Lily takes a deep breath to hold back the sorrow and sourness rising in her heart. She looks up to the
ceilings, but no matter how hard she widens her eyes, she can’t see it clearly.
In fact, she has noticed that although over the past five years, many of her belongings has been aged –
the color of her slippers has faded, and her skin care products has expired, Rex insists on keeping
them.
It is five years, a long period of time. She can’t imagine how massive and unshakable his belief is,
which could support him to pluck up courage to step into an empty house where a ‘dead woman’ had
lived in every day no matter how desperate he was.
“Miss Lily, Mr. Rex must have kept the phone you used five years ago. One day, in the midnight, I got
up and went to the bathroom, when I walked past the room, I found Mr. Rex sitting on the bed and
taking into the phone, alone.”
Lily has no idea about how she herself feels at the moment. She walks over the bedside table, yanks
open one of the draws, and as expected, she finds her phone, which is of the design and style of the
phones five years ago. The phone even has the same cartoon stickers as it was five years ago.
Lily’s fingers tremble fiercely, making her almost unable to hold the phone. She reaches the other hand
to hold it and turns on the phone. The screen lights up quickly, which reveals that the phone must have
been used frequently, and it shows that battery percentage of the phone is 50%.
Lily opens the call record and scrolls down. They are all dials from the same caller ID, with each dial
lasting for dozens of minutes. And the latest dial happens one month ago, proximately, during the time
when they met in England.
It turns out that before he met her in England, Rex kept calling into this phone every day.
Lily can’t help whimper. She opens the Messages and sees numerous unread messages, which were
all from Rex. He insisted on sending messages to her every day!
[Lily, it’s raining and it’s so cold outside. I took out the scarf you gave me and put it on, and felt warmer.
Such a feeling is quite rare. I want to spend more time with you today. I don’t know whether you would
feel it cold too.]
[It’s April 30 today, the last day of this month, and the 1000th day of you leaving me. It’s okay, don’t feel
afraid my dear Lily. I will keep waiting for you. I believe that you’ll come back soon, right?]
[Lily, the project I first invested has come to a success and the company is going to be listed. When
having the news conference, I found that one of the journalists has the same family name with you. You
name, your surname is rarely seen. I thought of you and listened to her for a while. Will you be jealous
of it?]
[Lily, I’m so dad. I miss you so much.]
When seeing this message, Lily finally cries out. She tries hard to suppress her voice, yet her big tears
keep falling down along her cheeks onto the screen. In a flurry, she tries to wipe clean the screen with
her sleeve, yet her efforts are all in vain.
She then turns off the phone, grips it tightly and puts it on her chest. Her shoulders tremble violently.
Although the temperature in the room is proper, she feels so cold, as if she has been jailed into an
icehouse by someone.
Suddenly, a big hand comes from behind and grips one side of her shoulder, which seems to be
helpless, and then pats her to comfort her.
Lily stuns and then cries more fiercely. Before she can figure out whether she should turn around, she’s
pulled into a warm embrace.
He hugs her from behind and grips her on her waist, putting his chin on her neck. His warm breath
blows over her neck as he speaks, “Why are you crying.”
Lily is speechless with sadness, as if her throat is stuffed with something, and vigorously shakes her
head. When she lowers her head, her tears fall down onto Rex’s arm.
Like vitriolic acid, her tears hurt his skin and pierces into his heart. His eyes get red too, yet he still
consoles her softly, “Don’t cry. Everything has been a past. It’s the greatest blessing from God since
you are still alive, safely.”
His words didn’t console Lily; instead, they made her feel sadder. Everything has been a past? How did
he go through it? Like this?
He got himself drunk and went back home in the midnight, and regarded a lifeless phone as her, sitting
on the bed and talking into the phone, lonely and pitifully?
Lily feels it unbearable when imagining the scene. She has been suppressing her feelings over the past
five years, forcing herself not to thinking of him and ignoring news about him.
But he, on the contrary, did all he could to miss her and to keep everything about her, which was rather
a cruel torture given by himself, and lived the five years miserably.
Although Karl has told her what Rex has experienced over the past five years, it didn’t strike a chord in
her heart since she didn’t witness it. But now, she is so shocked. Why this man being so stupid? He
doesn’t know what it means to give up?
“Why? Why?...” Lily cries so fiercely that she even fails to spit out a complete sentence.
Rex lets go of her and walks to stand in front of her. When he sees her red eyes and the tear stains on
her cheeks, he feels her pitiful and raises his hand to wipe away her tears. But she keeps crying. Rex
sighs helplessly and pulls her into his arms again, “Don’t cry. I didn’t intend to make you sad. It was just
that I missed you so much, and by doing these, I felt more comfortable. Don’t think too much.”
After a long while, Lily finally calms herself down, “You… lived like this over the past five years?”
It’s hard for her to imagine. Although she knew deep down that he must be very sad and painful after
her leaving, she didn’t have any sympathy until now she learns about the details.
She suppressed her missing for her, while Rex amplified the pain to an infinite extend and tortured he
himself at every minute.
“It doesn’t matter anymore, since you’re finally back.” Rex forces a smile. The dark days are no longer
worth mentioning since the moment he met her again.
Lily feels breathless. She can no longer ignore the matter since these cruel facts are presented, “Now
that I was ‘dead’, why did you torture yourself in this way…”
Rex doesn’t take it seriously, "If it weren't like this, I would have been unable to hold on anymore."
The belief that Lily was still alive was the drive for him to live. I was the hope that had supported him on
countless morning when he stayed alone by the riverside where the accident happed.
Without these persistence and self-deceiving belief, he would have died following her a long time ago.
Lily’s heart misses one beat, as if it was hit hard. Rex must love her so much, to the point that he would
die for her.
For the first time, in his warm arms, Lily feels sorry for Rex. He had experience countless hopeless
night and faced numerous chilling realities because of her “death”.
At this moment, she finally can’t hold it anymore and reaches out her arms to hug him.
The five years of separation has proved the old saying, “Even if true lovers are separated by high
mountains and the vast sea, they would approach their lover no matter how hard it will be.” It turns out
that all her grievance and his persistence are all because they love each other,
deeply.
The five years of separation has proved the old saying, “Even if true lovers are separated by high
mountains and the vast sea, they would approach their lover no matter how hard it will be.” It turns out
that all her grievance and his persistence are all because they love each other,
deeply.
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