Jinhai said quietly, “I had no choice. Yukira is Nana’s brother. How could I have hurt him?”
Xin said nothing.
“I…regretted scaring him that day. I shouldn’t have done that. But, I don’t know what took over me when he said that he won’t let Nana live with me. l lost my control.”
His gaze was dark. “He was a threat to me. He wouldn’t have kept quiet for much longer. If it had been some other stranger, then he would have been already dead, but him…” He shook his head.
“Just as Nana loves me, she loves her brothers too. If anything happened to them, she would be devastated. I have already committed enough sins to make her detest me if she knows everything. If I harmed him, she would hate me to the core. And I can bear anything but her hatred.” His voice held a tinge of loneliness in it.
“Her brothers are the limit that I cannot cross.”
Jinhai waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter. Anyway, Yukira still knows only half of the truth.”
Xin nodded.
That made sense too.
Xin said, “Yes, it was safe to tell him. This way, we also got an ally.”
Jinhai nodded.
“What about Huian? Is there any news?”
Xin shook his head. “No, sir. The doctors are trying their best. Zhou Bingwen has also started his treatment, and it is improving her physical condition little by little. But coming out of vegetative state still seems far away.”
“Hm. Keep an eye on her condition.”
—
Once again, in that dark, cold, and empty place, the woman slowly opened her eyes. She didn’t remember how many times she had seen those same memories. She was starting to get a strong feeling that there was something in these memories that she needed to figure out.
But what? She had no idea.
Why was she here? She had no clue.
She wanted to get out of this place. It was suffocating. It was desolate. She tried so hard to find an exit, a light where she could find her way out, but there was none.
She didn’t understand what she supposed to do to get a glimpse of the outside world.
When those same memories repeatedly surrounded her, forcing her to look at them, feeling the pain of that girl who got rejected over and over again, she would feel heartbroken as if it was her own.
But why? Why did that girl’s pain feel so connected to her? So familiar? Why did it feel that she had gone through this before?
But, one thing was slowly dawning upon her.
The constant rejection, the indifference…
The boy never held any interest in the girl. Not even the slightest. He didn’t treat her any good other than a simple friend. He didn’t give her any false hope.
So, why was the girl waiting so long for him? Why wasn’t she able to understand that he didn’t return her love?
Or was it that she understood it perfectly, but chose not to accept it?
The woman was desperate to call that girl in the memories.
“No…Stop. He doesn’t love you…” She didn’t know why, but her eyes felt wet with hot tears. It was as if she was saying this to herself.
“Don’t chase after him anymore. You won’t get anything but rejection. So, why aren’t you backing out?”
“It’s all fruitless.”
“He won’t look at you the way you want.”
The woman was silently sobbing. “Please don’t hurt yourself anymore…”
Suddenly, she saw another memory, slowly fading in a complete picture.
The girl eagerly said, “We are married now!”
The woman looked at the man’s expression. She noticed his eyes held a different light in them when he had entered the room. So happy and so warm. His lips were curved into a faint smile.
But now his eyes were lifeless. His smile had vanished. She felt a loss of hope in them.
But of what?
Like a single piece of paper had destroyed something so important for him that he couldn’t it get back forever.
She saw him clenching his fingers into a fist. She saw how he silently walked away, his back exuding a sense of loss and loneliness.
“No…what have you done? Why did you have to do that? Why did you force him?”
Her lips trembled.
“He is not happy. So, where will you find your happiness?”
“He trusted you. Why did you break it?”
“He will hate you forever.”
The woman broke down. How she wanted to stop her from making that fatal mistake. She shouted, she screamed so that the girl hears her voice, but she didn’t.
It was done.
And with that piece of paper, she sealed two fates in a lifelong misery.
A blunder that will not only cost his happiness but her own too.
An illusion which she was thinking of as her victory, but which will break sooner or later to make her face the harsh reality.
With that, she saw two years slipping by in the blink of an eye, but the marriage culminated into nothing. It was devoid of love and feelings. It stayed where it was; at the same place throughout the two years.
The man would only politely smile, nod in obligation, and leave. He would take out his ring as soon as it’s need was over. Many times he wouldn’t return, and the woman kept patiently waiting for him only never to meet him.
The woman felt only two things as she saw those memories; the woman bottling her sadness for not getting his love, and the man bottling his despair to uphold that marriage.
The woman was trembling with this realization. Why did she feel that this was a part of something that she had to figure out long ago?
Amidst her falling tears, another picture came by.
The woman asked, “Who is she?”
Another man said, “Let me introduce you. She is Nana.”
