Le ciel est le rivage de la poussière mortelle

Chapitre 19

Xu Xiaoxian! What a mess you've made! As soon as Bai Zhenzhen left, Ai Jiawen poured a bunch of used straws over my head.

I foolishly let those colorful straws slide down my hair, the straws covered with colorful spilled wine, creating a hazy scene under the light.

Everyone in the bar looked at me with mockery. Even my close friend, pianist Su Hai, came over to tease me, patting my shoulder with his fat fingers and saying, "Xu Xiaoxian, Ai Jiawen likes gentle girls, not androgynous Super Girls like Li Yuchun. You shouldn't waste your time."

I slowly ripped the straws off my hair, one by one, as if tearing away bits and pieces of my love for Ai Jiawen. The movements were slow and slow, and my heart ached terribly.

After severing all ties, I left the Blue Bar dejectedly. Even though Ai Jiawen chased after me saying, "Xu Xiaoxian, I don't blame you..."

VI. Everything is a karmic entanglement

"Xu Xiaoxian, I'm dying, please save me." Just as I was about to decide to leave the city, I received a distress text message from Bai Zhenzhen.

When I arrived, Bai Zhenzhen was lying in the living room, with a large pool of dark red liquid flowing from beneath her.

"Xu Xiaoxian, save me! I've miscarried! Your father doesn't care about me anymore, Ai Jiawen is gone, and there's no one to help me!" Bai Zhenzhen pleaded with me, tears streaming down her face.

Without saying a word, I picked her up, ran downstairs, hailed a taxi, and took her to the best hospital in the city.

Drops of blood flowed back into Bai Zhenzhen's body. The doctor said that if it had been half an hour later, the pregnant woman would have died.

"Whose child?" I asked coldly.

Yes, yes… Bai Zhenzhen hesitated and refused to say it aloud.

I didn't know if she was unwilling to say it or deliberately not saying it, so I continued to ask indifferently, "Ai Jiawen's?"

Bai Zhenzhen covered her face with a pillow, her voice slightly hoarse:

Your father said that if he had known who it was, he would have killed him. I love Egavin, and I didn't want him to get hurt, so I lied to him and said my father had married me off to a rich man, and then... he left...

I slapped Bai Zhenzhen across the face. I have no idea how thick-skinned she is. One minute she loves me, the next she loves my father, and then she falls in love with the person I love.

How could you hit a patient? The doctor stepped forward in astonishment to stop me.

Hitting a patient? Yes, Bai Zhenzhen has always been a patient, a morbid person.

VII. I've loved, I've hated.

Two years later, I took over my father's company. My father was involved in a car accident after driving under the influence of alcohol, resulting in hemiplegia. Watching my mother quietly washing his frail, aged body in the afternoon, my vision suddenly blurred. I thought this was God's best arrangement for him. And then, during a business trip to Shanghai, I met Ai Jiawen again.

When I saw the name "Blue Tears" in that unfamiliar city, I couldn't help but get out of the car and walk into that bar. I never expected that I would meet Ai Jiawen there.

Ai Jiawen was still as handsome as ever, still shaking the silver-plated cocktail shaker filled with ice, but his expression was melancholic, like the late actor Leslie Cheung, a melancholy that tugged at the heartstrings. I said, "Hey, Ai Jiawen, give me a Blue Tears." Ai Jiawen carefully examined it for a long time; he hadn't expected that an ugly duckling could transform into a proud swan in just two years. My elegant smile, my noble demeanor, every movement was reflected in his surprised eyes. "This is my boyfriend," I introduced the tall, handsome man beside me to Ai Jiawen. Actually, he was my bodyguard, but at that moment, I suddenly felt a surge of vanity; I wanted Ai Jiawen to know that I was doing well. Ai Jiawen nodded, neither asking nor speaking, and continued to shake the silver-plated cocktail shaker filled with ice, shaking and shaking...

[Modern Edition: 012 A Faint Chrysanthemum Fragrance]

Countless flowers bloom, from one to another, and then one stops to examine a chrysanthemum closely; there must be an inexplicable connection between them.

As Winnie ran forward, I wondered if I should chase after her.

Five minutes ago, Winnie was clinging to me like a little bird, but now she's suddenly stormed off, all because I said that Lin Yue smelled really nice, a faint chrysanthemum scent.

A woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea. But I'd better still chase after her.

As I rushed into the girls' dormitory and turned the corner of the stairwell, a large basin of dirty water, through the impact of my chest, poured over me without wasting a single drop. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I was about to swear when I saw that the person holding the basin was none other than Lin Yue, who stared in disbelief. In her hand, she was also holding a piece of tarpaulin, smeared with black burlap. Perhaps in her panic, she had used it to wipe the designer shirt that Winnie had given me, which was worth a thousand yuan.

"Stop it! You gossip, you've made a mess and you're wiping it with a rag!" Winnie returned to the scene at some point and shoved Lin Yue aside fiercely. Lin Yue stumbled, her forehead hitting the half-open door. She clutched her head and slowly squatted down.

"Playing dead? Don't even try. This old lady doesn't show mercy to women." Winnie lifted her high-top white leather boot and kicked Lin Yue's washbasin downstairs.

"You've gone too far, Winnie! Don't think you can do whatever you want just because your father is the principal!" Gao Hong, who shared a dormitory with Lin Yue, checked Lin Yue's injuries while angrily yelling at Winnie.

"Who are you calling a liar? Who are you calling a do-whatever they want? So what if my dad is the principal? Wasn't it me who helped Lin Yue get her work-study job? Are you ungrateful?" Winnie, who was always gentle and sweet in front of me, suddenly became like a hedgehog with its fur standing on end, every word of hers like a needle pricking me.

"Winnie, Winnie!" I grabbed Winnie, who was about to kick someone, and dragged her out of the building while taking out a few hundred-yuan bills from my pocket and throwing them down.

"Let's take Lin Yue to the school doctor to have her injury checked."

"My Lin Yue doesn't need your filthy money!"

As soon as we came downstairs, a handful of tattered banknotes fell like snowflakes onto Winnie and my shoulders. Upstairs, mocking hisses and whistles came from the windows.

Winnie and I fled in panic.

In the afternoon, I stayed quietly in the school's computer lab, watching the leaves fall one by one from the branches outside the window. It's already autumn. The mountains in my hometown should be covered with wild chrysanthemums, those simple wildflowers sprinkling a layer of brilliant and warm gold on the earth.

In Winnie's presence, I was the son of her father's comrade-in-arms, and the president of the student council. Yet, I could never forget that my parents were farmers, and I could never change the deep, unspoken affection I had always held for Ju. I was the administrator of the school website, and Lin Yue was the moderator of the literature section. This girl, as gentle as a chrysanthemum, liked to write simple, understated articles. I was always the first to read each of her posts, and I would immediately mark them as featured. I must say, I had a certain degree of attention and favoritism towards her. However, she was merely a farmer's daughter, dressed in outdated, cheap clothes, and responsible for cleaning the stairwells of the entire girls' dormitory.

Sometimes, I would watch her receding figure and sigh inwardly. Why is there nothing perfect in this world? Winnie is shallow, but she's beautiful. Winnie is arrogant, but her father is the university president. The president's daughter, nestled close to me like a little bird, accompanied me on walks, chatted with me, making me the center of attention among thousands of students. This greatly satisfied my vanity. Besides, Winnie's father had already arranged the best path for our future. As long as I was with Winnie, my future would be a smooth, golden road. Yet, at this moment, my mind was filled with Lin Yue.

After logging onto the website, I stared silently at Lin Yue's black avatar—the mischievous little rabbit with one eye closed, always dull and lifeless, just like the days when I couldn't see Lin Yue. I worried about Lin Yue; that day, her face was so pale, with red lines of blood winding down her smooth forehead. I wanted to rush over and hold her in my arms, I wanted to beat Winnie up, but I did nothing.

"Here, your money." Lin Yue placed several pasted banknotes on the table next to my computer.

I stared blankly at the restored banknotes, my mind a complete blank. Seeing that I didn't speak, Lin Yue sighed softly and turned to leave.

"Don't go." I couldn't help but grab her hand. "The money is for your medical treatment, take it."

"I don't need it!" Lin Yue's eyes shot over me like ice, and she struggled to break free from my grasp with both hands.

