Yan Qingsi’s throat closed tight as if something had lodged inside there. She opened her mouth, but not a word came out.
The sunlight scorched her face, and sweat poured down her head and blurred her eyes. She could not see the man before her properly.
She did not understand why this man told her all this.
Did he really have to?
You Yi wiped around Yan Qingsi’s eyes until they were clean. “You’re young,” he said. “You should be happy, and live your life to the fullest.”
Yan Qingsi could not explain the sudden ache that clamped around her heart. “But I’ve been doing this, and I’ve been doing it for so long,” she argued. “I can’t turn back now.”
You Yi gave her an intent look. “Then you should stop,” he said gently, “I’ll finish everything off.”
He had failed to save her. Now, he could not fail to execute revenge for her.
Whatever he did, he did it for her. Otherwise, he would go insane.
Yan Qingsi pushed You Yi’s hand aside. “No, you shouldn’t. I can take revenge for my mother. I don’t need your help. Anyway, on what basis are you avenging for her? As an old lover? How much is the grudge of an old lover worth?”
You Yi stared at Yan Qingsi. “She never said if she liked me,” he confessed. “I never knew if she even loved me.”
“Then you definitely have no reason to take revenge!” Yan Qingsi laughed.
“I do.” You Yi paused for a while before resuming, “Of course I have a reason. It doesn’t matter if she loved me or not. Loving her is enough for me. I’ve looked for her for so long, and I finally got to see her today. I can’t let her… die just like that. I will make those who have wronged her, return what they took from her. I will make those who mistreated her accompany her to the grave.”
The gentlewoman with the sweetest smile in his memories had already transformed into a cold, unmoving tombstone, with just a single photograph left behind. He would never get what he had missed in the past.
Nobody could comprehend what went on in You Yi’s heart, and nobody knew about anything either.
He knew that the belief that had pushed him forward all these years was gone though.
If he did not find something else to do, a purpose to live for, he would die.
The moment the sight of Nie Qiuping’s tombstone met his eyes, his heart stopped beating.
You Yi’s voice was low and calm. It did not seem angry, yet Yan Qingsi felt as though the temperature around them had dropped down by at least two degrees.
A whirl of emotions stirred in Yan Qingsi. This man… Did he truly, truly love her that much?
No matter what, You Yi’s words touched Yan Qingsi’s heart.
She had seen the fleeting love men gave one too many times, but she had never seen such an undying devotion.
Yan Qingsi wiped at the tears at the corners of her eyes. “I understand how you feel right now, and thank you, but I don’t need you to finish anything,” she said. “Maybe you’re just overwhelmed with an impulsive rage. Once it has cooled off, you’ll find that the hatred melts away, like a thin layer of ice vanishing with the warmth of spring. You’re alive. I advise you to think twice before you say something like this in the future. You should know what taking revenge truly means—it means complete destruction. Perhaps you’ll destroy others, but in the process, you might destroy yourself as well.”
“I understand what I want to do more than anyone else,” You Yi persisted after listening to Yan Qingsi. “I’m older than you. I have a clearer head than you, and I have more strength, more capacity. What you can’t do, I can do.
“She was the hope that had sustained me all these years. What am I supposed to do now that she’s dead?”
Yan Qingsi’s heart throbbed with empathy. Once upon a time, she had believed in everything he just said.
“You… Why do you love my mother so much?” she asked.