Yan Hongsha came back with takeout, hiding a bit of sneaky curiosity in her heart. As soon as she stepped inside and didn’t see Luo Ren around, she dropped the food and went straight for Mu Dai, who was sitting on the couch:
“So what happened after that? Come on, then what?”
Mu Dai asked, “What ‘after that’?”
Hongsha crossed her two index fingers, tapping them together like a little “smooch” gesture—her knowing signal.
“You ruined it.”
“What?” Hongsha’s face fell in shock.
Behind her, Yiwan San grumbled while rustling the takeout bag: “Hey, rich lady, I know you went bankrupt, but can’t we lose the money without losing our pride? We still have a mission tonight, and all you brought back was a pancake?”
Hongsha ignored him. “Where’s Luo Ren?”
Cao Yanhua answered, “He just went down. Didn’t you run into him on your way up? Said he was going to wash the car and do a quick checkup.”
Hongsha darted off after him.
She caught him just in time—Luo Ren’s car was about to roll out of the hotel courtyard. With a long shout of “Stop!” she ran to the front, arms spread wide.
Luo Ren hit the brakes in time.
He rolled the window down. Hongsha leaned in with a grin. Luo Ren said, “Hongsha, your car-stopping skills have improved a lot these past two days.”
Hongsha laughed nervously.
“What are you laughing at? You think that smile of yours is going to make me blush?”
“Of course not,” Hongsha replied honestly.
Luo Ren shook his head, half amused, half helpless. After a pause, he said, “Get in.”
That surprised Hongsha, but she knew they couldn’t block the hotel gate for long. She hurried around to the passenger side and climbed in.
The repair shop was spacious, with seven or eight workers on staff. As soon as they saw Luo Ren’s car, they crowded around, curious and excited.
Truthfully, washing and a quick tune-up wouldn’t take much time, but since the car was rare, the workers lingered over it, touching and inspecting. The guy writing up the job order hesitated and stammered, “Um… this might take… longer than usual.”
Luo Ren didn’t call him out. “That’s fine. Just make sure it’s done well.”
Hongsha sat on the edge of a small flowerbed outside the shop to wait. From a distance, she saw Luo Ren buy two bottles of drinks. When he walked closer, he tossed one to her.
She caught it smoothly.
“Nice reflexes,” Luo Ren said.
Hongsha grinned—every time he complimented her, she couldn’t help feeling giddy.
“So why’d you bring me out here?” she asked.
“No special reason. Just to talk.”
Twisting her bottle cap, Hongsha asked, “You and Mu Dai—things are good now, right?”
“Were they not?” Luo Ren replied.
“Well, those few days I was staying at Auntie Hong’s. When she came back, she told me you and Mu Dai had probably split.”
Luo Ren smiled faintly and set his drink by his feet. The flowerbed wasn’t carefully tended—wild, scraggly plants grew out of control. The sun was almost down, and the last light fading on the flowers left them dull and dim.
There’s a saying: you see color only because there’s light hitting your eyes. When darkness falls, no matter how bright and vivid something is, without light, all you’ll see is black.
“It’s complicated,” Luo Ren said softly. “These days, I’ve been thinking a lot.”
“You? Thinking a lot?” Hongsha’s eyes widened. “You’ve been looking like nothing even bothers you.”
“I used to have a lot of brothers I’d gone through life-and-death with in the Philippines,” Luo Ren said. “The closest one was Japanese—his name was Aoki.”
Hongsha pouted. “I don’t like Japanese people.”
“Aoki spoke excellent Chinese. He loved Chinese culture. He told me his favorite Chinese word was xintian—‘heart field.’”
“Heart field?” Hongsha frowned. “What’s so special about that?”
“He said it felt profound. Everyone’s heart starts as a square patch of land. Then you plant seeds in it, and with time, it thrives or withers. Slowly, it changes beyond recognition.”
He touched his chest with his finger and looked at her. “Here. Which part of mine is lush, which part is barren, which holds color, which never sees light, which hides poison insects—you think you’d know?”
Hongsha froze for a moment. It actually made some sense.
“So what have you been thinking?” she asked.
“Thinking about whether this Mu Dai is still the same girl as the one I knew before—Little Pocket. Wondering if I should keep going. Then I thought, life shouldn’t be overcomplicated. People change. As long as the love between us is still there, I can accept those changes.”
“What do you mean, the foundation of love?” Hongsha asked.
Luo Ren countered, “Do you know why I like Mu Dai?”
“Why?”
“You know Pingtin?”
Hongsha nodded.
“She and I grew up together. Between boys and girls, there’s always a bit of a hazy feeling—it’s not quite love, but it’s a kind of affection. That can grow, or it can end there.”
“Later, I went to the Philippines. Life there was dangerous, unpredictable. Naturally, I thought it was better not to drag a good girl down with me.”
He explained that when he briefly returned to Xiaoshanghe, Pingtin had already grown up. One day, she shyly confessed her feelings.
Hongsha’s eyes went wide.
“Pingtin’s like that—shy, reserved. She wouldn’t say it outright. She’d hint, use subtle words, hoping you’d understand.”
“And? You turned her down, right?” Hongsha pressed anxiously.
“I told her indirectly. Said my situation was complicated, and I wouldn’t be considering personal matters anytime soon.”
Pingtin didn’t say anything at the time. But the next day, when he saw her, her eyes were swollen from crying. Uncle Zheng must’ve thought Luo Ren had hurt her—he scolded him viciously.
wannaberecluse On SRTT Chapter 98.2