Ruan Yu hadn’t removed her makeup or changed her clothes. Still wearing the borrowed formal dress, she rushed to the Teng family home with Teng Hao. When they arrived, Rui Shu was coming down from the second floor with the doctor. Seeing Ruan Yu, Rui Shu politely nodded.

“He’s upstairs. You can go up first while I see Dr. Zhao out,” she said, once again speaking like the lady of the house.

But Ruan Yu couldn’t care about that now. She immediately ran up to the second floor. The door to Teng Yi’s room was slightly ajar. She gently pushed it open and immediately saw the man lying on the bed.

He wore a white shirt, with two buttons undone at the collar from the doctor’s examination. Even in his disheveled state, he emanated a sort of sickly beauty.

“Teng Yi…” Ruan Yu called his name softly, but the person on the bed kept his eyes tightly shut, unconscious.

She became inexplicably frightened.

“Teng Yi.” She sat on the edge of the bed, holding his cold hand as tears instantly streamed down her face. “Don’t scare me.”

Teng Yi remained unresponsive.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway. Ruan Yu quickly released his hand, wiped away her tears, and moved back from the bedside.

The person who entered was Rui Shu.

Seeing Ruan Yu’s reddened eyes, Rui Shu reassured her: “Don’t worry, the doctor just gave him an injection. He’s only sleeping now.”

“How did he suddenly faint?” Ruan Yu asked.

Rui Shu shook her head; she didn’t know either.

After returning to the bar, Teng Yi had gone upstairs. She had been busy attending to customers and hadn’t had time to check on him. It wasn’t until some customers wanted to leave but found their cars blocked that she tried calling Teng Yi to move his “arrogant” Mercedes, but no one answered the phone. Finding it strange, she ran upstairs and discovered him collapsed in the practice room.

“Practice room?”

The second floor of the bar was a practice room. No wonder it had looked so much like the old Xi You that day.

“That room was always locked. I only found out today that such a large practice room was hidden on the second floor of the bar,” Rui Shu’s gaze fell on the sleeping Teng Yi. “I always thought he had given up dancing, but it turns out he hadn’t. He’s too good at concealing and closing himself off. Not just the practice room, but his heart too. Even though I’m a psychologist, I often can’t fathom him.”

“You’re a psychologist?” Ruan Yu was surprised.

Rui Shu nodded: “Our last meeting was too rushed, and I didn’t get to properly introduce myself. I’m Teng Yi and Teng Hao’s psychologist, and also their cousin.”

Cousin…?

Ruan Yu was completely stunned.

The woman she had been jealous of and worried about for so long was just Teng Yi’s cousin.

“What’s wrong?” Rui Shu smiled. “Don’t I look like their cousin?”

“You look… very young, and seem to have foreign ancestry, so I didn’t think…”

“I do have foreign ancestry. My grandfather was American, my father is mixed Chinese-American. Before coming here, our family lived in America. Rui Shu is the Chinese name my mother gave me.”

Ruan Yu nodded. Now everything made sense.

“About Mimi’s incident last time, I’ve been wanting to contact you to apologize, but I didn’t have your contact information. I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were allergic to cat hair, causing you such trouble.”

“It’s alright. I should have been more careful. It’s not your fault.”

“How can it not be my fault? You don’t know, but after that day, Teng Yi had the house thoroughly cleaned and never allowed me to bring Mimi home again.”

Rui Shu found it strange. Teng Yi had liked Mimi before, so why suddenly ban her from the house?

She couldn’t understand it and went to reason with Teng Yi, but he dismissed her with just one calm sentence: “Because Little Fish fears cats.”

Little Fish fears cats.

Rui Shu had initially thought “Little Fish” referred to the fish in the tank outside until Teng Hao told her that Little Fish was a person. Then she finally understood everything.

“The Little Fish in his heart is you, isn’t it?” Rui Shu looked at Ruan Yu.

Ruan Yu’s face instantly reddened.

“I know it’s you,” Rui Shu murmured. “From the day you had an asthma attack at the house, I could tell you were different in his heart.”

“I…”

“Save him, please save him.” Rui Shu suddenly gripped Ruan Yu’s hands. “For six years, he’s been living in hell. If no one reaches out to pull him back, I’m afraid he’ll become accustomed to hell and never be able to break free and wake up.”

Six years ago, Teng Hao’s sudden fall from the stage had pulled Teng Yi’s life into a sharp turn. From then on, all misfortunes came like a chain reaction, one after another, leaving him helpless.

After Teng Hao’s accident, Shen Bing set aside her business to seek medical treatment for her son, but despite everything, Teng Hao remained unconscious.

Even the strongest career woman would break down facing a son who could lose his life at any moment on the sick bed.

