Escape from the Tiger's Jaws [Rekindled Love]

Second Chances After a Broken Relationship / Bittersweet Redemption / Small-Town Fiction / SC, HE

Gentle yet stubborn teacher × ex-boyfriend pretending he has moved on

[Everyone says he’s rotten to the core. Only she remembers that he was once the best boy in the world.]

*

They meet again at a hospital. He arrives looking exhausted, bringing his younger sister in to have her stomach pumped.

He’s thinner, but his back and shoulders are still straight. He’s wearing nothing but a lightweight windbreaker.

Over the years, she’s heard things about him: his parents died in the line of duty, he dropped out of school, got into fights, and went to prison.

Every time, she’s gone pale and said, “He isn’t like that.”

Lin Jiayi waits in the hallway until the middle of the night. At last, she sees him leave the hospital room and smoke alone on the balcony.

Without even turning around, he asks in an indifferent voice:

“Teacher Lin, what is it?”

At last, he looks up at her. Just for a moment, before his eyes drift away again.

After a long while, he briskly shakes out a blanket and drapes it over her. His movements are so practiced, it’s as if they’d never been apart.

But his voice is barely a whisper:

“Lin Jiayi, just pretend you never saw me. It’s cold. You should head home.”

*

But once, he was the best boy in the world to her.

His parents’ police badges hung on the wall of his family home, surrounded by his award certificates.

Later, when they went to universities in different cities, he’d spend an entire day traveling just to see her. His eyes would be bloodshot from exhaustion, but he’d still put on a stern face and complain that she’d kept him waiting: “You don’t miss me at all?”

The day they broke up, she thought it was just another ordinary argument. She’d reason with him and throw a little tantrum, then give him a chance to make it up to her. He’d comfort her, right?

But he said, “Let’s end things here.”

Winter in Beijing was bitterly cold. For the last time, he wrapped her head in his coat and held her close, resting his chin against her:

“Lin Jiayi, you’ll be happy.”

“I’m letting you go.”

*

All these years, everyone has thought Xu Yue was rotten to the core. He couldn’t be bothered to explain.

Later, he corners her on the dim bed in his rented apartment, his eyes red-rimmed and damp.

“Do you pity me?”

“Can you pity me for the rest of your life?”

“I gave you a chance to leave. Why didn’t you listen? Why did you have to come back?”

Xu Yue keeps gambling that if he disappoints her enough, she’ll leave.

Only later does he understand that she isn’t incapable of leaving. She simply can’t let go.

She can’t let go of the fact that

he lost the best boy she’d ever known.

Theme: Love means choosing each other.