Mr. Zhang’s departure announced the curtain falling on this eight o’clock melodrama that was an eyesore. Cheng Lele had a sweet tongue, but due to lack of personal experience, she wasn’t good at being a relationship expert. She didn’t know what to say or what not to say, and could only silently hand over tissues.

The finale of this annual drama was very long. Miss Ma’s crying was like an endless closing song full of resentment with credits that wouldn’t stop rolling.

After the trash can filled up with tissues, Miss Ma’s tears finally showed signs of subsiding. Cheng Lele, who had been accompanying her, went from initial shock to later sympathy, and finally became inexplicably heartbroken and depressed.

Miss Ma pulled out the last tissue, leaned back against the chair, her eyes swollen as if stung by bees. She seemed to be asking Cheng Lele, yet also muttering to herself: “Tell me, I like him so much, I gave everything for him—why doesn’t he like me?”

Chen An, who had been dedicated to being a beautiful vase, heard this sentence and suddenly felt a fine crack appear in the vase, spreading menacingly across his heart.

He felt he had watched a one-act play starring two lunatics in an expressionist style, intended to satirize, denounce, and warn the audience not to persist in pursuing hopeless people.

He had rushed here eagerly, thinking he would gain happiness, but what he got was a lesson. It seemed to hint that if he fell further, this would be the process and outcome.

Perhaps he had been too disrespectful these past few days in the pure Buddhist land, so he had to accept this punishment.

His phone vibrated. WeChat messages from Quan Zirong flew in one after another.

[What nonsense are you talking about again?]

[You’ve really been acting neurotic lately.]

[Please I’m begging you to retrieve your mature, steady, elite image.]

[You idiot, do you know what happens when drug addicts relapse?]

[Hurry up and invest in cutting-edge research applications in brain neuroscience. Since you’re going to go crazy anyway, you’ll need it sooner or later.]

[Chen An, when Cheng Lele left seven years ago and disappeared for seven years, you survived. If she disappears for another seven years, can you still survive?]

Good medicine tastes bitter; honest advice grates on the ear. Chen An understood it all, but at this moment, he temporarily didn’t want to be admonished by his friend anymore.