[But then suddenly a pair of hands embraced her from behind, clasping her trembling hands.]

In the taxi ride home from the hospital, Zhou Leqi and Hou Zihao remained silent.

She had lied to him earlier, saying she would stay at the hospital with her mother tonight. In reality, Yu Qing no longer needed a bedside companion, and she had already told Yu Qing that she would go home tonight and come back to pick her up for discharge tomorrow morning.

In fact, all of that was a lie. Even the sweetness she had shown him in the stairwell tonight was an illusion. It wasn’t romance or sweetness, but merely a cruel farewell.

Hou Zihao narrowed his eyes, silently watching the rain-covered street scene outside the car window.

Neither of them spoke, and the atmosphere in the car became very tense. Even the taxi driver sensed something was wrong, glancing through the rearview mirror from time to time at the rain-soaked young couple, feeling a sense of suppressed argument.

They remained in this stalemate until they reached the entrance of Zhou Leqi’s residential complex.

She didn’t have an umbrella, but she didn’t seem to mind. Upon arriving, she got out of the car directly and walked into the rain again.

At that time, Hou Zihao was still paying the fare and didn’t expect her to get out of the car in the rain like that. The driver heard him curse under his breath, and then he also quickly got out of the car.

Catching up with her didn’t take much effort, because she was walking very slowly, not trying to shake him off or avoid him at all, appearing very calm, or perhaps... appearing indifferent to everything.

He didn’t say anything more, just silently opened his umbrella to shield her from the cold autumn rain at twelve o’clock in the morning.

She still neither resisted nor accepted his gesture, just walked forward step by step. The remaining rainwater on her body continued to fall with her steps, flowing into her eyes, collar, and cuffs. It must have been very uncomfortable, but she didn’t seem to feel anything. He also saw a large scrape on her left elbow, probably from when he had tackled her on the rooftop and she had scraped against the ground. That wound looked very painful, but she didn’t react, as if she even liked the pain, completely exposing the bleeding area to the rain.

It was as if she was hating and abusing herself.

He withdrew his gaze and stopped looking.

They finally reached the bottom of her building.

She didn’t even say hello to him, heading straight into the dark stairwell. He had originally thought of just letting it go, but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do it and reached out to grab her.

Her hand was frighteningly cold.

“...Get a good night’s sleep first,” he said to her stiffly. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

She didn’t speak.

If it had been before, he would have just let her be. After all, he had always accommodated her. Whatever she said was what he did, whatever she wanted was what he allowed. He could be completely without temper in front of her.

But now it was different. He suddenly realized the consequences of giving her complete control, which forced him to become firm—just like now, he insisted on her giving him an answer.

Even if it was just a single “okay.”

They stood facing each other in silence for a long time, so long that she finally seemed to feel tired and nodded almost imperceptibly.

Only then did he release her and let her go upstairs.

She left quickly.

Zhou Leqi silently went upstairs.

In the past, she would stomp her foot on each floor to make the motion-sensor lights turn on, but today she suddenly didn’t do that. She didn’t know if it was out of exhaustion or boredom. Darkness seemed to have become something good, and the potential danger actually gave her a thrill. She seemed to be faintly expecting some misfortune to befall her.

She walked to her door in the darkness like that.

She silently took out her key to insert it into the lock. At that moment, her stiff and numb heart suddenly felt something—fear and suffocation.

She suddenly had a hallucination. It was as if a corpse would appear inside that door, and her mother would be lying on the ground unconscious, surrounded by scattered white pills.

That scene was too realistic, making the hand holding the key tremble. The world in front of her suddenly spun, so the key couldn’t find the lock. She tried hard several times but couldn’t insert it.

But then suddenly a pair of hands embraced her from behind, clasping her trembling hands.

It was him.

Soaked by the rain like her, just as disheveled as her, but warmer than her, more stable than her.

He held her hand, helping her align the key with the lock. His warm palm enveloped hers, guiding her to turn the key. The lock was opened with a “click,” and the door opened.

Neither of them moved. He still held her from behind, his tall figure completely enveloping her, as if giving her another small space, isolated from that cruel and indifferent world.

“It’s okay if you don’t like me...”

His breath was scalding, and his voice was the same, especially clear in this dark and narrow stairwell, falling into her ears ethereal yet solid, carrying an unspeakable weight, also mixed with a long sigh.

“...But can you try to like yourself a little more?”

That was too gentle a question, even though the tone he used to say it at the time was actually a bit harsh.

