It seemed that this time when I saw him, he was no longer that willful, childlike Xi, no longer the Xi who desperately tried to please me, calling me Ran Ran. This time seeing him, I always felt his demeanor had changed – more desolate and helpless, less confident and smiling, more lonely and vicissitudinous, less willful. The only thing unchanged was that he was still as mysteriously terrifying as eight years ago. No one knew where he came from, no one knew his background.
“Your name also contains zihua flowers. Don’t you like zihua flowers? They’re beautiful, so pretty!” I said with a smile, my eyes never leaving his face. The hand he was holding slowly withdrew from his embrace. I reached out to hook his arm again, pulling him forward.
“Right, zihua flowers were once her favorite too, but I don’t know if you also like zihua flowers now!” His words made me tremble heavily. I stared blankly at Shui Zixi, pain continuously spreading in my heart. I thought the “she” in Xi’s mouth must be Ran Huier, that Huier whom all men loved.
I adjusted the smile on my face, pretending not to have heard. I intimately hooked his arm and said: “Let’s go! If there are no zihua flowers, we’ll go to that house we once lived in! We can discuss leaving Cang Country slowly!”
Shui Zixi grabbed me: “As long as you still like zihua flowers, we’ll replant a field of them!” His eyes were full of laughter and doting, brimming with smiles.
At this moment, I didn’t know if he was treating me as someone else or as Ran Yanyi, but I didn’t want to pursue it anymore.
Wey (bewildered): “I’m clearly still alive… Don’t curse me, my little Ran Ran will be heartbroken.”
Yan: “You dead Xin torturing me is enough, and now hurting my Wey, if you dare hurt him, I will absolutely…”
Mou Xin (softly): “Death is certain…”
Yan (muttering softly): “Can’t I choose my own ending? Xin is so unscrupulous!”
Mou Xin: “You say I’m unscrupulous! I’ll show you how unscrupulous I can be!”
Everyone looked at Mou Xin with resentment, cursing him a thousand times in their hearts: You unscrupulous stepmother.
Mou Mo (quietly smiling): “Let’s continue, don’t waste time.”
