Chapter 3.1 Runaway Wife

The perfume scent was light, sweet, and calming. It was the exact opposite of Huo Yunshen’s current behavior.

He held her waist, tightly fitting her into his embrace, as if he wanted them to be fused into one.

Yan Qing was screaming on the inside, but was in reality shocked speechless. She was able to grab ahold of a nearby design piece, and prepared to smash it over Huo Yunshen’s head.

To smash…or to not smash?

Yan Qing hesitated. She understood that wasn’t a complete hoodlum, doing this for the sake of pervertedness. She could empathize for him. Even now, although he was hugging her, he wasn’t being frivolous. Every action of his revealed his utter happiness.

But the problem is that he got the wrong person!

Yan Qing decided for a peaceful resolution. She placed the design piece back down, and pushed back on his shoulder to create distance. “Mr. Huo, has your head cleared up now? Are you able to calmly listen to a few words?”

Huo Yunshen breathing on the nape of her neck deepened. “….What did you call me?”

“Mr. Huo.” Yan Qing emphasized. She lifted his head, forcibly creating distance between them once again. “You’ve mistaken me for someone else. I’m not Yun Qing. I just happen to look a bit like her. I coincidentally met you at the bridge earlier, but it was just a coincidence!”

Huo Yunshen gaze dug into her. He searched every inch of her face, as if wanting to peer into her soul. “Qing Qing, don’t scare me. I can’t bear it anymore.” He carressed her hair near her temples.

“How did you get this wound? What happened? That plane crash ——” He gritted his teeth. “Were you in the plane that crashed? Where did you end up going? I looked for you for three years, everyone said you were already gone. But I didn’t believe it! Yun Qing would never abandon me!”

If it weren’t for the situation, Yan Qing really wanted to praise President Huo’s eyesight. She did have a scar near her temple. She didn’t even remember how it came to be, though her mother said it was from when she fainted and hit the edge of a glass table. The wound had already healed long ago. Now, there was only a light trace. She didn’t even see it when she looked into the mirror, yet President Huo saw it with a glance.

She sighed. She didn’t really want to yell at a man consumed by lost love. Patiently, she repeated for a third time. “I am not Yun Qing. I’m another person. Before today, we’ve never met. Do you understand?”

It was like Huo Yunshen didn’t even hear. His hand moved down to her neck. He titled up her chin, making her look right at him.

“I didn’t believe that you were gone…But the court declared in black ink that you were dead. Our cat, ever since you left, he was sick. Last week he finally closed his eyes. I went to every animal hospital, no one could save him. I used to despise him the most for taking up your attention and love. I used to never touch him. But that day….I carried him, I buried him at the little hillside you love.”

With every word he sad, Yan Qing felt her heart fill with bitterness. She fixated on him, forgetting to struggle.

It was like Huo Yunshen’s throat was filled with sand. Every word bursted out coarsely.

“Three days ago, I dreamed of you. You told me, Yunshen, don’t look for me. Yun Qing is no longer on this world anymore.” He continued with a bitter smile. His tears dripped onto her face. “I thought you came to me to say goodbye. I thought that that cat went to go find you. He knew where you were. I couldn’t lose to him. Qing Qing is mine. Even in death, I wasn’t going to let you go!”

Yan Qing’s chest ached. Unconsciously, her hands formed into fists.

Huo Yunshen’s grip tightened. “You once said that no matter who was the first to go, if the other one jumped off that bridge,  we’ll still be together! I stood up there, and you came to pull me down. And now you want to tell me, you’re not Yun Qing?!”

He ripped back her shirt collar, exposing a cherry-sized pink mark on the side of her neck. “This is Yun Qing’s! And you still want to say you aren’t her!”

Yan Qing realized Huo Yunshen hadn’t listened to her. He didn’t even want to understand. She wasn’t surprised that he noticed her mark. But to make a fuss about it and say that it was Yun Qing’s? She was having none of it. She couldn’t communicate with this man like this.

Yan Qing pulled her energy together and pushed with all her might. She swiftly jumped off the bed. “Huo Yunshen, you can miss her all you want! But don’t bring in unrelated people to vent! Tell the people outside to get out of the way, let me go!”

“Go?” Huo Yunshen charged forward, eyes red. “Say it again!”

Yan Qing bellowed, “I’m leaving! How many times do you need me to repeat it! I don’t know you. To me, you are a complete stranger!”

Huo Yunshen’s heart smashed to pieces.

The same lips that have declared countless times their love for him, were now denying everything they had.

There were no emotion for him in her eyes. It was all ice, resistance, rejection.

Huo Yunshen was in boundless infinite pain. He pulled her by the waist. “Qing Qing, did you forget me?”

Min Jing stood outside the door. Grasping the Ziplock bag in his hand, he nodded silently. He agreed with Shen ge‘s guess.

Yun Qing seemed to have lost her memories. That itself might not be shocking.  But it was clear that the gap in her memories were replaced with a complete and detailed false past.

Now, Yun Qing had her own supposed memories and logical past. It was a completely new identity. No matter  what they said, she wouldn’t believe them. Even if they tested the hair in the bag with her DNA, she would still believe that the results were orchestrated.

Inside the room, Huo Yunshen pulled Yan Qing along with urgency. “This is our room. Our bed. You’ve been living here since university. Do you remember?”

Yan Qing could no longer keep up with how many times she said she didn’t.

Huo Yunshen was like a helpless child, searching endlessly for anything that could reawaken her memories. Finally, he knelt and pulled out a glass globe from inside the night drawer. “Look, this is the eighteenth birthday present you gave me. You said you were going to ensure that my life was without regrets…”

Yan Qing was at her breaking point too. She cut him off: “That’s not me!”

He tried to give the globe to her but she refused to hold it. The fear of not being able to leave was growing. In the middle of the push and tug, her arm waved, sending the globe crashing to the ground. At the same time the glass shattered, she blurted out: “Huo Yunshen, I really regret saving you!”

The whole room froze.

The globe laid in pieces beneath their feet.

Huo Yunshen lowered his head and said slowly, “Qing Qing, are you regretting that I didn’t die?”