Chapter 216: Jin Shi Yue, I’ll Give You Something Unique
In her memory, the exact same words, the exact same tone.
Lian Li froze instantly.
She looked up at the person.
The light shone through the red lantern, illuminating the spot where Jin Shi Yue stood. He had one hand in his pocket, a blend of light and shadow, half of it casual and unrestrained, the other half mature and steady.
Jin Shi Yue had never seen Lian Li so anxious.
Although the last time she rushed from the Capital City to New York, she had also run to find Jin Yan Ting, her expression then had seemed calm and rational. But now, she was running wildly, pushing through the surging crowd without regard for anything, her eyes unusually determined, heading somewhere, doing something.
Jin Shi Yue watched her charge into his arms like a fierce young eagle.
“Running so fast, is a ghost chasing you?”
Her brain momentarily dulled, Lian Li was panting, her heart pounding like crazy.
She couldn’t tell if it was from running or from the man who had appeared without warning.
It was as if a sound wave hit her, making her soul tremble, leaving her unable to speak for a moment.
Because she had run so fast, Lian Li’s breathing was ragged. After a short while, she was still slightly breathless, but the intense feelings were surging out at an immeasurable speed. She couldn’t wait to speak, couldn’t wait to talk to him.
“I ran this fast because I was coming to see you.”
Hearing this, Jin Shi Yue was slightly taken aback.
Lian Li was an overly rational and independent girl with strong self-esteem. Even if she liked him, as long as he didn’t actively seek her out, she wouldn’t seek him out.
Jin Shi Yue had long accepted this fact.
He was the one who liked her first, he was the one who wanted to be entangled with her more, and he was the one who pursued her relentlessly, unwilling to let their encounter be a mere passing one.
“You don’t need to run to see me, just stand there and wait for me,” Jin Shi Yue’s lips curved into a lazy arc. “Your boyfriend isn’t legless, is he?”
Lian Li, however, said, “It’s different.”
“How is it different?” Jin Shi Yue let his eyelids droop, his tone habitually casual.
“It’s different when you look for me and when I look for you.”
Lian Li took a deep breath and spoke her mind word by word: “Our upbringing is different, our educational philosophies are different, and our ways of thinking and angles are different. After dating for half a year, we’ve had frequent conflicts, and we simply can’t be together. It will fall apart sooner or later.”
“My parents are an example. They are from completely different worlds. Their personalities, experiences, backgrounds, logic… everything is different. I worry about repeating my father’s mistakes, and I worry that after we break up, I’ll be like him, unable to move on for the rest of my life, living in self-deception.”
Lian Li used to like Jin Yan Ting and was troubled by the lack of reciprocal feelings.
Lian Li now likes Jin Shi Yue and is annoyed by her inability to reciprocate his feelings equally.
On the bustling ancient street, red lanterns illuminated the passersby. In the sky, several floating sky lanterns lit up the dark night.
She stood in the crowd, her clear almond eyes looking at him. Her long, dark, smooth hair was tied into a simple ponytail with an LV silk hair tie. The hair tie’s pattern was an artistic construction of overlapping Monogram flowers, adding a touch of gentle elegance to her bright and calm face.
Lian Li spoke for a very, very long time, without any pauses: “I hate deception, whether it’s self-deception or deception by others, but only now have I realized that I’ve been deceiving myself all along.”
“Now I want to be honest with myself, and I want to tell you.”
As the moon rose as usual, it was an eternal cycle of sunset and moonrise, a natural law that could not be interfered with, much less defied.
“I watched many movies and read many books, trying to find the meaning of love in them, but in the end, I realized that the ultimate meaning of love points to you.”
The night was deep, the moon hung high. The moment the wind blew, dark clouds moved, and the red light of the lanterns that fell on her, along with the bright moonlight, also fell on him.
They bathed in the light together.
Lian Li’s eyes, as lustrous as obsidian, reflected Jin Shi Yue’s face. With ten thousand parts sincerity, she said to him, pure and firm:
“Jin Shi Yue, I really, really want to be with you.”
“I’ll give you something unique.”
“Let’s walk on together, to the very end.”
Her words were like a gushing spring, surging and irrigating Jin Shi Yue, filling his parched heart.
The sky lanterns in the distance drifted away. The surroundings were noisy and bustling, yet they seemed to have created a new world for themselves, gazing at each other in silence. The flowing crowd became a blurred background in a film reel.
Jin Shi Yue looked at her with burning eyes, his Adam’s apple visibly sliding down twice with restraint.
“You like me that much?”
“Yes,” Lian Li nodded. “I like you so much.”
Her eyes were a little red, and she tilted her head up, smiling, “So why do you think you can be discarded at any time?”
He was clearly someone she couldn’t discard.
She couldn’t forget him.
The moment tears slid from her eyes, Lian Li was pulled into a solid chest with a powerful force. Jin Shi Yue held her tightly in his arms.
The surroundings were chaotic.
Lian Li wrapped her arms around his waist, hearing his almost imperceptible breath.
Jin Shi Yue buried his face in her slender shoulder, breathing, and whispered into her ear with suppressed emotion, “I’m going crazy.”
The two of them pulled apart slightly. Before Lian Li could see the redness in his eyes, his hand cupped the back of her neck, and a passionate kiss met her lips.
Lian Li raised her hands, wrapped them around Jin Shi Yue’s neck, and kissed him in the bustling alley.
Outside the clamor, they shared heartbeats.
Her heart was a barren wasteland, but then the wind named ‘Jin Shi Yue’ swept through, and miraculously, everything began to grow.
At the beginning of the year, Lian Li told Xue Shufan that she was like wild grass; if someone loved her a little, she would give her heart away.
Mid-year, at the graduation ceremony, Jin Shi Yue called her a bird, free and with infinite possibilities.
She thought that possibility should include the freedom to like someone wholeheartedly.
Jin Shi Yue wiped the tears from Lian Li’s eyes, took her hand, and slowly intertwined their fingers, holding on tightly.
As Lian Li was led by him, her mood was like the sparrows fluttering outside the window.
She turned her head and looked at him, saying, “I thought you were leaving.”
“I was going to leave,” Jin Shi Yue’s tone was lazily casual. “Aren’t I coming to take my girlfriend with me?”
Lian Li heard the deeper meaning in his words, that he was settling the score for her telling him to leave.
Lian Li said righteously, “Who told you to be angry with me and ignore me?”
Hearing this, Jin Shi Yue let out a hum of laughter.
She made him angry, and it became his fault.
Lian Li had asked him to accompany her, but she never expected them to have a conflict. If they had a conflict, then she would just have to prepare to be alone, wouldn’t she?
But even though she had accepted a schedule without Jin Shi Yue, she still couldn’t help but ask him if he wanted to come with her.
After much deliberation, she finally asked, but he only threw Li Ye at her.
So, Lian Li impulsively asked Li Ye to relay a message, telling Jin Shi Yue to leave quickly and go as far away as possible.
They say out of sight, out of mind, but who knew that not seeing him would still be annoying?
