The entire police hall fell silent. Even as people came and went, anyone who caught sight of the scene froze in place, their footsteps coming to an abrupt halt.
Zhu Wenshu’s chin rested against Ling Chen’s shoulder, her breathing gradually evening out.
She was well aware that everyone present was watching them, but she had no strength left, and no desire, to pull free of his embrace.
She’d been genuinely terrified — even with Ling Siyuan sitting safely nearby now, unharmed, the image of him tumbling out of that car kept replaying in her mind over and over.
She couldn’t help imagining what might have happened if the people who took Ling Siyuan had actually meant to harm him — if Ling Xingyan hadn’t stayed so composed, if there hadn’t been a tracker — the consequences didn’t bear thinking about.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed before an officer came out of the interrogation room.
Hearing the door open, Zhu Wenshu looked up and met the officer’s gaze briefly, then leaned in to murmur in Ling Chen’s ear, “The police need you.”
Ling Chen turned around; the officer, who’d been about to speak, froze at the sight of him, looking a bit stunned.
“Um… could you come in for a moment… Ling Chen?”
Ling Chen nodded but didn’t get up right away. He reached over, zipped up the coat around Zhu Wenshu’s shoulders, and used his thumb to wipe the smudge of dirt from her cheek.
“Wait for me.”
Zhu Wenshu answered softly, and only then did Ling Chen stand and walk over to Ling Siyuan.
The boy, still shaken and cried out, looked dazed now, almost sleepwalking.
“Don’t be scared. Uncle’s here.”
He bent down, patting Ling Siyuan’s head. “Get some rest. You’ll feel better when you wake up.”
Ling Siyuan had thought he’d already cried himself dry, but hearing this from Ling Chen, his eyes welled up again.
Still, he didn’t actually cry — just rubbed his eyes, nodded, said “okay” in a choked voice, sniffling as he buried his face in the nanny’s arms.
Ling Chen glanced once more at Zhu Wenshu, then walked toward the interrogation room.
Under everyone’s gaze, he pushed the door open without so much as a glance at the people inside, then turned and shut it gently behind him.
Once the outside gazes were completely cut off, Ling Chen stood with his head lowered, hand still on the door handle, not turning around.
The grandparents, having already talked themselves hoarse with the police, jumped up the moment they saw Ling Chen come in.
“A-Chen! A-Chen! You’re finally here! Tell them, quick — how is this kidnapping!”
“Say something, A-Chen! Tell them!”
After a long moment, the man standing by the door finally turned around.
He didn’t seem inclined to face them fully, only turning his profile toward the table, his sharp features cast even colder under the overhead fluorescent light.
That look — they’d seen it before.
It was the same expression a teenage Ling Chen used to wear, back when a few local thugs would bully his father, and he’d stand in front of him, gripping a stick.
Back then, they’d watched coldly, indifferent, unmoved.
But the man standing here now wasn’t that thin, frail boy anymore.
He stood several meters back, dressed in a black coat, shoulders broad, nothing like his old weakness; his shadow stretched across the floor, pressing down on the old couple until they could no longer find words, staring blankly at the man before them.
Ling Chen gazed at them for a long time, fury churning beneath his eyes, and the once-quiet interrogation room seemed to drop several degrees in an instant.
In the closed space, the two elderly people felt their body temperature plummeting, their limbs going stiff.
“This isn’t kidnapping — then what is it?”
There was none of the shouting they might have expected. Ling Chen’s voice was eerily calm, yet it carried a chilling sense of despair.
The two of them stared wide-eyed at Ling Chen, unable to believe what they’d just heard, as if they’d misheard entirely.
“What did you say? What do you mean by that?”
A moment later, Grandpa slammed the table and stood. “You’re disowning your own family?”
He pointed a trembling finger at Ling Chen, then turned to the officers. “Officers, you see this! He’s a celebrity and he’s disowning his own family! He’s turning his back on us now! He’s forgetting where he came from!”
The two officers exchanged a weary glance. “Quiet down! Order!”
Seeing that the police weren’t taking his side, Grandpa kicked his chair aside and tried to storm out, trembling. “Everyone hear this! Ling Chen—”
His collar was suddenly yanked hard from behind. Before Grandpa could react, Ling Chen was already dragging him back inside.
“Come.” Ling Chen pointed toward the door with his other hand. “Go tell everyone I, Ling Chen, turn my back on my own family without a shred of guilt. Watch and see if I even flinch.”
