At 11 PM, Sheng Xia finally received news from Sheng Mingfeng: the surgery was wrapping up, and there shouldn’t be any danger to his life.

The incident happened around 7 PM – four hours. His surgery had lasted four hours…

Sheng Xia couldn’t begin to imagine.

Since returning home, she had been in a daze, only giving perfunctory responses to Wang Lianhua’s words.

She sat quietly under a desk lamp, only her eyes and hands moving as she repeatedly scrolled through online updates.

After watching too many videos of the incident from different angles, she thought she had become numb, but her back would still stiffen and her heart would ache. Yet, as if punishing herself, she mechanically continued browsing.

Just past midnight, she finally saw the police report from Nanli. Even though it’s a dry, official language, reading it made Sheng Xia’s whole body go numb.

[…At 18:53, suspect Lu entered Yifang Bookstore, wielding a kitchen knife in his right hand, and injured the left arm of Jiang, the person in charge of Yifang Culture Co., Ltd. He then entered the bookstore’s seating area and injured six people with the knife, causing minor injuries. While student Zhang was attempting to stop Lu, Lu’s kitchen knife fell, accidentally wounding his right shoulder. After breaking free from restraint, Lu used a fruit knife to inflict severe abdominal injuries on Zhang before fleeing. Currently, the police have apprehended suspect Lu and taken mandatory measures according to law. The relevant investigation is ongoing.]

Accidental wound to the right shoulder, severe abdominal injury…

Sheng Xia could hardly breathe.

She didn’t dare read the comments.

On QQ, all her classmates were sending messages of comfort.

Even teachers like Fu Jie, Wang Wei, and Lai Yilin had sent her long messages.

It turned out their relationship wasn’t something that could be ended with just a “let’s stop here.”

A relationship that everyone around them knew about, that everyone tacitly acknowledged – what were they doing deceiving themselves like this…

At 2 AM, Sheng Xia received a call from Sheng Mingfeng.

He didn’t ask anything, just relayed the message: “He’s been moved to a ward, you can rest easy and sleep…”

Sheng Xia anxiously asked, “Can I go see him?”

“Wait until he wakes up… we’ll arrange it when he wakes up. Get some rest…”

Rest easy – how could that be possible?

Sheng Xia didn’t sleep all night. The next day, she went to school early with exhausted, lifeless eyes.

Wang Lianhua was also worried but didn’t know if she should ask.

Sheng Xia had never been like this before.

This daughter had amazing emotional control. In memory, let alone being depressed like this, even when she had tears in her eyes, she would always be mindful of others’ feelings.

But now she seemed unable to care about that.

Wang Lianhua could only secretly follow her by car, leaving only after seeing her enter the school.

When Sheng Xia walked into the classroom, everyone looked at her with sympathetic eyes, wanting to speak but holding back.

She turned on her phone’s sound, not daring to miss any calls.

However, after a whole day, there was still no news.

During lunch, Sheng Xia sat across from Hou Junqi, neither speaking, the empty seat beside them causing a lump in their throats.

When their eyes met, both suddenly teared up.

Hou Junqi, a big boy, buried his face on the table and cried quietly, with no one around them knowing.

Zhang Sujin wasn’t at the restaurant; the food was made by an outsourced chef wearing a tall chef’s hat embroidered with: Zhenpin Yuan.

Sheng Xia knew this restaurant – Sheng Mingfeng often ate there. Their chefs weren’t easy to hire.

On Monday, the results of the city-wide first mock exam came out.

This time, everyone was far more concerned about Zhang Shu’s scores than their own.

Zhang Shu didn’t disappoint, returning to his peak.

Although the gap with second place wasn’t as dramatic as before, he was firmly in first place.

Wang Wei stood at the podium, and when he read Zhang Shu’s score, he suddenly choked up. Then his body swayed, and supporting himself with his arm, he muttered to himself: “You brat, I tell you to get first place and you just do it, how can you be so obedient… you brat!”

His voice became choked at the end, and students only saw him remove his glasses and turn around to rub his eyes.

Wang Wei composed himself and said gravely: “Student Zhang Shu is my pride, Class 6’s pride, Affiliated High School’s pride, and Nanli’s pride. We’ll wait for his return.”

