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墨書 Inktalez
Qinglan took the child in her arms, her eyes fixed on the child's face, standing still without moving.
"You should go back to bed," Xu Wen said.
Qinglan came to her senses, but her gaze remained glued to the child's face, as if she would fly away if she looked away. She slowly backed up and sat down at the edge of the bed with Xu Wen's help, then lay down on the bed while Xu Wen covered her with a blanket. Her eyes continued to focus on the child.
The child licked her lips, squinted, yawned, and tugged at her mouth. Qinglan finally smiled and softly said to Xu Wen, "Look, she can smile!" Xu Wen smiled back at Qinglan.
Thinking of this, Qinglan also tugged at the corners of her mouth and smiled. She reached out to touch the child lying on the hospital bed, recalling a scene from six years ago that was so similar yet so different.
What was similar was that Xu Wen was still there, guarding her and the child. Time had weathered many things, but it had not aged her beauty; she still looked young and beautiful.
What was different was that the child had grown to six years old, able to speak and jump around, no longer the rosy-faced baby who only yawned and tugged at her mouth.
She was no longer the frail, helpless, confused Qinglan who quietly shed tears after turning away. After enduring hardships, she had matured, become strong and independent, no longer feeling helpless or lost. Time had merely made her more mature; this maturity made her even more beautiful and graceful than before.
Indeed, gracefulness—if one were to count on their fingers, having a six-year-old child meant that she was still quite young herself. At just under twenty-eight years old, she was still in her prime compared to others like Lin Xi, who should be in their youthful years. But for Qinglan, it wasn't just youth; it also carried a maturity far beyond mere youthfulness, with a calmness in her eyes that surpassed that of younger days.
Ah! Speaking of Lin Xi, another layer of worry appeared in Qinglan's eyes. At twenty-eight years old, although she hadn't experienced as many hardships as Qinglan, she lacked much of the youthful exuberance found in others her age. While not as steady as Qinglan, who resembled a sturdy Phoenix Tree, there were hints of melancholy and subtle sadness in her eyes that conveyed a sense of nostalgia for lost youth.
Love—once it has been genuinely felt, even a small wound can cause unbearable pain for those involved, making it hard to breathe or forget. The long-lasting pain can only be truly understood by those who have experienced love that brings both life and death.
She always believed she wasn't someone who would get stuck on trivial matters; as a child, she was generous and adaptable, able to let go of things easily. Yet unexpectedly, just one person—Lu Chenyu—had completely brought her down.
Six years ago, Lu Chenyu suddenly disappeared without a trace from her world, and since then, there has been no news of him. She couldn't find out anything from any of their classmates. Some said he probably went abroad. He had once written a short letter to Lin Xi, telling her that he had gone overseas, that he had another life, and that he would never come back, urging Lin Xi not to wait for him.
However, Lin Xi never believed that the letter was genuine. She said, "If he really just went abroad, why is there no news about him? Why did his parents sell their house in Provincial Capital? Why did they take his grandparents with them to live a nomadic life? Didn't his parents want his grandparents to have a stable life? Why did they have to wander together? If it was just about going abroad, why did the whole family leave Provincial Capital?"
So every year on her birthday or his birthday, she would take out the slightly yellowed letter he wrote to her and read it several times. Yet she still found it hard to believe any word in that letter, just as she did the first time she read it. She thought he was playing a joke on her; after all, when she met him, he was the kind of mischievous person who loved to tease her.
In the past, he and Chen Yang used to take turns playing pranks on her, so she believed this letter was just another one of his tricks. Just like before when she waited for him and grew anxious and impatient, saying that if he kept messing around, she wouldn't wait for him anymore and didn't love him anymore—he would always appear again, standing in front of her or behind her, covering her eyes and asking her to guess who he was.
Every time it was him covering her eyes while Chen Yang would ask in a strange voice, "Guess who I am?" She only needed to touch his fingertips to know that the one covering her eyes was him while the one in front of her making strange sounds was Chen Yang. She always pretended not to know and acted as if she couldn't guess, then took the opportunity to kick Chen Yang when he wasn't paying attention. He would yelp in pain, "This isn't fun anymore! I'm not playing with you two! Just for your amusement, I get kicked and hurt."
She always guessed correctly. Her legs were reliable; they seemed to have eyes of their own and only kicked Chen Yang without ever hitting him. She couldn't bear to kick Lu Chenyu; his sunny smile warmed her heart like the gentle breeze and sunlight of spring, making her feel soft and warm inside.
Both of their birthdays fell during the golden autumn season when the campus was filled with red maple leaves. His birthday was a few days before hers. He once joked that the leftover cake from his birthday celebration was for her birthday.
She would take out that letter again on the anniversary of their acquaintance or the day she received it. However, after reading it for six years, she still couldn't decipher its meaning. He said he loved her and wanted her to be happy, but why did he leave her without any news?
How could she be happy like this?
At first, she truly believed that he had vanished out of spite because she suggested breaking up with him. So she remained indifferent and didn't rush to find him. In fact, out of stubbornness, she chose to stay in Beijing after graduation.
It wasn't until a year later that she realized he wasn't sulking; he had truly disappeared completely and deliberately. So a year later, when she understood that things were not as she had thought, she returned from Beijing to Provincial Capital and began searching for him throughout the city. She contacted nearly everyone who knew him or had any connection with him but found no one who knew where he had gone or had any news about him.
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