Later that night, Long Jinjing needed some time alone to think through everything that just happened during her emotionally-charged talk with Lu Zihao and her sudden love confession to him. She took a long, hot bath in the tub and spent almost fifteen minutes just staring blankly at the bathroom tiles in front of her.
Half an hour later when her skin started to wrinkle from soaking in the water for too long, she finally decided to finish her bath. She failed to achieve her purpose of thinking about her current situation with Lu Zihao while taking a bath because she was still feeling too emotional about what just happened.
When she came out of the bathroom, Lu Zihao was nowhere in sight. She tried calling for him but it seemed that he already left the unit without even informing her. She felt a twinge in her heart but forced herself not to think too much about it. They didn’t commit to anything beyond their current temporary relationship after all.
It was only her who was going to suffer from heartbreak after the expiration of their relationship. She couldn’t really place the blame on him for the pain of her unrequited love. He warned her since the beginning not to fall in love with him because he wasn’t someone interested in entering long-term relationships. Not with her at least.
And yet she still ended up falling in love with him. Who could she blame? Herself? But that would be unfair.
Just like how her mother made the mistake of falling in love with the wrong man, it seemed that she had a similar destiny of falling in love with a man who was incompatible with her.
The saving grace was that Lu Zihao was still a bachelor who had no children with another woman. At least, she hoped that he was still childless. Her current situation was much more favourable with pretty much no complications except for her broken heart compared to the misery her mother experienced with her father a generation ago.
Long Jinjing had the option of walking away from this relationship without any damage to her reputation, only to her heart, but she knew that a broken heart was easier to mend in private than to fix a bad reputation in an extremely judgmental society. Her mother, unfortunately, didn’t only have to deal with a broken heart but also with a severely damaged reputation. Despite this, her mother survived and was able to raise her, Long Jinjing, to the woman that she had become today.
If her mother could survive that kind of tribulation then she could definitely do the same thing, especially since her situation was so many times better than what her mother experienced in the past. [This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l. c o m (remove spaces). If you’re not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It’s very discouraging to see thieves profiting from my hard work. Please support the original author, ArriaCross. Thank you! Also follow me on Instagram @arriacross]
These thoughts gave her a little more strength to face what was about to come. So what if she was heartbroken? It wasn’t like she was anything special. There were almost 8 billion people in the world and many of them surely had been heartbroken in one way or another. They survived and so would she as well, just like her mother.
After putting on her comfy pyjamas and doing her nightly skincare routine in her bedroom (all Orchidia Beauty products, of course), she headed to the kitchen for a glass of water.
It was then that the front door opened and in came Lu Zihao.
Her heart skipped a beat as soon as she saw that he was back. So he didn’t leave after all! Joy filled her but forced she herself to take a hold of herself.
Then she took a good look at him and what she saw left her shocked and speechless.
Lu Zihao also saw her standing there and looking at him with shock. He walked towards her in silence and handed her the big bouquet and a small teddy bear.
“Here.”
She received the items but still looked like she had no idea what was happening.
“I don’t know anything about flower language and all that shit but the florist said that this bouquet is meant for apologies. He recommended the teddy bear, too.”
She looked at the bouquet arranged with different types of flowers and the small teddy bear that had a simple red ribbon tied around its neck. There was nothing particularly special about the bouquet and the teddy bear. Both looked like almost all the other regular bouquets and teddy bears that were being sold at roadside flower shops and even convenience stores, but to her, these two were extra special presents.
They were given by the man she loved after all. This was also the first time that he had intentionally given her presents to cheer her up.
“You like them?” he asked, his tone sounding suspiciously awkward and uncomfortable.
She smiled. “Yes, thank you. I love them.”
He cleared his throat. “Good.”
Silence.
Long Jinjing hugged the teddy bear while smelling the flowers.
“Sorry for making you cry.”
Her eyes widened and she stared at him in surprise.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. That’s not my intention.”
She looked away from him and blinked rapidly, trying to prevent herself from crying again in front of him. She could only nod, not trusting herself to speak any words without losing control of her emotions.
“I’ll, uhm, put these flowers in a vase,” she said before hurrying away to do just that.
“Alright. I’ll take a shower while you’re doing that.”
While she was choosing a vase from the display cabinet in the living room, she saw him heading to the bathroom out of the corner of her eye. When he entered the bathroom and shut the door behind him, she hugged the teddy bear more tightly, crushing it in her arms, and then grinned like a stupid idiot while looking at the bouquet.
Even though she understood that these were nothing more than his compensations to her due to guilt, it was fine with her. She might be pitiful but what could she do about it?
She loved the man.
Underneath the happiness from receiving the presents, however, was sadness and the pain of her broken heart.
