Back Then, I Adored You

He originally had thought that Qin Zhi’ai was only a friend of his friend’s girlfriend. Little had he expected that he had known her for eight years.

After eight years, before he had met little troublemaker, he had never thought about having a relationship. This was even more true eight years ago. Yet of all the people in the world, he had written a letter to Qin Zhi’ai.

As he tried to remember the news from her last letter, he finally thought about a man she had loved for many years.

Who is that man?

At that instant, Gu Yusheng was suddenly glad that he had not turned up at the meeting with A.

Humans have always been like this. They would rather share their truest, heartfelt feelings with a complete stranger than with those whom they know.

After stopping his car outside the entrance of the hotel, Gu Yusheng tossed the car key to the bellhop and strode quickly into the hotel lobby. Pressing the button for the elevator, he was headed straight back to his suite.

Whipping out his room card and opening the door, he then swiftly removed his vest and sat before his desk. After finding a pen and paper, he began to write a letter to A.

“A, although I’m not sure if you showed up for our appointment, I feel that I should apologize to you.

“I received an emergency deployment and had to leave Shanghai on the third morning of Chinese New Year.

“Because I’d initiated our meeting so quickly, I hadn’t foreseen these circumstances. Obviously, I can’t negotiate with the military over deployment, but I do take all the blame for this and seek your forgiveness.

“If you are still willing to meet up with me, we can find another opportunity in the future, and I assure you that the situation today will definitely not happen again.

“I was in a rush before and hadn’t managed to say this, but my worst subject back in school was actually languages.”

Gu Yusheng wrote an interesting and long interlude of text before saying casually at the end, “In your previous letter to me, you had mentioned that you had met the man whom you loved again.

“How did you meet him? Was it a coincidence? Are you still in touch with him now?

“Since you’ve been talking about him in almost all of your letters all these years, I suppose that your love for him is deeper than what I’d imagined.

“That being said, I feel that, in comparison, I’m probably less infatuated with my love interest than you are with yours.

“I’m still very grateful for your well wishes. I, too, hope that the heavens will bless you and that someday your secret love will be reciprocated and the two of you can be together.”

Gu Yusheng had intended to end the letter upon writing up to this point; however, as he was about to sign his name, he hesitated and added another quick question. “A, I’m suddenly curious about the man you love. What is he like? Can you tell me more about him?”

By the time Qin Zhi’ai reached Beijing, it was 1:00 a.m.

She found Xu Wennuan in the bar, where from the entrance she could see her friend already drunk and motionlessly flopped on a table, A few men seated next to her were sizing her up from time to time and not in a concerned way.

Qin Zhi’ai swiftly walked over to Xu Wennuan and pulled her up out of her seat.

Thankfully, Xu Wennuan still retained a shred of consciousness and, upon recognizing Qin Zhi’ai’s voice, she muttered, “Xiao’ai.” Following the momentum of Qin Zhi’ai’s pulling, she stood up cooperatively, leaned on Qin Zhi’ai, and was led out of the bar.