TSFLIP Chapter 839

“Are you afraid I’ll ruin your innocence?” Zhou Xing smiled faintly. “It’s all right. I can marry you.”

Fengguang laughed, but as she laughed, her vision suddenly blurred. A thin mist had risen in her eyes, making it hard to see him clearly.

“Fengguang, don’t cry.”
He lifted his hand and gently brushed the corner of her eye with his fingertip.

She sniffed and forced an easy smile. “Sorry, must’ve gotten sand in my eye.”

There was no wind just now—how could there be sand?

He didn’t question it. Instead, he said with a smile, “Fengguang, I’ll be grown soon. When that time comes, will you marry me?”

“Why would you want to marry me?” she asked casually. “This is our first time meeting.”

“I want to marry you because of how I feel. What does the length of time we’ve known each other matter?”

He made a good point. She had no answer for that. She could only sigh helplessly.
“I’m sorry. I already have a husband—and my daughter is older than you.”

“That’s fine,” he said earnestly. “You can divorce your husband. You can bring your daughter with you when you marry me. I’ll do my best to be a good father.”

Fengguang couldn’t help laughing. She knew he meant every word, but he was only twelve. Hearing him say such things both touched her and made her want to laugh.

“You don’t believe me?” he asked.

“No… I believe you,” she said. “But…”
She bent down and leaned closer to his face, speaking slowly, “I can’t be with you.”

“Why?”
He thought, If her husband refuses to divorce her, then I’ll just kill him.

“Because the distance between us is far, far too great.”

“Age isn’t—”

“I’m not talking about age. I’m talking about distance.”
The distance between life and death.

Zhou Xing didn’t understand. He rarely encountered things he couldn’t understand, and he hated the feeling. He liked having everything firmly under his control. So he moved even closer and gripped her hand tightly.

“See? We’re very close. Close enough that I can hold your hand.”

“Ah Xing, you’re still young,” she said softly. “There are a lot of things you don’t understand yet.”

“Then, when will I understand?”

Fengguang didn’t answer. She looked over at a pastry shop not far away and smiled mischievously.
“How about this—you buy me a fresh osmanthus cake, and I’ll tell you.”

He glanced at the shop, then back at her. “You’ll wait here for me?”

“Yes,” she answered without hesitation.

“You won’t lie to me?”

“If I lie to you, may I never die a good death.”

He frowned. “Fengguang, I don’t like hearing you swear like that.”

“Then… if I lie to you, may I never be able to eat sweets again?”

Only then did he relax and smile. “Wait right here. I’ll be back soon.”

Fengguang nodded and watched his small figure walk away. She saw him enter the pastry shop, then turn around to look at her. She gave him a gentle smile. He smiled too and began speaking with the shopkeeper.

She turned around and walked away without looking back.

The bustling crowd swallowed her up in moments.

Zhou Xing walked out holding the osmanthus cake. The faint smile he always wore froze on his face. He stepped into the sea of people—yet of course, he would never find her again.

“Young master, what’s wrong?”
Fubo had come searching when he didn’t return. He rarely saw the young master flustered, so he couldn’t help asking.

Zhou Xing didn’t answer. He just kept searching through the crowd.

“Young master…”

“Fubo.” He finally stopped. The paper wrapping around the osmanthus cake was crushed out of shape in his fist. His voice was hoarse. “She’s gone.”

Fubo didn’t ask who “she” was.
“Young master, it’s getting dark. We should go back.”

“I’ll look a little longer.”
Night had settled without him noticing. “Just a little longer.”

Fubo never pulled out the letter hidden in his coat. The letter contained only one short message:

I have already chosen where I will rest.
Let my body sink into the shores of the Eastern Sea—
it is the best way to stop all of this.
When sixteen years have passed, tell him I’m still alive.

If he knew she was alive, he would pour his entire life into searching for her.
And that way… he would survive.

Wouldn’t he?