Chapter 53 How can one believe that there are truly people in this world who are completely...
Her almond-shaped eyes widened slightly in surprise.
Her thick eyelashes trembled slightly.
Su Cheng crossed her hands in front of her, her fingernails digging crescent-shaped red marks into her palms.
Just as I expected.
Apart from the name on the ginkgo leaf bookmark, he had no recollection of her from high school.
Even though she had been wearing glasses for those three years, he still asked her if she was nearsighted.
What he forgot was not only the thick glasses, but also the burning gaze that always followed him beneath them.
On the podium, a spirited young man, speaking as a representative of the new students, was dazzling and eye-catching.
She hid in the crowd, looking up at his silhouette outlined by the sunlight, and clapped along with the crowd.
On the track and field, the agile figure of the young man drew a perfect parabola and won the championship.
She watched from afar, her heart pounding, but she could only keep her cheers to herself.
Unable to reach him, she could only carefully gather those subtle, fleeting connections.
That school uniform with a faint minty scent, that neatly written physics notebook, and that group photo taken across a sea of people, without any eye contact.
Fragmented pieces strung together their intertwined three years.
It was as if they were separated by a one-way mirror; she was on this side of chaos, while Jiang Muzhou stood on the other side, completely unaware of everything.
The car slowly drove into the underground parking garage, and the light suddenly dimmed.
Using the rearview mirror, Su Cheng caught a glimpse of the profile of the person beside her, and he seemed to notice her secretly tracing his features, raising his eyes to meet hers.
She slowly loosened her clenched, white knuckles.
Like a mirror reflecting each other, their gaze is no longer one-way.
From initial silence, they have now engaged in back-and-forth conversations, discussing the weather and asking each other what they'll have for dinner.
The dampness in my heart gradually subsided.
Su Cheng then realized that she hadn't answered his question yet.
"In high school, I was almost 700 degrees nearsighted. The lenses were thick, heavy, and ugly. On the day of graduation photos, I tried wearing contact lenses for the first time, and the feeling of not being restricted by frames was amazing."
"So after the college entrance exam, I kept pestering my parents to take me to get femtosecond laser surgery, and I haven't needed to wear glasses since."
As she spoke, she raised her hand and touched the empty bridge of her nose.
Right after her surgery, every morning when she woke up, she would still habitually look for her glasses on the bedside table; if her vision was slightly blurry, her index finger would subconsciously reach for the glasses that were no longer there.
It took her almost half a year to completely break these muscle memories, but if you look closely, you can still see two shallow indentations on the sides of her nose.
The car body jolted slightly as the tires went over the speed bump.
Jiang Muzhou paused for a moment as he turned the steering wheel.
No wonder he always felt something was off.
Because he clearly remembered that every time he saw her through the classroom window, she was wearing black-rimmed glasses.
But on the rainy night when they met on the rooftop, and on the day they took their graduation photos, her nose was completely bare.
He overheard girls in his class talking about contact lenses, and he naturally assumed that she was wearing contact lenses those two days as well.
So... that night, in her sight, the person and the cat on the rooftop were just two blurry outlines.
It wasn't that she forgot, but that she never knew that person was him.
It turns out that their story never truly began with her.
The script in her hands was always missing the most crucial page.
A sense of loss welled up in Jiang Muzhou's heart, slowly dissipating before being replaced by an even more turbulent emotion.
It was a bittersweet feeling after a sudden realization, along with a renewed and unprecedented hope.
If we were to add that page for her, would the story take a different turn?
Jiang Muzhou parked the car in the parking space, and as soon as he pulled the handbrake, Su Cheng jumped out of the car like a little rabbit.
Last time, she got off the bus in a similar hurry and accidentally twisted her ankle. He had to carry her back home.
Seeing her so lively and energetic, he couldn't help but smile.
They learned their lesson from their mistakes.
He reached out to open the car door, but the door was pulled open first.
Su Cheng stood in front of the open car door, her left hand firmly holding the door frame, while her right hand gracefully made an inviting gesture.
Her eyes curved into crescents, and her shallow dimples held an irrepressible smile. "Young Master Jiang, please get out of the car!"
The black derby shoes paused slightly in front of the car door before slowly landing on the ground.
As far as the eye could see, there was a pair of dark, shining eyes.
With a faint smile in his eyes, he magically produced a strawberry cake from behind him and handed it to her.
His voice held a doting tone he himself was unaware of, "This is your tip."
Su Cheng took the transparent box tied with a pink bow, her pupils dilating slightly.
The pale yellow cake base is filled with snow-white cream, and bright red strawberry slices are neatly arranged, topped with a few plump, whole strawberries.
It's exactly the same as the signature cake from the dessert shop she shared on her WeChat Moments a couple of days ago.
She carefully changed her posture, from holding the ribbon to cradling it with both hands, as if afraid the box would fall apart.
She followed closely behind him, counting how many strawberries were on top of the cake.
But then the person in front suddenly spoke up, "I haven't heard anyone call me that in a long time."
Jiang Muzhou never mentioned his family affairs to outsiders.
But based on those glamorous appearances alone, most people would think that he was a chosen one born with a silver spoon in his mouth, as if everything in the world was his to enjoy.
But actually...
His life wasn't as comfortable as others imagined.
