Chapter 49: Once Seen the Vast Sea

Many people's relationships, in the end, cannot escape being ruined and torn apart by one person...

First love!

And as for your current boyfriend and girlfriend, whose first love were they to each other...

Gu Liyan was Zhou Xiaoru's first love, and at the same time, he was Fang Qingkong's first love.

And Fang Qingkong was Gu Liyan's first love.

First love, first love again...

Zhou Xiaoru felt that there was no place for her in this anymore.

But then she thought about it, no, there was never any place for her to begin with; why was she being so sentimental?

She gave a self-deprecating smile, looking at the great beauty who was currently staring right back at her!

She used to see this great beauty often back at school...

Fang Qingkong was the campus belle of the Media Department; her pleasant voice would ring out over the school broadcast every afternoon.

Coincidentally, the Media Department's dormitory was right next to Zhou Xiaoru's Social College dormitory.

Therefore, she would often see this great beauty downstairs at the dormitory building.

Sometimes, she would even see boys from some department or other confessing their love to Fang Qingkong downstairs...

Back then, Zhou Xiaoru just foolishly thought that this Fang Qingkong was truly beautiful.

She never would have imagined that this great beauty she saw so often was actually Gu Liyan's first love!

And this first love had lived silently throughout their entire relationship during the year she and Gu Liyan were dating!

Never once leaving!

She had made the sushi that Gu Liyan supposedly loved every single day, never imagining that she was mourning his first love along with him!

And she herself had been kept in the dark for an entire year just like that!

It wasn't until she was broken up with that she learned the things she made had all ended up in the stomachs of Gu Liyan's roommates!

And the person who liked eating sushi wasn't Gu Liyan at all, but Fang Qingkong!

Thinking about it now, she didn't feel she was just silly back then...

She was stupid! Pathetically stupid!

This past event was like a thorn, deeply piercing into the deepest part of her heart.

Thinking of this, thinking of that version of herself from two years ago...

Zhou Xiaoru's eyes inexplicably turned a little red...

She remembered the time right after the breakup, when she realized that the person Gu Liyan had always liked was this person; she felt that not only was she a failure as someone's girlfriend, she was a failure as a person!

She didn't even know who her own boyfriend was thinking about!

No wonder when they first started dating, Gu Liyan had declared to her that he liked gentle and quiet girls.

Because Fang Qingkong was exactly that kind of person!

Yet she had plunged headfirst into the illusion called love, acting like an idiot and a fool for a year!

At this moment, Gu Liyan was frowning, watching the changes in the expression of the person before him without blinking...

He knew this girl must be thinking of the past, and when he saw those gradually reddening eyes, the man felt a bit unsettled.

He called out softly and gently, "Xiaoru..." After a pause, he continued to explain.

"There is nothing between her and me."

As the words fell, Fang Qingkong's expression behind him had already turned very ugly, while Zhou Xiaoru instead smiled and shifted her gaze to the person in front of her.

She said, "Whether or not there is anything between you and her, what does that have to do with me!"

After finishing, she looked at the woman opposite her again and continued.

"Gentle, quiet, well-behaved, sensible... these were all the requirements you had for me to be your girlfriend two years ago... Back then, I achieved them, but I can't understand why, even though I achieved them, you still said later that we weren't compatible..."

Although the past has become history, it will drift further and further away with time.

But only if one has been deeply hurt will that feeling of pain remain in the bottom of the heart, waiting for a trigger one day to be brought up again and hurt once more...

Zhou Xiaoru felt that she hadn't done anything wrong two years ago; if she really had to say she was wrong, it was that she had loved the wrong person.

But even that is a kind of mistake...

She had to bear the consequences of that mistake alone.

At this moment, her throat felt tight, and she tried her best to suppress the stinging in her nose.

Seeing this, Gu Liyan's brow furrowed even deeper; he really wanted to throw caution to the wind and pull this girl into his arms.

But he also knew that with this girl's temper, she would definitely resist and reject him...

What exactly should he do so that he wouldn't hurt this girl in front of him, who was already different to him, ever again?

Zhou Xiaoru tilted her head up slightly, forcing her tears back, and when she shifted her gaze to the man in front of her again.

Her eyes were bright and firm, yet the infatuation and obsession of those years could no longer be seen within them.

She said slowly, "Gu Liyan, from that time on, I understood a truth... From the very beginning, in your eyes, I was just a toad. And in my eyes, you were a white swan; me wanting to be with you was simply a delusional fantasy! Two years ago I was stupid, and it took me a whole year to truly realize that I wasn't an ugly duckling that could turn into a white swan! But just a... toad wanting to eat swan meat..."

Hearing this, Gu Liyan felt even more unsettled in his heart and shook his head.

"I never thought of you that way..."

"You did!!"

This exclamation was somewhat hysterical!

It had been two years...

Two years ago, this man's simple sentence, "I've tried, we can't do it, we aren't compatible," became their final breakup declaration...

And she...

Had no questions, no arguments, and not even a single extra word of complaint.

This was her liking, her love, humble to the point of being in the dust! Self-deprecating to the point of being in the dirt!

In a year of dating, although she hadn't seen that Gu Liyan's heart had been thinking of someone else all along, she could still feel that Gu Liyan did not like her.

At first, she only thought he didn't like her...

But it wasn't until the name Fang Qingkong appeared that she suddenly realized that between her and Gu Liyan, there was no talk of liking or not liking at all.

Because...

