She slightly raised her head, eyes closed, taking in a breath of the crisp morning air, before opening her eyes and steadying herself. She grabbed her suitcase and hailed a taxi.
After boarding the taxi, she said to the driver, "Master, please take me to the station, thank you."
"Alright!" the driver responded, and the car slowly started moving.
Ling Chuxia’s eyes drooped slightly, her thick lashes casting crescent-shaped shadows under her eyes. Her gaze fell upon her bag, and she couldn’t help but reach out, unzip it, and take out an envelope, followed by a letter inside.
This letter was given to her by the orphanage director, suspected to have been sent by her family.
She unfolded the letter, which didn’t contain many words, just one sentence, "Thank you for taking care of Yun Shu and Chuxia." The handwriting was graceful and generous, clearly that of a woman. Inside the envelope was also a check for five hundred thousand yuan—it wasn’t a vast sum, but also not insignificant.
Beyond that, there was no other information. She didn’t know where the letter had come from or who had sent it. Ling Chuxia studied the letter and the check over and over, until finally, having found no other leads, she noticed something from the check.
The check came from a bank in Lin City.
She didn’t know if her family was in Lin City, or if the person who sent the letter was indeed her family, but she wasn’t willing to let go of even the slightest clue.
She and her elder sister were left at the orphanage’s doorstep since they were young. She had thought that they had no family, but now, she might still have family... She had to try and find them.
Ling Chuxia’s hand gently caressed the letter, and a slow smile of anticipation bloomed on her beautiful face. Then, she carefully folded the letter and put it back in her bag.
Ling Chuxia arrived at the station, where even early in the morning, it was already as crowded as a market. Because Lin City was not very far, the station had many shuttle buses, with one leaving every five minutes. Buy a ticket, board the bus, and it would leave when full. Ling Chuxia, dragging her luggage, checked the signs, and asked the driver if this was the bus to Lin City. He nodded yes, so she boarded with her luggage, found a window seat, and sat down.
The bus quickly filled up with passengers and set off towards Lin City with a shake and a rumble.
Ling Chuxia turned her face to the side, her eyes gazing out of the window at the continuously receding scenery. She slightly parted her lips, speaking word by word, "Shi Che, goodbye."
In this love affair, she had been oblivious for more than a decade, and by the time she woke up, she realized that Shi Che’s love had never belonged to her. A foolish infatuation followed by an abrupt awakening. She thought, for the rest of her life, she might never be able to fall in love with someone again.
The journey from Liang City to Lin City took more than four hours. The bus ambled along, and Ling Chuxia couldn’t help but close her eyes and lean back in her seat, slipping into a light doze. In her semi-conscious state, her phone suddenly rang.
The bus was so quiet, almost everyone was asleep, that her ringtone sounded particularly jarring, startling her awake.
In a panic, she fumbled for her phone inside her bag, and saw Xiao Chen’s incoming call on the screen. Her hand trembled slightly, that’s right, how could she have forgotten, today was the day she was supposed to go to the United States.