Rumble—
A muffled clap of thunder exploded overhead, signaling the storm was about to break.
Xie Chi forcefully covered Wen Zhishao's eyes with his hand. The shifting shadows in his gaze made his emotions impossible to read.
"Shifu, please listen to my explanation." Jiang Ciyou took a deep breath. "I truly have no other thoughts about you anymore. And that video, I didn't..."
"Shut up." Xie Chi's usually light-colored eyes were now pitch-black, heavy and oppressive like the storm clouds gathering above.
"Jiang Ciyou, I regret it. I never should have brought you back from the battlefield."
"You were born with rebellion in your bones. You have no discipline, no sense of shame, and you are forever unrepentant... I already told you I would never be with you, yet you still orchestrated something like this."
He looked at Jiang Ciyou with an expressionless face, but his voice was chilling to the bone.
"Get out."
Jiang Ciyou froze in place. She knew Xie Chi was truly enraged. In this moment, the man before her overlapped perfectly with the cold, unforgiving version of him from her past life.
He enunciated every word clearly. "From this moment on, you and I have nothing to do with each other."
After saying this, he didn't look at her again. He lowered his head to whisper comforts to Wen Zhishao, planting kiss after kiss on her forehead.
Jiang Ciyou, on the other hand, was grabbed by the arms by the guards and dragged directly out the door.
Another crack of thunder split the sky.
The torrential rain that had been suppressed for so long finally poured down, instantly soaking her thin training uniform.
It doesn't matter, she thought. Didn't I want to leave anyway?
Leaving now was just the same. She would go far away and disappear completely from Xie Chi and Wen Zhishao's lives.
That way, Xie Chi would be happy, right?
Jiang Ciyou didn't actually know where she should go. She waded through the rainwater, walking aimlessly along the highway. Countless neon lights flickered through the curtain of rain, but not a single light belonged to a home for her. The exhaustion of the past few days surged through her body; she couldn't walk another step.
Jiang Ciyou found a bench and sat silently in the rain.
Just then, her phone vibrated. It was a birthday wish from the base cafeteria's automated system.
"Captain Xie wishes you a happy birthday."
It was a setting Xie Chi had configured for her long ago. As long as the cafeteria system existed, even if he were to sacrifice himself in battle, it would send her a birthday wish right on time.
Warmth spread across her rain-slicked cheeks. Haltingly, brokenly, she began to sing the birthday song to herself.
"Happy birthday to me... Happy... birthday... to me..."
On the day she turned twenty-three, Xie Chi had discarded her.
From this moment on, she truly had no family left.
The world before her eyes grew increasingly blurry. As she finished singing the last line, her strength gave out, and she collapsed into the curtain of rain.
When she woke up again, she found herself back at the base.
Xie Chi stood by her bed, his expression icy. He was wearing a pair of tactical gloves, as if he didn't even want his fingertips to touch her skin.
"First, you deliberately released that video to force Zhishao to leave. Then, you fainted by the roadside, using your own suffering as a ploy to make her forgive you... Your methods are truly impressive."
"But remember this: I am not her. I am not so easily softened. No matter what you do, I will never be with you."
Jiang Ciyou coughed a few times and spoke calmly. "I know. Actually, I came back this time to tell you that I'm leaving..."
Before she could finish her sentence, the door opened from the outside. Wen Zhishao walked in carrying a glass of warm water and medicine.
Her gaze toward Jiang Ciyou was still somewhat unnatural. "Take your medicine and rest well."
After setting the items down, she turned to leave immediately. Xie Chi hurriedly chased after her. Neither of them heard the second half of Jiang Ciyou's sentence.
She whispered to the empty room: "...and I will never come back."
In the days that followed, Wen Zhishao visited a few times. Looking at her pale face, Jiang Ciyou remembered that in her past life, Wen Zhishao had been unable to bear the humiliation and eventually committed suicide.
So, Ciyou took the initiative to contact her senior from university to visit her. She then lied to Wen Zhishao and Xie Chi:
"This is my boyfriend. In a little while, we are going abroad together for a mission."
Wen Zhishao was visibly relieved, but Xie Chi's expression turned dark and cold.
Jiang Ciyou didn't understand. She had given up on him and found someone else—he didn't have to worry about her pestering him anymore, did he?
So why was Xie Chi still unhappy?
She couldn't figure it out, and she didn't dare to think about it.