They heal each other
When Chen Jing'an heard Li Jiayue talk about the emotional abuse she had suffered in a past relationship, his fingers clenched hard. The words that rose in his throat carried years of repressed regret. “If I’d known you’d been through all that, I would have done whatever it took to protect you back then.”
Li Jiayue looked at the emotions roiling in his eyes and couldn’t help smiling. There was a hint of testing in her voice. “Oh? And what are you planning to do?”
“Of course I’m going to win you back.” Chen Jing'an’s voice was as heavy as cotton soaked in water, but his eyes shone with startling intensity as he fixed them on her.
Li Jiayue was just about to reply, “Then don’t you know…”
The rest of her words were suddenly cut off in her throat.
Chen Jing'an leaned closer. His warm breath enveloped her first, then his lips came down on hers with an irresistible force.
His kiss held the urgency of finding something he had lost, along with a careful tenderness. Only when Li Jiayue’s eyes had grown hazy did he pull back a little. Brushing his nose against the edge of her ear, he whispered, “To me, you’ll always be the only one.”
Once their breathing had gradually settled, Chen Jing'an gently stroked her hair. His voice returned to its usual warmth, but carried an unusual earnestness. “Yueyue, love has never been a rope to tie someone down. It means accepting each other’s rough edges, not controlling everything. It means seeing the other person live happily, freely, and without restraint, able to be themselves and slowly become a better version of themselves, instead of being trapped by someone and losing their light.”
