He Never Cried Out in Pain

“Both Pure, Love Before Marriage, and a Husband Chasing His Wife to the Crematorium” Yang Yiran and Gu Ruobing When he was ten, a boy doubled over with stomach pain in an alley accepted the piece of candy she offered him. They reunited in high school at eighteen. She was his new deskmate, but her eyes showed no sign of recognizing him. He never mentioned that candy. He simply tucked his stomach medicine into the deepest corner of his desk. When his stomach pain flared up, she didn’t help. He crouched by the edge of the sports field until it passed, never crying out. On her birthday, he waited until the restaurant closed. His stomach cramped so badly that sweat beaded on his forehead, but he never cried out. The day she broke up with him, he turned away and crouched there clutching his stomach for three hours. Still, he never cried out. He thought that if he were obedient enough, patient enough, and careful not to bother her, one day she would look back at him. But he didn’t know... She had written his name in her diary. She had brought that box of stomach medicine with her to college. She had remembered that summer long ago. But by the time she looked back, he had been on his knees for so long that he could no longer stand. “He called her name, but never cried out in pain.” “She knew everything. It was just too late.”