one year later.
It is the spring season again. Amid the lush green mountains, a flight from France arrives at the airport and slowly glides across the tarmac.
At the airport exit stood a tall figure, his handsome features shrouded in a hint of hostility. Xia Ying, who was standing next to him, couldn't stand his chilling aura, so she took a step away and shouted in an almost irritable tone: "Li Zhengyu, I've had enough of you, please stop making such a stinky face. If someone didn't know, they would think the plane had crashed."
Hearing her complaint, Li Zhengyu just glanced at her leisurely without saying anything.
"Hey, today is the day Shengyu and Lele return home. Don't tell me you haven't been looking forward to this day."
Li Zhengyu hesitated to speak. He was indeed looking forward to this day, looking forward to their return from France. He looked forward to their return, but was also afraid of their return. His sight fell on the exit in front. Behind the light white glass wall, were there two people walking out slowly, holding hands?
If this was true, Li Zhengyu didn't dare to think about it anymore. It felt like the air was sucked out of his heart, and it twitched slightly, almost suffocating him.
Xia Ying, who was looking forward to it, suddenly pulled his sleeve excitedly: "Hey, I saw Shengyu."
Li Zhengyu's heart suddenly rose, but he didn't dare to look away easily.
It’s been a year since we last met. Is she okay?
After a long while, he pretended to be calm and followed Xia Ying's footsteps.
Among the crowd rushing out of the exit in front, a tall gray figure was particularly eye-catching. A year of studying abroad had added a lot of color to Li Shengyu. Walking in the crowd, he easily became the focus of everyone.
But he did not hold someone else's hand as Li Zhengyu had imagined. Instead, he put his left hand in his trouser pocket and strode towards them with a trolley case in his right hand.
Next to Shengyu, there was no familiar figure that he had missed for a long time. Li Zhengyu felt inexplicably relaxed, but then felt nervous again.
Why didn't she show up?
"Li Shengyu, you're back!" Xia Ying ran to Li Shengyu first, stretched out her hand and punched him in the chest, with a smile on her face brighter than spring flowers.
Seeing her particularly lively and attractive with shoulder-length hair, Li Shengyu couldn't help but reach out and touch her head and said, "You are getting more and more beautiful. When you stood here just now, I thought I saw a lady, but I didn't expect you to be so straightforward."
Xia Ying was a little embarrassed. She stuck out her tongue and smiled mischievously. She looked around and asked doubtfully, "Hey, where's Lele? Didn't you come back together?"
Li Shengyu's expression was calm. He smiled gently at Li Zhengyu who was walking over, as if he was deliberately saying to him: "I came back alone."
Faced with Xia Ying's confusion and Li Zhengyu's surprise, Li Shengyu just smiled faintly and did not give any further explanation. In Li Zhengyu's mind, he had already thought of N scenarios of meeting at this time. The only thing he had missed was that only one person would come back.
At night, the deep blue sky was dotted with stars. In a corner of the rooftop of the Li family villa, there was a lighted star tree. At a small round table nearby, Zhengyu and Shengyu sat side by side, each holding a can of beer.
"Le Le didn't come back with me. Are you disappointed?" Li Shengyu put the remaining half can of beer in his hand aside and turned his head to look at Li Zhengyu's face that was flickering under the flickering lights.
"No." Li Zhengyu denied it flatly and drank the beer in the can.
"Do you think you're a good actor? From the first time I saw you when I came back until now, you haven't smiled."
"Didn't you smile while eating?"
"A stiff grin is different from a smile." Li Shengyu stared at Zhengyu's face and noticed the changes in his expression.
Li Zhengyu didn't say anything, and he clenched the empty beer can in his hand.
"LeLe went to the south of France."
"What?"
Li Shengyu pursed his lips, looked at the twinkling star tree next to him, and said in a light tone: "Do you think that Lele and I have fallen in love after staying in France for a year?"
Li Zhengyu did not respond, but looked away and focused on the deep starry sky in the distance, while the beer can in his hand was clenched tighter and tighter.
Li Shengyu smiled knowingly: "In fact, when I first went to France, I fantasized about this almost all the time. Time can change everything. Lele can change you in such a short time, so I can change her in the same short time. After all, I was the one who saved her. Although I once thought of giving up in despair when I saw your happiness, God brought her to me again after all. How can I be willing to give it a try?" At this point, Li Shengyu paused, his hand touched the beer can, but stopped again.
After a long while, he sighed and continued, "But I was wrong. I spent a year proving that love cannot be weighted. I can't get into her heart, nor can I replace you in her heart. After calming down, I finally realized that Lele and I are more suitable to be friends, the kind of close friends who share weal and woe. We can give each other support and encouragement, comfort and warmth, but that is not love."
"Brother..." Li Zhengyu looked at him in surprise.
Li Shengyu glanced at him and smiled heartily: "For her, Li Shengyu is not Li Zhengyu . And for me, family can never become lovers."
At this moment, Li Shengyu's eyes and eyebrows were full of charming smiles, without any of his previous melancholy.
"LeLe was afraid that you would forget her, afraid that you had changed your mind. After all, you were so resolute when you broke up with her. So she didn't dare to come back and went to the south of France alone. She said that the charming scenery there might give her the courage to face it."
"Really..." The low voice was like the night breeze, but one could clearly hear the trembling in it.
"On the day she left, I sent her to the airport and asked her when she planned to come back. She said she didn't know yet. If one day everyone can face this matter calmly, she might come back.
"Zhengyu, after this year, I have let it go. Now the ones who have a grudge are you two. I know you didn't stop loving her, but you gave up on her because you felt guilty towards me. Put away your guilt, in fact, many things have passed." Li Shengyu said this and patted Zhengyu on the shoulder.
After a moment, he stood up and stretched handsomely: "I've been on the plane for a long time. I'm really tired. I'm going to rest. I have an appointment with Yingying to come back to school tomorrow morning." He said in a clear voice, smiled at Li Zhengyu, and turned to go down the rooftop.
Li Zhengyu was the only one left on the quiet rooftop. He looked at the mottled light and shadows cast by the star tree on the ground, and the words Li Shengyu had just said echoed in his ears.
It turns out that Shengyu has thought it through so thoroughly.
It turned out that Lele didn't come back because she was worried that he would change.
It turned out that from the beginning to the end, he was the one who put invisible psychological shackles on himself.
Just like Shengyu said, many things have passed. What is he still stubborn about?
Li Zhengyu leaned on the railing and looked at the stars twinkling in the sky, each shining like a bright gem. In the direction pointed by the North Star, could there be someone looking up at the starry sky with the same feeling as him?
The corners of his mouth slowly curved into a gentle angle, and he stretched his slender hands toward the sky, as if trying to catch the distant stars in his hands.
Lele, I put all the stars I collected for you on the sky, and let them tell you that my heart has never changed.
Lele, I will wait for you under the star tree.
Waiting for you to come back, never to be separated again.