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墨書 Inktalez
Choi Jae-sun came to this bar almost every night, but he never approached Qiluo Ling because he didn't want her to recognize him. He always quietly sat in a dark corner of the bar, watching her play the piano on stage from a distance.
Since meeting her, he had been dreaming about her. In his dreams, she wore a long white dress, and they walked together under the moonlight. The distant pond sparkled like a bright mirror, and the grass swayed gently in the breeze. They shared a mysterious silence. Suddenly, she seemed to hear something and turned her head, smiling softly at him. That gentle, silent smile touched his heart and lingered in his mind for a long time.
One night in February, after finishing work and socializing, he found himself passing by this road again and couldn’t help but return to the bar to listen to music and see her on stage. All his fatigue vanished, and his heart felt as pure as the clear sound of the piano.
After that night, he almost made it a habit to visit this bar every evening. Even on nights when he had other commitments, he would drive here, park outside, and gaze at the bar's entrance for a few minutes before leaving, as if doing so would calm his heart.
Upon entering the dimly lit bar, he chose to sit in a dark corner and ordered a cocktail while quietly watching her on stage.
From where he sat, he could clearly see her profile. Her long hair cascaded down her slender neck, and she wore a sky-blue dress that accentuated her delicate figure. The piece she played today had a slow rhythm that conveyed a sense of loneliness and melancholy.
After several songs, she concluded her performance. She stepped down from the stage, accepted a glass of water from the waiter, tidied up briefly, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and walked out of the bar toward the nearby bus stop. The bus stop was just a short distance away along the road.
He stood at a distance behind her, watching as her slender figure gradually disappeared into the night.
At first, he only followed her for her safety in the dark until she reached the bus stop before leaving himself. But gradually, he became enchanted by her silhouette—lonely yet imbued with an air of melancholy.
The moonlight tonight was bright and round in the sky, casting its glow on the road below. The shadows of the large trees along the roadside overlapped like embracing couples.
Her footsteps were light; her ponytail bounced in the moonlight like his heartbeat, stirring an impulsive feeling within him.
He quickly walked up to her and blocked her path.
Qiluo Ling looked at him in surprise: "How did you end up behind me?"
"I was just at the bar watching you perform and followed you out," he replied.
"Why didn’t you say hello at the bar?"
"Maybe I was afraid of disturbing you," he said with an apologetic smile.
Qiluo Ling smiled slightly but remained silent.
"I often come to this bar; it's just... you didn’t know," he thought for a moment before saying. Under his hint, she seemed to understand something.
Her gaze suddenly became vacant as she recalled the words the demon had said to her that night. Then, she looked at him with an unusual indifference, as if she had forgotten who he was, and her thoughts seemed to drift far, far away. After a long time, her heart was finally pulled back from that distant past.
"I'll take you home tonight," Choi Jae-sun said.
Qiluo Ling neither refused nor agreed; she silently walked ahead.
Choi Jae-sun felt somewhat irritated because her face showed little expression, and there was not much content in her eyes. He did not know what to make of her; she was silent, and he was unsure of what to say.
Through her music, he could sense her lonely soul. He knew nothing of the stories that had unfolded in her life. He longed to enter her soul and get closer to her heart. Yet many times, when she stared at him without blinking, her gaze was hollow, as if his existence was something she could not comprehend.
Once they got into his car, he turned on the CD player, and tranquil music began to flow. She remained silent. However, the lack of verbal communication did not mean there was nothing to share; rather, many emotions could be conveyed more smoothly in this musical atmosphere.
When they arrived at Qiluo Ling's place, he got out of the car and gentlemanly opened the door for her.
"Thank you for bringing me back," she said softly, a faint smile appearing on her face.
"No need to thank me."
"Are you coming to the bar tomorrow?"
"I'm going back to Korea tomorrow because I have business to attend to. I might be gone for quite a while." He gazed eagerly into her eyes, as if hoping she would say something—any word of concern would be enough to make him stay.
In the end, she still said nothing; she merely nodded and turned away gracefully.
The next day, Choi Jae-sun left Shanghai and boarded a flight to Korea. Four hours later, the plane landed smoothly at Incheon International Airport in Korea.
As he walked out of the airport exit, he smiled at his father's capable assistant, Park Jeong-won, who was approaching from a distance; he had come specifically to pick him up.
