Liang Zhi couldn't shake the heaviness that had settled in his chest after his conversation with the woman in Han Xue's former apartment. The words she had spoken, the images she had painted of Han Xue—none of it made sense. How had he become the person capable of breaking someone so deeply? He could feel the weight of guilt pressing on him as he walked back down the narrow, dimly lit hallway of the building.
The pain he saw in Han Xue's eyes, the way she had cried, had hurt him even more than he cared to admit. How had he not seen it? How could he have been so blind to the suffering he had caused?
The door to the apartment creaked shut behind him, and the echoes of his own footsteps seemed to reverberate off the walls as he made his way toward the elevator. But even though his body moved mechanically, his mind was elsewhere—lost in the fragmented pieces of his memories, all of them swirling together in a chaotic haze.
As the elevator descended to the lobby, his phone buzzed in his pocket, the vibration pulling him back to the present. He pulled it out and saw a message from a number he didn't recognize.
"Meet me at the old park by the river. I have something you need to know."
The message was signed with a single letter: X.
Liang Zhi hesitated, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. Who could this person be? And why were they reaching out to him now? But something in the message gnawed at him, a strange sense of urgency that he couldn't ignore. Whoever X was, they knew something—something that might just unlock the final piece of the puzzle.
With a heavy sigh, he pocketed his phone and made his way toward the park.
The Old Park:
The park was quiet, more so than usual. The once-vibrant trees now stood bare, their branches swaying gently in the cold winter air. The ground beneath his feet was hardened with frost, and the distant sound of the river's flow added to the eerie stillness of the place.
As he reached the old stone bench by the river, Liang Zhi noticed a figure standing in the shadows. They were facing away from him, their form silhouetted by the soft, dim light of the evening.
For a moment, Liang Zhi hesitated, unsure of what to expect. But then, the figure turned slowly, and a chill ran down his spine.
It was a woman—her features obscured by the shadows, but there was no mistaking the familiar look in her eyes. Her gaze was intense, searching, as though she could see through him. Liang Zhi's heart skipped a beat.
"Han Xue?" he whispered, barely believing it.
The woman nodded slightly, a sad smile tugging at her lips. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"
The words hit him like a wave, the weight of them sinking deep into his chest. This was her—this was Han Xue. The woman he had loved, the woman he had lost, standing right in front of him.
But something was different. Her eyes were distant, her expression guarded. There was no warmth in her gaze, no trace of the love that had once existed between them.
"Why did you disappear?" Liang Zhi asked, his voice raw with emotion. "I don't understand. You just... left. No explanation, no word."
Han Xue looked away, her eyes fixed on the river. "Some things are better left unsaid."
"Better left unsaid?" Liang Zhi repeated, his voice rising. "Han Xue, I need to know. What happened? What did I do?"
She finally turned to face him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "You didn't do anything, Liang Zhi," she said quietly. "It wasn't your fault. But it was... mine."
The words caught him off guard. "What do you mean?"
Han Xue took a step closer, her voice trembling. "You've been looking for answers, haven't you? I know you've been asking around. But there's something you don't know—something that changes everything."
Liang Zhi's pulse quickened as she reached into the pocket of her coat, pulling out a small, worn notebook. She handed it to him without a word.
He stared at it, confused, before opening it cautiously. Inside were pages filled with notes, sketches, and half-finished sentences. The handwriting was frantic, desperate, almost as if the author had been trying to capture something before it slipped away forever.
"This is..." Liang Zhi began, but his voice faltered as he scanned the pages. His breath caught in his throat when he saw one entry, written in a scrawling hand:
"The truth will destroy us both. I can't undo what I've done. I will leave, and I will make sure he never finds out."
"Han Xue, what is this?" Liang Zhi asked, his voice barely audible. His hands shook as he turned the pages, each one more haunting than the last.
Han Xue's expression faltered as she watched him read. "It's my confession. It's everything I couldn't tell you. It's everything I've kept hidden. All the things I've done... all the ways I've hurt you."
Liang Zhi's mind raced. He couldn't process it all—he couldn't understand how the woman he loved, the woman who had been his world, could have kept something so important from him.
But then, something else caught his eye—something that made his stomach drop. At the very end of the notebook, a single phrase was written:
"I am not the woman you think I am."
Liang Zhi looked up sharply, his voice filled with disbelief. "What do you mean? Who are you?"
Han Xue lowered her gaze, her eyes filled with sorrow. "You've been looking for me, Liang Zhi. But the truth is... I'm not the person you've been searching for. The person you thought you loved... she's gone. And now, there's nothing left but the broken pieces of our past."
Liang Zhi stood there, frozen, his world crumbling around him. What was she saying? How could it be true?
"No... no," he muttered, shaking his head. "I don't understand. You were always there. We were together. How can you say this?"
Han Xue stepped back, her face pale. "I had to leave. I had to erase myself from your life. Because the truth of what I am—what I did—it's something you could never forgive."
The words hit him like a storm, each one more devastating than the last. Liang Zhi could barely breathe as the weight of what she was saying settled into his bones.
"I don't want to hurt you anymore, Liang Zhi," Han Xue whispered. "But I need to disappear for good. The past can never be fixed."
As she turned to leave, Liang Zhi reached out, his fingers brushing the sleeve of her coat. "Wait," he pleaded, his voice breaking. "Han Xue, please. Don't leave me. I need to understand. You can't just walk away again."
But Han Xue shook her head, tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry," she said softly, her voice filled with regret. "You have to let me go. This is the only way for both of us to heal."
With those final words, she turned and disappeared into the shadows, leaving Liang Zhi standing alone in the cold, his heart torn between the desperate need for answers and the unbearable truth that they might be too painful to hear.