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She closed her eyes, her lashes fluttering restlessly, her small hand gradually clenching the bedsheet beneath her...
After a long while, she still couldn't feel any movement from him.
Her heartbeat, which had been accelerating, began to slow down as the bed shifted slightly.
His tall figure with beautifully defined lines stood silently beside the bed, his thin lips curling into a sneer, "Woman, do you realize you look as if you're on your way to the execution ground!" His large hand picked up his robe, eyes cold, "I'll keep waiting until you're ready, but don't make me wait too long." Impatience was clearly etching onto his handsome features as he quickly dressed in his robe and coldly headed for the door.
Only after he had left did her tense body start to gradually relax.
She knew he was off to work in his study again and wouldn't come back to sleep until almost three o'clock. It was always like this.
Once a month, he would come here three times, at irregular intervals, always in the evening, then spend the night here and drive away the next morning. She didn't know his full name, only that his name contained the character "Xuan". She didn't know his job either, only that he was very busy. But she trusted him, and those deep, sharp eyes that hid a pain.
That rainy night four years ago, what she saw on his handsome face was not rain, but tears.
She had always known, it was out of sympathy that he had taken her back to his seaside apartment that night, given her a place to stay.
Because on that rainy night, her own face was also streaked with tears.
Four years ago.
She, Yin Qianxue, a mute orphan girl living at the mercy of others, relied on her elderly grandma in her uncle's home.
At the age of eight, having witnessed her mother's tragic death, she was so terrified that she suddenly lost her ability to speak. Later, she went to the seaside fishing village to stay with her uncle, but her gambling-addicted uncle threw her to her old, sick grandma.
An old, run-down hut behind her uncle's house became the place for her and grandma to stay.
She endured hardships, withstood the beatings and bullying from her aunt, yet still felt the piercing stares from the villagers. This was not only because she was mute, but also because she was an illegitimate child with an unknown father.
Ever since her mother gave birth to her, she never mentioned her father's name or even taught her to call anyone "Daddy". For eighteen years, being labeled as an "illegitimate child" suffocated her, so she stayed away from crowds, avoiding their probing stares.
At nine, she would go with her grandma to the shore to collect fish and shells left by the receding tide and then exchange them for living expenses in town. Or help local fishermen by weaving and repairing their fishing nets as a way to make a living.
Since her uncle ignored her, she didn't go to school until she was ten, with the enrollment fee being the result of her grandma's miserly savings.
When she managed to enter the best high school in the city with top grades, the school refused her at the doorstep because she was "disabled", even though her grandma begged desperately, the school wouldn't budge.
Then she met Xu Huai'an, a gentle man with a kindly smile.
Xu Huai'an's family was quite well-off, the Second Son of a large-scale food company. If it weren't for his father intervening with the school principal on his behalf, she would never have entered that iron gate.
It was he who used his slender, fair hands to lead her through the school gates, making her his junior.
A month after attending the high school, Xu Huai'an suddenly confessed to her, saying he had fallen for her the moment he saw her at the school gates.
She was stunned and then told him through sign language: she was grateful to him, but she needed to study hard as she was her grandma's only hope.
But Xu Huai'an refused to give up; he helped her with her coursework every day, followed her to the fishing village, waited outside her uncle's house every day, and even joined her in picking crabs on the shore as the tide receded.
In the fiery red sunset, watching him roll up his trouser legs covered in mud and sand yet smiling at her showing a row of white teeth, she suddenly let go of all her resolve. She never told him that from the first moment, she had fallen for his smile. So bright, so sincere, it was a warmth she had never longed for from anyone else.
So, they sat on the beach together enjoying the sunset. Then, in the glow of the sunset, he kissed her for the first time...
Xu Huai'an doted on her; at school, except during classes, he was inseparable from her.
He carefully helped her catch up with the coursework she struggled with and took her to Yanluo Cliff for a ride on his bicycle, setting up their secret haven in an abandoned beach hut...
Xu Huai'an was also very tender to her; whenever she was bullied by her aunt and filled with grievances, he would show up just in time, gently embrace her and soothe her with a soft whisper. He could even crack a joke to make her burst into laughter and then flash her his neat, beautiful set of white teeth; when her grandma fell critically ill, and her uncle did not care, Huai'an carried her grandma for more than ten kilometers, and even paid the high hospital and surgery fees...
Such was Huai'an, gradually making her dependent on him and letting her know that in this world, apart from her grandma, there was someone else who cherished her.
And she, she liked Huai'an's smile, she liked the warmth he brought to her.
A year later, she became a high school junior, and Huai'an was admitted to A University.
Another year passed, and she graduated from high school while Huai'an came back.
In the sunset, Huai'an told her: his parents had arranged for him to go abroad, his visa was already settled, and he might stay overseas for his career.
All she could do was shed tears, unable to utter a word.
That night on the beach, huddling silently, was her last with Huai'an.
Three days later, Huai'an boarded the flight to America.
She stood barefoot on the shore, watching the roaring plane fly past, and realized then that she and Huai'an had always been parallel lines.
In the days that followed, she buried the letters Huai'an wrote to her and the gifts he gave her deep beneath the hut, telling herself to stop missing him from then on.
Everything seemed to return to the way it was before.
She received the acceptance letter from A University but pushed it to the bottom of her box. The university dream, like her relationship with Huai'an, was so fragile and fanciful.
Grandma's illness got worse, and even spending her days weaving nets in the drying yard wasn't enough to afford the medication. So she put her pride aside and pleaded with her uncle and aunt for help, only to be met with her aunt's scornful "worthless girl" and a harsh slap, lying on the cold ground, she finally realized what 'human kindness is as thin as paper' truly meant.
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