From the company building to home, Sang Yan’s mood was noticeably off. His actions after entering the house were purposeful, clearly indicating he had learned about something from someone.
Wen Yifan followed his lead, lowering her head to look at the wound on her leg. Her struggle ceased as she spoke, “I was pushed and scratched by a tree branch. It’s not serious, I’ve applied medicine, it’ll heal quickly.”
As these words fell, the room grew quiet.
Wen Yifan licked her lips, feeling inexplicably uneasy. She raised her eyes again, meeting Sang Yan’s gaze. His expression was impassive as if waiting for her to continue.
This went on for quite a while.
Sang Yan seemed to lose patience: “Finished?”
“…”
Sang Yan: “Who pushed you?”
Wen Yifan answered truthfully: “…The man who claims to be my uncle.”
Sang Yan fired one question after another: “How long has it been?”
Wen Yifan: “Huh?”
“How long has he been harassing you?”
“…” Wen Yifan reflexively denied it, “He hasn’t.”
Sang Yan, as if he hadn’t heard her denial, continued: “Since the last time he was ‘working overtime’ and bothering you? Or even before that?”
“No, I haven’t encountered him much. I didn’t even know he was in Nanwu before,” Wen Yifan explained. “And recently there hasn’t been…”
“Recently?” Sang Yan interrupted her, enunciating each word, “So how long has it been?”
“…”
“Wen Yifan, ‘If anything happens, tell me,'” Sang Yan laughed bitterly, “How many times have I said this to you recently?”
After so long, hearing him call her by her full name again, Wen Yifan was a bit stunned. She moved her lips, suddenly feeling afraid to speak. After a while, she stammered, “I’m sorry.”
Sang Yan looked at her.
“I just felt there was no need to affect both our moods because of this,” Wen Yifan said. “Besides, I didn’t think it was a big deal. I could handle it myself.”
“Didn’t think it was a big deal.” Sang Yan repeated her words lightly, his tone devoid of any warmth. “Then what would you consider a big deal?”
Wen Yifan couldn’t answer.
“Do I have to ask a question for you to give me one answer?” Sang Yan stared at her, his voice cold and hard. “Even if something happened, it wouldn’t be a big deal to you, is that right?”
“…”
“Wen Yifan,” Sang Yan’s Adam’s apple bobbed, “Can you consider my feelings?”
It made him feel as if their relationship had reached its limit.
No matter what else he did.
He simply couldn’t enter her heart.
“I understand you have things you don’t want to say, fine, it’s okay. You can tell me whenever you want. But when you don’t even tell me about something like this,” Sang Yan slowly released his hold on her, finishing his sentence deliberately, “Do you think I’m not trustworthy?”
“That’s not what I meant,” Wen Yifan had seen Sang Yan angry before, but she felt particularly uneasy now. “It’s just that you were about to go to Yihe, and I wasn’t affected by this incident, I didn’t want you to worry.”
Sang Yan didn’t speak anymore, just looked at her.
After a long while.
The emotion in Sang Yan’s eyes gradually faded, that fury seemingly extinguished, returning to his usual unapproachable state.
He didn’t continue the topic, instead taking the car keys out of his pocket and saying flatly, “I’ll leave the car keys here, you can drive yourself to and from work these days. Remember to lock the door before bed.”
“…”
Sang Yan lowered his eyes, methodically pulled her trouser legs back into place, and then lifted her down from the shoe cabinet. Everything was put back as if nothing had happened.
Their argument from just now seemed like an illusion.
“I’m leaving,” Sang Yan didn’t look at her again, opening the front door, “You go rest.”
…
Staring at the closed door, Wen Yifan unconsciously wanted to follow. But because of Sang Yan’s tone and demeanor in his last words, she felt somewhat restrained. She slowly stopped, not daring to continue forward.
That look, Wen Yifan found familiar.
It was like the last time she saw him before their reunion.
Wen Yifan didn’t know if she had done something wrong.
If she had made the same mistake again.
She just wanted to be good to him, to keep the unsightly parts of her life far away from him, to make him feel that being with her was an easy and ordinary thing, to make him want to stay with her forever.
But it seemed she still hadn’t done well enough.
It seemed she had, once again, hurt Sang Yan.
