i’m going to give a HUGE and very long SPOILER about #TheMissingPiece novel, so if you don’t want spoilers, do not read this. if you want to understand what happened in the past, keep reading.
before zhou yang and ji an’an went abroad 3 years ago, mingxuan accidentally found out about zhou yang and shen mo’s relationship. so, in order to protect ji an’an, he went to the zhou family and told zhou yang’s mother that ji an’an couldn’t go abroad with zhou yang. but zhou yang’s mother kept insisting, so mingxuan only implied that zhou yang was already in a relationship. he never said that the person was a man or that it was shen mo. he just wanted to keep his sister away from the zhou family.
and mingxuan asked ji an’an, “what if zhou yang doesn’t love you?” and ji an’an answered, “i would still love him.”
ji an’an has a heart condition and is also at risk of dying. mingxuan cares about his sister deeply and always does whatever she wants. so even though he didn’t want to, he eventually let the two of them go abroad.
mingxuan knew that zhou yang’s mother would probably investigate and find shen mo, so he secretly arranged for someone to protect him. and after zhou yang’s mother eventually discovered through her own investigation that shen mo and zhou yang were in a relationship, she had shen mo tortured. mingxuan managed to save him, even though it was already too late, and took him to the hospital.
when shen mo wakes up, the first face he sees is ji mingxuan’s. but after that, he never sees him again. for the next few days after being discharged from the hospital, he lives alone at home in a miserable state.
when mingxuan goes to check on him, shen mo calls him “zhou yang.” because he has lost his memory and forgotten what zhou yang looks like. the only face he remembers is ji mingxuan’s. and he thinks, “who else would have saved me except zhou yang?” when in reality, zhou yang had already abandoned him.
and it gets even worse.. ji mingxuan realizes that shen mo has been surviving on rotten and spoiled bread for days. if he hadn’t come a little later, shen mo would have died…
so mingxuan stays by his side and takes care of him. he takes him to the doctor and even lives with him. (mingxuan actually wants to take him to his own house, but shen mo refuses because deep down, he’s still waiting for zhou yang.)
and there’s another important detail: mingxuan NEVER hid who he was. every single time, he told shen mo, “i’m not zhou yang.” but shen mo thought he was joking and said, “how could i not recognize the person who saved me? you’re zhou yang.”
however, mingxuan couldn’t just tell him everything from the beginning because he didn’t want to make shen mo remember his past trauma all at once. i think this was probably part of his treatment too. shen mo was supposed to remember everything on his own.
during this time, ji mingxuan fell in love with him. he never took advantage of shen mo. if anything, he always tried to keep his distance, but shen mo was always the one who kept insisting…
then, around shen mo’s birthday, shen mo finally realized that ji mingxuan wasn’t zhou yang. mingxuan already knew that shen mo was starting to realize the truth.
after ji mingxuan was kicked out of the house, he simply gave shen mo the key to jinxiu villa with a sad expression and told him that if he loved him, he should come there. then he left.
shen mo was confused and started investigating everything to understand what had happened. but while doing so, he fell down the stairs and suffered another concussion. because of this, he forgot the six months he had spent with ji mingxuan.
if shen mo hadn’t had that accident, he would have actually gone to that villa…
but he couldn’t, and ji mingxuan continued going to that villa from time to time for years, waiting for him.
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