When she returned, Liang Shi was lying on the bed, grinning foolishly.
Xu Qingzhu asked her, "Who are you?"
"Liang Shi," Liang Shi's voice was tinged with a drunken haze, "don't you remember me?"
She sat up, her posture demure, like a five-year-old child.
Xu Qingzhu patted her head and coaxed, "I remember."
"Where were you originally from?" Xu Qingzhu asked again, with a hint of coaxing.
“So…” Liang Shi repeated, then frowned, “So…so where was it from?”
She sighed, her voice full of grievance, "Sister, I can't remember."
Xu Qingzhu: "..."
She gave up and said, "Then you should go to sleep."
"Okay," Liang Shiyi said in a cute childlike voice, "I'm going to sleep now. You should sleep well too."
"Okay, okay," Xu Qingzhu said perfunctorily, trying to help her drink water, but Liang Shi didn't cooperate and instead smiled brightly.
She said, "Life will definitely get better because we will definitely have a lot of love."
Xu Qingzhu's water glass suddenly fell to the ground, leaving her completely stunned.
Chapter 33
—Little sister, are you scared?
—I am not afraid, because I believe that God is watching.
—Little sister, don't be afraid. You are so cute and beautiful, God will protect you from the shadows.
"But sister, there are no gods in this world."
Yes, it exists as long as we believe in it.
"Sister, does it hurt?"
—It doesn't hurt, don't be afraid.
"Sister, please don't laugh anymore, okay? They'll hit you."
No, only when I smile will God see me.
—I believe life will get better, because we will definitely have a lot of love.
—So I will laugh, I will laugh heartily, I will laugh wildly, I will let God see.
The distant conversation was forcibly dragged out from the depths of her memory, as if a monstrous wave had surged in Xu Qingzhu's mind.
The bedroom was eerily quiet, with only Liang Shi's even breathing as she lay on the bed. A perfectly timed smile curved her lips, instantly transporting Xu Qingzhu back to spring eighteen years ago.
That year, she was dragged into a black car on her way home from school, and a group of people blindfolded her with black cloth strips.
The dilapidated van reeked of a foul odor, and the vehicle kept bumping and swaying. Her mouth was stuffed with strips of cotton cloth, her teeth ached, her mouth was sore, and her tears soaked her clothes.
She was taken to a dilapidated chemical plant in the suburbs, with old iron gates, a large room where the sun never shines, and two ferocious yellow dogs that barked incessantly.
The lights in the chemical plant were dim and yellow. A group of people were playing cards and drinking around a small table, speaking in a dialect she couldn't understand, laughing and joking. In the large room, there were seven or eight little girls about her age. The one next to her was wearing a blue dress and had fair and delicate skin.
Even though she was still losing her baby teeth, the little girl had already grown a whole row of neat, white teeth.
The little girl loves to laugh. Her eyes crinkle when she laughs, and the curve of her lips is always the same when she laughs, which looks very comforting.
This was the first time Xu Qingzhu had experienced something like this, and she was terrified. She had been crying ever since she was tied up, and her tears were like beads falling from a broken string. Her eyes started to hurt from crying. The little girl next door handed her a lollipop and whispered to her, "Don't cry, little sister. We'll be out soon."
The little girl said, "My name is Liang Shi, Liang as in pillar, and Shi as in suitable. What's yours?"
"My name is Xu Qingzhu."
How old are you?
Five years old.
"I'm seven years old, I'm older than you, so I'll protect you."
“These people want money. They’ll let us go once our parents give them the money,” Xiao Liangshi said.
They stayed in the dark, cramped room for a long time, eating the same food as the two big yellow dogs every day.
Liang Shi kept saying that someone would come to rescue them.
One day, while Liang Shi was asleep, one of the kidnappers said, "The Liang family is so rich, they wouldn't even accept five million to ransom their daughter, and they even want us to kill her."
Xu Qingzhu hesitated for a long time about whether to tell Liang Shi about this, but she woke up soon after the kidnapper finished speaking.
With red eyes, she told Xu Qingzhu, "They're all lying. My mom and dad will definitely come to save me."
...
That memory was too painful, and peeling back the layers of that memory was an extremely agonizing process for Xu Qingzhu.
But she still remembers those words.
Over the years, those words have sustained her through one difficult day after another.
It was that person from her memory who kept encouraging her and telling her not to be afraid.
So Xu Qingzhu often tells herself, "Don't be afraid, everything will be alright. We will definitely have a lot of love, and then we will love others with all our might."
