Hearing this, Xie Ruhe lowered his eyes, recalling Shu Nian’s appearance once more. He hardly dared believe his conjecture and murmured as if talking to himself: “Psychology…”

“But it might be her family’s book,” Fang Wencheng casually reported without thinking too much about it. “It’s also possible that Shu Nian is interested in this field, or perhaps she previously played a character related to psychology.”

Xie Ruhe suddenly remembered his birthday.

After Shu Nian had shared a bunch of positive energy talks with him, she had unexpectedly blurted out something.

She had appeared upbeat, but her mood dropped instantly as if she’d mentioned something that made her very unhappy.

—”Actually, I’m sick too, and I’m also working hard to treat my illness.”

And after he asked about it, she concealed those emotions again, as if she didn’t want him to know. She told him very casually: “I caught a cold.”

Xie Ruhe believed her then and asked Fang Wencheng to buy her a large bag of cold medicine.

But it seemed that wasn’t the case.

What truly made her unhappy should be something more serious. Something that made her feel it was difficult to speak about, something she didn’t want to tell anyone, something she had never shown the slightest trace of in front of him.

Xie Ruhe’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he suddenly said: “Turn around.”

After returning home, Shu Nian checked the doors and windows as usual before going straight to her room. She curled up expressionlessly at the far end of the bed, staring fixedly in one direction as if lost in thought.

Her mind was in chaos, with hundreds and thousands of images surging forth.

After an unknown amount of time passed, Shu Nian softly uttered a sentence.

“I don’t want to go out anymore.”

At that moment, the doorbell rang at the entrance.

Shu Nian sluggishly raised her head, her eyes hollow, showing no sign of going to open the door.

But the doorbell continued to ring persistently, once every few seconds, lasting for more than ten minutes. Shu Nian’s eyelashes fluttered, her face pale and bloodless. She sat up in a daze.

The doorbell was still ringing.

Shu Nian came to her senses, her rationality gradually returning somewhat. She steadied her breathing and slowly walked to the door, warily looking through the peephole.

The hallway light was bright, with a warm yellow tone that cast the man’s features in a gentle light. He didn’t seem to have grown impatient despite the long period without response, only showing more concern.

Shu Nian paused, then immediately opened the door: “Why did you come?”

Shu Nian’s apartment was in a walk-up building.

Even though it only required climbing nine steps, Shu Nian knew that for Xie Ruhe, this was extremely difficult. He wasn’t in his wheelchair but was supporting himself with crutches, and there was no sign of Fang Wencheng beside him.

Calculating the time the doorbell had been ringing, Xie Ruhe had been standing there for more than ten minutes.

It was already past midnight, and the night temperature was cold enough to freeze, turning into countless invisible blades that cut the skin, bringing an extremely piercing chill.

Seeing her open the door, Xie Ruhe’s expression softened, as if he had set his mind at ease. He stared at Shu Nian’s face and said softly: “I just felt I couldn’t leave like that.”

Shu Nian pursed her lips and reached out to support him: “Come in first.”

Xie Ruhe leaned on his crutches, taking small steps forward, slowly moving to the sofa.

After settling him down, Shu Nian took a kettle to the water dispenser to fill it, then sat down beside him. She hugged the kettle and placed it on the coffee table to boil. The electric kettle made a loud noise as it operated, echoing in the quiet living room.

Neither of them spoke.

Soon, the kettle made a clicking sound.

Xie Ruhe first grabbed the handle and, with lowered eyes, poured water into the two cups in front of them.

Shu Nian remained very quiet, staring blankly as the transparent water flowed from the spout, emitting a white mist that dispersed in the air, disappearing without a trace in an instant.

Xie Ruhe licked his lips and actively asked: “What happened to you today?”

Shu Nian didn’t look at him, her gaze cast downward, saying very softly: “Can I not talk about it?”

Xie Ruhe said: “You can.”

“…” Shu Nian played with the loose thread on the hem of her clothes, like a child who had done something wrong, not daring to look up, trying to find something to do to avoid embarrassment.

“Were you about to go to sleep?” Xie Ruhe wasn’t skilled at chatting and awkwardly tried to make conversation. “You seemed unhappy, so I came up to check on you, nothing more.”

Shu Nian’s voice was muffled: “Mm.”

Xie Ruhe asked softly: “Are you still unhappy?”

Shu Nian stopped what she was doing with her hands and suddenly looked up, asking quietly: “Do you think I did something wrong earlier?”

Xie Ruhe was stunned: “What?”

