Si Moshen stared quietly at Jiang Zhirou, just as he had looked at her countless times before.
Only this time, the look of tender attachment in his eyes was replaced by heartache.
"I won't."
"Come to think of it, most of my first half of life seems to be filled with painful memories. If I forget them, I'll have no past..."
"What do you think, Zhirou?"
Si Moshen's words reached Jiang Zhirou's ears. She was almost certain that she must have forgotten something.
She was just about to speak when, out of nowhere, Si Moshen took out a notebook and handed it to her.
Jiang Zhirou was stunned for a moment. She took the notebook from his hand in confusion and opened it to look carefully.
When she saw the contents of the notebook, her pupils dilated suddenly. The memories she had forgotten came flooding back into her mind like a tidal wave in an instant.
Si Moshen beside her understood from the expression on her face.
He had anticipated this day from the beginning. When he hypnotized Jiang Zhirou back then, he had taken special care. As long as Jiang Zhirou's brain received enough information about Chi Yu, she would be able to recall everything between them.
At this moment, Jiang Zhirou also understood why Chi Yu always looked at her with a look she couldn't understand, and why he had said that day, 'Regarding my girlfriend. I've said that I've only been in love once. It's a pity that I was too stupid. I not only failed to take good care of her, but also lost her.'
'Zhirou, if it were you, would you be willing to come back to me?'
Chi Yu's words kept echoing in Jiang Zhirou's mind, and the past memories kept pouring into her brain. There were memories of her with him when she was Chen Qingmian, and also memories when she was Jiang Zhirou.
All the memories that she had hidden deep in her brain came gushing out at this moment.
After a while, when Jiang Zhirou looked up again, tears silently slid down her cheeks.
"Can I make a call to him?"
she asked.
A faint smile played on Si Moshen's lips. He handed his phone to Jiang Zhirou.
Jiang Zhirou took the phone and stared intently at the screen. She found Chi Yu's number and quickly dialed it.
A series of beeps soon came from the other end of the phone.
The few seconds of waiting for the call to connect seemed to last an eternity. Her hand holding the phone trembled slightly due to nervousness.
Just as she was hesitating whether to hang up the phone, the call was answered.
"Hello?"
Chi Yu's voice came through the receiver to Jiang Zhirou's ears. She tightened her grip on the phone and called his name.
"Chi Yu..."
Hearing Jiang Zhirou's voice on the other end of the phone, Chi Yu was stunned at first. After a while, he suddenly let out a soft laugh. "Ms. Jiang, do you have something to tell me?"
His tone was polite and distant.
He no longer called her Zhirou as he had in Yuelan before.
For a moment, the words on the tip of Jiang Zhirou's tongue got stuck in her throat and she couldn't say a word.
Chi Yu on the other end of the phone didn't hear a response for a long time. He took the phone away from his ear, looked at the still-ticking call record, and then put the phone back to his ear.
"Ms. Jiang?"
he called again.
There was no special tone in his voice, as if he were calling a stranger with whom he had little interaction.
Jiang Zhirou took a deep breath to calm her emotions a bit, and then slowly spoke to the person on the other end of the phone.
"Are you coming back to Yuelan?"
As soon as the words were out, Chi Yu's eyes flashed. Something in his heart rippled. He asked tentatively, "Ms. Jiang... do you have something?"
The repeated "Ms. Jiang" made Jiang Zhirou feel inexplicably irritated, and her voice also carried a hint of annoyance.
"Your coat is still with me."
Chi Yu was stunned for a moment, and a bitter smile curled up on his lips.
He had thought too much. How could he have almost forgotten that the current Jiang Zhirou no longer remembered him.
For a moment, he almost thought that Jiang Zhirou wanted him to go back.
It turned out that she just wanted to return his coat.
Did she hate him so much? So much that she couldn't even tolerate a coat of his?
Chi Yu's fingers on the quilt curled slightly. Maybe he still harbored a glimmer of unrealistic hope. He spoke to the woman on the other end of the phone in a voice so soft that he could hardly hear it himself.
"Ms. Jiang can just throw the clothes away. I probably won't go back to Yuelan. Please do me a favor and convey my gratitude to Mr. Si for letting me stay in Yuelan for this period of time."
Hearing the words "won't go back again", a mist instantly welled up in Jiang Zhirou's eyes. She tried hard to control her emotions to make her voice sound normal.
"Do you still remember the question you asked me last time?"
Chi Yu paused for a moment and didn't react immediately to what she was talking about.
While he was thinking, Jiang Zhirou's voice sounded again.
"You asked me last time, if it were me, would I be willing to come back to you?"
As soon as the words were out, Chi Yu's pupils dilated suddenly, and his hand holding the phone tightened.
"What does Ms. Jiang want to say?"
"I want to say... if you like a mountain, the mountain won't move towards you. You have to walk towards it. If the person you want to win back is here, you also have to walk towards her."
After Jiang Zhirou finished speaking, there was a long silence on the other end of the phone. Her heart was beating fast.
She just wanted to ask if Chi Yu was still willing to come back. As long as he said yes, she would immediately return to the imperial capital.
She just wanted a definite and unwavering answer.
Time passed second by second. Jiang Zhirou felt that it had been a long time, so long that it seemed like an eternity.
She was looking forward to Chi Yu's answer, but at the same time, she was afraid that he would say something she didn't want to hear.
Suddenly, a soft laugh came from the other end of the phone, and then Chi Yu's voice sounded again.
"Thank you, Ms. Jiang, for seriously considering my question, but now I don't really need it anymore."
Don't need it anymore? What did that mean?
Jiang Zhirou was a bit anxious. Just as she was about to ask what that meant, Chi Yu's voice sounded again before her.
"Sorry, Ms. Jiang. I still have something to deal with here. If there's nothing else, I'll hang up."
After Chi Yu finished speaking, he didn't give Jiang Zhirou a chance to speak and quickly hung up the phone.
After hanging up the phone, Chi Yu's fingers were still trembling slightly. The person on the other end of the phone was the one he had been longing for. He was afraid that if he was one second slower, he would not be able to resist rushing back to Yuelan immediately.
But he couldn't do it now.
He couldn't go back anymore.
He was no longer the same person as before. He couldn't give her the complete family she wanted.
At this moment, Chi Yu suddenly felt extremely grateful that Jiang Zhirou had forgotten him.
He lowered his head and took out the phone card from the phone, broke it in two, and threw it into the trash can beside him.
Jiang Zhirou still maintained the posture of answering the phone, but the voice coming from the receiver was no longer Chi Yu's, but the mechanical and cold busy tone.
She turned her head and looked at Si Moshen beside her. She murmured absent-mindedly, "He... he seems to not want me anymore."