Not having to work overtime was always a good thing.

After pondering for two days, I completely pushed aside this concern and started enjoying my newly relaxed work life.

As December arrived, the weather gradually turned cold. With more layers of clothing came more laundry to wash. So I often bundled up my clothes and took them to Yin Jie’s place to use her washing machine.

Today, I brought another bag of clothes over, only to find Yin Jie sitting on the ground outside her door, playing with her phone.

I was dumbfounded. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Didn’t you say you’d be here?”

Yin Jie stood up, brushing off her bottom. “I am here, hehe. I just forgot my key and wanted to trick you into keeping me company.”

“You forgot your key again…”

I was speechless. Yin Jie was incredibly capable and reliable at work, but in her personal life, she was hopelessly careless. She used to forget her keys frequently when we were roommates, and this was already the second time since she moved here.

“Yu Hua isn’t here either?”

“She went to Kunshan to visit a classmate. Who knows when she’ll be back? I tried getting the spare key from the dorm management office, but no one was there. Just my luck.”

I recalled that when I came up earlier, there was still no one at the management office. Left with no choice, I asked, “Is the window open?”

“It is, but Xiguang, don’t tell me you’re going to climb through again. No way! It’s almost dark, that’s too dangerous. Let’s just wait for someone from the management office.”

“Who knows how long that’ll take?” I put my laundry bag down. “It’ll be fine, it’s not like this is the first time.”

Their dorm was on the second floor. The exterior windowsill was a full meter wide and connected all the way across, looking like a broad decorative border from afar. Walking across it wasn’t dangerous at all, as long as you avoided the occasional garbage thrown from upper floors.

After knocking on several rooms with no response, someone finally answered at the fifth door. I climbed out through their window and slowly made my way along the wall toward Yin Jie’s room. I was walking steadily and had almost reached my destination when suddenly, a dramatic scream came from below.

I instinctively looked down and saw Lin Yusen’s tense face, along with a fashionably dressed young woman beside him wearing a terrified expression. Then my foot slipped on something…

And I fell from the windowsill.

Everything happened in an instant. Before my mind could process anything, I crashed heavily into a cypress tree and then tumbled toward the ground.

At the moment of impact, I felt a hand barely catch me, but the momentum was so strong that my head still hit the ground, causing a deep, dull pain.

After the world stopped spinning, I opened my eyes and found myself staring directly into an anxious pair of eyes, seeing unprecedented panic flash through them.

Lin Yusen?

…

He quickly laid me flat, kneeling beside me on one knee. One hand loosened my collar while the other checked my pulse.

“Nie Xiguang!”

He called my name, his face pale and grave. Still shocked by the fall, I stared at him blankly.

“Don’t be afraid. Look at me. Can you hear me?”

“Mm.”

“Answer me, what day of the week is it?”

“Sunday.”

I thought I answered him, but I wasn’t sure if I’d made a sound. A violent wave of dizziness suddenly swept through my head, and I couldn’t help but close my eyes in discomfort.

But I felt my mind was still clear. I could hear people talking around me, hear Yin Jie and an unfamiliar woman’s panicked calls, hear Lin Yusen’s voice, both stern and composed…

But what was he saying?

Everything gradually faded away…

I woke up several times in between. Once, I seemed to be in an ambulance, and I heard Lin Yusen on the phone: “…no obvious external head trauma, can’t feel any scalp hematoma, vital signs are stable, but there was a temporary loss of consciousness… Yes, get ready, we need to do a CT scan…”

Then we arrived at the hospital… I felt much better later, just extremely sleepy, but people kept waking me up, and that light blue shirt kept swaying before my eyes…

When I truly woke up, it was completely dark outside.

I opened my eyes, and that same light blue shirt was the first thing I saw.

In the dim light of the hospital room, Lin Yusen sat sleeping by the window, his eyes closed. His hair was somewhat disheveled, his shirt wrinkled – entirely lacking his usual clean and composed demeanor.

He… was still here?

After my gaze lingered on him for a moment, I looked around the room. When my eyes returned to Lin Yusen, I was startled. He had awakened at some point and was silently watching me.

I tried to speak, but when I opened my mouth, no sound came out, just a dry pain in my throat.

He stood up, poured a glass of warm water, and came to my side. Just as I tried to sit up, he was already supporting me, helping me drink.

His strong arm firmly encircled my shoulders, radiating heat. I was practically half-leaning against his chest, his firm jaw right before my eyes, our breaths mingling, the distance uncomfortably close. Feeling awkward, I quickly took a couple of sips.

“Thank you.”

He laid me back down and silently put the glass aside.

I wasn’t dizzy at all now and felt perfectly fine. However, seeing him so quiet made me worried, and I couldn’t help asking, “Am I… okay?”

