Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Xu Wen gently placed both hands on the steering wheel, occasionally turning it slowly and leisurely. The black Buick car cruised slowly through the fields, with rows of white poplar trees lining both sides of the winding road. Beyond the poplar trees, there were vast orchards and vegetable gardens on one side, and a vegetable farm and medicinal herb cultivation base on the other. These were the fruits of countless nights of labor shared with Qinglan and Qing Shusheng. They rushed past the car window, creating a beautiful arc as they brushed by.
An Shaojie had returned; he had known this for a long time.
Last year, during the Spring Festival in Beijing, he learned from a senior alumnus who had just returned from abroad that An Shaojie was back in the country.
While abroad, that alumnus attended the same school as An Shaojie and met him at an alumni gathering. Knowing An Shaojie's major and year of study in China, he couldn't help but mention An Shaojie when he saw Xu Wen after returning home.
The alumnus had gone abroad several years earlier and was unaware of An Shaojie's situation in China; he only talked about An Shaojie's experiences abroad.
After An Shaojie and Su Hailu went overseas, they broke up within a year due to incompatible personalities.
Su Hailu was lively, outgoing, bold, and sociable. Once she arrived abroad, she quickly adapted to life there. Her social skills allowed her to thrive in the new environment, and her talent for singing and dancing soon made her a well-known figure at her school.
In contrast, An Shaojie was solely focused on his studies. He had a gloomy disposition and did not enjoy noisy social gatherings.
Initially, Su Hailu would take An Shaojie along to various school events in an attempt to change him. However, she soon realized that not only did she fail to bring him out of his shell, but he also became increasingly withdrawn and unhappy.
Later on, to make him happier and more comfortable, Su Hailu stopped inviting him to her social circles. Yet she found that apart from studying, he remained unhappy and increasingly silent.
Su Hailu genuinely liked him. Her initial attraction stemmed not only from his melancholic aura but also from his lack of the superficiality and recklessness often seen in many college students today.
He was calm, steady, hardworking, ambitious, and introspective—dedicated to his studies without being swayed by external influences. He loved learning and would use any means necessary to pursue it, such as leveraging her connections to study abroad. He possessed an unwavering dedication to his education. However, outside of academics, he was like an innocent child who had no idea how to navigate social situations; he struggled with communication and practicality while maintaining a pure heart.
Regardless of whether it is his utilitarian approach to learning or the purity in his life and social interactions, these two aspects make Su Hailu admire and appreciate him even more.
Isn't the future successor of her family's business exactly someone who needs this combination of utilitarian obsession and pure-heartedness? It allows him to strive for the family business while also being easily manageable.
Another reason Su Hailu admires and appreciates him is that the calm and persistent qualities he possesses are precisely what she lacks.
Su Hailu is intelligent but easily influenced by external factors. She is highly utilitarian in her actions; for instance, she has set her sights on him among many talented individuals at A University and even tried to entice him despite knowing he has a girlfriend. However, she lacks the determination and grit he shows when focused on a goal; she tends to compromise easily. Although she appears warm and generous to friends, seemingly innocent, deep down, she is indifferent and worldly. He may seem cold on the surface, but he is actually loyal to his friends and possesses a pure heart.
To be honest, Su Hailu wishes she could live without being so pretentious, hoping to live as purely as he does.
Thus, unable to change him, she decides to let him live freely, allowing him to continue his independent lifestyle as he did back home.
After living this way for a while—each leading their own lives without interfering with one another—Su Hailu realizes that she and he hardly exchange a word throughout the day, eventually reaching a point where they have almost nothing to say to each other.
An Shaojie has always been someone who is not good at conversing or expressing himself, while Su Hailu is someone who can talk about anything. However, after encountering someone as taciturn as An Shaojie, she finds herself gradually becoming dull as well, sometimes spending an entire day in silence alongside him.
He can endure a day without speaking, but Su Hailu cannot.
One autumn afternoon under the sunlight, Su Hailu sits on the balcony soaking up the sun. The lazy rays make her feel as if time has stopped. She realizes she cannot continue living like this; his dullness may add excitement to his life, but her own dullness does not bring excitement to hers.
She walks into the room where An Shaojie is quietly reading at his desk, seemingly oblivious to everything around him. In his world, it feels like he is the only person existing between heaven and earth; the bright sunlight does not reach his eyes, let alone hers.
What does it feel like? Since the day they met, he has focused his attention on her; he has directed his gaze toward her.
She stepped forward, took the book from his hands, and pulled a chair to sit in front of him.
"Is there something on your mind?" he asked lightly, with a sense of detachment. He had always been this distant with her.
Su Hailu suddenly found herself at a loss for words. Hadn't she planned to say so much to him? Didn't she have many questions to ask?
She paused for a moment, and after a while, she suddenly asked, "In the past, when you were with her, did you also sit in silence like this? Was it just as dull?"
Since coming abroad, she had never mentioned Qinglan in front of him. She never spoke that name out loud, so she simply referred to her as "her."
An Shaojie did not answer her and picked up the book again.
Was it the same when he was with her? An Shaojie couldn't recall what their relationship was like. He couldn't remember. It seemed they also rarely spoke and often went a whole day without exchanging more than a few words, but he didn't feel any sense of dullness then.
Yes, it was only when Su Hailu pointed it out that he realized he felt a sense of heaviness when he was with her.
Though they both didn't talk much, being with Qinglan didn't seem to carry that suffocating dullness; however, being with Su Hailu felt stifling.
So he didn't know how to respond to her and chose to remain silent, continuing to read.
But Su Hailu wouldn't let him off easily. Since she had made a special effort to understand this matter today, she was determined to see it through.
Comment 0 Comment Count