The chairs along the way scraped and clattered. In the chaos, Grandma cried out, grabbing at Ling Chen’s clothes.
“A-Chen! This is your grandfather! Your own grandfather!”
The officers, not having expected the scene to escalate like this, hurried forward to intervene.
Before they could get a word out, Ling Chen twisted his wrist and suddenly slammed the old man against the wall.
Grandpa’s feet completely lost their footing, his whole body hanging almost entirely by the collar, gasping for breath.
“Threatening the people around me to get to me.” Ling Chen’s voice dropped low, his eyes utterly without warmth, cold as the deepest winter night. “Do you not know what kind of person I am?”
Of course they knew.
He was the boy who’d once been willing to risk his life fighting for his father’s sake.
But they’d assumed the Ling Chen of today would still care about the glory and image he now carried.
“A-Chen, please… A-Chen! Just let it go!” Seeing this, Grandma clawed at Ling Chen’s arm, sobbing, begging him. “We really weren’t kidnapping him! We just wanted to find you, please tell the police that! We don’t want to go to jail! We’re both seventy years old…”
Ling Chen remained unmoved, lips pressed into a straight line, the veins on the back of his hand standing out, as if he might throw a punch the next second.
“Grandma’s begging you, Grandma will get down on her knees for you!”
The old woman clutched at his clothes, already half-crouched, on the verge of kneeling. Even the officers moved to pull her back, but Ling Chen just looked down at her.
“Kneel, then.” He tilted his head, looking coldly down at the woman, so much shorter than him. “Go on, kneel.”
Grandma looked up at him through tear-filled eyes, as if staring at a cold-blooded stranger. “You… you…” “I’m your own grandmother!”
Ling Chen tilted his head and smiled, enunciating every word. “Dear grandmother, you could kneel here until you die and you still wouldn’t get a single cent out of me.”
“And that filial son and grandson of yours.”
The pressure in Ling Chen’s grip on the old man suddenly intensified again. “Remember to have them bring you your meals in there.”
—
Ling Xingyan arrived past midnight.
The school leadership had left over an hour earlier, leaving only the vice principal, who still hadn’t gone home.
He hurried in, his expression flustered and dazed. After glancing around, he spotted Ling Siyuan and rushed over, arms already reaching out to hug him.
The nanny made a shushing gesture, and Ling Xingyan’s arm froze mid-air. He crouched down stiffly, holding the position, staring at the sleeping Ling Siyuan for a long while before lowering his hand to gently pat the boy.
After talking with the nanny, he came to find Zhu Wenshu next.
Seeing how exhausted and disheveled she looked, Ling Xingyan bent forward, shoulders slumping, and said hoarsely, “Teacher Zhu, I’m so sorry for the trouble.”
“Hm?”
Zhu Wenshu, exhausted and drowsy, was hovering somewhere between waking and sleep. Hearing Ling Xingyan’s words, it took her a few seconds to pull her focus back. “It’s fine, it’s what I should’ve done.”
Ling Xingyan was about to say something else when he heard footsteps and turned to see Ling Chen coming out behind an officer.
Seeing the guardian had arrived, the officer signaled that the others, who’d already finished and signed their statements, could leave.
Ling Xingyan glanced at Zhu Wenshu, then, without another word to Ling Chen, said, “You take Teacher Zhu home first. I’ll handle things here.”
With that, he headed into the interrogation room.
Ling Chen brought over a cup of hot water, crouching down in front of Zhu Wenshu. “Let’s go home.”
“Okay.”
Zhu Wenshu drank a couple sips of water, and as she stood, took off the coat and handed it back to the vice principal. “Teacher Zhang, here’s your coat back. Thank you.”
“No need, keep it on for the trip home, it’s so cold out, tomor—”
Before the vice principal could finish, Ling Chen had already taken off his own coat and draped it over Zhu Wenshu’s shoulders, saying to him, “Thank you.”
“No, no, not at all.”
He then stood there, mouth slightly agape, watching as Ling Chen took Zhu Wenshu’s hand and walked her, step by step, out of the hall.
—
Ling Chen and Ling Xingyan had originally planned to be away on a business trip for half a month, so their driver had taken time off to travel. No one had expected something like this to happen today, and there hadn’t been time to notify him — they’d both taken cabs straight from the airport.
He led Zhu Wenshu out of the police station, and just as they steadied themselves, a taxi pulled up.