The two embraced tightly for a moment. Choi Jae-sun patted his shoulder as they walked and chatted cheerfully.
"Today your father couldn't come to pick you up himself because he had something to attend to. You might be a bit disappointed," Park Jeong-won said with a smile.
"I'm already very happy that you came to get me," Choi Jae-sun replied.
"Your father has an urgent matter to attend to today and won't be back for a couple of days, so he asked me to pick you up. I hope you understand."
"It's fine. Anyway, I need to stay in the country for a while. How have you been lately?" Choi Jae-sun asked.
"Very well. The last time you left, my daughter was only eight months old, still a baby. Now she's over a year old, running and jumping around. Let me show you her picture."
Park Jeong-won took out his phone from his pocket and pulled up the photo album to show her.
Indeed, there was a beautiful little girl with a fluffy bun hairstyle, wearing a pink dress, very cute.
Looking at Park Jeong-won's album, he suddenly remembered a photo he had seen in Park Jeong-won's album before; the subject of that photo was Qiluo Ling. No wonder he felt a sense of familiarity when he saw her.
"Your daughter is really adorable. Last time I saw a pretty girl in your phone's album; who is she?"
"A girl? What kind of girl?" Park Jeong-won looked at him in confusion.
"She had a high nose bridge, big eyes, thin lips, and was quite slender," Choi Jae-sun described carefully.
"I don't have any photos of such a girl on my phone!" Park Jeong-won looked at him in surprise.
"That's impossible; I'm sure I've seen her in your phone's album. I remember it clearly."
"How about this? You can browse through my phone's album and see if there's a photo of that girl."
With that, Park Jeong-won handed his phone to Choi Jae-sun. He carefully flipped through Park Jeong-won's phone album, but indeed there was no photo of Qiluo Ling. Could it be that he remembered incorrectly? He tried hard to recall.
"See? I told you there isn't one."
"Did you delete that photo?"
"If I deleted the photo, would I really lie to you about such a trivial matter? Clearly not worth it. Besides, your sister-in-law is so petty; would she tolerate me having pictures of other women in my phone? Even if I had that intention, I wouldn't leave any evidence for your sister-in-law to catch me!"
Park Jeong-won's reasoning made sense. Could it be that his memory was unreliable?
He searched deeply for the most profound memories, but they seemed to mock him, the doors tightly shut, not allowing even a glimpse.
Two weeks later, Choi Jae-sun finished his business and arrived at a seaside resort. The coastal climate was pleasant, averaging around twenty degrees Celsius year-round, with sunshine, beaches, seawater, seafood, and beautiful women. All of this was enough to make one forget the dullness of city life.
But he had no mood to enjoy any of it. The longing for Qiluo Ling rushed at him like a fierce beast.
Perhaps he had missed her for too long; he found that his memories of Qiluo Ling had turned into conceptual recollections. He even began to doubt whether she was merely an illusion of his own.
In the vast expanse of time, was her existence an illusion or was love itself just an illusion? Or was everything merely a physical experience created by his brain?
What humans can subjectively feel is only the surface of things; in love, this surface is also just an illusion. It is said that "illusions create love, and love causes illusions to shatter."
Choi Jae-sun thought for a long time but could not come up with a satisfactory answer. He did not want to listen to music, read books, or talk to anyone; he only went to the restroom when absolutely necessary. He just wanted to lie on the beach under the shade of an umbrella and minimize his contact with the world.
He idly watched the people around him, looking at the beach, the waves, the sky, yet it seemed he saw nothing at all.
Perhaps sharing in the same plight, he paid special attention to every lonely figure on the beach. These solitary figures rarely appeared under the beautiful sunlight; most were seen in the evening or by the sea. Their expressions were gloomy and their frames thin, like wandering ghosts.
But at that moment, he thought he saw another man far down the beach who resembled him yet was not him. His attire was clearly different from Choi Jae-sun's; this man wore traditional clothing and had a beard. He gently held the hand of a Young Woman, who was surprisingly Qiluo Ling but also not Qiluo Ling because she wore a hanbok and had her hair styled in a bun. The two were laughing and strolling along the beach.
He was stunned for a moment before feeling a sense of relief. Perhaps when one misses another person to an extreme degree, illusions appear, making one feel as if that person is right in front of them when in fact they do not exist at all. This might be akin to a line from a movie: "When you fall in love with someone, you will find that everywhere you look is that person."
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