Chapter 81: Not a Thing of the past

Chapter 81

"Bang!"

"Zhou Chaowen!" The low-quality ceramic bowl landed heavily on the old wooden table. Yu Sheng stood up abruptly, his eyes cold as ink.

Zhou Chaowen was so frightened that his whole body shuddered.

Damn it, how could he have blurted it out so carelessly!

Wan Zhe sighed softly, "Not even food can keep your mouth shut!"

The atmosphere suddenly dropped to freezing point. Li Zhen looked at them in confusion.

Yu Sheng pulled Li Zhen along, "Let's go."

Watching their backs leaving, Zhou Chaowen regretfully slapped himself on the mouth, "Why did I have to be so careless!"

"I wonder why Brother Sheng refused to talk about that day?" Wan Zhe didn't understand.

Yu Sheng dragged Li Zhen to his car.

Li Zhen's wrist was pulled painfully. She jerked her hand away, "What's wrong with you again!"

"Nothing's wrong with me. It's time to go back to the company." Yu Sheng frowned in irritation as he opened the passenger door.

Li Zhen didn't get in the car. With a "bang", she slammed the door shut. "Why can't you mention what happened that day? What secrets are you three keeping from me?"

Yu Sheng glanced at her coldly, "It's nothing. Don't think too much about it."

"Is it because of the so-called nude photos of me that were spread around that day? So you feel ashamed?" Other than that incident, Li Zhen couldn't think of anything else that would make the three men so evasive.

"Do you think I care about those photos?" Yu Sheng had never cared about the so-called "nude photos". His frown deepened as he spoke in a suppressed voice, "I just think the incident on the hillside that day was an old story from years ago, an insignificant little thing. I've already forgotten about it, and Zhou Chaowen shouldn't have brought it up either."

Li Zhen enunciated word for word, "That wasn't an old story from years ago, nor was it a little thing."

Right after Li Zhen finished speaking, a camellia petal floated down and landed on her shoulder.

She glanced sideways and took the petal off, holding it in her palm.

It doesn't disappear just because it's forgotten.

Although they were divorced, she would always remember that day from seven years ago.

Even now, Li Zhen could recall it clearly.

She was by the riverbank, and saw a girl jump in. She hesitated between rescuing her or not. The river's current was too rapid. Even an adult man would have difficulty swimming a lap, let alone her, a little girl, who had to pull someone out as well. Jumping in was gambling with her life.

The people around gasped in alarm.

"What should we do now? Someone who can swim, jump in and save her!"

"I dare not jump in. We won't make it back out if we do."

"No one would risk their life to jump in and save her, unless it was her own mother."

"That girl doesn't have a mother. She's an orphan. That's why she did something so extreme. She thought that man truly cared for her, that she had someone to rely on. But then..."

It was at that moment that Li Zhen made her decision.

She threw her phone and bag on the ground, and melodramatically declared to the people around, "Today, I'll be her stand-in mom!"

She had spent nineteen years in the rain. On a sudden impulse, she wanted to hold up an umbrella for someone else.

At noon, Li Zhen went out for lunch. She couldn't resist seeking out the pancake vendor again. "Hey Brother, the campus hunk lives near your home right? Can you help me deliver a letter to him every day?"

The campus hunk was too difficult to pursue. He had been so cold when she confessed.

She had to find another way.

The vendor readily agreed. Every night at midnight when he got off work and went home, he would leave Li Zhen's letter at the guardhouse of the psychiatric hospital.

One letter every day, rain or shine.

For two whole years.

The content of the letters was very simple. She wrote about the fresh sights she saw every day, about her growth, worries and happiness.

At the end, she would write, "Campus hunk, I'm the lovely and spirited Li Zhen. If you don't fall for me, you're missing out big time!"

At the very bottom, she would carefully write, "To: Yu Sheng."

After getting together with Yu Sheng in their third year, Li Zhen stopped writing.

Recalling those letters, Li Zhen asked Yu Sheng, "By the way, you must have burned those letters I wrote in our first and second year right? No point keeping them anymore."

Yu Sheng's expression froze for a second. "I threw them away long ago."

After speaking, Yu Sheng deeply inhaled, "Like I said, those letters aren't important, nor is what happened at the riverside. To you, what's important should be me as a person..."

Li Zhen coldly cut him off, "The feelings are gone, but I'll remember your lifesaving grace for the rest of my life."

"I don't want you to remember it!" Yu Sheng said sharply, his voice almost squeezed out between gritted teeth. "Li Zhen, who is it that you loved? Was it me who saved you, or me as Yu Sheng!"

Li Zhen: "It was all you, what's the difference? We're strangers now. I just liked you before, that's all. Your question is meaningless..."

Li Zhen left, frowning as she thought, Yu Sheng was truly incomprehensible today.

Yu Sheng knew Li Zhen was avoiding the issue.

She didn't want to answer this question.

There was a dull ache in Yu Sheng's chest. The bitter feeling surged forth like a tidal wave.

In their fourth year, he went to Finland with Li Zhen.

After enduring it for four years, he finally graduated. When he returned from Finland, he could bring Li Zhen back home. She would become the envy of all as the young Madam Yu. She could have everything she wanted.

In the snow castle hotel in Finland, the two of them looked out at the distant northern lights through the panoramic windows. Under the massive, brilliant glow, he passionately kissed her and removed her nightgown.

The tender, flawless skin of the young maiden was as white as the finest uncarved jade. With just a little force, it would leave behind vivid marks.

The desires he had suppressed for four years made him very tense and hard. It was like being grilled over a fire. Just a little more heat and he would explode.

He was too nervous to know what to do.

Li Zhen shyly raised her head in his embrace. A flush suffused her fair face, making her look amazingly beautiful. "Yu Sheng, it's okay today. I'm willing."

"From the moment you saved me four years ago, I had decided to give myself to you..."

In that instant, icy water came pouring down over his head. Yu Sheng's blood turned frigid in an instant.

Like a powerless clown, he was gripped by the throat by fate, unable to move at all. It was absurd, like a black comedy.

He had known since their first year, yet why did Li Zhen have to say it again at this exact moment!

He got up from the bed and fled in panic.