dognovel Chapter 1222 Star Wish: 5 Years of Debt
Chapter 1222 Star Wish: 5 Years of Debt
The musty smell in the warehouse mixed with the faint scent of cedar perfume on Yunhan's body. Su Xingya stared at his trembling fingertips and suddenly remembered the morning five years ago when the scent of gardenia was in the air.
She had just woken up from a coma, and her memory was like a torn puzzle, with only the vague outline of Gu Yunqian remaining in the blank spaces.
"Miss Su, this is your favorite jasmine tea."
Yun Han's voice was like honey. Amid the tinkling sound of the porcelain spoon tapping against the wall of the cup, he handed the warm cup of tea to her palm.
The sunlight filtered through the blinds of the ward, cutting out alternating lines of light and dark on his profile. When Su Xingya took the cup, she noticed the silver cufflinks on his sleeves, which were engraved with the initials of her name.
Those days of amnesia were like amber soaked in warm water.
Yun Han would open his leather calendar in the early morning light and remind people in a minty voice: "You need to try on a new dress today. President Su said that you need to watch the charity dinner next week from the VIP seat."
He could always accurately tell her that she wanted medium-rare fried eggs for breakfast and two pumps of vanilla syrup in her coffee. He even remembered her unconscious habit of pen spinning and prepared smooth pens in advance.
On an afternoon with heavy rain, Su Xingya stared at the rain outside the floor-to-ceiling window in a daze.
Yun Han walked into the study room holding documents, with raindrops still on the ends of his hair: "Want to go out for a walk?" He held a black umbrella and took her for a stroll in the Su's manor. The puddles reflected their overlapping shadows.
When she stepped into a puddle and her skirt got wet, he immediately took off his suit jacket and wrapped it around her, but half of his shoulders were soaked by the rain.
"Why are you so nice to me?" Su Xingya once asked during rehabilitation training. Yun Han was massaging her stiff ankle, and the strength of his fingertips was just right: "Because you are the apple of Mr. Su's eye."
His drooping eyelashes cast a fan-shaped shadow under his eyes, and Su Xingya did not see the crescent-shaped marks on his palm hidden behind his back.
But in Su Xingya's eyes, Yunhan is just a special assistant who does his job conscientiously.
She remembered that when he accompanied her to practice social etiquette, he always kept a polite half-arm's distance;
When teaching her how to sign documents, he would carefully circle the key clauses with a red pen; even when she broke down and cried because of a memory gap, he would just silently hand her a tissue and stand by the door until she calmed down.
She regarded all those subtle acts of tenderness as Yunhan's seriousness in his work and his responsibility to share Su Jingyi's worries.
Until that day in a private gallery, Yun Han pointed to an Impressionist painting and said, "You said you liked Monet's Water Lilies the most. This painting was specially collected by President Su for you."
His Adam's apple rolled slightly as he spoke, and Su Xingya suddenly remembered what Gu Yunqian once said under the starry sky: "Your eyes are brighter than any gem."
Two completely different kinds of throbbing collided in her heart. She turned her face away and did not notice Yun Han's dimming eyes.
"You really don't remember?" Yun Han suddenly chuckled in the warehouse, his laughter was broken and hoarse. He ripped open the second button of his shirt, revealing the burn scar on his collarbone, "Last year, you knocked over the cup while making coffee, and I rushed over to block you. At that time, you hugged me and said, 'Yun Han, does it hurt?'"
He took a step forward, and Su Xingya instinctively stepped back, her back hitting the rusty shelf.
Su Xingya clenched the corner of her clothes, and fragments of memory suddenly stung her brain.
She remembered the warm embrace she grabbed when she was blurred in consciousness and had a fever one late night during her recovery period; she remembered the red ears of Yunhan in the mirror of the fitting room when he helped her adjust her necklace.
But these scenes were soon covered by Gu Yunqian's smile - he would firmly say "I'm here" when she was afraid, and he would cross half the city to bring her favorite chestnut cake on a rainy day.
"Feelings cannot be bound by memories." Su Xingya's voice echoed in the empty warehouse.
Yun Han's pupils contracted violently. Thunder roared outside the window and rain poured down on the two of them through the broken roof.
He finally understood that those peaceful days that he regarded as eternal were nothing but insignificant footnotes in Su Xingya's memory.
The rain fell along Yunhan's angular jaw line, creating small splashes on the ground.
He looked at the water drops dripping from the ends of Su Xingya's hair, and suddenly remembered countless dark early mornings.
At that time, he was curled up in the monitoring room, his eyes bloodshot, staring at every move of Xiao Mo and the stand-in on the screen.
As long as the other party had the slightest suspicion, he would immediately forge call records, make up lies about his itinerary, and use plans precise to the minute to maintain this false scam.
"What do you think those memories mean to me?"
Yun Han's voice mixed with the sound of rain, with an almost paranoid persistence, his Adam's apple rolling violently under his pale skin.
"I stayed up for three days straight just to help you lie about your identity. I was the one who maneuvered between various forces, was threatened and beaten, but hid all the scars under my suit."
He ripped open his shirt, revealing the criss-crossing whip marks on his back, which glowed a horrible red under the rain. "All of this is thanks to you and your stand!"
Su Xingya looked at those hideous scars, and the fragments of memory suddenly stung her brain. She remembered that there was a time when Yun Han always wore sunglasses to work, saying that his eyes were inflamed.
It turned out that hidden behind the lens were the eye sockets that were beaten purple by those men's men;
I remembered that the maid said that he almost fainted several times in meetings, but he smiled and said it was just a cold. Now I think that he had overdrawn all his energy to clean up the mess for her.
"I dance on the edge of a knife for you, walking amid everyone's suspicion and temptation, and every step I take could lead to eternal damnation."
Yun Han's voice suddenly rose, his eyes burning with madness and despair.
"Do you know how much effort I put into teaching my double to imitate your handwriting, tone, and even the curve of your hair when you walk, so that she would not reveal any flaws? I have become your shadow, but what about you?" His voice suddenly choked, "You didn't even give me a glance!"
Su Xingya clenched the corner of her clothes, her nails almost digging into her palms. She did remember Yun Han's careful care during her recovery period, but she never thought that behind this care, there was such a heavy price.
"Yunhan," her voice trembled, "I appreciate everything you have done for me, but love is not a transaction. I cannot respond to your love with gratitude."
"trade?"
Yun Han suddenly burst into a crazy laugh, which echoed in the empty warehouse, startling the sparrows on the beams and making them fly around in panic.
"I have dedicated five years of my life to you, but you just say 'it's not love' and want to end it?"
He approached fiercely, and Su Xingya's back hit the iron frame hard, and the rust fell off. Yun Han's breath sprayed on her face, carrying the heat and pain that had been suppressed for many years: "Every difficulty during your amnesia was paved by me in secret! Do you think Gu Yunqian can find you so easily? I leaked the clues! Do you think he can easily solve the business crisis? I am the one behind the scenes!"
Su Xingya widened her eyes and looked at the man in front of her in disbelief.
It turns out that the "coincidental appearance" and "perfect solution" of Gu Yunqian in those memories all have the shadow of Yunhan.
But even knowing all this, her heart remained firm: "Even so, my feelings will not change. Yunhan, you shouldn't trap your life in a dream that doesn't belong to you."
Yun Han's eyes dimmed instantly, as if all the vitality had been taken away. He staggered back and fell to the wet ground, with rain mixed with tears sliding into the corners of his mouth.
At this moment he finally understood that the cage of love he had spent five years building had only trapped himself.
All those secret efforts and crazy obsessions became the most ridiculous jokes in front of Su Xingya's "I don't love you"...