Chapter 64: I Was Flirted With?
Chen Mo came to Su Yuqing’s side and took her small hand. When she looked up at him, he spoke gently, "What’s wrong? Are you not ready yet?"
He knew exactly why Su Yuqing was frozen in place.
The moment the afternoon dismissal bell rang signified that she would soon have to go home with Chen Mo and face her mother.
Even though she had mentally braced herself, now that the moment had truly arrived, the thought of what was to come still filled Su Yuqing’s heart with anguish.
People aren’t made of stone; how could she be completely unfeeling?
No matter how much her parents treated her like an outsider now, the thought of severing this emotional tie—already hanging by a single thread—still made her feel an involuntary pang of heartbreak and sorrow.
It wasn’t as if she’d never had happy times with her parents. Before they started fighting, she had been the family’s most precious little princess.
Their smiling faces, their doting expressions... Su Yuqing believed her parents’ love for her back then couldn’t have been fake.
Even though she had been young, the memories were still sweet and vivid in her mind.
So, now that she had to take the final step toward a complete break, her feelings were incredibly complicated.
Su Yuqing’s eyelashes trembled. As if by a twist of fate, a single teardrop slid from the corner of her eye and landed directly on the word "family" in her English textbook, smudging the ink into a small, sad lake.
She remembered her sixth birthday, when her father had lifted her up to pick locust flowers. His stubble had tickled the crook of her neck while her mother watched from the side with a gentle, doting gaze. Their family’s laughter had seemed to shake the entire tree, making the white blossoms rustle as if they were laughing along.
Before she knew it, her eyes were brimming with tears as she looked at Chen Mo.
Chen Mo said nothing, simply pulling her head gently to rest against his chest.
"It’s okay. This is your decision to make, and I won’t interfere. But whenever you need me, I’ll be here for you to lean on."
Su Yuqing’s forehead rested against Chen Mo’s collarbone, and she could clearly feel the steady, powerful beat of his heart.
The warmth radiating from him through the fabric of his school uniform enveloped her like the spring sun. Mixed with the faint, clean scent of soap on him, it reminded her of how it felt to be held in her father’s arms when she had a fever as a child.
Her father’s palms had been just as warm then, and he would softly hum nursery rhymes to lull her to sleep.
"Chen Mo..." The moment she spoke, he noticed how thick and nasal her voice sounded, the last syllable trembling uncontrollably.
It felt as though Su Yuqing’s throat was clogged with cotton balls soaked in lemon juice, stinging with a sour ache.
Chen Mo remained silent, gently stroking her hair as if calming a frightened little animal.
Su Yuqing found herself crying against Chen Mo’s warm chest. All those warm memories she had deliberately sealed away now transformed into a thousand tiny needles, pricking the softest part of her heart.
"You know, you could always do this tomorrow, or some other time," Chen Mo’s voice rumbled in his chest, making the ear Su Yuqing had pressed against him tingle slightly. "I can go talk to your mom..."
"Don’t!" Su Yuqing suddenly straightened up, the tears that had pooled in her eyes spilling down her cheeks. "I have to get it over with today. I can’t drag this out any longer, or I’ll never find the resolve."
She frantically wiped her cheeks with her sleeve, but it only seemed to spread the tears. With a small smile, Chen Mo took a pack of tissues from her pocket, pulled one out, and gently dabbed her tears away. "Don’t force yourself to do this. After all, once this decision is made, it’ll be very difficult to ever reconcile."
"I’m just... I’m just a little scared. Scared of seeing my mom’s cold expression, and even more scared of seeing her suddenly become..." Su Yuqing trailed off, stopping mid-sentence.
"Suddenly become what?" Chen Mo asked, giving her a curious glance.
"It’s nothing." Su Yuqing dried her tears and shook her head, then leaned against Chen Mo’s chest again, as if trying to draw courage from his warmth.
Chen Mo tightened his arms around her back and rested his chin gently on the top of her head.
In the distance, a whistle signaled the start of basketball practice. The playful shouts in the hallway faded away, and the two of them seemed frozen in the twilight, like a scene from a paused film.
Feeling Su Yuqing trembling in his arms, Chen Mo couldn’t help but recall her fate in the previous timeline. ’Fate is so cruel.’
He sighed at the thought of a girl who had already endured so much cold torment meeting such a tragic end.
Strictly speaking, putting aside any sense of moral obligation, Su Yuqing’s eventual fate had nothing to do with Chen Mo.
After all, in the previous timeline, Chen Mo hadn’t known about their childhood connection; she was just a classmate he was acquainted with and had a reasonably good impression of.
If you were forced to save every acquaintance you were vaguely fond of who came to you for help, and you’d be morally condemned for not doing so, who could possibly save everyone? That was the definition of being held to an unfair moral standard.
Therefore, blaming Su Yuqing’s fate on Chen Mo’s inaction was clearly unreasonable; he’d had no obligation to take her in.
Her tragic end was purely the fault of her family of origin.
But from a practical standpoint, it was Chen Mo who had given her that final push.
And so Chen Mo, as a man with a conscience, had condemned himself and taken responsibility for it.
However, the two people most responsible for the whole affair were Su Yuqing’s own parents. In the end, one of them went completely insane, and the other acted as if he’d never even had a daughter.
That was the most absurd part of it all.
As he recalled the tragic sight of the girl’s body, washed by a torrential downpour all night, and the fact that there were no signs she had tried to flee, Chen Mo felt as if he could synch with her final moments—with that state of utter despair, of a heart that had already died.
Perhaps it wasn’t that she was caught off guard or frozen in fear. Perhaps she had simply lost all faith in humanity. In that moment, she might have felt it was better to just let go, that it was a form of release. That was why she hadn’t resisted at all.
The very thought that Su Yuqing might have been in such a state of mind made a tear fall for her from Chen Mo’s eye.
Su Yuqing suddenly felt something warm and damp on her neck. When she looked up, she was surprised to see tiny droplets clinging to Chen Mo’s eyelashes.
"You silly goose, what are you crying for?" she said, a smile breaking through her tears as she gently poked the reddened corner of his eye.
"Chalk dust got in my eye," Chen Mo said, blinking rapidly. He then smiled and wiped a tear stain from the corner of Su Yuqing’s eye. "You’re the one who should watch it. If you keep crying, people are going to think I’m bullying you."
Su Yuqing gazed at the tips of his reddening ears, then suddenly cupped his face and pressed her forehead to his. Her beautiful, large eyes stared deeply into his, her cool fingertips resting against his warm cheeks. She said nothing aloud, but in her heart, she thought sweetly, ’Thank you for always being there to catch me when I’m at my worst.’
After Su Yuqing made this unexpected move—one that almost made Chen Mo think she was about to kiss him—she straightened up, her expression returning to normal as she gave him a gentle smile. "Let’s go."
It was only then that Chen Mo, his heart suddenly pounding, got up and followed after her. In a daze, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had just been... flirted with?