This question was so close to her heart, as if it suddenly shattered all the shells she had built around herself. He saw the truest version of herself, deeply buried in the mud. Weak, deceptive, and a little morbid and twisted, he saw through all the truths about her, but didn’t seem to have any intention of disgust or escape, instead still劝 (quàn - advising, persuading) her to love that real self.

He was saving her.

He stayed overnight at her house that night.

Before that, he had never had such a plan. Even when he had just chased her upstairs to find her, he hadn’t had such a thought. But when the door opened and she was about to walk in alone, he subconsciously followed her, intruding into her space uninvited.

He was completely unprepared, and she didn’t refuse.

Everything happened naturally and silently.

After entering the house, she didn’t turn on the lights, heading straight to her room. She was clearly soaked all over, but she didn’t seem to want to take a shower. She pulled open the quilt and lay down directly, as if she was going to sleep, regardless of whether he stayed or left.

He advised her to get up and take a hot shower, but she completely ignored him, not even deigning to make a sound. So he had no choice but to plan to find her a towel, at least to dry her hair before she slept.

He had only been to this house once, when Yu Qing attempted suicide. His attention at the time was all on saving her, and he hadn’t paid any attention to the layout of the house, so he had no idea where the bathroom with the towels was.

He wanted to turn on the light, and she noticed this intention. She still wrapped herself in the quilt, but finally said a sentence.

She said, “Don’t turn on the light.”

Don’t turn on the light.

Why?

Was she so fragile at this moment that she couldn’t face the light?

He turned his head to look at her, of course unable to see her face, only seeing the slight bulge of the quilt on the bed, but that was enough for him to imagine her broken and pale appearance at this moment.

So he sighed and replied, “Okay.”

He started searching in the dark, inevitably bumping into things. Later, he finally found the towel and accidentally found the family first-aid kit in the process. He took them into her room, sat down by her bed, and said, “Get up for a moment, get yourself sorted out before you sleep.”

She still ignored him.

He frowned and added, “I’ll count to five. If you don’t get up, I’m going to pull you up.”

His tone was firm and left no room for argument.

After speaking, he really started counting. When he reached five and she didn’t move, he really forcefully pulled her up from the quilt.

She must have been very unhappy, making some struggling sounds in the dark. He just pretended not to hear, doing what needed to be done. First, he used the towel to dry her hair, then he treated the scrape on her left elbow. After all this was done, almost another half an hour had passed, and she was completely awake.

But she had no desire to talk to him. Rather, at that time, she didn’t want to communicate with anyone. So when he finally let go of her, she quickly lay back down again, tightly wrapping herself in the quilt, never looking at him again.

He seemed to have already anticipated such cold treatment, so he didn’t react much, just quietly sitting down on the floor beside her bed. He had taken care of everything for her, but had no interest in taking care of himself. He was still soaked all over, and his hair was still dripping water, wetting the floor.

They were alone in that small and dilapidated room, each in their own disheveled state. Even though she didn’t make a sound at that time, he knew she was crying under the quilt.

The phone in his pocket kept vibrating. Maybe it was a call from Su Ruini or Hou Feng. He ignored it, just casually took out the phone and turned it off.

He was actually very tired too.

But he had to stay by her side.

At least tonight, at least this moment, she couldn’t be alone.

He knew she wasn’t asleep, and he also knew he should say something. Even though if he asked her, she would definitely say she needed quiet, that would surely be a lie—all sad people would claim they needed quiet, but in fact, they were the ones who needed companionship the most. They hoped someone could break through those bluffing lies to disturb them, so that their sadness could have a chance to be placed.

But his mind was also very chaotic at that time, too many thoughts and emotions controlled him, making it difficult for him to organize beautiful words to communicate with her for a moment. He could only say whatever came to his mind, without the chance to refine or filter.

“...You know I like you, right?”

He sat on the floor, his back leaning against the edge of her bed, his voice drifting in the small and simple room, low and clear.

“I’ve always liked you... for almost two years.”

She heard him, even though the quilt muffled his voice, she still heard him very clearly. This sentence was so easy to understand, but at that moment, it made her chaotic brain feel confused.

“You probably don’t know me at all,” he seemed to smile, a bit self-deprecatingly, but the tone of the second half of the sentence became very serious, “but you changed me as a person.”

He didn’t lie to her, nor did he exaggerate. Everything he said was true.

He had heard the name “Zhou Leqi” as soon as he entered high school in his first year. At that time, she was already a senior, first in the province in the joint college entrance examination. Every time the school bulletin board posted the honor roll, she was always at the top, like an insurmountable legend.

All the teachers praised her highly, often using her as a model to educate students. They said she was down-to-earth and hardworking, how meticulous she was in her studies, how diligent and steadfast.