She was overjoyed when Liang Shi first told her he wanted to marry her.
She thought she had married the older sister from before, the gentle sister who would always encourage her to live on and tell her not to be afraid.
Unexpectedly, the memories remained the same, but the people in the memories were no longer the same, and they had even forgotten what had happened between them.
Xu Qingzhu was unable to speak for a long time. She didn't know how to get along with people. She would have post-traumatic stress disorder when she saw a big yellow dog, a black cloth strip, or even when she entered a room without windows. At that time, her doctor said that if it continued like this, they could hypnotize her to erase that memory.
Because it was too painful, I can lose that memory.
After their reunion, Xu Qingzhu always thought that she had lost her memory and had become very different from before as time went by.
But now she smiles with the same curve as when she was a child and says, "Life will definitely get better because we will definitely have a lot of love."
She still retains the same habits she had when she was a child. Is she Liang Shi?
Which personality of hers is it?
A water glass slipped from my hand and fell onto the carpet. The glass didn't break, but the water soaked the carpet.
Liang Shi was already curled up on the bed.
Xu Qingzhu suddenly lunged at the bed and grabbed her, "Liang Shi, tell me, who are you now?"
Liang Shi opened her eyes groggily, her voice still hazy yet retaining a touch of childlike innocence, "I'm Liang Shi, sister~"
She frowned, her voice almost swallowed, and said in a soft, coquettish tone, "I want to sleep."
"Tell me who you are first," Xu Qingzhu asked. "Are you a second personality? Or are you not yourself, but someone else?"
"It's me," Liang Shi sighed, her eyes barely open. "It's always been me. What's wrong? Sister~ let me sleep, okay?"
Xu Qingzhu: "..."
Liang Shi leaned back and pulled Xu Qingzhu down with him.
Xu Qingzhu was only a few centimeters away from her, and her hand even reached directly from her collarbone to her delicate skin, her fingers gently gliding over her tender skin.
Alphas tend to have slightly rougher skin, but Liang Shi is an exception.
Liang Shi's skin was like cream, white and smooth. Although not as white as Xu Qingzhu's, it was still considered outstanding among Alphas.
The warm yellow light cast an ambiguous and dreamlike glow on the two figures, creating a sense of romance.
Breaths mingled, and Liang Shi gently licked her lips. Because she had drunk too much alcohol, her body needed to replenish fluids. In addition, she had sung many songs with Sally at the karaoke bar, and had been drinking alcohol while singing. At this moment, she desperately needed water, and her lips were already a little chapped.
Unable to absorb moisture, she could only gently stick out the tip of her tongue to lick her slightly chapped lips. Her eyelashes, which were longer and curlier than those of a typical Alpha, cast a shadow on her eyelids. Xu Qingzhu was positioned above her, backlit, shielding her from all the glaring lights.
But she still couldn't sleep peacefully.
I wonder what he was thinking about.
Xu Qingzhu dared not breathe until she could no longer hold it in and then exhaled deeply.
Their breaths mingled for a moment. Liang Shi suddenly opened his eyes a little and vaguely saw a face. Then he smiled, rolled over, and threw Xu Qingzhu to his side.
The bed was soft, and Xu Qingzhu's body bounced slightly. Liang Shi, with his eyes closed, casually draped his arm over her, embracing her like a doll.
The close physical contact made Xu Qingzhu's heart pound faster. She felt her face burning and her mouth dry. The scene of her licking her lips just now kept replaying in her mind.
Perhaps because she had drunk too much alcohol, her tongue was very red.
It is a bright red, similar to that of a rose.
She nestled in Liang Shi's arms, not daring to move.
For a moment, my mind went blank.
Once she was truly asleep, Xu Qingzhu closed her eyes briefly and gently sniffed her in her arms.
There was only a strong but not unpleasant smell of alcohol, which even masked the faint tea fragrance that usually emanated from her.
Many years have passed, and considering Liang Shi's previous actions, Xu Qingzhu has long since come to terms with reality.
The older sister she admired back then was no longer with her.
All that remains now is the soulless playboy Liang Shi.
Unexpectedly, she lost control again because of that sentence.
//
The next morning, Liang Shi was woken up by an alarm clock.
The soothing music was playing wildly right next to her ears, making them hurt. With her eyes closed, she instinctively reached for the bedside table, but couldn't find it. Instead, she just grabbed something cold.
A muffled thud sounded, startling her. She immediately moved her head to the bedside to see what had fallen to the floor, and then—
"puff--"
Another muffled thud.