On the way back, Jiang Ren didn’t say a word.
All his madness seemed to melt away with the December ice and snow. She held his hand as they were about to walk back from the hospital corridor. Meng Ting still needed to stay for a few days, and he had reinjured his foot by running around before it had fully healed.
Meng Ting gestured to the bodyguard, her voice hoarse: “Hmm, find a wheelchair, push him over.”
The hand holding hers suddenly tightened, then relaxed.
Meng Ting grasped the man’s large palm: “What’s wrong?”
“Do you understand?” He lowered his voice, almost growling, “That report is real. I’m mentally unstable. I have psychological problems. I’m no different from those lunatics!”
He strained his broken voice, staring intently into her eyes: “Those things they found are real too! I took them to find Wen Rui, I almost…”
She didn’t want to hear him insult himself anymore, so she interrupted: “Jiang Ren, I understand.”
He fell silent for a moment.
They were alone in the hospital corridor. The bodyguard quickly returned, set down the wheelchair, and hurriedly left.
She asked him to sit down, but the man’s body was as rigid as iron, silently confronting her.
Meng Ting felt a bit helpless: “I understand, so are you going to break up with me again?”
Those two words pierced his heart, and he suddenly embraced her.
After a tumultuous night, the rising sun was at their backs.
They say it’s colder when snow melts than when it falls.
She wanted to hear his choice.
Everything had changed. They would grow up, but one thing, from sunrise to sunset, from past life to this one, would never change.
It’s embarrassing to say, but he once softly said that everything changes, yet Jiang Ren remains the same Jiang Ren as before.
Meng Ting wrapped her arms around his lean waist.
He said in a voice suppressed to the extreme: “No breaking up, don’t leave.”
These six words made him close his eyes.
He knew he didn’t deserve it. What he had done that night would have made any girl too afraid to stay with him. He had indeed been driven mad. But he just wanted to beg her not to leave.
Stay with him for a year if it’s a year, for a minute if it’s a minute.
Don’t leave.
She curved her lips, smiling gently: “Okay, no breaking up, no leaving.”
Meng Ting made him sit in the wheelchair, then crouched beside his legs: “I know what this means, Jiang Ren. You’re sick. You might never be well for the rest of your life…”
His eyes were pitch black, gradually stirring with emotion.
Meng Ting pressed his hand and continued: “But your illness is me.” She smiled, “When the car and I were falling down the hillside, I didn’t think of anyone else, only you. If I died, how sad my Jiang Ren would be. So I struggled to survive. I fear you being sick, fear you being sad, fear you being lonely.”
He pressed his lips together, his dark eyes filled with quiet, scattered light.
“So, if you can’t get better, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to watch over you for a lifetime. Confine your heart, sentence you to lifelong imprisonment by my side. Jiang Ren, do you appeal?”
At that moment, the sun rose, and winter’s first touch of gentleness dispersed the night.
His eyes grew warm, and he said softly: “I accept the sentence.”
Grandmother Jiang rested in the hospital for a night. When she saw Jiang Ren the next day, the old lady almost cried again.
The old woman held his hand, her aged appearance making Jiang Ren hug her.
Xiao Li said: “Mr. Jiang, Great-grandmother cried even in her sleep. We don’t know what she dreamed about.”
Jiang Ren took the handkerchief and wiped the old lady’s face clean, saying softly: “It’s my fault, grandmother.”
Later, Meng Ting asked him: “What did you do before? Why was Grandmother Jiang crying so sadly?”
He didn’t speak, just smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear: “Spring is coming soon.”
She smiled too.
“Jiang Ren, I met you in my second year of high school, and now I’ve grown up.”
He smiled and hummed in agreement, without further comment.
When the second semester of her sophomore year in college began, his leg gradually improved. It was much better than before, though if you looked closely, something was still not quite right. However, he slowed his pace, and it was no different from a normal person.
That time he went to find her, he had indeed reinjured his leg. Even though it had healed, it couldn’t be the same as before. However, the man’s demeanor was steady and composed, and it was no longer noticeable.
Wen Rui was imprisoned for kidnapping and the instigation crime from years ago.
With his personality, he probably couldn’t endure even a year inside.
While Jiang Ren was recovering, Jiang Jixian occasionally helped with Jiang Ren’s company.
It seemed that with Wen Rui’s arrest, his obsession with Wen Man was slowly dissipating. He finally re-examined what he had done for Jiang Ren as a father in this lifetime.
