Chen Shiyi had come to the hospital too.

Earlier, she and Lu Xuan had split up — Lu Xuan had gone to bring Rong Qian, while she had followed the situation at the police station.

After finding Shen Yi and Rong Qian, Chen Shiyi told them about Lin Feng’s situation.

“Lin Feng has already been detained. I tried every approach I could think of, but the police won’t allow any visitors.”

Chen Shiyi had actually said quite a lot to the police — she’d explained that Lin Feng hadn’t fired the gun and that it wasn’t his, but the police didn’t believe a word of it.

Chen Shiyi was deeply troubled by this. With a furrowed brow, she said: “What do we do now? The police are completely convinced the gun belongs to Lin Feng, and they say they’re going to test for fingerprints. Once they confirm Lin Feng’s prints are on the gun, they’ll sentence him.”

“This is very bad for Lin Feng. He wasn’t the only one who touched that gun, but the police aren’t going to look at anyone else’s fingerprints — they’ll only go after whoever they’ve already decided to arrest. So once the fingerprints are confirmed, Lin Feng is looking at more than ten years behind bars.” Lu Xuan’s brow was tightly creased. He had already imagined the worst-case outcome.

They all understood perfectly well that with their abilities and connections, they had no way to stand against the power of Thomas’s family.

When it came down to it, even if Lin Feng was pinned with a fabricated charge, even if they all knew perfectly well that the truth was otherwise — they would be helpless.

Neither Rong Qian nor Shen Yi said a word. Both remained silent throughout.

Lu Xuan grew anxious. “Shen Yi, Rong Qian — say something!”

He knew they were just as powerless, but he needed to hear something from them.

Jessie Ni was dead. Lin Feng was detained. This sudden upheaval — none of them could accept it.

Even if it meant going to confront Thomas directly, at least that would be something. Anything was better than standing here with their hands tied, helplessly waiting.

Rong Qian glanced at Lu Xuan. “Calm down.”

“Let’s go find Thomas,” Lu Xuan suggested.

Chen Shiyi nodded in agreement. “That’s the only option we have right now — we have to get him to come forward and clarify that the gun misfired, that Jessie Ni’s death was an accident, not a murder.”

“Do you really think he’s going to clarify anything?”

Rong Qian didn’t want to pour cold water on them, but she had to make them face the reality. “Don’t forget — whose gun was it? Do you honestly think he’ll admit that gun belongs to him?”

Chen Shiyi and Lu Xuan exchanged a glance. Rong Qian’s point was not without merit. And besides, if Thomas had any intention of letting Lin Feng go, he wouldn’t still be going to all this trouble to secure a conviction.

“Then what on earth can we actually do?”

Lu Xuan had never felt so helpless. Lin Feng wasn’t just their friend — he was a fellow countryman. How could they possibly accept this, just watching Lin Feng be framed and thrown in prison?

“You don’t need to do anything.” It was Shen Yi who spoke.

Chen Shiyi and Lu Xuan were both startled. Do nothing — did that mean they should just give in?

But Shen Yi’s next words quickly put that thought to rest, because what Shen Yi said was: “This matter — I’ll handle it.”

And so it was because of those words that the two of them left the hospital weighed down with worry.

“Even though Shen Yi said he’d handle it, we all know he’s in the same position as us — just a struggling student working to put himself through school. He’s no match for Thomas’s family.” Chen Shiyi said this with a sigh.

When you thought about it, it was almost absurd — the youngest among them was the one taking on this responsibility.

“Actually, the more I think about it, the less right it feels. Let’s go to Shen Yi’s place early tomorrow morning. We can put our heads together — maybe between all of us we can come up with something.” Lu Xuan couldn’t let Shen Yi bear this alone.

Chen Shiyi agreed. They had been running around all night; it was already past one in the morning, and they were completely exhausted.

Better to go home and rest now, recover their strength, and keep thinking in the morning.

By the time Rong Qian and Shen Yi got home, it was two in the morning. After bathing and all the settling-in that followed, Rong Qian finally lay down on the sofa — it was already three o’clock.

