After returning from the hot spring town, Chi Han noticed that Rong Xu seemed to have become somewhat strange. He was always quietly zoning out alone or looking at Chi Han as if he had something to say.
When Chi Han tried to ask, he couldn’t get anything out of him.
During this period, Rong Xu barely went to school anymore, coming home very late every day, busy with something.
In class, Chi Han habitually glanced to the side. After his gaze landed on empty space, he suddenly snapped back to reality.
Rong Xu hadn’t attended class with him for a long time.
So long that half of the summer vacation was almost over.
By the end of the tutoring sessions, the teachers stopped teaching altogether, giving the students lots of free study time to manage on their own.
Chi Han smoothed out a test paper, but his pen tip hesitated and didn’t touch the paper.
He frowned slightly, his eyes fixed on the empty desk beside him for a long time.
Why did he feel like… Rong Xu had been avoiding him recently?
“Chi Han…”
Geng Xue, sitting in the front row, glanced left and right, then turned her head and whispered, “Why hasn’t Rong Xu come to school for so long?”
She felt like she could smell the scent of a breakup.
Following Chi Han’s gaze to Rong Xu’s desk, she covered her mouth the next second and immediately imagined a tragic novel of a hundred thousand words.
A playboy little top switches his affections to someone else, leaving the devoted little bottom waiting in vain. Years later, the top suddenly wakes up, but unfortunately, the bottom’s heart has long since died.
Geng Xue was so tortured by the scenes she imagined in her head that her liver ached. She slapped her face hard and silently repeated to herself:
Rong Xu is not that kind of person.
Rong Xu is not that kind of person!
Rong Xu is not that kind of person!!
Chi Han didn’t notice Geng Xue’s expression; right now, all he wanted was to figure out what exactly was wrong with Rong Xu.
“I don’t know either… I feel like Rong Xu is avoiding me. We hardly say more than a few words every day. What exactly is he doing?”
Geng Xue: “…………”
Alright, it’s time to prepare the funeral pyre.
After saying this, Chi Han scratched his head in frustration.
They were clearly pretty happy when they went to the hot spring town, right?
Wait…
It seemed that ever since that night when Rong Xu asked him what if his leg never got better, the other person’s condition started to go wrong.
“Geng Xue, I want to ask you a question.”
Upon hearing this, Geng Xue immediately put away her hand, which was about to change the WeChat group name, her expression serious as if about to take an 800-meter physical test.
“Go ahead.”
“Well…” Chi Han originally wanted to say Rong Xu directly, but the words felt awkward on his tongue. He paused, then rephrased, “If a person with a physical disability told you they would never get better, what would you say?”
Geng Xue: “……”
You might as well just give Rong Xu’s ID number directly.
Geng Xue tried her best to ignore this beginning, which was just like “I have a friend who…”, and after thinking for a moment, she said uncertainly, “If it were me, I’d probably… try to comfort him? Uh, believe in medicine?”
She then asked back, “What about you? What did you say?”
Chi Han said, “I told him it’s okay. I can be his legs and accompany him for a lifetime.”
Geng Xue: “…………”
So that’s the reason I’m single?!
Chi Han looked speechless at Geng Xue, who seemed to be laughing and crying at the same time. After a while, with a hint of sincerity, he advised, “Facial muscle spasms should be treated early.”
Geng Xue: “…”
Damn it! Give me back my tears!
Chi Han dropped his pen, propped his chin on his hand, and looked out the window, softly saying, “I didn’t lie to him, so why is he avoiding me…”
Since coming to this world, he had been trying hard to change Rong Xu’s fate.
By now, many things had already veered off the original path, and even Chi Han didn’t know how the final ending would turn out.
But no matter what, he would stay with Rong Xu until the very end.
Geng Xue looked into Chi Han’s eyes. Like everyone else, she had long noticed that Chi Han had a pair of very beautiful eyes.
But now, in those eyes, she could see all kinds of emotions.
