Defeated By Love

Translated by Fairy_Dust

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Shu Nian couldn’t believe it. She was so nervous and frantic that she almost hung up the phone. She had to calm her breathing down before she could answer.

In the next second, a low and cool male voice came from the other end.

“Who is this?”

Shu Nian’s breath paused, and her fingers unconsciously picked at the quilt. She opened her mouth but couldn’t find any words to say for a while.

The person on the other line was very patient. He didn’t urge her to speak or directly hung up on her either.

After a long time, Shu Nian’s voice was obscure: “Hello, is this Xie Ruhe?”

No one spoke after that. It was so quiet that she couldn’t even hear him breathe.

It was like he had left the phone far away from him and even forgot to hang up the mysterious call. He didn’t care but also didn’t know what kind of mood the person opposite this call was in when they decided to phone him.

It was still raining outside, the sound of the pouring rain smashing on the window accompanied by the strong wind. It overlapped and intertwined with the rain in her memories.

She didn’t know how long it had been.

The man opened his mouth, his voice was low and dull, cold and non-emotional like he had suddenly numbed his face with iced cola.

“You’ve got the wrong person.”

…

The first time Shu Nian met Xie Ruhe was on a rainy night like now.

Between inhales and exhales, she could taste the chilliness and moisture in the cold air.

She lived in a small place in Shiyan Town during the second year of her junior high school days.

It took about 20 minutes to walk home from school.

Winter was approaching, the sky got dark very early. The lights on the side of the roads were not particularly bright and little flies were flapping their wings inside them. The rain in her ears was loud and the puddles that had accumulated on the ground were shiny, reflecting the light.

After school that day, Shu Nian didn’t want to go home too early, so she finished her homework in the classroom first before leaving school. Holding an umbrella she carefully avoided the puddles on the ground for fear of staining her shoes.

She walked quite slowly. She had only walked far enough to see the water bridge near her house by the time it was almost 7 o’clock.

After crossing the bridge, she would arrive at the residential area where she lived.

Shu Nian was about to cross over when she heard someone shouting at the other end. She blinked and thought for a moment. After a few seconds, that voice overlapped with a voice in her head.

It was Uncle Li Hong who lived next door to her.

“Can you do anything right?! If it wasn’t for Yu Peng who introduced you, I would have driven you away, you fucker!” Li Hong was wearing a raincoat. He had his hands on his waist and angrily cursed. “Now that all the goods are wet. How am I going to explain this?”

Upon hearing this, Shu Nian stood on her tiptoes and looked to the side.

She saw a tall and thin boy standing in front of Li Hong with his head bowed. He wore a loose blue and white school uniform jacket. The zipper was not pulled up, revealing the short-sleeved school shirt inside. The pants looked a little short on him. Water droplets continued to fall down his trouser legs.

His face was covered by rain and fog, only a vague outline could be seen.

Shu Nian didn’t know what was going on so she slowly walked over there.

The closer she went, the clearer the situation was to her.

There was a small three-wheeled cart behind the two of them with several cardboard boxes on it. There was a roof on the tricycle but raindrops leaked down from a hole and the outer skin of the boxes were wet.

Shu Nian recognised that the cart belonged to Li Hong. The ceiling was originally broken.

Li Hong was still scolding. He went as far as to push Xie Ruhe’s shoulders with his hands, donning a domineering expression.

“Anyway, today’s loss will be deducted from your salary!”

Xie Ruhe didn’t say a word even after being pushed back for so long. He kept his head low and from that angle, only his nose and lips could be seen. The curve of his jaw stiffened and the muscles there tightened. His whole body was soaked.

In such weather, he seemed to be freezing.

The unpleasant scolding continued. During that period, Shu Nian had walked up to the two of them and had even given half of the umbrella to Xie Ruhe.

She had a very small structure. Her face was small, her skin was fair and smooth, her features were delicate and pretty. She looked like a porcelain doll.

Shu Nian looked up at the intimidating Li Hong and whispered. “Uncle Li.”

Seeing Shu Nian, Li Hong’s expression became even more ugly.

“Little kid, hurry home.”

Shu Nian immediately corrected him: “I am not a kid.”

Li Hong sneered.

Shu Nian pointed to the tricycle and seriously said: “I remember that the roof of your car already had a hole in it. Isn’t this a problem with the equipment you provided him? You can’t just stop paying him for that.”

Being exposed by her, Li Hong was very upset. He quibbled: “I let him handle the goods. Of course, I would look for him if something happened to the goods. Are you saying that I should be the one that suffers the loss?”

Shu Nian was stunned but she didn’t bother to continue to reason with him.

“But this car—”

" "

“Don’t say anymore, I’m annoyed.” Li Hong picked his ears, raised his feet and sat on the tricycle. “Why are you trying to teach me? It’s him that’s the fucking problem.”

Shu Nian pursed her lips and said. “You don’t need to scold him.”

“What’s wrong with scolding him? If there’s something wrong with the goods then it’s only right to look for the delivery person. This is the truth. What kind of bullshit are you trying to tell me now?” Li Hong turned his head and shouted loudly. “Fuck my bad luck!”

After speaking, he didn’t wait for Shu Nian to speak any more. He stepped on the pedal and left quickly.

Only the two of them were left on the water bridge, both silent and speechless.

Shu Nian scratched her head but she couldn’t think of a solution so she just turned her head to look at Xie Ruhe who stood next to her and asked. “Does your family live here?”

He didn’t speak, nor did he look at her. He turned his head and walked in the opposite direction of the residential area.

Shu Nian was stunned and quickly followed.

He took larger steps than hers and Shu Nian had to trot to keep up with him.

Water splashed on the shoes from the puddles. Her shoes were stained and all the careful manoeuvring along the way vanished. Shu Nian was anxious and a little bit angry. She couldn’t help but grab on a corner of his clothing: “Hey!”

Xie Ruhe paused after hearing the sound. This action caused Shu Nian’s faint anger to dissipate immediately.

Shu Nian wrinkled her face in annoyance when she thought of the impolite shout she had just made. She pointed to the umbrella handle and asked in a low voice: “Can you help me hold this for a second?”

Shu Nian raised her eyes and she just so happened to collide with his sight.

His bangs were a bit long and it covered half of his eyes. Because of this, she couldn’t see his emotions clearly.

But it seemed like he was confused by her behaviour.

However, this time Xie Ruhe responded to her words. After a moment of silence, he obediently took the umbrella from her hand.

Shu Nian softly thanked him and secretly watched him as he unzipped a small pocket of his schoolbag.

The young man’s hair was wet, water droplets fell down from the ends of his hair. His face was very pale. His eyelashes are dense and long, like two small fans. His eyes were similar to paint, clear and distinct. The bridge of his nose was very straight and his lips were purplish from the cold.

Shu Nian didn’t have an extensive vocabulary so she couldn’t think of a good way to describe his appearance.

The first word that came up in her mind though was “beautiful”.

Although a little gloomy, he was still an extremely beautiful teenager.

She actually didn’t want to do much, she just wanted to give him the umbrella.

Shu Nian thought for a little while and took out a mango gummy from her schoolbag. She held it in front of him like she was trying to comfort him.

“Please have this candy.”

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