Chapter 134: Desperately Trying to Remember

Xiao Xiao lowered her head with a bitter smile. When she looked up again, she said sincerely, "Do you know why we were happier when we were together in the past?" Lin Shuo remained silent, and Xiao Xiao continued, "Because back then, we were on the same level—at least you pretended to be. But now... look at yourself, and then look at me."

His tone was cold. "Why don't you just say it more directly?"

As if she had been mulling it over for a long time, she finally revealed the concerns she had been harboring for the past few days. "If you were still that penniless student from back then, I think we would be very happy right now. At the very least, I wouldn't have to look up to you, and you wouldn't have to stoop to accommodate me."

Lin Shuo let out an incredulous scoff. "I've only ever heard that 'poverty turns a marriage into a tragedy'." He thought of his own childhood—fraught with hardship, uncertainty, and a precarious existence. He did not believe one had to regress to find happiness; otherwise, why would his mother have taken him away all those years ago? In the end, it was poverty that was to blame for everything. He shook his head slowly. "If you want to say we aren't compatible, isn't it a bit too late for that? If you strip away everything I possess and I am still the same person, are you afraid just because of that?"

"I know there is no such thing as perfect balance, but the problem is that the gap between us is too wide. This is life—real, tangible life—not a novel or a television drama. Fairy tales end when the prince brings the princess back to the castle because the screenwriters cannot bear to face reality; they can slay dragons, but they are terrified of being defeated by the mundane." After this impassioned declaration, a wave of sadness washed over her. She murmured, "I clearly don't belong in your world; there's no need for you to pretend otherwise."

"And then what? Where is the gap between us? It is nothing more than you not loving me enough, and me refusing to let my mind wander into such unnecessary doubts." He moved closer to her, reaching out to embrace her, but she pushed him away, her nose stinging. If only she could, how she longed to stay with him until their hair turned white.

"Xiao Xiao!" Ignoring everything else, he gripped her shoulders. She kept her head bowed, afraid to look at him. He demanded agitatedly, "Have you ever tried loving someone so deeply that the word 'devotion' isn't even enough to describe it, even if the world laughs at your obsession? I have!" He didn't even wait for her answer, showing just how desperate he was to bare his soul.

"Just let it go..." Xiao Xiao pushed him away again, hailed a taxi, and quickly climbed inside.

The driver saw Lin Shuo in the rearview mirror, his hands hanging empty, his figure growing smaller in the distance. He asked kindly, "Did you have a fight with your boyfriend?" Xiao Xiao covered her face, struggling to hold back tears. The driver sighed. "Young people are so baffling. You know you can't live without each other, yet you insist on pushing one another away. Why make yourselves suffer for no reason?"

"We aren't compatible."

The driver chuckled. "He said that?"

"No."

"I really don't know what you women are obsessing over all day." Obsessing? Was she really just obsessing? When exactly had she become so cowardly? Had her once stubborn nature, the kind that would never turn back until she hit a stone wall, truly been worn away? After finishing his lament, the driver took a turn and asked, "Where to?"

On the street in the dead of night, Lin Shuo still stood where she had left him. He never could have anticipated this. They had weathered the greatest of storms together, yet now they were losing to money? It made no sense!

"Sir, you should head back," the driver advised. After a long wait, he finally heard him whisper, "Just a little longer."

"Xiao Lin!"

Lin Shuo jerked his head up. The taxi driver drove away with a smile, revealing Xiao Xiao's slender figure. She called out to him, and she smiled at him.

"Xiao Xiao!" Before she could walk over, he had already sprinted toward her and pulled her into a tight embrace. The momentum made her stumble back a few steps. She laughed through her tears. "Xiao Lin, I want to be with you. I want it with all my heart."

Lin Shuo sniffled and held her even tighter. "Let's get married."

She closed her eyes, nestled in his arms, and nodded continuously.