Back Then, I Adored You

When she heard what he said, Xu Wennuan slowed down on fiddling with the door lock and looked up at him. After spending the night out, she looked tired and had dark brown circles below her eyes. Lu Bancheng looked away from her after quickly taking in her appearance.

He regretted what he had just said, because he should have given it a second thought before he said anything. But now he was also upset about regretting it.

She had that abortion the morning after she found out she was pregnant. She hadn’t hesitated at all. I’d made a mistake at first but, judging from how quickly she made that decision, I was nobody to her.

I liked her, for real, but I don’t want to lose my pride to love her.

Lu Bancheng easily became upset and emotional thinking of how she had crushed his self-esteem, and now was no different. He rose up to go to the master bedroom when Xu Wennuan started walking away from the guest bedroom. She did not call his name; she only uttered, “Huh?’

Lu Bancheng stopped, but he didn’t turn around to look at her. Other than her cough he’d heard the night before and what she’d said to Director Li last night, the “huh?” was the only thing he had heard from her since the night he had learned he had lost his baby.

Xu Wennuan walked quietly toward him as he was distracted in thought. She stopped at arm’s length, with her head down, and held out a brown paper bag in front of him. With a glance at the bag, he did not need to open it to know that money was inside of it.

She kept her head down without looking up at him. When she realized he was not going to take the bag, she said in a low, measured voice, “It’s $100,000, same as last time.” Instead of waiting for a response, she bent down to place the bag at his feet and then straightened her back and walked back to the guest bedroom.

Lu Bancheng clenched his teeth as he looked at the bag on the floor for a while and then looked up and out the window with red eyes.

No, I’ve not loved anyone for the past few years. Until now, I wasn’t even sure how much I loved her, but I was always sure about how important she was to me.

She was with Wu Hao for 10 years. She never knew she could only be in his life for 10 years.

When Lu Bancheng had moved overseas to study, he was barely 10 years old. Living in a foreign country had made him feel helpless. Back then, she had been the only one who would chat online with him in Chinese. She had been nice and cared about him. Even though it had been many years ago, he still felt her kindness from those chats.

After he had returned to China, he had become very busy and had no time for games. The sole reason he had even kept the game on his cell phone was because of her. When he had finally realized it was her in the game, he had wanted to be nice to her, but his affection toward her had turned into hatred as time went on.

It was better for him if he was not to see her, as he could control himself better. Whenever he saw her, he wanted to ignore her, but he wanted her attention at the same time. The struggle was real; however, she seemed not to care at all.