Clouds and mud, they are worlds apart...

She should also go pee and take a look at herself; how could Gu Liyan possibly like her?

How could it be possible!

Her eye sockets grew redder and redder, and her heart felt both sour and painful...

Perhaps, if the woman embracing Gu Liyan here today wasn't Fang Qingkong, maybe she wouldn't have had such a strong reaction...

But it just had to be this person, that same thorn.

Clearly that thorn had already taken root in the bottom of her heart and was about to be smoothed over by her, yet it had been forcibly pulled back up into her heart!

At this moment, Fang Qingkong, who had been silent and pale-faced, spoke up.

"You and Liyan broke up two years ago; you have long since become the past, so just let him go."

Fang Qingkong spoke as if she were as great and noble as the Virgin Mary!

Let him go?

Hearing this, Miss Zhou burst out laughing, while the handsome Gu had an even colder face as he turned his head to look at the speaker.

Zhou Xiaoru laughed so hard that even tears came out.

This kind of melodramatic plot, she seemed to have seen quite a lot of it in many novels.

She had better leave quickly, otherwise she would be dragged into the scene of a love triangle in a moment.

She had vented what she needed to vent, and there was nothing left for her to do.

And Gu Liyan watched, his heart feeling even more pained...

Zhou Xiaoru smiled and said to the person with the pale face and red lips, who now looked like a female ghost to her.

"Miss Fang, I think you have misunderstood. I currently have nothing to do with this Mr. Gu. I just said it, I am a toad and he is a white swan; it just so happens that now a female swan has arrived, so you two can pair up directly..."

Hearing this, Fang Qingkong's complexion turned a mix of green and red...

Was this a blessing for them, or a mockery of them?

And after Zhou Xiaoru finished saying these words, she intended to leave directly; now, whatever was said had no meaning anymore.

She had better resign!

But just as she turned around, her arm was immediately grabbed by the man at her side.

The man gripped her arm tightly and said somewhat domineeringly.

"You are not allowed to leave! I have something to say to you!"

Zhou Xiaoru just tilted her head slightly, thinking she had given a certain man a very cool forty-five-degree angle!

She coldly replied, "The one you have something to say to should be her, not me!"

As she spoke, she seemed to remember something else and turned at another angle, just in time to see the pale-faced, red-lipped female ghost.

She kindly reminded her, "Miss Fang, I forgot to tell you, the current Mr. Gu is no longer the Mr. Gu from two years ago... He now seems to not like women, and has changed to liking men instead; you should be careful..."

After finishing, she didn't care that the man beside her had a darkened face, and directly shook off the hand that had grabbed her arm...

This time, Zhou Xiaoru successfully escaped the devil's clutches and walked out of the President's Office with flair.

And Gu Liyan stared fixedly at the closed door, his back always turned to the person behind him.

Only twenty or thirty seconds later, a certain Mr. made a move and followed her out of the office...

At this time, the hurt-looking Fang Qingkong behind him hurriedly walked over in her high heels, calling out.

"Liyan!"

Gu Liyan only paused for a split second as he opened the door, leaving behind one sentence.

"Qingkong! Xiaoru and I haven't truly begun, and you and I are the ones who have already become the past. In the future, please don't come looking for me again! I don't want to make things too ugly!"

Having finished, he opened the door and went out to chase after the departing Zhou Xiaoru.

Zhou Xiaoru, who had left the President's Office, walked quickly, and Du Feng, who was in the outer office, saw her come out with red eyes and worriedly followed her.

Zhou Xiaoru hurriedly slipped into the stairwell, intending to let herself calm down first.

But the moment she entered the stairwell, Du Feng followed right behind her.

Zhou Xiaoru had no choice but to compose her emotions, turn around, and ask the person who had followed her.

"Why are you following me? Is something the matter!" Regarding the events of two years ago, she didn't need anyone's comfort, and she certainly didn't need to rely on playing the victim to garner sympathy.

Du Feng saw that her eye sockets were red, yet a trace of a smile still appeared on her face when she faced him.

He said with some heartache, "If you feel uncomfortable, vent it all out; don't hold it in." In front of me, you don't have to be so strong.

Zhou Xiaoru shrugged her shoulders and replied indifferently, "I don't feel uncomfortable. What needed to be vented was already vented in the office just now. Don't worry, I'm not that fragile."

It had already been two years; she had gradually mastered the art of enduring life's hardships without complaint.

For this, she still had to thank those two people in the President's Office.

Du Feng only assumed she was deliberately suppressing her emotions. He squeezed his hand at his side, his heart stirred, and the next moment, he did something he had always wanted to do.

He opened his arms and pulled the person in front of him into his embrace...

Zhou Xiaoru blinked her eyes blankly a few times; at this moment, she didn't have time to feel sentimental or recall sad things from the past.

Her mind was a bit dazed; what was the meaning of this?

She only heard Du Feng's voice coming from beside her ear...

"If you want to cry, then cry. Don't suppress yourself. Seeing you hold it in like this makes me feel very uncomfortable."

"Uh..." Zhou Xiaoru had a blank look on her face, currently processing the meaning behind these words...

And at this moment, there was another person who felt uncomfortable!

Outside the door of the stairwell where they were embracing...

A pair of murderous eyes were staring at them through the glass window on the door.

At this moment, the man's hand on the doorknob was gripping tighter and tighter, his knuckles squeezed until they turned white.

It was clear to see that a certain gentleman was very angry!