Crossing the Clouds and Sky to Fall in Love with You - Chapter 53

Hearing the sound of the door lock opening, I hugged the diary and slid the computer chair across the floor, deliberately positioning myself by the door.

With red-rimmed eyes, she stepped inside the house. “Xiaoning…” She called my name, seemingly surprised by my deliberate waiting.

I shook the beautifully bound diary. “Before throwing something like this away, don’t forget to destroy it first. How can you throw away such a precious item intact? Your personal information, including Miss Zhu’s, is all exposed.”

“You looked at it?”

“Mm, I didn’t finish it all.” But I believed I had already seen the “key points” I wanted to know.

Her shoulders slumped, but she still maintained a frank attitude and said, “It’s good, it’s good that you’ve seen it… I originally wanted to hand it directly to you, to let you see, but in the end, I left it to fate. It’s good that you’ve seen it.”

“Do you… have nothing you want to defend?” I bit my lip. “It’s been so long since you broke up, and you said she betrayed you, yet you still miss her this much…” I turned back. The folder with the wedding photos was still open on the computer. “Not only did you keep the exchange diary until now to decide to clear it out, but you also kept that set of wedding photos… even though you were clearly in so much pain.”

“It was very painful!” She had only said three words before tears began to stream down. Her tears twisted my heart. I was only a moment away from stepping forward to hug her.

This wasn’t the Tao Siqi I knew.

She took off her overcoat and tossed it onto the small sofa. “But that’s my past, things that happened… without those things, there wouldn’t be the me of today. I could pretend nothing happened, clear these things out without you knowing, and pretend to date you with a clean slate… but I know that would be a lie, and I absolutely do not want to lie to you.”

She moved closer. I looked up. “What did she say to you?”

“She told me why she left me! She came to say goodbye.”

“Is her health… okay?”

“She’s had a lot of treatments over the years, and her condition is currently stable… Why do you ask that?” She could not hide her surprise as she knelt beside me, holding my hand with a humble and apologetic posture. “Aren’t you angry anymore?”

I squeezed her hand back. “I’m angry, but only because you weren’t willing to be honest with me. It made me misunderstand, thinking you were still thinking of her while dating me, that you only liked me because I looked similar to her, and what scared me the most was, I worried you were just using me as a replacement for her…”

“If I had any intention of using you as her substitute, I wouldn’t be worthy of saying I love you!”

I smiled, raising a hand to stop her eager clarification. “I know, I know you didn’t… I am very clear that you made all the preparations before you started dating me.” It was strange, whenever my emotions were agitated, just touching the amethyst could bring me a strange sense of calm.

“And, I think I’ve also inferred the real reason why Zhu Haiping left you.”

She was slightly stunned. “You know?”

“Mm, did she just finish chemotherapy?”

“Is it because she was wearing a baseball cap and her hair was so short?”

That’s right, the Zhu Haiping who suddenly appeared today had hair much shorter than Siqi’s. I had seen Zhu Haiping’s birth date; she was two years younger than Siqi. How could a girl who was only twenty-six deliberately keep that kind of hairstyle?

I took a deep breath and touched my forehead to hers. “She left you because she knew she was sick and didn’t want to drag you down, so she hardened her heart, lied, left, and gave herself to another man. Am I right?”

“My Xiaoning… why do you sound like you eavesdropped on our conversation? Did you put a wiretap on me?” she asked me in an intimate and admiring tone.

“That’s just my skill!” I gently poked her cheek. “Her husband… perhaps he likes her very much? But the person Zhu Haiping loves is you, it has always been you.”

Her expression instantly became complicated. “How are you sure?”

“I looked at all the wedding photos and found that she hardly looked directly at the man beside her. Instead, in every picture, she was focused on the lens… which means the person she was looking at was the photographer—you.”

She gasped in surprise and quickly glanced at the computer screen.

“I’ve confirmed it, that’s the case.” It seemed she hadn’t noticed… Well, just taking those wedding photos had already left her bruised and battered. I believe she hasn’t taken a good look at them in all the years she kept them. “And before meeting me, you were always alone. With your qualities, finding a suitable girl again would have been too easy. Was it because she was still in your heart that you were unwilling to easily start another relationship?”

“I was afraid of being hurt again. I told you, I’m not as strong as you think… For a month after the breakup, I cried almost every day and couldn’t do anything. It was Tao Yi’an who called me every day. Thanks to him, otherwise, I might not be here.”

“So, the person referred to in that snow scene was still Tao Yi’an, right?” The person who was furthest yet closest to her was indeed Tao Yi’an.

I opened the page with Zhu Haiping’s personal information. “I even checked her birthday to find out if the text you wrote that day was ‘he’ or ‘she’.”

She gave a wry smile. “I didn’t expect you to be so perceptive.”

“Because it concerns our relationship!” I playfully twisted her nose. She didn’t resist, letting me mess with her! “Silly Xiao Chu! Did you know how upset I was when I realized you used her surname as the name of your fan page? I thought you were still thinking of her.”

