Chapter 82:
Upon returning home, Ji Ran remained silent and headed straight back to his room.
On the way, his phone had been ringing incessantly, all calls from Grandma Ji’s assistant. He blocked the number and when they tried calling from an unknown number, Ji Ran simply turned off his phone.
The room was dark with the curtains tightly drawn, casting a dim light inside. Ji Ran tossed his phone onto the table and collapsed onto the bed.
He buried his face in the pillow until he almost suffocated, then turned his head to breathe in fresh air.
Qin Man parked the car but didn’t rush inside. Instead, he took out his phone and called Liu Chen.
“The formalities will be done in two weeks.”
Unexpectedly, another mishap occurred. Liu Chen was initially taken aback, then cautiously asked, “I see. May I ask what happened? Do you need my help?”
Qin Man replied lightly, “No need, it’s personal.”
After hanging up the phone, Qin Man finally entered the house. He opened the bedroom door and saw the person lying inside. Sitting at the edge of the bed, he reached out and gently stroked his hair.
“Addicted to stroking?” Ji Ran felt the warmth of his palm and only after a while blurted out this sentence.
Qin Man responded naturally, “Hmm, it’s very soft.”
Ji Ran didn’t respond.
On his way home, he pondered carefully. He realized he wasn’t even feeling sad. He even thought, even if Ji Guozheng had just died on the operating table, he probably would only have one emotion left—
Unwillingness.
Zhao Qingtong had yet to clear her name of injustice. She was condemned by everyone, and even after so many years of passing away, she was still being dug up by others for scrutiny…
Causing such serious harm to others, it was unreasonable for him to leave so easily.
Qin Man lay beside him, silent, accompanying him.
After a moment, the person beside him suddenly asked, “What version did you hear before?”
Qin Man raised an eyebrow, “What?”
“About me and Zhao Qingtong,” Ji Ran turned to look at him.
Qin Man hesitated for a moment, then told the truth, “What I heard… wasn’t anything good.”
Ji Ran asked, “Do you believe it?”
With those words spoken, Ji Ran himself was momentarily stunned.
Since he was young, he had never cared about what others thought. As long as they didn’t act despicably or speak ill of him in front of him, he treated everything else as mere background noise, irrelevant to him.
His own life didn’t need anyone’s approval.
But at this moment, he was strangely eager to know how Qin Man viewed him.
Qin Man started, “I…”
“Forget it,” Ji Ran interrupted him, turning his neck away, “Don’t say anything. Pretend I never asked.”
“When I first heard your name, I didn’t think much of it,” Qin Man chuckled, his words flowing, “I was busy with exams at the time, didn’t have the energy to care about others.”
Ji Ran grumbled, “I told you not to say anything.”
“The first time I saw you afterward was in the cafeteria, right? You were wearing your school uniform, looking as skinny as a monkey.”
“You’re the one who looks like a monkey, your whole family looks like monkeys.”
“….Fine, I look like one,” Qin Man chuckled, lowering his gaze, “After that time, I often saw you getting into fights with other students…”
“That’s because they provoked me themselves!” Ji Ran retorted angrily.
“I know,” Qin Man sighed, “Can you let me finish?”
“Every time you arrogantly walked away,” Qin Man propped his chin, laughing softly, “Did you secretly cry?”
Ji Ran’s expression stiffened.
“You also always liked to run to that banyan tree behind the school, sitting on the branches and wiping away tears…”
“…You’re talking nonsense,” Ji Ran interjected.
“Occasionally, when Old Xing was strict and you couldn’t leave, you’d go to the unused building next door.”
“…I didn’t do that.”
“Your favorite classroom was the one at the end of the fourth-floor corridor.”
“In the second semester of sophomore year, after a fight, you picked up a dog on the roadside. It seemed like it had been abused and wouldn’t follow you. You stayed there, waiting until someone from the pet shop came to take it.”
“And then every Friday after school, you would go to the pet shop to see him until he was adopted…”
“…” Ji Ran suddenly stood up, his ears turning red with embarrassment, “You… you’ve been stalking me?!”
Qin Man suppressed a laugh. “I said I just happened to come across those things, do you believe me?”
“I would rather believe in ghosts!”
“Then that settles it,” Qin Man said confidently, unabashed, “I’m just a pervert.”
Ji Ran was stunned by his shamelessness.
He couldn’t imagine – the expressionless, indifferent study machine he saw every day would secretly follow him after school.
“I’ve seen many sides of you. I know better than anyone what kind of person you are,” Qin Man said.
Ji Ran was speechless, staring at him blankly.
After a moment, his Adam’s apple moved slightly. “You really are… a suck-up.”
Qin Man chuckled lightly, about to say something.
“In fact, Zhao Qingtong—” Ji Ran gritted his teeth, hesitating for a moment, “She wasn’t as bad as everyone says.”
This was the first time Ji Ran had spoken to someone else about Zhao Qingtong’s story. Even Cheng Peng, in the past, only knew a small part of it.
