Out with the Old, In with the New

“I've watched you dote on her for five years. I thought you were going to betray the organization and marry her.” “She behaves herself and doesn't cause trouble. She's pretty and doesn't make a scene. Why wouldn't I want her? Marriage? No, we're just having fun.” Jiang Yu always thought his feelings for Zhou Ximi amounted to nothing more than being attracted to her looks. When his friend teased him, he stubbed out his cigarette and casually said something cruel. As luck would have it, Zhou Ximi thought the same thing, and happened to overhear him. From then on, she remembered his words. She didn't argue or make trouble, and she stopped clinging to any flimsy hopes. When he finally kicked her out, she obediently packed her things and left, without leaving him any trouble or anything to remember her by. She left so decisively, it was as if she had been the one to dump him. * Zhou Ximi and Xu Yun's first meeting was a rather embarrassing one. Her short hair was soaked with sweat, she wore her aunt's cast-off clothes, she was panting hard, and her flushed cheeks were entirely out of place. “Are you all right?” At the clear, cool sound of his voice, she hurriedly brushed the damp strands out of her eyes. Xu Yun's eyes held a pool of gentle light. Smiling, he handed her a tissue, letting her salvage at least a little of her dignity. She thought of The Little Mermaid, which she'd watched as a child. In the unfathomably deep ocean, a little mermaid with a shock of red hair, utterly out of place, rescued a prince who had fallen into the sea. Sunlight so dazzling it hurt dried her fiery hair as she asked the prince, who had just woken up, “Are you all right?” Zhou Ximi had grown up. She knew she wasn't the prince who had fallen into the sea. But still. Xu Yun was surely her little mermaid.