Once inside, the driver turned around to ask, “Where—”
Getting a good look at his passenger, the young driver froze, staring unblinkingly at Ling Chen.
“Guanghua Road.”
Ling Chen said, buckling Zhu Wenshu’s seatbelt as he spoke.
“Huh? Oh…”
It took the driver a moment to snap out of it before he released the brake.
Once the taxi got moving, the night scenery outside flew past the window.
Ling Chen spotted a 24-hour pharmacy along the road and turned to ask Zhu Wenshu, “Do you have cold medicine at home?”
Zhu Wenshu, chin tucked into Ling Chen’s coat, shook her head slightly.
“Driver, could you pull over up ahead by the pharmacy?”
Not long after Ling Chen said this, he got out of the car.
Zhu Wenshu watched him jog toward the pharmacy, and only belatedly reached up to touch her own forehead.
Her temperature didn’t seem too high, but her throat hurt badly.
How had Ling Chen figured out she was coming down with a cold?
Still puzzling over it, Zhu Wenshu slowly turned her head back and found herself suddenly meeting the driver’s gaze in the rearview mirror as he turned to look at her.
“…”
She cleared her throat and looked away.
After a while, Ling Chen got back in the car carrying a large bag of medicine.
He set the bag on his lap and pulled item after item out to check the dosage instructions on the packaging. Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he looked up to ask, “Is your roommate home?”
Zhu Wenshu shook her head again.
Not long before, when Ying Fei noticed she hadn’t come home, she’d messaged to ask. Zhu Wenshu had only said something had come up with a student and that she’d head home once it was sorted out. Ying Fei hadn’t thought much of it and said she was going down to eat hot pot.
“Mm.”
Ling Chen said nothing further, focusing intently on the cold medicine.
A few seconds later, Zhu Wenshu suddenly caught the implication behind his words and snapped her head around to look at him.
“What?”
Ling Chen asked.
Zhu Wenshu glanced at the driver first and noticed he was watching them through the rearview mirror, body angled toward them as if afraid of missing a word. So she lowered her head and started typing rapidly in her phone’s notes app.
—You’re coming to my place?
She held the screen up for Ling Chen to see.
“Hm?”
Ling Chen glanced at it, then went back to what he was doing. “I’ll get you some medicine and food. Didn’t you scrape your leg too?”
Zhu Wenshu didn’t answer his question, continuing to type instead.
—What if my roommate suddenly comes home?
Ling Chen finished reading, the corner of his eye lifting slightly.
He stared at Zhu Wenshu for a while, then lowered his head, saying flatly, “I really am just here to put medicine on your wound.”
Zhu Wenshu: “…”
That wasn’t even what she meant!
—My roommate isn’t like normal people, if she sees you in the middle of the night she’ll totally lose it!
Once she’d typed that out, seeing Ling Chen still hadn’t looked up, she leaned over and held the phone right in front of his face.
Ling Chen was forced to read it, and fell into thought without responding.
Zhu Wenshu figured he’d finally realized how serious this was, and let out a breath of relief.
The next moment, though, she heard him ask, “Don’t tell me she’s…”
Zhu Wenshu nodded solemnly, lips pressed together.
“One of your fangirls?”
Zhu Wenshu: “…”
She turned to look out the window and said nothing more.
Actually, Ying Fei had only just left not that long ago, so she probably wouldn’t be back that soon.
And right now, her whole body ached, weak and sore, having spent the whole evening scared out of her mind — she genuinely wanted someone to take care of her.
Especially since that someone happened to be her boyfriend.
Once that thought crossed her mind, Zhu Wenshu gave up resisting entirely.
After a while, she sent Ying Fei a message.
[Zhu Wenshu]: What time are you coming home?
[Ying Fei]: Food just got here, probably an hour or so. You home yet?
[Zhu Wenshu]: Yeah.
[Ying Fei]: Everything okay?
[Zhu Wenshu]: Yeah, all sorted out.
[Zhu Wenshu]: Let me know when you’re on your way home?
[Ying Fei]: Okay.
Ten minutes later, the car pulled up outside the apartment complex.
Zhu Wenshu bundled her coat tighter as she got out, glancing around instinctively, and whispered, “There’s still people around at this hour — what if you get spotted, won’t that cause trouble, we should—”
Ling Chen suddenly took her hand and started walking toward the building entrance.
“Let’s go, it’s cold out here,” he said flatly. “I’ve never once thought about hiding you.”
