You From Yesterday (Today and From Now On)

CHAPTER 13

Yang Rong had just sent her last guest away when the clock struck eleven.

She closed the door to her house and turned around, strutting to the drink table. She filled a glass with drinking water to the half and swept it away from the counter in one swift motion before she turned toward the man sitting at the bottom of the stairs. She considered the man for a few seconds before she sighed and made her way to him.

She passed the glass to him, then proceeded to sit next to the man.

She had come out of the house when the two took too long and was surprised to see Zhu Yilong sitting at the front porch with Zhao Yunlan nowhere to be seen. He looked eerily quiet, still and calm, and his back ramrod straight it had to be stiffed to stay in the position. Yang Rong cautiously approached the male when he did not seem to response when she called for him. When he turned to face her upon the gentle touch on his shoulder, Yang Rong was once again rendered speechless when she saw the dried tracks of tears on his face. She stammered, her mouth opened and closed to say something, anything but she could not find her voice. Her palm felt sweaty and then she did the only thing she could think of.

She hugged the man, taking him into her arms into a comforting embrace.

There was no reaction from him for a few seconds, before Yang Rong felt a hand came up behind her to clutch onto her dress. She felt the trembling of his body before the sob came out. When he cried, there was rawness to it, like an open wound. The sobs were stifled at first as he tried to hide his grief but then he broke out entirely when he was overcome by the wave of emotions, all his defences washed away in those salty tears. Yang Rong comforted him through it all, her hand a calm warmness on his back. She found herself teared up at the heart-breaking cries of him. She might had predicted the situation, but she had never imagined it would really happened. And so soon.

She turned toward the man, the tears from before had left nothing for the man but a puffy red eyes. She sighed silently.

"I'm sorry."

The finger tracing over the mouth of the glass halted momentarily, before it started again. Zhu Yilong turned his head slightly to the woman.

"For what?" his voice came out hoarse and broken.

"I shouldn't have—it was not my place to ask. I took things too far tonight." Her face fell as she explained, feeling genuinely guilty and Zhu Yilong had to scoff at that.

"What are you talking about? It is me who takes things too far. I've been taking things too far since the beginning. It has just now come to bite me back in the ass."

He laughed like it was a funny thing, but it sounded forced and hollow. Yang Rong bit her lips, considering him for a moment before she took a deep breath; her eyes back into her usual gleam, hard and sharp.

"Zhu Yilong."

Her voice was demanding, like she always sounded and Zhu Yilong turned to face her properly. A small frown marred his face. Yang Rong narrowed her eyes, and she had her arms crossed over her chest.

"Just so you know, it will be low of you if you think I will tell anyone about him."

She glared under her long lashes, and squared her shoulders. She blinked when Zhu Yilong just stared at her and she licked her lips.

"Besides—I would love to meet him again."

She continued and Zhu Yilong eyes widened a fraction at that, before they turned sad again. He looked away from the woman with a small sigh.