Chapter 103: On This Day Ten Years Ago, She Left Him

Xiao Xuezhen stepped out of the car and stood beside it, gazing across the street at her.

“President, shall we go over?” Qin Feng asked respectfully beside him.

The man shook his head, his dark eyes narrowing as he looked at her amidst the crowd gathered around the stationery stall under the setting sun.

He watched her pale little face puff up slightly, looking so petty as she bargained with the shopkeeper, then bought quite a few stationery items, tucking them into the backpack she carried in front of her chest.

He noticed that she always preferred to wear her backpack strapped in front, unlike most people.

Such a silly, adorable girl—she looked so much like the girl from eighteen years ago…

And today happened to be the day she met with that accident…

Xiao Xuezhen closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

In the darkness behind his eyelids, the harrowing scene from eighteen years ago surged vividly before him.

The huge truck speeding toward him, ultimately crashing into the girl he loved most at the time.

The blood spreading across the ground, and her lying helpless and barely breathing in his arms…

His thoughts twisted and turned as he opened his eyes, breathing heavily. Then he said to Qin Feng, “Let’s go.”

Qin Feng’s eyes widened in surprise. After the meeting, the president suddenly said he wanted to visit his wife’s school. Now that they were at the school gate and he saw her, he wouldn’t go over but just quietly glance and leave—what was going on?

Yet he still replied respectfully, “Yes, sir,” and got into the car, starting the engine and driving away.

Among the crowd struggling to get stationery, Shi Runrun felt as if someone was watching her.

She pushed through the crowd and looked across the street but saw nothing unusual.

She frowned lightly, wondering if it was just her imagination.

Not thinking much of it, she waited outside the crowd for Cen Huan and Li Leilei a while. The three of them then agreed to go to the cafeteria for a meal.

At five in the afternoon, the three finished dinner.

Shi Runrun sent a message to Xiao Xuezhen.

She told him she would be studying with Cen Huan in the library until late and might come home late, so he didn’t need to pick her up.

But after a long time, there was no reply.

Shi Runrun didn’t think much of it and linked arms with Cen Huan as they headed to the library.

The clock ticked to ten at night. She had been immersed in studying in the library until closing time, when she and Cen Huan finally stepped out.

Outside, the night was deep and dark. They parted ways at the gate, and Shi Runrun called Xiao Xuezhen.

Still, no one answered.

She frowned and then called home.

Aunt Li told her that Xiao Xuezhen hadn’t returned yet. A sense of foreboding crept into Shi Runrun’s heart. It was so late, and he hadn’t come home; she couldn’t reach him either. Where could he be?

Not wanting to trouble the family driver for a ride, Shi Runrun ordered a ride through a ride-hailing app to go home by herself.

By the time she returned to the Xiao residence, it was already half past ten at night.

Inside, only one light was on in the living room, lit by Aunt Li for her.

To avoid waking the maids and Aunt Li, Shi Runrun tiptoed inside and went upstairs.

Once inside the bedroom, she first took a shower.

Coming out of the bathroom, she dried her wet hair and sat on the bed waiting for Xiao Xuezhen to come home, but unexpectedly, she fell asleep on the bed while waiting.

In the early hours of the morning, she heard the sound of the front door opening downstairs.

Half awake, she slipped out from under the covers, dressed in her pajamas, and went to open the door to go downstairs.

But just as she reached the stairs, she saw him standing in the living room below. In the faint light, he stood quietly, smoking.

In the swirling smoke, Shi Runrun saw the tight set of his handsome face, furrowed with deep sorrow.

She stared at him, momentarily stunned, unable to understand what was troubling him today, what he was thinking, and why he looked so heartbroken.

“Xiao Xuezhen…”

She whispered his name gently from the staircase.

Hearing her voice, Xiao Xuezhen rubbed the exhaustion from between his brows, put out his cigarette, and spoke softly, “Why aren’t you asleep yet?”

Embarrassed to say she was waiting for him and couldn’t sleep without him, she instead gave a vague excuse that she had trouble sleeping tonight, then came downstairs to his side, wanting to tell him to go wash up and rest.

But as she began to speak, he suddenly turned his head. In his deep, dark eyes flashed a long, profound sadness, then a moment of daze, and then coldness returned.

He seemed to have been lost in thought before, but her voice disturbed him, leaving a hint of displeasure on his face.

Seeing his features suddenly harden, Shi Runrun was taken aback, momentarily at a loss.

“Xiao Xuezhen… you…”

Before she could finish, he cut her off coldly: “Go to sleep. I still have some things to do. I have to go out again.”

Shi Runrun was speechless.

Out at this hour? Still going out?

The words stuck in her throat, wanting to ask but unable to voice them.

In the end, she could only press her lips together, clutch her heart, nod slowly, and say softly, “Oh,” then dragged her lonely figure back upstairs.

Before entering the bedroom, she glanced back at him once more, seeing him light another cigarette, quietly smoking.

A voice inside her told her that something must have happened to him today.

But it was something he did not want to say, something he did not want to tell her.

What could it be…?

With this question weighing on her, Shi Runrun lay in bed, tossing and turning.

…

At one o’clock in the morning,

Xiao Xuezhen drove through the darkness to a park on the outskirts of the city.

In the pitch-black night, no one was around. The vast park was enveloped in a lonely, cold stillness.

He stopped the car, got out, and slowly walked along the park’s perimeter before entering it.

This path was one they had walked countless times when they were eighteen, but after that, he could never walk it again.

In the hot early summer, unusually, a cold wind blew tonight.

Xiao Xuezhen pinched the bridge of his nose and walked to the deep part of the park, stopping beneath a large tree.

After the early accident, he had buried all their memories there—her diary, photos, and some gifts they had exchanged—beneath this tree.

He stood before the tree, a faint smile touching his thin lips.

In his ears, her voice seemed to ring out—clear, sweet, calling his name.

“Xuezhen… Xuezhen…”

A soft, gentle voice, beautiful and penetrating to the very marrow.

She was usually quiet and well-behaved, but when calling his name, she showed a trace of emotional fluctuation.

She said this was what it meant to like someone.

When you like someone, calling their name stirs emotions beyond control.

She said he called her name the same way.

Her words were full of affection and fluttering hearts.

Back then, their eyes held only each other.

But ten years ago, on this very day, she left him—left him forever…