"You touched her!" Mu Yang's hiss startled the chandelier to shake slightly, "You know she thinks you're me!" His fist slammed heavily against the wall around Lin Yunhe's ear, and the wall dust rustled down, pooling into a white mist around the two men's feet. Lin Yunhe, however, suddenly laughed, beads of blood dripping down his chin onto his clean white shirt, blossoming into a demonic flower." When she looked at me with those eyes and called out your name over and over again, do you know how jealous I was? So jealous that I wanted to break you into pieces!"
Lingxi only felt a wave of vertigo. She stumbled and held onto the bar, her fingertips touching the wet rag, the cold touch sobering her." Enough!" Her voice wasn't loud, but it was like a heavy hammer hitting between the two. Muyang's fist hung in mid-air, and Lin Yunhe's laughter came to an abrupt end.
"I'm going back to school." Lingxi tightly grabbed her handbag, her slender fingers pinched hard and deep into her palm, the strength was so great that it was as if she wanted to carve an indelible mark in her palm, a mark that might forever remind her of her determination at this moment. Her eyes revealed a resolute look as she said firmly and incomparably, "None of you should follow me." Afterward, she resolutely stepped over the mess on the ground and walked outside. Those broken porcelain tiles made a fine sound on the soles of her shoes, a sound that was crisp and mournful, as if she had stepped on something precious that would never heal. Each sound was like telling a fragmented story, one that was perhaps filled with helplessness, pain and struggle.
"Xixi?" Muyang's voice came from behind him, it carried a tremor that had never been heard before, and the slightly trembling tone was filled with extremely complex emotions. He stood silently in the rain with his umbrella, which seemed to appear somewhat powerless, unable to completely shield him from the rain. The leisure suit on his body had long been soaked through by the rain, the rain dripping down the corners of his coat, the tips of his hair were also dripping, the water droplets seemed to be the sorrow in his heart flowing in a steady stream. "Shall we go home?" Lingxi slowly turned her head, the rain mixed with tears blurred her vision, making the world in front of her eyes become hazy and unreal, as if it was an illusory dream. "Muyang, I really didn't mean to take Lin Yunhe as you, I was really delirious from the drugs at that time, I always thought it was you by my side, I really feel so bad so bad ... What do you think we should do? You tell me ah?" Lingxi cried out while her voice was filled with pain and helplessness, the pain seemed to go deep into her bones, the helplessness was heartbreaking. While she looked at Mu Yang's reddish eyes, which were filled with sadness and struggle, as if she was experiencing an unbearable storm.
Mu Yang didn't say anything, but just silently opened his arms and hugged Lingxi tightly into his broad chest. Lingxi felt his warmth, but her heart was full of entanglement and helplessness. She whispered: "I'm going abroad for a few months to accumulate academic research for writing. Let's calm down and treat this as a test for us. After a few months, I will come back from abroad. If you still love me then, let's get together again!" Mu Yang listened to her words, his heart full of bitterness. He knew that nothing he said now could save the situation, and he couldn't return to the days of love before. He could only reluctantly agree: "Okay, Lingxi, I will always wait for you, and wait for you to come back and continue to promise me, and be my baby again." His voice was low and firm, as if he was making an extremely solemn promise, which carried his hope and expectation.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling window of the international airport, the wings of the Boeing 787 were reflecting the glimmer in the morning mist. Mu Yang's hands were shaking as he pushed the silver suitcase, and the sound of the universal wheels rolling over the gaps in the tiles.
"Baby," he suddenly turned around and pressed Lingxi against the column, the smell of mint cigarettes mixed with cedar perfume enveloped her, "Can you please not leave?" His fingertips sank into the soft flesh of her waist, as if he wanted to rub her into his ribs, "Without you, I really would live like a zombie, and I wouldn't even be able to taste the sweetness of coffee."
