Iris at Dusk

Although she had applied a hot towel to her eyes the night before, the intense crying meant they still looked somewhat red and swollen. So when she dropped her child off at school, Teacher Chen had even asked about it with concern. Lin Li couldn't bring herself to tell the truth; she simply claimed she hadn't slept well, then made an excuse about needing to rush to work and quickly walked away. By the time she drove to the office, Zhou Han had already arrived and was discussing the agenda for the 10 AM meeting with Special Assistant Xu. She set her bag aside and turned on her computer; while it was booting up, she picked up the mug from her desk, intending to get some water from the pantry. As Lin Li emerged from the pantry with her mug, a woman stepped out of the elevator. She was wearing a khaki trench coat; her long, loose waves hair cascading over her shoulders, and she strode toward them in heels nearly ten centimeters high. Lin Li stared, momentarily mesmerized. The woman...

Lin Li couldn't remember how long it had been since she had cried so hard. When An Ran told her that Cheng Xiang was seeing someone outside, she didn't cry. When Cheng Xiang left at the wedding, she woke up in the hospital, and the doctor said the child was gone. She cried, but she just stared at the ceiling with her eyes open and tears streaming down her face, because she knew there were people who were sadder than her.  When her father suddenly collapsed and was diagnosed with cancer, she was so panicked that she didn't know what to do. She was scared and anxious, and wanted to cry but had to hold it back because she was afraid that if she cried, her mother would not be able to bear it either. In the end, all her tears were accumulated. Lin Li woke up in a daze, and then she realized that she had exhausted herself crying to sleep. The light in the room was still on, just like before she fell asleep. She turned her head and saw that it was still pitch black outside the win...