The person’s silhouette was illuminated by the streetlight, casting a long shadow behind as they approached step by step.

Sang Ru had waited for a long time, finally seeing hope for escape. Excitement instantly swept away her drowsiness as she called out loudly: “Hello! Look up here!”

Though they were only a hundred meters apart, the person seemed not to hear. His head was slightly lowered, his face unclear, but there was something vaguely familiar in his upright posture as he walked.

Sang Ru didn’t give up and called out several more times. Just as her voice began to tire, the person finally stopped.

He looked up, tracing the sound, and their gazes suddenly collided across the space.

The lights were dim, and her eyes had misted over. Sang Ru couldn’t discern his expression, but she knew that the driftwood she had finally grasped was named Zhou Tingzhao.

He had stopped, yet Sang Ru suddenly didn’t know what to say. Her voice was stripped of its proper function, lingering only in her throat. Upon seeing him, she feared that opening her mouth would only reveal whimpers of distress.

So she raised her hand and waved. Zhou Tingzhao seemed to recognize her, suddenly quickening his pace toward the building, soon breaking into a run. It took barely ten seconds for him to reach the building’s entrance.

His chest rose and fell slightly as he opened his mouth to speak but paused, then with some hesitation said: “Sang Ru?”

“Yes,” she responded, with no time to explain the whole situation, she simply said, “I’m locked inside…”

She sounded quite pitiful.

Zhou Tingzhao gazed at her steadily. Sang Ru’s lips drooped, and then she saw his figure disappear below, soon returning. He had likely gone to check if the iron gate could be opened.

“Zhou Tingzhao…” Sang Ru called to him, about to ask him to find the security guard, when she was suddenly blown by the cold wind and sneezed. Looking again, she was so startled she almost dropped the test papers she had been clutching.

The drainage pipe ran straight from the roof to the ground, and Zhou Tingzhao was climbing up it with his bare hands.

“What are you doing… Achoo!” Sang Ru frantically patted the balcony, not forgetting to urge him down even between sneezes. “Get down quickly!”

He seemed not to hear, his movements surprisingly clean and efficient. Stepping on the protruding parts, in a few moves he grabbed the edge of the second-floor balcony and flipped himself over.

This was truly insane!

Sang Ru hurriedly prepared to go downstairs to check on his condition, but collided with him at the corner, hearing him grunt. She hurriedly asked: “Are you alright?”

Zhou Tingzhao lowered the hand he had instinctively raised to protect her and said: “I’m fine.”

“How can you be fine?” Sang Ru’s nerves were still taut as she pulled him around, examining him from head to toe. “Don’t you know how dangerous that was just now?”

Zhou Tingzhao didn’t answer, allowing her to look him over back and forth. After a long while, he softly grunted in agreement.

Sang Ru was furious.

He still says “mm”! Knowing it was dangerous, yet still doing it!

She intended to say more, but looking up into his eyes, she couldn’t utter a word.

“Next time… next time, don’t do that again.”

“Okay.”

Just this single word made Sang Ru’s heart race.

Zhou Tingzhao had come out without his glasses. Without the barrier of glass, the intensity of his gaze increased a level. When he looked at her with such focus, he could seal away all her fear and uncertainty.

His gaze drew her to his embrace. Sang Ru stepped forward, returning to his side, embracing him. Her spirit, which had been suspended high during this night’s long solitary wait and wandering, suddenly lost its restraint at this moment, floating down lightly from on high.

She buried herself in the crook of his shoulder, murmuring: “Thank you for coming, thank you for coming…”

After quite a while, she felt the warmth of his palm on her back. Zhou Tingzhao gently stroked her back repeatedly, saying softly again and again: “I’m here, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.”

He always seemed to comfort people this way, like an adult soothing a child—patting the back, stroking the head—whether during that time before the exam, or now, or when she trembled with climax in his arms.

Zhou Tingzhao’s very existence was the greatest tranquilizer. Regardless of whether the storm had been brought by him in the first place, he always had this ability to make people feel that everything had a solution, a way out, just by looking at him.

However, the way out this time might be problematic.

Sang Ru wiped her last tears on his clothes, looked up, and spoke with a still-damp voice: “But now that you’ve come up, aren’t we both locked in here together?”

Zhou Tingzhao: …

He turned his head, avoiding her gaze: “I didn’t have time to think it through.”

Sang Ru: “…Let’s go back to the classroom and figure out what to do.”

The power had been cut off, so they couldn’t turn on the lights even if they wanted to.

Sang Ru, who had been cold for long enough, went back to her seat first. Looking back, she saw Zhou Tingzhao following slowly. He looked at her seat, then at his own, and then picked up a book from his desk, opening it as if looking at the title page.

“Aren’t you going to sit?”

“I will.” After saying this, he sat down, but seemed awkward and a bit distracted.

Unable to pinpoint the strangeness, Sang Ru asked: “What’s wrong with you?”

Zhou Tingzhao turned to look at her but remained silent.

Sang Ru rarely felt so unsettled under Zhou Tingzhao’s gaze. More often, it was later when they were in bed, and he would sometimes stare at her so intently, as if undressing her with his eyes before satisfying her in other ways.

“What’s wrong?” Sang Ru looked at him, her gaze falling on his thin, long-sleeved T-shirt. Understanding, she said, “Are you cold?”

Sang Ru unzipped her jacket, opening it to half-embrace Zhou Tingzhao: “Hugs, hugs will make you warm.”

She completely failed to notice that the other person had already frozen in astonishment.

–

Zhou Tingzhao, you’ve wasted ten years of food, getting locked up with your baby.