A Good Country Wife

Compared to Zhao Erhu’s worries, Lin Yue was somewhat blissfully lost in an all too vivid dream at the moment. She dreamt of the past, her childhood, her grandfather, and all that followed, including the man she once had a crush on but didn’t dare to approach because of her own inferiority.

That man’s name was Qin Lang, her senior during university who she interacted with a few times by sheer coincidence. Qin Lang wasn’t just from a good background and academically excellent, but he was also incredibly handsome, making him the object of affection for all the girls in school, including her. Such an outstanding man, yet he bore not a hint of arrogance. He was polite and gentle to everyone, and his smile was always brimming with warmth. It was his warmth that ensnared Lin Yue, and from a few subsequent encounters, feelings named affection uncontrollably grew inside her until Qin Lang graduated and left school.

Lin Yue never expected that she would run into such a coincidence in her new job, where Qin Lang turned out to be her superior. Their interactions became more frequent. Lin Yue was excited, but she understood even more that a man like him was out of her league, whether in terms of family background or personal abilities and appearance. Even though sometimes she felt that Qin Lang treated her a bit differently, other times she thought she was overthinking it. After all, Qin Lang was always so courteous and polite to everyone, not just her.

Later on, at a company gathering, Lin Yue accidentally learned that Qin Lang had gotten engaged. This piece of news struck her as if it were a calamity, piercing directly into her brain. Although Lin Yue knew an impossibility when she saw one, when the last sliver of hope in her heart was extinguished, she finally tasted the feeling of heartache.

Knowing she could no longer face Qin Lang, and without even seeing him one last time, Lin Yue left behind a resignation letter and departed to start her entrepreneurial journey. Years later, Qin Lang somehow found her out of the blue and inquired why she had left without saying goodbye. Lin Yue’s heart was filled with a gloomy turmoil. Her unrequited love was hardly something she could speak of, so she could only hang her head in silence under Qin Lang’s still warm gaze, her mind in disarray.

Following that encounter, Lin Yue didn’t even know how she ended up exchanging contact information with Qin Lang. By another stroke of fate, they coincidentally met a few more times. Qin Lang always enthusiastically invited her for meals or to have coffee together. If Lin Yue wasn’t aware of Qin Lang’s social status and his fiancée, she might have almost believed he was pursuing her. Such a thought as soon as it arose, Lin Yue suppressed it fiercely, fearing she’d entertain some unwelcome fantasies. She immersed herself even more in her work, trying to numb herself, but then came the night she fell into a deep sleep and awoke as if she had become another person.

Lin Yue’s spirit floated through many places, eventually arriving at the location where she once worked with Qin Lang. Every arrangement, every blade of grass there was exactly the same as when she left, without a speck of dust on the desk, obviously well maintained by the current occupant.

Moving through walls, Lin Yue saw the man who had once haunted her dreams and left her feeling so humble and sorrowful—the only man she had ever loved. He was now carefully examining a photograph with a sadness and nostalgia on his face that Lin Yue had never seen before. Once his handsome face was always filled with a warm smile that seemed to radiate warmth to anyone who saw it. Now, when had such grief taken hold?