The story was simple enough, just a drunken brawl where the big boss took advantage of a female celebrity. When the woman found out she was pregnant, her manager immediately contacted the big boss, who ordered her to have an abortion. Refusing to give up her child, she stormed into the boss’s home. The old man took a liking to the child and, after discussing with his wife, they agreed. So, the female celebrity left the entertainment industry, endured the gossip, gave birth to her child, raised him bravely despite the slander and discrimination, and eventually died in a car accident.
A woman’s youth, ending with just a few sentences.
As Qin Man listened, the smile on his lips gradually faded. After a moment of silence, he asked, “How did you know about these things?”
“She had a habit of writing in a diary,” Ji Ran paused, “Ji Guozheng sealed it up thoroughly. Although I don’t have any evidence in hand right now, there will definitely be traces of what he did. I’ll find them…”
“I believe you,” Qin Man interrupted him.
He soothingly rubbed Ji Ran’s nape, “As long as you’re willing to tell me, I’ll believe you.”
Ji Ran’s mouth was slightly agape, looking at the person in front of him. Several words danced on his lips, but in the end, he just softly uttered a syllable.
“Mm.”
It was already nine o’clock in the evening, and neither of them had eaten dinner.
“I’ll cook some noodles to get us through the night,” Qin Man sat up, noticing the person beside him still had his eyes closed, “Just hang in there for a bit, eat before you sleep.”
Once the door closed behind him, Ji Ran slowly opened his eyes.
He propped himself up with his hand, opened the wardrobe, and retrieved a light blue diary from the hidden safe inside. The notebook was a bit aged, with the pages nearly filled. It belonged to Zhao Qingtong.
The first half was filled with trivial daily occurrences, documenting Zhao Qingtong’s life details. Among them were entries about her entry into the entertainment industry, filming, and gaining some fame, but they only covered a few pages.
Until a certain page, where the once elegant handwriting suddenly became chaotic. The woman nervously and fearfully recorded significant events in her life, with traces of ink smudged by tears.
Flipping a few more pages, there was an ultrasound photo on the paper.
“Thank you for coming into my world, grateful.”
Underneath the photo, a neat and tiny line of text could be seen, showing her careful strokes as she wrote.
Ji Ran sat on the floor, his back against the wardrobe, staring intently at these words.
It had been three years since he last opened it, yet upon reopening it, he still felt a sense of familiarity.
Before meeting Ji Guozheng, Zhao Qingtong was a very quiet person. She seemed to struggle with social interactions and often wrote about her own troubles in her diary.
After becoming pregnant with Ji Ran, she became a lonely person. There were no longer any mentions of strangers in her diary.
“The morning sickness is severe, went to the hospital for a check-up, the doctor said it’s due to my constitution. I wonder if it will affect the baby. Worried, praying.”
“The baby kicked me. First fetal movement, commemorating.”
“I slipped and fell in the shower, sat on the floor for over ten minutes, couldn’t get up, I’m so scared.”
…
“I gave birth, it was a boy. His assistant glanced at me, then told me he named the child Ji Ran.”
“Xiao Ran had a fever again today.”
“Xiao Ran learned to say ‘mommy’, happy.”
“Xiao Ran became a member of the Young Pioneers.”
“Xiao Ran keeps getting injured lately, these days we have to go to Nanshan Temple to pray to Buddha.”
From this page onwards, the diary welcomed another small twist.
From here onwards, every page of Zhao Qingtong’s diary bore traces of her tears, and the dates between each entry grew longer—
“Xiao Ran was bullied by classmates, his face was full of injuries, yet he still helped me wipe my tears… I’m so useless.”
“Today, I had my first argument with Xiao Ran. He said I was an irresponsible adult, and I feel he’s right. I can’t even protect myself, what qualifications do I have to raise a child?”
“Xiao Ran’s grandmother contacted me today, saying she wants to send Xiao Ran abroad. I didn’t agree, and this was the first time I argued with that family. I’m so selfish, knowing he’s not living well with me, but I still want to keep him with me.”
“Today, he asked me to meet him. It’s been over ten years since I last saw him, feeling a bit scared, afraid he’ll try to send Xiao Ran away again. But I won’t compromise.”
The diary abruptly ends here.
It was on this day that Zhao Qingtong had a car accident on the road and never returned. This diary, along with its owner’s departure, was perfectly hidden in the pillowcase.
Ji Ran’s face darkened as he irritably closed the diary. Due to the prolonged flipping of the pages, several pages at the back had already folded up. Ji Ran lowered his eyes and, unexpectedly, among the many blank pages, he saw a small line of text.
He paused, quickly flipping to that page—
“He is the rainbow after the storm, the new shoot after the disaster.”
“He is also God’s gift to me.”
“I will love him forever.”
There was no signature, no date, and no clarification on who “he” was. It seemed like an excerpt from the diary owner’s momentary inspiration.
Ji Ran stared at this page blankly. After a few seconds, he hugged the diary tightly to his chest. His nose tingled, his eyes reddened in an instant, and he let out a low sob.
Huge shoutout to @_nyanmaru_ on Discord for commissioning this! The chapter will be posted regularly, show your support for Ciacia at Kofi.
Gosh, I’m tearing up.