It was far too little. Jiang Ren’s illness and what he nearly did in the end, Jiang Jixian bore some responsibility for that too.
Gao Yi was very happy, but Jiang Ren said: “Don’t let him touch anything in the company.”
Jiang Ren lived proudly. He didn’t bow his head when he was toasting glass after glass in the small port city two winters ago. Now he wouldn’t accept Jiang Jixian’s remorse.
His indifference made Jiang Jixian very uncomfortable.
Jiang Jixian often came to sit at his company, but Jiang Ren was neither warm nor cold. In the end, Jiang Jixian could only leave.
Jiang Jixian looked up. In this prosperous city, there were skyscrapers everywhere.
Countless predecessors and newcomers drifted and struggled hard in this city, but Jiang Ren had found his footing here. He had secured a place in B City. Whoever mentioned Jiang Ren wouldn’t say he was the son of Junyang’s Jiang Jixian, but the boss of Xiting.
The young are formidable indeed.
Jiang Ren’s honor and pride didn’t belong to Jiang Jixian in the slightest.
Looking at this city, Jiang Jixian felt for the first time that he had grown old. Too old to yearn for love, old enough to want to be close to his son, but he found it was a bit too late.
Lately, Jiang Jixian occasionally thought of Meng Ting.
If Wen Man back then had even a tenth of Meng Ting’s kindness, perhaps today would be an entirely different outcome.
By early spring, Jiang Ren had returned to the company.
Meng Ting sat on his desk, looking at him: “I said before if your surgery went well…” I would marry you.
Jiang Ren said: “I’m only twenty-one.” Too young to get a marriage certificate.
She looked down at him from her higher position, annoyed and wanting to kick him. Meng Ting didn’t believe Jiang Ren had anyway.
She was almost in her junior year, a mature young woman who had shed her high school awkwardness. She had gained a charm that made people worry about her.
She had grown up to be very beautiful. Sometimes when Meng Ting looked in the mirror, she thought that if she hadn’t been disfigured in her previous life, this is how she would have looked when fully grown. Walking down the street, she turned 100% of heads, bringing all the world’s brightness and joy with her.
Meng Ting occasionally went to stay with Jiang Ren in the small apartment from before.
During the May Day holiday, Shu Yang wanted to go home for a visit and asked Meng Ting if she wanted to go together.
There were no classes on Tuesday and Wednesday. Meng Ting hadn’t been home for a long time and missed Uncle Shu very much.
If she took Monday off, she could go home with Shu Yang.
She told Jiang Ren about this, and he didn’t object. He said: “Come back early.”
Meng Ting nodded happily and went home joyfully.
Jiang Ren left for H City even earlier than her.
That day, he dressed very formally. Gao Yi asked him: “Mr. Jiang, are you nervous?”
Jiang Ren gave him a cold look.
Gao Yi said: “I was nervous when I met my father-in-law too. I understand.”
When Shu Zhitong put down his spatula and opened the door, thinking it was his son and daughter coming back, he saw a tall young man standing outside.
Shu Zhitong: “…”
Jiang Ren handed him the gift in his hand: “Uncle Shu.”
Shu Zhitong didn’t take it: “No need to be so polite. My daughter and son haven’t come back yet. Do you want to come in and wait?”
“I came to see you.”
“For what?”
“To ask for your daughter’s hand in marriage.”
Shu Zhitong almost choked on his saliva.
Jiang Ren stood straight and gave a standard military salute he had learned at the military academy years ago: “Jiang Ren, male, twenty-one years old this year, from B City. My grandfather was a marshal, my father is in business, and I am the founder of Xiting. I offer everything in exchange for spending a lifetime with your daughter.”
He lowered his hand from his temple and handed the document folder to Shu Zhitong. It contained his assets, shares, and transfer documents.
Shu Zhitong flipped through them and was stunned by the astronomical “bride price.”
It was as if Jiang Ren was selling himself to his daughter, working for her for a lifetime.
Shu Zhitong’s hand went weak from the shock of the enormous wealth.
“Ahem, you’re both still young…”
Jiang Ren looked at him silently, his aura more mature than a thirty-year-old man’s.
Shu Zhitong suddenly felt he couldn’t communicate anymore.
When Meng Ting came back that night, Shu Zhitong’s expression was strange.
“Uncle Shu!”
Shu Zhitong sighed: “Ting Ting has grown up.”
Shu Yang also turned his face away and smiled.