Zhang Shu’s desk was filled with gifts and envelopes.

The confession wall mini-program was full of confessions and blessings for him.

Sheng Xia remembered the comment under that Weibo post – “He’s the person I secretly love.”

There were so many, many people who liked him.

Sheng Xia felt no jealousy in her heart, only a slowly rising warmth-

Meeting someone like him was the bright color of youth.

Being able to like someone like him was her honor.

Social news never occupied public attention for too long, but because of the mock exam results, the #Nanli Stabbing# incident surged back to trending topics, with most of the discussion about Nanli Affiliated High School and Zhang Shu.

#Good Samaritan Student is Prospective Top Scholar# instantly occupied top rankings.

Top scholar, academic genius, plus handsome appearance – these alone were enough to become the focus of public opinion, let alone with the addition of the good Samaritan label.

#Zhang Shu#’s topic also squeezed into the top fifty trending topics.

Various media outlets caught wind and moved in, with numerous “peripheral” reports emerging.

For example, there was an interview with the newsstand owner.

“I don’t get many customers in a day, I remember him so clearly,” the newsstand owner, appearing to be in his fifties, was simple and honest, his words plain, “This young man, he came once a long time ago, sat on my stool for a whole day, bought several lollipops and kept eating them, kept watching the bookstore across the street, then I didn’t see him again, but these past few days he came back, came every day, arrived at five or six, left after seven, very polite, very handsome, felt bad about sitting on my stool for so long, he’d buy water and candy and magazines, ah, what a good young man!”

Reporter’s voiceover: “What was he doing sitting there?”

“Better not make wild guesses about that…”

Sheng Xia was stunned. She rewound the video, checking repeatedly.

The owner said he came every day these past few days.

Coming at five or six, wasn’t that when affiliated high school let out?

Leaving after seven, wasn’t that when she left for classes at the Hengxin Building?

He went there… every day?

Was he watching her?

Round trip by bike would take half an hour.

Staying there for half an hour to an hour, then leaving?

Sheng Xia had no trouble confirming this.

Because he had said it himself: on that date day, he went, he was at the newsstand across the street, accompanying her, from beginning to end.

Sheng Xia deeply regretted it.

All those days, why hadn’t she looked over there even once?

She remembered that newsstand leaned against a huge old camphor tree, its branches lush, its shadows casting down like the dark of night.

Was he hiding there, watching her every day?

Hiding, even – sneaking around?

This was so unlike something the proud Zhang Shu would do.

But she could imagine him sitting on the low stool, a lollipop in his mouth, staring at her in a daze.

She could even imagine his gaze.

Ah Shu-

How am I supposed to handle this?

She wanted to see him.

Calling Sheng Mingfeng, she was told: “He hasn’t woken up, wait a bit longer, it’s all reporters now, the case investigation isn’t clear, let’s not make trouble for the police.”

Sheng Xia was dejected.

The days passed torturously, like being a walking corpse.

Even with her exam results, she only came to worry about them two days later.

She was right on the borderline for first-tier universities. Very dangerous.

Wang Wei and Fu Jie talked to her one by one.

The reason was very simple – she had made rapid progress in last semester’s final exam, but it wasn’t stable, and this semester started with too many distractions before she had properly consolidated her previous study methods.

Going forward she could only focus more.

The only good news was that her manuscript passed the first selection.

In such a short time. Sheng Xia knew Fu Jie had done a lot of work behind the scenes.

Even the first selection editor sent Sheng Xia a private message saying: “Your teacher treats herself like a parent, this concerns an excellent student’s future, I can’t delay it, can I?”

Sheng Xia’s gratitude was beyond words.

“But the second selection and final review are especially strict, it’s not so easy to pass the editor-in-chief, I’ll try my best to hurry it along, but I can’t say when you’ll get an answer.” The editor gave her fair warning.

“Okay.”

“I suggest you submit to other publishers at the same time, you can consider ones outside the province too.”

“I submitted to three.”

“Smart.”

Things were already going much more smoothly than at first.

Another night, Sheng Xia again received various links from Tao Zhizhi and Xin Xiaohe.

Recently, these two were even more concerned about online news than she was.

She glanced roughly at them, the links they sent were about the same.