Once the two of them had gone, the taxi remained parked a few dozen meters away.
The driver watched their retreating figures until they were completely out of sight, then quickly pulled out his phone and sent a voice message to his wife.
“Holy crap, guess who I just had in my cab!”
“Ling Chen! I had Ling Chen in my cab!”
“With his girlfriend!”
His wife sent back a question mark almost immediately.
The driver added, “It’s his girlfriend… guess she doesn’t talk much, though?”
—
Ying Fei had left the entryway light on and the AC running, so the moment they stepped inside, warmth enveloped them.
“Go lie down.” Ling Chen headed toward the kitchen like he owned the place. “I’ll get you some water.”
Zhu Wenshu nodded.
She’d just gone into her room to change out of her dirty clothes when Ling Chen came in carrying hot water and medicine.
“Take this first.” He unwrapped the pills in his hand, then pointed to a box on the table. “Take this one tomorrow morning when you wake up. If you’re still not feeling well, tell me, I’ll take you to the hospital.”
Zhu Wenshu agreed, took the medicine and water from him, and swallowed them down.
Then she leaned against the headboard and reached out toward Ling Chen.
But Ling Chen didn’t even notice — he was crouched down, rolling up the leg of her pants.
Actually, Zhu Wenshu had been bundled up warmly for winter; it was just that during the fall, her pants had gotten pushed up, leaving a wide swath of scraped skin on her calf.
It was just that her fair skin made the wound look worse than it actually was.
Zhu Wenshu sheepishly withdrew her hand, and seeing Ling Chen staring at her calf, brow furrowed tight, said, “It’s fine, just a scrape, it didn’t even bleed.”
Ling Chen said nothing, turning instead to grab iodine and a cotton swab.
“Are you going to monitor exams tomorrow?”
“No, the school said tonight I could rest at home, they’ll get someone else to cover… hiss!”
Zhu Wenshu suddenly flinched, pulling her calf back.
Ling Chen stopped immediately, looking up at her.
“Does it hurt?”
His movements had been very gentle, and iodine didn’t even sting that much.
“No,” Zhu Wenshu shook her head. “It’s just cold.”
But Ling Chen didn’t continue right away. He held the cotton swab, his brow trembling slightly.
After a long moment, his voice turned hoarse.
“Zhu Wenshu, don’t do this again.”
He raised his eyes; his gaze was very dark, reflecting Zhu Wenshu’s weary face.
“Put yourself first. Can you do that?”
“I really am fine.”
Zhu Wenshu suddenly grew anxious, sitting up straight and gripping his arm. “I’m a teacher, when something like this happens I obviously can’t just do nothing, and look, I’m not even that badly hurt, it’s just some scrapes, I—”
“Would you dare tell your parents what happened tonight?”
“…”
Zhu Wenshu froze.
After a moment, she lowered her head and said quietly, “That’s not how this works.”
“I’m not trying to reason with you. I just want you safe.”
Ling Chen’s voice was very soft, but every word landed heavily in Zhu Wenshu’s heart.
“Okay.”
She reached out and tugged at his sleeve. “Got it, Teacher Ling.”
Ling Chen’s expression eased slightly, but he still said nothing more.
Once he’d finished cleaning the wound with iodine, he applied another layer of ointment — Zhu Wenshu had no idea what it was.
“Don’t shower tonight, just sleep like this.”
He set down what he was holding and got up, heading toward the bathroom.
Zhu Wenshu didn’t know what he was up to, and turned to look toward the bathroom. Before long, she heard the sound of running water.
A few minutes later, Ling Chen came out holding a small, neatly folded square of towel, bending down to wipe her face.
The towel was just the right temperature — not cold, not hot.
Back when Ling Siyuan had gotten sick, Zhu Wenshu had already noticed Ling Chen wasn’t what she’d imagined. He was, it seemed, especially good at taking care of people — just like now, without even asking, he’d known exactly which towel was for washing her face, and while wiping it, he wasn’t careless about it either, wiping generally across her cheeks first, then using the edges of the towel to clean around her nose and behind her ears.
When he got to her eyes, Zhu Wenshu closed them obligingly, and the warm towel gently wiped across the corners of her eyes.
After a moment, she opened her eyes, and, as expected, found herself meeting Ling Chen’s gaze.
“What are you looking at?”
A few seconds passed before Ling Chen spoke.
