Otherwise, he would be like himself, with nowhere to confess his regrets.
After ending his phone call with He Teng, Lan Li didn’t immediately drive away. Instead, he sat in his car, watching the small black dot in his rear-view mirror. Seeing He Zhilan in this state, he thought of Ding Jinshi.
He had heard that Ding Long treated her well after their marriage.
But he also had heard that she wasn’t happy after her marriage.
The pictures of her engagement and wedding were still kept by him. Although he knew that Lin Chan had sent them with ill intentions, because they were about her, he treasured them.
At his office, He Teng sat silently after ending the call. He looked up at the dark night, remembering that she had always been afraid of the dark. When she was at the He Family, she needed a lit candle to sleep alone in a room, not extinguishing it until dawn had arrived.
At the entrance of the army camp, after Lan Li had left, He Zhilan couldn’t suppress her emotions. She sat on a cold little stone, head drooping, and tears dropping one by one.
She had been thinking about the sudden change in He Teng’s attitude for a week, but still couldn’t understand why he would act .
She even began to fear, that maybe he really wanted her to wait an entire night, wait until she became desperate and left on her own initiative.
Nearby, the insects and birds in the bushes chirped incessantly. Yet, in this mountainous area, the noises seemed eerily creepy. The only light for He Zhilan besides the crescent moon in the sky was the glimmer from the guard post not far away.
The sudden sound of footsteps startled her. Instinctively, her body tensed, and she raised her head abruptly.
The moment He Teng’s face, backlit, appeared in her vision, she felt as if all the strength had drained from her body instantly.
"Get up," He Teng walked over and pulled up the person sitting on the ground. "I’ve arranged for someone to send you out. If there isn’t a train tonight, find an inn to say."
"Why are you doing this?" He Zhilan shook her head. "Brother, can you tell me why you suddenly turned ? Weren’t you fine when I visited the camp last week? If it’s because I insisted on divorcing you before, I apologize. Maybe, my approach was wrong. I didn’t consider your feelings, and that’s my mistake."
"Zhilan, what’s past is past. There’s no need to mention it. We are already divorced, and you running to the army camp all the time just doesn’t make sense. Who ever heard of a sister always visiting her brother’s army base? This is an army base, not home." He Teng’s face was shrouded in darkness such that his expression during this conversations was hidden.
"Is it because of what? Brother? Because I am Gu Zhilan? That night, you suddenly asked me a few questions, then the next day, your attitude changed. Is it because I am Gu Zhilan?" He Zhilan reached out and grabbed He Teng’s arm, her face pleading. "Brother, tell me, if I really am Gu Zhilan, are you going to sever ties with me? Why?"
He Zhilan cried softly, "Is it because you are angry that I hid from you that I was searching for my family? Brother, if that’s the case, I apologize. I hid it from you because I was afraid that once you knew you might think I was only using the He Family as a stepping stone, that you would think I was desperate to find my family and leave the He Family. Although I found them, you saw how they treated me. I hate them, I won’t accept them. Yet I also feared that once you knew, you would push me back to the Gu Family, thinking that would be best for me, letting me return to the Gu Family. So, I did not tell you that I found them."