Chapter 22 Old Diary "He fought for you."
Behind the lush trees, a three-story Western-style building comes into view.
This is where the vehicle finally stopped.
This was not the apartment building where she and Yu Peizhi had spent their brief honeymoon period.
The off-white exterior walls, the red spire, and the dim floor lights outline the carefully trimmed bushes and a small garden that is obviously well-maintained but looks a little bleak due to the winter.
This is a famous wealthy area in S City, where every inch of land is worth a lot of money.
This is also a completely unfamiliar building.
"Mr. Fu, is this your home?"
Zhui Lian's hair was blown by the night wind. She stood at the steps with her arms folded, looking back at Fu Dongli who had not left yet, her tone was confused.
Fu Dongli was reaching out to open the driver's door at this time, and his movement paused noticeably.
He looked up at Yu Peizhi beside him with a hint of surprise: "You didn't tell her?"
Yu Peizhi glanced at Fu Dongli, and something elusive flashed in his eyes.
Fu Dongli seemed to understand something immediately and shut up very tactfully.
He opened the car door and got in, saying, "I'm leaving now. I'll contact you later."
The taillights merged into the light dust in the distance, and the black SUV drove out of the silent lane in an instant.
Zhui Lian took another step back, but his gaze returned to Yu Peizhi.
She asked: "Pei Zhi, what's going on?"
"Baby, do you like it?" Yu Peizhi walked forward, naturally put his arm around her waist, and said cheerfully, "This is our new home."
"I chose this place specifically because it's close to the hotel where Sister Zhiwei is having her wedding, so it's more convenient."
He sounded like he was sharing a pleasant surprise. "The interior is decorated in your usual style. Would you like to take a look inside?"
The night and the street lights cast a halo over Yu Peizhi's face.
The warmer the skin that was extremely similar to Qiao Xunli's became, the clearer the chill that ran up his spine became.
"Pei Zhi, this place is too big..." she said softly.
This house is beautiful and luxurious.
It meets all the dream imaginations about "home".
But it was so strange and frighteningly large, like an elaborate and ornate cage.
Zhui Lian controlled her tone, trying to sound uncomfortable rather than fearful: "I'm not used to living here. Let's go back to Heping Community. There..."
“It’s too small and a lot of things are old.”
Yu Peizhi interrupted her, tightening his arm slightly.
He led her irresistibly towards the door and said, "Babies always have to adapt to new environments, don't they? Besides, everything here is a new beginning."
Yu Peizhi's tone was gentle and considerate.
But Zhui Lian sensed unquestionable control from that "consideration".
Zhui Lian knew that her opposition at this moment would only provoke a stronger backlash from him.
You may even lose the chance to leave the house completely.
So when the words came to her lips, she swallowed them back and changed her mind.
"But... I still have some things from Heping Community that I haven't brought over."
She lowered her eyes and lowered her voice, her urgency evident. "Some...memorable old things are still over there."
This is true.
She had to go back.
The most important thing is Qiao Xunli’s ashes.
After Xunli's death, she also did some crazy things, such as -
Part of the other party's ashes was burned into an amber pendant.
A small and clear pendant has always been with her, pressed against her heart, and integrated into her flesh and blood, as if it could retain the elusive moonlight forever.
However, everything was broken during the first time she was intimate with Yu Peizhi.
His wet fingers picked up the pendant with interest and played with it from time to time.
He asked her, "Baby, what is this? I see you're always wearing it."
Feeling of guilt.
To Yu Peizhi.
A sense of blasphemy.
To Qiao Xunli.
The interweaving of the two feelings made her subconsciously snatch the pendant back, and then lied: "It's nothing, just an ordinary necklace."
"Yeah?"
Yu Peizhi's eyes seemed a little deep in the mist of lust, "But... it seems to be a bit of a hindrance."
He was referring to what was happening.
So, under the gaze of those deep black eyes, Zhui Lian compromised.
She carefully took off the pendant.
Afterwards, she didn't dare wear it back openly.
