The incandescent light cast her thin shadow on the wall, and the whole room seemed to be dyed with a warm hue.
Fu Hanzhou carried the camphorwood box to the room next door where Qin Ying had lived.
Standing in front of the door, his fingertips unconsciously stroked the wood grain on the door panel - he suddenly remembered the first day Qin Ying came.
She followed him and bumped into his back, the scent of soapberries in her hair filling her nostrils.
He coldly spat out the words "keep yourself clean", but he didn't notice how tense her shoulders were when she turned around clutching the corner of her clothes.
He never expected that this girl, who was always misunderstood by others as having "improper conduct", would rewrite his ending with her life.
Pushing open the door, moonlight poured onto the pile of college entrance examination materials on the table.
Among the yellowed exercise books were several foreign dictionaries with worn corners.
It seems as if I can still see her figure working at her desk late at night - she always proofreads manuscripts in the dim light of a desk lamp, and the scratching sound of her pencil scratching across paper was once the most gentle sound in this room.
There was a faded blue cloth bundle on the bedside, with patches on the corners and fine stitching. It was all her belongings when she first arrived in Yancheng.
Fu Hanzhou untied the bundle with trembling hands, revealing a few patched long-sleeved trousers. The rough touch of the fabric made his eyes hot.
How could he forget that this girl, who was reluctant to buy even a new piece of clothing, was willing to leave the money she earned to others.
He gently placed the box on the corner of the table, and the sound of the metal buckles colliding startled him.
Since she moved in with him, this room has been converted into Qin Ying's place for work and study.
The sheets on the bed were neatly made - it felt like she would come back and sit by the bed with the dictionary in her arms like she used to.
The air was filled with the faint scent of vanishing cream, and in a trance, he heard her stubborn voice again:
"Thank you, Captain Fu, for reminding me. I understand."
At that time, he didn't understand how much grievance and disappointment were hidden in this angry response.
And now, the girl with eyes as bright as morning stars and cunning eyes will never open this door again.
Fu Hanzhou fell onto the bed, burying his face in the quilt left by Qin Ying. The camphor smell had long since dissipated, leaving only the scent of dry cotton.
The dragon and phoenix pendant in his pocket kept poking at his chest. He reached out to take it out, his hands shaking unconsciously.
"Cherish the people around you..."
He muttered, his fingertips leaving red marks on the jade pendant's lines:
"But without you, what meaning does this 'person before my eyes' have to me?"
Fu Hanzhou held the jade pendant tightly, the corner of the jade pendant dug into his palm. The pain from his palm reminded him all the time that there was no longer the figure working at the desk here - she left cleanly and took away all the warmth and vitality in his world.
"You arranged everything..."
He buried his face in his palms, the rough touch of the calluses on his palms made his eyes sore:
"But I didn't anticipate that I didn't want to be a person in the book anymore."
He clenched the jade pendant tightly, tears dripping onto it:
"I thought this jade pendant was spiritual, and could bring lovers together... but why did you leave?"
He raised his hand, wanting to smash the jade pendant, but stopped at the last moment.
The sharp edges of the jade pendant pierced his palm, and blood seeped into the jade pendant along the lines. He seemed not to feel the pain, and his hand suddenly trembled violently, and the dragon and phoenix pendant fell to the ground with a clang.
He stared at his bleeding palm and said in a hoarse voice:
"It turns out that even the jade pendant is a lie..."
His knees slammed heavily on the carpet, and he grabbed the jade pendant and squeezed it tightly in his palm:
"I kept my promise and protected the person in front of me, but who will come..."
Adam's apple rolled with broken sobs:
"Who will protect you?"
The jade pendant, stained with blood, suddenly became even hotter. He unconsciously put the two pieces of the jade pendant together. In an instant, a strange light shone, and the jade pendant burst into a dazzling white light. Time and space seemed to be distorted at this moment...
Fu Hanzhou's eyes widened immediately, and he suddenly felt the veins on his wrist spreading like a spider web.
He tried to break free, but was pulled towards the wall by an invisible force. A distorted vortex of space and time had appeared there, and Qin Ying's voice seemed to come from the crack:
"Fu Hanzhou!"
"etc……"
Before he could finish his words, his soul was sucked out of his body and into the light. He turned his head in panic to look...
He saw "himself" smiling and waving at him:
"Go find her. I will take good care of Qin Ying, and we'll grow old together and have many children and grandchildren. When you see her, please say thank you for me!"
Fu Hanzhou was so shocked that he couldn't speak. He only felt his body getting lighter and lighter. He took one last look at the familiar room, and before letting the darkness swallow his consciousness, he finally squeezed out a hoarse sentence:
"Love her well for me..."
Inside the room, Fu Hanzhou looked at the two jade pendants on the desk, silently put them away and put them in his pocket.
Opened the door and walked out.
Next door, Qin Ying was carefully mending clothes, her fingertips repeatedly stroking the wrinkles on Fu Hanzhou's collar. Thinking of the wrong buttons he had buttoned in a panic that morning, her cheeks suddenly felt hot, and she quickly lowered her head to speed up the stitches.
She thought the holes on Brother Fu's clothes were patched in a strange way. She didn't know who had done it. Anyway, the stitches were crooked, as if they had been sewn by someone who wasn't very good at sewing.
She had nothing to do, so she untied all the stitches and re-stitched them. When Fu Hanzhou walked in, he saw Qin Ying sitting under the lamp. His Adam's apple moved, as if there was a piece of cotton blocking it.
(317 and 318 have been changed. See the treasure here and fall forward.)
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