You Regret It Now? Too Late...

Chen Lu smiled.

He seemed to be mocking his own past, yet also the obliviousness of the girl before him.

"I was never angry with you, not once," he said calmly.

"Then why..."

Mo Yuqing had only gotten halfway through her question when he interrupted her. "I just don't want to love you anymore."

The girl froze, speechless for a long while. Her eyes merely reddened, looking as though she had applied eye shadow beneath the pale light.

After a moment of silence, she slowly spoke again, her voice trembling. "I'm sorry... I know I was wrong. I won't be like I was before, I swear!"

"I've spent the past few days thinking, remembering everything that happened between us growing up. I know I've always treated you terribly... but I really won't anymore."

"Chen Lu, please... give me back the love that was originally mine, okay?"

In all his life, this was the first time Chen Lu had heard Mo Yuqing speak in such a pleading tone.

Even counting the time before they started kindergarten, it was the first.

She had never begged anyone for anything in her life.

Although her parents were divorced, she had still received their love and grown up in an excellent environment. Her family's circumstances were far beyond what ordinary people could attain, so she had never needed to beg anyone.

There were things money alone couldn't accomplish, but paired with power, it could accomplish a great deal.

This time, however, Mo Yuqing was truly pleading with him.

Even with all that in mind, Chen Lu continued to stare at her coldly and said in a low voice, "No."

At those words, the tears that had been circling in Mo Yuqing's eyes instantly spilled over, sliding down her delicate cheeks and falling to the ground, drop by drop.

Blossoming into flowers of despair and regret, one after another.

"Why? Didn't you love me for seven years? You used to love me so much..." Mo Yuqing wept like a pear blossom in the rain. The girl was so beautiful that even in tears, she was utterly captivating, stirring pity and affection.

Her heart was so cold it trembled, as though she had plunged into an ice cavern.

Chen Lu, of all people, had never been able to bear seeing her cry.

To keep her from shedding tears, he had gotten into fights in elementary school, skipped classes in middle school, and stayed by her side day and night when her parents were fighting over their divorce.

When she caught chickenpox, he had leaned against the other side of her bedroom door as a child, writing messages on slips of paper and passing them through the crack beneath it.

The two of them would spend an entire afternoon writing, and Chen Lu would come back for days on end.

Childhood sweethearts, innocent playmates, a gifted man and a beautiful woman... what a beautiful love story.

Yet she had forcibly rewritten it into an ending that was anything but beautiful.

That boy was now so disheartened that he no longer cared about her tears.

Remembering all this, she grew sadder and more regretful, until, thin-skinned as she was, she finally couldn't hold back her sobs in public.

"Yes, I loved you for seven years. But as you said yourself, that was before." Chen Lu smiled calmly. "What makes you think I'd love you forever?"

Seeing that Mo Yuqing couldn't stop crying, Chen Lu's feelings grew increasingly complicated. He could only continue:

"I don't regret treating you so well before, and I've never regretted what I gave. But just like I said that day,

I won't do it anymore."

"To be honest, I really did love you very much. So, so much... so much that even now, I don't want to make you sad. But I really don't want to go back to your side, either.

Do you understand what I mean?

I hope you can be happy, and then we can each live our own lives."

Chen Lu had been rational since he was a child, but he had never imagined that one day he would be this rational even about Mo Yuqing.

He added, "There's no point in asking me to come back to you. The past is right there, and I'll never be able to forget it."

"You might think that if you'd accepted my confession that day, everything would have been fine. But that's not true."

"It really isn't. That confession was just the period I put at the end of those feelings."

"My love for you had long since been riddled with holes by your own hands. So even if you'd accepted me that day, we couldn't have gone back to how things were."

His words exploded in Mo Yuqing's mind like a thunderclap from a clear sky, leaving her stunned.

For a moment, she even forgot to breathe, buried beneath endless regret.

The beautiful memories of the past were like quicksand: the more she thought about them, the deeper she sank.

Mo Yuqing suddenly felt a little ridiculous. Just minutes ago, she had thought she had merely failed to seize her chance.

It had never occurred to her that the hurt she had inflicted on Chen Lu had accumulated day by day.

"I just got used to it, that's all... I really..."

She wanted to keep explaining, but saw Chen Lu press an index finger to his lips.

His meaning was clear: he wouldn't listen if she said any more...

She understood that Chen Lu was preserving the last shred of dignity for her, and for their relationship.

Mo Yuqing wiped her tears with the back of her hand and said softly, "Take a picture, and I'll go..."

Seeing his confusion, she continued, "You used to love taking pictures of me."

"That was..."

"I know that was before, and I don't care who you take pictures of in the future. Just one picture, okay? I'll leave right after." Mo Yuqing clasped her hands tightly and looked at Chen Lu with utmost seriousness.

Chen Lu found a young woman out jogging at night and asked her to take a photo of the two of them.

"You pick a spot. You've studied photography so thoroughly." While Chen Lu was away, Mo Yuqing wiped her face with a wet wipe.

Unless someone came close or heard her speak, they wouldn't even notice she had just been crying.

She gave a self-mocking smile. Only now did she realize how romantic it was that Chen Lu had learned photography to capture her youthful beauty.

And by the time she realized it, this was already the last time.

Really, how ridiculous.

Chen Lu soon came to a streetlamp.

A branch stood beside it, and its shadow formed a straight black line on the ground.

Naturally, he chose this spot.

The lighting was good... and so was the symbolism.

He silently stood on the other side of the black line and looked up at the camera.

But the young woman held up the phone for ages without finishing.

"Am I that unphotogenic?" Chen Lu joked.

The girl shook her head, looking a little troubled. "No. Maybe get her to stop crying first..."

Chen Lu looked over. Sure enough, Mo Yuqing was constantly wiping her tears with the back of her hand, seemingly unable to stop them no matter what.

She hurriedly said, "It's okay. Just take it like this."

Two minutes later.

Mo Yuqing looked at the photo on her phone. In it, Chen Lu had turned his head to look at her, while she was crying like someone who had been wronged.

This is Chen Lu's last kindness to me...

"Should I send it to you on WeChat?" she asked.

"No need."

With that, Chen Lu turned and left. This time, it was his turn to leave Mo Yuqing with the sight of his resolutely departing back.

Why? Why is it that the colder I am, the more you pursue me?

Chen Lu couldn't understand. He walked along with his head lowered and noticed that the rain, which had stopped for a while, had started again.

Late that night.

Unable to get through to Mo Yuqing no matter how hard she tried, Liu Yan hurried back to the dormitory from her hotel.

As soon as she reached the dormitory building, she saw Mo Yuqing crouching there in a daze, her eyes vacant.

She paused for a moment, then crouched beside Mo Yuqing and let her rest her head on her shoulder.

Mo Yuqing had finally managed to hold back her tears, but the moment she saw Liu Yan, they burst forth again.

"I was wrong, I'm sorry... I really know I was wrong."

Liu Yan's eyes trembled, her heart aching for her. She could only smile bitterly and say, "There's no use telling me..."

You fool. I told you back then that you'd regret it...

Mo Yuqing's tears soon soaked Liu Yan's clothes. Sobbing, she said, "But there's no use telling him, either..."