Xu Zeyuan’s Weibo post was extremely long, filled with reasons that perhaps even he didn’t believe. Comments were reopened but heavily controlled—a string of paid commenters all supporting him, claiming that “admitting mistakes” was sufficient.

Occasionally, one could spot a few overlooked comments from ordinary users.

Dedicated threads discussing this matter appeared across forums and other online platforms, with comment counts rapidly climbing into the thousands and tens of thousands.

[Sigh… I don’t want to believe it, but his explanation… I liked him so much, wuwuwu]

[I was one year below Xu Zeyuan at Ruda University, same major, and we spoke a few times. He was a very arrogant senior… don’t know why he chose this path. I’m graduating this year too, and I definitely won’t be like him.]

[What is he even saying? Only his brain-dead fans would believe this? Forced?? I’m shocked.]

[It’s pretty obvious, right? As soon as the hype died down, he started riding on Miao Man’s popularity… desperate for fame, isn’t he?]

[Can’t help but comment—that Shu Nian who was trending earlier, I took an elective class with her and we were in the same group. She’s a nice person, very cute and pretty, nothing like those nasty comments about her… At that time, she was already with Xu Zeyuan. Later something happened and she changed dramatically. People were gossiping about it, and then Xu Zeyuan broke up with her—maybe she was traumatized? Not long after, she took an extended leave.]

[??? He seems scummy and disgusting.]

[No sympathy from me, he’s finished anyway.]

This was probably the most viral moment since Xu Zeyuan’s debut.

The official Weibo account of a TV drama that had previously confirmed Xu Zeyuan as the second male lead posted an announcement, essentially stating that due to scheduling issues with Xu Zeyuan, they could no longer work together, expressing their regret.

In short, the clear message was that they were replacing him.

This was likely just a small portion. Perhaps other collaborations that had been confirmed but not yet announced also chose to terminate their contracts with Xu Zeyuan.

After this Weibo post, Xu Zeyuan disappeared from public view as if his company had shelved him.

In the following days, neither Xie Ruhe nor Shu Nian went out much.

By the day they encountered Xu Zeyuan, Shu Nian had already completed all the scenes for that drama and had been planning to rest for a few days with nothing else scheduled.

Though they thought the matter had passed, the impact on Shu Nian was significant.

She became depressed and taciturn, often sitting woodenly in a corner, speaking slowly and perfunctorily only when Xie Ruhe addressed her.

She no longer depended on him as before.

Without Xie Ruhe reminding her to take her medication, Shu Nian took it conscientiously on her own. Sometimes when he offered to cut fruit or pour water for her, she would immediately refuse and get up to do it herself.

It was as if she deliberately maintained distance from him.

She also seemed worried and fearful about something impending.

After learning about the online news, both Deng Qingyu and Wang Linxi called her to soothe her emotions. Friends she hadn’t spoken to in a long time also sent her comforting messages.

The last time this had happened was after the disaster two years ago.

It was like returning to that time.

Shu Nian stopped using Xie Ruhe’s phone and went back to her malfunctioning phone which often crashed and flickered. Once, she inadvertently opened Weibo and noticed her private messages had practically exploded.

Most were messages of comfort.

But there were also many malicious ones, seemingly sent just to make their presence known.

[Fuck you, because of you, my darling Yuan Yuan is being criticized.]

[Why don’t you just die?]

[He won’t be finished until you’re dead, rest assured.]

[Oh right, you’re with Ruhe now? Help me tell him that I wasted all that time being a fan of his music. His taste is so terrible, finding a slut like you :)]

Shu Nian was reading this message when Xie Ruhe happened to be beside her.

Noticing what she was reading, Xie Ruhe immediately took her phone and hid it behind his back. “Don’t read these things. Want to play a game with me?”

Her expression barely changed, as if she didn’t care at all. She shook her head.

“I’m going to sleep.”

Time quickly moved to Thursday, the day of her weekly psychological therapy.

Since Shu Nian usually spent her afternoons and evenings in the recording studio, she would go to the hospital for therapy in the morning.

But since she slept late and didn’t keep track of her therapy schedule, she typically couldn’t get up by herself.

It was always Xie Ruhe who came to wake her up.

But today was different.

