Back Then, I Adored You

Wu Hao was leaning against the wall and smoking when he heard the elevator doors opening. He lifted his head slightly and was stunned when he caught sight of Xu Wennuan. After some time, he raised his hand, extinguished his cigarette, and stood up straight.

His eyes met Xu Wennuan’s unblinkingly for some time before his gaze trailed down slowly. When it landed on the blood stains on both of her legs, he frowned. “Nuannuan, what happened to your legs?”

Xu Wennuan immediately shifted her gaze away from Wu Hao’s face when she heard his voice, treating him like he didn’t exist. She continued walking to her door and was just about to enter the passcode when Wu Hao spoke again.

“I’ll take you to the doctor. It’d be bad for you if your wounds get infected.” As he said that, Wu Hao grabbed her elbow.

Xu Wennuan gave Wu Hao’s hand an extraordinarily hard fling the second she felt his fingertips contact her elbow. She turned her head, glared at him, and said in a tone that was even colder than her expression, “Wu Hao, what exactly do you want? If you want to take me to the hospital because you are purely concerned about the injuries on my legs, let me be clear: I don’t need or want that! If there’s anything else you have to say, I advise you to keep your mouth shut because I don’t want to listen to you, and I’m not interested—”

Wu Hao lowered his head and stared at the hand Xu Wennuan had just flung away. When he heard her words, he suddenly met her eyes and interrupted her slowly. “Nuannuan, can we go back to how we were before?”

That one sentence was enough to halt Xu Wennuan’s tirade.

Wu Hao gazed fixedly at Xu Wennuan under the dim light of the corridor. His eyebrows were just as focused as when he first confessed to her many years ago, and he repeated his words as though she had not heard him previously.

“Nuannuan, can you give me another chance? Can we start again? Can we do it right this time? Nuannuan, I swear that I will not let you down again. I will treat you well, and we will have cute children and a beautiful backyard just like we discussed in Shanghai. We’ll have a boy and a girl, Nuannuan. Do you remember that? You even said that you’ll treat your daughter like a princess—”

“Enough!” Xu Wennuan said sternly without warning. “Wu Hao, do you know how disgusting it is to hear you say that?”

“You want us to go back to the way we were before? What makes you assume that I’ll want a man who has been played rotten by another woman?

“Let me tell you something, Wu Hao. There is no way I will get back together with you. I’ll have cute children in the future, but you will never be their father! You’ll also have a beautiful backyard, but I won’t be the person sharing it with you!

“So, Wu Hao, don’t bother me or say such things to me ever again!”

Xu Wennuan was exceptionally determined and, when she was done speaking, she belatedly realized that she had used to get sad whenever she thought about Wu Hao and would fantasize about them getting back together. Yet, she had already wiped him from her life completely.