25. Two Different Worlds (Part Two)

About ten minutes or so after Lin Yitan left, the intercom suddenly buzzed. Zhang Tingyu ran over to pick up the receiver, originally assuming Lin Yitan had forgotten something, but instead she was met with an unfamiliar man's voice.

"Is Wen Mingjuan there, please?" he asked.

"And you are?" Zhang Tingyu felt deeply suspicious — what man would be looking for Wen Mingjuan at this hour?

"I'm sorry! This is Gao Weizhao." he answered.

Gao Weizhao?

Zhang Tingyu was startled — this was no small matter. They'd just had a full-blown world war over this guy, and now the very source of the trouble was showing up in person? Could it be that there really was some uncanny telepathic connection between him and Mingjuan?

Zhang Tingyu deliberated, unsure whether she should let him in; after mulling it over for quite a while, she finally gritted her teeth and pressed the door release.

Might as well let the two of them sort things out face to face.

Just as Mingjuan and Lin Yitan had done, face to face.

Stepping into Wen Mingjuan's home for the first time, Gao Weizhao glanced around.

It was a small, exquisite apartment, done up in a light green palette, arranged in a fresh and pleasant way.

"Hello, I'm Zhang Tingyu." Zhang Tingyu politely greeted Gao Weizhao, and this was also the first time she'd gotten such a good look at his face.

What a refined-looking hoodlum.

Walking down the street, no one would ever guess he was a bona fide underworld boss — he was even more refined-looking than Lin Yitan.

Zhang Tingyu sighed inwardly. No matter how good-looking he was, a hoodlum was still a hoodlum in the end — that was a fact nobody could change. And it was precisely because of this that there could never be any future between him and Wen Mingjuan.

After a brief exchange of greetings with Gao Weizhao, Zhang Tingyu led him to Wen Mingjuan's bedroom door.

"What's wrong with you?" Startled to see how pale Wen Mingjuan's face was, Gao Weizhao immediately grew tense. "Are you that sick? Weren't you doing much better last time?"

"She just fainted again a little while ago, both a headache and dizziness." Zhang Tingyu answered on her behalf.

"How did this happen?" Watching this, Gao Weizhao's heart ached with worry.

Catching sight of the boxed meal sitting on the nightstand, Gao Weizhao picked it up on impulse, opened it, and inspected it.

"You haven't eaten?" He was taken aback. "Look what time it is, why haven't you eaten yet? And your medicine — have you taken it or not?"

"She said she couldn't eat, and she hasn't taken her medicine either." Zhang Tingyu explained further.

"You..." Ignoring Zhang Tingyu standing beside him, Gao Weizhao gently helped Wen Mingjuan sit up, letting her lean against the headboard, and picked up the boxed meal and chopsticks. "I'll feed you."

"Eat a little, no matter what, then take your medicine. Listen to me!" he said, feeding her a mouthful at a time.

Wen Mingjuan didn't resist; she simply let Gao Weizhao feed her like this.

Even though the whole world condemned Gao Weizhao, she couldn't help but keep thinking about him regardless. The feeling Gao Weizhao gave her was something she'd never experienced once in her twenty-six years. Though Lin Yitan too had cared for her devotedly, she'd never been able to find happiness or fulfillment through him.

But with Gao Weizhao, she could.

That profound sense of happiness welled up naturally the moment she simply laid eyes on him.

She couldn't explain the reason for it either.

To put it plainly, her familiarity with Lin Yitan far exceeded her understanding of Gao Weizhao — Gao Weizhao was like mist over the mountains, she had never once managed to see him clearly. And yet the genuine feeling he held for her crossed that very chasm, shining into the depths of her heart with the brightest of lights.

That was why she missed him so much — even amid the roar of everyone's opposition, she couldn't help herself, thinking of him in helpless despair.

It was pain.

And it was torment too.

She could never put into words just how much she longed to see him. And yet, here he was, having suddenly appeared right in front of her, just like that.

Was it because their hearts were connected that this had happened?

As she chewed on the food Gao Weizhao fed into her mouth, Wen Mingjuan couldn't stop the tears streaming down.

At this moment, Zhang Tingyu finally saw a hint of the truth — the difference in what Lin Yitan and Gao Weizhao each meant to Wen Mingjuan was easy enough to tell apart just from these small gestures.

The difference was obvious; the outcome was already clear.

Yes, even she could see it — these two were in love with each other.

The only pity was, their love was destined never to bear fruit.

Watching them, Zhang Tingyu found her own heart growing heavy with sadness.

If this society insisted on binding people with rigid doctrine, did that mean anything that violated that doctrine deserved a death sentence?

Thinking carefully over these past several days, how could the care and affection Gao Weizhao had poured into Wen Mingjuan possibly be any less than what someone approved of by moral and ethical standards would offer?

