"Qian Lan, I've been pursuing you for so many years, but you've always turned me down and said that you had a boyfriend. I thought you were using that as an excuse. I never thought it was real."

"Now you can finally give up, right?"

Outside the room, Mo Zichen did not hear anything else except for this short exchange of words.

He even peered in to see the man and imprinted his face in his memory.

Soon, the colleagues stepped out of the hospital room. When they saw, Mo Zichen, they were quite surprised and a little embarra.s.sed. It seemed, he may have heard their conversation.

"Let's go, we still have a mission to complete."

After the colleagues left, Mo Zichen finally entered the room with his chicken soup and placed it on top of Qian Lan's bedside table.

"I heard everything they just said."

"Huh?" Qian Lan was a little surprised. But, after a short moment, she realized what he was talking about, "Are you talking about the joke they made?"

"I'm glad you knew to reject him," Mo Zichen said before he sat down in front of Qian Lan. After sitting down, he scooped a spoonful of the chicken soup and placed it against Qian Lan's mouth.

"Everyone's always known that I've had someone in my heart..." Qian Lan explained as she took a sip. "I've been looking at the same photo for 5 years."

"You don't need to look at it anymore," Mo Zichen reminded.

"That photo used to be the thing that kept me mentally sane!"

Qian Lan smiled and took another sip of soup. Afterwards, she quickly fell asleep. At this time, Mo Zichen finally spotted the notebook she kept under her pillow. Inside the notebook was a photo.

Perhaps, she had taken it out of her notebook too many times. As a result, there were obvious fingerprints on two corners of the photo.

If this was really how she felt, why didn't she look for him during the early days of her training?

After placing the photo back in its place, Mo Zichen tilted his head and looked at Qian Lan. She lay peacefully on the bed while her back was covered in injuries.

At this time, Mo Zichen sat down on a chair and started to think back on the last 5 years.

At first, Mo Zichen actually tried to wait for Qian Lan. After all, Tangning had told him that Qian Lan joined the military because she really liked him, that she desired growth because she wanted a future with him. At that time, Mo Zichen truly believed this.

So, he waited one year. He even visited her secretly at the base. But, apart from looking happy, the silly woman never once tried to leave and look for him.

After that, he waited another year, but the second year was exactly the same.

In fact, it continued into the third year, the fourth year, and even the fifth...

Mo Zichen waited so long, but each step only drove him deeper into disappointment. Yet, just as he made the decision to no longer wait, Qian Lan finally appeared.

However, the fire in his heart had already fizzled.

Like this, Mo Zichen sat in his chair until the middle of the night when Qian Lan woke up.

When Qian Lan opened her eyes, he finally asked a question that he always wanted to know the answer to, "If you've been looking at my photo for so many years, why didn't you come looking for me?"

Qian Lan's expression changed when she heard this...

"It's been 5 years. No normal person would be able to wait that long. How did you expect me to wait for you?"

"Qian Lan, do you know why I haven't been able to get through this? It's because you had the chance to mend things after we broke up, but you disappeared for 5 years. How could you expect us to be together again, just like this?"

Qian Lan was speechless. All she had were tears.

"If you can give me a reasonable explanation, then I'll forgive you."

"I..."

Qian Lan opened her mouth, but found that she couldn't explain a thing.

"You can't explain anything, can you?"

Qian Lan shook her head as she said with all her might, "How do you know I never came looking for you?"

"I did look for you," Qian Lan sobbed. "After my basic training was over, I went back to visit our school, but you were no longer teaching there. Afterwards, I found out that you moved apartments, so I waited all night outside your apartment and ended up seeing a young woman come out from your place."

"That's why I returned to the military."

"I ended up with a fever for three days because I ran back there."

"When I was dismissed from the military, I also came to look for you. But, that time, I waited 3 days and 3 nights without seeing you. In the end, I left you a note."

"In the last 5 years, I went to look for you 3 times. The last time was recently when I discovered that you were still single. I felt a sense of hope, but also disappointment. You changed so much that I thought you'd already forgotten who I was. That was when my mother also fell ill, so..."

"You looked for me?" Mo Zichen asked in disbelief.

"You moved from the apartment near our school to Unit 104, 224 Shengquan Road. After that, you moved to Unit 702 inside Tianyang Apartments."

After listening to Qian Lan, Mo Zichen asked, "Why didn't you knock on apartment 105?"

"You were in 105?"

"Yes, I lived in 105," Mo Zichen nodded. "After that, I never moved into Tianyang Apartments. I helped a friend buy that place. That's why you couldn't find me."

"So that's what happened," Qian Lan collapsed in a heap of tears. "I also looked for you three times, but I returned disappointed each time..."

"I'm sorry," this time, Mo Zichen apologized. "I thought you simply came and went as you pleased."

"I went to look for you as soon as my basic training was over, but I didn't find you and the military almost thought I was a runaway soldier. After that, I fell sick and was confined for 7 days."

"From the first day that I stepped foot into the training camp, I already regretted my decision. I wanted to look for you, but I didn't want you to look down on me."

"Zichen, I really didn't mean for all this to happen."

After hearing this, Mo Zichen finally stretched out his hand and patted Qian Lan on the head, "That's enough...if you say that you came looking for me, then I believe you."

"I really did...I really looked for you."

"Every time I looked for you, I returned with disappointment. It also took me a long time to recover each time and gather enough courage to look for you again. But..."

Mo Zichen did not let Qian Lan say another word as he covered her mouth so she could calm down.

"Stop crying. Your wound is going to reopen."

"Zichen..."

"I'm here. I won't leave you. Even if you couldn't provide an explanation today, I still wouldn't have left. I would have simply been a little angry."

"After my anger subsided, I would have still stayed by your side," Mo Zichen surrendered.