Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
Do you know how happy I am to have had this chance encounter?
Yinan, after all this time, I’ve not forgotten you.
But Yinan, do you know? The only thing I can do is make sure I stand further enough way to treat you as the most familiar stranger.
I can only secretly love you, miss you, and wish you have a good life, and like this, cry for you secretly.
…
When Qin Yinan exited the compound, the driver who had been waiting for him immediately got out to help him with the car door.
As Qin Yinan walked to the car, he reached habitually into his pocket to search for a cigarette. Coincidentally, he realized that his phone wasn’t there as it should have been. He frowned and turned to glance at the building that he had just exited before retracing his path.
When Qin Yinan got up the stairs and reached the third floor, his chest vibrated. It was then that he realized he had left his phone in his chest pocket and not his pant pocket. It turned out that he left it as Cheng Qingchong’s place.
He stopped moving upwards. He did raise his head to look up at the fourth floor before turning to head back down the stairs.
As he took the first step, very soft sobbing came from above him. He froze to focus on it and could easily recognize it as Cheng Qingchong’s voice.
She’s crying… Perhaps afraid that someone might overhear her, the sound was muffled, and there was only an occasional hiccup that escaped her lips.
Qin Yinan’s lips tensed, and as if possessed, he turned around to take two steps up the stairs. After turning the corner, with the dim light of the stairwell, he caught sight of the girl squatting at the corridor next to the staircase.
She was half-seated on the dirty floor with her head buried between her legs and her shoulders shuddering continuously.
This image sent a hook deep into Qin Yinan’s heart, pulling on it tightly. The pain was so intense that his steps staggered, causing him to falter two steps down the stairs.
She was still at the place she was standing at when she sent him away.
Her voice sounds hoarse, she must have been crying for quite a while already, but I have not been gone for even ten minutes. Does this mean she has been crying since I left?
The whole building was quiet, other than the woman’s muffled weeps.
What is she crying about?
He wanted to rush forward to pull her up from the ground to help her wipe away her tears and to comfort her, but he knew he was no longer related to her. Perhaps the source of her tears even had nothing to do with him.
Qin Yinan’s hands that were hanging by his sides tightened into fists. His face paled considerably as he watched her slender body quivering with tears. In the end, instead of going forward, he chose to slowly turn around and walk away silently.
…
The chance encounter with Cheng Qingchong didn’t disturb Qin Yinan’s life. He was as busy as ever with endless meetings, documents, and projects.
The only change was, previously, he could rely on work to blot out any and all thoughts of her, but after meeting her that night, even when he was working, he would find himself spacing out in the middle of work, wondering what she was doing in Beijing, thinking about the image of the weeping woman that was seared into his mind.
When those thoughts came, his heart would twinge with pain.
