The sun was blazing. Gu ci was staring at Chen Jinyao in front of him. Who knows how long it took for him to completely adjust his state of mind and remove that despondent look in his eyes.
“Your answer gets people thinking, you know?” He tried to position himself as an old friend and half-joked in a more friendly and affectionate way.
Chen Jinyao could not tell what he was thinking, but she can express her own stance. She smiled, “There’s really nothing to think about that.”
The cicadas buzzed in the background. Gu Ci moved his gaze away to a rainbow halo reflected from the bright sun.
Regret slowly overflowed from inside of him. He wanted to refute Chen Jinyao’s words in a careless tone, but then it doesn’t make sense. In the end, he gave up. Pursing his lips, he kept silent and did not say anything.
Chen Jinyao was very calm and continued speaking by herself.
Instead of saying she was standing in front of him, trying to explain things to him, it felt like he was just standing there, taking anything she could throw at him. At the very least, that was what he felt after hearing her speak. Still, he did not mind lending an ear.
“There was nobody else I liked before I met Yan Cheng.”
“But if I were to have met him during university, we wouldn’t really have been able to develop a relationship.” When she said this, Chen Jinyao tried her best to immerse herself in the feelings of the original Chen Jinyao. After she spoke, she narrowed her eyes in a smile that barely reached the depths. She straightened herself and said seriously, “I think I believe quite a lot in faith. The right place, right time, right man, I think all three are important factors, you can’t have one without the other.”
“I think it’s all three that got Yan Cheng and I together.” There was a sparkle in her eyes. While speaking about Yan Cheng, her face had suddenly turned softer. “After that, it was probably his own personal charm.”
All in all, if you put them together like this, then there was only one word to describe it: Fate.
“…” Gu Ci was not stupid. Only, he had just begun to miss the flavor of the cigarette he snubbed out earlier. It was too late to regret it, and he didn’t have the need to keep on asking either. After hanging his eyes and staying silent for a moment, he still smiled when he spoke again. It was a light smile. “Chen Jinyao, it really feels like you’ve changed quite a lot.”
She was more careless in the past, fearless in everything. That resulted in vivid impressions of her being left on Gu Ci.
And right now, it was as if she had calmed down after being baptized. It was the same person, and yet they felt completely different.
This was also something he noticed the moment he met her at the airport.
“Well, that does make sense. People change,” he added.
At that, Chen Jinyao’s heart jumped.
No matter how she tried to explain to Yan Cheng that the class assistant was only here to remember his lost youth, right now, Chen Jinyao was almost certain that Gu Ci did in fact have feelings for the original Chen Jinyao. Only, even he himself did not detect the feelings hidden deep within his heart and could only allow time to slowly wear them away.
She wasn’t sure if her guess was right either, but for her, it was needless to try and recall what happened in the past that didn’t concern her.
Chen Jinyao gazed at Gu Ci and agreed half-truthfully. “Yes, the past me is not the present me, and the present me can’t change back into the past me either.”
“…” Gu Ci’s mouth twitched, smiling bitterly.
…
After taking pictures like crazy of the familiar architecture and scenery, the class president split up from the group. Still, he wasn’t bothered and found a shady bench under a tree and sat down. Leaning back against the seat, while he was shaking his leg and editing the post he was going to post on his moments, he received a WeChat message from Gu Ci.
Gu Ci, “I have some business to do so I’m leaving early. Please help me relay the message to everyone.”
Gu Ci, “You guys enjoy, have a good one!”