Slow to mature after marriage

The door opened.

There was a person standing outside the door.

Tall, dressed casually, carrying two bottles of wine.

The moment their eyes met, Mu Siwan's mind went completely blank.

Human cells are renewed every seven years. Ten years is enough to replace almost one and a half cycles of cells.

Logically speaking, she shouldn't have recognized him.

But a person's pupils do not change.

She remembered those eyes.

When she was sixteen, the boy who would lean against the attic window would look at her with those eyes after he finished telling her about the outside world.

Smiling broadly.

Meng Qing.

He reached out his hand, a smile playing on his lips.

"Long time no see, Mu Siwan. I wonder if you still remember me."

Mu Siwan stood there, her gaze fixed on his face for a long time.

Long enough time to compare those eyes with every scene in my memory.

She raised her hand and touched his fingertips.

Instantly separate.

"Long time no see, Meng Qing."

-

A voice came from behind: "Siwan, who's arrived?"

"Auntie, it's me."

Meng Qing smiled and replied, then stepped inside.

The master's wife peeked out from the kitchen, saw him, and her eyes crinkled into a smile: "Meng Qing is here? Please sit down, the food will be ready soon."

Li Jiliang looked up from the living room, waved as a greeting, and then lowered his head to continue playing chess.

Mu Siwan stood in the entryway, watching him change his shoes, watching him walk into the living room, and watching him greet the old men.

The scene at the dinner table was quite different.

Li Jiliang sat in the main seat and invited everyone to start eating. His teacher's wife brought out the last soup, took off her apron, and sat down.

"Meng Qing, it's been so long! Was the last time we met when you were eighteen? Right after you finished your college entrance exams?"

"Yes, Auntie has a really good memory," Meng Qing replied with a smile. "She was away from home for a long time, and was only transferred back to Beijing last year."

"It's good that you're transferred back; it's closer to home." His teacher's wife put food on his plate. "Eat more; you've gotten so thin."

Meng Qing thanked him and lowered his head to eat his food.

Mu Siwan sat opposite him, quietly picking at the food in front of her, one bite at a time.

Occasionally, I would look up and meet his gaze.

They moved away almost simultaneously.

Li Jiliang didn't notice anything amiss and continued chatting with his old friends, the conversation shifting from the chess game to recent cases, and then to whose child got married and whose child had a baby.

It was already dark when the party ended.

Li Jiliang saw his old friends off, while his teacher's wife tidied up inside. Mu Siwan stood at the door, preparing to drive back.

"Siwan." Li Jiliang called out to her as he returned after seeing someone off.

She turned around.

"Meng Qing's house is on the way to yours," the old man pointed into the house. "He's been drinking and can't drive. Could you give him a ride?"

Mu Siwan followed his gaze. Meng Qing was walking out of the living room, carrying a coat and wearing a faint smile.

She looked away.

"it is good."

Meng Qing walked over and stood next to her.

"This is troublesome."

-

The master's house was in an old neighborhood, where the streetlights were far apart, casting intermittent light. The two walked one after the other, their footsteps making soft rustling sounds as they occasionally stepped on pebbles.

Quiet.

But it wasn't the kind of blank, awkward silence.

Mu Siwan took a half-step ahead, her gaze fixed on the road ahead. Meng Qing followed behind, his eyes on her shoulder.

After walking for a while, he spoke first, his voice slightly hoarse.

"How have you been these past few years?"

Mu Siwan didn't stop walking.

"good."

Meng Qing smiled gently at Mu Siwan's unique way of answering.

"Does 'okay' mean good or bad?"

Mu Siwan thought for a moment.

"Neither good nor bad. Just living, going to work, coming home, that's it."

She glanced at him sideways.

"But Meng Qing, you lied back then. The outside world isn't actually that great."

Meng Qing paused in his steps.

"How so?"

She looked away and continued walking forward.

You say the outside world is colorful, but it's actually black and white.

Meng Qing could not refute this point.

After all, he only learned later that the world was actually black and white.

He said in a low voice, "Let's change the subject, Mu Siwan."

Aren't you going to ask me why I broke my promise to take you out back then?

"Okay." Finally stopping, Mu Siwan looked up at him. "Go on."

-

Meng Qing stepped into the Mu family for the first time during his senior year of high school.

The tuition fee offered by the Mu family was outrageously high, so high that he, as a student, couldn't refuse.

He was led into the house, through the living room, upstairs, and to the closed door at the end of the corridor.

A girl opened the door.

She was thin, very thin, with skin so white it was almost translucent.

She stood at the doorway watching him, her eyes devoid of curiosity, expectation, or anything at all.

He later learned that she was being held captive.

It's not the kind of barrier where the door is locked, it's the kind where you can't get out.

He started tutoring her. Twice a week, two hours each time.

He talked about mathematics, physics, and the outside world.

She listened attentively, occasionally asking a few questions, but most of the time she listened quietly.

One day she asked him, "What's the outside world like?"

He thought for a moment and said, "Colorful."

Her eyes lit up.

That was the first time he had seen that light in her eyes.

For the next six months, he would tell her a little bit every time he visited.

They talked about school, classmates, the old man selling candied hawthorns on the street, and the children flying kites in the park in spring.

She listened, and sometimes she would chuckle softly.

He began to feel that he wanted to take her out.

It wasn't for the tuition fee, nor was it out of pity for her.

I just wanted to show her that colorful world.

-

One month before the college entrance examination, he visited the Mu family for the last time.

As she was leaving, she said, "Next time you come, tell me what university is like."

He agreed.

He never went back.

A week before the college entrance examination, his father died in the line of duty. Before the memorial service was even held, his mother took him and Meng Wan and left overnight, changing their names, moving to a different city, and cutting off all contact.

Later, he was admitted to police academy, but his identity had to be kept secret, so he stayed in another city. During those years, he couldn't contact anyone and didn't know what happened to her.

By the time he was able to return, ten years had passed.

-

The night wind rustled the leaves.

Meng Qing walked beside her, his voice very low.

"I didn't mean to break my promise."

He looked ahead and continued, "That year, my dad... had an accident. We had to leave. There wasn't time to say goodbye to anyone."

"For many years afterward, I didn't know how to find you, nor did I dare to."

Mu Siwan nodded.

"Now I know."

Meng Qing stopped in his tracks and looked at her.

"that's all?"

She stopped and turned to meet his gaze.

"that's all."

-

After dropping Meng Qing off at home and returning to Mu Yan Garden, it was already very late at night.

Mu Siwan stood in the entryway, bending down to change her shoes. The sound of her shoes hitting the floor echoed briefly in the empty living room.

She straightened up and looked up.

The floor lamp was off. The living room was shrouded in darkness, with only moonlight filtering in through the French windows, casting blurry gray shadows of the sofa and coffee table.

Grace was curled up in some corner, and you couldn't even hear her breathing.

She stood there for a while.

Having lived in Muyan Garden for three years, this was the first time Mu Siwan felt that the house was too big.

So big that she stood there, hearing her own heartbeat.

She changed into slippers and went upstairs.

Footsteps echoed softly on the stairs.

So much so that she felt inexplicably empty inside.