this and casually stuffed the ticket stub into his pocket.
Just as he was about to step into the house, he saw Qin Ying suddenly approaching him, with a look of nervousness and vigilance on her face, and shouted loudly:
"No matter who you are, get off Brother Fu."
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