“I was so panicked that I froze for what felt like ages before finally shouting for help. Luckily, a passing fisherman saved him. After that, he developed a deep fear of water. He was so terrified that he couldn’t even bathe at home without feeling anxious. His mother spent a lot of effort helping him recover, but even then, he never dared go near a river again. Even small streams scared him.”
Xu Xuan’s explanation was something I had never imagined and something Chen Qiao Luo had never told me. If Xu Xuan hadn’t brought it up today, I might have spent my entire life resenting Chen Qiao Luo.
Thinking about it, a deep sadness welled up in my heart.
I didn’t know how scared he must have been watching Gu Yu fall into the water. I didn’t know how heartbroken and desperate he felt when I accused him. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized how wrong I had been—how much I had failed to trust him.
I don’t remember how I left Xu Xuan’s skating rink or how long I wandered aimlessly through the streets. By the time I looked up again, I was standing in front of Chen Qiao Luo’s apartment building.
After hesitating for a long time, I finally went upstairs. It seemed Aunt He Pei wasn’t home at this hour; I knocked on the door for ages, but no one answered.
Feeling desperate, I sat on the stairs and started crying uncontrollably.
I don’t know how much time had passed before I heard Aunt He Pei’s surprised voice.
“Yun Hao, what are you doing here?”
I followed her inside, and she handed me a cup of hot tea. “Warm your hands first,” she said. “It’s so cold outside—why didn’t you call me before coming?”
The warmth from the cup quickly thawed my frozen hands. Aunt He Pei sat down beside me, her gaze full of concern. “Yun Hao, did something happen?” she asked.
At her question, I could only shake my head forcefully.
I couldn’t bring myself to talk about Chen Qiao Luo, so I kept it all bottled up inside.
Seeing my reaction, she sighed and didn’t press further. After a while, she said, “I really don’t understand what you young people are thinking. Take A-Luo, for example—six months ago, he left for City X without saying a word and hasn’t come back even once.”
Hearing her mention Chen Qiao Luo, my eyes stung, and tears began to fall, one by one, into the steaming cup of tea in my hands.
Seeing me like this, Aunt He Pei could only sigh repeatedly and say, “I know you and our A-Luo are good friends, and I also know that A-Luo likes you. Yun Hao, you’re a good girl, and since meeting you, A-Luo has changed a lot. I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but I believe you can work it out.”
Hearing her words, I couldn’t hold back any longer and clung to her, crying my heart out.
I thought that if it weren’t for me, Chen Qiao Luo wouldn’t have left for City X on his own; if it weren’t for me, the mother and son who depended on each other wouldn’t have been separated. I’m such a fool—I couldn’t even trust Chen Qiao Luo.
After learning the truth, I tried several times to contact him. But every time I entered his phone number, I just couldn’t press the call button.
I didn’t know what I was afraid of—maybe it was facing him, or maybe it was facing my own lack of trust in him from before.
Two years passed in the blink of an eye. During these two years, I often visited Gu Yu and his mother at the hospital.
The doctors originally said that Gu Yu’s mother didn’t have much time left, but perhaps because she couldn’t bear to leave her son, she held on until now. Gu Yu’s condition, however, remained unchanged. I would talk to him about things that happened at school and tell him that Chen Qiao Luo didn’t deliberately stand by and do nothing back then. Again and again, as if saying it aloud could ease my guilt.
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