By the time he finished, the outside was already lit up with the evening lights, and the room was dark, a thin veil of darkness gently enveloping the two. Their faces were half-hidden in the shadows, only the gleam in their eyes visible. Both were silent for a long time, then Song Li’s voice, seeming to come from very far away, ethereal and buzzing, asked, “Yu, do you think Tang Xiaofu loved me?”
Cheng Yu hadn’t expected such a question, but he nodded without thinking, “Yes, she loved you, loved you deeply, to the point where she wanted to have your child despite knowing you had schemed against her.” His voice was filled with bitterness, sinking lower and lower, then a barely audible, despairing, and helpless murmur, “I envy you so much, I envy you to the point of madness, I’m so jealous I could die.”
Song Li only heard the first part, his body trembling slightly, not knowing whether it was from joy or something else, “What about me, did I love her?”
Cheng Yu looked at him, enunciating each word, “You loved her. Very much. Compared to this love, what you had with Liu Yi was nothing.”
Song Li was shaken again, then he looked up, staring intently at Cheng Yu. His voice was filled with bitterness and sorrow, almost as if he was asking Cheng Yu and himself at the same time, “If we loved each other, why couldn’t we be together? I loved her so much, yet hurt her so deeply. She loved me, yet she’s now with another man. Why did it come to this?”
Cheng Yu couldn’t answer, only letting out a soft sigh, “Li, why did you forget her? I’ve heard that if a memory is too painful or about someone you wish had never appeared, you might force yourself to forget in your subconscious, leading to selective amnesia. But, did you really want to forget her? You wouldn’t, or perhaps, this is fate.”
Song Li, listening to Cheng Yu’s words, involuntarily sank into a profound pain, indescribable and inescapable.
Volume Two: The Dancing Girl – Chapter Eighty-Eight – Four Years Later
