Chapter 2: The Unsent Letter

After leaving the Gu family’s old house, Wanning didn’t say a word.

She sat in the car, gazing out the window.

Gu Zeyan didn’t press her.

Only when the car stopped in front of the project office did he speak.

“Do you want to know what happened back then?”

“I do.”

“Then tonight I’ll take you somewhere.”

“Where?”

“Your mother’s old house.”

Wanning turned to him.

“You know where it is?”

“I do.”

“How?”

“Because six years ago, your mother asked me to keep something for her.”

He took a key from the car’s compartment.

“But she told me I could only give it to you when you were grown up enough to make your own decisions.”

Wanning took it.

The key was cold in her palm.

The old house stood near the riverbank.

No one had lived there for a long time.

Gu Zeyan unlocked the door.

Inside, many of her mother’s things were still exactly where they had been.

Wanning walked over to the bookshelf.

An old notebook sat among the books.

She opened it.

The first page held only one line:

“Wanning, if you are reading this, it means you’ve come home.”

She sat down.

Page by page, a story she had never known began to unfold.

Her mother and Gu Zeyan’s mother had been best friends.

The two families had once been very close.

But six years ago, a large project drove the two families apart.

Wanning’s father chose to leave Linjiang.

The Gu family stayed.

Her mother wrote that she didn’t want the two children to be dragged into the grown-ups’ affairs.

On the last page was one line:

“If you still believe in Zeyan, listen to everything he has to say.”

Wanning closed the notebook.

She looked at the man beside her.

“You knew all of this?”

“No.”

“Then what did you know?”

Gu Zeyan was quiet for a moment.

“I only knew that your mother had asked me to look after you.”

“Look after me?”

“Yes.”

“So that’s why you left six years ago?”

He looked at her.

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Because back then, I thought that if I stayed with you, you’d never be able to move past what happened.”

Wanning looked at him.

“You decided that for me?”

“Yes.”

“You really are infuriating.”

He smiled faintly.

“I know.”

“Then why come back now?”

“Because I realized I was wrong.”

The room fell silent.

Wanning didn’t know how to answer.

Outside the window, the evening light fell across the river.

Gu Zeyan said,

“This time I won’t decide anything for you.”

“Whatever you want to know, I’ll tell you.”

Wanning looked at him.

“Then what I want to know is…”

She stopped.

“Did you ever love me?”

Gu Zeyan didn’t look away.

“Yes.”

A simple answer.

But enough to make six years of distance feel fragile.