He transmigrated into the body of the school heartthrob's spoiled ex-girlfriend, and he insiste

I heard from others that there is a kind of bird in this world that has no feet.

It can only keep flying and flying, and when it gets tired, it sleeps in the wind. This bird can only land once in its life, and that is when it dies.

Before, when I was in that cramped startup garage at University A, typing away at code day and night, watching the endless rain outside the window, I always thought I was that bird.

I thought I was born without the right to stop.

I had to keep flying upwards, over the mire of my origins, over the ridicule and contempt, to the very top of the pyramid. I thought only then could I have the power to choose.

until today.

Until 4:15 a.m. on November 16th.

After I finished listening to that broken recording filled with static noise.

I finally understand.

I am not a bird without feet at all.

I am just a programmed program that runs on a predetermined track, a self-satisfied fool wrapped in the so-called "protagonist halo".

It truly has no feet.

It is this woman who is lying in my arms right now, breathing evenly, sleeping soundly without any guard.

……

The humidifier in the room emits a very faint white noise.

The pointer points to 4:20.

I turned to the side, and quietly watched her in the pale moonlight that streamed in through the window, washed clean by the rain.

The distance between us is only 0.01 centimeters.

I was so close that I could see the fine downy hairs on her face and feel the slight rise and fall of her chest with each breath.

Her body temperature was 36.5 degrees Celsius.

It's very warm.

But my heart felt like it was being immersed in ice water at minus tens of degrees Celsius; it ached, sted, and I couldn't breathe.

In the past 1,095 days.

Or, in 26,280 hours.

I hate her every minute, every second.

I hate her ruthlessness, I hate her vanity, I hate that she wore that glaring red dress and threw my dignity, along with that ruby ​​necklace, into the champagne tower in front of the whole world.

Countless times in the dead of night, I've gritted my teeth and thought: When I reach the top, I'll make her regret it. I'll lock her up, I'll make her watch over me, and she'll have nowhere to go but me.

I thought it was a satisfying revenge.

But it turns out...

In those 26,280 hours.

every second.

She was doing all this to keep me alive, while in another dimension I couldn't see, she was enduring excruciating torture.

That thing called "the system" told her that if she didn't leave, I would die.

My luck, my career, my life—all depend on her alone.

Thus, this originally delicate, timid, dark-fearing, and pain-sensitive footless bird...

To preserve the tree where I live.

They cruelly broke their own wings.

Covered in blood and infamy, he plummeted straight down from a great height.

The winter she went to Paris, City A had a heavy snowfall.

What was I doing at that time?

In a private room at the bar, I drank until I had a stomach hemorrhage, vomiting mouthful after mouthful of blood, cursing her heartlessness in my half-awake state.

And what about her?

She huddled in that drafty semi-basement in Montmartre.

There was no heating, no warm clothes, and even the money to buy a tube of paint had to be earned by washing hundreds of dishes.

She returned all the money Zhou Xu had given her, but left the card I had given her untouched on the bedside table.

She is in self-exile.

She saw herself as a sinner unworthy of happiness and punished herself in the harshest way.

"fool……"

In the darkness, I let out a very soft, hoarse sigh.

I stretched out my hand.

His fingertips trembled as he very slowly touched her cheek.

In Wong Kar-wai's films, people always like to put an expiration date on everything.

Pacific saury expires, canned meat expires, even cling film expires.

I've wondered before, is there anything in this world that doesn't expire?

On the night of that victory celebration banquet.

When she coldly told me, "I'm tired of this," and "It's just playing house,"...

I thought that our love had expired.

It was rotten and foul-smelling, emitting a nauseatingly hypocritical odor.

But now I know.

It is not expired.

She put her love into a jar that no one could find.

Then, she buried the can deep beneath the ruins of time.

The shelf life is: 10,000 years.

Even longer.

……

4:45.

The rain has completely stopped.

I maintained the position of holding her, while a fierce internal struggle was raging within me.

Should I wake her up?

I wanted to throw the shattered phone in front of her, and with red eyes, I would question her: Why were you so foolish? Why did you have to shoulder everything alone?

Should I tell her that I know about that damn system, that I know all her hardships back then, and that I should hug her and cry my heart out, and then pour out all the grievances I've suffered over the past three years?

My reason tells me that I should do this.

This is the fastest way to untangle all your knots.

but.

Looking at her peaceful sleeping face.

My hand eventually fell slowly and limply to its side.

No.

I can't say.

If I expose all of this, if I tell her I've recovered that data...

She will surely remember the pain that was forcibly forgotten.

She would recall the fear of being electrocuted, and the suffocating feeling of desperately crying in the bathroom.

She would fall into that panic again, wondering if she was going to hurt him again.

I have already made her suffer too much.

How could I bear to tear open her newly healed wounds again?

That absurd and cruel system has since disappeared.

Let it disappear forever.

Let those cold words about fate, about annihilation, about cannon fodder rot forever in my belly.

It will become my secret alone.

Starting today.

In her understanding.