The night before they were to return to B City after the holiday, Meng Ting received a text from Jiang Ren asking her out.
She hadn’t expected Jiang Ren to be here too, and happily went out with him.
The “Listening” project faced the sea, now the most magnificent building in H City, and the first territory of his business empire.
The man walked barefoot, carrying the girl on his back in the sunset.
The sunset had only a last trace of light left, stretching their shadows long and longer.
The sea breeze blew, making one drowsy. She sleepily opened her big eyes: “Jiang Ren.”
“Hmm?”
She said coquettishly: “I feel that spending a lifetime like this with you would be a very happy thing.”
Jiang Ren bit his tongue, suppressing the trembling in his heart.
He was still not used to hearing her say sweet things.
He bounced her up a little on his back.
The girl on his back leaned in and whispered in his ear: “Do you know what kind of man you are in my heart?”
“Tell me.” His heart rate quickened.
She said: “I’ll tell you a secret.”
His heart was stirred up and down by her words, almost losing composure.
She said softly and shyly: “I’ve only ever acted coy with you.”
Jiang Ren was the kind of man whose overflowing hormones made one want to act coy and roll around in his arms.
He laughed softly.
She probably didn’t know that this sentence was the greatest affirmation for a man.
The sun set, and night fell.
He turned around while carrying her on his back: “Look up.”
Meng Ting, who had been observing Jiang Ren’s reaction just a second ago, was stunned. She looked up blankly: “What is this?”
The distant “Listening” project suddenly turned off all its lights, and then countless units lit up simultaneously the next moment.
Behind them was the azure sea, and in front were countless high-rises, those stars lit up for them by the whole world.
They pieced together to form a brilliant character “听” (Ting).
He said tenderly: “This is the world I give you.”
Guarding the sea and sky, leaving a legend in your hometown, becoming your warrior, becoming your king.
It turned out he had been planning this so early.
One heartbeat, faithful to the end.
As the building lights went out and people resumed their normal lives, she was still dazed and couldn’t react.
Jiang Ren gently pinched her soft cheek: “Give me your hand.”
She obediently gave him her hand.
He took out a diamond ring and slipped it onto her left ring finger.
Her adorably dazed look was truly cute.
After a long while, she finally said with her heart racing: “Who proposes by ordering someone to give their hand?”
However, under the May moonlight, her young man smiled arrogantly, just like when they first met.
She suddenly realized a terrifying fact: even if it were the silver-haired boy from their first meeting now, he could still make her heart race uncontrollably.
He picked her up in one swift motion: “And no girl is silly enough to just give her hand when told to.”
She let out a soft cry of surprise and hugged his head, the man’s short hair was prickly against her hands. Her clear laughter rang in his ears.
Jiang Ren took her to the apartment in H City where he had lived for over two years.
He had already cleaned it thoroughly, making it neat. He still remembered the scene of Meng Ting curled up on the sofa, waiting for him to come home after preparing a meal. It would remain an undying light in his heart for many years.
After they both washed up, Jiang Ren said: “Shall I tell you a fairy tale to help you sleep?”
She looked at him with her big tea-colored eyes, glistening with moisture, as if asking, “You know how to tell fairy tales?”
He chuckled softly: “I do come here.”
She walked over to him.
Jiang Ren held her in his arms.
She nestled against him affectionately, and Jiang Ren opened a large, hardcover book of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales.
He began: “Once upon a time, there was a wizard who fell in love with a princess from a neighboring kingdom. But he was ugly and deformed, while the princess was extremely beautiful. His love became known to all the citizens of the country, and everyone in the nation mocked the wizard for his presumption.”
She let out a soft “oh” of surprise, her eyes wide open as she looked at him.
The light in her eyes was pure and beautiful.
Jiang Ren really could tell fairy tales!
He laughed softly: “The wizard didn’t want to give up. He only had his powerful magic, so he climbed mountains alone to get crystal shoes, walked through fire to obtain a rainbow-colored dress, and went to the sea to find jewels to make a ring for the princess.”
For the first time, she was so moved by a story.
She looked up at him.
“With the crystal shoes, the beautiful dress, and the ring, the king agreed, but the princess didn’t want to marry him.”
She said angrily: “You’re making this up!”
The man laughed softly: “Does she want to?”
She bit her lip and smiled, nodding vigorously.
Jiang Ren said: “Sign the betrothal letter.”
