Reappearance

It took Lin Yu a great deal of effort to finally coax Tang Manman into going home.

This girl!

It was just supposed to be a simple meet-up to chat.

What were you trying to do by bringing your ID card?

Rubbing his temples, Lin Yu let out a sigh, feeling deeply exhausted mentally.

With things having reached this point, Lin Yu didn't know what to do anymore.

Stalling didn't seem like a very good solution, but other than this non-solution, Lin Yu was truly out of ideas.

Thinking of his current dilemma, Lin Yu couldn't help but sigh again.

When exactly did things start to spiral out of control and gradually fall apart?

Was it when Tang Manman went crazy?

Or when he started hiding things?

Or perhaps it was the accidental union between him and Sister Zhuzi?

Or was it even earlier than that?

Lin Yu couldn't figure it out, nor did he have the energy to think about it anymore.

Although he had managed to get a little sleep at the hospital last night, it couldn't be called rest at all.

Sitting on the public chairs in a hospital only made one more tired. On top of that, he had spent so long with Tang Manman in the torment and agony of immorality, doing intimate things that went against his conscience.

Lin Yu now felt that he was truly, incredibly tired; both his body and soul were howling for rest.

Turning around and following the route from his memory, Lin Yu walked in the direction of Xia Muzhu's home.

Without a place to live, Lin Yu could only go back to Xia Muzhu's home to rest.

Dragging his exhausted body, Lin Yu made his way to the bottom of Xia Muzhu's apartment building and got into the elevator.

On the black LCD screen, the red numbers climbed floor by floor.

Lin Yu leaned weakly against the elevator wall. Opposite him, the silvery-white elevator panels acted like a poor-quality mirror, reflecting Lin Yu's exhausted demeanor and his numb eyes.

"Ding."

A crisp chime sounded from above. On the LCD screen, the red number 6 began to flash. The elevator doors slowly parted with a faint mechanical whir, revealing a narrow space.

Lin Yu stepped out of the elevator, turned right, skillfully entered the passcode, and then verified his fingerprint.

"Beep beep."

The mechanical sound of successful recognition rang out. Lin Yu pushed the door open and entered the apartment.

?

Closing the door and just about to change his shoes, Lin Yu looked at the pair of women's ankle boots by his feet—one standing upright, the other knocked over—and frowned slightly.

Sister Zhuzi's shoes?

Why hadn't they been put away?

After a brief moment of confusion, Lin Yu quickly understood.

Having suffered such a huge blow, Sister Zhuzi would be more or less absent-minded.

Overlooking a few small details in life was perfectly normal.

After taking off his own shoes and changing into slippers, Lin Yu first put his shoes into the shoe cabinet on the side. Then, he bent down again, preparing to put Xia Muzhu's shoes into the cabinet as well.

Picking up the boot that had fallen on the floor, Lin Yu pinched the insides of both boots with one hand and placed the ankle boots into the shoe cabinet.

Just as he let go and was about to straighten up, Lin Yu suddenly noticed a white mark in his field of vision.

Snow?

Why was there snow on the soles of these ankle boots?

Lin Yu furrowed his brows, feeling that something was amiss.

In December, the heating in the north had long since been turned on.

In a room temperature of over twenty degrees Celsius, the snow brought indoors would melt into water in no time.

Even if the temperature by the door was slightly lower, and even if the snow on the soles had been packed tightly from stepping on it, the snow wouldn't have lasted this long.

At most, within two hours, the snow would definitely melt in the twenty-plus degree room temperature.

And the time when Xia Muzhu went to the hospital to relieve him was already four hours ago.

There seemed to be only one answer. Lin Yu straightened up and looked toward the living room.

Xia Muzhu had indeed returned.

She was sitting on the loveseat next to the long sofa in the living room. Since who knows when, her gaze had been fixed in his direction.

"Sister Zhuzi, what happened?"

Lin Yu asked cautiously.

Xia Muzhu's condition was visibly wrong.

She was wearing clothes that were far too heavy for being indoors, and her gaze looking his way was hollow and lifeless.

