Chapter 672: Love separated by mountains and seas (2)

Was someone deliberately wrecking their relationship? You Qinglan’s enthusiasm was indeed very strange!

Also, why did she deliberately come all the way to Yanzhou to tell me this? If they really want to snatch Xu Tingsheng away, wouldn’t it be better for them if the child was already born?

Because of Li Linlin’s words, Xiang Ning was silent for a while before she said rather wrongedly, “But he didn’t even want to explain.”

“Did you ask him about it?” Li Linlin asked.

“No. I was very angry and upset at the time. I was just crying before I left,” Xiang Ning thought about it, “Still, even then, he could have hugged me in place and explained...but he didn’t do it.”

Her hairstyle totally messed up yet still unable to think of an explanation, Li Linlin could only wonder helplessly in the end, “Is it that Bro Xu has some hidden difficulties that leave him unable to explain things?”

She was both wrong and right at the same time.

She was wrong in thinking that Xu Tingsheng had been set up. At the time, Xu Tingsheng had indeed made the promise on his own accord. Li Wan’er’s illness aside, no one had forced him.

She was right in having inadvertently correctly guessed that there were a lot of things that Xu Tingsheng currently could not explain.

If it were some other time, faced with the pain of losing Xiang Ning, Xu Tingsheng might just admit his mistake frankly, pleading earnestly to obtain her forgiveness.

Now, however, he couldn’t.

If Zhou Yuandai had used such a troublesome method to push Xiang Ning away rather than do anything directly to her, it was because she was still considering maintaining the bottom line between the two. In that case, Xu Tingsheng did not dare to be constantly provoking her.

Similarly, he could not tell all this to Xiang Ning.

“How about you go ask him then?” Seeing Xiang Ning not reacting, Li Linlin proposed.

Xiang Ning shook her head, “No way,”

“It would be a real pity if you break up because of a misunderstanding. Your relationship is so good,” Li Linlin advised.

“But there’s something even more serious,” Xiang Ning hesitated a little, next pointing at herself as she said, “I’m only a replacement.”

“Huh?” Li Linlin was stumped at once.

“There’s a Big Xiang Ning...” Xiang Ning told Li Linlin about her conversations with Xu Tingsheng regarding Big Xiang Ning and her own feelings, what she could not understand.

Hearing her narration, Li Linlin felt as if she was watching a thunderous old school Taiwanese drama.

“That’s impossible, right?” She asked, “If you share the same name, within the whole country, there should only be a few thousand, right?”

“In that case, we look very similar, perhaps exactly the same,” Xiang Ning said.

Now this did rather fit those old school Taiwanese dramas.

Li Linlin considered it, “But that still isn’t right.”

“What isn’t right?”

“The age isn’t right.”

“Hmm?”

“The first time Bro Xu went to look for you, he was still eighteen or nineteen, right? In twelfth grade.”

“Yes.”

“By that logic, before twelfth grade, he loved someone who looked exactly the same as you to the ends of the earth. Then, that person met with an accident or left, right?”

Seeing Li Linlin who was overly moved to the point of gesticulating vigorously, Xiang Ning nodded.

“We can rule out senior high, because we all know Huang Yaming and Fu Cheng. Right, and Apple too...Huang Yaming and Fu Cheng love to talk about their time in senior high with Bro Xu, the days they gallivanted around together, the time he suddenly came to a realisation in twelfth grade...there’s no sign of this in their narration at all. Also, do you remember the first time they saw you in the hospital? If Xu Tingsheng had loved someone who looked exactly the same as you in senior high, it would be impossible for them not to have reacted in any way.”

Xiang Ning thought about it, “Makes sense.”

She had actually once listened to a conversation between Fu Cheng and Fang Yunyao and learnt that Xu Tingsheng had nearly dated a very tomboyish girl in senior high...now that she thought about it, that timing couldn’t fit.

“What about junior high then? Junior high...” Li Linlin continued.

“There’s none in junior high,” Xiang Ning said.

“Huh? You know?”

“Do you know Wu Yuewei? Xu Tingsheng’s junior. She’s very pretty and even got into Qingbei. I’m very close with her. She likes Xu Tingsheng too...she told me about his days in junior high.”

“That rules out junior high too then. In that case, primary school?” Li Linlin paused, “There’s no need to analyse primary school, right? How old was he then?”

With that, nearly half of Xiang Ning’s logic had collapsed. It was just that a vague sense of doubt still existed within her. There still wasn’t an explanation behind Xu Tingsheng appearing too jarringly, with insane doting that was just over the top.

“But I think he admitted before that she exists.”

“That she exists? I feel that he was possibly just afraid of scaring you and so went along with how you understood it...after all, he was so...shameless in falling in love at first sight when you were fourteen,” Li Linlin smiled.

Xiang Ning felt slightly awkward too as she lowered her head, her thoughts running all over the place.

“Xiang Ning, are you happy together with Bro Xu? Actually, it’s been three, nearly four years. In the past more than one year, you’ve even lived together...” Li Linlin spoke up again.

Xiang Ning looked rather bemusedly at her.

“What I mean is how it feels being together with Bro Xu.”