He was never a life that was expected to arrive.
When he was a child, people would always try to curry favor with him, respectfully calling him the young master of the Jiang family. He would happily respond at the time, only to later find out that the family's surname was never "Jiang," but rather "Cheng."
He once thought that he was not well-liked because his surname was different from his mother's, but he found that most children his age did not have their mothers' surnames, but their mothers still loved them unconditionally.
He spent his entire childhood with this incorrect surname.
I can't remember the exact day, but it was probably sometime after he started junior high school when his parents' attitude towards him softened, and he was no longer forbidden from entering the main building.
But her mother remained as busy as ever, and when they occasionally met at the dinner table, her face always wore a distant and indifferent expression.
That day, he intended to go into the study to get a book, but he overheard his parents arguing at the door.
He was already used to this kind of scene and was about to leave when he suddenly heard his name being mentioned.
The father's voice was tired and helpless, "A-Zhou is still our child. He's so sensible and gets good grades. Can't you be a little nicer to him?"
The mother's voice was as cold as ice, "Jiang Jianguo, don't forget how this child came to be."
Cheng Wanyue was born into a merchant family, while Jiang Jianguo was a top student from a small town. The two met and fell in love while studying in Ireland, and got married despite their families' objections.
After starting her own insurance company from scratch, Cheng Wanyue became pregnant with her first child.
Jiang Jianguo, grateful for his wife's sacrifices, proposed that both men and women should take her surname, Cheng, and only if there is a second child would they take the father's surname.
Cheng Wanyue is decisive and efficient in the business world. She quickly returned to her career after giving birth and built her company into the largest in Linhai in just three years.
However, success breeds envy, and at the crucial moment of the company's merger and restructuring, she unexpectedly discovered that she was pregnant again.
At first, Cheng Wanyue thought that her menstrual irregularities were caused by being too tired from work, since she and Jiang Jianguo always took precautions when they were intimate.
But when the blood test results were presented to her, she was struck dumb.
It turns out that Jiang Jianguo believed his mother-in-law's outdated concept of "carrying on the family line" and secretly tampered with the condoms in order to leave an heir for the Jiang family.
Cheng Wanyue was a Catholic. Because of her faith, she could not have an abortion and had to give birth to the child, who later became Jiang Muzhou.
She suffered severe pregnancy complications and was unable to manage the company personally. Jiang Jianguo was also unable to handle the situation, resulting in a scheme by their rivals that nearly wiped out their family fortune. In the end, it was her family that stepped in and managed to save the company.
Since then, Cheng Wanyue has suffered from postpartum depression. Every time she sees the child, she is reminded of the betrayal she felt by the person she trusted most.
She poured all her resentment into this innocent life, and simply threw him into the annex building, out of sight, out of mind.
It was only then that Jiang Muzhou realized that he was never born out of love.
For the sake of his ridiculous "bloodline" and his mother for the sake of her so-called "faith," neither of them ever asked him if he wanted to be born, but instead they blamed him for everything.
For a time, he hated the surname so much that he only used "Muzhou" as the name on his social media accounts, as if removing the character "Jiang" would sever this absurd blood relationship.
As Jiang Muzhou finished speaking in a calm tone, Su Cheng felt as if her heart had been squeezed tightly, causing her a dull ache.
His storytelling was like a surging tide, and she, a person who couldn't swim, was being pushed step by step into the deep sea by the waves.
The more he talked, the heavier her chest felt, and her breathing became difficult, almost suffocating her.
But he himself spoke as if he were telling someone else's story, without even frowning.
Su Cheng felt a slight, persistent pain in her heart, but an even stronger, indescribable shock followed.
Growing up in that kind of environment, he was still able to live with such clarity and gentleness.
How much effort must it take to forcefully grow a lotus, pure and untouched by the mud?
Su Cheng suddenly understood why someone as outstanding as him would have a white moonlight in his heart that he could not have.
How can someone who has never been loved by even his closest blood relatives believe that there is anyone in the world who will love him unconditionally?
Some say that growing up requires a lot of love, while others say it requires a lot of money.
Su Cheng felt incredibly lucky to have grown up in a family that was neither lacking in love nor money, which shaped her into who she is today.
She has loving parents, close friends, a dream she will never give up, and someone she has liked for a long time.
As long as you like it, you'll be happy.
He doesn't necessarily need to know, nor does he necessarily need to possess it.
The elevator slowly ascended, taking them further and further away from the dark swamp.
She thought to herself.
Jiang Muzhou, you will definitely become happier and happier.
The elevator doors opened with a ding, and the two stepped out of the car one after the other.
Jiang Muzhou rushed back without having time to buy groceries. He planned to take out the sirloin steak from the freezer to thaw and then cook two servings of pasta.
He bent down, his fingertips already touching the keypad of the combination lock.
The person behind him showed no sign of stopping, walking straight past him and heading towards the adjacent door.
Su Cheng opened the door a crack, creating a dark corner.
The hallway lights shone on her face, creating a hazy glow.
The window at the end of the corridor was open.
A cool autumn breeze blew in.
But Jiang Muzhou felt that summer was not over yet.
She stood there, more scorching than the summer sun.
She suddenly looked up at him, a smile spreading across her lips, as if extending a warm invitation.
"A-Zhou, come home with me."
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