The next day felt like it was moving in slow motion. Meiying woke up early, her mind already racing with a thousand thoughts. She tried to do her usual chores watering the plants in the garden, sweeping the floor, making breakfast for Yutang but her hands were shaking, and she could barely focus on what she was doing.
Today was the day. Today she would see Yuhan, and today it would all be over.
She kept telling herself over and over again that this was the right thing to do. She was doing it for her father's land. She was doing it so she could fix things with Weiliang. She was doing it to get her old life back. That was what she wanted, wasn't it? That was what she'd been fighting for all this time.
But why did her heart feel so heavy? Why did the thought of never seeing Yuhan again feel like someone was squeezing her chest tight, making it hard to breathe?
Around ten o'clock, she saw a familiar black car pull up outside the gate. Her stomach flipped instantly. He was here.
She took a deep breath, smoothed down her dress, and walked outside. Yuhan was already getting out of the car. He was wearing a simple white shirt and jeans today, not his usual expensive suit, and he looked somehow more… real. Less like the powerful CEO of Yue Hua Group, and more like just a man standing there waiting for her.
He looked at her, and his eyes softened immediately. "Hi," he said quietly, his voice gentle.
"Hi," she whispered back, her voice feeling small.
"Ready?" he asked.
Meiying just nodded, unable to trust herself to say more. She got into the car, and they drove off. She didn't ask where they were going. She didn't care. She just wanted to get this over with.
He drove them to a quiet spot by the river, just outside of town. It was a place she used to go to as a kid, when she wanted to be alone with her thoughts. The trees were tall and green, the water was calm and sparkling, and there was no one else around. It was peaceful. It was perfect for saying goodbye.
They got out and walked down to the bank, sitting on an old log near the water. For a while, neither of them said anything. They just listened to the sound of the water flowing and the birds singing in the trees.
"So," Yuhan said finally, turning to look at her. "You really want me to sell it?"
Meiying looked down at her hands, picking nervously at the grass. "Yes. It belongs to my family… or at least, it used to. It means a lot to me, it's where I grew up. And Mr. Chen is a good man. He'll take care of it, he'll understand its value."
Yuhan nodded slowly, watching her face. "Okay. If that's what you want, then that's what I'll do. The papers will be signed by the end of the week. It will be exactly as you wish."
"Thank you," she said, her voice trembling slightly. "You don't know how much this means to me. You've done so much for me, Yuhan. More than I deserve. I was so stupid to forget I didn't own it anymore, and you still helped me."
"You deserve everything good in this world," he said simply.
The words hung in the air between them, heavy and warm. Meiying felt tears stinging her eyes again. She had to look away, she couldn't look at him or she would cry.
"So… that's it then," she said, trying to sound brave, trying to sound like she was okay. "After this, we won't have any reason to see each other anymore. You can go back to your life in the city, and I can stay here and… and fix things."
Yuhan didn't say anything for a long moment. Then he asked, his voice low, "Fix things with Weiliang?"
Meiying swallowed hard. "Yes. He's my fiancé. I love him. I just… I just got confused for a while. I was under a lot of stress. But now everything will go back to normal. It will be like you and I never met."
"Normal," Yuhan repeated the word, like he was tasting it, like he didn't like the sound of it. "Do you really think you can go back to normal, Meiying? After everything that's happened? After what we did? After how you felt?"
He turned fully towards her, reaching out and gently taking her hand in his. His touch sent that familiar electric shock through her body, the same warm feeling she'd tried so hard to ignore, tried so hard to push down.
"I know you're scared," he said softly, leaning a little closer. "I know you feel like you have to choose the safe path. The path you've always known. The one that makes sense to everyone else. But look at me, Meiying. Really look at me."
She lifted her eyes slowly and met his gaze. His eyes were so intense, so full of emotion, so honest, she felt like she was drowning in them.
"When I'm near you, I don't feel like I have to pretend to be anyone else," he said. "And I can see it in you too. You try to hide it, you try to push it away, you tell yourself it's wrong, but it's there. It's real. You feel it too, don't you?"
Meiying opened her mouth to say no, to deny it, to lie like she had been doing for weeks. But the word wouldn't come out. Because it was a lie. And she was tired of lying. She was tired of lying to Weiliang, she was tired of lying to her family, and most of all, she was tired of lying to herself.
Tears started rolling down her cheeks freely now, hot and fast.
"I don't know what to feel," she whispered, her voice breaking. "I care about you, Yuhan. I really do. More than I should. More than is allowed. I know I have Weiliang, I know I promised him, but when I'm with you… everything feels different. But I love Weiliang too. I've loved him for so long. I don't know how to stop. I don't know how to turn this off."
"You don't stop loving someone by forcing yourself," Yuhan said gently, squeezing her hand tighter. "But maybe… maybe what you feel for him isn't love anymore. Maybe it's just habit. Or gratitude. Or fear of change. Fear of hurting people."
He looked deep into her eyes. "I'm not asking you to choose me right now, Meiying. I'm just asking you to stop lying to yourself. Admit that what's between us is real. Admit that you feel it. Admit that you think about me just as much as I think about you."
Meiying closed her eyes, and the dam finally broke. All the walls she'd built up, all the denials, all the pretending it all crumbled away in that second.
"Yes," she sobbed, the word coming out in a rush. "I feel it. I feel it so much it scares me. I think about you all the time. When I'm with Weiliang, I'm thinking about you. When I'm trying to sleep, I'm thinking about you. When I saw you today, my heart felt like it was going to burst. I hate myself for it, I feel so guilty, but I can't stop. I can't pretend anymore."
She looked at him, tears blurring her vision completely. "I'm so confused, Yuhan. My heart is split in two and I don't know how to put it back together. I don't know who I am anymore."
Yuhan moved closer, wiping her tears away gently with his thumb. "Then don't put it back together yet. Just… feel it. Just accept the truth. You have feelings for me, Meiying. And I have feelings for you. That's the truth, whether we want it or not. Whether it's easy or not."
Meiying leaned into his touch, closing her eyes. For the first time since this whole mess started, she didn't fight it. She didn't push him away. She just let herself feel.
She realized then that he was right. She couldn't pretend anymore. She couldn't go back to being the girl she was before. Because she had changed. And her heart had changed too.