A few days ago when he had a fever and got sick, Jiang Yuan and Jia Fang rushed to carry him to the hospital. The old phone in the drawer should have remained untouched.
With this thought in mind, Chi Xu suddenly stood up and strode towards the room.
Jiaojiao was startled. She blinked her big, watery eyes and curiously followed him.
The bedroom remained in the same state as when they left that day.
Chi Xu opened the drawer. The old phone was out of power. He immediately took out the charger cable. While waiting for it to boot up, he was extremely anxious, like an ant on a hot pan, fidgeting.
His eyes casually swept across the desktop. Just as he was about to look away, he suddenly felt something was off.
Chi Xu slowly leaned closer and looked down at the photo album on the desktop.
He remembered that before he completely lost his wits due to the fever, the photo album was not placed in the middle of the table but in a corner.
At that time, he had a splitting headache and felt so uncomfortable all over. He just casually put the photo album on the table and then collapsed into bed.
The only people who had been in his room were Jiang Yuan and Jia Fang.
When Jia Fang came, Jiang Yuan was also there. Jia Fang couldn't have rummaged through his things on his own initiative.
So the only person who had looked through this photo album was Jiang Yuan.
Chi Xu's heart started pounding. Each beat was like a drum of unease thumping in his chest. His breathing became rapid and erratic.
There were photos of Jiang Yuan in this photo album.
Some were secretly taken by him, and some were photos he pestered Jiang Yuan to take herself. Under each photo, he had written down the approximate date.
From the third grade of primary school to the year of junior high school graduation, but there were no more photos after high school.
It meant that Jiang Yuan had flipped through and opened it.
He had never told Jiang Yuan about this photo album. He had planned to wait until they officially got together and then give it to her personally.
To tell Jiang Yuan that he had loved her for many years.
Chi Xu stared intently at the photo album. His trembling hand touched it. He took a deep breath and opened the first page.
"Yuan, may Jiang Yuan be care - free and safe all the years."
The words that came into view were written many years ago. The handwriting was a bit childish.
"Ding!"
The restarted phone made a sound, and Chi Xu's train of thought was instantly pulled back.
He remembered what he was supposed to do. He suppressed the complex emotions surging in his heart and quickly unlocked the phone to open the memo.
The memo was completely clean. All the recorded words had been deleted, so clean that it was as if they had never existed, like a dream.
When the dream woke up, there was nothing left.
Chi Xu was stunned. The phone in his hand almost slipped. His five fingers holding the phone trembled slightly. He stared fixedly at the blank memo interface.
For a moment, Chi Xu suspected that there was something wrong with his eyes. He blinked hard, but the blank still stung his eyes.
Did Jiang Yuan... become so heartless that she deleted everything and didn't want to leave any trace?
Those deleted words used to be Jiang Yuan's most passionate infatuation.
In the blink of an eye, it was all gone, disappearing without a trace.
Chi Xu's mind frantically recalled the content of those words. It was like looking for an exit in a dark maze, but he only grasped some vague fragments.
Those fragments were like broken glass shards, stabbing his heart painfully.
"Yuanyuan, are you really that heartless?"
His murmured words softly dissipated in the air.
Suddenly, as if he thought of something, Chi Xu's fingers nervously swiped on the phone screen and opened the recently deleted section.
His heartbeat was extremely clear in the quiet room.
But the recently deleted section was also empty. All the records had been completely deleted without leaving a single trace.
Having just recovered from a serious illness and then being continuously stimulated, Chi Xu felt dizzy. His vision almost went black. He slumped weakly into the chair, feeling as if all his strength had been drained from his body.
The room was deathly quiet. Only his heavy breathing echoed in the air.
I don't know how long it took, but the terrifying sense of suffocation finally left, and his mind gradually regained clarity.
Chi Xu slowly stood up and dragged his heavy steps to the window. The sky outside was overcast, like a huge gray curtain, so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.
Just half an hour ago, the sun was still shining brightly outside.
Chi Xu reopened the memo. He hung his head and stared at the blank space, gently stroking the virtual keyboard with his fingers.
As if making a certain decision, he created a new memo in the original memo.
His fingers tapped gently on the screen.
[Memo updated on December 20th]
[Yuanyuan, I'm sorry. Can we find a time to have a good talk?]
He knew that Jiang Yuan hated this memo now, but Chi Xu didn't know what else to do. Jiang Yuan had almost blocked all the contact methods related to him.
Only this memo could barely be used to get in touch with her.
He hoped that Jiang Yuan could give him a chance to sit down and have a calm talk.
Chi Xu stared intently at the line of words he had typed. Worried, he typed another line.
[Song Xiangyi has already told me. Don't believe her. The so - called engagement was all her nonsense. Let's meet and talk. Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you everything without any concealment.]
The rest of the initiative was now in Jiang Yuan's hands.
If she never replied to his messages and kept blocking him, Chi Xu thought he would have to wait for Jiang Yuan and talk to her in person.
The weak sun was hiding behind the gray clouds. Under the same sky, after Jiang Yuan rushed out of the hospital, she didn't know where to go for a while.
She didn't want to go back to the dormitory because of Lin Suye.
She didn't want to go back to the apartment because of Chi Xu.
Suddenly, it seemed that she had nowhere to go, no place to shelter herself.
People were coming and going around. There was no shortage of people at the hospital entrance. Jiang Yuan walked out silently. Her heart felt like it had been torn into countless pieces, and she felt so empty and uncomfortable.
"Jiang Yuan?" A hesitant voice came from behind. Jiang Yuan turned around blankly and saw Lu Zhen.
Lu Zhen never expected it to be her. He was overjoyed and walked over with a smile, wanting to say a few words. But when he saw her empty expression, he was immediately stunned, and the words blurted out.
"Jiang Yuan, what's wrong with you?"
Jiang Yuan lowered her eyes, shook her head, and said softly, "It's nothing. Why are you still at the hospital?"
She remembered that Lu Zhen had come just the day before.
Lu Zhen awkwardly scratched the back of his head and lied, "Actually, I found that I still have some problems, so I came to have another look."
Wrong. Actually, he came here again in the hope of running into Jiang Yuan by chance.
It was worth all these days of waiting. Finally, he managed to wait for her.
"Jiang Yuan, your complexion looks so bad. Are you sick?" Lu Zhen asked carefully. The concern in his eyes was not fake.
Jiang Yuan looked at him quietly and said softly, "Lu Zhen, I regret loving Chi Xu."