So I hid it in the interlayer of a thick diary from my high school days, and stuffed the diary into an old box deep in the attic of the house in Heping Community.
That was her only remaining physical thought of Xunli.
It is also her spiritual anchor that she cannot abandon.
"Old stuff?" Yu Peizhi raised his eyebrows, seeming very interested, "Okay, then I'll go back with the baby to get it.
He lowered his head and sniffed the top of Zhui Lian's head, his tone still gentle: "After all, I am also curious...about the baby's past."
Zhui Lian looked at him and opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything to refuse.
She knew that speaking out would only make the trapped beast fight harder.
So she nodded and said, "Okay."
＊
The apartments in Heping Community remain the same as they were when they left.
It’s just that no one has lived here for nearly half a year, and the air feels heavy.
Yu Peizhi really followed her closely.
He leaned against the low door frame of the attic, his body almost blocking most of the light.
But that gaze followed like a shadow, following Zhui Lian's eyes, fingers, and steps.
Stick to every frame of her movement.
Unimportant old books, old photo albums, old postcards... were put into an empty cardboard box as a cover. She quickly glanced at Yu Peizhi at the door.
A thin cloud of dust danced in the dim light that filtered through the tiny window.
The other person was looking out the window, seemingly interested in a leafless tree in the flowerbed downstairs.
Chance!
Zhui Lian's heart began to beat rapidly.
In the interlayer, the pendant is cold.
A cool touch touches the inside pocket.
Zhui Lian calmly picked up the diary again, wanting to mix it in with the pile of old books and take it away.
But just as she picked up the notebook and was about to put it in the box——
"What's this?"
Yu Peizhi's voice sounded almost right behind her ear, and his warm breath brushed across her neck.
Zhui Lian was so frightened that his whole body froze and he turned around suddenly.
Yu Peizhi, who had just been standing by the window, had quietly come behind her like a ghost.
He had a playful smile on his face.
He reached out and naturally pulled the diary from her somewhat unsteady hands.
"Baby's diary?"
He seemed to have discovered something interesting, and casually turned a page, his eyes sweeping over the still lively handwriting.
Zhui Lian's breathing stopped for a few seconds, but he quickly regained his composure.
The pendant has been taken away by her... This is just an ordinary diary. At most, Yu Peizhi will go crazy again after reading it.
Nothing else.
But unlike the madness that Zhui Lian had expected, Yu Peizhi's fingertips just touched a certain line on a certain page, and suddenly he let out a soft "ah".
He raised his eyes and looked at Zhui Lian who was a little nervous.
He shook his head and said lightly: "This is wrong."
“…Wrong?”
Zhui Lian was stunned and repeated it subconsciously.
Logically speaking, Yu Peizhi had never participated in her high school life. Why did he conclude that her diary was wrong?
Yu Peizhi held the diary closer to her so that she could clearly see the words he was pointing at.
【Sunny on Xth day of Xth month】
Master Pei got in trouble again today. I have no idea why he started a fight with Wu Li. It was terrifying. After school, I cautiously asked him, "Master, who offended you?" He gave me a sour look, glanced at me, and said nothing. He just grabbed his schoolbag and walked off. It was so strange. He didn't even want to take the family car. Fine, I'll take it myself.
Yu Peizhi slowly smiled.
"Wrong," he repeated, his voice dropping. "He didn't fight for no reason."
"He fought for you."
Zhui Lian also instinctively said "Ah?"
Yu Peizhi's gaze became somewhat distant, looking back into the distance.
"Lianlian, do you still remember the way that person looked at you?"
He asked softly, but his tone was filled with rare disgust and a violence that he was obviously trying hard to suppress.
Some vague and unpleasant fragments flashed by.
Zhui Lian thought of the boy who was beaten by the blond madman. He seemed to always look at her in a way that made her very uncomfortable.
Sticky and nasty.
It swept across her face, neck, and legs under her school uniform skirt.
But she had never thought deeply about it, or rather, with her status, she never dared to think deeply about anything in that place called Xiting High School.
Disgust and fear were only vague.
"He..." Zhui Lian's voice was a little dry.
