Alone, Beautifully – Chapter 151

by Little Panda

Just Like the First Meeting (8)

Only a little bit away from the truth.

The osmanthus coconut cake emits a sweet fragrance.

Xu Jiao sits on the blue fabric sofa, holding a spoon to scoop up the wobbly, QQ-textured (refers to the springy, chewy texture commonly used to describe Asian desserts) diamond-shaped cake—

As for why she’s sitting alone on the sofa, it goes back to what happened a few minutes ago, when she and Ye Zhen rarely opened their hearts to each other, and the more they spoke, the more emotional they became, naturally someone in their prime couldn’t resist wanting to have a more intimate exchange with her.

The kiss was halfway through when Xu Jiao pinched those soft lips with her little hand.

Then, she asked with a smile: “What are you doing to a minor? Hmm?”

Ye Zhen: “…”

Looking at Xu Jiao, who now appears only five years old, she rarely felt a sense of suffocation. It was better when she was using Yu Ye’s identity earlier. At that time, memories were cast aside, and she wanted to know if she could, without any awareness, fall in love with Xu Jiao again unreservedly. If possible, not only would the memories of their previous time together be restored, but she also decided to lay bare everything about her original self.

In that world, for a long time, she didn’t have any concrete sense of Xu Jiao’s age. In the beginning, she even hoped Xu Jiao would grow up slower, so she wouldn’t develop her full potential too early and oppose her in matters of power.

Now it’s different—

Knowing that the other person is her lover, and their feelings are mutual, asking Ye Zhen to remain patient has become an extremely torturous thing.

She sits dejectedly beside her watching the little girl eat dessert, with a circle of dark aura surrounding her face.

She can only use other ways to divert her attention, and incidentally cool down her somewhat heated brain: “System, I only wanted to come here to figure out this memory, why did you have to bring her in too? I mean, even if the person in this memory’s past is indeed Xu Jiao, there’s no need to project her future self here, right?”

The system quickly gave its answer: “Because the answer to the mystery you seek is with her.”

After hearing these words, Ye Zhen fell into deep thought.

At the same time.

Xu Jiao, eating her snack, was also chatting with the system: “Earlier you said this world was somewhat special, I only thought it was truly different as a part of my life experience, I didn’t expect it would be related to her…”

“If this was before, I would definitely think you were hiding something bad and waiting for me, either plotting against me alone, or plotting against both her and me together, but somehow, after reviewing all my experiences from the first world until now, I vaguely have an answer I don’t quite want to believe—”

“You seem to genuinely be hoping for me to have a better life.”

It truly seemed to live up to that peculiar name, guiding people to become more positive and optimistic, to have a life without regrets.

Although the methods were a bit unique.

Xu Jiao felt somewhat amused, her gaze unconsciously moving away from the now-empty dessert plate to look at the books on the TV cabinet. Scanning them with a glance, she originally thought they would be some particularly profound literary works, but looking closer, they were all English publications, with very few Chinese texts on the spines. However, with her foundation from university computer courses still intact, Xu Jiao could recognize computer language words like 《》, 《Java Applications in the Field》, 《Python’s》… and similar titles.

She was stunned for a second, as some thoughts flashed through her mind.

Before she could think it through clearly, the words already came out:

“What—”

“What major did you study?”

This question was directed at Ye Zhen, who naturally turned her head upon hearing her voice, following her gaze to see those books on the wall, and after a brief recollection, remembered:

“Software Engineering.”

Xu Jiao nodded her head with partial understanding. There was no helping it – for someone with a purely liberal arts mind like hers, anything about software and computers could only be summarized as “something related to computers.”

Compared to those outsiders who simply categorize university computer majors as “fixing computers,” she had already made a bit of progress.

But this wasn’t the main point—

She vaguely remembered being often brought home by Ye Zhen when she was little. Although the environment wasn’t very clear, she remembered the computer in the other’s study room. In her memory, this person would often sit in the chair with her back turned, typing away.

Later, when she rented this house, many of the furniture had been moved out, and the books had been thrown away by the previous owner, so naturally there was no way to know Ye Zhen’s professional preferences.

However…

Her later choice to nestle there to write was more or less related to this fuzzy memory, but as it turned out, someone sitting there typing on the keyboard all day wasn’t necessarily an author, but could also be a code monkey (casual term for programmer).

