CHAPTER 78

The person in front of her had a strong reaction upon seeing her, and...

It seemed like they knew her?

Ye Chengxing carefully looked at the person in front of her.

She still couldn't recall any specific memories, but she had a faint sense of familiarity that was somewhat hazy.

If they knew each other, their previous relationship should have been favorable. In any case, it couldn't have been a bad relationship, especially judging by the tone of their voice. Besides the disbelief and shock, there was also a lot of involuntary joy that surfaced.

Since this person knew her, perhaps they might know what happened between her and Li Jia.

So, when faced with the invitation to go somewhere else and sit, Ye Chengxing didn't refuse.

It was a bit chilly outside.

But as soon as they entered the villa, the cold temperature in the surroundings was instantly replaced by a warm and cozy atmosphere.

Another woman opened the door for them, and her eyes turned red the moment she saw Ye Chengxing.

Ye Chengxing looked at her and felt that she should know her as well. After all, getting teary-eyed at the first meeting indicated that they had some connection.

Just as she hesitated about whether to reveal the fact that she had lost a part of her memory, she heard the woman with pink hair, who had brought her in, speak first.

"Boss, let me tell you, Xi Yue has really made it big. She's become a top chef now." Fu Tao pushed Xi Yue playfully while grinning.

Xi Yue's previously melancholic expression shattered instantly, and she couldn't help but call out Fu Tao's name.

But it was because Fu Tao spoke up that the atmosphere eased, and the two of them began to exchange words about recent events.

"Xi Ran went to school today. She's doing well academically and has made great progress this year."

"Zhao Yi and Zhi Yu are in another star system and can't come back for the time being, but we've received news that they're on their way."

"The restaurant business is doing really well, or rather, it has always been great."

As Ye Chengxing listened to their conversation, a few names faintly surfaced in her mind.

They seemed to have a lot to say to her, speaking a lot and a lot. As Ye Chengxing listened, a smile unconsciously appeared on her lips, and without thinking, she uttered a sentence, "You all seem to be doing well, and that's good."

When Xi Yue heard her voice, she paused and said, "Sis, how about you? How have you been these years? Are you okay?"

"And we've all grown up now, so if there's anything you need, you must let us know." Fu Tao added.

But after saying that, Fu Tao glanced at Ye Chengxing again and hesitated before speaking, "By the way, Boss, does Li Jia know about your return?"

Ye Chengxing heard the unfamiliar yet familiar name spoken by the person in front of her, and she answered each question one by one.

"I'm doing fine, but since I've returned... I haven't seen her yet."

After answering this, Ye Chengxing paused for two seconds and then asked, "How is she doing?"

As her words fell, the expressions of the two people sitting across from her became complex, seemingly in sync.

Their lips opened and closed, and whether it was Fu Tao or Xi Yue, they seemed unsure of how to describe it.

How should they describe it?

She was indeed alive, living better than anyone else.

But at the same time, it was not much different from being dead, like an empty shell that had been given the command to live.

It was as if everything had been taken away with Ye Chengxing's disappearance.

They still remembered that snowy night five years ago.

When they and Wen Qingxi finally found the place, Ye Chengxing was already gone, standing motionless in the snow, holding a white rose in her arms, wearing a wedding dress. They didn't know how long she had been standing there.

The wedding dress was stained with bl0od, and at first, everyone thought it was Ye Chengxing's bl0od, but later they realized it was only Li Jia's.

Considering the amount of bl0od, it should have been fatal, but Li Jia seemed as if she had been healed, with no wounds or aftereffects.

Since then, they had never seen Ye Chengxing again. They thought it would be better if she had disappeared completely because Li Jia's actions were indeed too crazy, locking someone up like that, terrifying everyone who thought about it.

But even though they understood this, they still cried heartbrokenly, and Li Jia, who appeared the calmest about this matter, actually became the one who cried the most.

They didn't know the specifics of what happened, only that Ye Chengxing had left because of Li Jia, and their words exchanged at that time were sharp and confrontational.