She clicked on the first one.

A big V had reposted that music society Weibo from Nanli Affiliated High School.

[#Good Samaritan Student is Prospective Top Scholar# How is he, is there any news? Check 3:09, and come see what well-rounded development means. //@Nanli University Affiliated High School: Annual May Fourth Festival – Liuguang Music Society.]

[Nanli has lost face, would it kill you to report on the injured person’s condition?]

-This is too slow, blocking everything that’s posted is enough!

-Heard from hospital people he should be fine.

[So handsome, breathtaking! Get well soon little brother, debut! Big sister’s got your back!]

It is still better to aim for top scholar cry cry cry little brother so handsome!

-This kind of star is worth following!

[In the original post’s bottom comments, I think I found Zhang Shu’s Weibo @SHU_abcdef]

-It is! Oh my god so cute, commenting on himself being handsome haha

-Although it’s not the focus right now, quick go in and ship!!

This change in tone was too quick, Sheng Xia couldn’t quite follow.

That Weibo name did seem like his style, probably kept getting username conflicts until he ended up with random letters.

She clicked into his Weibo.

There were only about forty posts total, the earliest from several years ago, almost all reposted NBA news, along with some game live stream replays and an avatar of a star player.

When he reposted that music society post he commented: [Damn, who is this, so freaking handsome!]

Because the tone was too fangirl-like, but with an NBA player avatar that didn’t seem like a girl, it caught netizens’ attention.

And confirmed it was his Weibo because he had posted a photo last year, a photo with him in it.

Sheng Xia’s eyes grew hot.

The photo wasn’t just of him alone.

She was in it too.

It was the group photo Yang Linyu had taken of them during the school sports meet, he had cropped the photo, leaving only him and her.

It wasn’t a good composition, the middle was all empty, and both people pressed to the very edges of the photo, far enough apart that another person could stand between them.

Her skirt was even cut off in the crop.

But it was a good photo.

Just one look, and you could see a story.

She was looking at the camera, with a faint smile.

His gaze was lowered and to the left, not turning to look at her, yet more than turning to look at her.

What his eyes conveyed was a complex emotion tinged with “timidity.”

This too was completely at odds with the Zhang Shu in Sheng Xia’s memories.

Could he have such an expression?

Just like… a secret crush.

Caption: [Getting closer.]

Calculating the time, it was a few days after the school sports meet.

He didn’t post it immediately.

He probably didn’t have many followers, and usually only used Weibo to check news, so he carelessly left his account public, treating Weibo like a conspicuous yet secret tree hollow.

After that, he had posted several original posts, with intervals of almost ten days or more between them, not frequently.

The captions were all simple, without many pictures.

[So cute.]

[God, how can she be so cute?]

[Like her.]

On New Year’s Eve.

[Still want to have her.]

But one night, he posted three times in a row. Looking at the time, Sheng Xia realized it was the night of her birthday.

[I’m so fucking happy who understands? Never mind, how could mortals understand!]

[What wish did she make? If it’s three wishes, I should get one of them, right?]

[Never mind it’s okay, make all the wishes for yourself, I want all your wishes to come true and everything to go your way and for you to be awesome forever! Be happy as hell!]

He surely never imagined this tree hollow would be discovered one day.

Even less did he imagine so many people would see it.

When Sheng Xia looked, there were already many netizens commenting below.

Some praised his cuteness, some complimented his looks, and others said they made a good match, telling him to wake up soon and continue pursuing his girl…

Sheng Xia’s vision blurred with tears.

She had cried often these past few days, but this time was different – as she cried, she smiled-

Wonder what he’ll be like when he wakes up and finds so many netizens witnessed his chuunibyou posts?

This damages the cool guy image he worked so hard to build.

After laughing, tears still streamed from her eyes.

She wanted to see him.

Sheng Mingfeng’s call came at this moment.

It was 11:30 PM.

Sheng Xia hurriedly answered.

“Papa!”

Sheng Mingfeng paused slightly, then suddenly chuckled, “Since when are you so eager to answer your dad’s calls? I’m flattered.”

Hearing her father’s relaxed tone, hope rose in Sheng Xia’s heart, and she asked: “Is there any news?”

“Mm.”

“How is he?”