Shen Bing directed all her dissatisfaction, resentment, grievances, and fears toward Teng Yi. She felt that everything was Teng Yi’s fault, and Teng Yi felt the same way.

During that time, the mother-son relationship rapidly deteriorated.

One was always hysterical, the other always silent.

Rui Shu’s family tried hard to mediate, but mediation was useless. They were both suffering, suffering in ways that were so similar yet so different.

Everything ended with Shen Bing’s car accident.

In their first year in America, Shen Bing died in a car accident due to fatigue driving. On her deathbed, she reconciled with Teng Yi through tears and apologized, but this reconciliation and apology were like another dagger straight to Teng Yi’s heart, wounding him even deeper.

After Shen Bing’s passing, everything fell on Teng Yi’s shoulders.

His mother’s business, his brother’s life, the high medical expenses, and a future without hope.

No one knew how Teng Yi endured it all, not even Rui Shu’s family who saw him breathing before them every day.

For others, torment passed day by day.

For him, it passed second by second.

After their first Spring Festival in America, Teng Hao finally woke up.

They thought God had finally begun to take pity on the brothers and show them mercy, but little did they know, that the previous sufferings were merely the beginning.

When Teng Hao fell from the stage, the impact was so great it caused permanent spinal damage. He became disabled, never able to stand and walk freely like a normal person again.

How could such a proud young man accept spending the rest of his life bound to a wheelchair?

Teng Yi knew his brother too well, so he discussed it with the doctors and decided to temporarily hide the truth from Teng Hao, actively treating him and helping him recover as much as possible.

This concealment brewed another great disaster.

Teng Hao fully believed he could stand again. He worked hard to overcome the pain of losing his mother, actively cooperated with treatment and rehabilitation, and obediently took his medicine… When he learned his true condition from the nurses’ casual chat, his breakdown was more devastating than imagined, like a crystal ball suddenly crushed to powder without any warning.

That day, Teng Hao threw everything he could break at Teng Yi, while Teng Yi neither dodged nor avoided, only worried that Teng Hao might hurt himself.

The brothers’ situation became like that of Shen Bing and Teng Yi before.

One was always hysterical, one always silent, but in Teng Yi’s silence, there was now an additional fear – he was terrified that Teng Hao would suddenly leave him as Shen Bing did.

He told Rui Shu: “He can hate me, hate me forever, it doesn’t matter. I just want him to live.”

But at that time, living had lost all meaning for Teng Hao. He refused to eat, drink, or accept treatment.

Teng Yi watched over him every day for half a year. During this half year, Teng Hao attempted suicide countless times, fortunately being discovered and stopped by Teng Yi each time. But when someone is determined to die, they cannot be stopped. Despite Teng Yi’s countless precautions, he still couldn’t prevent it. During their second Spring Festival in America, Teng Hao swallowed an entire bottle of sleeping pills, truly going to death’s door.

Rui Shu would never forget that night, as Teng Hao’s critical condition notices came one after another. Teng Yi knelt in the hospital corridor, desperately clutching the doctors’ white coats, begging them to save his brother. For two years, this man had grown accustomed to being blamed, accused, and even cursed. He was always silent, always restraining himself, always enduring. But at that moment, he was like a madman, letting all his emotions pour out.

Later, when Teng Hao woke up, Rui Shu’s father retrieved the hospital’s surveillance footage and played it for him repeatedly. Rui Shu’s father told Teng Hao: “In these two years, no one has suffered more than your brother. Not you, not your deceased mother – none of you suffered as much as he did. Look at him, what does he have left now? If you can bear to leave him alone in this world, then go ahead and die. If you die, your whole family can reunite in heaven soon.”

Watching his brother’s madness in the surveillance footage, Teng Hao cried uncontrollably. From then on, Teng Hao finally gave up thoughts of dying and began to pull himself together. He seemed to become a different person, becoming sunny, gentle, and considerate, just like Teng Yi used to be.

This transformation was both heartening and heartbreaking.

As life gradually improved, Teng Yi still didn’t dare relax. He still needed to worry about his brother’s treatment, education, and future; he still needed to rush about for the company’s business… Year after year, time mercilessly rolled over him, making him increasingly silent, cold, and insecure.

When Teng Hao finally became capable of handling things independently, everyone thought Teng Yi could put down his burdens and live his own life. Who knew he would completely collapse?

Like a spinning top rotating at extreme speed, stopping meant falling.

“Severe depression and moderate anxiety,” Rui Shu’s voice was soft, but the weight of her words hit Ruan Yu’s heart heavily. “I originally wanted him to stay abroad for treatment, but he insisted on returning. I didn’t know what Liao City meant to him until I met you.”

Tears kept falling on Ruan Yu’s face, but she didn’t dare cry out loud. She feared disturbing his current peaceful sleep, disturbing what might not be a sweet dream.

“Save him. Now, only you can save him.”