She couldn’t help but find it somewhat amusing how fate played its tricks.

Just as Ye Zhen was about to ask Xu Jiao why she thought of this, they suddenly heard the sound of an ambulance from downstairs.

The tube-shaped apartment building they lived in was in an old alley. On normal days, even small cars had to be prepared for scratches to enter, and most residents coming and going to work rode bicycles or electric bikes. Earlier, the ambulance had been stumped by the complex terrain outside, so now they could only send doctors, nurses, and a stretcher.

Ye Zhen was the one who helped call the ambulance, so naturally she needed to cooperate in answering some questions at the scene, which also helped the emergency doctors make their assessment. Although Xu Jiao was still young and didn’t need to accompany them as family, the neighbors quickly learned about the commotion in their home and kindly called her mother.

After the “bloody” Xu Hankai was carried away on the stretcher, Mother Xu rushed back from her company, but the first thing she did was to go to Ye Zhen’s home to find Xu Jiao.

Thinking about what was said at the hospital, she felt a wave of fear, and couldn’t help but worry if Xu Jiao would be more traumatized by Xu Hankai’s inexplicable condition. When she saw Xu Jiao, she wanted to go and hug the child, but stopped herself halfway, only half-squatting there, smiling at her:

“Jiaojiao, Mom’s back, would you like to go home with Mom?”

Xu Jiao quietly looked at her.

Compared to Ye Zhen, her mother’s appearance in her memories was naturally much clearer. However, Xu Jiao had always thought that her mother showed signs of aging due to her hard work and getting older, but she hadn’t expected that her mother’s face already had wrinkles even now.

It wasn’t due to poor self-care or financial conditions, but simply because she had Xu Jiao as her child.

If she stayed home to take care of Xu Jiao, she wouldn’t be able to provide the best treatment environment and living conditions for Xu Jiao, but if she was always working outside, she would be completely unaware of her child’s psychological changes.

From the background content provided by the system, Xu Jiao discovered that her mother had already changed many jobs until now.

If she hadn’t been blind enough to choose Xu Hankai, who finally allowed her to free up time to partner with friends in business, the family might now be in a state where they can’t open the pot (meaning extremely poor).

Xu Jiao had never blamed her mother for choosing Xu Hankai.

She knew this woman had already sacrificed too much for the family.

While other women were busy with their families and lives, because she had Xu Jiao, a child with autism, Mother Xu had to focus all her attention on her child. Because of this, she was despised by her first husband, and when she discovered he was having an affair and even brought the person home, she divorced him without hesitation.

Before Xu Hankai, she had always struggled to balance both family and work. Only after her career started taking off did she inevitably have more business trips. Apart from this, later on, no matter how late she came home from social gatherings, her first action was to check on Xu Jiao, wake up Xu Hankai, and ask if the child had shown any different behaviors that day, what she ate, how long she spent in a daze, whether she had any tantrums, and so on.

She had been doing her best to take care of Xu Jiao, even though the final results seemed to suggest she hadn’t done well enough.

But it’s okay.

Because she is a mother, and like all mothers praised in stories around the world, she always had her child on her mind.

Due to her character settings, Xu Jiao didn’t make any special gestures in front of her mother who understood her best, just quietly stood there, but even this gave Mother Xu some comfort. She carefully approached, and finding that the child didn’t reject her, she cautiously reached out, constantly watching Xu Jiao’s movements while giving her a gentle and quick hug.

Xu Jiao remained completely quiet from beginning to end.

After the hug, Mother Xu somehow had tears in her eyes. She wiped them with the back of her hand, then looked at Ye Zhen and smiled: “Thank you so much, young lady. You don’t know, but Jiaojiao has always disliked going out. I was worried earlier that Xiao Xu’s incident might frighten her, but it’s good that she’s fine…”

Ye Zhen looked down at the top of Xu Jiao’s head, then looked at Mother Xu, very cooperatively showing a friendly smile, and said to her: “Auntie, don’t you need to go to the hospital to check on Uncle’s condition? If Jiaojiao goes back now, you’ll have to take care of her, right? I see she’s being very well-behaved, why don’t let her stay at my place a bit longer, and we can discuss when you return from the hospital?”

