Du Xiaoxian sat on the flower bed in the bushes. Suddenly, she saw a bright light coming from the gate. She knew it was Gu Nianbin. She hurriedly walked out from the bushes and waited under the tree. Now she was not afraid of Gu Nianbin at all. Instead, she was very happy to see him because he was her closest friend in this family.
The car stopped in front of her. Seeing Gu Nianbin getting out of the car, Du Xiaoxian hurriedly greeted him by saying “Young Master.” Gu Nianbin responded with a “hmm” but did not look at her. He walked straight into the house. Du Xiaoxian blinked her eyes and watched him disappearing. Suddenly, she felt a little sad and went back to sit in the bushes. In fact, she rarely felt so sad. When her mother died, she was sad. When her dog disappeared, she was also sad. Other than those, there seemed to be nothing that could make her sad.
But now she was feeling extremely sad. Gu Nianbin used to be kind and gentle to her, and often touched her head to show his affection for her. This was the happiest thing for her. Every time Gu Nianbin made such a move, she would be overjoyed, because that meant the Young Master liked her, which made her feel her value as a living person. This feeling was very important to her. However, things were different now. She sensed that the Young Master did not like her anymore. He loathed her as much as others did!
Du Xiaoxian held her chin and looked at her feet. They were right. She was a nuisance, and she was annoying wherever she went. Now even the Young Master loathed her, so she …
She looked up at the sculpture again. Under the water-like moonlight, the bath woman was calm and peaceful. She looked at it and got less depressed.
Gu Nianbin stood in front of the window and looked at the sculpture in front of the courtyard in a daze. It seemed that he got even more confused. Ever since Shao Boqing talked to him in the afternoon, his mind had been in a state of chaos. Of course, Shao Boqing was talking nonsense. How would he have a special interest in Du Xiaoxian? She was just a kid. He took care of her only because she was pitiful. Things were definitely not what Shao Boqing had thought of. However, Du Xiaoxian’s sad expression caused him to feel uneasy. There seemed to be a small voice in his mind that said, “You care about her. You really care about Du Xiaoxian!”
Gu Nianbin shook his head. Impossible. Absolutely impossible. He turned around and looked at the picture of Xia Xiaowan on the table. He only loved Xiaowan. How could he fall in love with another girl? Moreover, Du Xiaoxian was so much younger than him. And she was a maid. It was simply out of the question that he should fall in love with her!
Gu Nianbin went to the bathroom and took a cold shower. Then, he took a dry towel and stood by the window, drying his hair. He glanced at the bushes by the flower bed. It was dark, and he was not sure if anyone was there. However, Gu Nianbin kept staring in that direction. He had a hunch that Du Xiaoxian must be there. Why was she hiding there? Was she sad? Would she cry?
He threw away the towel and went to bed. He picked up the photo of Xia Xiaowan on the bedside table and told himself once again that the person he loved was Xia Xiaowan. He could only love Xia Xiaowan!
That night, he did not sleep well and had a strange dream. Many faces appeared in front of him, all of them women. There were Xia Xiaowan, Zhou Ting, a few daughters of his family’s friends for generations, this Xia Xiaowan, and his business partners… Every face was strangely clear. But one face was blurry. He could vaguely see a sharp chin. He reached out his hand to take that face over and to see it clearly. But every time before he almost got that face, other faces would flood over to stop him. He struggled to push them away and tried to take that blurry face over, but failed in the end. Watching that face disappearing little by little, he felt inexplicable panic, as if he tried hard to remember something important but failed…
Gu Nianbin woke up in the middle of the night and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He went to the bathroom to take a shower. When he returned to the bedroom, He found Xia Xiaowan’s photo on the floor. After picking it up, he saw a small crack in the crystal frame. There was a bad premonition in his heart. However, he felt that he was unreasonably worried. He placed the photo on the bedside table and leaned against the bed, lighting a cigarette. Light smoke curled up and spread out in the air. Under the dim light, the smoke was like a net that dispersed slowly. Gu Nianbin stared blankly at it. Suddenly, he recalled the dream and extinguished the cigarette in his cigarette tray. He pulled the blanket over his head and lay quietly.
