Back Then, I Adored You

“I’m alright,” Xu Wennuan said, audibly choked up as she turned and faced Guoguo. When the elevator door opened, Xu Wennuan stepped inside, turned around, and looked back at the door of Lu Bancheng’s home. Even though she had just tripped and fallen to the floor, he had remained unmoved, sitting on the sofa, watching her, without any intention to get up and check on her.

Her eyes stung even harder now and, afraid that she would lose control of herself and cry out, she jabbed the close button to get away quickly.

Guoguo waited until the elevator had started downward before she turned and walked back into Lu Bancheng’s apartment. After closing the door, she walked a few steps into the living room and fixed her eyes on Lu Bancheng, who appeared to be composed but whose hands were tightly clenched around his blanket.

Finding him unbearable to look at, Guoguo shifted her eyes toward the lamp before saying gently, “She seemed to have actually injured herself in that fall. She was limping badly—I’m pretty sure she twisted her ankle.”

Lu Bancheng did not speak, and his lips were tightly pursed into a straight, hard line.

“Her voice was trembling, like she’d been crying or something. I could barely understand her,” Guoguo added on softly after some hesitation.

Lu Bancheng continued to remain silent, but she could see clearly from the corner of her eye that his nails were digging hard into the blanket and his hands had started to tremble. Guoguo moved her lips but, eventually, she merely sighed lightly and turned to head to the kitchen to get Lu Bancheng’s medication.

As she was opening the bottle, she heard a loud crash. Stunned momentarily, Guoguo hurriedly placed the bottle down and rushed out from the dining area. Lu Bancheng, who had been seated on the sofa, had disappeared. She ran over to the sofa and found him laying on the ground. “Brother Bancheng,” she called out worriedly. But before she could rush forward to help him up, Lu Bancheng had already used his own elbow to prop himself as he painstakingly crawled to the French door.

“Brother Bancheng, what are you doing? What do you want? You can just tell me!” Guoguo squatted down and tried to pull Lu Bancheng’s elbow; however, he shook her hands off so forcefully that she was nearly flung off balance.

“Brother Bancheng!” Guoguo’s anxious tears were threatening to pour out. She hurried up again to Lu Bancheng, who had already crawled to the window and was staring through the glass. Just when Guoguo was about to help him up, his body trembled and he suddenly stopped moving. Guoguo was stunned and, when she followed his gaze and looked down, she saw Xu Wennuan squatting by the lamppost with her head buried in her knees.

From their high floor, they could not clearly see her shaking but her shoulders jerked several times and she was obviously crying hard. Guoguo put her arm down from trying to stop him and turned to look at his face after a moment.

His gentle eyes were now filled with a look of agony and forlorn. He was clearly extremely upset, but he eventually chuckled in a deep tone as he stared down at her. “I wanted to send her off, but I couldn’t stand up. She tripped and twisted her ankle, and I couldn’t even walk over to help her. Now that she’s crying in misery, I can only watch her like this…”

“Ha…” Toward the end of his emotional critique, Lu Bancheng laughed lightly but, to Guoguo’s ears, his laugh sounded more like a cry of agony.

Guoguo’s eyes turned red. “Brother Bancheng, I’ll help you to check on—”

“It’s alright.” Lu Bancheng cut Guoguo off. “Help me get my phone.”