Wen Yifan stood blankly in place, suddenly turning to look at the wall clock.
It was almost 7:30 already.
Worried he might not be able to catch a cab, Wen Yifan snapped out of her thoughts, grabbed the car keys again, and opened the door to go out. She took out her phone and sent Sang Yan a message: [Let me drive you there, it’s hard to get a cab at this hour.]
Wen Yifan hesitated and typed “Can we talk when you get back?”
Before she could send it, Sang Yan replied: [No need]
Sang Yan: [In the car already]
Her fingertips froze instantly, and her footsteps stopped as well. After a long while, Wen Yifan deleted the words in the input box and typed again: [Then be careful on the way.]
Wen Yifan lowered her eyes: [Let me know when you arrive.]
–
At this time, from the city to the airport, Wen Yifan wasn’t sure if he could catch the flight. She couldn’t focus on anything else, calculating the time as she asked: [Have you reached the airport?]
Sang Yan almost always answered her questions.
However, each reply was very brief, as if he had no patience for typing. Not much different from usual. But in the past, after typing a few sentences, he would start sending voice messages instead.
Emotions can’t be discerned from text.
It seemed to forcefully widen the distance between them in an intangible way.
Because of his coldness, Wen Yifan didn’t dare to ask too frequently, only relaxing after confirming he had boarded the plane. She returned to her room somewhat exhausted, lying on the bed, not wanting to move at all.
But thinking of the wound on her leg, Wen Yifan still got up to take a shower. She avoided the wound on her leg, quickly rinsed her body, and then sat on the bed to apply medicine.
Wen Yifan used a cotton swab to wipe off the water that had inadvertently touched the wound, carefully and meticulously treating it.
All around was silent.
Gradually, an intense loneliness began to consume her, peeling away her defenses layer by layer.
Wen Yifan’s hand holding the cotton swab tightened gradually, her mind drifting back to the night after they first got together.
— “Will you help me apply medicine again tomorrow?”
— “Come find me after your shower.”
The red marks before her eyes gradually blurred, nothing looking clear anymore.
Wen Yifan continued applying medicine to herself, silent and quiet to the extreme. She blinked hard, and a large teardrop fell onto the wound, bringing a sharp stinging sensation.
She snapped back to reality, wiping away her tears clumsily with the back of her hand, then using the cotton swab to dry the watermarks again.
…
The next afternoon, Wen Yifan received another call from the police station, asking her to come and provide additional testimony. For a reporter, going to the police station was routine. She finished the article she was working on, then packed up and left the office.
This time, they mainly asked Wen Yifan about Che Xingde’s continuous harassment.
The police had checked the surveillance footage from the broadcasting station, and indeed, Che Xingde could be seen outside Nanwu Broadcasting almost every day. But he hadn’t done anything to substantially harm Wen Yifan, nor had he made any extreme moves.
Che Xingde’s attempted robbery was unsuccessful, and he didn’t flee after being discovered, so the circumstances weren’t severe. Che Yanqin had approached Wen Yifan that day to propose a settlement, but after being refused, she started yelling about hiring a lawyer.
Wen Yifan didn’t know what the exact outcome would be.
She was distracted all day, lacking the heart to work, and too tired to care about these matters. She only did what she had to do, and for the rest, she didn’t have the energy to think about even a bit more.
Noticing Wen Yifan’s state, Gan Hongyuan thought she was affected by the Che Xingde incident. Additionally, considering that she had come to work on several recent days off due to breaking news, he generously gave her three days off to deal with these matters.
Given the time off, Wen Yifan wasn’t as happy as one might imagine. She even thought about asking Gan Hongyuan if these three days could be postponed to a week later.
After all, Wen Yifan didn’t have much to do alone at home.
Wen Yifan would prefer to take these three days off when Sang Yan returned. But she was also worried that if she mentioned this, Gan Hongyuan might think she was fine and change his mind, taking back the leave.
After Gan Hongyuan approved the leave, Wen Yifan didn’t immediately go home, staying at the company until 6 PM. She turned off her computer, habitually opened WeChat, and sent Sang Yan a message: [Have you eaten?]
Her fingertip hovered over the send button, her palm closing, pressing down after a few seconds.
This time, Sang Yan didn’t reply immediately like before.
