She shook her head, gently brushing away this sudden thought of the past.

Those were all past dreams, no longer connected to her current life.

She only needed to live her own life well.

Years passed quickly amidst papers, experiments, and academic conferences.

Andrea completed her Master's degree with honors and, at the strong recommendation and insistence of her mentor, continued to pursue her PhD and joined the core research team.

Her research results began to be published in international journals, and she gradually emerged as a prominent figure in her field.

Her mentor praised her on more than one occasion as the most promising student she had guided in recent years and officially extended an invitation for her to stay and teach after graduation.

"Andrea, we need fresh blood like yours here. Your steadiness and creativity will bring new breakthroughs to our research," the mentor said earnestly.

Andrea accepted with joy, hardly hesitating.

She loved the academic atmosphere here, cherished her mentor’s appreciation, and had found a research direction she was willing to strive for in the long term.

This place had truly become the soil where she could take root and continue to grow.

It was also during her doctoral studies that she met Julian Zhou.

Julian Zhou was a PhD student in the same department but a different track, one year ahead of her.

Their first meeting was at an interdisciplinary graduate exchange conference. He was on stage sharing an interesting cross-disciplinary topic, his logic clear and his language humorous, drawing knowing laughter from the audience.

Andrea sat in the corner, listening quietly, thinking that this person’s way of thinking was very special.

Later, because of a project collaboration, they had more contact.

Julian Zhou was intelligent but not ostentatious, learned yet humble; he had a passion for academics and a keen observation of life.

Everything happened naturally through daily research, mutual discussions, and occasional coffee dates or walks.

They were attracted to each other, understood each other, grew closer, and finally converged.

The dating and the proposal all came in due course.

The wedding was chosen for a sunny autumn afternoon and held in a hundred-year-old small chapel.

The ceremony was simple and warm. Andrea wore a simple and elegant wedding dress without excessive decoration, her hair loosely tucked up with a fresh lily of the valley.

As she walked slowly down the sun-drenched church aisle, her gaze inadvertently swept across the shadows in the back row of the pews.

A familiar figure seemed to flash by.

Her heart skipped a beat.

But it was only for a split second.

Julian Zhou was looking at her with a smile, his gaze warm and steady, filled with undisguised love and expectation.

Regardless of whether it was him or why he had come, it was no longer important.

Andrea withdrew her gaze and, facing the sunlight, walked steadily toward her groom, toward the hopeful new life she had chosen with her own hands.

Chapter 22 (Final)

Julian stood under a giant oak tree behind the side of the church, leaning against the rough trunk as if this were the only way to support his collapsing body.

He clutched a wedding invitation card in his hand, which was already wrinkled beyond recognition.

The names of the newlyweds printed on the card stung his eyes.

Andrea, Julian Zhou.

It was really her.

In these years, he had searched for her traces like a madman.

But she had left cleanly, changing all her contact information; even her former classmates and friends back home rarely knew her specific whereabouts, only vaguely hearing that she had gone abroad and was doing well.

She seemed to have vanished into thin air, or perhaps she had deliberately erased every trace of her existence from his life.

He had tried to pick himself up, tried to throw all his energy into work, attempting to numb himself with busyness.

But whenever the night was quiet and he closed his eyes, his mind would be flooded with scenes related to Andrea from the previous life.

The look in her eyes as she waited for him to come home, her pale face as she endured stomach pain, and her cold, thin appearance as she finally lay in the morgue freezer.

And in this life, the indifference in her eyes when she pushed him away on that rainy night.

He felt as if he were being torn apart by the memories of these two timelines. The pain of guilt and remorse gnawed at him day and night, making it impossible for him to truly start a new life like Andrea.

His time seemed forever frozen at the moment of her death in the previous life.

Until a few days ago, an old friend revealed on a social platform that they were attending Andrea’s wedding.

He had booked the earliest flight to that country almost immediately.

The whole way there, his mind was a mess.

He thought he just wanted to take a look from afar, to confirm she was truly doing well—to see her happy appearance might finally allow him to give up and let himself go.

But when he actually stood in the shadows at the back of the church, watching her in the sunlight, wearing a pure white wedding dress and walking firmly toward another man...

The heart he thought had long since gone numb still ached so much he couldn't breathe.

As the ceremony ended, he stumbled out of the church early.

The sunlight was blinding, yet he felt cold all over.

He walked aimlessly through the unfamiliar foreign streets, surrounded by bustling crowds speaking different languages. The liveliness had nothing to do with him; the prosperity only highlighted the desolation in his heart.

While waiting for a red light at a crossroads, his gaze inadvertently swept across the opposite street corner.

A figure wearing a fashionable skirt and exquisite makeup, walking and laughing with several girls of similar age and style, made him pause slightly.

It was Macy.

In this life, she seemed to be doing well, her smile bright and her spirit high.

Julian watched silently as she walked past the corner chatting and laughing with her friends, disappearing into another street.

In his heart, not even a ripple surfaced.

The light turned green.

Julian withdrew his gaze and walked numbly across the crosswalk with the crowd.

His self-deceiving thought of "giving up after one look" seemed utterly laughable now.

He had seen her, yet his heart seemed to have died even more thoroughly.

On the flight back, Julian sat in a window seat.

The cabin lights were dim, and most passengers were fast asleep.

Immense exhaustion and despair enveloped him. Finally unable to withstand the days of mental and physical weariness, he fell into a deep sleep.

In his dream, he felt colder and colder.

He shuddered violently, trying desperately to open his eyes.

His vision went from blurred to clear. What met his eyes was not the dim overhead light of the cabin, but the familiar ceiling of his own home.

He stiffly turned his neck.

On the bedside table, a white medicine bottle lay toppled, next to an empty glass of water.

The wedding photo of him and Andrea was still hanging there.

In the photo, Andrea wore a pure white wedding dress, leaning in his arms, smiling gently and shyly.

Cold liquid surged from the corners of his eyes without warning.

Ultimately, he had returned to the starting point.

Slowly and with great effort, he closed his eyes again.

THE END