"He was in the men's room, talking to his brother..."
Yu Peizhi took over her words, his tone plain and straightforward, yet with a startling cruelty, "I'm talking about a type like you. It must be very exciting to fuck you. I wonder what it's like to cry under me..."
Zhui Lian's face turned pale for a moment.
Yu Peizhi looked at her suddenly changed expression, and there seemed to be a hint of mockery in his expression.
He continued in that calm tone, "Then, the madman came out of the cubicle."
"He didn't say anything, but just punched the man in the face, pinning him to the ground and beating him until he vomited blood."
He paused and refocused his gaze on Zhui Lian's face.
No emotion could be seen in those dark eyes.
"So, he didn't leave for no apparent reason."
"He's tired of fighting, and he doesn't want to hear your stupid questions."
The attic fell into deathly silence.
Zhui Lian's heart was beating heavily, and an extremely complicated emotion surged up.
Shock, nausea, fear... and a hint of the past throbbing.
To the crazy blond one.
In her early adolescence, before she was overwhelmed by her fear of him, that arrogant, mean, and moody boy had indeed used his twisted and violent way to shield her from some of the malice from the outside world.
At that time, her feelings towards him were complicated.
But later, the fear he gave far exceeded all of this.
With the appearance of the gentle and clean Qiao Xunli, that brief throbbing was completely suppressed and buried, never to see the light of day again.
The past was suddenly revealed at this moment, and more fragments of memory emerged uncontrollably.
"Ah..." Zhui Lian held his forehead, obviously a little uncomfortable with this sudden and indistinguishable emotion.
But this chaotic mood was soon overwhelmed by a stronger sense of vigilance.
She raised her head, looked at Yu Peizhi, and asked, "Peizhi...how do you know so clearly? Did Sister Zhiwei tell you?"
Do you even know the details of the conversation?
Is this really just what Pei Zhiwei told him? When that blond madman was still alive, his relationship with Pei Zhiwei could be described as tit-for-tat.
Would he really tell his sister the specific content of the conversation in the men's restroom?
Yu Peizhi looked at her, and the smile on her face became deeper and harder to discern.
He nodded, his tone light as if he was talking about a trivial matter:
"Yes, Sister Zhiwei told me."
"She told me more..."
He leaned in close, almost touching Zhui Lian's ear, and asked softly in an almost bewitching whisper, "Lian Lian, do you want to hear it too?"
His breath was cold, but his exhaled breath was warm.
It is an extremely dangerous attraction that can lead people into the abyss.
Zhui Lian suddenly picked up the cardboard box on the ground, interrupting the suffocating distance and conversation.
Yu Peizhi still held the diary in her hand, but at this moment she just wanted to leave this cramped attic as soon as possible.
"No!"
Her voice was a little hurried. She forced herself to remain calm and turned around, avoiding his sight. "It's all in the past... Let's go back, Pei Zhi."
Yu Peizhi looked at her almost panicked back and did not follow her immediately.
He slowly stroked the edge of the hardcover diary.
He stood there, looking at the three big words "Sixteen" written in gold on the turquoise diary.
Sixteen years old... sixteen years old... it seems like such a distant time ago.
He lowered his head and smiled very lightly.
"Okay, let's go home."
Yu Peizhi finally took a step and followed.
Zhui Lian, who was walking in front, held the cardboard box tightly in her arms.
The amber pendant in her inner pocket touched her skin a little, and a cool feeling seeped in.
Her heart was still pounding, but her brain was working quickly and calmly.
It is difficult to tell whether Yu Peizhi's words are true or false.
But the shocking detail was enough to send chills down her spine.
I can't stay around him anymore.
Pei Zhiwei's wedding may be her best and last chance.
She had to find a way to get rid of him that day, even if only for a little while.
The things Xiaoxu sent should arrive soon.
The truth...maybe lies in there.
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The author has something to say: [burst into tears] Hi everyone, I’ve finally finished my work and resigned, now I’m catching up on the charts…if nothing goes wrong there will be another chapter later qwq
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