Sheng Mingfeng: “He woke up in the evening, wasn’t very energetic, and fell asleep again, just woke up now, the nurse says his condition is pretty good, there aren’t many troublesome people around this late at night, I’ve had Li Xu send someone to pick you up, go see him if you want.”

“Thank you, Papa!”

Sheng Xia quickly changed clothes and went out, only realizing when she reached the living room – how should she tell her mother?

She had never gone out this late before.

Before she could figure out what to say, Wang Lianhua had already come out of her room, probably having heard the movement.

She looked at her daughter’s red eyes and asked: “What’s wrong?”

“Mom, um, my classmate… he woke up, Dad said I can go see him now…”

After speaking, she didn’t dare look at Wang Lianhua.

Classmate?

What kind of classmate would make one go visit the hospital in the middle of the night?

But she had to go!

Unexpectedly, she heard Wang Lianhua ask: “He’s Song Jiang, isn’t he?”

Sheng Xia suddenly raised her head, “Mama…”

Wang Lianhua pressed her lips together, her expression characteristically serious, so her emotions were unreadable. She was silent for a few seconds, then said: “Wait for me to change clothes, I’ll drive you, don’t have your dad send someone to pick you up, it’s too late to go back and forth.”

Sheng Xia was stunned.

Wang Lianhua went back to her room to change clothes, while Sheng Xia called Sheng Mingfeng outside.

Sheng Mingfeng was quite surprised, and laughed twice, “This is even better, go home early to rest, don’t stay too late, the patient needs rest, and you need to get back on track with your studies soon.”

“Okay…”

On the road, Sheng Xia stared blankly at the still-bustling street scene.

She thought Wang Lianhua would ask something, but she didn’t.

When they arrived at the hospital, Li Xu and an auxiliary police officer were waiting in the parking lot, leading them to the inpatient building.

The hospital was quiet at night, their footsteps seemed particularly jarring in the silence. At the end of the corridor, Zhang Sujin stood waiting for them under the dim light.

Sheng Xia’s heart was pounding, her heartbeat suddenly becoming restless after being relatively calm all the way here.

Zhang Sujin first nodded in greeting to Wang Lianhua, then looked at Sheng Xia, patting her back: “It’s okay now, don’t worry.”

Sheng Xia peered through the small window – the light was on in the ward, three hospital beds, only the middle one had someone lying in it.

From this angle, she could only see his body in hospital clothes, not his face, didn’t know if he was awake or asleep.

“Can I go in?” Sheng Xia asked.

Zhang Sujin nodded: “Of course, but…”

She leaned close to Sheng Xia’s ear, “He thinks it’s embarrassing, he’s pretending to sleep.”

Sheng Xia: “Maybe he’s really tired or doesn’t have the strength yet, I can come back another day…”

“You can’t!”

Sheng Xia’s words were interrupted by a weak but somewhat overbearing voice.

It came from inside the ward…

The corridor fell completely silent.

Seeing her mother’s stunned expression, Sheng Xia’s ears inexplicably turned red.

She anxiously spoke: “I’ll go in and see…”

Then without waiting for the adults to react, she pushed open the door and went in.

“Click” – she closed the door behind her.

In the hospital bed, Zhang Shu lay stiffly, his hospital gown was loose, couldn’t see where he was injured, only that he looked very thin, his pant legs mostly empty.

His lips were somewhat purple, looking dry, not as smooth as usual, his hair seemed a bit longer, bangs covering his eyebrows, smooth and shiny but not as fluffy, his usually sharp eyes also slightly dim, his whole person looking quiet and – docile.

How did he manage to shout “You can’t!” looking so sick?

Sheng Xia had come in a hurry, hadn’t tied her hair, it fell loose across her chest. Her hands stayed in front of her body from nervousness, not knowing what to say.

Just seeing him lying there safely was already good.

“Sit, I can’t speak loudly…” Zhang Shu looked her up and down once, then spoke.

His voice was weaker than Sheng Xia had ever heard, his words as economical as possible.

She followed his eye’s direction and sat on the hospital bed beside him.

“How are you, does it hurt?” she spoke, asking an unoriginal question.

If he was injured in the abdomen, talking would use those muscles, wouldn’t it hurt?