Lingxi's eyelashes cast a trembling shadow under her eyes. She saw that the third button of his shirt was misplaced - this was the same mistake he made when he was in a panic on their first date. This discovery made her heart tighten suddenly, and her nails unconsciously pinched into the muscles of his back.
"Mu Yang," she buried her hot cheeks in his wet neck, her voice mixed with the English prompts on the radio urging boarding, "When you won the game before, the champagne you opened, the feeling of the champagne exploding on your tongue in your mouth, was like love."
Mu Yang's Adam's apple rolled, and tears mixed with the coolness of shaving water slid into her collar. "I remember," he stroked her hair, "you said that was our speed and passion." He suddenly pushed her half a step away and took out a velvet box from his suit pocket, "Take this," inside was a diamond ring with carbon fiber patterns, "When you come back, we will go to your favorite city to hold the wedding."
Lingxi's phone vibrated at this time. It was a message from Lin Yunhe, wishing her a safe journey and asking her to consider him. He loved her and was willing to wait for her to come back. In an instant, her mind popped up the scene of her and Lin Yunhe's body entangled that night, and this memory made her fingertips tremble slightly.
"I need time," she gently pushed the diamond ring back into his palm, and the metal ring reflected a rainbow halo between the two of them, "Just like a car needs to slow down when turning." She turned and walked towards the security check, with a red scarf raised behind her, "When I come back, we will recalibrate the speed of love."
Mu Yang quietly watched Jiang Lingxi pull the heavy suitcase and walk into the boarding room step by step. At that moment, a deep feeling of loneliness slowly spread in his heart like a tide, filling his heart with melancholy and loss.
Since Jiang Lingxi resolutely left, Mu Yang instantly fell into an extremely decadent state, and this state lasted for several days. In their warm little nest full of endless love, he kept immersing himself in the good times he had spent with Jiang Lingxi in the past. Mu Yang chose to drink to drown his sorrows, almost abusing his body and mind. During this period, he neither went to school to attend classes nor participated in any social activities. It seemed that he had disappeared from people's sight for a long time. When he was finally about to wake up completely, it was already several days later. He walked slowly and heavily into the bathroom. When his eyes quietly fell on the mirror, what came into view was a face covered with messy beard stubble, pale and bloodless, and showing a miserable state. Suddenly, he began to talk to himself: "My baby has always liked my handsome face and my strong body. Otherwise, what if my baby comes back and sees me like this and doesn't want me anymore? I must restore myself to my original appearance as soon as possible."
Lin Yunhe curled up in front of the French window of the 28th floor apartment, the moonlight cut his thin back into a sharp blade. The bone china coffee cup cast a cold shadow on the glass coffee table, and the black coffee left at the bottom of the cup condensed into blood-like lines. His fingers unconsciously stroked the wrinkles on the leather seat, and the touch was very similar to the soft flesh on Lingxi's waist.
"Xixi..." He knelt on the wool carpet, his forehead against the cold screen, and his breath condensed into white mist on the glass. The memory was uncontrollably rewound back to that night in the reed marsh: she murmured "Ayang" under the effect of drugs, but imprinted her hot lips on his strong chest. At this moment, his fingers slowly wandered along the waist of the woman on the screen, and the hip line looming under the silk nightgown made his Adam's apple roll violently. Suddenly, he unbuttoned his shirt and pressed his chest muscles against the image of Lingxi, as if this could put the night in the reed marsh back together.
At the first light of dawn, Lin Yunhe curled up in the cigarette butts and fell asleep. In his dream, Lingxi was wearing a red suspender dress and floating in the champagne bubbles, and every inch of her skin was covered with tiny diamond lights. He reached out to grab her, but only held a handful of cold moonlight. When he woke up, he found that his right index finger was deeply pinched into his palm, and blood was flowing along the palm lines to the "XY" tattoo on his wrist - that was the mark he secretly carved on his pulse when he fell in love with Lingxi at first sight a year ago.