But the one thing she couldn’t see in Chi Han’s eyes was any selfish desire for Rong Xu.
They were as clear as the sky after being washed by water—too pure.
Chi Han didn’t like Rong Xu.
Geng Xue’s eyelashes fluttered slightly. No wonder.
No wonder Rong Xu hid away after hearing such an answer.
A lifetime is too long.
Besides family, only love and friendship could support such an answer.
But if one person likes the other, can it still be called friendship?
“Chi Han, you…”
Don’t you like Rong Xu at all?
Halfway through her sentence, Geng Xue pressed her lips together and didn’t finish.
Chi Han made a nasal sound: “Hmm?”
Geng Xue thought for a moment and changed the way she asked, “Why are you so good to Rong Xu?”
Without thinking, Chi Han replied, “Because I think he’s a good person!”
Geng Xue: “?”
Geng Xue: “In what way is he good?”
Chi Han frowned, “What way isn’t he good?”
“Rong Xu is careful and gentle, well-mannered and well-educated, considerate of others, top of the class in studies, and good-looking without question. How could he not be good?!”
Rong Xu’s character was the original driving force that kept him reading. He was the only character he had ever liked in this novel.
Every time he discovered a new side of Rong Xu, it excited him endlessly.
No matter which side it was, he liked it very much.
Geng Xue was shocked and said, “Chi Han, I think you’re wearing an 800-meter-thick filter. The Rong Xu you see seems very different from the one I know.”
That person who always wore a serious face and had a piercing gaze—considerate and gentle… really?!!
Is this what they call ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’?
Geng Xue realized she was wrong.
This wasn’t because he didn’t like Rong Xu. It was clear that, subconsciously, he had already claimed him as his own, wasn’t it?
Covering her chest, Geng Xue tried to wake Chi Han up.
“So after you graduate? Will you still live together? Or, after starting a family?”
Chi Han stared blankly at Geng Xue, and that word “of course” seemed unable to escape his mouth anymore.
Graduation, starting a family.
Chi Han’s body trembled slightly.
Only now did he suddenly realize what he had been ignoring all along.
He had always subconsciously assumed that Rong Xu’s life would continue along the original book’s path.
Graduate, overthrow the Rong family and successfully take revenge, then continue his career.
His own appearance had been during Rong Xu’s vulnerable period, doing everything possible to shield him from harm and protect him to the greatest extent.
But Geng Xue’s words felt like a sharp blade, carving a heavy scar deep in his heart.
That’s right, Rong Xu was no longer a puppet easily manipulated by the author’s pen.
What once seemed like a one-way path suddenly sprouted many turning intersections.
Chi Han pressed his tongue against his teeth and silently uttered a word.
Marriage.
The novel never described any romantic storyline for Rong Xu, which made Chi Han subconsciously believe that Rong Xu wouldn’t fall in love with anyone in this world.
But now, his heart suddenly harbored something like restlessness.
How to put it—was the person he had protected for so long now running off with someone else?
Chi Han suddenly stamped his foot in frustration and irritably pushed the book away.
Damn.
Why did it feel like his own little cabbage was running off with someone else’s pig?!
Thinking back to how Rong Xu had been evasive these past few days, Chi Han couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of crisis.
He didn’t even know why thinking about this made him so restless—maybe it was some kind of empty-nest father complex (?)
With the assist complete, Geng Xue gracefully stepped back, looking like a reclusive sage, smiling while plucking a flower.
This, she thought, was the proper way for a fan scholar to engage.
***
During the next class, Chi Han barely managed to calm down and finish a test paper.
After school, when he got home, sure enough, Rong Xu still hadn’t returned.
He sent a few messages to the assistant. After a moment, the reply came back: Rong Xu was in a meeting and it would take about three more hours.
At one in the morning, the front door on the first floor finally made a soft sound.
Rong Xu was back.
The driver closed the door for him and then left.
