Short, Light, Free - Chapter 145: Mountain, Sea VII – Jiao Tu

My brother* and I, from elementary school to university, had grown up together. We didn’t just get into the same degree, we’re also sharing the same dormitory room.

What does it feel like to be betrayed by the person closest and most trusted?Having been reborn, Hua Mi says that the first priority in surviving the apocalypse is to have sufficient supplies, stay away from the crowd and the White Lotus, and lay low until the end.Just as she rolled up her sleeves, ready to make a big effort, she suddenly activated a supermarket space and the Cashier System?!Tsk, why struggle in life when you can just stock up on goods and breeze through it?However, looking down at her increasingly large belly, Hua Mi carried baby formula in her left hand and a Chopper in her right.Where did this kid come from?!The plan had gone a bit awry, the first priority was to ensure the baby’s safe birth, and, to be wary of the man who kept staring at her belly every day.Man: Honey, why do I feel like you're getting fatter recently? You look like you're pregnant.Hua Mi: It's not like...

A huge guy is bawling his eyes out. In this day and age? Sure, maybe the world changed while I was away in that other place. I’m not some old-fashioned boomer.But what if that guy is clinging to my pant leg, sobbing and sniffling—And we’re not even acquaintances?Even in modern times, that’s just messed up. Ask any passing kid, they’d agree.So yeah, I shook my leg. He was gross and too close.“The hell’s wrong with you? Crying just ’cause you saw a ghost?” “N-no! I swear, it was really there! You didn’t see it!!”I let the disrespect slide. Barely. He was asking for help and still talking down to me just because I look young?Obviously, I’m not the one who lost his balls. He is.And yet… when I looked where he pointed—Something was there.I threw some coarse salt and looked again.He stared at me like I was insane, but I ignored it.…Yeah. Something was definitely there.It made eye contact.

Elaine Monroe never meant to fall in love with him. She never meant for her heart to betray her like this. But as she watches him stand beside another, hand resting on the waist of the woman he’s meant to be with, she wonders if she was always destined to be the outsider.“You knew,” she says, voice barely above a whisper. “You knew how I felt.”His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t deny it. He never does.“It wouldn’t have changed anything,” he finally says.She laughs bitterly. “I know.”Loving him was always impossible. He belonged to someone else. To his family’s expectations. To a future where Elaine had no place.“Forget whatever you think you feel,” he tells her, voice firm, but there’s something unspoken in his eyes—something that makes it hurt even more. “It will never happen.”And yet, his gaze lingers, just for a second too long.Then there’s her best friend—the one who stands beside her when the world turns its back. The one who sees her pain without asking.“You don’t have to do this to yourself,” he says, handing her his jacket on a cold night. “You deserve more than waiting for someone who will never be yours.”She wants to believe him. She wants to move forward. But some loves are impossible to forget. Some wounds never truly heal. And some desires, no matter how forbidden, refuse to die._____“loving him best decision i ever made” Elaine“you are my world”