Extra Chapter 3

At this time, Mingxi didn't know where she could go.

She bought a plane ticket and a cup of coffee with cash, and sat down with her coat in her arms, staring at the crackling rain outside in a daze.

She watched one plane after another take off on the tarmac outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, but she didn't board the plane.

Others had their destinations, but she didn’t know where her destination was.

In the end, she sat at the airport with her suitcase for a whole day. Finally, she tore off the ticket she bought, dragged her suitcase aimlessly, and planned to leave.

When Mingxi was leaving, her passport accidentally fell on the ground.

One minute later.

The passport was picked up by a slender hand with well-defined knuckles.

The owner of the hand was a young man.

The man was holding a black umbrella. He had short dazzling red hair which made him stand out from the crowd.

It rained a little when he was transferring his flight. The cuffs of his windbreaker and black suitcase looked a little damp. His red hair was slightly wet, making his eyebrows and eyes appear darker.

He turned around, holding the passport in his hand, and glanced at the back of the figure who just passed him.

"Sir, what's the matter?"

“It’s hers.”

The young man handed the passport to the staff at the gate, and asked the staff to give it to her.

After a pause, he felt something was wrong again.

The crowd was huge.

In the background as if the image was pressed into fast motion.

Suddenly, he turned his head again.

*

When Mingxi was about to walk out of the security checkpoint, the staff caught up with her and she received the passport she had accidentally lost.

Thank you.

The staff also handed over an umbrella.

It was a black umbrella with a letter embroidered with gold thread on the corner.

Mingxi was stunned for a moment. She subconsciously looked back.

But the person who found her passport had already boarded the plane.

Mingxi pulled her suitcase and left the airport.

Sure enough, it was still raining outside. Amidst the overwhelming curtain of rain, the corners of Mingxi's skirt were blown by the wind to wrap around her slender and fair legs.

Her face and lips were a little pale, but it wasn't from the cold. At this moment, she could feel life passing rapidly in her body.

She hugged her arm and opened the umbrella in her hand.

Mingxi raised her head and turned the umbrella in her hand around, looking at the swirling rainwater and the letter under the black umbrella.

She felt that this was the only time God had been kind to her during this period of time.

*

They looked for Mingxi for three months.

But they could not find her.

Zhao Zhanhuai had been to Tongcheng, but when he went, the people there said that Zhao Mingxi had never been back. Later, Mr. Zhao found out the ticket that Zhao Mingxi had bought, but was told that Zhao Mingxi did not board the plane.

The world was huge. It was only now that the Zhao family realized how difficult it was to find someone who would no longer actively contact them.

In the past, Zhao Mingxi could be contacted at any time— When Zhao Yuning had trouble with his classmates, he didn't dare to invite his parents. After making a phone call, Zhao Mingxi would run over anxiously. When Madam Zhao mentioned that she would be home for dinner, Zhao Mingxi would happily bring a large bag of gifts home— This was because Zhao Mingxi wanted to stay by their side and longed to be reunited with them.

But once Zhao Mingxi didn't want to do this anymore, they suddenly discovered that it was Zhao Mingxi who always approached them. They rarely took the initiative to get involved in Zhao Mingxi's life.

*

In the end, the Zhao family did not see Mingxi for the last time.

During the last period of her life, Mingxi didn't contact or bother anyone. At that time, something happened to He Yang’s family and they were close to bankruptcy, so she didn’t want to bother her anymore. The Dong family also seemed to have suffered bad luck because they knew her. Mingxi didn't want to continue to bring bad luck to the Dong family in her last moments.

She returned to Tongcheng, contacted the local village committee and the Civil Affairs Bureau in charge of cremation, filled in the information, and went through the registration procedures. Because she grew up on this land when she was a child, she still had a few acquaintances in the small town. After she talked about the situation with Aunt Li, Aunt Li helped her a lot during the last period of her life.

By the time the Zhao family rushed over, seven days had already passed since Mingxi’s death.

That was the first time the Zhao family saw a mourning hall in the countryside. There were one or two white wreaths, smoke rising from the cold air, and everything was simple and desolate.

Although Mingxi had told her that she didn't want to conduct any funeral and she just needed to be cremated, Aunt Li burst into tears and didn't listen to her advice.

There were white flowers hanging at the gate of the street office. In the frosty winter, a scattered group of people who knew Mingxi and her grandmother in the past came to pay their respects.

The person at the door handed black gauze to several members of the Zhao family.

…

The Zhao family looked at all this in shock. Their fingers seemed to be filled with lead, so heavy that every pore was sweating. They couldn't lift it to pick up the black gauze.

They froze there, unable to make a sound. The corners of their eyes were darkening, and everything was spinning.

