novelraw Chapter 428 - 214.
Chapter 428 - 214.
Inside the car.President Mu placed the bouquet beside him and reached out to hold the woman’s hand, his voice deep and gentle, "I’ll go in with you, okay?"
There might be Lu Li’s fans inside, and if they’re overly enthusiastic, they could harm her.
Nan Wan nodded, "Mm, it’s too eerie here, I still feel a bit scared alone."
Mu Jin Huan lowered his head to kiss her forehead, adjusted the coat on her body, then got out of the car, and walked around to the other side to open the door.
There is a small alley in front of the cemetery, surrounded by many flower shops, with a faint fragrance of flowers wafting through the air.
Nan Wan was half held in Mu Jin Huan’s arms, walking into the cemetery gate, and then step by step up the stairs.
The wind was a bit strong, as if it was going to rain.
Lu Li’s tombstone was at the innermost side, with no one around.
When they reached that tier of steps, Mu Jin Huan loosened his grip around Nan Wan’s waist and handed her the lilies in his hand, "I’ll go outside to buy an umbrella."
Nan Wan responded softly, "Mm."
After the man’s footsteps faded, Nan Wan turned her body ninety degrees, taking heavy steps towards the inner side.
It was less than ten meters away, yet it took her a full two minutes.
When she reached the tombstone, she bent down and squatted, the surrounding was already filled with lilies, she could only place the bouquet she held in the corner.
After staying still for a while, she finally lifted her eyes to look at the photo on the tombstone. He was wearing a white shirt, smiling as warmly as the sun, just like the most familiar appearance in her memory.
It was as if he was still on campus yesterday, with the summer sun piercing through the dense camphor tree leaves, speckling into the classroom, where she could sleep from class to class under his protection.
When she opened her eyes, she could see the boy in a white shirt deliberately making mistakes and being punished by the teacher to stand, shadowing her from the sunlight.
When the teacher turned his back, the boy would lower his head and wink at her, a sly smile hidden in his clear eyes.
The lip movements were barely discernible: "Lazy pig, you’re done for, the principal just passed by the window."
After who knows how long, Nan Wan finally pulled herself out of the memories, an enduring daze in her eyes seemed like nostalgia.
The tombstone to the right was affixed with a photo of her cousin, Nan Feng.
Nan Wan placed another bouquet of lilies in front of Nan Feng’s tombstone, both photo owners remaining at the prime of their lives.
Burying her face in her palms, she murmured softly, "Lu Li, you’re too much."
Why didn’t he make one more call so she could have caught it? Even if it couldn’t change anything, she could have heard his goodbye.
Someone she could almost see daily on the screen suddenly vanished from this world.
Without warning.
Her voice was hoarse, like light rain, "I don’t like you anymore, so come back, okay?"
So many years of obsession were a burden to him, the deeper her feelings, the more guilty he would feel.
It was tacitly understood between them, unable to even remain friends to avoid awkwardness, leaving him no choice but to feign ignorance.
Perhaps...he wouldn’t be better off than her.
"Are you quite happy," Nan Wan suddenly chuckled softly, "Did you meet Little Feng? Mm, good, so you won’t act insane every now and then and scare me."
She had seen, as long as Nan Feng was in front of Lu Li, his eyes held no image of anyone else.
She had also seen Lu Li lose himself amidst the flow of traffic, chasing a phantom, caring nothing for his life.
Four years ago, on Nan Feng’s twentieth birthday, she went to Holland for a trip. The same plane accident...never returned as well.
Her voice choked, nearly a whisper, "Lu Li, I forgive you, for not liking me, for leaving without a word."
Thank you for appearing in my life in this world, for teaching me love, and accompanying me through long, lonely years.
So, in the next life, let me be the one to greet you first.
Just as friends.
...
A soft voice rang from above, "Are you Mrs. Mu?"
Nan Wan raised her head, in the dim light she looked for a while before recognizing the speaker as Jiang Zhi, the female lead of "South Wind Knows My Heart".
Wearing a mask with a cap pulled low, it was the typical celebrity disguise to avoid paparazzi.
She was the only actress rumored with Lu Li during his six years in the entertainment industry.
Before her wedding, Nan Wan had seen her once when selecting gowns with Mu Jin Huan.
"I always thought, the person in his heart was you," Jiang Zhi looked at Nan Feng’s photo and smiled bitterly, "Turns out, she was the reason Lu Li agreed to bind with me to hype the movie."
And Nan Wan, was just an imagined rival in her mind.
Her feet ached with numbness; when Nan Wan stood up, she lost her balance, and Jiang Zhi instinctively went over to steady her.
Seeing the moisture at the corners of Nan Wan’s eyes, Jiang Zhi paused, then after setting down the lilies in her hand, she took out tissues from her bag to hand to her, "They’re clean."
"Thank you," Nan Wan wiped away the un-dried tears on her cheeks, lowered her head to look at Nan Feng’s photo, "You do look quite similar; the first time I saw you, I was stunned for a long while, but...not quite."
Her words were contradictory, Jiang Zhi didn’t understand, "Mm?"
Nan Wan curved her lips into a faint smile, speaking still softly, "Just a seventy percent likeness in appearance, but completely different in temperament; my sister...was more lively."
Whereas Jiang Zhi was the typical southern girl, with fair skin and black hair, her makeup fresh and elegant, her features softly beautiful like a classical Southern belle.
Retracting her gaze from Nan Feng’s photo on the tombstone, Jiang Zhi took two steps inward, looking at the lilies covering the ground, with a faint smile on her lips.
As if reminiscing, "To coordinate with the paparazzi’s candid shots, we had to meet for meals in a restaurant, but every time it was the same one, ’Time’ Restaurant, near Qing University, only then would he speak a few more words."
She looked up at Nan Wan, "Everything was about you."
That’s why she mistakenly thought the person Lu Li treasured in his heart was already married into the Nan Family.
Until she saw Nan Feng’s photo.
Hearing her words, Nan Wan paused, then naturally replied, "We’ve known each other for a long time."
Over twenty years, so long that she had almost forgotten the exact day they met.
Jiang Zhi felt bitterness but had long since learned how to mask her true emotions in the entertainment industry.
She curved her lips into a smile, not continuing the topic, she glanced at Nan Wan’s flat abdomen, "Congratulations."
The Mu Family was a prestigious family in Qing City, not quite omnipotent but close, so the media naturally couldn’t expose any news.
Nan Wan returned a polite faint smile, "Thank you."
Jiang Zhi lightly raised her chin, gesturing to the man standing behind Nan Wan, shrouded in night, "It’s going to rain, getting wet isn’t good for your body, and Mr. Mu seems quite anxious."
Dark clouds gathered overhead, a sign of an impending storm.
Nan Wan turned her body to see the tall and straight figure in her sight; under the dim road lamp, his features were somewhat blurred.
Standing ten meters away, waiting for her.
She turned back to Jiang Zhi, saying, "I’ll go now."
"Mm, goodbye."
————
Since the day they met until now, Mu Jin Huan had only seen her cry twice.
Once in the sanatorium, when Nan’s mother soberly recognized her, and another time, in Bai Shui Village, when he walked out of a collapsed house, she looked just like now.
Her eyes were red around the edges, with traces of moisture on her cheeks.
Mu Jin Huan bent over to fasten her seatbelt, his dark eyes deeper than usual, his voice low and gentle, "Let’s go home, okay?"
The man who occupied her entire youth had ultimately left an indelible mark in her heart.
In a way he could never erase from her heart.
Nan Wan looked up at him, spoke softly, "Can you take me to the apartment I stayed at before? I want to be alone."