“I was just thinking — if you’re ever sick or in pain sometime, I probably won’t be able to take care of you this thoroughly.”
She laughed. “Is that embarrassing for you?”
The mood in the room finally lightened a little. Ling Chen pressed the towel against her ear. “If you keep saying that—”
He stood up, turning to head toward the bathroom, and tossed back over his shoulder, “I’ll fake being sick in a couple of days.”
“You’re a singer,” Zhu Wenshu said to his retreating back, “not an actor.”
Ling Chen’s voice drifted back from the bathroom: “Can’t a singer act too?”
Sure.
Of course you can. Whatever you say.
Zhu Wenshu adjusted her pillow, scooted down a little, and burrowed into the blankets.
When Ling Chen came back out, he sat down on the edge of the bed.
“Going to sleep?”
Zhu Wenshu pulled the blanket up, covering half her face.
“Mm, you should go home and rest too.”
Ling Chen asked, “Is your roommate coming back soon?”
She glanced up at the clock, thought it over, and said, “About half an hour, probably.”
“Plenty of time, then.”
Ling Chen said, then his throat suddenly bobbed. “Can I kiss you for a bit?”
Zhu Wenshu: “…?”
The subject change was way too abrupt.
“Could you not announce it like that, it’s embarrassing.”
“Sorry. Not much experience with this.”
Ling Chen leaned down, his voice barely audible, “Was worried you might not want to.”
How could she not want to.
Zhu Wenshu thought, hazily, right before closing her eyes.
Ever since their first kiss, she’d been hooked on that feeling, unable to stop thinking about it.
From the initial tentative exploration to the way it had grown more insistent since, it was just the entwining of lips and tongue, and yet it stirred every one of her senses.
As if every cell in her body trembled.
But tonight was different somehow.
Probably out of consideration for the fact that she was sick, his kisses were light and fragmented, without any demand or force, almost as if he were tending to a wound.
But that state didn’t last long.
By the time Zhu Wenshu became aware that she was lying on the bed, with Ling Chen pressed tightly against her upper body, her breathing had already grown rapid.
The air in the room seemed to thin, their body heat mingling and rising together.
Hazily, Zhu Wenshu noticed that Ling Chen’s breathing had turned very… heavy.
At the same time, through the blanket, she also felt an unmistakable change in his body.
Her eyes flew open, and she pushed Ling Chen away with both hands.
She was sick right now!
The two of them stared at each other for a long moment; Zhu Wenshu’s mind went completely blank, and two words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them.
“You animal.”
“…”
Ling Chen’s arms braced by her ears, breathing hard and heavy.
A moment later, without a word, he got up and went to the bathroom.
No sound came from inside. Zhu Wenshu lay there dazed, staring up at the ceiling.
She had no idea how much time passed before Ling Chen finally came back out.
Zhu Wenshu instinctively glanced at his… pants, saw nothing out of the ordinary, and burrowed back into the blanket.
“I’m heading out.”
“Okay.”
Hearing the footsteps not heading toward the door but instead approaching the bed, Zhu Wenshu closed her eyes again.
Sensing Ling Chen drawing near, even her eyelashes trembled slightly.
But all she felt was the light press of a kiss to her forehead.
“Good night.”
—
Ling Chen stood by the elevator, staring at his own reflection, running a hand through his hair.
This counted as an animal, huh?
If he hadn’t reacted at all in that situation, that would’ve been the real problem.
He stood there for a moment before realizing he hadn’t even pressed the elevator button.
Just as he reached for it, the elevator doors opened on their own.
Ling Chen took a deep breath, and when he looked up again, saw a woman standing inside.
Seeing that the woman didn’t seem to recognize him, her expression perfectly normal, Ling Chen lowered his head and stepped in.
As the two of them passed each other, the woman’s footsteps seemed to hesitate for just a moment.
But by the time Ling Chen had steadied himself and turned around, the woman was already walking away, her stride perfectly natural.
—
Not long after Ling Chen left, another sound stirred in the living room.
Zhu Wenshu knew it was Ying Fei getting home, though she hadn’t expected the gap between the two of them leaving and returning to be so short. A flicker of worry crossed her mind, and she got out of bed to open the door.
Ying Fei walked in, expression unreadable, seemingly nothing out of the ordinary.
“Did you shut the windows tonight?”
See, she could still show concern.
Zhu Wenshu nodded. “Shut them. It’s windy tonight.”
Ying Fei said, “Then slap me across the face.”