But Ye Chengxing didn't spare a glance for them, not to mention stopping.

The only time her gaze lingered was when she saw the group photo of them with Ye Chengxing.

It was also at that time that Li Jia realized that all these people had taken photos with Ye Chengxing.

Those radiant photos capturing beautiful moments.

Except for her.

一 Except for her, the one who spent almost every day and night with Ye Chengxing, didn't even have a single group photo.

After Ye Chengxing left, she didn't dare to return to their home. She rarely went inside and mostly stayed at the doorstep, but she arranged robots to ensure that the place remained spotless.

She lived alone elsewhere, but no matter what she prepared, it was always in pairs.

Toothbrushes for two, pajamas for two...

On a lonely night, she lay on the bed, unable to smell that faint and soft familiar fragrance in her breath.

Li Jia felt that she shouldn't cry anymore. Her tears had dried up like her heart.

But one morning, as she ate her usual breakfast for two, she suddenly cried so hard that she nearly knelt on the ground. Unable to get up, she accidentally knocked over a fruit knife, cutting her skin. It was then that she realized there would never be that voice asking her if she was hurt or not.

Never again.

If Ye Chengxing were here, even if she just cut herself and bled a little, she would carefully attend to her.

Li Jia could almost imagine the gentle movements and furrowed brows.

The bl0od from the wound gradually coagulated. She rarely took the initiative to tend to her wounds. If it hurt, it hurt. It was as if she had never cared about her own life. But these wounds, which she didn't care about, were always taken care of by someone else.

So she forced herself to get up and tend to the wound, just as Ye Chengxing had done countless times before.

After two months passed, Li Jia went to the food street again. She still remembered when Ye Chengxing wrote something at a stall. It was about time.

She thought it probably wasn't written for her, but she couldn't help asking.

To her surprise, the stall owner was delighted when he saw her.

"Customer, you've come at the right time. I was just wondering how to give these to you." The stall owner seemed a bit embarrassed when saying these words. In fact, the stall owner had originally planned to throw away these pieces of paper. He was just an ordinary stall owner, and although he had promised to deliver these things to the right person at the right time, it was almost impossible to deliver them to a celebrity's hands just by thinking about it.

But now that Li Jia had come, the problem was easily solved.

With this in mind, the smile on the stall owner's face grew even brighter. "They're all here, and they're all written for you."

Li Jia took those few sheets of paper.

Thin sheets, and at that time, she only knew that Ye Chengxing had been writing for a long time, naturally assuming that Ye Chengxing had written for many people.

But she never expected that they were all written for her.

Every word, every sentence, was written for her.

Li Jia stood there, her fingertips trembling. She felt as if the papers in her hand had turned into a raging fire, burning her clean. Those words and sentences instantly reshaped her, and her heart felt an unbearable pain.

A few days later, heavy snowfall began again.

She had learned how to build snowmen now, but in the end, the snowman she built was a beautiful one, alongside a comically ugly one that didn't resemble a snowman at all.

After building it like that, she then built another beautiful snowman, step by step, decorating them according to her memories.

And then, quietly, she waited in place for two seconds. Then she took out her camera and, in a pose as if taking a group photo, captured herself and the two beautiful snowmen behind her in the frame.

If there had been someone in the vacant spot beside her, it would have been a perfect group photo.

In a trance, Li Jia seemed to see the image of a woman with a charming smile appearing beside her in the photo. However, it was just a blink of an eye before she returned to reality.

In reality, the photo only showed herself and the two snowmen behind her, along with the strangely empty space beside her.

She longed to see her again, even if it was in a dream, but she found it difficult to fall asleep. Every night, she tossed and turned, with images of her filling her mind.

In order to fall asleep, she started taking sleeping pills, attempting to dream of her, even though she had forgotten that taking these pills wouldn't result in dreaming.

But she still saw Ye Chengxing in a daze.