With a soft sigh, Zhang Tingyu stepped out of Wen Mingjuan's room, deciding to leave the space to the two of them.

"What's wrong? Do you feel very unwell?" Gao Weizhao had no idea what had just happened here; seeing Wen Mingjuan's tears, he mistakenly assumed she was simply feeling ill.

He reached out and touched her forehead. "That's alright, no fever."

Wen Mingjuan shook her head.

"Gao Weizhao." Suddenly, Wen Mingjuan spoke up. "I'm sorry, I wasn't able to call you with an answer. These past three days, not a single person has approved of you and me."

"My parents just left. They came to make their position clear — they won't allow us to see each other, do you understand?" As Wen Mingjuan spoke, tears already streamed unchecked down her face, and she began sobbing uncontrollably. "If... if I still insist on being... being with you, everyone around me... will all... reject me... reject... me... I... I... won't be able... to have... a place... to stand... anywhere here..."

Wen Mingjuan forced herself through her sobs to get the words out.

Was this the real reason she had fainted?

Hearing Wen Mingjuan's choked confession, Gao Weizhao understood — the real thing that had brought Wen Mingjuan down wasn't her illness at all, but him — Gao Weizhao himself!

Because he'd waited several days without hearing back from Wen Mingjuan, he couldn't hold himself back any longer, and the moment his business in Taipei was finished, he'd rushed straight back here. He never expected the answer he'd get would be this.

Perhaps he should have prepared himself for this all along. Wen Mingjuan was a teacher, and honestly, their two worlds were worlds apart. In the past, a teacher was someone he'd never once imagined as anything to him — he'd always thought teachers were stiff and dull. But ever since meeting Wen Mingjuan, his whole outlook had completely changed because of her. Her unconventional, unbound personality had drawn his attention without him even realizing it; the flicker of her every smile and frown could control his every mood. No one could have predicted that such an unlikely pair as the two of them would, through a misunderstanding and a single ID card, become so tightly bound together by the momentum of real feeling.

Even more unimaginable was this:

She had somehow warmed his cold, closed-off heart, and stirred in him a tender, lingering attachment to her.

But right here, right now, what more was there for him to say?

Some say "Han and traitor cannot coexist." A kind of grief welled up in Gao Weizhao's heart — was it that he and Wen Mingjuan had become one a loyalist, one a traitor, and the difference in their standing would forever remain an insurmountable curse between them?

Standing on the platform past ten at night, the light of the stars flickered on and off, reflecting in the eyes of anyone who looked up to watch them. Not long ago, out for a walk to clear her mind over Lan Yunmei's disappearance, Wen Mingjuan had gazed up at that very same starry sky. Gao Weizhao remembered this, and a bitter ache rose in his heart once more.

He shouldn't keep thinking of Wen Mingjuan all the time, and yet he simply couldn't help himself.

He lit a cigarette, took several deep drags, his heart heavy and sinking. And so he simply left, going back to Taipei. Staying wouldn't have changed anything anyway. Between coming and going, what exactly had he gained? Or what had he lost? Wen Mingjuan had never truly belonged to him to begin with — now that she was no longer there, could that even be counted as a loss?

The smoke drifted slowly through his lungs and windpipe; exhaling it all in one breath, could that carry away the gloom pressing on his heart along with it?

The answer, of course, was no.

He knew that already.

Because Wen Mingjuan was so unusually sensitive to cigarette smoke, that odd little quirk had even led him to cut back significantly on smoking these past days. Thinking of this, a dull ache stirred in his heart, nagging at him.

The first time he'd been attacked with pepper spray, the first time he'd kept a girl's ID card on him, the first time he'd given up smoking for someone else's sake, the first time he'd risked life and death alongside someone he cared for, and — the first time he'd ever felt the happiness of having someone he loved waiting up for him at the door...

The only pity was, all these many "firsts," and the first stirring of the heart they'd bought him, were now being ruthlessly blocked at every turn. He might command the wind and rain across both sides of the law, but under the pressure of ordinary society's values, he too had become a helpless victim.

Wen Mingjuan couldn't love him.

Not in this lifetime.

Even if Wen Mingjuan was willing to cast off the shackles of convention and follow him, what could he possibly give her in return?

A lifetime of being shunned by family, friends, and colleagues?

He had never let himself think that far ahead before.

Standing on the platform, the cold wind assailing him, his thoughts grew ever clearer.

Exactly.

If he truly loved Wen Mingjuan, how could he bear to let her suffer the pain of being abandoned by everyone she knew?

He couldn't.

And so, all he could do was leave quietly, departing from this place that had never truly belonged to him in the first place.

The first time he'd met Wen Mingjuan was when he was coming back from Taipei by train; and this final time, he would end this whole strange twist of fate the very same way — by leaving on a train.

And isn't life itself just like that, after all?

Forever caught in an endless cycle of trial and error.