“What’s your name?” When he finally spoke, his voice was unusually hoarse.

“…” What was this about? “Nie… Xiguang?”

“And me?”

“…Lin Yusen.”

“I’m Sheng Xianmin’s grandson,” he said abruptly, looking at me.

Sheng Xianmin? Chairman Sheng Yuan?

I was confused for a moment. “…You never told me that, did you?”

He paused.

“Good, you’re very clear-headed.” He straightened up, seeming to be controlling something, and looked away, trying to speak neutrally: “You’re in good condition now, all tests are normal. Apart from some superficial injuries, there’s nothing serious. However, you should stay for observation. Yin Jie came with the ambulance, but I sent her home. She’ll come to take care of you tomorrow.”

“Oh, she must have been frightened.”

“Heh, she was frightened?”

This comment seemed to hit a nerve, and he suddenly couldn’t maintain his calm expression anymore. “I’m truly amazed by Miss Nie’s boundless compassion, that you can still think of others’ feelings at a time like this.”

I was startled by his sudden emotional outburst and stared at him wide-eyed, unable to speak. It was just a casual comment, why was he so angry?

“If you’re so kind, then why…”

He stopped abruptly, took a deep breath, and regained control of his emotions. However, the sarcasm in his tone was so obvious that even someone as dense as me felt cut by his words.

“Since I’m already this unlucky, couldn’t you control your prejudice against me a bit? Be a little more pleasant!”

My eyes suddenly grew hot. I hadn’t wanted to appear so vulnerable, but feeling so awful and still being subjected to his mockery, I suddenly felt so wrong.

Tears immediately spilled over.

The room instantly fell silent.

His agitated figure seemed to freeze in place as he stood rigidly by my hospital bed.

“Why are you crying? You’re completely unharmed, what’s there to cry about?” After a long while, he asked in a hoarse voice.

So I don’t even have the right to cry now?

“If it weren’t for your friend’s horrific scream, I wouldn’t have fallen. You cause me this much harm and then mock me endlessly, and I can’t even cry?”

“…Because of me?”

“If not you, then who?” How unlucky am I to have met you!

I poured out all the grievances I’d been holding in these days, “First falling, then getting hit in the head with parts, how exhausting the inventory was – do you even know? And now I’ve fallen straight off a building…”

“Nie Xiguang…”

He called my name softly.

My vision was blurry, and I forcefully wiped away my tears. “Lin Yusen, I have a question.”

“Go ahead.” Whether it was my imagination or not, his voice seemed to have softened somewhat, though it still carried an awkward stiffness.

“What’s wrong with me being Nie Chengyuan’s daughter? Our families don’t have any grudges, so why do you make things so difficult for me?”

He remained silent.

I began to doubt myself, “…Do our families have a grudge?”

“The Sheng and Nie families have always worked together seamlessly.”

“Then why?”

“…I want to know that too. Why?”

He muttered these words, his face showing what seemed to be self-mockery, his eyes suddenly filled with weariness.

“Does it hurt? Nie Xiguang,” he asked softly.

I unconsciously nodded.

“Heh, me too.”

I stared at him blankly and somehow felt that he was suffering even more than I was.

What was wrong with him? Wasn’t I the one confronting him right now? How had I ended up feeling like I was the one who had hurt him?

I couldn’t help but ask, “Are you… okay?”

His expression shifted, and his complex, indecipherable gaze shot straight at me as if searching for something. For a moment, I even thought he might reach out to touch my eyes.

“Those words…”

His voice grew increasingly faint, the words barely audible. As our eyes met, I’m sure mine were full of confusion, and remembering the tears still hanging at the corners of my eyes, I quickly wiped them away.

He slowly turned his gaze away.

After a while, he said, “Stop crying.”

He stood silently by my bed for a while, then moved to stand by the window.

He stood there for a very long time.

So long that I thought he had become an immovable statue, so long that the sky outside gradually began to brighten, so long that I started feeling drowsy again and was about to close my eyes.

“I won’t be like this anymore.”

The low voice suddenly broke the silence of the room.

I blinked my eyes, almost thinking I was hearing things.

He turned around, his expression like the calm sea after a storm. All those earlier emotions – the gloom, the agitation, the hidden pain… everything had returned beneath that placid gaze. Except for the tired shadows under his eyes, he was like his usual self, cool and composed.

“I won’t treat you like this anymore, I promise.”

He repeated these words, his tone so determined and resolute. For some reason, I felt these words weren’t meant for me, but rather for himself.

I stared blankly, not knowing what to say. He didn’t need me to say anything either. He picked up his coat from the sofa and said, “Get some more rest. I’ll go get you breakfast.”

He seemed to have returned to his usual unhurried rhythm, while I remained completely bewildered by this development.