Wen Yifan waited for a while, then silently put her phone back in her pocket and left the company. After returning home, she took out her keys to open the door, staring at the shoe cabinet for a moment. She thought back to their argument last night.
The next moment, her phone ring interrupted her thoughts.
Wen Yifan immediately took the phone out of her pocket and answered it. Zhong Siqiao’s voice came through, teasing: “How is it? Without your boyfriend around, doesn’t the world feel much fresher?”
“…” Wen Yifan looked away, walking towards the sofa, just smiling slightly.
“Let’s go out for a meal when you’re off duty. Isn’t Sang Yan going away for a week?” Zhong Siqiao said, “Ah since you started dating, he’s been taking up all your time. I haven’t seen you in ages.”
Wen Yifan said softly, “Okay.”
“What’s with that tone?” Zhong Siqiao joked, “Sang Yan’s only been gone a day and you’re missing him already? I never realized you were so clingy before.”
Wen Yifan just smiled, not saying anything.
Zhong Siqiao quickly sensed something was off and asked, “Hey, what’s wrong? Usually, when I mention Sang Yan, you have more to say. Why aren’t you saying anything today? Did you two fight?”
Wen Yifan was silent for a moment, not admitting it, only saying, “He thinks I don’t tell him anything.”
“Ah, you do have that problem pretty bad, keeping everything to yourself,” Zhong Siqiao said. “But couples can’t interact like that, Diandian. It’s fine once or twice, but if it happens too often, you two will start to grow apart.”
“…” Wen Yifan said blankly, “But it’s not that I don’t tell him anything.”
“Huh?”
Wen Yifan said earnestly, “I just don’t tell him the bad things.”
Zhong Siqiao laughed, “That’s the same thing.”
“…”
“If you don’t say it, the other person won’t know why you’re not saying it. They’ll just think that maybe your relationship hasn’t reached the point where you can be completely honest with them about everything,” Zhong Siqiao said. “If they end up hearing it from someone else, they might be quite disappointed, right?”
After a moment of silence.
Wen Yifan’s voice was a bit distant: “Qiaoqiao, maybe it’s because I’ve been with Sang Yan for a while now. I keep thinking about something from the past lately.”
“What is it?”
Wen Yifan spoke slowly: “You know how I told you back then that I was going to apply to Nan University?”
Not knowing why she brought this up, Zhong Siqiao was taken aback: “Yeah, I was quite puzzled why you ended up going to Yi University instead. I thought we’d be at the same school again.”
“When it was time to submit the college applications, Sang Yan asked me about it. I promised him I would apply to Nan University,” Wen Yifan had never dared to mention this to anyone, not even a hint to Sang Yan. “But I—”
“What happened?”
Wen Yifan found it a bit hard to say: “I changed my application at the last minute.”
“…”
Wen Yifan said softly: “I’m very worried that he’ll care about this.”
It seems that once you have something you care about, you start to become weak.
You become cautious about everything you do.
“So I don’t dare to bring this up with him again, and I try to accommodate him as much as possible, not to cause him any trouble,” Wen Yifan asked slowly, “Did I do something wrong?”
After a while, Zhong Siqiao asked: “…So what was the reason you changed it?”
Wen Yifan didn’t answer.
Knowing it might not be something good, Zhong Siqiao didn’t press further: “And you haven’t told him?”
She softly made a sound of agreement.
“Well, I’ll say it again, no matter what the reason is, if you want to keep going with him, you need to bring this up,” Zhong Siqiao said. “Otherwise, it’ll be a thorn for both of you.”
“…”
“Diandian, it’s not only saying things that can cause harm,” Zhong Siqiao said seriously. “Avoiding talking about it can too.”
The phone fell silent.
A few seconds later, Zhong Siqiao sighed: “Don’t make the same mistake again.”
–
The next evening at 8 PM, in Yihe City.
After having dinner with Sang Zhi and Duan Jiaxu, Sang Yan had intended to go straight back to Duan Jiaxu’s place to sleep, not wanting to hang around with this sickeningly lovey-dovey couple.
Who knew Sang Zhi would insist on dragging him along, even arranging for him and Duan Jiaxu to sit in the couples’ seats?
Sang Yan found it annoying and absurd, directly telling Duan Jiaxu to get lost, then leaned back in his seat to look at his phone.