“Earlier,” Shu Nian brought up what had happened, her tone a bit strained, carrying a slight nasal sound. “Downstairs, I pretended not to hear. You saw it, I pretended not to hear.”

Xie Ruhe lowered his head and noticed her red-rimmed eyes, tears falling. He opened his mouth but instantly lost his words, not knowing what to say, nor understanding why this incident had such a significant impact on her.

“You…”

“I always thought,” Shu Nian wiped her tears with her palm, unable to control her emotions. Using him like a confidant, she spoke haltingly, “that in this life, one must never do evil things, and when seeing others in trouble, one must never stand by and do nothing.”

“…”

“Good and evil will be rewarded accordingly; the ways of heaven go round and round. If you do bad things, no matter what, it will eventually come back to you,” Shu Nian held back her sobbing. “If you always consider yourself a bystander, when others are in danger but you’re unwilling to help. In the future, when you encounter dangerous situations, you’ll only receive cold stares from others.”

Xie Ruhe had no idea what had happened and hesitantly raised his hand to pat her back.

“I’ve always thought this way and always acted this way,” Shu Nian whimpered. “I’ve helped so many people, I’ve never done anything bad, so why is no one willing to help me…”

“…”

“My father was such a good person, such a wonderful man, yet he passed away so early. He saved so many people in his lifetime, yet met such a fate.” Shu Nian murmured, “Good people never get good rewards. So why should I help others? Why should I feel guilty?”

Xie Ruhe took a deep breath and held her hand: “Shu Nian, what are you saying?”

“If someone was being harmed just now, and I pretended not to hear, could she be dead by now?” Shu Nian said softly. “But it has nothing to do with me. If I went over, I might have been hurt too. I couldn’t let you go either…”

Xie Ruhe seriously interrupted her: “But no one was hurt; you misunderstood.”

“But what if someone was?”

“You felt afraid, so you said you might have heard wrong,” Xie Ruhe said very earnestly. “But afterward, if you hadn’t heard any more sounds from there, you wouldn’t have just walked away.”

“…”

“Even if you were too scared to go over yourself, you would have found security, and asked them to check.” Xie Ruhe patiently explained the reasoning to her. “Because of that sound and your comment, you imagined a scenario that wouldn’t happen. You thought you would pretend not to see it, and then you took all the blame for consequences that never occurred. This is what’s wrong.”

Shu Nian stopped crying as if she had taken his words to heart.

Xie Ruhe said: “Don’t think about this anymore.”

Shu Nian rubbed her eyes and said in a muffled voice: “Did you also think I was foolish before?”

Xie Ruhe paused: “No.”

“I know others think I’m foolish, that I say strange things,” Shu Nian said. “That my ideas are odd, the things I do are meaningless, and I make people feel like I’m meddling in affairs that don’t concern me.”

“…”

“Sometimes I also think that it seems truly meaningless.”

Xie Ruhe pulled out a tissue and placed it in her hand: “Is it?”

Shu Nian silently used the tissue to wipe her tears.

He suddenly asked: “What about me then?”

Shu Nian looked up at him, her eyes still red: “What?”

Xie Ruhe’s eyes were pitch-black yet bright as if stars twinkled within them: “Those things you did for me before, do you also think they were meaningless?”

Shu Nian sniffled and said quietly: “What did I do for you?”

“Many, many good things,” Xie Ruhe stared at her. “Others might think they’re meaningless, but these are things that make the person involved grateful and remember for a lifetime.”

“…”

“I don’t know what bad things you’ve encountered. But at least, what you did wasn’t wrong; it was others who were wrong. You don’t need to feel guilty, nor should you be unhappy because of it.”

Shu Nian stared at him blankly, her breathing becoming shallower.

Recalling her earlier words, Xie Ruhe asked her: “Do you feel afraid?”

“Yes,” Shu Nian lowered her eyes and honestly said, “Every day, when I think about going out, I feel a little scared.”

“…” Xie Ruhe looked at her, his eyes darkening.

Shu Nian didn’t notice. After a while, she asked dully: “Then what should I do if I encounter this kind of situation again?”

“If you do encounter it,” Xie Ruhe spoke as if educating a child, “for these two months, you can find security guards or police to help, provided that you ensure your safety first. Fear is a natural human emotion, but it doesn’t mean you did something wrong.”

Noticing he mentioned a specific time, Shu Nian didn’t hear the rest of what he said, her expression confused.

“Two months? Then what after two months?”

“After two months,” Xie Ruhe’s eyes softened slightly, tinged with a touch of tenderness. His voice paused as he looked at her, his tone like a promise, “You can find me.”