She died in late spring when she was twenty-two years old.
The rain outside the window was pattering, wetting the purple peony in the courtyard, and its petals fell to the ground, like her spent life.
Zhong Suqiu, who was lying on the couch, was already as angry as a thread.
She was so thin that there was only a handful of bones left, and her almond-shaped eyes, which had once been full of hope, had lost their sparkle at this moment. She just clung to something in her palm and refused to let go.
The personal maid had red eyes and advised her countless times to let go and stop holding on, but she didn't listen.
It was a dry bamboo leaf.
She picked it up in the bamboo forest in the south of the city many years ago. That day, she mustered up the courage of her whole life and said the four words "I love you" to the man in white clothes, but what she got in exchange was his gentle words "Young monsters have different paths, please come back, girl."
When he left, the wind blew through the bamboo forest and dropped this bamboo leaf. She picked it up and held it for a lifetime.
Life is so short.
It was so short that she could only love one person, so short that she could not wait for a soft word from him until her death, so short that her life ended up being trapped in this small courtyard, becoming a footnote to other people's love.
She remembered that before Hua Guzi died, she held her hand and cried and begged her: "Sister Suqiu, I beg you, help me take care of my father-in-law and our children. I know that you are the only one who is the most soft-hearted, and you are the only one who will help me."
She agreed.
She was always like this and never learned to say no.
