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墨書 Inktalez
After the banquet, Qiu Mowen was pulled into a meeting, and by the time he returned home, the sky was gradually brightening. The distant lights cast a hazy glow, and Beijing's morning was shrouded in heavy smog. This suffocating feeling made it hard for Qiu Mowen to breathe, leaving him quite uncomfortable.
As he stepped out of the elevator, Qiu Ruolan's call came through. Her voice on the line was slightly slurred, yet still melodious. Qiu Mowen opened the door while responding to Qiu Ruolan with vague affirmations.
On the other end, Qiu Ruolan alternated between crying and laughing, her emotions teetering on the brink of collapse. Qiu Mowen could tell she was at home because such unrestrained outbursts could only be unleashed in a familiar space.
After a fit of manic shouting, Qiu Ruolan suddenly fell silent. Her voice regained its sharp and arrogant tone. Before Qiu Mowen could discern this strange shift in emotion, she asked through the receiver, "Is Autumn Wind with you?"
This somewhat eerie accusation startled Qiu Mowen. He was suddenly gripped by an inexplicable fear that tightened his heart, as if a long-buried secret had suddenly seen the light of day. He wanted to speak but hadn’t uttered a word when Qiu Ruolan's voice came through again, laced with a drunken mumble: "You are my only family; why aren’t you here with me?"
Her words pierced Qiu Mowen's heart like a dagger. The remaining selfish tenderness within him crumbled under the weight of overwhelming guilt, slowly rising from the depths of his heart. It felt as if lightning had struck him, and all he could see were images of Qiu Ruolan weeping uncontrollably.
On the other end of the line, Qiu Ruolan continued to sob: "Can you come back... I don’t understand why she is so cruel... She listens to you the most; can you make her come back?"
Qiu Mowen couldn’t bring himself to answer her directly. He took a difficult breath, as if a heavy piston were pressing down on his chest: "Okay, I understand. We’ll be back in a few days! Be good and get some sleep!"
A faint sound of surprise came from Qiu Ruolan before silence fell on her end. Qiu Mowen called out a few times into the receiver, but all he heard was her gentle snoring. He hung up helplessly.
Turning around, he walked toward the living room.
In the living room, Autumn Wind curled up like a cat on the carpet in front of the sofa. Her fluffy, curly hair radiated a soft beauty typical of mature women. Her face was pressed tightly against the keyboard of her computer, indicating she had fallen asleep in an extremely unaware state.
Qiu Mowen couldn’t bear to wake her up; he gently moved the computer aside and lifted Autumn Wind onto the sofa. In her slumber, she resembled Qiu Ruolan closely, occasionally mumbling as if she had suffered great grievances.
Qiu Mowen sat down on the sofa beside her, memories from several years rolled through his mind like a great river flowing eastward before him. In that river drifted several boats where he could always see Autumn Wind’s figure.
He knew he couldn’t hold onto those memories; he could only caress them with his gaze repeatedly. Countless times he had imagined how beautiful it would have been if Qiu Ruolan hadn’t adopted Autumn Wind and they had met in some city instead.
Such thoughts were beautiful during fantasy but left behind deep guilt when they ended.
Qiu Mowen vaguely felt that his relationship with Autumn Wind might come to an end from now on or perhaps it was like a massive spaceship silently traversing an unseen universe—whether it would eventually drift toward an unknown world or collide with a planet leading to destruction was something he dared not contemplate.
Leaning back on the sofa, his head suddenly drooped down as he fell into a deep sleep.
In the following days, Autumn Wind found Qiu Mowen to be quite strange.
Qiu Mowen suddenly became idle; aside from going out for a morning exercise occasionally, he spent almost all his time at home.
He would occasionally express his disdain for the smog in Beijing and would also ask Autumn Wind if she had been in contact with Leo recently.
At this moment, however, Autumn Wind couldn't muster any enthusiasm. She lazily lay on the rattan chair on the balcony, gazing at the hazy view outside. Her feet would occasionally shake, causing the chair to sway as well. In truth, Autumn Wind did not like the air in Beijing either; every morning when she woke up, it was a gray haze outside. Standing on the balcony and looking out felt like stepping onto a dirty cloud, which was quite terrifying.