What was that feeling like?

A fresh life withered cruelly before their eyes, and when they arrived in a hurry, they couldn't even pick up the last withered petal.

All the things they thought they could slowly change, accept, and make up for in the rest of their lives, Zhao Mingxi will never give them a chance again.

They always thought there was still a lot of time, but they didn't expect it to be so short.

Zhao Mingxi had passed away.

Her life stopped forever at the age of 23.

Madam Zhao stared blankly at the burning brazier in the middle of the mourning hall which was constantly swaying by the wind. She felt short of breath and her eyes were glazed with tears. She screamed in agonizing pain and passed out.

*

Half a month after Zhao Mingxi passed away, the souls of everyone in the Zhao family still seemed to be floating away from their bodies.

All of this happened suddenly, and Zhao Mingxi left without leaving anything or a single word.

They did not even have anything to remember her by.

She didn't give them a fair goodbye. Maybe she was punishing them for what they did when she was 15 years old. They didn't leave a good first impression on her after they brought her home.

They sometimes felt like they were in a dream.

In a daze, they felt that Zhao Mingxi hadn't left yet. She was still running around in the school laboratory, but just didn't call home very often.

However, after they woke up, they suddenly remembered that Zhao Mingxi had already left.

*

Madam Zhao recalled more than once the last words she said to Mingxi before Mingxi passed away. The last look she cast on Mingxi.

The last words she said to her were said out of anger, and the last look she gave her carried the fury of an argument.

She didn't even hug her well before she died, let alone give her a unique moment of preference. After learning that she was terminally ill, her first reaction was to doubt her!

What did she do as a mother?!

Madam Zhao was in pain.

Mingxi left with these bad memories of being picked on and rejected, so she didn't contact anyone in their family before she passed away.

She must have been so disappointed that she never wanted to see them again.

Madam Zhao thought about all this every day and night. Her soul was suffering. She couldn't fall asleep. As soon as she closed her eyes, she would see those moments when she scolded Zhao Mingxi. The distress and regret for Mingxi flooded over, drowning her to the point of suffocation.

Is there a second chance in life?

If time could be turned back, Madam Zhao wanted to rush to embrace Zhao Mingxi when she timidly stepped into the Zhao family's door when she was 15 years old.

If time could be turned back, Zhao Yuning would not steal that chemistry competition registration form again, nor would he rebel against Zhao Mingxi. He would become a good brother and pull her behind to protect her.

If time could be turned back, Zhao Zhanhuai would notice Mingxi's timidity and panic when he took Zhao Mingxi to the school to register on the first day of school, comfort her patiently and gently, and help her quickly integrate into the city.

If time could be turned back, Mr. Zhao would also like to spend more time with his daughter who had been living away from home for many years.

…

However, time cannot be turned back.

All that is gone will never return.

*

And so, day by day.

Time passed in sorrow, grief, remorse and mourning.

One year after Zhao Mingxi passed away.

The Zhao family could barely move on. The scars that have been torn apart have left permanent marks, engraved on everyone's heart.

When Zhao Mingxi was alive, no one in the family took a good look at her.

Ironically.

After Zhao Mingxi died, everyone loved her.

Madam Zhao didn't allow the servants to enter her room. She didn't allow anyone to touch her things. She often sat on her bed in a daze, and occasionally flipped through the notes and test papers from her teenage years.

When Zhao Zhanhuai and Zhao Mo mentioned that they once had a younger sister, they would go silent, and then tell others that their younger sister was a very outstanding person.

Mr. Zhao did some charity work under Zhao Mingxi’s name.

After Zhao Yuning moved out, he also brought back the cat he and Zhao Mingxi raised together.

However, Zhao Mingxi would never come back.

She would never smile at them again.

She would never appear at the dinner table again.

She would never give them another chance to make amends.

*

In this life, Zhao Yuan got everything she wanted, and her fate went smoothly.

But where she couldn't see, the Zhao family had a special place in their hearts for “Zhao Mingxi”, and it hurt when it was touched.

In fact, because of Zhao Mingxi's death, the Zhao family could no longer treat Zhao Yuan well.

Because the dead Zhao Mingxi was a hurdle they could never overcome.

However, for the dead Mingxi, all this was meaningless.

No matter how much they missed her, she couldn’t see it.

*

After Mingxi passed away, her memory became a process of gradual blurring and fading. All the scenes in her mind faded, and finally, it stopped on that rainy day, on the spinning umbrella.

When she opened her eyes again, she returned to the age of 17.

Her memory was less detailed.

She remembered roughly what happened at some point in her previous life, but she didn't remember this umbrella.

It was like a dragonfly resting lightly on the tip of her heart, leaving no trace in the end.

However, good luck came to her.