Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Qin Huai’s whole body trembled. He raised his head to look at Zhao Youlin. When he saw the smile on her face, he could not help but smile warmly.
“It can be said that I fell in love with her at first sight.” Qin Huai recalled the first time he met Zhao Youlin, and the corners of his lips could not help but rise with a gentle smile.
Zhao Youlin looked at him, and her expression became more and more serious. When she heard Qin Huai mention that he liked her, other than being shocked, Zhao Youlin didn’t feel much else.
In her opinion, she didn’t believe that a person who had never talked to her face-to-face before would have deep feelings for her.
But now that she saw Qin Huai like this, Zhao Youlin’s previous determination had begun to waver. Perhaps… perhaps this person had really liked her before.
“The first time we met was in a coffee shop. You may not know this, but she especially liked to sit by the window and drink coffee while looking at the flowing crowd outside the window.” The smile on Qin Huai’s face deepened, even his eyes lit up unconsciously, like a child who had accidentally discovered
a secret and was eager to share it with his good friend.
Zhao Youlin forced a smile at him, but Qin Huai did not care. He continued, “At that time, it was probably a coincidence. We were sitting on a sofa with our backs to each other. She ordered a cup of black coffee, and her friend asked her, ‘Black coffee is so bitter, what’s so good about it?’I still remember her
answer at that time. She said, ‘Some things are best left to their original taste. Although the coffee is bitter, as long as you get past the initial bitterness, the lingering flavor left behind won’t be comparable to cream or sugar.”
Zhao Youlin’s body trembled. The tiny impression hidden deep in her memory finally had a breakthrough, and it gradually became clear.
She had indeed gone to take black coffee with her colleagues. At that time, people often asked her this question. At that time, she was mostly perfunctory, and she did not remember the specific answer. However, she did not expect that someone actually took it down, word for word!
“In fact, even I could not understand it later. How did I suddenly fall in love with her? I had never seen her before, but I was suddenly attracted to her. Perhaps it was because her words were too impressive, or perhaps it was because her voice was too pleasant, or perhaps it was because of her
temperament. I don’t know when it started, but once she appeared, I couldn’t take my eyes off her.”
Zhao Youlin’s expression was a little awkward. As a bystander, listening to a man talk about how much he liked her was probably not an experience that just anyone could have, right?
Zhao Youlin tried her best to make her expression look natural. She asked in embarrassment, “Since you liked her so much, why did you say that she doesn’t even know who you are? Have you never taken the initiative to strike up a conversation with her, say hello to her, or anything like that?”
If he had done that before, she would not have absolutely zero impression of him at all.
Qin Huai’s face immediately became a little embarrassed when he heard that. He replied regretfully and shyly, “No.”
“Why? Don’t you like her?”
Qin Huai was startled, and the smile on his face disappeared for some reason. After a moment, he sighed and said, “It’s precisely because I like her that I can’t open my mouth!”
Zhao Youlin’s body shook, and she looked at Qin Huai with a complicated expression. If she didn’t believe that this person would like her in the beginning, now she believed more than half of it.
This feeling of wanting to get close to someone who loved him deeply, but allowed all the self-doubt, insecurities and worries to get in the way, It was just like the first love between boys and girls in school. Although it was young and tender… it was so pure that it made people raise their eyebrows.
Zhao Youlin suddenly did not dare to meet Qin Huai’s eyes. The emotions hidden in that person’s eyes were too heavy and too deep. She had no way to respond, nor did she have the ability to respond.
“What happened after that?”
“After that, about a year passed. One day, she suddenly stopped showing up at the coffee shop that she often went to. I waited there every day, day after day, but she never showed up again. I thought that she might have already found a man, or that she was tired of the coffee in this coffee shop and had
moved to another place. After that, I tried to search all the coffee shops in Shalnork. But there was no sign of her. I grew desperate. I thought that it wasn’t simply fated to be. But at that moment, I saw that report.”
“Report?” Zhao Youlin seemed to have thought of something and her expression changed slightly.
Qin Huai lowered his head slightly and was immersed in his own pain. He did not notice Zhao Youlin’s strange behavior at all. He said bitterly, “Yes, report. The report that she had unfortunately died in the line of duty while carrying out a mission.”
Zhao Youlin’s face turned pale, but Qin Huai covered his face and laughed softly. He didn’t notice the change in Zhao Youlin’s expression. “How ridiculous. I liked her so much, but it wasn’t until then that I learned her name and found that she was actually a special forces police officer! But it’s too late, too
late! She’s no longer in this world. She’s no longer here.”
Zhao Youlin looked at Qin Huai like this and felt a little upset. She used to think that even if she died, only Mu Chen, Luo Weibing, and the few people who were usually close to her would be sad. However, she did not expect that there was someone like this who silently liked her, and also silently felt
grieved for her death.
Qin Huai’s breakdown did not last long. Like Mu Tingfeng, he was also a very self-restrained person. He usually did not lose his composure, and even if he lost it, he would recover in the shortest possible amount of time.
“After knowing that she was already dead, I felt that half of the sky had collapsed. I began to be confused and was at a loss. That was the most painful period of time for me. At that time, I did not know when I had started to care so much about her. I cared so much that even the self-control that I was most
proud of had lost its effect. I locked myself in my room for many days and didn’t care about anything. During that time, I was decadent, indulgent, and lost. Until I saw the request where you asked my brother to help investigate the police officers at my home.”
“Wait!” Zhao Youlin’s expression changed again when she heard this, as if she had suddenly discovered something. She widened her eyes and interrupted Qin Huai’s follow-up. “You said that your brother… does that mean that your brother is the investigator, and not you?”
