Back Then, I Adored You

Xu Wennuan ignored him. As she continued to wait, she thought of the bank card her mom had given her when she had visited her father in the hospital. Her mom had told her that Wu Hao had given her the card. Recalling now that she had left the card at home, she replied, “Going home.”

Now that she had spoken to him, Wu Hao took the opportunity to take control. He immediately said, “You wait here. I’ll bring the car around.” Xu Wennuan slightly nodded.

Wu Hao quickly returned. He got out of the car and walked around the front. When he was about to open the passenger door, Xu Wennuan said, “Thank you,” and proceeded to open the back passenger door and get in. Wu Hao zoned out for a second with his hands gripping the passenger door handle, pondering her obstinacy before he got back in the car.

Wu Hao and Xu Wennuan did not talk the entire way back to Xu Wennuan’s apartment. When they arrived, Wu Hao parked the car at the entrance of Xu Wennuan’s apartment complex. After getting out of the car, she looked at him and finally said, “Can you come in with me? I have something for you.”

Surprised, Wu Hao said, “Sure.”

Xu Wennuan didn’t invite Wu Hao to come into her apartment after she unlocked the door. She asked him to wait at the door and then walked into her bedroom as he obliged. She fumbled in the nightstand drawer for the bank card and walked back to Wu Hao.

He stared at the card for a while without taking it. He looked up at Xu Wennuan and said, “Please keep the card. You’ll need it for your father’s hospital bills.”

“It has nothing to do with you, does it?” Xu Wennuan replied calmly.

Wu Hao looked down because he didn’t know how to answer Xu Wennuan, who forced the card in his hand when she saw that he wasn’t going to take it. He suddenly looked up at her.

“Nuannuan, please let me know if you need any help. I heard from your mother that Bancheng’s bone marrow matches your father’s. Do you need me—”

“No, thank you,” Xu Wennuan interrupted. “Wu Hao, we’re not together anymore. You don’t need to do anything for me. I don’t want to owe you anything.”

The more words Xu Wennuan said, the paler Wu Hao’s face became. By the end of her explanation, he looked as pale as a vampire. Xu Wennuan did not seem to notice the change on him. She paused for a second before continuing. “And, please don’t come to the hospital so frequently. My mom can take care of my dad. We really do not want to trouble you for that.”

When she was finished speaking, Xu Wennuan closed the door in Wu Hao’s blood-drained face.

……

When Lu Bancheng received a call from Xu Wennuan at five o’clock in the afternoon, he looked at the cell phone screen for a moment before ending the call without answering it. After a while, his phone rang again. This time Xu Wennuan sent him a text message. “Can we please talk?”

Lu Bancheng didn’t even unlock his phone to read what else she might have written. Instead, he placed it upside down on the desk. He focused again on the computer screen and continued to type, even though his phone kept ringing. Every time it rang, his typing slowed down; however, he never looked at his phone.

After finishing his work, it was already 10 o’clock at night. Lu Bancheng put on his jacket and left the office. As he walked to his car, he deleted all the messages from Xu Wennuan without reading or listening to them.