Meanwhile, Qiu Mowen often appeared before Autumn Wind wearing slippers and holding a tray filled with various items, resembling a waiter. He cautiously placed a fruit platter on the table next to her rattan chair and said, "Come eat some fruit!" His gaze was unexpectedly gentle, with warm and kind eyes that radiated compassion.
It was this spring-like gaze that made Autumn Wind believe that Qiu Mowen had something on his mind that he wanted to ask her.
During their intermittent time together, Autumn Wind had come to understand Qiu Mowen quite well.
Generally speaking, his gaze was distant and melancholic, even while working. It always felt like he harbored a significant secret within him. His body seemed filled with the saddest gray clouds of emptiness, exuding an irresistible aura reminiscent of dusk—an aura that was both depressing and addictive, much like opium; once touched, it was impossible to escape until one was utterly consumed by it.
Autumn Wind lifted her head and looked at Qiu Mowen, scanning his face as if with a scanner. She pretended to be relaxed as she picked up a piece of kiwi with a toothpick and asked him, "Have you encountered any trouble lately?"
His eyes suddenly flickered before revealing a somewhat forced smile. "No... The annual meeting is over; the company just arranged some vacation time!" He squeezed out a smile so strained that it felt entirely unconvincing.
Autumn Wind raised her arm high and exaggeratedly stuffed the kiwi into her mouth. It seemed that Qiu Mowen had already sensed her skepticism regarding his answer from her demeanor. He shrugged and knelt seriously beside the rattan chair, resembling a devout nun from a film Autumn Wind had seen.
Seeing Qiu Mowen kneeling on the ground startled Autumn Wind. She straightened up and looked at his face.
With a bitter smile that carried an indescribable sadness, he said, "Your visa should be expiring soon... Shall we go back to Taipei?"
His words were like a heavy bombshell. Autumn Wind had imagined similar scenarios: Qiu Mowen kneeling on the ground, his left hand behind him while his right hand held an engagement ring of at least one carat. The clear sunlight streaming in through the window illuminated his affectionate and captivating face, creating a scene reminiscent of romantic stories where the male lead proposes happily to the female lead.
However, Autumn Wind did not expect that instead of tenderly saying "marry me," the male lead would bittersweetly suggest, "Let's go back to Taipei."
The fragments of this bomb shattered Autumn Wind's pride and lazy mood into pieces, which were swept away by a fierce wind without leaving any trace behind.
Autumn Wind could feel another bomb installed inside her was ticking down, the sound of the timer echoing like Qiu Feng tapping her crystal-studded nails on the table out of boredom while waiting to film after finishing her makeup.
However, when Autumn Wind suddenly stood up and looked down at Qiu Mowen, she saw his hopeful yet slightly sad gaze, and at that moment, the red wire pressed against the timer was cut. The numbers stopped precisely at 1.
It felt like running a marathon in an extremely short time; Autumn Wind finally collapsed back onto the rattan chair, taking a deep breath to steady her chest. But a second later, she immediately lowered her hand, startled by her own subconscious reaction, and gently asked, "Why?"
He gently rocked the rattan chair, squinting his eyes as his gaze became chaotic. His words began to flicker like a deer that had misplaced its path crashing into his heart that was no longer that of a young girl. Autumn Wind finally discerned words like "your mom," "Qiu Ruolan," "hope," and "miss" from his disordered expressions.
Around six o'clock in the evening in Beijing, the outside world was already engulfed in thick darkness. As the streetlights reluctantly flickered on, people who had been restrained began to act out their loneliness. The streetlights stood in a neat row, trying to turn night back into day.
Inside Autumn Wind's chest, it felt as if it were filled with boiling hot water; countless words surged toward her throat like steam. Yet what finally escaped her lips was a bubble reflecting various colors, and three words gently squeezed out: "I know!"
Autumn Wind tried hard to make her gaze gentle and soft, smiling as she blinked at him.
He looked at Autumn Wind with a smile, reached out to place his hand on the back of her head, pulling her closer. Then he gently kissed her forehead.
Autumn Wind closed her eyes, quickly immersing herself in a beautiful dream, fearing that if she continued to express herself, she would reveal her true feelings without reservation—she truly did not want to face Qiu Mowen's disappointment.
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