Rong Xu, hidden in the darkness of the entryway, reached out and rubbed his temple.
Recently, Rong Guanyu’s health had deteriorated, and he was hospitalized. Xu Man eagerly took over the Rong family, and her first move was to suppress him.
His gaze was cold and deep.
That madwoman came completely with a mindset of harming the enemy a thousand times while injuring herself eight hundred.
But that was fine. This way, the Rong family would die even faster.
Rong Xu slightly tilted his head back and pulled off his tie. The sarcasm and weariness in his eyes were thick, without a hint of warmth.
He controlled his wheelchair and moved inside. The moment his gaze touched the figure on the sofa, it suddenly softened.
The young boy on the sofa was sleeping with his head tilted askew, still holding a pen in his hand, with test papers spread out on the tea table.
His hair was all messed up and sticking up from rolling around on the backrest.
His slightly parted pale lips showed a faint hint of pink.
Rong Xu stopped by the sofa. His fingers resting on the armrest lifted as if to reach out and touch him, but soon dropped back down.
His fingers were too cold.
All the dark, chilling thoughts in his heart scattered. In this moment, those deep black eyes could hold only one person—Chi Han.
After returning from the hot spring town, he had gone to get a full-body checkup.
Even though he had mentally prepared himself, when he heard the doctor’s negative verdict, he still felt a wave of disappointment.
But at the same time, there was a strange sense of relief.
From now on, he no longer had to cling to false hope.
In the days that followed, he had almost taken on a self-destructive attitude, avoiding Chi Han entirely. After Chi Han fell asleep, he would linger outside the bedroom door like a madman, standing guard all night, only to flee in a hurry before dawn.
A few days later, the doctor suggested he try going to Country L, since that was where the headquarters of the manufacturer of the new medical equipment was located.
Rong Xu lowered his head and signed the document, then gave the doctor a cold glance.
Whatever.
But life is just that unreasonable. After someone has completely given up, a sliver of hope often reappears.
Not long after the doctor sent over the medical records, a reply came.
The gist of it was: they might be able to try, but the patient himself would need to go over for another full evaluation.
After receiving the message, Rong Xu remained silent for a long time.
In the end, he agreed.
But this also meant he would have to be separated from Chi Han for a while.
Or—possibly—a very long time.
Rong Xu’s fingertips moved slightly as his gaze carefully traced the lines of Chi Han’s face.
Perhaps, not long from now, this would be all he had left.
“…Rong Xu?”
Chi Han was sleeping in a terribly uncomfortable position. When he opened his eyes, his neck gave a loud crack.
Chi Han: “…”
Grimacing, he rubbed his neck and sat up. First, he smiled and called out to Rong Xu, but then, as if remembering something, he turned to look at the clock on the wall.
“It’s already, what time?! One o’clock?! And you’re only just getting back?!”
Rong Xu let him poke at him without complaint, his temper gentle.
Chi Han said irritably, “Don’t think that expression can smooth things over! I could call the police right now and report you as a missing person, you know?!”
Rong Xu couldn’t hold back—his lips curved, and a quiet laugh slipped out.
Chi Han glared at him. “Still laughing?!”
Rong Xu instantly straightened his lips. “Mm, not laughing.”
Chi Han: “……”
Just as Chi Han was about to say something else, a vibration cut him off.
Rong Xu’s phone was ringing.
The smile in his eyes faded, and he pulled the phone from his pocket to answer it.
Chi Han only had time to catch a glimpse of a single character on the screen—“Yao”.
Before he could think further, a soft and gentle female voice came through the phone. Judging by the sound, she couldn’t be older than twenty.
“…Rong Xu, you’re still awake, right? Did you see the message I just sent you?”
Chi Han figured maybe the girl had something urgent to talk about, calling Rong Xu at one in the morning. After all, work-related matters could be unpredictable.
But that assumption was clearly wrong.
Because right after that, Rong Xu turned slightly and moved away from him with the phone in hand.
For the first time.
