novelraw Chapter 71
Chapter 71
Chapter 71 When Qin Qing saw the bracelet on the floor, her expression changed suddenly.
It took her two seconds to regain her composure. She blinked and turned her face away, saying, “It’s nothing. Just a small gift from someone… from many years ago.”
“Many years ago? The design is quite pretty. But… why does it look a bit familiar?” Zhuo Anke bent down to pick up the bracelet.
As she straightened up, her gaze shifted from thoughtful to gradually incredulous, finally settling on a near-disbelieving shock.
The room fell silent for a while. When Qin Qing finally turned her head in confusion, she saw Zhuo Anke still staring blankly at the bracelet.
“What’s wrong?” Qin Qing asked.
“…………” Zhuo Anke swallowed a long silence and, with a stiff neck, looked at Qin Qing. “Are you sure—this is a ‘small gift’??”
Qin Qing’s eyes flickered, but she nodded.
“Oh my god… If you have friends who give such small gifts, you should introduce them to me—I’d worship them with three incense sticks every day—”
Zhuo Anke’s words suddenly stopped. After a moment, she asked with an odd expression, “Is this thing a gift from Wen Yufeng?”
Qin Qing was taken aback, not expecting Zhuo Anke to guess directly.
Zhuo Anke could tell the answer she wanted from Qin Qing’s reaction.
She sighed. “No wonder.”
Qin Qing frowned. “Is there something special about this bracelet?”
Zhuo Anke sighed. “It seems he didn’t mention a word to you?”
“Mention what?”
“This bracelet is from a luxury brand’s early spring collection from a few years ago. Do you know its price range?”
Seeing Zhuo Anke’s serious expression, Qin Qing had a vague premonition that something was off, but she still asked, “How much?”
“……” Zhuo Anke didn’t keep her suspense and held up six fingers.
“Six figures.”
The numbers ten, hundred, thousand, and ten thousand ran through Qin Qing’s mind in 0.1 seconds, leaving her stunned.
After a moment, she stared blankly at the bracelet in Zhuo Anke’s hand.
Zhuo Anke said, “And I can guess, Wen Yufeng didn’t give it to you because of its price, but because of its meaning.”
Qin Qing’s eyes flashed, and she turned to Zhuo Anke. “What meaning?”
“‘Locking in a lover,’ or also said to mean ‘you belong to me in this lifetime.’”
“……”
Qin Qing’s gaze went blank.
————
“Click.”
“Locked.”
……
“From now on, ‘Happy New Year’—”
“This is something I’ll only say to you.”
————
Qin Qing’s eyes dimmed, and she turned away.
She folded the last piece of clothing from the wardrobe and placed it into a box.
“So ‘despicable’… Wen Yufeng.”
An hour and a half later, Qin Qing and Zhuo Anke finally finished packing. Three boxes were neatly stacked, waiting for the moving company to come.
“Let’s go, Lawyer Zhuo,” Qin Qing joked, “Let me treat you to a meal?”
Zhuo Anke had been worried that the bracelet incident might have made Qin Qing unhappy. Seeing that she was still willing to go out, she nodded cheerfully.
“Sure, sure, I’m starving. I’ll definitely treat you to a feast at lunch today.”
Just as the two of them walked out of Qin Qing’s bedroom, Qin Qing’s grandmother, who had been out for a walk and to buy groceries, returned.
Qin Qing quickly introduced, “Grandma, this is my high school classmate, Zhuo Anke.”
Grandma Qin still had a warm smile, scanning Zhuo Anke from top to bottom before asking with a grin, “Are you the same age as our Tian Tian?”
Hearing this nickname, Zhuo Anke was momentarily stunned.
She remembered that night, Wen Yufeng had blurted out a similar name when he saw Qin Qing.
Seeing Zhuo Anke’s surprise, Qin Qing thought nothing of it and explained helplessly, “It’s my nickname. My grandma insists on using it.”
“It sounds nice to use a nickname,” Grandma Qin scolded Qin Qing with a smile, then turned back to Zhuo Anke and repeated her question.
“Are you the same age?”
Zhuo Anke came back to her senses and quickly nodded. “Yes, Grandma.”
Grandma Qin’s smile deepened. “Do you have a partner?”
Zhuo Anke: “??”
Qin Qing, who hadn’t expected her grandmother to ask this, was at a loss for words.
“Grandma, what are you talking about…”
Grandma Qin gave her a look. “Single people should stay quiet.”
Qin Qing: “…………”
“Pfft…” Zhuo Anke couldn’t help but laugh, “Hahaha—Grandma, where did you learn that?”
Grandma Qin then turned back with a warm smile. “I know some nice young men. Would you like me to introduce you?”
Zhuo Anke quickly waved her hand. “No, no—Grandma, I already have a partner!”
On hearing this, Grandma Qin turned to Qin Qing. “Look at how proactive she is about finding a partner! Unlike you, who always turns down every introduction.”