After everything that had happened tonight, sleep was impossible for anyone.

Rong Qian turned her head toward the tightly shut door of Shen Yi’s room. After his bath, he had shut himself inside.

She tried to imagine herself in his position and found she simply couldn’t.

Jessie Ni’s death wasn’t caused by him, but it couldn’t be separated from him either.

If Jessie Ni and Lin Feng had called him at the time, summoned him to the bar, perhaps the weight on Shen Yi’s conscience would not be as heavy.

But they had held out until the end protecting him, and tragedy had been the result. What that amounted to was Shen Yi being forced to shoulder the responsibility of seeking justice for them.

Rong Qian couldn’t help wondering: if Shen Yi really were just an ordinary person with no power to stand against Thomas, what kind of corner would he be backed into?

Just thinking about it was enough to make her feel like she couldn’t breathe. And she wasn’t even the one at the center of it.

Rong Qian spent the whole night with her mind running in circles — but exhaustion won in the end, and without realizing it, she drifted off to sleep.

Later, she was woken by some faint rustling sounds. She hadn’t slept well; she came awake bleary-eyed, and as she sat up, she stretched out of habit.

Then something at the edge of her vision caught her attention. Rong Qian turned her head — and saw Shen Yi sitting on the sofa, one hand propped under his chin, staring at her in complete silence.

Rong Qian looked back at him, blinking.

She wasn’t startled by him — what had caught her off guard was the way he was dressed, which had struck her with a kind of stunned amazement.

If the Shen Yi of everyday life was the boy who wore a casual cap and rode his bicycle around, like the younger brother next door, then the Shen Yi sitting before her now had stepped out from a world of privilege and old money — a young master of a grand family.

He was dressed in a bespoke suit of obviously high-quality fabric, layered with a European-style double-breasted overcoat. The cool-toned ensemble was accented here and there with touches of gold, and the overall effect radiated the unmistakable air of a wealthy young aristocrat.

It was so far removed from his usual appearance that he seemed like an entirely different person.

Rong Qian suddenly remembered — when Shen Yi was a child at home, he had worn a little suit and leather shoes virtually every day.

That was probably how the bearing of a privileged upbringing was cultivated from an early age. So dressed this formally, was he planning to return to the Shen Family?

As it turned out, Rong Qian had guessed correctly. Shen Yi told her he needed to make a trip back to the Shen family home.

She asked why. He answered in two words: “Negotiations.”

Chen Shiyi and Lu Xuan came looking for Shen Yi at half past six in the morning.

The moment they arrived at Number 17, Sheng Luo Street, they found several black sedans parked along the road outside, with bodyguards in black suits standing watch — as though some important personage were expected, the display quite impressive.

As Chen Shiyi and Lu Xuan made their way upstairs, they were both wondering which great figure had come to Sheng Luo Street, to have deployed so many bodyguards. Someone like that would be from a world of wealth and status — the kind of person they might never encounter in their entire lives.

They were still thinking this when they reached Shen Yi’s door — and found two bodyguards standing outside.

The door was open, and through it they could see clearly: an elderly butler addressing Shen Yi, calling out, “Young Master.”

In that moment, the only word that could describe what they felt was: shock.

Fu Bozhong had received Shen Yi’s call the previous night and had come first thing in the morning with his people to collect him. But when he opened the door and found Rong Qian there as well, he had been momentarily taken aback.

Fortunately, he knew who Rong Qian was. So upon learning that she had crossed through time again, he found nothing particularly strange about it.

Just as Fu Bozhong was preparing to take Shen Yi away, the bodyguards at the door stopped the two young visitors — but Shen Yi spoke up to call them off, and Chen Shiyi and Lu Xuan were allowed inside.

It was at this moment that the two of them learned the truth: Shen Yi was not the struggling student working his way through school that they had imagined. He was Shen Yi, the eldest young master of the wealthy Shen Family.

Thomas surely had no idea that this time, he had kicked an iron wall.

Because the authority Shen Chi commanded was not something he could afford to cross.