chapter 74

Lu Zhanke took out his mobile phone and showed it to Ai Changhuan. Previously, there had been no decoration on it. However, at the moment, a pendant that looked particularly childish was hanging from it. This was the one that Ai Changhuan was looking at before.

Lu shook his phone and said, “I bought it when I saw it.”

He didn’t mention that it was actually a pair, but Ai Changhuan knew. She just smiled and said, “It looks cute.” She didn’t ask for the other one.

A smile appeared on the corner of Lu Zhanke’s mouth. They went to the place selling snacks and picked some delicious dried fruits.

Lu took one and put it in Ai Changhuan’s mouth to let her taste. “How about this one? Is it as delicious as the one you had yesterday?”

The sweet and sour taste conquered every corner of the mouth, just like the taste of love, which was embedded with a sweet and sour taste.

Ai Chang laughed. “It’s delicious, just like yesterday.”

“Then we will buy more.” They picked several other dried fruits. After paying, they walked out with their hands full.

Originally, they had intended to go straight back, but Lu Zhanke took Ai Changhuan to buy a pack of cigarettes.

Ai Changhuan knew what he wanted to do, but she was a little afraid to look at him. She lowered her head violently, restraining the burst of tears.

Lu Zhanke put the cigarettes in Ai Changhuan’s pocket. “Although we’re already married, I still want to try it. Suppose that we haven’t met each other before. What would happen? I think I would still fall in love with you at first sight and give you my cigarette. So, how about you? What’s your answer?”

Ai Changhuan looked up. Though she didn’t cry, her eyes were already red. She didn’t know if Lu Zhanke did this because he already knew she had decided to leave and was trying to make her stay. But at this moment, her heart was full of sorrow.

The decision was so painful for her!

She blinked and said with great difficulty, “Didn’t you just say? Wrap it in a shawl. I don’t have a shawl. I’ll have to buy one.”

Saying that, she left to buy a shawl.

In fact, Lu Zhanke already knew that she had decided to leave.

In the morning when Ai Changhuan and Du Yucheng were talking in the bamboo forest, Lu Zhanke saw it. The moment Ai Changhuan turned to smile at Du Yu, he understood that she had decided to leave.

Now, instead of stopping her, he chose to let her go. Despite how disheartened he was, he did not want Ai Changhuan to hate him. As a result, the words hidden in his heart became unspeakable secrets, just like the pair of pendants which they both knew about, but no one took the initiative to tell the truth.

Now, Ai Changhuan finally said that she was leaving.

But Lu Zhanke could only pretend that he did not know about it. He smiled and said, “Okay, I will be here waiting for you, waiting for your answer.”

But he had to admit that there was a sliver of hope in his heart. Maybe Ai Changhuan would come back. Maybe she wouldn’t just leave like this.

But Ai Changhuan just hesitated once, gave him all the things in her hands, stood on her tiptoes, and hugged him tightly.

“Lu Zhanke…” Thousands of words poured into her heart, but she couldn’t say anything.

Ai Changhuan resisted the urge to cry, trembling all over.

Lu Zhanke wanted to hug her back, but he could only hold himself back. He was afraid that with this hug, he would be reluctant to let her go.

“I’m going.” Ai Changhuan stared down at her toes, her thin shoulders looking especially pitiful.

“…Alright,” Lu Zhanke whispered with an imperceptible tremor in his voice, which was a sound of his heart breaking.

Ai Changhuan didn’t move, as if she were hesitating. But when Lu Zhanke thought she changed her mind, she turned around and walked away. Her back was so determined and cold that she walked without looking back.

Lu Zhanke chased a few steps, but he stopped again. It was harder than any decision he made, and it exhausted almost all his energy to resist the urge to chase after her.

Ai Changhuan intended to turn around several times, but she was afraid that she would not be able to make up her mind, so she could only walk away with her head buried.

When Ai walked across the street corner and could no longer see Lu Zhanke, she leaned against the wall and couldn’t help crying.

She knew that she was so sorry to leave him. However, if she said that she was going to leave, which she couldn’t even speak out, farewell would be the cruelest option.

“Lu Zhanke, I’m sorry…”

There were people watching her, but Ai Changhuan didn’t care about the embarrassment. She was crying, her face full of tears.

In the distance, a tall figure was walking slowly, and he finally stood in front of Ai Changhuan, leaving a shadow under her feet.

Ai Changhuan looked up suddenly, but what she saw was Du Yucheng.

Du Yucheng looked at her silently, staring at the tears on her face, and he was very uncomfortable in his heart. He wanted to ask, “Ai Changhuan, do you have such deep feelings for Lu Zhanke? Why do you care so much about him……?”

Seeing that the person in front of her was not Lu, Ai Changhuan was frustrated for a second, but then she felt that she was fortunate. If Lu had chased over, she would not be able to leave.

She turned her face and wiped her tears though her eyes were still red and swollen. She blinked and asked, “Are you ready?”

