Ke Xiaomi shook her head, and with all those little things on her mind, hurriedly started packing. As she rushed back and forth, she would occasionally catch sight of someone sprawled on the sofa, eyes crinkled and lips curled into a grin, smugly waving his gauze-wrapped hand, which was tied up in a perfect bow.
At last, she collapsed beside him. “I’m hiring a housekeeper from now on…”
“Can you afford one?”
“I can! I’ll hire you. One yuan an hour, how about that?”
Ke Xiaomi stared at him with wide eyes, completely serious. Her words made Gu Xun laugh so hard he could barely stop. He took her hand and said, “Sure. One yuan an hour, twenty-four yuan a day. That’s seven hundred yuan a month, okay?”
…He really was going to be a housekeeper, and he was still this careful with money.
“I’ll provide your food and lodging, too.” Ke Xiaomi narrowed her eyes. “How about thirty yuan a month, Housekeeper Gu?”
The driver started the engine at once, and the familiar car swung around.
Gu Xun kept pounding on it, shouting her name until his voice was hoarse: “Xiaomi… Xiaomi…”
It was too late. Everything was too late.
Suddenly, it all seemed rather ridiculous. No matter what she had tried, she had never been able to teach him. Yet now, as they parted, he finally remembered her name. When had her Ah Xun ever called her name so desperately, so wildly, in a voice that even frightened her?
The car began to speed up. Gu Xun chased after it with all his might, not caring about anything else. She could only sit in the back and watch clearly as he ran, fell, then got up and ran again… until she could no longer see even his shadow.
“Ah Xun, if you had tried to stop me like this all those years ago, would none of this have happened?”
She gave a bitter smile. By chance, she saw the dirty, murky blackness in the tears falling from her eyes. The tear in her palm had already turned black, a blackness from which no light could ever return.
