Tragic Romance: Love, You Don’t Need to Know
Snow blanketed the valley. A gust of wind kicked up swirls of smoke. On this deserted snow mountain, the overwhelming waves of snow battered everything in their path.
Two people were struggling along the mountain path. Both were outdoor enthusiasts, who had arranged to go into the mountains together, but unexpectedly encountered a snowstorm and got lost.
Before this, they were merely good colleagues. Despite feeling mutual affection during their interactions, they had never confessed their feelings. This trip was carefully planned by the man. He had cautiously suggested it to the woman, and she had readily agreed.
The snow fell heavier and heavier. Every step required significant effort. They held hands, trudging laboriously through knee-deep snow. Their clothes were soaked, and the cold wind turned their lips blue.
It had been three days, and they still couldn’t find their way out. Their energy was severely depleted, and the worst part was that their food supply was dwindling. The man had put all the remaining food into the woman’s backpack, leaving her to ration and control their daily intake.
As they passed through a forested area, the woman fell into a snow pit and twisted her ankle. The man was already extremely exhausted and couldn’t carry the woman forward. After much deliberation, they decided that the man would go ahead alone to find the way out and seek rescue.
The man set up a tent for the woman and made her comfortable.
The woman told the man, “We have eight pieces of compressed biscuits left, four each.” Then she reminded the man to go outside to boil water. The man brought the water into the tent. The woman said she had divided the biscuits and put them in their respective bags. The man felt the bags; it seemed they each had the same amount. He held her hand and said, “Wait for me. I’ll be back soon.”
Even at this point, they hadn’t confessed their love for each other. In such a situation, parting might mean never seeing each other again. If only one of them could survive, why make the other spend a lifetime forgetting a lost love?
The man zipped up the woman’s sleeping bag and turned away.
He marked his path as he went, focused solely on finding help and returning to her. Gradually, he could no longer sustain himself and collapsed after expending his last bit of strength. Before losing consciousness, he worried if the woman had enough food and if she could hold on.
When he awoke, he found himself in the rescue team’s tent. Friends who knew they had gone into the mountains had been worried after several days without their return and had guessed they were in trouble. The rescue team had been searching for a long time. They found the woman’s tent first, then followed the man’s markers to find him near death.
As the man’s body temperature slowly recovered, his first words upon waking were, “Where is she?” No one answered.
The man was stunned and struggled to get up to find her.
The rescue team leader said softly, “She’s gone. She probably went out to melt snow for water, couldn’t make it back, and froze to death.”
Three years later, the man got married to a lovely girl who, like the woman, enjoyed outdoor activities. After the woman’s passing, this girl had accompanied the man through his hardest days, and he gradually found happiness again.
The rescue team leader attended his wedding.
After the wedding, the team leader visited the woman’s grave. In the photo, her smile was still beautiful. The team leader said to her, “Rest assured, he’s married now and very happy.”
The woman hadn’t frozen to death. When the rescue team found her, she was lying in the tent, snugly wrapped in her sleeping bag that the man had tucked in for her. She couldn’t bear to move.
The woman had starved to death. Her backpack contained only flat stones, not compressed biscuits. They had only four biscuits left, not eight. The woman had left all the food for the man, deceiving him because she truly loved him.
When the team leader found her, her stiffened hand was tightly clutching a small note: “I know I won’t last until he returns. Don’t tell him. He should have his own life.”
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
