If the Deep Sea Forgets You

Mo Han patted her head. “Go and sleep, if there’s any problem we can talk about it after we wake.”

He brought her to her bedroom and seated her on the bed. He then went to the bathroom to bring her towels to wipe her head and body dry.

“Do you want to shower? Or you’ll get a cold,” Mo Han sat at the bedside as he helped to dry her hair.

Xia Qingyi shook her head, her tears still flowing down continuously.

“Then change out of your clothes at least. Change into something dry before you go to sleep.”

Xia Qingyi reached for the hem of her shirt to take it off, and Mo Han quickly stood up and covered her with the towel, his head whipping to one side. “How are you going to change when I haven’t brought you a new set of clothes?! Wait a minute.”

Mo Han went to her wardrobe, took out some of her old pajamas and looked away as he passed it to her. “Wipe your body first before you change.”

Xia Qingyi took the clothes, put it aside and did not seem to have any more energy after she took her own sopping wet ones off. Her tears are gradually stopping, and she only felt tired. She tried her best not to think about everything that had happened in F City and focus her energy onto now and on wiping her body clean.

Except that when she saw the corner of the photo poking out from the pocket of her wet clothes, she was dragged back to reality again.

Mo Han heard no more sounds coming from Xia Qingyi and thought that she had already finished changing. He turned his head back and realized that she was still topless and sitting on the bed unmoving and in a daze.

“Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?!” Mo Han turned around again.

Xia Qingyi only returned to her senses after hearing his voice. She slowly put on her pajamas, and then lay down on the bed with her eyes staring out of the window. “I’m going to sleep, you can leave.”

Mo Han turned over, and seeing that she was lying on the bed on her side with her hair wet, her top half wearing her pajamas and the lower half still in her dripping wet jeans, he did not have the heart to lose his temper. He sighed, “I’ll come and help you.”

He knelt down at the side of the bed, lifted her nightshirt a little and unbuttoned her jeans. He looked away and carefully pulled down her jeans, but Xia Qingyi only kept staring out of the window and did not respond at all.

Mo Han knew that something had to have happened. Otherwise, she would not be like this. And this matter was definitely not as simple as fighting with Han Liang, or else Han Liang would not have called him.

He quickly helped to clean Xia Qingyi up, and then walked to the bathroom to take the hairdryer. Sitting by the bedside, he adjusted the temperature of the hairdryer and started drying her hair even as she slept.

She seemed to be more comfortable, her eyes closed as she allowed Mo Han’s hand to ruffle through her hair. The warm wind from the hairdryer let her slowly start to relax, and also made her face, pale from being drenched in the rain, gradually turn red.

She unknowingly welcomed a non drug-induced sleep.

And she slept all the way until ten A.M the next day.

“Are you awake?” What surprised Xia Qingyi was that the first thing she saw when she woke was Mo Han.

He was wearing casual clothes and lying on her bed reading newspapers as he leaned against the headboard with one of his legs on top of the other.

Xia Qingyi had slept until her mind was befuddled, and she dazedly rubbed her head as she sat up.

“Han Liang has already called me three times. I said you weren’t here, so call him if you want to go back.”

Xia Qingyi moved to the side and was about to wear her slippers and get out of bed when Mo Han said from behind, “What is it? You’d thought through it? You don’t want to fight any longer, and you can’t wait to call him back?”

Xia Qingyi stood up, turned around to look at him, seemingly a little exasperated and said softly, “I’m just going to the toilet.”

Mo Han also sat up as well and followed behind her, until he saw her enter the bathroom.

After around three or four minutes, Xia Qingyi came out. She washed her face, some water droplets still remaining in her hair, and she still looked a little tired but she definitely looked much better than she had yesterday night.

Mo Han asked, “Are you hungry?”

Xia Qingyi replied, “A little.”

“What do you want to eat?”

“Mini wontons from Zhouji.”

“I’ll order take-out, it’ll be here in a while.” Mo Han would let her stay in the house while he went to buy food in the past. But he truly did not dare to leave her alone in the house in this state.

“Where did you put my wet clothes from yesterday?” Xia Qingyi asked him.

“They’re in the washing machine.” After hearing him say that, Xia Qingyi’s heart leaped and she immediately turned and ran towards the bathroom. The washing machine was at the corner of the bathroom on the right.

“Are you looking for this?” Mo Han shouted from the back.

Xia Qingyi turned back, and seeing that he was holding a photo in his hands, she lightly swayed from one side to another. She walked back to his side, wanting to take the photo from his hands, but he held it up high so that she could not reach it.

“What happened last night?” Mo Han asked.

“I’ll tell you later, give me the photo first.”

Xia Qingyi looked at Mo Han, her hand outstretched towards him, as though she was sure that he would definitely return the photo back to her. Mo Han did as she wanted. He looked at her for a while, and then placed the photo onto her hand.