He turned to the last page of the fairy tale book, where the share transfer agreement she had refused to sign before was tucked.
He took out a pen and held her small hand: “My treasure is called Meng Ting. Write your name.” The man’s voice was low and filled with laughter, “Meng—Ting—two characters, can you write them?”
As he looked up, he saw her eyes glistening with tears.
Jiang Ren put down his pen and quickly tried to comfort her. “What’s wrong?” He knew his storytelling skills were poor. But the proposal had already succeeded; these were just extra touches.
She rubbed her eyes. “I feel sorry for the wizard who went through such hardships.”
“He didn’t,” he smiled. “He gained everything. The princess was the most beautiful princess on the entire continent.”
He taught her, “A man’s love can change. Everything in this world can change. I want to become a dragon, stealing all the best things in the world to give to you. That way, even if one day I’m not by your side, no one will dare bully you.”
“Jiang Ren.”
“Mm?”
“Everything in this world might change, but you won’t.” She looked at him quietly.
He was stunned for a long moment before breaking into a smile. “Yes, I won’t change.”
“So we don’t need all this.” She said shyly, “I want to see the original Jiang Ren, can I?” At first, she didn’t like him, didn’t pay attention to him, missed much of his youth, and didn’t have very clear memories. He was forced to grow up, and she hoped he could be a bit more carefree.
He looked at her wordlessly. “Do you want to see?”
Jiang Ren was silent for a moment. “Don’t regret it.”
His aura changed instantly. “Do you know what I had originally planned to do tonight?”
Meng Ting tilted her head and said, “Propose.”
No, not Freaking propose.
It was to make love to you.
“Telling you fairy tales was to let you know I’d be a good father.”
Her eyes widened.
Before Meng Ting could react, he flipped her over, making her lie face down on the sofa. He started to undress her.
The shoulder strap was torn by him.
The Jiang Ren of those years was young and reckless.
She was completely dazed.
The man started kissing behind her back. His kisses were as light as feathers, but his grip restraining her was incredibly domineering.
This embarrassing position made her kick her legs a couple of times. Lying face down was uncomfortable, completely at his mercy.
He laughed twice. “Don’t move!”
Let you feel enough.
She was both embarrassed and anxious. “I’ll be traumatized, Jiang Ren! Jiang Ren!”
He said in a low voice, “Remember it all.”
My love, my pain, my desire, my unattainable dreams, my rest of life.
The night was long.
At first, she could still cry out a few times, but later she just wanted to scratch him.
The scars on the man’s back were medals from when he had walked through fire.
The night was passionate and uninhibited.
At dawn when the sun rose, he tightly wrapped the uncomfortable, sleeping girl in his arms. When Meng Ting woke up, she wanted to hit him. She had wanted the already young Jiang Ren to live more freely, not to toss her about all night.
He saw she was about to cry.
Because of the pain, and her early biological clock, she woke up early.
He was so excited he hadn’t slept all night.
He kissed her clear eyes, her soft cheeks, her cherry lips.
Meng Ting intertwined her fingers with his, suddenly wanting to ask a question: “When did you start liking me?”
Jiang Ren smiled. “I’ll tell you this afternoon.”
In the afternoon, when she had rested enough, he carried her out despite her weak legs.
Jiang Ren took her to the gates of Seventh Middle School and the vocational high school.
She looked up, her eyes filled with nostalgia.
Seventh Middle School students in uniforms hurried into classrooms as the bell rang, while next door, the vocational high school students sauntered in lazily.
They were just like how she and Jiang Ren used to be.
Students came and went, generation after generation, but only the campus remained the same as it was years ago.
Watching over the sweet, naive youth of generation after generation.
He carried the girl in his arms to the bus stop.
Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, she had waited here countless times to go home.
He would be at the end of the alley, restlessly chewing gum, his chin resting on the handlebars of his mountain bike, coveting her.
Wanting to take her home.
At that time, the locust trees were in bloom, white flowers dancing in the wind, falling onto her hair. His heart would race at the sight.
From when she wasn’t particularly pretty and ordinary, to when she became the school beauty. Every time he saw her, he fell in love again. Now, wherever he was, that was her home.
Meng Ting stretched out her hand, and a locust flower fell into her palm.
She looked up at him.
As if truly seeing through the years, she saw the original young man.
The sound of a motorcycle engine cut through the wind.
Her young man took off his helmet.
With his silver hair and black earrings, he smiled rakishly, defying the light of an entire world.
— End of Main Text —