“Don’t talk first!” Before he could speak, Sheng Xia interrupted him again.

He paused, obediently swallowing back what he was about to say.

Sheng Xia turned her head, saw through the small window that the adults seemed to have left the doorway, then turned back, suddenly moving close to his hospital bed, pulling over the chair to sit down, resting her chin on her elbow as she leaned beside him, “Then let’s whisper, so you don’t have to use so much force…”

Because of her sudden closeness, a fragrant scent entered his nose, Zhang Shu closed his eyes briefly.

“I’ll ask, you just answer yes or no.” Her voice was very low as if committed to whispering.

Yet she wasn’t the one who was injured.

Zhang Shu smiled slightly but didn’t dare move his muscles much, giving an impression of smiling without actually smiling.

Sheng Xia felt slightly embarrassed.

“Mm…” he tilted his head slightly to look at her, agreeing.

They were too close. When he turned his head, their breaths were audible to each other.

Sheng Xia felt her neck grow hot, but she didn’t back away, asking: “Does it hurt?”

Zhang Shu frowned, saying: “This question doesn’t seem answerable with just yes or no…”

Sheng Xia: …

Couldn’t he just answer if it hurts or doesn’t hurt? Why say so much?

Sheng Xia: “Are you in pain?”

Before his eyes, the girl’s pupils reflected him, filled with him.

Who could feel pain now?

Zhang Shu curved his lips slightly, changing his line: “No pain.”

Sheng Xia: “Then when can you sit up? Is it half a month?”

Zhang Shu cooperated: “No.”

Sheng Xia: “One month?”

Zhang Shu: “Don’t know.”

Sheng Xia suddenly didn’t know what else to ask, her mind full of words, yet not knowing where to start when face to face.

“Can I see your injury?”

Zhang Shu shook his head: “No.”

“Just one look…”

“Okay, you can.”

He pointed at his shirt buttons, “Unbutton…”

Sheng Xia was stunned for a moment, looking at him, then at his clothes.

He had a sickly appearance, his gaze frank and clear, showing no other meaning.

Sheng Xia repented for her suspicious thoughts – he was injured after all, the report said his left arm was hurt too, and naturally, he couldn’t unbutton it…

She stood up, leaning forward, thinking since it was the abdomen, she’d start from the bottom.

But the hospital gown wasn’t just loose, it was long, the hem reaching his hips.

She pinched the bottom button, then suddenly stopped, completely frozen.

Because she felt his body move slightly under her hand!

The movement was tiny, but perhaps because the ward was so quiet, this atmosphere made even the slightest movement spark a chemical reaction.

Sheng Xia instinctively looked up at him in shock, only to see him staring wide-eyed at his own – crotch.

Sheng Xia didn’t know where she got the courage, but she powered through and twisted open the button, then went up to undo four or five more.

Gradually, her face went from being red to her eyes being red.

His right abdomen was slightly raised, probably wrapped with medicine or some medical device, and his entire abdomen was “thoroughly bound,” layers upon layers of gauze wrapped tightly.

Although the gauze was clean without any dirt.

Of course, there was no blood either.

But in Sheng Xia’s mind was the image of the short knife entering his abdomen…

It must have hurt so much.

She could barely control herself anymore, all the questions that had been pulling at her mind these nights burst out at once: “You already said ‘let’s stop here,’ so why did you still do this, why did you still move tables for me, why did you go to Yifang Bookstore every day to wait for me, why when you see girls in white dresses…”

She heard her voice suddenly getting louder and stopped in time, but tears still fell drop by drop.

Zhang Shu couldn’t get up, only his uninjured hand raised to tug at her clothes, “Don’t cry…”

She saw his eyebrows tightly knitted together, choked up a bit, then grabbed some tissues from the bedside table herself to wipe away her tears, and sat back down on the chair.

At this time, she shouldn’t add to his troubles.

Her entire series of actions flowed smoothly, from crying to wiping tears taking only a minute or two.

Zhang Shu quietly watched her.

Looks like she had cried plenty these past few days, even becoming practiced at self-soothing.

He recalled her “accusations.”

Ah, in the end, she found out everything.

“Because…” Zhang Shu seemed to sigh helplessly, “Even knowing there might be no future, I still like you.”