When Zhu Shiyu returned, it was just in time for lunch. The aroma of food filled the air as she pushed open the door, and Zhou Zhen was bringing dishes out from the kitchen.

“I’m back,” she said, looking a bit tired as she bent down to change her shoes.

“You’re back just in time for lunch,” Zhu AnYuan said, holding a bowl and calling out to her.

“I’m not eating,” Zhu Shiyu said, having no appetite. She looked around but didn’t see Meng Siyi, so she asked, “Where’s Meng Siyi?”

“He had something to do at the hospital and left after getting a call,” Zhu AnYuan replied.

“Oh,” she nodded and headed to her room with her bag, her back showing signs of fatigue.

“I’m a bit tired. I’ll go to my room and rest for a while. You all go ahead and eat,” Zhu Shiyu said.

Zhu Shiyu stayed in her room until the afternoon before coming out. She emerged from her room carrying a large cardboard box and headed outside.

Zhu AnYuan was watching TV in the living room and saw her. “Xiao Yu, where are you going?” he asked.

“I’m going downstairs to throw something away,” Zhu Shiyu said without turning back.

Over the years, there were many things related to Lu Ge.

The two of them had known each other since they were young, and the traces they left behind almost filled a long segment of her life.

There were high school error books, drafts, textbooks filled with his notes, birthday gifts, and small gifts given casually over the years… The ball star’s autographed poster on the wall, the small potted plant on the windowsill, the wind chimes hanging on the balcony, and so on. There were too many things, and Zhu Shiyu even kept some of the train tickets from their long-distance relationship over the past few years.

She hadn’t realized how much there was until she started packing it all up. It filled an entire box. Zhu Shiyu carried the box all the way outside and saw the trash can filled with miscellaneous items.

She stood there for a few seconds, looking at it, before finally placing the box gently next to the trash can.

Zhu Shiyu stood there for a while before turning and leaving.

The residential area was quiet and empty in the afternoon, around three or four o’clock, with few people around.

Zhu Shiyu found herself in the children’s play area, where two yellow swings swayed gently in the air.

She walked over and sat on one of the swings, her head lowered, and her toes scraping the sand beneath her.

When Meng Siyi arrived, he saw her like this.

She had left without her phone, and he had searched half of the residential area before finding her in this corner.

The surroundings were silent, and Meng Siyi stood quietly beside her for a while before walking over. He looked down at her lowered head from above.

“What are you doing here?” he asked softly, his voice barely audible in the wind.

Zhu Shiyu looked up blankly and saw him. Her dark pupils slowly focused.

“Meng Siyi…?” she murmured, a bit surprised.

Meng Siyi didn’t respond but sat down on the swing next to her, his gaze fixed ahead with no expression.

“Why did you come here?” Zhu Shiyu wondered about the possibilities.

“Did my parents ask you to come find me?” she asked.

“I’m sorry, I left without my phone. I was planning to throw away the trash and come right back,” she explained.

“Mm,” Meng Siyi responded casually, then added calmly after a moment, “I came out to see you.”

Zhu Shiyu vaguely sensed that his mood was not good and lowered her head again without saying anything.

Meng Siyi didn’t leave but sat quietly beside her. He was tall, and his long legs easily reached the ground. The two swings were side by side, but the other one remained still.

After a long time, the silence was deafening, and time passed both slowly and quickly.

Zhu Shiyu just didn’t want to go home or do anything. At this moment, she just wanted to sit here aimlessly and empty her mind.

“Are you that upset?” a voice suddenly asked from beside her.

She looked up and met Meng Siyi’s emotionless dark eyes.

Zhu Shiyu was taken aback, and her mind instinctively recalled the scene from that morning when she left. Lu Ge was sitting there, crying.

Even after she had walked far away and looked back, she could still see his figure.

In the café by the window, a few rays of sunlight filtered in, and Lu Ge sat motionless, with her large red invitation placed in front of him.

He covered his eyes, his shoulders trembling slightly, but he made no sound.

She didn’t want to be sad either.

But as all the emotions from the past were stripped away, sadness inevitably surged forth.

Perhaps what she was sad about was not this ended love, but the end of her youth, the irreplaceable him and her in the passage of time, along with those once shining memories, all covered in dust and losing their color.

She might be regretting these things.

“A little bit,” Zhu Shiyu said, curling her knees and lowering her head, not looking at him.

“Actually, the friend I went to see today was my ex-boyfriend. We broke up a few months ago. This time, I went to make things clear with him once and for all,” she said matter-of-factly.

“When I came back, I packed a large box of things. I realized that we had known each other for so many years,” Zhu Shiyu gestured with her hands.

“More than losing a lover, it feels like losing a friend I’ve known for a long time.”

She thought about it and said seriously, “Throwing away that box this afternoon, I will be a bit sad, but only for this afternoon.”

Meng Siyi would always remember this afternoon.

That day, Zhu Shiyu and Lu Ge ended things for good, and she threw away everything related to the two of them.

Whether she still liked him was a question without an answer.

But he always remembered what Zhu Shiyu said that day.

—”Just like now, with you sitting beside me, I’m not as sad anymore.”

The answer might not be important anymore.

—

Not long after the New Year, spring arrived, and the temperature gradually rose.

The winter melted away, and the wind carried the warm scent of spring.

Just after the New Year, Zhou Zhen calculated the auspicious day and urged the two of them to get their marriage certificate.

When this was mentioned at the dinner table, it was Meng Siyi’s first visit to the house after the New Year, coinciding with the joyous Lantern Festival.

Zhu Shiyu listened without saying a word, but her chopsticks stopped in mid-air, and she lost her appetite.

This was already the third time in the past half month that Zhou Zhen had mentioned it. Although Zhu Shiyu had accepted the idea of marriage, Zhou Zhen’s eager attitude still made her uncomfortable.

She remained silent, and the room fell into silence. Zhu AnYuan was about to speak up to smooth things over when Meng Siyi spoke first.

“Auntie, let me and Shiyu discuss it, and we’ll give you an answer later.”

“No need,” Zhu Shiyu said, looking directly at Zhou Zhen.

“We’ll do as you say.”

She shifted her gaze to Meng Siyi, not sure if she was seeking his opinion or confirming.

“We’ll go get the certificate that day.”

This meal ended on a somewhat unhappy note. As night fell, Zhu Shiyu walked Meng Siyi downstairs. It was still a slightly cold evening.

They hadn’t walked far when Meng Siyi told her to stop.

The two of them stood under a streetlight, enveloped in a small pool of dim yellow light. The surrounding greenery made the scene even more serene.

“I’m sorry about my attitude during dinner. It wasn’t directed at you…”

“I’ll ask you one last time.”

Both of their voices sounded at the same time.

Zhu Shiyu paused, looking straight ahead at Meng Siyi, who was staring at her with deep, dark eyes.

“Are you really sure you want to marry me?”

“Zhu Shiyu, this is your last chance to change your mind.”

The man in front of her was different from how he usually was.

Zhu Shiyu was taken aback for a moment, her throat moving involuntarily, but she still nodded in response.

“I want to marry you,” she said, somewhat puzzled but very serious.

Meng Siyi nodded slightly, “Okay.”

“Then let’s go get the certificate.”