Caleb had died of respiratory failure.

The doctors had resuscitated him for a long time, but they couldn't bring him back, and he eventually died on the cold operating table.

Li Qingze had also arrived. He stood to the side, supporting Caleb’s mother, saying: "Auntie, the Captain wouldn't want to see you like this..."

"My condolences."

Rowan picked up the dumplings from the floor and stuffed them into her mouth, one by one.

Her hands were trembling, and tears surged uncontrollably.

She said: "Caleb, you promised you would eat the dumplings."

"I made them, but you won't eat them—how does that make any sense?"

She said: "Caleb, you have to eat dumplings on New Year's Eve to be reunited in the coming year..."

By the end.

She couldn't say another word.

Caleb’s funeral arrangements were handled with the help of the police team.

The seventh bouquet.

She brought a bouquet of chrysanthemums.

She looked at Caleb lying there, so quiet and silent, as if he hadn't left, but had merely fallen asleep.

Chen Yiting found her and said: "This is what the Captain wanted me to give you."

A White Rabbit creamy candy.

Rowan finally couldn't hold it back any longer. She leaned against the wall, her head thumping against it, blow by blow.

She remembered how, when she was a child, she would always hide in the alleyways to cry, and Caleb would always be the first person to find her.

He would remain silent, handing her a White Rabbit candy.

Telling her not to cry.

Now, he had handed Rowan a White Rabbit candy again.

Telling her not to cry.

When June found Rowan.

Rowan was collapsed beside the tombstone.

Snow was dancing across the sky, and her face was covered by a thin layer of snow, quiet and still, without a word.

June ran over and held her tightly.

"Ms. Rowan, it’s all in the past, it’s all in the past..."

Past.

How could it be past?

Only she was left.

Truly, only she was left.

If she had known, she would have told him herself that she loved him—that the person she had always, always loved was him.

If she had known, she would have been brave just once.

She was still just as cowardly as she had been ten years ago.

Chapter 25

It was now the third month of spring.

Rowan had moved back to Wutong Lane. Caleb’s mother had sold the house on Wutong Lane, and a very loving family had moved in.

A young couple, with an adorable three-year-old child.

Every time Rowan went to the cemetery, she had to bring five bouquets of flowers.

Every year, Rowan went to the cemetery five times.

Because the five of them had died at different times.

Spread throughout spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

So, in every season of the year, she would be reminded of them.

Consequently, she began to loathe spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

She no longer looked forward to the spring flowers blooming across the fields, the cicadas singing in summer, or the leaves of the locust trees blanketing the ground in autumn.

And it seemed she no longer looked forward to the winter snow.

By the fifth year, Rowan was thirty-five.

She met Sean again.

At her flower shop.

She smiled: "President Sean, buying flowers?"

Sean smiled back: "Long time no see, Rowan."

By the eighth year, Rowan was thirty-eight, and she held her wedding.

The groom was Sean.

On their wedding night, Rowan asked: "Sean, weren't you supposed to have a business marriage? Why is this still your first marriage?"

Sean looked at Rowan earnestly.

"Because I still wanted to wait a little longer."

He didn't mention that it was because, on that day, he had seen a pair of college students on the road, standing in front of a wedding dress shop, looking forward to what their future might look like.

It was in that very moment.

He thought he would wait a little longer for Rowan.

Just in case, he might actually get to wait for her.

The second day after their wedding was the anniversary of Caleb’s death.

Sean took the initiative to drive her to the cemetery.

He said: "Rowan, I know that he is very important in your past."

"So, you can remember him."

"And I will appear in every moment of your future."

"So, Rowan, you cannot only remember him."

Rowan brought a bouquet of chrysanthemums to the front of Caleb’s tombstone.

He was still the same, brow furrowed, with that "stay away" air about him.

Rowan realized that in eight years, she seemed to have forgotten a lot; she struggled to remember what Caleb looked like when he smiled.

She felt a bit lost.

How could she have forgotten him?

But it seemed she really was going to forget him.

She crouched down and placed the flowers in her hand on the ground.

"Long time no see, Caleb."

"Caleb, do you know? When you died, I really thought I would never be able to walk out of that darkness in my life."

"I thought you were so selfish; you knew you were all I had, yet you still resolutely abandoned me."

"Caleb, it’s been eight years. You’ve been gone for eight full years."

"Suddenly, at some point, I seem to have finally let go."

When did she let go?

Rowan seemed unable to remember.