She doesn't need to be a martyr who sacrifices herself to save the world.

All she needed to do was be Jiang Ci's wife, Nian Nian's mother, and Wen Ning, the painter who shone brightly in front of his easel.

She once single-handedly defied the rules of the entire world.

So the rest of my life.

Let me stand in her place and keep all the storms of this world outside.

……

It's 6:30 in the morning.

Daylight broke in City A.

The first ray of sunlight pierced through the sheer curtains, casting a slanted band of light on the carpet.

I watched the light slowly move, finally landing on Wen Ning's eyelashes.

She frowned slightly.

It felt like being stung by light.

I instinctively reached out and held my hand in front of her eyes, shielding her from the sunlight.

"Well……"

She let out a lazy nasal sound.

Long eyelashes brushed against my palm like a small brush, tickling my palm and the itch went straight to my heart.

She slowly opened her eyes.

Those clear, peach-blossom eyes, still hazy with sleepiness, were misty with tears.

When she realized that the person in front of her was me.

Her eyebrows immediately curved into an extremely soft and dependent arc.

"Aci".

She called my name softly.

Her voice carried the hoarseness of early morning and an undisguised coquettishness.

"morning."

Just one word.

A word that is as ordinary as it gets.

My eyes suddenly welled up with tears without warning.

My throat felt like it was blocked by a huge rock; I couldn't swallow it down or spit it out.

I looked at her.

Looking at this woman who has gone through so much hardship, yet is still willing to smile at me.

She has no idea what kind of emotional breakdown I went through last night.

She has no idea what earth-shattering regret and love is churning in my heart at this moment.

"What's wrong?"

She seemed to notice something was off about me.

She reached out her slender hand and touched the corner of my eye.

"Why are your eyes so red? Didn't you sleep well last night? Or did you secretly stay up late again to look at reports?"

Her tone was accusatory, but even more so, it was full of heartache.

I took a deep breath.

She forcefully suppressed the tears welling up in her eyes.

"no."

I took her hand and brought it to my lips, giving her palm a deep kiss.

"I was just thinking..."

"What are you thinking about?"

"What good deeds did I, Jiang Ci, accumulate in this life to be able to marry you?"

My voice was low and hoarse.

It carries a tenderness and solemnity that is almost overwhelming.

Wen Ning was taken aback.

Immediately, a faint blush rose to her cheeks.

She withdrew her hand and gently punched my chest.

"What's wrong with you so early in the morning?"

"With such a sweet tongue, have you been secretly buying some weird black and gold invitations or ugly clothes again?"

I chuckled softly.

The vibrations in her chest traveled through her body.

"no."

I stretched out my long arm and pulled her tightly into my arms.

He rested his chin on the top of her head and greedily inhaled the faint jasmine scent emanating from her hair.

"I just think..."

"Life is good now."

It's really good.

There is no system, no countdown.

There were no harsh words that had to be said, nor any punishments that had to be carried out.

Only the real temperature, and the real you.

"Mom! Dad!"

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from outside the door.

Accompanied by the sound of the doorknob being turned.

With a "creak".

The door was pushed open.

A chubby little dumpling wearing pink bear pajamas, rubbing its sleepy eyes, and carrying a plush rabbit, wobbled in.

Little Niannian pouted, looking aggrieved.

"Mom and Dad are so embarrassing, they don't even say it to themselves before going to sleep..."

Wen Ning immediately broke free from my embrace, her face as red as an apple.

"Niannian is awake! Come here, let Mommy hug you."

The little dumpling immediately beamed with joy and charged over like a small cannonball.

He climbed onto the bed using both his hands and feet and squeezed between us.

I looked at Wen Ning on my left and Xiao Niannian on my right.

One is big, the other small, and their faces are somewhat similar.

The sunlight shone on them, warm, bright, and full of incredible vitality.

I stretched out my arms.

I pulled the mother and daughter into my broad embrace.

In that movie called "Days of Being Wild".

Ah-zai said that a bird without feet can only land once in its life, and that is when it dies.

He was wrong.

Big mistakes.

My footless bird, she really did fall from a great height.

She broke her wings and fell, covered in blood.

She thought she would die in that cold winter.

But she didn't.

Because I'm standing here.

I gave my entire life, and the indestructible business empire I built.

I use my flesh and blood.

He caught her steadily.

She did not die in the wind.

She fell into my heart.

From then on, it took root, sprouted, grew into a towering tree, and blossomed with a profusion of flowers.

"Dad, why are you staring at Mom?"

Little Niannian nestled against my chest and asked in her sweet, childish voice.

I looked down at my daughter in my arms, and then at Wen Ning, who was watching us tenderly beside me.

I laughed.

He laughed with a sense of relief and certainty.

"because."

I answered softly, my voice fading into the bright morning light of early summer.

"Dad is watching..."

"My whole world."

There are no more birds without feet in this world.

From this day forward, I, Jiang Ci, will be Wen Ning's eternal parachute, and her most secure resting place for all eternity.

(End of the article)