Shu Nian woke up very early and lay in bed for a while staring at the bright white ceiling, lost in thought. Shortly after, she calmly sat up, climbed out of bed, and went to wash up.

Then she walked mechanically to the wardrobe, casually grabbed an outfit, and changed into it.

Shu Nian’s gaze swept across the room and noticed the sticky notes on the desk. After thinking for a few seconds, she walked over and wrote a line on one: [Going to the hospital, will be back before noon. Shu Nian.]

After writing the last character, Shu Nian gathered her things and left the room. She stopped at Xie Ruhe’s door and carefully stuck the note on it.

Before she could secure it properly, the door suddenly opened from inside.

The sticky note fell to the floor.

Xie Ruhe appeared before her eyes. He was wearing casual shorts and a t-shirt, his hair looking fluffy, but his expression was too alert to have just woken up.

A few seconds of silence passed.

Xie Ruhe stared at Shu Nian’s face, pausing for a moment. His eyelashes fluttered as his gaze swept downward, noticing the sticky note on the floor. He bent down to pick it up and silently read the message.

He put the note in his pocket, reached out to straighten her collar, and asked, “Why are you going to the hospital so early today?”

Shu Nian avoided his gaze: “I woke up early, so I’m going early.”

Xie Ruhe said, “Then why didn’t you call me?”

“I can go by myself,” Shu Nian said flatly, her voice soft. “I used to go alone before, so I don’t think it matters.”

Xie Ruhe was silent for a while, not angered by her attitude, and simply said, “Wait for me a moment, let’s eat something first, then I’ll take you there.”

Shu Nian pressed her lips together, still rigidly refusing: “I’ll just buy something outside.”

“Okay, but wait for me a bit,” Xie Ruhe said. “I’ll wash my face and go out with you.”

“I said you don’t need to!” Frustrated by his persistence, Shu Nian suddenly lost her temper. “You can’t possibly be like this forever, accompanying me in everything I do. It’s impossible.”

Xie Ruhe’s eyes darkened, and Adam’s apple bobbed as he struggled to say, “Why is it impossible?”

“Your time shouldn’t all be spent on me,” knowing her outburst was inappropriate, Shu Nian continued anyway, her voice trembling. “However long I’m outside, you accompany me for that long. You have your things to do. You shouldn’t be…living just for me.”

“…”

“No one should live for someone else. This way, you make me feel…” Shu Nian’s eyes reddened as she turned her head away. “I always think…am I becoming an unbearable burden to you?”

Perhaps she wouldn’t feel that way at first.

But as time passed, the feeling of suffocation would gradually grow.

Until finally, she would be abandoned.

“I’ve been thinking these past few days…” Shu Nian’s voice broke, tears streaming down her face. “Should I have died at that time?”

Hearing this, Xie Ruhe’s breath caught, unable to believe what he heard.

“If so, I wouldn’t have had to endure that week of torture, I could have gone to see my father, my mother wouldn’t argue with Uncle Wang every day because of me, and you wouldn’t be criticized… for having a girlfriend like me.” Shu Nian covered her eyes with the back of her hand, sobbing. “I-I wouldn’t be suffering so much…”

The house fell silent.

Only Shu Nian’s stifled sobs remained.

After a long while.

“Shu Nian.” Xie Ruhe pulled her hand away, revealing her eyes. His voice was tight as if it might break at any moment. “Don’t say things like that again.”

“…”

“Don’t ever say such things again. I can’t bear it.” Xie Ruhe wiped her tears, his voice hoarse and low. “Why do you think I can’t possibly spend all my time on you?”

“It’s just impossible…”

“But,” Xie Ruhe said softly, “—wasn’t it always like this before?”

Shu Nian’s tears continued to fall as she stared at him in a daze.

For an instant, the man before her seemed to overlap with his younger self, emitting a soft light, saying to her tearful, frightened self: “I’ll take you home.”

A connection that began with an umbrella.

She stood in the light, looking like a porcelain doll—fragile and beautiful, yet with a personality completely different from her appearance. Holding a light blue umbrella, she slowly approached, sheltering him from the cold rain and ugly insults.

Always doing things that were hard to understand, yet forever kind.

Bringing warmth to others.

And stirring within him some indescribable longing and darkness.

