âItâs not what you think.â Ye Junqing didnât want to recall that episode, and he didnât want her to feel guilty either. He firmly denied: âAfter I helped you divert your pursuers, I stumbled upon some adventures. Itâs all in the past now. My illness has nothing to do with you.â
Ye Xingguangâs voice was filled with apology, âHow can it not be related? You must not want me to blame myself, so you refuse to admit it. I know itâs like that. You must have been gravely injured and near death, like my father. Unless you were rescued by Chu Yong, it would have been impossible for you to survive. Thatâs why you chose this path. You have been ill for ten years, refusing to drink blood, and have frequent episodes. I canât even begin to imagine how youâve endured through so many nightsâ¦â
Closing her eyes, she could only see the image of Ye Junqing locking himself in a dark room on the third floor, sitting in a chair by a floor-to-ceiling window, silently bearing the agony. Unable to cope, his wrists and ankles would struggle fiercely, leaving red marksâ¦
Thinking about it made Ye Xingguangâs heart ache. She wrapped her arms around his waist, rested her head against his chest, and silently swore in her heart that she would find a way to repay him.
No wonder every time he fell ill, she felt such heartache and such a strong desire to care for him. Even when he cursed her to leave, even when he was disgusted by her, she couldnât control her heart from wanting to cling to him and take care of him. Perhaps subconsciously, she knew that all his suffering was ber her fault, so her subconscious mind was trying to make amendsâ¦
Ye Junqing did not want her to feel guilty. His voice was calm and light: âActually, my episodes are not that frequent.â
âDonât try to comfort me. Weâve been together for only two months, and I know how many times youâve fallen ill. I understand very clearly.â
âIt is much better than before.â
He was prone to having episodes when his emotions were unstable. In the past, when he had confined her to his home, their relationship had been utterly hostile. She often stirred him into an episode, those days were torment. Compared to the past, the life he is living now is simply blissful.
He could hardly imagine how they ended up in such a situation. It was like a nightmare he couldnât escape or forget. They hated and hurt each other, both falling together. In the end, they both had to let go and forget each otherâ¦
Ye Xingguang felt even more guilty: âYour episodes are still so frequent, but theyâre much better than before? Were your episodes even more frequent before? Why didnât I meet you sooner? It would have been great if I met you earlier.â
Foolish girl, the past he spoke of was not this past. Itâs not that he hadnât met her earlier, he had serendipitously discovered her during her first year at college in the imperial city.
That was six years after they had separated at sea. As his car passed by a third-tier university, he saw her standing and waiting for the green light with a group of students by a traffic light. The breeze blew her long hair, as he saw her tucking her hands into her coat pockets, chatting and laughing with her classmates at the crosswalk. That year, she was eighteen.
The eighteen-year-old her did differ from the twelve-year-old her. At that time, he just sat quietly in the car, thinking that she was just a girl who somewhat resembled the young girl who had saved him at sea.
He asked Fu Zhuo to investigate her background. When he learned that she was Ye Xingguang, it was as if he finally confirmed that the little mermaid who had encountered at sea, had inadvertently entered his world. It was the greatest gift heaven had ever bestowed upon him.
However, the past was too painful to revisit. Ye Junqing laughed it off. Perhaps it was a case of meeting the right person at the wrong time back then. Now, it was the right time to meet the right person.