The next afternoon, Du Xiaoxian was sweeping the yard when she suddenly saw a white car driving in through the gate. She recognized that it was the car of Miss Xia. She quickly stood aside and let it pass. Then, she lowered her head and kept sweeping the yard. However, she soon saw a figure walking towards her out of the corner of her eyes. She looked up and found that it was Xia Xiaowan. She looked at her with a light smile, “You’re Du Xiaoxian?”
Du Xiaoxian nodded. She was somewhat flustered and held the broom tightly.
Xia Xiaowan added, “It seemed we met once in Nianbin’s office?”
Du Xiaoxian nodded again, feeling even more uneasy.
“How old are you?”
The gentler Xia Xiaowan’s tone was, the more panicked Du Xiaoxian became. She didn’t know why Xia Xiaowan wanted to talk to her at all. She bit her lips and said softly, “I’m eighteen.”
“Such a nice age, as beautiful as a flower. Where are you from?” Xia Xiaowan asked again.
“Daliang Mountain.” Du Xiaoxian suddenly remembered that Xia Xiaowan got scalded last time. She hurriedly said, “Miss Xia, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you last time. I…”
“It doesn’t matter. I know you didn’t mean it.” Xia Xiaowan smiled gently, “It’s just a small matter. Don’t worry about it.”
As they were talking, Gu Nianbin’s car drove in through the gate and stopped beside them. Gu Nianbin got out of the door and smiled at Xia Xiaowan, “I was caught by something; otherwise I would go and pick you up.”
“It doesn’t matter. I just arrived and was chatting with Xiaoxian.”
Du Xiaoxian greeted him with a “Young Master.” Gu Nianbin responded to her calmly just like what he did that night. Again, he didn’t look at her and walked towards the house with Xia Xiaowan.
Du Xiaoxian heard him whispering to Xia Xiaowan, “What’s the good for you to talk with her?”
His tone was slightly contemptuous, and Du Xiaoxian felt that her heart was pricked by a needle. She frowned in pain and quickly turned around, lowering her head. She was caught off guard when a drop of tear fell on the back of her hand. The hot tear seemed to burn her skin. Then there were two more drops, and then a series of drops falling down.
She gripped the broom tightly, feeling extremely uncomfortable, as if a hand were forcefully twisting her heart, causing her unable to even breathe. Du Xiaoxian didn’t know why she felt so uncomfortable. The Young Master was right. A person as lowly as her was not worth being talked to. But why did she feel so uncomfortable? It was just one sentence. She had been indifferent to so many bitter remarks about her. Why was she so sensitive now? Was it because life was going on so well for her that she became pretentious?
Tears streaked down her eyes as she looked at the back of her hand. There was a slight scald. When she blew it last time, the Young Master did not scold her and even applied ointment onto her wound. He even smiled at her, and hugged her. His embrace was so warm! But now…He gave her indifferent gazes and spoke of her in a disdainful tone. Yes, he was distancing from her. The Young Master who was dearest to her was also going to leave her. No one would treat her as well as Young Master had done. Tears poured down Du Xiaoxian’s cheeks, and she was suddenly so sad that her shoulders shook.
Xia Xiaowan went up the stairs and turned around to take a look back, only to find that Du Xiaoxian stood still with her back facing them in the distance. Her thin body seemed to tremble slightly in the setting sun. She couldn’t help but let out a sound out of curiosity. Gu Nianbin also turned back. He didn’t know what Du Xiaoxian was doing there, but it was as if he suddenly missed one step and his heart instantly sank.
Fang Yaru stood at the door and smiled at them. “You are back home.”
Xia Xiaowan smiled and greeted Fang Yaru. She stepped forward and took Fang Yaru by the arm. Compared to Gu Shanshan, she was more like the daughter of Fang Yaru.
Fang Yaru talked with her as they walked into the room. When she turned around and saw Gu Nianbin still standing at the door, she asked in surprise, “Aren’t you coming in?”
