Chapter 1185: Chapter 1185: Never Counted
Since it was a game, her attitude naturally treated the world as such.
Accustomed to following her heart’s desires, sometimes she thought that if she could have met Arnold sooner, perhaps she could have given him the same love.
She did like him.
After saying goodbye to Grandma Li, Hannah opened her umbrella and stepped back into the night.
The misty rain in waves blurred even her silhouette.
Grandma Li still stood at the doorway, her vision even poorer at night, "I told you, my fortune-telling is accurate, but those old sisters wouldn’t believe it."
She hummed twice and closed the door.
*
Under her umbrella, she stood on the bridge, looking down at the misty waters.
She listened to the footsteps behind her draw nearer, finally stopping at just the right distance.
The night breeze was cool, bringing with it her faint scent, but it was so cold it made him shiver uncontrollably.
She asked, "No longer aiming to be a star?"
He looked down, the rain blurring his vision, or perhaps it was tears.
"No longer."
In his younger years, he was obstinate, fixated on that single beam of moonlight; now that he was awake from the dream, he didn’t recognize anyone, his heart practically torn out and offered to the person in front of him.
But she didn’t want it.
Perhaps she thought his heart was too dirty.
Hannah didn’t turn around, she stretched out her hand to wipe the rainwater soaked into her hair, which fell into her palm, somewhat cool, "So you really plan to keep going down this dark path?"
Louis clenched and unclenched his fists weakly, his whole body lacking strength, "They owe me."
Hannah said, "Nobody owes you anything."
Finally, she turned around, as if peering through a misty pond to see the lotus blooming deep within.
Faint like a mountain stream, yet so rich in color that it couldn’t dissipate.
Louis, at twenty, had lived most of his life in the world’s gloomy side and had become a person of stark black and white, obstinate and odd to the point of being terrifying.
Hannah didn’t feel pity for him, first because she had no feelings for him, and second because Arnold had it worse than he did, yet her Arnold was doing well.
Even though sometimes Arnold was as cold and menacing as a tyrant, he was, in the original storyline, the most lucid person in this Mary Sue plot.
She liked him, it used to be a normal kind of liking, but just now, that ordinary liking had turned into liking him very much.
She wanted to see him.
Right now.
This yearning transformed into a smile at her lips, radiant and splendid, more dazzling than any lamplight.
Louis wrapped himself up well, his hat pulled down so his face couldn’t be seen.
Only his hands, showing through, were pale.
"Nobody owes me anything," he murmured softly, "but I owe you."
Hannah didn’t want to deal with a child, "What do you owe, a life?"
A life, as well as countless debts of affection.
These things were too hard to calculate.
Hannah wasn’t interested in collecting them.
Louis moved his lips, unable to muster a smile, set with a serious face, "I remember I once said, when I have money in the future, I will give you a better life."
In that rundown rental, Hannah and he had fantasized about too many beautiful futures.
His impatient response to her, followed by that statement.
At that time, she was happy for many days and made him a lot of braised pork.
He almost threw up eating it, but still had to pretend to like it, so he disliked her even more.
But that was in the past...
The rain was gradually stopping, Hannah closed her umbrella and, without responding to his remark, said, "You said you wouldn’t pester me again."
Louis paused, then said in a low voice, "I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help it."
"So you see, that’s why your words are always empty."
Hannah withdrew her gaze, no longer looking at him, and stepped forward to walk on.
The narrow alley was flanked by lanterns hanging from the eaves of houses on both sides.