Sang Yan had missed the flight the day before yesterday and could only get a flight for the next afternoon, but he hadn’t mentioned this to Wen Yifan. When Wen Yifan messaged him last night, he was still on the plane.
After landing, Sang Yan saw the message and replied, only to receive a message from her telling him to sleep early. For the rest of the evening, his phone remained silent.
Even until dinnertime today, Sang Yan hadn’t received any messages from Wen Yifan.
He stared at their chat interface.
Remembering the anger he had vented at her before coming to Yihe.
Sang Yan’s fingertips moved slightly, typing: [Home yet?]
There was no reply from the other end.
Just then, the movie started.
Sang Yan waited a bit longer, then tossed his phone aside, staring at the screen in front of him. He had no interest in watching the movie, couldn’t concentrate at all, and only realized after a while that it was a 3D movie.
But he couldn’t be bothered to put on the 3D glasses.
The sound in the cinema was extremely loud, making his ears hurt a bit. Sang Yan was completely unaffected, inexplicably feeling tired, his eyelids gradually drooping.
Drowsiness overtook him, accompanied by an extremely eerie dream.
Sang Yan dreamed of seventeen-year-old Wen Yifan.
In the dream, Wen Yifan was wearing the uniform of Beiyu High School, walking quickly alone in the alley they had walked through many times. Someone seemed to be following her, and her expression was fearful, extremely helpless.
The next moment, someone grabbed her from behind.
She faced the extremely lewd smile of her “uncle”.
Her appearance was full of wariness, instinctively trying to break free.
But she couldn’t break free at all.
The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet, with no one else in the world except the two of them. It was as if no matter how much she called for help, the situation would remain the same, no one would come to help her.
The scene changed.
Wen Yifan was sitting alone on the bed, the light extremely dim. Just like how she looked every time after sleepwalking, sitting alone in the living room. She wrapped herself in the blanket, only lowering her eyes, tears falling drop by drop.
The door was being heavily pounded from the outside, making a huge crashing sound.
…
The next moment, Sang Yan was suddenly woken up by someone.
He slowly opened his eyes, meeting Sang Zhi’s slightly unnatural face: “Brother, let’s go.”
Sang Yan instinctively lit up his phone again to take a look, but still no reply. His expression was still a bit dazed, he carelessly made a sound of agreement and stood up.
The three of them got back in the car.
Sang Yan sat in the back seat, looking out the window, his thoughts completely occupied by the dream he just had. Although based on various clues from this period, he was gradually able to conclude.
But he didn’t want to believe it at all.
In that memory, what Sang Yan remembered most clearly was those harsh words Wen Yifan said at the end.
Those words trampled all his self-esteem underfoot.
He had never thought there might be other reasons.
But he’d rather there weren’t.
He’d rather it was just that.
The girl he had liked for so many years, back then, simply because she couldn’t stand his persistence, just for this reason alone, used every means to distance herself from him.
It was simply that she didn’t like him, that’s all.
He didn’t want there to be any other reasons.
He didn’t want it to be that, in those years, she hadn’t been doing well at all.
The car unknowingly arrived at the gate of Yihe University.
Sang Yan turned his head to look, staring at the familiar school gate, gradually losing focus. He remembered what she had said a while ago when she learned he was coming to see Sang Zhi.
— “It does make one worry, a young girl like her over there.”
Sang Yan unconsciously muttered, “I should go back.”
Sang Zhi in the front didn’t hear clearly and turned back to ask, “What?”
“You two go on your date,” Sang Yan looked back at his phone, saying flatly, “I’m going back to Nanwu.”
–
It was nearly 10 PM when he reached the airport.
Sang Yan was queuing at the ticket counter, about to ask if there were any tickets back to Nanwu when his phone suddenly rang. He paused, took out his phone from his pocket, and saw the caller ID was “Wen Shuangjian”.
His spirits visibly lifted, and he immediately left the queue to answer the call.
“Back home?”
“Ah.” Wen Yifan said softly, “Not yet.”
“When do you get off work?”
“…”
After a moment of silence.
Wen Yifan suddenly asked, “Sang Yan, are you free now?”
“Hm?”
“Can I come see you? I just got off a plane,” After a few seconds, Wen Yifan added, “At Yihe Airport.”