Chapter 106: Little bastard!

Lu Yi was speechless to the extreme. Rubbing his temple with a headache, he said, “Didn’t you go back? Why are you still here eavesdropping?”

Lu Qingyue did not feel the least bit guilty about listening in. She snorted and said with perfect justification, “If I didn’t eavesdrop, how would I know whether you were talking behind my back?”

Lu Yi: “...”

So eavesdropping was now something to be proud of?

He massaged his brow, looking utterly helpless against her, then turned his head again and said in a meaningfully grave tone, “Cheng Xingye, I should remind you of something. If you dare to make trouble before the wedding and get someone into trouble, I’ll break your legs for sure.”

Cheng Xingye paused. “...Don’t worry.”

He knew his limits. Even if Lu Yi had not added that warning, he would never have let Lu Qingyue get hurt because of him.

Lu Yi did not entirely trust his character. With a dark, almost sinister look, he emphasized once more, “You know which leg I mean, don’t you?”

Cheng Xingye: “.....”

Lu Qingyue: “???”

She blinked in confusion, then suddenly understood something and immediately widened her eyes.

If you want to threaten him, then threaten him properly. Why drag the happiness of my entire future into it?

She shot Lu Yi an indignant glare, but before she could say anything, he was already pushing her shoulder and shoving her back inside.

“All right, get back in there and go to sleep. What are you standing outside at this hour talking nonsense with some filthy man for?”

Lu Qingyue thought to herself that they had done more than just talk nonsense. They had even kissed and hugged.

But she did not dare get too carried away. As Lu Yi pushed her into the room, she hurriedly waved at Cheng Xingye in secret, then obediently turned and went inside.

...

Back in her bedroom, Lu Qingyue finally took out the little box Cheng Xingye had given her.

The small wooden box was about the size of her palm. When she opened it, she found several photographic prints inside.

She took them out and, to her surprise, discovered that every single one was a picture of her.

The first was from one day during military training two years ago.

The sun that day was fierce. She had been late and was forced to stand abruptly in the last row, her head slightly bowed, little hands fiddling with her cap, trying to use the brim to block the harsh glare.

The second was from Cheng Xingye’s birthday banquet the year before last.

That day she had not known Lu Yi was taking her to Cheng Xingye’s birthday party, so she had gone in wearing only a simple knit sweater and jeans.

Because her outfit had been far too casual, she had been in a low mood all day. Cheng Xingye did not know when he had noticed her downturned mouth and unhappy expression as she sat by the window on the sofa, and quietly took a picture of her.

Further on were photos from the year after they had gone their separate ways.

It took her a very long time to emerge from her disappointment, yet she had never known that in the years that followed, in the days when he was no longer by her side, every smile, every bit of mischief, every sorrow and joy of hers had become, in his lens, the one and only bright little sun worth keeping forever.

The last photo was from this year, when she had finished the college entrance exam and run out of the examination hall in high spirits.

In truth, all she had been thinking that day was that she was finally free at last, so her memory of it was hazy. She only remembered that by the time the final subject ended, evening had already fallen.

The sun was sinking in the west, dyeing the entire exam venue gold.

She stood at the center of the family that had gathered around her, chin lifted proudly as she said something to Lu Yi.

Behind her, traffic roared and voices swelled. Captured in that photograph with her, apart from her radiant, unrestrained smile, was also the lonely shadow cast upon the ground.

That shadow was lean and cool, as if standing far outside her world, becoming only a backdrop to her laughter amid the surrounding bustle.

Lu Qingyue sat on the bed and looked through them one by one. Even when her eyes grew sore and red, she still stubbornly refused to put them away.

She did not know when Cheng Xingye had begun collecting these photographs, and she had never imagined that during those days when they had gone their separate ways, he had still remained behind her, never leaving.

She had once believed she had walked away with finality, and that he had no longer been enthralled. Yet she unexpectedly discovered that she had underestimated both his persistence and his liking for her.

Lu Qingyue sat helplessly on the large bed, looking at the photographs spread before her, as though scene after scene from the past were unfolding in front of her eyes.

No one knew how long she looked before she finally lifted a hand to rub her stinging, swollen eyes.

Just then, her phone rang.

Seeing that the caller was Cheng Xingye, Lu Qingyue sniffled, steadied herself, and then swiped to answer.

“Hello?”

Her voice was faintly choked when she spoke, even though she herself did not notice it.

But Cheng Xingye seemed to hear it. After a few seconds of silence, he asked softly, “Did you see the present?”

His deep, magnetic voice seemed to slip straight into her ear, and the tips of Lu Qingyue’s ears immediately began to warm.

“Mm.”

She tugged at the pale pink bedsheet, striving to keep her emotions in check, and asked in a muffled voice, “Why did you take so many photos and never tell me?”

There was a pause on the other end. He probably sat down by the bed; the faint sound of fabric rubbing could be heard. After a while, he explained in his low, rough voice, slowly, “Back then, every day I wanted to bring you back, but I was afraid it would affect your studies, so I could only sneak over, look at you once, and leave.”

Actually, saying he only looked once was not quite accurate. In her final year of high school, she only had one physical education class a week, and sometimes even that was replaced by other subjects. During one stretch, he had gone nearly every two or three days to see her, yet it still took almost a month before he managed to catch sight of her.

Cheng Xingye himself did not know why he had done all this, but if he did not go and see her, he simply could not let go.

He worried whether boys at school would pester her, worried whether the pressure of her studies was too great, worried whether she was still quarreling with Lu Yi every day...

That year, he himself had lived in a daze, his relationship with his family had turned strained, and he had completely parted ways with Lu Yi. And yet whenever he thought of her, he felt that he still did not want to wake from this dream.

The spacious room was quiet, but the air was hot. Lu Qingyue felt the warmth from her ears spreading to her face, and she unconsciously pressed her lips together before whispering, holding back the ache in her throat, “Then why didn’t you tell me later...”

He was very frank about it. “Because I wanted to give you a surprise.”

After all, there was only one eighteenth birthday in a lifetime, and all the other gifts money could buy were too trite. To him, they would have meant nothing.

Now that he thought about it, she seemed to quite like it?

Hearing the catch in her voice, Cheng Xingye paused for a few seconds before letting out a helpless, low laugh.

“I didn’t give you that to make you cry.”

Even while crying, Lu Qingyue was still perfectly logical. “If you didn’t give it to make me cry, then why did you give it to me?”

Cheng Xingye: “....”

Had he discovered that this girl’s eloquence improved with age?

He was momentarily at a loss for words, and after a while finally let out a breath in exasperation. “What’s there to cry about?”

Lu Qingyue was lying on the bed, photographs scattered all around her. She looked through them all again one by one and felt that under his lens, she looked breathtakingly beautiful. Delighted, she could not help but act spoiled.

“You’re so good to me. What if I end up clinging to you every day in the future?”

Perhaps he was not used to her sudden sweetness, or perhaps it was something else, but he cleared his throat to hide the itch at the base of it and replied in a tone that seemed deliberately casual and lazy, “Then cling to me. Isn’t that what a boyfriend is for? Get up early tomorrow, and I’ll come find you?”

Lu Qingyue was about to agree when she suddenly remembered that Xi Yu had told her to go back to her hometown for a few days. So she quickly refused, “No, I’m going to my grandfather’s place tomorrow. I’ll be there for two weeks and only come back when school starts.”

Cheng Xingye: “...”

Cheng Xingye: “......”

Didn’t she say she was going to cling to him every day?

You little brat!