In the struggle, I used too much force and accidentally pulled her into my arms. Looking at Lin Yue in my arms, I was stunned. I didn't know what to do. Well, let's do something. I kissed Lin Yue's lips hard, and screams erupted around us.

Lin Yue stared at me in surprise, her eyes wide open, unable to react at all.

I caught a faint chrysanthemum scent. Indeed, Lin Yue's body and lips carried that captivating chrysanthemum fragrance. The students in the computer lab stared in astonishment at the scene before them. Perhaps accustomed to the romantic escapades of campus life, after the initial murmurs and commotion, the sound of keyboards clattering resumed.

“She’s better than me, tell me!” Winnie burst in like a madwoman, pounding her fists on my chest as she cried and questioned me.

"True love needs no conditions." I watched Lin Yue walk away and breathed a sigh of relief. From today onwards, I will never let anyone bully her again, and I will never let her suffer so much alone. That kiss made me realize that this is what love is! Leaving Winnie behind, I hurried to the infirmary, where the school doctor was changing Lin Yue's dressing.

I was reported for publicly insulting a female classmate.

The person who reported me was Gao Hong. I don't hate her, not at all. I know that she has always been the only one who has been good to Lin Yue, and the only one who has been helping Lin Yue.

The director of the academic affairs office handed me over directly to Principal Wen.

On the way, he said ingratiatingly, "This is nothing in itself, but why are you getting involved with Principal Wen's daughter? I really don't understand."

"Xiao Bo, sit down." Principal Wen kindly gestured for me to sit. "Don't let your willfulness ruin your future. I will handle this matter properly, but you must ensure that nothing like this that hurts Winnie happens again. Of course, young people are impulsive and sometimes making mistakes is inevitable. Didn't I make similar small mistakes back in the army? Don't believe me? Ask your dad, haha, he was the squad leader back then, and he really scolded me..."

“I’m sorry, Principal Wen.” I interrupted him; until now, I had always called him Uncle Wen. “Winnie and I are over. I don’t love Winnie; I love Lin Yue!”

"What did you say?!" Principal Wen, who had been smiling, jumped up from his chair before he could even adjust his expression, pointing a trembling finger at me and yelling, "You! You brat, say that again!"

"I love Lin Yue. The person I truly love is Lin Yue. I can't be with Winnie anymore." I said clearly and unequivocally. From the moment Lin Yue was injured, the heartache cleared my mind, and now I know what I truly want.

"Who do you think you are? You're just a country bumpkin. If it weren't for your father saving my life back then, we wouldn't even consider you if you wanted to marry Winnie. Get lost!"

I practically rolled out of the bright office building that symbolized my status. "The sky in the liberated area is so clear, hehe..." I jumped and laughed, feeling a sense of ease and freedom I had never experienced before. So what if I'm a country bumpkin? I am a country bumpkin!

"Don't you regret it?" Lin Yue asked me with a faint smile as she signed her name on the list of volunteers supporting the Great Northwest.

"No regrets." I closed my eyes, put my arm around Lin Yue's waist, and gently inhaled the faint chrysanthemum fragrance wafting from her hair.

With a series of rhythmic clatters, the train gradually lengthened the distance between us and the school city where we had lived for three years. Lin Yue and I sat hand in hand on the hard seats of the train. " Lin Yue, lean on my shoulder and sleep for a while." I gently pulled her into my arms. "No, I'm not tired, I don't want to sleep, I want to look at you."

Lin Yue's eyes sparkled in the darkness, like lovely stars in the sky, blinking gently. I couldn't resist kissing her. "How could you fall in love with me? You're the prince charming that all the girls in school acknowledge."

Lin Yue gently ran her rough fingers over my thick eyebrows, slender eyes, and sharply defined lips. I caught them in my mouth, and Lin Yue blushed instantly, pulling her hands away and quickly tucking them behind her back. I pulled them out, holding her hands, which had lost their delicate softness from hard work, and looked into her eyes, saying, "Because, because, I fell in love with a chrysanthemum in autumn."

The faint fragrance of chrysanthemums, just like our love. It drifts freely across mountains, carried by the wind. Countless flowers bloom, moving from one to another, and then pausing for a chrysanthemum to examine it closely—there must be an inexplicable connection between them. As for the matter of me being reported, Lin Yue said she kissed me first, it was consensual, so there's no question of who insulted whom.