After a while of inhaling and exhaling, I finally put out the cigarette in my hand. But only after a long silence did I speak to Leyao: “Since we’ve found out about Wei Manwen, we should tell Luo Ben, although it might be painful. It’s fair for Luo Ben, Wei Manwen, and CC.”
Leyao replied, “When pain reaches an unbearable limit, people can break down… Why don’t we just tell Luo Ben that Wei Manwen has already married someone else and is living a good life now, so he can give up on this idea completely?”
“We can’t do that. If one day Luo Ben finds out the truth, he will hate us for the rest of his life. Moreover, are you willing to watch Wei Manwen live alone in that impoverished mountain area for the rest of her life? This poor woman really doesn’t deserve such suffering, especially since Luo Ben still loves her deeply.”
Leyao fell silent, but tears kept falling down her cheeks. Because the undying love between Luo Ben and Wei Manwen was so precious in this restless, superficial world, it moved even those who merely heard about it.
My heart ached, but I still reached out to Leyao with determination: “Give me those two photos of Wei Manwen. I’ll take them to Luo Ben now.”
“Do you really have to do this? CC will be devastated!”
“We can’t escape it. This is CC’s fate, and also Luo Ben’s fate.”
Leyao looked down at the photos in her hands for a long time. Finally, she extended them to me. I took them from her hands but didn’t have the courage to look at Wei Manwen’s face on the photos again, nor did I dare to imagine for Luo Ben how she had lived these past three years away.
I tried my best to calm myself amid the oppressive silence and said to Leyao: “I’m going to find Luo Ben now. You should rest early.”
Leyao grabbed my hand, not letting me leave, and looked at me with tear-filled eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
She choked back tears and replied, “I really understand Wei Manwen… I could also find an island, a mountain village, and grow old there for the man I love deeply.”
A sudden wave of sadness surged in my heart. I softly told her, “What are you saying? You’re destined to become a shining star in the future. Islands and mountain villages won’t be part of your life anymore.”
Leyao let go of me, silently sat back down on the bed… I looked at her one more time, didn’t stay any longer, and turned to walk outside with Wei Manwen’s photos in hand.
…
As soon as I stepped out of Leyao’s room, my heart felt like it had plunged into a living hell, enduring endless torment. Yet I still forced myself to walk toward the darkest place and personally tear apart Luo Ben and CC.
Finally, I arrived at Luo Ben’s door. I repeatedly tried to muster the courage to knock, but each time I gave up. I wandered aimlessly up and down the hallway like a headless fly until I heard the sound of a guitar coming from the balcony, realizing that Luo Ben wasn’t in his room.
I walked as quietly as I could toward the balcony, but to my surprise, CC was also standing there with Luo Ben, listening to his singing.
This time, Luo Ben was singing “Lilian” by Song Dongye, a folk singer who debuted around the same time as him. This song “Lilian” not only conveyed the imagery of the sea but also told the story of a lonely person on the distant shore…
As the song played, CC gently hugged his waist, like a woman who had finally escaped loneliness and walked in from the distant shore. But an unknown storm was approaching, ready at any moment to throw her back to that lonely island… In that moment, I wavered, wishing I could bury the news about Wei Manwen deep in my heart forever, letting it rot away.
But at this very moment, wasn’t Wei Manwen also struggling desperately on a desolate island? How could I, just because CC is my close friend, hurt that poor woman again?
Thus, I was caught in a painful struggle, my humanity flickering like a flame in the night wind, uncertain whether it would stay alight or be extinguished.
After a long while, I finally made up my mind to let CC and Luo Ben have this peaceful night, considering it my final act of kindness toward CC. Once tomorrow’s warm sunlight rises with the morning breeze, I will reveal this long-buried truth to Luo Ben, making him cry, hurt, and regret…
…
Back in my room, I placed Wei Manwen’s photos under the glass on the desk. Lighting a cigarette, countless thoughts surged through my mind, but I forced myself to open my laptop and continue optimizing the “Perfect Travel” package, striving to resolve the imbalance between myself and the merchants regarding customer capacity.
Time passed unnoticed into the late hours of the night. I finally felt tired and leaned back in my office chair. I pulled Wei Manwen’s photo from under the glass again, recalling the photo of her that Luo Ben once kept in his wallet.
Comparing the two, I felt astonished. Could the passage of time in the mountains really have transformed a gentle, intelligent, and beautiful woman into such a worn-out figure? The answer was yes. Therefore, I felt even more heartache for Luo Ben and couldn’t imagine how he would face the current Wei Manwen.
My work QQ suddenly flashed while I was in a daze. I opened my eyes, temporarily setting Wei Manwen’s photo aside, and clicked on the blinking icon, discovering it was a message from Jian Wei. She asked me, “It’s almost 12 o’clock. Haven’t you rested yet?”
“You’re still working too!”
Jian Wei didn’t respond to this question that could be ignored, but instead asked me, “I heard Luo Ben has been looking for his first love recently?”
“There’s some truth to that.”
“Did he find her?”
This was completely unrelated to Jian Wei, so I didn’t hide the truth and told her: she was found.
Before I could even finish sending the message, she sent me a voice call request, clearly very concerned about this matter. I immediately grabbed my headset and answered the call.
With evident concern in her voice, Jian Wei asked, “How is she doing now?”
I was silent for a moment before answering, “Not well at all. She’s teaching in a remote mountainous area of Guizhou province. She looks much older than she did a few years ago, even though she hasn’t even turned 30 yet.”
Jian Wei was silent for even longer than I had been, before she softly said, “The mistake here is Luo Ben’s foolish belief that every woman can forget the past and start anew with a seemingly decent life.”
“How do you know what Luo Ben did to his first love?”
“I talked about it with CC yesterday.”
“Does CC know that Luo Ben is looking for his first love too?”
“Luo Ben himself confessed it to her. It seems like Luo Ben is fully prepared mentally. I’d really like to see his reaction when he knows the outcome.”
“You can’t possibly be watching this like a spectator, can you?”
“Of course not, I feel heartache for his first love too, but I despise men like him who are self-righteous and think they’re clever. This tragedy is entirely of his own making. It’s only fair that he suffers for it!”
Jian Wei’s almost extreme words left me stunned, making me unable to speak for a long time. It felt like I was experiencing a sense of being indirectly criticized, yet I couldn’t be sure. In my daze, Jian Wei had already hung up the call and sent me a text saying “Good night” before logging off.
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