CHAPTER 214: CHAPTER 214: JOURNEY’S END

Bian Yue checked her items with satisfaction, and picked up the red plastic hard lighter. Suddenly, she thought of something and asked in surprise, "By the way, you haven’t told me yet, how did this lighter come about?"

Her eyes were filled with curiosity. Shen Jinci lightly flicked her nose, his tone lazy and his smile light, "Want to know?"

"Yes, I do." Bian Yue pushed Shen Jinci’s arm, drawing out her words with urgency, "What are you keeping secret? Hurry up and tell me."

"It’s not that I’m keeping secrets, it’s just that, for the moment, I don’t know how to explain it." Shen Jinci pulled Bian Yue into his embrace, kissed her hair gently, and slowly said, "If I told you, you probably wouldn’t believe it."

"Tell me." Bian Yue wasn’t usually very curious, but once her curiosity was piqued, she became restless and her voice grew anxious, "You go first, afterwards I’ll tell you whether I believe it or not."

"It was back then..."

Shen Jinci’s unhurried voice pulled Bian Yue’s thoughts back to Xiangjiang from a long time ago.

It was the rainy season, damp and moist. At 23, Shen Jinci had just taken over the complex operations of Lixing Group. He was always rushing around, his youth commanding the respect of all the elders in the Shen Family.

That day, there was an unplanned meeting, and Shen Jinci rushed to the airport where he encountered Bian Yue.

Xiangjiang International Airport was bustling with people.

Shen Jinci saw Bian Yue standing at the security checkpoint, taking a lighter out of her pocket and putting it into the recycling bin.

Impulsively, he had someone retrieve the lighter for him.

"Mr. Shen, this..." Kang Yu was obviously puzzled, hesitating as he looked at Shen Jinci, his eyes filled with confusion, "Do you want me to collect this?"

Shen Jinci simply said, "Yes, cravings hit."

Hearing this, Bian Yue looked at Shen Jinci expectantly, urging, "Is that all? What happened next? What else happened?"

"Nothing much." Shen Jinci pulled the quilt over Bian Yue’s shoulders, gently patting her head, "Alright, don’t you have a lot to do tomorrow? Go to sleep."

"But how do I feel like you’ve only told half the story?" Bian Yue blinked and said, "How could you have kept it for so many years, you couldn’t possibly have liked me back then, right?"

Shen Jinci laughed helplessly, his voice still soft, slowly saying, "Alright, pretend I liked you back then."

"What do you mean ’pretend’?" Bian Yue was really unsatisfied, she huffed, childishly saying, "Never mind, don’t tell me. I’ll figure it out myself, I can find out either way!"

Shen Jinci’s smile at the corner of his lips faded a bit, he paused and said, "Give it some time. When we’re both less busy, I’ll tell you everything, okay?"

He emphasized the word ’everything,’ and Bian Yue’s expression softened a bit.

"Really? You’ll tell me everything?"

"Yes, everything," he made the promise.

Only then did Bian Yue go to sleep satisfied.

Shen Jinci watched her sleeping face for a long time, his mind full of thoughts.

What he didn’t tell Bian Yue was that after acquiring the lighter she had casually thrown away, he canceled his first-class ticket and booked a seat in economy class just like hers.

In the bustling departure hall with people coming and going, Bian Yue sat across from him, playing on her phone, unaware of his surreptitious gaze.

He was wearing a mask and a duckbill cap, his figure imposing and sharp, not yet tempered by the aloof dignity of later years, his fierceness still unsoftened.

There he sat, his face not visible, yet emanating an aura that kept people at bay; no one even dared to sit next to him.

Back then, Bian Yue was just sixteen or seventeen, youthfully indomitable, exceedingly beautiful.

He sat in front of her, watching her as she lowered her head, focused and unaware of who she was messaging.

After sending the message, Bian Yue’s face showed disappointment.

Then she may have received a call from a friend of hers and in front of herself, she said with a gloomy tone, "Shiheng is busy, he has matters to attend to, I’ll go out alone. Jiaojiao, should I not disturb him?"

At that time, Shen Jinci still didn’t understand what "disturbing" meant.

The feeling of being cared for and minded, he had never experienced it.

No one cared about his life, so there was no question of disturbing anyone.

On the other end, Wen Jiao probably comforted Bian Yue a bit, and the young girl was really easy to appease, soon breaking into a smile, saying, "Yeah! You’re right! He has to take care of me and is busy with Feng Cheng’s matters, I should be understanding of him. Jiaojiao... you don’t know, I really like him."

Shen Jinci couldn’t help but look at Bian Yue a few more times.

She was naive and vibrant, her smile youthful and pure.

She seemed as though she had not experienced hardships, so the corners of her eyes and brows were carefree smiles.

In Sheng Jinci’s life dictionary, such a person had never existed before.

He and the person who had died, they shared the most similar blood in this world, he understood what attracted Bian Yue to that person.

It was a kind of love that they both were not allowed to have since birth, a daring and reckless love.

Shen Jinci looked at her, and his gaze unknowingly turned forthright and gloomy.

Across from him, Bian Yue hung up the phone and took out a diary, beginning to write something earnestly.

She was very focused, from start to finish, never noticing his gaze.

It was as if he was someone who had trodden through a hopeless dark abyss reluctantly glimpsing daylight, as if encountering the brightest daylight of his life, watching greedily yet heart-achingly.

This happiness and beauty did not belong to him.

At the airport’s floor-to-ceiling windows, droplets of water connected, forming a long, thin river.

Until the reminder for boarding sounded, Bian Yue finally put away her diary, her face calm and smiling, and she ran to queue.

To this day, Shen Jinci still remembers the flight number of this airplane, and its destination.

—It was West Sichuan in the Mainland.

His seat was right next to Bian Yue, only wearing a mask, from start to finish, seeming like an unrelated stranger.

Bian Yue was continuously watching the scenery outside the window, and the only time she spoke to him during the journey was when the flight attendant was distributing meal boxes, the young girl gazing at him with big round apricot eyes, obediently saying, "Do you need soybean paste? I brought a jar."

He said no need, and Bian Yue nodded, then never spoke to him again.

Through the bumps of the journey, in the cramped cabin where even stretching legs was a luxury.

Yet, Shen Jinci didn’t feel tired at all, he just regretfully thought that this journey might end soon.

The plane stopped at West Sichuan’s airport, he helped Bian Yue with her luggage, wishing her smooth travels.

Bian Yue had a surprised look on her face, then she beamed at him, saying, "Thanks! I hope you have fun too."

Bian Yue didn’t know, her journey was indeed just beginning, but his journey, had already ended.

His whole way here, was just for her...

And today, Shen Jinci watching Bian Yue who slept peacefully beside him, his heart surged with tender emotions.

He gently caressed her face, his gestures full of cherishment...