“Fu Jingnian, let's break up.” Standing beneath a ginkgo tree, she said it without crying. The night before, she'd meant to go to the bar to pick him up, since he was drunk, but overheard one of his friends say, “Bro, your new girlfriend looks a lot like the girl you had a crush on in high school.” And he didn't deny it. A replacement. So all his tenderness, all his attention, all his “you deserve better” had only been because she reminded him of someone else. The next day, she broke up with him. The day after that, her grandmother died. On the fourth day, she flew across the ocean. Five years. Long enough for someone to give up on love, long enough for someone to be reborn, and long enough for someone to etch another person into their bones. Five years later, Ming Yu returned as a rising venture capital partner. At their first project meeting, Fu Jingnian sat across from her at the conference table, watching her with a somber gaze. “Ms. Ming, it's been a long time.” She smiled, distant and polite. “Mr. Fu, I look forward to working with you.” He remembered she had a weak stomach and had his assistant bring her a cup of warm water at every meeting. She remembered that every autumn, he'd post a photo of a ginkgo tree with a caption consisting of just one word: “Longing.” He didn't know why she'd left, and she didn't know that the person he'd had a crush on in high school was her all along.
He didn't know what she was holding against him, and she didn't know that he'd only ever loved one person. When the misunderstanding about being a replacement was finally cleared up, and the five years they'd lost were finally explained, Fu Jingnian pulled her into his arms, his voice hoarse. “Ming Yu, I've only ever loved one person in my life. From beginning to end, it's always been you.” She asked through tears, “Then why didn't you explain back then?” He smiled bitterly. “You never even gave me the chance.”
“Of all people, it had to be you. It could only ever be you.”
