He tried calling her once again.

  A few seconds later, he could hear a ringing tone from the sofa inside the living room.

  Startled, the cell phone in his hand slipped and dropped onto the floor, sending its black screen shattering into tiny pieces as a result.

  He walked over to the sofa and picked up her phone.

  There were two drafts left inside her mailbox, undelivered for some reason. His heart hung in midair as the expression on his face turned numb for a second. He clicked on each message and started reading the content one after the other as his pupils zoomed into focus.

  [Yancheng, as you wish, I aborted the child. You can safely pursue what you desire in life without any worries now! We’re breaking up for good this time around. I’m returning whatever you’ve given me; you can find all the stuff inside this apartment, so I no longer owe you anything. As for you, I don’t need you to pay me back what you owe me. What we had between us was a dream; I guess it’s time for me to wake since the dream is over.]

  [Mu Yancheng, if there’s such a thing as true love in this world, then you’re probably my first and last love.]

  The man slumped against the back of the sofa and looked up lifelessly at the ceiling. The image of her sweet, innocent face surfaced in his mind again…… ‘If there’s such a thing as true love in this world, then you’re my one and only.’


  Once, they celebrated his birthday in this apartment. She painstakingly prepared a feast for him, and after the meal, they blew out the candles on his birthday cake. She lay in his arms and asked coquettishly, “Yancheng, can we be together always? Let’s not be apart; we’ll be together forever.”


  He nodded mindlessly. “Okay.”


  Apparently, his answer did not satisfy the woman. “Hey, are you patronizing me again? What do you mean by ‘okay’?”


  He smiled and pinched her nose playfully. “Alright, we’ll be together forever; we’ll never be apart.”


  She broke into a fabulous smile, with merriment dancing in her pretty eyes. “Now, you must keep your promise, yeah? If you let me down……”


  “Well, what are you gonna do, then?”


  She snorted. “If you let me down, then I’ll leave you! I’ll look for a place where you won’t be able to follow me and you won’t see you ever again!”


  Her miffed, petulant reply tickled him then. “Can you be this cruel to me?”


  “Yes!” She nodded eagerly.

  He hugged her and retorted gently, “Little fool, you won’t be able to leave me.”


  “Why not?”


  “Where else can you go if you leave me? You’re destined to stay by my side for the rest of your life.” After a pause, he added, “You need me.”


  She was not easily pacified, though. Lifting her head to look up at him, she proceeded cautiously with her next question. “Then…… do you need me? Will you be sad if you don’t have me with you?”


  He did not reply but she persisted, wanting to hear what he had got to say about that.

  The man covered his face with his quivering hands. He wore a blank countenance, but the tears seeping silently between his fingers betrayed his feelings.

  A drop fell onto the phone screen and spread outward……

  At the airport, inside the waiting area.

  Meng Qingxue sat on the seat, clenching a photo in one hand. As she caressed the picture repeatedly, she could not stop her tears from flowing on her face and onto the image, wetting a corner of the photo in the process.

  That was the only photo they had together.

  It was a photo sticker. Back then, she had to pester him for a while before he agreed to enter the mini photo booth inside a mall to take that one single shot.

  In the image, she was hanging on his arm, wearing a radiant smile while he looked cool and detached.