It seemed she had let go through those repeated breakdowns in the dead of night; perhaps she had let go because those who cared for her were suffering because of her sorrow; or perhaps it was because she felt she should finally let go.

"Living in pain is not what I wanted."

"One has to keep walking forward, right?"

She smiled: "What about you, Caleb? Perhaps you are already an eight-year-old child now."

"I’m leaving; I won't come to see you next year."

Rowan turned to leave.

Just then, someone behind her called her name.

"Rowan!"

Rowan looked back and saw three young, fresh faces.

Ezra smiled and said: "Rowan, it’s New Year’s Eve today; shall we go set off fireworks?"

Claire held a sparkler in her hand and acted spoiled: "Come with us, please, I beg you..."

Caleb was still wearing that cold face, with no expression at all.

He said nothing.

Rowan smiled bitterly.

"I won't go with you all this time."

"I... still have my own path to walk."

She lifted her eyes once more.

Nothing was there.

Only three empty tombstones.

The next moment, brilliant fireworks bloomed in the sky.

Rowan walked forward, step by step, and did not look back again.

Chapter 26

Side Story [Liu Lewis]

Rowan had summarized the eight years after Caleb’s departure very understatedly.

No one knew better than I did just how painful those eight years were for her.

When Caleb first left.

She often locked herself in the house, never drawing the curtains, just sitting in that sealed space, often forgetting to eat, staring blankly for an entire day.

When I broke the door down.

All I saw were those eyes that couldn't catch a single glimmer of light.

That White Rabbit candy was placed on the bedside table in Rowan’s room.

She didn't eat it.

She said this was the last thing Caleb had left for her.

My heart ached for her.

She was Nian’s only daughter left in this world.

I had missed my chance with Nian; I couldn't let Nian’s daughter leave this world the same way.

So I stayed by Rowan’s side every day, trying every possible method to help her heal, but it was all in vain.

She was like a walking corpse, living her life according to a pre-set script every day.

Every night, she would be woken up by nightmares.

Every day, she would eat dumplings with preserved vegetable filling, then inexplicably become sad and cry.

She would say: "Caleb didn't get to eat them..."

"If he didn't get to eat them, how could there be a reunion in the coming year?"

I am very grateful to Sean.

Even when facing all of her negative emotions, even knowing that in the next moment she might drag him into the darkness, Sean never gave up on her.

He stood just one step behind her.

So that she could see him at any moment.

He often went to Rowan’s flower shop to buy flowers, shamelessly guarding her side.

After Caleb left, Rowan had indeed contemplated suicide.

All these years, Sean had been following her.

So, the moment Rowan jumped into the river, he didn't hesitate; he jumped in as well.

People who are drowning will instinctively grab onto anything beside them to pull themselves up.

So, Sean had almost died, too.

I asked him: "If you had really died, would you regret it?"

He smiled and said: "No regrets. If Rowan and I had died together, I would have demanded she pay me with her life, demanding she compensate me with her next life."

As he spoke.

He suddenly paused.

"Forget it. She loves Caleb so much; she will probably never see me."

He had liked Rowan since he was in high school.

But there had never been anyone but Caleb in her eyes.

Sean said: "If I could, I would want to be her driftwood."

"Even if she drags me into the bottomless abyss, I wouldn't regret it even if I died."

So.

Fortunately, Rowan grabbed onto the driftwood.

After Rowan’s wedding ended, I went to Nian’s tombstone.

I brought her favorite yellow roses.

"Nian, you’ve been gone for twenty years."

"How fast, really so fast—fast to the point that I’m starting to forget what you look like."

"I remember when you were twenty, standing in front of me, asking if I dared to take you away."

It was a stormy night. My parents wouldn't allow me to marry a girl from such an ordinary background.

I couldn't fight against my family.

I could only tell Nian "I'm sorry" over and over again.

But later, when I inherited the family business and had the power to fight back.

What I received was the news of Nian’s marriage.

One slow move, and the entire game was lost.

At seventy-six, I was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer and admitted to hospice.

When Rowan came to visit me, she asked me a question: "Uncle Lewis, why did you never marry?"

I thought about it; this question was hard to answer.

Nian.

The person I wanted to marry was already gone.

The person I wanted to marry, from beginning to end, was only you.

The young Liu Lewis had hesitated and wavered.

But by the time he realized his own heart, it was already too late.

So, he spent his entire life atoning.

The moment he passed away, the name he murmured last was still Yu Nian.

The girl in his youth.

The girl who made his heart skip a beat at first glance.

[The End]