“I want to borrow your phone,” Xia Qingyi said.

“To do what?” Mo Han asked, taking his phone from the bed.

“Call Han Liang.” He wanted to give it to her at first, but froze when he heard her speak. But he still respected Xia Qingyi’s decision and passed the phone to her.

Xia Qingyi took the phone from him and walked towards the balcony. By rights, he should walk to another room at this moment and let her talk alone, but seeing Xia Qingyi walking away with her back to him, he wanted to hear what the two of them wanted to say between themselves.

Mo Han still chose to leave. He thought that Xia Qingyi probably would want to be alone now.

When Xia Qingyi was washing her face in the bathroom and the moment she had her face dipped in the water, she thought that she should go and face the facts. She should solve this matter properly and uncover the complicated and painful truth. But even so, her hand was still trembling as she gripped the phone and made the call. She took in a few deep breaths desperately and placed the phone next to her ear.

“It’s me,” Xia Qingyi said.

Han Liang heard her voice and felt reassured, but after seeing the phone and realizing that it was Mo Han’s number, he grew cold. “You went to find him yesterday.”

“He has nothing to do with what happened yesterday.” Xia Qingyi stopped for a moment, and still spoke in the end, “Han Liang, I know everything.”

His heart thudded in his chest. “You know what?”

“I thought that all of you would lie to me. I thought that you all probably hid the things that happened before I lost my memory, but I’d never thought it would be like this.”

“Nian Nian, did you hear something from someone else, don’t believe it, why would we lie to you?”

“Han Liang! Stop lying to yourself, I’m not Song Yuenian!”

The phone went dead silent on the other end.

After a long time, Han Liang finally opened his mouth. “How did you find out?”

“Yesterday, I… found a photograph, I thought… you might have not seen it yet, which is why it accidentally fell into my hands.” Xia Qingyi tightly clutched onto the photo in her hand, “Han Liang, let’s meet up and talk.”

“Okay.” He muttered to himself in a low voice, “I’ll come and find you.”

After Xia Qingyi hung up and walked out of the balcony, she closed the door and saw Mo Han sitting at the living room outside, a laptop in front of him, probably typing out some documents.

“Are you not going to prepare to explain what happened yesterday?”

Just as Xia Qingyi thought about letting him work in peace, and was walking towards the study room to not disrupt him, she suddenly spoke.

“I… I won’t be able to speak clearly now… if you are willing to listen after I’ve come back later, I will tell everything to you slowly.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“To see Han Liang?”

“Why? The two of you fought? Had a fight and you wish to divorce?” Mo Han was really unhappy. She had never properly talked about what had happened to her since she had entered his home yesterday, and even though he knew that Xia Qingyi needed time, he always felt that she treated him like a stranger now, even after he had clearly told her the things that could happen after she came into his house.

What surprised Mo Han was that Xia Qingyi did not get angry. She weakly turned her head to look at him. “No, you thought too much.”

Mo Han got even more angry. “Oh? Is that so? You’re only throwing tantrums at him for a while? Then why did you come and find me in the middle of the night yesterday?! Treating me as consolation for when you’re sad?! Treating me as a one-off affair?!”

Xia Qingyi could not really understand why he would fly into a rage for no reason and was shocked by it, scratching her ears in puzzlement. “I didn’t! …Why must you always think of it that way. What I mean is… I wasn’t married… No, I wasn’t married to Han Liang… Aiya… It’s just that I am not even Song Yuenian!”

Mo Han looked at her. “What did you say?!”

Xia Qingyi said, “Basically… I can’t explain everything to you in a sentence… I’m going, I’ll explain to you later after I come back.”

“When will you come back?”

“I don’t know it may be a while later.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“There’s no need to, this is between the two of us. Things might be worse if you’re there.”

Seeing that Xia Qingyi was back to herself and was no longer like she was yesterday, Mo Han felt reassured, but he was still confused after the words she said earlier. He thought that she must have gone through a lot of things in F City that day, and he knew nothing about it.

Xia Qingyi had already changed and was at the entryway. She bent down to put on her shoes, while Mo Han stood in the living room staring at her. “What do you want to eat when you come back tonight?”

Xia Qingyi finished wearing her shoes, raised her head and smiled at him. “You decide.”

It felt as though they had returned back to those idle yet warm days, when Mo Han would ask her what she wanted for dinner, and she would say anything was fine. In that moment when she was standing at the doorway and looking at Mo Han, Xia Qingyi was finally able to feel at ease.

It felt like the tearful moment when she was finally able to glimpse her hometown in the cooling breeze after drifting outside for too long and had gone through many hardships.

She no longer wanted to leave. To always stay here forever. Till she was old, till her death.