Back Then, I Adored You

She was already gone?

Every single word was clear and easy to understand but, when pieced together, they sounded like a language that Qin Jiayan didn’t understand, and he stared at Zhang Lin quietly for a long time without showing any reaction.

“Never did I expect her to take things so hard and choose such a bad path…” As Zhang Lin spoke, tears trickled down her face.

“Actually, I should have thought about this earlier. I understood her, and I knew that you were the one about whom she was most concerned. She was the most foolish girl I’ve ever met. When she liked someone, she gave them her heart and soul. In the past, because she was afraid of burdening you—and also because she wanted to help you—she gave up on love forever.

“But more horrifying to her, she understood that if she stayed in the Lin family that she would not be able to conceal the fact that she was pregnant. At that point in time, the family would have used the child to threaten you. And when Lin Mo killed your child, her heart died for both her child and you. Without anyone to help her, the only way that she could escape that hell by herself was to go away…”

Zhang Lin then cried out, “I’m so stupid. I forgot to tell you this, too. Why didn’t I think of this? If I had thought about this more carefully at the time, I might have prevented her from being so foolish… When I watched over her at the hospital, she said something to me that I didn’t fully understand back then. Now, I get it—that she was saying goodbye to me in another way: She said that she could not accompany you, but she would accompany your child…”

“Why was she so foolish…”

Zhang Lin wept and sobbed as she spoke for a very long time. Qin Jiayan remained as a statue until he finally opened his mouth and said in a dry, hoarse voice, “You said that she’s gone? Gone? What do you mean?”

“I mean that she’s gone. The night after she met you, she called me and told me about it. Then she told me that the Lin family had a gathering that she had to go to. Two hours later, she called me again and told me that she was really happy to have met me, and she even said ‘Goodbye, Sister Lin.’ I constantly felt that something was wrong, and I couldn’t sleep at all that night. When I got up early the next morning, I called her, but she didn’t answer. I felt increasingly uneasy, so I made the trip to the Lin’s residence in the city. That was when I learned that she had committed suicide by jumping into the sea on the night the Lin family had a banquet on their yacht.

Committed suicide by jumping into the sea…

Qin Jiayan felt his blood freeze. After an exceptionally long time, he managed to force out a sentence. “Did you see her when you went to the Lin family’s house?”

“No. The family called the police, but the waves were quite rough that night and they couldn’t find her body. They only found her purse and shoes. There were also witnesses who saw her jump into the sea. The Lin family probably thought it was hopeless to try to save her because they didn’t put much effort into finding her. Now that I think about it, the family never bothered about her, so it makes sense they wouldn’t have bothered to search for her.”

Qin Jiayan sat in his chair in silence without responding, still frozen.

Zhang Lin again cried for a long time before she wiped her tears away. “Mr. Qin?”

When Qin Jiayan still didn’t respond, Zhang Lin called out again, “Mr. Qin?”

Qin Jiayan finally shifted his eyes and, although the movement was slight, they immediately turned red. His lips were tightly pursed, and he swallowed furiously several times before he finally said, “You… Could you excuse yourself for a moment?”