At that moment, Li Jia felt that the world had finally shown her some tenderness.

She lay on the bed in their former home, and the figure she had longed for sat by the bedside. She gently touched her face, as if sighing, her voice gentle yet helpless, "Have you been doing so badly?"

Li Jia reached out and embraced her waist, pulling her forcefully to lie beside her, then tightly embracing her in her arms.

Without saying a word, they buried themselves in each other's necks.

The woman caressed her hair, allowing her to hold onto her. "Take care of yourself a bit more. You make me worry so much."

Li Jia listened to her voice and held her even tighter, her voice muffled with tears, "Sister, I miss you so much."

The person in her arms didn't speak again.

The entire dream seemed to collapse with that sentence.

Li Jia opened her eyes again, only to see the pure white ceiling of the hospital room.

In her mind, the electronic voice carried indescribable emotions, like anger and sadness. [Li Jia, were you trying to die?]

If it hadn't been for 001 waking up from its chaotic state and directly invading the electronic device to make an emergency call, everything might have been too late.

Li Jia listened to 001's voice and chuckled softly after a moment. Her initial reaction was that she hadn't been able to dream after all. Then what was the person she saw? Just a carousel of memories before death?

She found comfort in her own chaotic thoughts and lightly responded in her mind to 001's voice, [It won't happen again.]

She wouldn't do that anymore. Ye Chengxing had used all her wish contracts on her. She couldn't continue like this.

She would live, make a name for herself, achieve outstanding results in her studies, and enter the best university.

She would live well, better than anyone else.

And it wouldn't be too painful, at least she deeply felt that Ye Chengxing truly loved her.

She was not at all anguished. Just the thought of her past made her feel that it was already so wonderful that it couldn't be surpassed.

Whether one lives in the past or the present is not important. In Ye Chengxing's past, she would forever be frozen in that moment. There was nothing wrong with that, being frozen in the moment when Ye Chengxing loved her the most, the moment when she was loved enough to die for.

She still loved watching romance movies.

She enjoyed preparing a very sweet milk tea and a less sweet tea while watching movies, as if they were still together, and she lived without any pain.

She took good care of herself, even got a navel piercing. The fallen stars were bright, and there was a newly tattooed rose on her hip. The rose petals spiraled up, like an offering, and also like a beautiful and lingering desire to kiss the stars, capturing all the starlight within the petals.

Winter turned to spring and then summer, and in the blink of an eye, it was her nineteenth birthday. She received a birthday gift from an automated time-delivery robot, along with a handwritten letter from Ye Chengxing.

In the letter, Ye Chengxing congratulated her on turning another year older, and her handwriting was as beautiful as ever.

It was the familiar gentle tone she knew, filled with casual and relaxed words, and many well-wishes for her.

Li Jia read through every word, lingering over every stroke and line, before returning home with the letter and gift. She locked them away in the room where all the memories were stored, including the last letter she received from the stall. It was as if she was hiding precious treasures, locking them all away in a separate room.

Later, she finished her exams and received another timed letter from Ye Chengxing after the exams.

In those fleeting moments, Li Jia couldn't distinguish between reality and illusion, always feeling that Ye Chengxing was still by her side.

Seasons changed, one after another, and time seemed incredibly long, but she felt that she could hold onto these memories and the constantly woven illusions of reality. It truly wasn't painful, never painful. New Year came and went, year after year, and she would release electronic fireworks by the river as scheduled.

Someone asked her what she was releasing.

Every time, Li Jia would happily answer that they were fireworks, celebrating the arrival of the new year with her loved one.

Those who stopped to watch took note, and it even began to spread on the Star Network.

And so, two or three more years passed, and many people had already started celebrating New Year's Day.

The people by the riverside grew in number, and there were more couples holding hands, but she remained alone.

Li Jia looked at those couples and didn't feel envious.

The fireworks in the sky were splendid and grand.

The person she loved was separated from her by a world.

She could never reach her world, but she would love her until death in this world.

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