Back Then, I Adored You

He banged hard on the door until his hands hurt, but no one answered. Qin Zhi’ai’s neighbor, however, did come out from her apartment because she couldn’t stand the ruckus anymore.

The middle-aged woman cast one look at Gu Yusheng at Qin Zhi’ai’s apartment door, before saying, “Are you here to look for the girl who lives there?”

Music was playing from inside the woman’s apartment, and the prelude to a song filled the entire corridor.

Gu Yusheng nodded his head without speaking.

As Qin Zhi’ai always makes an impression, the woman remembered her despite only having seen her a few times. When she had come home earlier today, she had coincidentally bumped into Qin Zhi’ai and so, she told Gu Yusheng kindly, “That lady isn’t at home. I bumped into her earlier today when I got back from my grocery shopping. She was just about to head out when I came back…”

Not at home… Her cell phone’s turned off… Will I ever be able to contact her again?

Gu Yusheng’s brows knitted, and he felt as though his heart had sunk to the bottom of the abyss. After a long time, he finally replied, “Is that so?”

“Yes, yes…” The woman was probably from Sichuan, for she spoke with a Chuan accent. “…She went out with a handsome young lad.”

Upon hearing this, Gu Yusheng, who had been prepared to turn and leave after saying his peace, suddenly froze.

A Chinese-style melody drifted through the open door behind her: “The azure sky awaits the preceding rain, like how I wait for you…”

So she has gone on a date with her new beginning…

She is trying to forget about me.

Right now, no matter how hard he panicked or how helpless he felt, she was no longer the girl who would offer him a silent embrace when he was feeling awful after getting drunk when his father passed away. Neither was she the girl who would chant softly to him, “You still have me. You still have me…”

Gu Yusheng stood with his back toward the woman for a very long time to the point where she stared at him oddly for some time. He only turned his head around slightly when the woman had returned to her own apartment and shut the door. “Is that so?” he muttered seemingly unconsciously, standing alone in the empty hallway.

Not a single person came or went through the spacious corridor, and he stood there quietly for a moment before laughing hollowly and heading to the elevator.

By the time he exited the apartment building, the sky was already dark and even more gloomy than before. Lifting his head, he looked up at the starless and moonless sky, when suddenly the song he’d heard coming out of the woman’s apartment came to him again.

“The azure sky awaits the preceding rain, like how I wait for you…”

Will she ever know that I had yearned to see her so fervently and urgently?

Will she ever know that I will always wait for her even though she’s chosen to leave?

As she would be flying overseas the day after tomorrow, Qin Zhi’ai had specially invited her school leaders and classmates out for a dinner.

That afternoon, while she was sitting alone on a neighborhood bench and soaking up the sun, she was frequently scrolling through her social media feed looking for gossip about Gu Yusheng and Liang Doukou, to the point her phone’s battery became low.

Upon reaching home, before she could charge her phone, her class representative had arrived to pick her up for dinner.

By the time she reached the meetup venue, her phone battery was completely drained and had shut down automatically.

After having dinner and returning home, it was already close to 11:00 p.m. Qin Zhi’ai charged her phone before taking a bath.

After showering, to avoid using the hair dryer because of her pregnancy, Qin Zhi’ai grabbed a few towels and rubbed them repeatedly against her hair until it was almost dry before climbing into bed.

Leaning against the headrest, she picked up her phone and immediately checked her media feed. Right before turning off her phone, she noticed the once-trending topic “Wedding Bells Ringing for National Idol Liang Doukou” was already buried beneath a hundred other trending topics.