Mother Xu showed a hesitant expression, and after pondering for a while, said: “She… looks well-behaved right now, but Jiaojiao is different from other children. Sometimes she suddenly gets triggered and then throws tantrums. I’m worried she’ll cause you trouble.”

Although she put it very diplomatically, both Xu Jiao and Ye Zhen had a crystal-clear mental image of what “throwing tantrums” meant, but outwardly, Ye Zhen pretended not to know and said with a smile:

“It’s fine, she’s been very well-behaved just now, and if I can’t handle it, I’ll call you.”

“Besides, I don’t have anything to do today, I can stay home and play with her. If you’re worried, I can video call you.”

With things having reached this point, Mother Xu indeed needed to check on Xu Hankai’s condition, to determine whether he could still remain by her side to help take care of her child. After thinking for a few seconds, she earnestly thanked Ye Zhen, left her number, and then left while looking back every few steps.

She wanted to quickly resolve the matter at the hospital and return. On her way to the hospital, she started composing messages to Ye Zhen about what Xu Jiao likes and dislikes, her wording very polite and tactful, not at all commanding or authoritative, just hoping to minimize the trouble Xu Jiao might cause.

Meanwhile.

Ye Zhen held Xu Jiao’s hand as they went back, blocking out the nosy, prying eyes in the corridor.

When the door closed, Xu Jiao unconsciously raised her eyebrows, looking at the person beside her. When Ye Zhen’s gaze fell on her, Xu Jiao slowly spoke: “I want to go too.”

She also wanted to go to the hospital to see Xu Hankai’s condition.

After all, every day this scumbag stays alive in this world, she can’t help but worry about more young wives and children falling victim to his evil deeds.

Ye Zhen initially didn’t want to agree, but after seeing the determination in Xu Jiao’s eyes, she couldn’t help but sigh, turned back into the house once, and when she came out again, she had a black baseball cap in her hand. She placed it on Xu Jiao’s head, using this motion to gently pat the little one’s head, and Ye Zhen said:

“Be good when we go out.”

Xu Jiao nodded: “I know.”

Maintaining character settings after all – if the neighbors saw her chattering and being noisy, they would definitely become suspicious.

But Ye Zhen didn’t let go of her cap: “What I mean is, don’t let Auntie Xu see you. If she finds out that I promised to take good care of you one minute and then took you running around outside the next, she’ll definitely shark me (俗语 ‘sha’ – slang for severely punishing someone) and scatter my ashes.”

“Please, let me earn some favor points with my future mother-in-law, okay?”

Xu Jiao smiled with pressed lips and nodded.

Ye Zhen took Xu Jiao to the hospital.

Earlier when cooperating with the doctor, she had already memorized the hospital’s name. Now taking a taxi to the hospital, carrying Xu Jiao, she asked the nurses about the situation and headed towards the ICU—

Before reaching the entrance.

Xu Jiao suddenly twitched her nose and raised her hand to grab at the air.

Ye Zhen: “?”

Xu Jiao blinked and asked her: “Can you smell it? The scumbag’s scent.”

Ye Zhen: “…”

Just as she was about to play along with Xu Jiao’s joke, in the next moment, very faint colors floated by in the air before her eyes, white, semi-transparent fragments, but no one around noticed this strange phenomenon.

Then, those fragments fluttered down and landed in Xu Jiao’s hands.

Xu Jiao frowned, and just as Ye Zhen was about to speak up, she too was touched by those fragmentary things on her skin, and in the next moment, she realized what they were.

They were Xu Hankai’s scattered consciousness.

This person…

He actually died?

Xu Jiao glanced towards the ICU direction, and Ye Zhen looked over as well. Catching a glimpse of Mother Xu’s figure appearing, she immediately turned around carrying Xu Jiao and left, asking while walking:

“What a coward, he actually got scared to death?”

The consciousness fragments from earlier had already recorded this fact.

Hearing her comment, Xu Jiao paused for a few seconds, and spoke somewhat uncertainly: “In this world, is everyone like this?”

Ye Zhen didn’t know what she was referring to: “Hm?”

Xu Jiao mumbled to herself again:

“After everyone dies, where does this consciousness go?”

She couldn’t even bother to reflect on Xu Hankai’s death.

Because there were more important things worth investigating.

She stared fixedly at Ye Zhen who was carrying her, her gaze full of inquiry.

She felt she was just a tiny bit away from the truth.