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墨書 Inktalez
The Second Morning
As Autumn Wind came out of the room pulling her luggage, Qiu Mowen was bare-chested, holding his head in a painful manner.
Autumn Wind wanted to ask about what had happened ten minutes ago, but she chose to stand in front of Qiu Mowen, her lips trembling, yet she never found the courage to speak.
At that moment, Qiu Mowen slowly lifted his head. She saw a face that would be etched in her memory forever, a face filled with pain, sorrow, and heaviness. A wave of immense pity surged from the depths of Autumn Wind's heart.
Ten Minutes Ago
Autumn Wind and Qiu Mowen were both startled awake by the sound of a phone ringing. They exchanged a frantic glance and quickly sprang apart, as if the intimate act of sleeping together had never happened.
They didn’t have time to appreciate the rare, pure sunlight of Taipei's morning; they jumped out of bed and searched for their phones, as if the ringing could threaten their very lives.
The same ringtone that had once added an air of ambiguity to their shared living situation now caused them trouble in locating their phones.
After a brief moment of chaos, they almost simultaneously picked up their phones, only to realize it was Autumn Wind's phone that was ringing.
Autumn Wind glanced at the nearly naked Qiu Mowen, turned her back to him, and answered the call: "Hello! Who is this?"
To her surprise, it was Qiu Ruolan's voice on the other end, bright and warm like the spring morning sun in Taipei. "Autumn Wind, where's Ervin Uncle? Is he home? I can't reach him!"
Without thinking, Autumn Wind put the call on speakerphone and turned to hand the phone over: "It's for you!"
Qiu Mowen was startled and slowly took the phone. By this time, he had already put on some clothes, his toned chest glistening under the sunlight.
As he took Autumn Wind's phone, his gaze locked onto hers; his eyes were vacant and dull. He spoke mechanically: "Hello? It's me! What's wrong?"
Hearing Qiu Mowen's voice made Qiu Ruolan's tone immediately turn urgent, as if she had swallowed a spoiled egg: "Magazine just called me. Did you get back together with Shan Ni? Is this true?" Accompanying her words were the sounds of her high-heeled shoes clicking against the marble floor.
Qiu Mowen glanced at Autumn Wind and then quickly moved toward the living room while holding the phone.
Standing on the balcony of the living room, he lowered his voice and replied briefly: "Yeah."
As he moved, Autumn Wind heard his response. Despite its quietness, she was certain that his answer was affirmative. So she followed Qiu Mowen onto the balcony.
Qiu Ruolan's voice suddenly rose in the microphone: "You got back together, so what about you and Lily..."
"You don't need to worry about that... Alright, we'll discuss the details when we meet!" Qiu Mowen interrupted her, gave a brief response, and quickly hung up the phone.
Autumn Wind stood behind him, unable to believe her ears. Her heart sank completely, freezing rapidly, and then a mischievous boy with an ice pick bounced in front of her, leisurely starting to chip away at the ice. "Bang," "bang," "bang," he hit harder and harder until finally, the freshly formed ice shattered like broken glass all over the ground.
In fact, a crybaby does not shed tears when truly struck.
Autumn Wind thought she should have felt a landslide of emotions upon hearing this news, leading to an emotional breakdown. However, the reality was that she felt extremely calm, as if she had just heard that her Brother next door had been accepted into college—after all, it was none of her business.
As she took the phone from Qiu Mowen, she tidied her hair, which was as messy as weeds, and softly said, "So you got back together with Chen Shanni! I thought it was something serious!" Then she looked up at Qiu Mowen.
Qiu Mowen showed no reaction; he remained as calm as the water in Sun Moon Lake.
Autumn Wind turned away, deciding not to look at him anymore. She returned to her room, packing her clothes while repeatedly muttering to herself, "So you got back together with Chen Shanni, so you got back together with Chen Shanni, you two are back together..."
By the time Autumn Wind repeated it for the fifth time, she finally broke down.
The clothes she had packed were thrown high into the air; some hung on the light fixture, some fell to the ground, and many more landed on Autumn Wind's head. She had never felt so desperate.
How she wished she could go back to that night of her birthday when he had just rejected her. Although it was cruel, it didn't break her heart. Instead of now, filled with endless hope only to be met with the most brutal despair.
The greatest sadness is not being rejected but receiving a love that is about to vanish immediately.
Ten years ago
Chen Shanni's appearance completely caught Qiu Mowen off guard. This woman who had disappeared from his life for more than half a year unexpectedly reappeared after the New Year.
He had pushed aside all his affairs to prepare to pick up Qiu Ruolan from her trip in Japan. However, after starting his car, he received another call from Qiu Ruolan informing him that she had already returned home.