Always following behind her, rationalizing his intentions, maintaining that not-too-close, not-too-far three-meter distance. Watching her become annoyed by his behavior, throwing tantrums and treating him like air.

Yet in a small accident that followed, that three-meter distance was officially shortened.

The young Shu Nian, with large teardrops falling, pitifully asked him: “Will you protect me?”

He casually agreed.

That seemingly perfunctory response became his lifelong promise.

Because in his youth, he had received kindness from her—during that dark period, he luxuriously experienced the warmth she gave. So no matter how many years passed, he could never forget.

Even if this life was lived for her.

He had no complaints.

Willing to be a shadow in her life, following her like her own shadow.

Shu Nian stopped crying and grew quiet again. She obediently ate the breakfast Xie Ruhe prepared for her, then went with him to her psychological therapy.

Neither mentioned what had just happened.

Shu Nian’s sudden words, her sudden outburst, were as if they had never occurred.

Everything seemed as normal as the past few days.

Shu Nian remained wooden and sluggish, but no longer resisted anything Xie Ruhe did for her. The distance between them seemed to have shortened again, though she still spoke very little.

As the day ended.

Xie Ruhe remained concerned about Shu Nian’s state and only left her room after she fell asleep.

That night.

Shu Nian had a dream.

A particularly dark dream.

Shu Nian dreamt she returned to the day Zeng Yuanxue captured her, to the moment she woke from unconsciousness. But her choice was completely different from before.

On the first day, she chose to die.

Then came a blinding white light, and when it faded, Shu Nian saw Shu Gaolin.

Shu Nian smiled happily at him, wanting to embrace him. But that father who was always gentle and steady wasn’t happy to see her at all. For the first time in front of her, he shed tears, wailing and sobbing.

As if in extreme pain.

She also saw Deng Qingyu.

After Shu Nian’s death, she seemed to have gone mad, muttering her name every day. Wang Hao, unable to bear Deng Qingyu’s state, chose to divorce her.

Eventually, Deng Qingyu became like Chen Xiang’s mother.

Then after that.

Shu Nian saw Xie Ruhe.

At that time, he was still abroad, his legs not yet problematic. Upon learning she had died in the same manner as Ji Xiangning, he immediately returned to China, back to Ten Yan Town—the place he had been unwilling to return to for so many years.

Xie Ruhe stayed in Ten Yan Town.

Based on previous information and various details exposed online after Shu Nian’s death, he began constantly searching the small town for traces of the murderer.

Buying surveillance footage, questioning passersby, and investigating meticulously.

After what seemed like an endless amount of time.

He finally found Zeng Yuanxue.

Shu Nian thought he would call the police, but he didn’t.

Xie Ruhe, with a grim expression and not a trace of emotion in his eyes, forcefully knocked out the unsuspecting Zeng Yuanxue with a hard object and dragged him back to Zeng Yuanxue’s house.

Using the same methods Zeng Yuanxue had inflicted on Shu Nian and Ji Xiangning, he returned them tenfold.

As if he had become another Zeng Yuanxue.

Finally, Xie Ruhe took a knife and killed Zeng Yuanxue.

In that house, he ended his own life as well.

As the dream ended, Shu Nian woke up gasping for air. Dazed, she raised her hand to touch her eyes and indeed felt wetness.

She suddenly remembered what she had said to Xie Ruhe earlier that day.

Shu Nian vigorously wiped away her tears and quickly got up, walking towards Xie Ruhe’s room.

She stopped at the door.

Sniffling, she knocked three times.

Soon there was rustling inside.

Shortly after, Xie Ruhe opened the door from within. He had probably been sleeping, still looking dazed with drowsy eyes. Seeing Shu Nian, he asked sluggishly, “What’s wrong?”

Still frightened by the nightmare, Shu Nian spoke plainly: “I want to sleep with you tonight.”

“…” Xie Ruhe paused, thinking he had misheard. “What?”

“I…” Shu Nian didn’t dare to say it a second time and vaguely lied, “The air conditioner in my room is broken.”

“Hmm?” Xie Ruhe nodded and stepped aside. “Then you sleep here, I’ll go to the living room…”

Shu Nian clenched her fists, meeting his still bewildered eyes, and gathered her courage once more.

“I just want to sleep with you.”