Cloudy days were like a crumbling, besieged city, and within that city, a torrential rain had begun to fall.
The endless waves were about to swallow my heart. In this profound and beautiful illusion, all I remember is your eyes.
Hold my hand. It's not only because I am strong in the midst of pain, but also because I don't want to be separated from you.
Su Mosheng put on a black leather jacket and went to an underground parking lot not far from the apartment building. His black Bentley looked unfamiliar to him—like his own earnest yet bewildered eyes.
Two tipsy young girls spotted Su Mosheng and thought he must be some top-tier celebrity who'd stepped straight off a billboard.
His cold, restrained aura and his tall, lean, model-like frame seemed entirely out of place in the real world. Even the most perfectly drawn romance-novel male lead couldn't capture his perfection.
BR Group president's office, A City.
Su Yue stood there, waiting for Su Mosheng.
"Chairwoman, I accept your terms. But I have one request."
"You're in no position to bargain with me. BR Group is not a vegetable market."
"It's about P Company's pharmaceutical plan."
"Why are you so fixated on P Company? Is it because of the board's accusations against you?"
Su Mosheng couldn't answer. He hadn't yet accumulated enough leverage to oppose P Company.
He didn't dare hope for Su Yue's love or understanding either. He had returned to BR Group this time because he had no other choice.
"Mom, about the rumors spreading online…"
"I'll handle it. You come back to work tomorrow."
Tomorrow? So soon?
He was afraid he wouldn't have time to say goodbye to Xiao Die.
Su Mosheng drove back to the apartment building and knocked on Xiao Die's door.
The apartment building glowed with a warm, dim light in the deep night. Xiao Die sat on her bed, flipping through her college application guide, unable to sleep.
"Mosheng gege, why aren't you asleep at this hour?"
"I'm leaving the apartment building tomorrow. Or rather, today. I don't want to leave you. There are some things I want to say to you."
"Mosheng gege, I really don't care about those rumors. And besides, all the discussion about them has already been deleted!"
"Xiao Die… will we see each other again?"
"Whether we see each other or not, I'm grateful for the time you've spent with me."
Su Mosheng closed the door. He didn't want to disturb Xiao Die's rest.
He still didn't have the courage to tell her the whole truth.
He was leaving this apartment building—a place that carried so much joy and sorrow, so much of the world's warmth and coldness—and heading toward the next suffocating "grave."
Xiao Die had known that Su Mosheng would leave this place someday, but she hadn't expected that day to come so soon.
She decided to begin writing the first novel of her life.
Lu Na's uncle had come to greatly appreciate Xiao Die's work ethic and agreed to let her stay on at the bubble tea shop.
Xiao Die would not become incomplete just because Su Mosheng had left. Not only because she was strong, but because she believed that the right people would return to her life again and again.
She pulled the covers over herself, believing even more firmly that tomorrow would be another beautiful day.
We won't stop moving forward just because the sky is gray. If a storm comes after the clouds, then I'll hold up an umbrella for myself. Even if I'm just a warm, ordinary person. Even if I don't want to become the heroine of a romance novel.
Su Mosheng's black Bentley wove through the traffic of A City like an elegant record player, like a song of love that could never stop playing, endlessly spinning, cutting through the dark future ahead.
My romance-novel heroine, when morning comes, it is you who drives away all my misfortune and pain.