Chương 14: Past Life

"I'm so much more at peace after the breakup." Lin Che said, his hands in his pockets, his tone stiff, as if he wanted to nail every word to the ground.

"Heh, same to you." Su Yuqing sneered, her fingertips unconsciously twisting the ends of her hair, making her carefully styled curls messy.

"Finally, I don't have to clean up all those clumps of hair you've fallen into the bathtub anymore! Just thinking about it makes me feel so good!"

"Perfect! Now I can finally put blue cheese in the fridge, instead of having to listen to that taste-obsessed idiot complaining all the time that it tastes like a stinky rag!"

Even if you regret it, I won't listen to you.

"What are you thinking? How could I possibly regret it? But you..." Su Yuqing's hand, gripping the metal chain of her handbag, turned slightly white.

"Don't come crying to me later."

Lin Che kicked away the pebbles at his feet and watched them roll into the puddle by the roadside, splashing up murky water.

"Huh? I'm begging you while I'm crying?" His Adam's apple bobbed, but he swallowed the words back down.

In the long street under the cover of night, the shadows of the two people sometimes overlapped and sometimes separated in the light of the streetlights, repeatedly intertwining on the wet asphalt road, like some kind of silent tug.

The argument came suddenly, yet it seemed to have been brewing for a long time.

What was originally intended as a candlelight dinner to ease tensions turned into a fuse, causing long-simmering conflicts to explode.

Their argument was illogical yet piercing, like two trapped beasts tearing at each other with the sharpest words, yet both had tears welling up in their eyes from a distance unseen by the other.

At a certain intersection, the two fell silent simultaneously.

On the left is their former home, and on the right is their respective future paths.

Prior to this, someone had clearly stated that they would not be going back tonight.

Lin Che took a deep breath, his eyes fixed on the pedestrian traffic light across the street, and said in a low, hoarse voice, "That's enough for now. I'll have someone come and move your things out tomorrow. You can stay here as long as you want until the lease expires."

"Where are you planning to sleep tonight?" Su Yuqing stared at her toes, her voice so soft it was almost carried away by the wind.

"What? Now you suddenly care about me?" Lin Che smirked, his tone sarcastic.

"Even if I sleep under a bridge, it's none of your business."

Su Yuqing suddenly looked up, her eyes reddening, her voice already trembling with tears: "Fine, don't tell me then! Who cares to know!"

"I'll just go back to my old house for the night, okay?" Lin Che scratched his hair in frustration, but his tone softened a bit.

"I can't really go and sleep under a bridge."

"You're going back over there?" Su Yuqing's voice suddenly changed, and she turned to look at Lin Che with disbelief in her eyes.

She knew how much Lin Che resisted that house—since his father's death, he had almost never set foot there, and had even considered selling it several times, but ultimately couldn't bear to part with it.

"What does it matter? I can't find a suitable place to rent anytime soon, and I don't have anywhere to put my things. In the end, I'll have to stay in my hometown for a while."

Lin Che's tone wasn't as harsh as before, but he never once looked directly at Su Yuqing beside him.

"Go back to sleep, I'll figure it out myself." Su Yuqing gritted her teeth.

"After all, it's your rented apartment, I'm the one who should move out. You can continue living there from now on."

"Are you kidding me? The house your aunt left you is in Jiangchuan City. Are you planning to run back there tonight?" Lin Che rejected the suggestion without hesitation.

Su Yuqing retorted, "Can't I just find any hotel to stay in?"

"What about your things? Should we move them to the hotel too? Besides, you're so sensitive to different beds, how could you possibly sleep in a hotel?"

"I was the one who initiated the breakup, so it's only right that I move out. Let's just settle this, and please stop talking."

"Lin Che!" Su Yuqing's voice suddenly rose, "Are you going to argue with me even about breaking up? I was the one who started it—" Boom— A sudden clap of thunder startled Su Yuqing, who instinctively moved closer to Lin Che, but then quickly realized what was happening and retreated.

The rain finally started to fall.

The rustling sound drowned out all other noises, but Su Yuqing remained completely dry as a black umbrella suddenly opened, steadily shielding her head.

"Your name is Yuqing, but you always end up getting soaked in the rain. I reminded you to bring an umbrella before we left, but you just wouldn't listen."

Lin Che sighed, but his tone didn't carry any blame; instead, it was tinged with helplessness.

He gripped the umbrella handle, tilting it towards Su Yuqing, deliberately keeping his distance from her. Half of his body was exposed to the rain, but he turned to the side so she wouldn't see him.

Su Yuqing paused for a moment, then suddenly reached out and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him under the umbrella, their bodies pressed tightly together.

"That's because... having you with me is enough," she said softly, her voice muffled.

"Don't think I don't know, you always do this."

Lin Che remained silent, not breaking free, and Su Yuqing did not speak again.

The rain was loud, but the space under the umbrella was as quiet as another world.

They stood there huddled together at the intersection, the traffic lights changing again and again, but neither of them took the first step.

It seemed they all knew that if they parted ways here, they would never see each other again.

The heavy rain continued to pour down, turning the entire city into a hazy, sketch-like painting. The puddles reflected the changing colors of the traffic lights, like spilled paint spreading across the water's surface.

"Ah Che... can't we really start over?" Su Yuqing suddenly asked, her voice trembling with tears.

She wrapped her arms around Lin Che's waist, buried her head in his chest, and curled up in a ball, her body trembling slightly.

"If we could, how could we have ended up like this? We're not children anymore. You should be able to judge for yourself whether we can or cannot."

Lin Che's nose was filled with a familiar fragrance, and he felt the other person's body trembling. He tried to raise his hands, which were hanging by his sides, to hug her several times, but each time he hesitated and put them down.

"My sister left me, my mother left me, and now you're leaving me too. I'm all alone now." Su Yuqing sobbed in Lin Che's arms, her tears soaking his shirt.

Lin Che forced himself to push her away and held her trembling shoulders: "Even if we make up today, what about tomorrow? What about the day after? We're just prolonging our suffering."

Su Yuqing stared blankly at Lin Che, neither nodding nor shaking her head, but her hand was still unconsciously clutching the tie on his shirt—the Windsor knot was one she had tied for him before they left.

Why did it suddenly turn out like this? She suddenly felt a little confused. This must be... just a nightmare, right?

The pedestrian crossing to the left had just turned green. Lin Che slowly loosened the umbrella handle and placed it in her palm.

"Go home, get some sleep, you'll be fine tomorrow."

After saying that, he turned and rushed into the rain, his figure quickly becoming blurred in the rain.

Upon hearing Lin Che's words, Su Yuqing suddenly realized.

"Yeah, so it was just a nightmare. If I go home, if I go back to bed and fall asleep, Ah Che will definitely be by my side when I wake up, right?"

Su Yuqing, holding an umbrella, began to walk towards the other side of the pedestrian crossing, but she walked slower and slower until she finally stopped in the middle of the crossing.

"But why do I feel so panicked?"

"If I go back like this, will A-Che really come back to me?"

Can a place where he's not present be called home?

"If we just let him go like this, will we really never see him again?"

The umbrella was suddenly blown away by a gust of wind and tumbled in the middle of the road. At the same time, the traffic light began flashing a bright red countdown: 5, 4, 3...

On the other side, Lin Che suddenly stopped running. He wiped away the raindrops that had dripped from his hair onto his eyelashes, clearing his blurred vision.

"Just one last look, just watch her leave," he told himself, then turned to look across the street, and that one look made his eyes bloodshot.

Su Yuqing stood frozen in the middle of the road, while an out-of-control car tore through the rain and sped towards her.

"careful--!!!"