White Roses and Red Roses - Chapter 9

Throughout the entire summer vacation, every time I stepped out, I would see Qin Rui’s car parked downstairs. He stood by the car, holding various kinds of flowers. Even when he saw me, he wouldn’t say a word, just quietly handed the flowers over. When I didn’t take them, he would smile slightly and toss them into the trash bin nearby, saying, “Oh, you don’t like these flowers? I’ll bring a different kind tomorrow.”

Eventually, I couldn’t hold back any longer. “It’s not that I don’t like flowers; I just don’t like you.”

His eyelashes fluttered slightly, as if he hadn’t heard a thing, standing there silently, watching me.

Over the years, since his mother passed away, I had been by his side, helping him gradually emerge from the shadows. Qin Rui was no longer the gloomy, taciturn boy he once was. He had become composed, knowing when to advance and when to retreat. Except for that one time when I jokingly said I would leave him, I had never seen him lose his composure again.

But at this moment, he seemed to revert back to that fourteen-year-old boy, sitting alone under the moonlight, as if abandoned by the entire world. I approached him, trying to reach him, to save him. But it was all in vain.

“Yesterday, Xu Aile came to see me. She admitted that from the start, she approached me because she had her eyes on you.”

I looked at him and gave a soft laugh. “That night, the night you rushed back because I was crying, before you picked up my call, she had already unbuttoned your shirt down to the third button.”

“Don’t come looking for me, Qin Rui. I admit I really loved you before, but now, just thinking about having kissed you makes me feel sick.”

“I don’t want to have any more contact with you.”

As the long summer was about to end, Qin Rui finally disappeared from outside my building. I took the time to go to the hospital for that unfinished check-up, and after confirming everything was fine, I returned to school.

In my senior year, there were hardly any classes. I threw myself into the frenzy of fall recruitment, and after half a month of busyness, I finally landed a satisfying offer. It was then that Qin Rui appeared once more.

He stood like a silent statue at the spot below my dormitory. Everyone in the college knew he was my boyfriend, so inevitably, people would come to ask me about him.

I went downstairs to find him. When Qin Rui saw me, he managed a small smile. “Wen Yu.”

“Are you sick?” I asked him. “You disappeared for half a month, and I thought you had given up. What are you doing now?”

“Waiting for you, hoping that maybe one day you’ll change your mind.”

Qin Rui said, “Wen Yu, I’m begging you, don’t leave me.”

His tone was so calm when he said this that I was momentarily stunned. I sensed something was off and stared into his eyes, realizing that beneath the calm, there was a turbulent storm, emotions so intense they threatened to engulf me.

I instinctively took a step back. “You’re crazy.”

“Maybe.”

He said nonchalantly, “If being crazy can make you forgive me, then being crazy is fine.”

A person who appears rational and indifferent is even more terrifying when they go mad. Qin Rui had completely abandoned his studio to stay by my side. In the end, even Xu Aile came to find me.

“At least try to talk some sense into Qin Rui. That studio is his hard work of three years. He can’t just abandon it.”

I remained expressionless. “What does that have to do with me?”

“No matter what, you and he were together for three years…”

I suddenly laughed. “So you knew.”

“I was with him for three years. We even planned our wedding. I even shared my hesitations about preparing for it with you. But what you gave me in return was sneaking around with my boyfriend behind my back.”

“Is someone else’s boyfriend really worth your attention?”

Xu Aile finally fell silent, her expression turning extremely unpleasant, unable to say a word.

I went downstairs and stopped beside Qin Rui. He looked up at me and softly called, “Wen Yu.”

“Stop doing meaningless things, Qin Rui.”

I spoke calmly, my tone even. “You know, I may seem weak, but once I’ve made a decision, I won’t change it. Just like back then, when everyone told me you were dangerous, but I liked you so much that I was willing to spend a significant part of my precious life saving you, without any regrets.”

“Now, I’ve made up my mind to leave you, and you know it.”

“I’m leaving you not just because of what I saw at the hospital. You’re smart; you must have sensed it long ago-on that rainy night, when I was excited to celebrate with you, only to find the inappropriate closeness between you and Xu Aile.”

“I asked you for a bouquet of roses, and you didn’t give me one. From that moment, our relationship started to fall apart.”