“It’s great! It isn’t any better than this even in the novels I read.”

“Do you feel that he likes you then?”

Xiang Ning pondered about it and then nodded.

Li Linlin continued, “Do you feel that if someone exists who looks exactly the same as you, their personality can also be exactly the same?”

Xiang Ning was rather bemused, “What do you mean, Big Sis Teacher?”

“Let’s assume now that Bro Xu really had a girlfriend who looked exactly like you,” Li Linlin gestured, “Even so, that...doesn’t entail that you can get along very well over such a long period of time. Do you get what I mean?”

Xiang Ning nodded, then shook her head.

“Even if it really was because you looked exactly like a certain someone at the very start...Bro Xu already came to like you afterwards. Can you understand that? Your personality, your temperament, your habits, your likes, your...everything. If he doesn’t like it, whoever you might look like, it would be impossible for your time together to be so great. Do you understand?”

“That is to say that even if there really is a Big Xiang Ning, he has already come to like Little Xiang Ning. Is that it?” Xiang Ning asked thoughtfully.

“That’s right,” Li Linlin sighed in relief and nodded, “Also, looking at the time, there simply is no Big Xiang Ning. I still feel that what I said earlier was right. He was just afraid of his shameless love at first sight...giving you a fright. That was why he went along with what you were thinking. Let’s not talk about anything else. Just how Bro Xu was singing earlier-do you feel that it could have been about his feelings for someone else?”

Everything from earlier had been too deeply etched within. Not even needing to recall it, Xiang Ning could already be certain that that was because of her.

She recalled his eyes, his words, the good and bad things about him, from deeply etched memories to daily interactions...he had said ‘Miss Xiang, you’re so wonderful’...he had said ‘Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me’...

Feelings could not lie.

Xiang Ning’s own sentence from earlier reverberated in her mind: Even if there really is a Big Xiang Ning, he has already come to like Little Xiang Ning.

“However it started out, after, now, Xu Tingsheng does like me.”

As Xiang Ning arrived at this conclusion, she felt that there were many other things she did not have to continue caring about.

She suddenly felt that there were many things she wanted to ask Xu Tingsheng. While she had not forgiven him completely, she was willing to ask him, willing to listen to him explain...she was even prepared to be a little magnanimous.

“Send me back, Big Sis Teacher,” Xiang Ning inhaled.

“That home, with him,” She added rather awkwardly before saying, “You’re right. I want to talk to him.”

“Got it,” Li Linlin happily sent Xiang Ning to the block where she and Xu Tingsheng lived.

“Do you want me to go up to accompany you?” She asked, feeling a bit worried.

Xiang Ning raised her hand and looked at the time, “No need. Big Sis Du Jin will come over.”

“That’s good then,” Seeing that Xiang Ning was about to go upstairs, Li Linlin asked, “Do you want me to help notify him then? ...I’m afraid that you’ll feel embarrassed to do it, and then he might stay at the dormitory instead.”

Xiang Ning shook her head, a smile appearing on her little face that had shed many tears earlier, “Now that he’s seen me today, he’ll definitely come back here to stay tonight.”

Li Linlin thought about it and understood, smiling, “Look at you, understanding him so well, believing so much in his feelings and reluctance to part with you...and still letting your mind run wild like that. I’ll go back first then.”

“Alright. Thank you, Big Sis Teacher. See you.”

Xiang Ning took her key and opened the door. At first glance, she saw her slippers neatly laid out on the shoe rack at the entrance...

Du Jin was unexpectedly not at home. Xiang Ning did not immediately give her a call. Her eyes red, she wandered about the house, carefully examining her and Xu Tingsheng’s home that she had already not returned to for a few months.

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

His room was so messy.

Miss Xiang’s room was in its original state.

The things that she had put in the living room when leaving the last time were still where they were. It was as if it had merely been a large scale cleaning up that had stopped midway...and was awaiting continuation.

Xiang Ning’s favourite snacks and drinks could still be found in the refrigerator and cupboard...and from the looks of it, he had bought a lot of noodles of various kinds again recently. Some seemed to have been bought from out of town.

In this home, it was Miss Xiang who loved eating noodles.

Miss Xiang’s flowers, plants and whatnot were all being maintained very well too.

Also, her clothes that she had not brought away, which she had worn in their intended season, had already all been washed. They were neatly placed in the wardrobe.

She looked at some things which were clearly placed in a very disorderly fashion but were matched in a strange way due to OCD. She looked at the way the clothes were placed. With that, Xiang Ning knew that it was Xu Tingsheng who had personally done all of this and not Du Jin.

She suddenly felt so warm.

She suddenly felt so safe.

She suddenly believed much more, believed that even if there really was a Big Xiang Ning, Xu Tingsheng had already come to like Little Xiang Ning now.

Suddenly, she felt that there was not so much to think about.

Feeling a bit nervous, a bit awkward, Xiang Ning switched on the television, got a bag of potato chips and sat cross-legged on the sofa, munching, watching a Korean drama and waiting for that person to come home...

“I’ll just act like it’s very natural, very normal. Just like how I came back every week in the first place,” Xiang Ning thought.