Du Yucheng answered, “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

The thing that Ai Changhuan asked him in the morning was to find her a car and to take her to the train station in town. She was going back to A city.

Hearing her request, Du Yucheng was stunned at first. He didn’t understand. Now that Ai Changhuan had chosen the latter one between Qin Zhan and Lu Zhanke, why was she leaving?

Ai Changhuan said with a smile that it was time to leave. As for the reason, she said that she could not forget Qin Zhan, and she could not regard the past as if it had never existed. She still had to go back and find him.

The moment he heard Ai Changhuan’s answer, Du Yucheng’s heart flashed with ecstasy. He even thought, maybe one day, when all the things could be sorted out, it would be possible for him and Ai Changhuan to still be together.

But looking at Ai Changhuan’s tears, he was now extremely uncertain.

“Let’s go,” Ai Changhuan said, wiping away her tears and getting up.

Du Yucheng glanced at the end of the street and vaguely saw a tall figure still standing there.

He looked away and said, “Okay.”

The two walked forward one after the other, and Ai Changhuan’s footsteps were somewhat empty, and she almost fell a few times.

There seemed to be someone shouting her name behind her. Her eyes were red again, but she didn’t dare to look back. She could only move faster and faster.

Du Yucheng had already found a car which could send Ai Changhuan directly to the train station. Du Yucheng was still a little worried and said, “How about I send you there. I can come back after you get to the train station.”

Ai Changhuan shook her head. “No, if you disappear with me, they will start to doubt.” And Lu Zhanke would think that she and Du Yucheng eloped. She was already very sorry to him, and she could no longer hurt him like this.

Du Yucheng seemed to understand her concerns, so he didn’t plead for it again. “I will wait until you leave.”

“No. I don’t want to say goodbye.” Ai Changhuan smiled reluctantly. “Just say goodbye here. I’ll close my eyes, and then you will go.”

She insisted on not saying goodbye. Even if he was worried, Du Yucheng could only send her here. Looking at Ai Changhuan who had closed her eyes, he said, “I don’t know when we will next meet each other. Maybe in a year or two, or maybe we won’t meet each other for the rest of our lives.”

The reason why Ai Changhuan insisted on not letting Du Yucheng send her was that she would not be able to cry when she left at such a parting moment. However, when she heard Du Yucheng say that the departing was a lifetime long, tears still flowed out of control.

Maybe she and Lu Zhanke would not meet again.

Du Yucheng left, the car started, and everything here was gradually left behind, including…Lu Zhanke, who was waiting at the street corner.

Ai Changhuan did not want to cry, biting her lips hard, telling herself not to cry again and again. However, her cheeks were repeatedly wet with tears.

She felt sorry for Lu Zhanke. She just hoped that he could forget her and start anew.

She didn’t expect that the day of parting would come so fast. She had planned to leave in a few days, but what had happened in these two days broke all the balance. She couldn’t calmly face Lu, and she became more and more guilty when she thought of Qin Zhan.

If she had to say a reason, it was not due to love, but it was because she and Lu had met too late.

Du Yucheng returned to the tower to watch the game. Pei Mu and Yang Anxin were still waiting there. When Du Yucheng came back, Pei Mu asked casually, “Why were you gone for so long?”

Not long after Lu Zhanke and Ai Changhuan left, Du Yucheng said he was going to the bathroom, but it took him so much time.

Du Yucheng sat down and said nothing.

Yang Anxin glanced at the door and smiled. “Why hasn’t the couple returned yet? Could it be a secret date?”

Pei Mu also laughed. “Maybe the two of them have a lot of things to say, and they will come back after they finish talking.”

Du Yucheng raised his eyes and said firmly, “Changhuan won’t be back. She’s gone.”

“What?” Yang Anxin couldn’t believe what she heard. “Where did she go?”

“Back to city A.”

“Why? Is it because of yesterday?” Yang Anxin glanced at Ouyang Zhenzhen, reproach obvious in her eyes.

Ouyang was overjoyed. “She’s gone? Really?”

So will she have the opportunity to get along with Lu alone? It was still a little exciting to think about.

Looking at Ouyang’s joyful expression disseminating from the inside out, Yang Anxin frowned. “How about Lu? Does he know Changhuan has left?”

Du Yucheng remembered the figure watching them from the street corner and said, “Maybe he knows. Maybe he doesn’t know.”

Why did he answer in this way? Yang Anxin was not interested in continuing to watch the game. She turned to Pei Mu and said, “Give Lu Zhanke a call and ask him where he is.”

Pei Mu nodded and went outside to call because it was crowded and noisy inside.

Ouyang raised her eyebrows proudly as if she were about to become Lu’s wife. “Oh, Changhuan, she must be angry because of yesterday’s things.” She could make Ai Changhuan so angry that Ai even decided to leave, so the injuries she suffered yesterday were not in vain.