Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
With Xu Nuo’s mind blank, she suddenly recalled that she was flipping through a medical book the night before and recalled her past. She was troubled and unknowingly wrote ‘Stone’ on the first page.
Stone, Stone…
The clear handwriting made it clear that she had just written it. That, along with what she wrote when she was younger made for a distinct difference. He saw the clear difference between the tenderness and strength of the words. Xu Nuo looked at Ye Ningyuan in a daze. Shock, loss, ecstasy—there was a mix of emotions in his gaze. He could not quite tell what was going on, and Xu Nuo’s heart ache.
She turned away and ran. Ye Ningyuan leaped up from the ground and grabbed her arm with one hand. Xu Nuo hit him in the chest with her hand, but he did not let go and instead held her wrist tightly, pinning her against the wall and looking at her with a searing gaze.
Xu Nuo was enraged but looked up in a daze nonetheless. His pitch-black eyes were red as though there were tears in them. Like somebody who had been slapped, she felt a burning pain on her face and was at a loss.
“Nuo Nuo?” He hoarsely coughed out those words. He gripped her so hard to the point he seemed to want to crush her carpal bone. His searing gaze was full of gratitude and ecstasy. Was she Nuo Nuo? She must be Nuo Nuo! She was the only person who knew that he was called Stone, and he had never mentioned that to anybody else, Xu Xing included. Even his mommy and Hailan did not know that was Xu Nuo’s pet name for him.
She clearly wrote those two words. The moment she turned away in panic and ran, he knew that she was guilty of it. She indeed wrote it.
Nuo Nuo…
Ye Ningyuan ran his trembling fingertips across her face which had become completely different from when she was younger. While her features were much more defined, he was still as mesmerized. He discovered that her character was similar to young Xu Nuo’s, but Nuo Nuo’s overbearing streak and coldness was devoid of the gentleness that she had. The young Nuo Nuo had a dark aura that made it evident she was a child who was brought up in the underworld. Xu Nuo, on the other hand, did not have an aura of darkness that was as evident but instead a few hints of liveliness that was related to her work. While there were some very fine differences, their characters, preferences, and habits were almost the same. How could he not tell?
He always felt that falling in love with Xunuo meant letting Nuo Nuo down in his heart. He liked very few people, and he fell for a person so hard that he would never consider falling in love with another person. He expected life to carry on like this until he developed feelings for Xunuo. He struggled for a long time and eventually accepted this fact. But he now knew that he, from start to end, loved the same person.
Although she looked different, he still encountered her and fell in love with her.
“Are you Nuo Nuo?” His voice and body trembled as his heart brimmed with ecstasy and shock. Ye Ningyuan suddenly felt thankful. He never believed in god, but he now sincerely believed that there was indeed a god who watched over him.
Xu Nuo shook her head, but he tightly hugged her before she could speak. “Nuo Nuo, don’t deny it, okay? Please don’t deny it. I am not dreaming. I am not dreaming. You are back. You are really back.”
Xu Nuo gritted her teeth and wanted to push him away, but he held her even more tightly to the point she eventually gave up and held his waist. She felt some moistness around her nape that gently seared her skin. Xu Nuo hugged him even more tightly.
‘Dear Stone, don’t cry!’
Ye Ningyuan could not hold back his tears and they fell onto her nape. People said men rarely shed tears. He did not shed a tear when he was utterly despondent and his heart died with him. But what was lost was found, and the person in question was back in his embrace. He was shedding tears like no tomorrow. It seemed as though he wanted to vent out all the pain and yearning that had pent up all these years.
He felt that it was embarrassing that men would shed tears. Ye Ningyuan was taught since young that sticks and stones could break his bones but he must not shed tears. Shedding tears was a sign of weakness, and he did not want people to feel that he was this weak.
But there was always this exception in the world. When he was younger, Third Young Master Ye would tell him that there was that one woman in the world whom he did not have to act gentlemanly and maintain his perfection before.
To him, Xu Nuo was the exception whom he could laugh and cry freely with as she would not make fun of him or feel that he was weak.
“I’m not your Nuo Nuo.” This statement lingered at the tip of her tongue, but she could not bring herself to say it. His shoulders trembled, and his tears wetted her shoulder. Facing such a Ye Ningyuan, she could not deny it.
But wasn’t that an admission?
It was ultimately not up to her to refute it, right? Given the mountain of evidence, how would she know his pet name if she weren’t Xu Nuo?
She had been through once too many ups and downs.
Eventually, she encountered him, and he also encountered her.
Xu Nuo felt her heart ache. She cupped his face and gently kissed away his tears as though she wanted to expend all her gentleness in this lifetime and give him all the gentleness she could.
She loved him the most.
“Dear Stone, you look terrible when you cry,” she murmured. She kissed away his tears despite the stinging feeling in her eyes. Ye Ningyuan suddenly carried her sideways and pinned himself on her, kissing her.
He only wanted to make her his, and he was overbearing to the point he wanted her to remain by his side for the rest of his life. He would never allow her to go missing or die. Xu Nuo wrapped her hands around his nape and forgot everything in that moment. She responded to his kisses fervently. His irregular breathing reverberated between them. This was the first time she saw him this intense.
As they tangled with each other, their clothes became uncannily fragile and came apart in a matter of time. Since Ye Ningyuan had not been intimate with any woman, he was totally clueless when it came to physical intimacy. He did not have the experience most teenage men had, so he acted according to his feelings…
However, Ye Ningyuan’s clumsiness exceeded Xu Nuo’s expectations and she was hurting from him. She gritted her teeth and almost slapped him. He really did not know how to please her. Uneasiness ensued…