Gu Nianbin took out the cigarette case and said, “I’ll come in after a cigarette.”
“You’d better quit smoking. It’s not good for your health.” Fang Yaru nagged when she saw her son lighting a cigarette. She shook her head and whispered to Xia Xiaowan, “You should talk about it with him. He won’t listen to me now.”
Xia Xiaowan smiled and said, “He won’t listen to me either.”
Fang Yaru lowered her voice. “You don’t know unless you try it out. It’s even harder to deal with it after you get married.”
Xia Xiaowan blushed and said with embarrassment, “Auntie, it’s still too early to talk about marriage.”
Fang Yaru secretly glanced at her son. Seeing him standing beside the pillar smoking cigarettes and not paying attention to them, she said, “You two have known each other for a while. I plan to pay a visit to your parents sometime.”
“Oh…” Xia Xiaowan turned around and took a secret glance at Gu Nianbin. “You’d better talk about it with Nianbin first.”
“I will talk with him.” Fang Yaru pulled Xia Xiaowan to sit down with her on the sofa. “You need to ask for your parents’ ideas after going back home. And then we will arrange a time to meet each other.”
“Fine. As long as Nianbin has no objection, I will talk to my parents.”
Fang Yaru nodded in satisfaction. It seemed that things between Gu Nianbin and Xia Xiaowan went on quite well over the past few days. Everything was in track. It seemed that her wish would soon be fulfilled. At the thought of Gu Nianbin getting married and having a child soon, she was overjoyed. After being worried over the marriage of her son for so many years, she was finally going to be released. In the blink of an eye, she could have a grandson. Fang Yaru felt that a happy life in her late years was already waving at her.
Gu Nianbin smoked and silently looked at the skinny figure in the distance. He knew that Du Xiaoxian was crying. Although her shoulders were no longer shaking, she was wiping away her tears again and again…
He was suddenly very angry. Why was she crying? What was she crying about? Why did she have so many tears? Why can’t she have stopped crying? He threw the cigarette butt on the ground and strode down the stairs. He rushed towards her angrily. He wanted to ask her why she was crying. What else was she dissatisfied with when she was living a comfortable life here and allowed to go to school? Why was she crying?
His anger only lasted for an instant. When he walked through the front yard to the lawn, his pace slowed down obviously. In the end, he stopped and hesitated when looking at the thin figure whose back was still facing him. He had always been straightforward. But when it came to Du Xiaoxian, he always hesitated …
Finally, he turned around and slowly walked towards the house. They were people from two worlds. They were destined to never have any relationship with each other, just like two parallel lines. They could only lead different paths of life.
When Gu Nianbin walked up the stairs and looked back, he found Du Xiaoxian was sweeping the yard with her broom. Now it seemed that she was as normal as she usually was. Gu Nianbin suddenly suspected that he had hallucinated again. Du Xiaoxian was obviously normal. Too normal, indeed. How would she cry?
Du Xiaoxian wiped away her tears. She calmed down and continued to sweep the yard. Since childhood, there were many people who disliked her. She didn’t care about it at all. No matter how hard life was, she still had to move on! She wasn’t a shameless person, but she could turn a blind eye to those sneers and ridicules.
But now, she cared about Gu Nianbin’s attitude. He used to be so nice with her that she felt she was leading a happy life in the paradise. But now, his attitude had undergone a total change, causing her to fall straight from heaven to hell. When she thought of this, her heart was twisting. It was a kind of unbearable pain. Du Xiaoxian felt that she couldn’t stand it anymore. Her thoughts were always very simple. Since the Young Master didn’t like her anymore, she should leave. When this thought popped out, it was like an unbridled horse that ran wild in her mind and could not be reined.
But where could she go? Her aunt begged others to get her this job. How could she just leave like this?
She stopped, let out a light sigh and turned around to look at the house. She happened to see Gu Nianbin’s back. Her eyes lit up, but her heart twisted. It hurt. She turned around and looked at the beautiful clouds in the sky. Even if she left and couldn’t see the Young Master anymore, she would remember him, forever…