Back Then, I Adored You

The way Liang Doukou looked at them made it seem like they weren’t her hands. She even raised her hands in front of her face and watched them bleed. She had her mouth slightly curled up and looked like she was having fun watching her hands bleed.

She lifted the corners of her mouth even more until all her white teeth showed. She giggled.

The laughed sounded sad, though. It sounded so bad that it was even worse than crying.

As Liang Doukou laughed, her eyes started to mist up. She looked like she had lost her soul. She walked around the tree and stumbled to the parking lot.

Liang Doukou had parked her car at the entrance of the parking lot when she came out of Zhou Jing’s apartment. She walked around the parking lot in laps, but couldn’t find her car. The toll staff at the parking lot couldn’t help asking if she needed any help. She shivered and pressed her remote car keys while she walked toward the car that flashed.

She pulled the car door open and climbed inside. Liang Doukou stared out the windshield with a faraway look on her face for a while before she hit the gas and drove onto the road with her hands gripping the wheel.

She drove extremely slowly. She had no idea where she was going to drive to. Her head was filled with the images of Gu Yusheng and Qin Zhi’ai together; he had bought her bubble tea and walked hand in hand with her, she had sang a song and he had listened, then they had kissed. Thinking of it, Liang Doukou hit the brakes hard and stopped the car on the sidewalk.

Her hands on the wheel gripped the wheel so hard that her knuckles turned pale and made crackling sounds.

Her breathing became irregular, and her chest heaved up and down faster and faster. She suddenly slammed on the gas and made a U-turn at the next intersection to drive to Zhou Jiang’s apartment.

After she parked, Liang Doukou went upstairs. The door was opened before she even rang the bell.

Zhou Jing was about to leave. She heaved a long sigh of relief when she saw Liang Doukou. She pulled her into the apartment. After she closed the door behind them, she immediately asked, “Xiaokou, why did you come home so late? Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you?”

Liang Doukou looked like she neither saw Zhou Jing nor heard her. She shrugged her arm off and walked directly into the room.

She stopped in front of the bay window.

Zhou Jing immediately followed after Liang Doukou and stood next to her. As she was about to say something, Liang Doukou suddenly said in a low pitch, “I should have known it would happen this way.”

Zhou Jing was confused by what Liang Doukou had said and asked in surprise, “What?”

Liang Doukou still didn’t seem to hear Zhou Jing. “I took a risk and bet on it. Everything happened too fast. Except for her, no one could help me in that difficult time. Do you think there would be two people who looked so much alike? I didn’t think he would be able to connect with her after so many years. He should have forgotten her.” Liang Doukou still ignored Zhou Jing. She continued to murmur, “I just don’t understand why he didn’t pay attention to me for all those years, since I look so much like her. How could he notice her immediately after she came along?”

“Xiaokou, what are you murmuring? I don’t understand what you’re saying.” Zhou Jing couldn’t help raising her voice.