When he circled back to Qiu Ruolan's house, he was surprised to find that it was not Qiu Ruolan who opened the door but Chen Shanni, dressed in a suit and heavily made up.
What terrified him was that Chen Shanni was holding a family photo featuring Autumn Wind, Qiu Ruolan, and Grandma. Chen Shanni pointed at Autumn Wind in the photo and then gestured toward Qiu Ruolan's room with a frown on her face and an innocent expression as if asking "Who is that?"
Qiu Mowen reached out to snatch the photo that Chen Shanni was pinching between her thumb and index finger, but ended up grabbing nothing.
A sly smile immediately appeared on Chen Shanni's face. She lifted her thickly lashed eyes, looking at the increasingly nervous Qiu Mowen with a teasing expression: "It seems like there’s a secret here! I really want to investigate this thoroughly!"
Before Qiu Mowen could think of a response, he was interrupted by the arrival of Qiu Ruolan.
It was hard to tell how Qiu Mowen spent those few seconds. Seeing Chen Shanni's teasing face and her fingers playfully moving in her pocket, Qiu Mowen had no choice but to remain still.
All he could do was pray that Chen Shanni's so-called "thorough investigation" was just a joke.
However, Chen Shanni truly turned her joke into reality. Moments later, she casually tossed a thick stack of photos in front of Qiu Mowen, exclaiming, "I didn’t expect that Sister Sally actually has such a daughter!"
Now, all that was left for Qiu Mowen was to silently form words with his mouth.
They found a private room in the tea house across from the apartment. A coarse wooden tea table was adorned with lavender, its faint fragrance enhancing the tranquility of the room. A woman in a kimono entered and had just set down the tea set when Shan Ni called her out.
With a smile, Shan Ni leaned closer to Qiu Mowen. When she got close enough for him to count her eyelashes, tears began to fall from Chen Shanni's face. She wrapped her arms around Qiu Mowen: "Do you know how I’ve been getting through this? I love you so much, yet you abandoned me! I can’t sleep at night; I don’t understand…"
"What do you want?" Her words were directly interrupted by Qiu Mowen, his voice loud yet firm.
Frowning, Qiu Mowen looked at Chen Shanni, forcefully prying away Shan Ni's hands that were resting on his shoulder. But Shan Ni clung back on, and when he turned his head away, Chen Shanni pulled it back again.
"Can we start over?" Shan Ni rested her head on Qiu Mowen's shoulder, her hands sliding across his face.
What greeted her was Qiu Mowen's cold voice: "What exactly do you want?"
Shan Ni still wore a smile, her delicate makeup making her nearly perfect face appear ghostly.
She released her grip from Qiu Mowen's shoulder, picked up a reddish-brown handbag that had been sitting aside, unzipped it, and took out the thick stack of photos again. This time, there were several printed forms added beneath the photos: "What could I possibly do? I just hope to give you these things! Of course, that’s on the condition that we get back together!"
Shan Ni's smile was alluring, making her look like a beautiful serpent meticulously plotting schemes.
Chen Shanni firmly believed that with her understanding of Qiu Mowen, the trump card of Qiu Ruolan in her hand would be enough to make him comply.
Qiu Mowen squinted at Shan Ni, his mind filled with thoughts of wanting to tear Chen Shanni to pieces.
He let out a cold laugh in his chest and snorted through his nose, "Give me some time to think!" He stood up, took the thick stack of papers that Shan Ni had thrown on the wooden floor, opened the door, and walked out of the Tea Art Society.
Qiu Mowen knew very well that the relationship between Autumn Wind and Qiu Ruolan wouldn't cause much of a stir. In the entire Taiwanese entertainment industry, having an adopted daughter or a female artist with an illegitimate child was still a matter of concern.
With a little maneuvering, Qiu Ruolan could be portrayed as a noble person who quietly adopted orphans from the mainland, which would be a great thing for entertainers who always liked to exchange "public welfare" for public favor.
However, the trouble was that Autumn Wind's father and Qiu Ruolan had once been lovers. Even more critically, the true relationship between Autumn Wind and Qiu Ruolan might not be as simple as that of an adopted daughter, making things naturally complicated.
What truly troubled Qiu Mowen and made it hard for him to decide was that he didn't know whether Chen Shanni had investigated his relationship with Autumn Wind.
Qiu Mowen dared not think further. At this moment, Chen Shanni was like a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment; the countdown had begun. It was up to him whether to stop time or let it continue, as Chen Shanni had handed over the choice to him.
As Qiu Mowen pondered, his mind was filled with images of Autumn Wind and Qiu Ruolan running in the snow.
He wasn't sure how much Shan Ni actually knew. The two most important women in his life slowly grew larger from the corner of his mind like a scene from a movie until they filled the entire screen.
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