Zhuo Anke: “……”
— Strange, it seemed like she was being praised, but why couldn’t she feel any joy from it?
“I’m only twenty-four… I’m not in a hurry.” Qin Qing said helplessly.
“Grandma, you really don’t need to worry.”
“If you were staying in Qingcheng, I wouldn’t worry at all. But you’re always out and about, and your parents and I can’t take care of you. What if you catch a cold or something, and there’s no one to comfort you—how can I not worry?”
Qin Qing was stunned.
Before today, she never realized that her grandmother’s urging to date was actually because of this.
The living room was quiet for a long time. Under Grandma Qin’s watchful eyes, Qin Qing finally nodded.
“I’ll listen to you. I’ll go on at least one date this month, okay?”
Grandma Qin felt much more reassured and smiled broadly. “It’s also good to make friends. Don’t always keep yourself locked away.”
Qin Qing sighed in relief and smiled.
“……Okay.”
A few minutes later, Qin Qing and Zhuo Anke left the house, one after the other. After Zhuo Anke said goodbye to Grandma Qin, the two of them headed towards the elevator.
Once the door closed behind them, Zhuo Anke leaned in with a strange expression.
“Are you really willing to follow your grandmother’s arrangement and go on a date?”
Qin Qing nodded, then shook her head.
Zhuo Anke looked at Qin Qing in confusion, seeing the girl’s eyes soften. “I don’t want to make Grandma worry, so I’ll go on a date. After that… if it doesn’t work out, I’ll just make up a story.”
“……”
Zhuo Anke got her answer and instinctively sighed in relief.
But then she was a bit dazed—who exactly was she relieved for?
Qin Qing received the call from Qiao An while accompanying Zhuo Anke on a shopping trip.
At first, the incoming call showed a string of unfamiliar numbers.
When she answered, Qiao An’s distinguishable voice came through, and Qin Qing recognized who it was.
“Miss Qin, I’m not sure if you have time this afternoon. If you don’t mind, I’d like to discuss something with you.”
“Sorry,” Qin Qing didn’t pause even for a second. “I have something—”
“Two years ago, Brother Yu went blind due to retinal damage and subsequently retired—” Qiao An suddenly interrupted at a fast pace, then finished the rest of his sentence in the silence on the other end of the phone, “Miss Qin, don’t you want to know about this?”
For a moment, Qin Qing felt like her breath was cut off, and no air could get into her lungs.
The suffocating sensation overwhelmed her, leaving her brain feeling oxygen-deprived and blank.
“Miss Qin? Miss Qin??”
“…”
It was hard to tell how long it took, but with Qiao An’s persistent prompting on the phone, Qin Qing slowly regained her breath.
She opened her mouth, “Where are you now?”
After speaking, Qin Qing realized her voice was trembling.
“At the coffee shop on the first floor of Fenghua Entertainment City.”
Without hesitation, Qin Qing hung up and turned to run out of the mall.
At that moment, Zhuo Anke, who was coming towards her, asked,
“Qing, look at this bag’s design—what’s wrong?”
“Anke—take me to a place… right now, okay?”
At that time, in a high-level bar of Fenghua Entertainment City, Qiao An sighed and hung up the phone.
“Brother Qiao, why the long face?” The bartender teased.
Qiao An swirled the drink in his glass and took a sip. “I’m praying—
praying that Brother Yu won’t be angry with me for ‘accidentally’ forgetting to mention it’s temporary blindness and scare his little girlfriend into getting back at me later.”
……
After the car had been driving for nearly ten minutes, Qin Qing gradually calmed down in the passenger seat.
Seeing Qin Qing’s anxiousness, Zhuo Anke couldn’t help but ask, “Is there something urgent?”
“……Not anymore, even if it is, it doesn’t help.”
“Does it have to do with Wen Yufeng?”
Qin Qing didn’t answer, clearly acknowledging it.
Zhuo Anke turned away and remained silent for the rest of the journey. When they arrived outside the entertainment city and Qin Qing got out of the car, Zhuo Anke struggled with her emotions but finally made a decision.
She pressed a button, and the passenger side window rolled down.
“Qing.”
Qin Qing, who was about to enter the entertainment city, paused and turned back to look into the car.
Zhuo Anke’s expression was complex. “I recently saw Wen Yufeng. He mentioned that you once got drunk during college and blacked out. You might have forgotten, but you must have been in touch with him. What you remember might be wrong. — Find out the truth and don’t make the same mistake again.”
After saying this, Zhuo Anke didn’t dare to stay. Before Qin Qing could respond, she stepped on the gas and drove away.
Qin Qing stood frozen, her light brown pupils widening.
Too many questions she wanted to ask were forced back down.
……Got drunk in college? “Blacked out”… and forgot?