“You noticed that Haiping and you look a bit alike, I admit that I took special notice of you because of that… But when I met you downstairs, heartbroken from a breakup, I seemed to see my past self. I knew how difficult it was for you going through such a predicament. I couldn’t bear it… I couldn’t bear to leave you alone.”

“So you hugged me and took me back to your room, taking in the me who was practically dead inside.”

She nodded. “Your vulnerability made me instinctively want to protect you. I wanted to take care of you. Watching you gradually move past your pain made me happy, but I also unintentionally grew to like you because of your kindness and gentleness… Xiaoning, you are you. You are not Haiping, not anyone else. You are just you, and I fell in love with the pure and fearless Yu Xiaoning.”

“If there’s another chance, please treat that speech as your confession to me!” My eyes grew warm, and I finally reached out and hugged her. “I love you… Damn it! I originally thought… I thought if she dared to come back and try to take you from me, I’d make her pay, just like I was ready to face Lü Hanjun… But, but when I came back and saw the diary, and started frantically looking for clues, I realized it wasn’t what I thought! I’m so mad!”

Her tense body finally relaxed. “No one can replace you in my heart. The reason I initially used ‘Xiao Chu’ and later changed it to ‘Chu’ is indeed related to Haiping, but I don’t miss her. She has her life, and I have mine… I just want to cherish you well and strive to embrace the next journey.”

“Change it back,” I said, using her to wipe away my tears. “Anyway, your book title is ‘Xiao Chu,’ and besides, if you are ‘Chu,’ then I’m ‘Xiao’!”

She chuckled softly. “How did you come up with that! Alright, I’ll change it back in a moment…”

Before she stood up, I gave her a kiss. It was rare for her to wear lip gloss, and the texture of the kiss was a little different from usual, but it was just as sweet.

As she walked toward the computer, I stood up and gave her my chair. “Also, I found that dress.”

“Dress?” She looked at me. I pointed to the deep purple evening gown I had found. “Oh… that one.”

“The only skirt you said you owned?”

She scrutinized the dress with a sense of nostalgia. “Yes, although I only wore it once besides the initial fitting.”

I opened the last page of the diary to the drawing. This dress’s style was over eighty percent similar to the one drawn. “She picked it out for you, right?”

“Mm, she was the dress consultant.”

I looked at the gown. “As expected of your ex-girlfriend, she picked out a dress that suits you perfectly.”

Siqi lifted the corner of her mouth, stepped forward, grabbed the evening gown, and held it up to compare. The dress was a halter-neck tie-back style with flowing chiffon and lace, a strapless neckline, and a silky soft skirt. A slit on the left side added a touch of asymmetry, and the deep purple color, paired with her fair skin, looked like it was tailor-made.

She blinked and gave a soft laugh. “Want to see me wear it?”

My heart trembled as if I had been electrocuted. “Are you serious?” Wearing an evening gown in a fourteen-degree room?

“Mm.” She raised an eyebrow. I was moved by her smile. “I’ll put it on, and you can take my picture.”

“With the D90 you lent me?”

“Mm! Don’t you want to see?”

I bit my lip. Facing her suggestion, I really couldn’t resist. “I want to see.”

Then, she stripped off her clothes right in front of me—she took off everything, leaving only that purple evening gown.

Worn for me.

I helped her tighten the ties. Since she had put on makeup today, wearing it didn’t feel strange at all.

“I don’t have high heels to match.” Only floor slippers. Therefore, even though she was tall, the skirt still dragged a bit.

“It doesn’t matter, this is enough.” I gazed, mesmerized, at her bare arms and flawless, exposed back. After three years, this dress still fit incredibly snugly.

She ran her fingers through her hair and walked in front of the bookshelf. I held the camera. “So, I’m taking the picture?” Facing such a beautiful her, I felt inexplicably nervous and hesitant before pressing the shutter!

She teased and laughed openly, striking a casual hands-on-hips pose. “The photographer’s hands are shaking a bit too much!”

“Don’t, don’t talk nonsense!” After testing the flash a few times, I found the right angle and rapidly pressed the shutter. She changed a few more poses. Even though she had been the one behind the lens for many years, perhaps it was the instinct left over from the wedding shoot; her posing looked very practiced and natural.

And, she was truly beautiful. Her figure, her smile, and—her eyes.

The look in her eyes when she stared at the lens made my heart race.

After taking about ten consecutive shots, I put down the camera and walked straight up to hug her.

“No more pictures?”

“Mm, I want to hug my bride.”

She lowered her head and captured my lips. I held her and turned, pushing her directly onto the bed. The slit in her dress went up to her thigh. I lovingly touched her smooth leg, and my hand slickly slipped beneath her skirt.

As mentioned before, besides this dress, she was wearing no other clothes.

Her eyes widened. “You want me to…”

I tilted my head and revealed a mischievous smile. “Isn’t it good?” My fingers expertly found her sensitive spot, and I lightly touched that hot, soft inner thigh, eliciting her enticing breath.

I slowly and provocatively lifted the skirt, smelling the familiar and sweet scent of arousal. “I can’t wait to kiss the bride. How about you?”

She moaned softly, swallowing hard, unable to hide her anticipation—

“At least, turn off the light.”