Qin Qing stood by the roadside, lost and mixed up, for a while before slowly turning towards the high-rise of the entertainment city.
As she walked, she took out her phone and sent a message to several numbers in her “college roommate” contact group.
After doing this, she entered the coffee shop.
After reporting Qiao An’s name to the waiter, she was respectfully led inside.
“Miss Qin.”
The man at the table stood up and courteously pulled out a chair for Qin Qing.
Qin Qing thanked him and sat down, directly getting to the point.
“Mr. Qiao, what did you mean by what you said on the phone?”
Qiao An sighed inwardly but maintained a smile.
“It’s just a literal fact.”
Qin Qing’s eyes narrowed. “You mean he is now—”
“Sorry for the misunderstanding,” Qiao An interrupted her. “Brother Yu’s eyesight has completely recovered two months ago.”
“…”
Qin Qing instinctively let out a breath she had been holding, feeling her fingertips numb from the tension.
Anger then surged in her heart. “Mr. Qiao, your actions make me feel very unrefined.”
Qiao An smiled apologetically. “I invited Miss Qin here to discuss something more important. I wasn’t confident that I could get you to come if I hadn’t expressed it that way. Please forgive me.”
“More important? … What is it?”
Qiao An smiled. “May I ask when Miss Qin broke up with Brother Yu?”
“……”
Qin Qing’s expression changed.
After two seconds, she adjusted her demeanor, smiled lightly, and said with cold eyes, “I’ve said it before. The matters between him and me are not for outsiders to comment on.”
Qiao An was not annoyed and did not explain. “If I’m correct, it should have been six years ago, during your sophomore year.”
Qin Qing’s gaze faltered. “……How do you know?”
From what Qin Qing knew of Wen Yufeng, he wasn’t the type to publicly disclose such specific details.
“Is it really because of this…”
Qiao An didn’t answer Qin Qing’s question but smiled.
Qin Qing’s frustration, as if she were drowning and unable to grasp a lifeline, grew stronger. She clenched her fingers.
Before Qin Qing ran out of patience, Qiao An finally spoke, “Because that early autumn, in a high-altitude closed, information-secluded boot camp, Brother Yu took advantage of the only chance he had to leave the mountain, violating training regulations to evade tracking, and disappeared for nearly two days.”
Qiao An deliberately paused before continuing under Qin Qing’s intense gaze.
“Although he returned on his own after two days, he still had to take responsibility for his actions. It can be said that for that less than thirty-six hours, he wagered all the honor and future of his military career.”
At this point, Qiao An lowered his eyes, indicating with his coffee cup towards Qin Qing.
“I guess it was for a message. Quite a gamble, wasn’t it?”
…………
Even after the two cups of coffee on the table had lost all their warmth, Qin Qing sat alone in the coffee shop, staring blankly.
——
A gamble, perhaps.
But she didn’t know if, during those thirty-six hours of comings and goings, there was a moment he regretted it.
And whether he would continue to regret it after that—regretting that what he pursued and yearned for was not destroyed by that temporary blindness, but earlier… destroyed by her message?
She realized it wasn’t only her heart that was troubled, but his as well…
Wen Yufeng, did you start to hate me from the very first moment of those thirty-six hours?
“……”
Qin Qing buried her face in her hands, her heart feeling like a sponge soaked in bitter water, her eyes dry.
At that moment, her phone suddenly vibrated.
Qin Qing stiffened, then took a deep breath. Without even looking at the caller ID, she answered the call.
“……Hello?” Her voice was hoarse.
“Qin Qing, I saw the message you sent—don’t you remember getting drunk during your sophomore year?”
Qin Qing was taken aback. “What…?”
“During your sophomore first semester, after you had a serious illness and were discharged from the hospital, we decided to take you out to lift your spirits. But that day, we accidentally ordered a drink with alcohol, and you ended up passed out at the table. A particularly handsome guy took you back to the dorm!”
“……Handsome guy?”
As if she recalled something, Qin Qing’s breath stopped.
“Yes, that handsome guy knew you, right? He kept calling you ‘Tian Tian’ or something… and he took you to the dormitory building.”
Qin Qing’s voice was dry. “And then…”
“Old Two teased that guy, saying you had just recovered from a serious illness and had dumped your scumbag ex who had been absent during military service, encouraging him to pursue you boldly. But that guy seemed scared and turned pale. The next morning, when I went jogging, I saw him downstairs. He asked about you, and I told him you were fine but had drunk too much, and then he left.”
“…………”
“Qin Qing? Are you still there?”
“……”
In the coffee shop, Qin Qing’s eyes trembled as she closed them.
“Did he say anything in the end?”
“Yes—he asked us to pretend he never showed up and that you didn’t want to see him. After discussing it, we didn’t think it was a big deal, so we didn’t bring it up again.”
Qin Qing finally couldn’t hold on anymore and let her phone fall onto the table.