A few teardrops hung from her chin, ready to fall. Her tear-stained face was completely devoid of expression, making her look exceptionally fragile.

She looked as if she had suffered some unbearable, massive blow, and her whole person seemed like she was about to shatter.

"Did something happen to Little Shan?"

Seeing Xia Muzhu in this state, Lin Yu subconsciously thought something had happened to Xia Yueshan at the hospital. He asked urgently as he walked toward her.

Xia Muzhu didn't answer. Her hollow gaze followed Lin Yu as he moved, and it wasn't until he walked up to her that a faint, desolate light focused in her eyes. Expressionless, she asked:

"Did you come back this time to break up with me?"

The words, as gentle as the wind, drifted into Lin Yu's ears, yet they landed like a heavy hammer on his heart, causing even his soul to tremble in resonance.

These words, carrying an immense amount of information, froze Lin Yu in place.

For a moment, numerous unanswerable questions rose from the bottom of Lin Yu's heart.

But there was at least one thing Lin Yu could be certain of.

Xia Muzhu knew about what happened between him and Tang Manman...

...

Lin Yu's silence seemed to confirm the worst thought in Xia Muzhu's mind.

The light in her eyes completely sank to the depths of her pupils, and even her azure blue eyes became dim.

The corners of her mouth twitched, and then her entire body began to tremble.

She raised her face to look up at Lin Yu. Fragility served as the base color of her skin, while breakdown mixed with tears flowed freely across her face.

Feelings of despair surged from the bottom of her heart. Helplessly clutching the hem of Lin Yu's shirt, she pleaded almost neurotically:

"Lin Yu, please don't leave me, okay?"

"I, I..."

"I really don't know what to do anymore."

"Mom and Dad don't want me anymore."

"Little Shan is going to leave me too."

"I have nothing left now."

"Lin Yu."

"You're all I have left."

"I only have you."

"Please don't abandon me, okay?"

"I... I really have nothing left."

"I can't hold on much longer..."

"Lin Yu, please don't leave me all alone, okay..."

"I'm begging you..."

"..."

Xia Muzhu's cries and pleas gradually faded in Lin Yu's ears, replaced by a sharp, inexplicable ringing that filled his mind.

Looking at the breaking down Xia Muzhu in front of him.

Lin Yu felt increasingly dazed, unable to even stand steadily, as if the entire world had begun to vibrate at an extremely high frequency.

Everything gradually became unclear. In the blurred reality, the Xia Muzhu in front of him seemed to overlap with a broken-down Xia Muzhu from another world.

A terrifying sense of familiarity roared and surged over him like a tsunami, the extreme despair making his blood run cold.

Xia Muzhu cried until she didn't even have the strength to sit on the sofa. She slid off the couch, slumping weakly to her knees on the floor. Her upturned face was filled with sorrow and entreaty, her azure blue eyes hidden behind glistening tears. The sight of it made one's heart ache as if it were being tightly squeezed.

Using the last remaining bit of reason in his mind, Lin Yu continuously forced himself to take deep breaths, trying desperately to drag himself out of that extreme terror.

After taking a few deep breaths, everything around him gradually came into focus. Without waiting for the ringing in his ears to completely fade, Lin Yu crouched down, then dropped to his knees, pulling the tear-streaked Xia Muzhu into a tight embrace.

"I won't go."

Lin Yu's voice was faint and hollow as he made the promise, drifting aimlessly like a leaf on the water.

"Lin Yu, please don't leave me," Xia Muzhu pleaded through her tears, clinging to him tightly.

"I won't leave you."

Lin Yu murmured, repeating the words once more. It was less of a promise to her and more of an attempt to convince himself.

"Please don't leave me..."

"I won't leave you."

"Lin Yu, don't leave me..."

"..."

...

Inside the warm room, the two of them knelt on the floor, locked in a tight embrace.

Outside the window, the sunlight gradually took on the fading orange hues of dusk. It spilled through the glass and spread across the floor, shimmering in a pool of golden orange.

Xia Muzhu slowly loosened her hold on Lin Yu. She leaned back slightly, gazing at the man before her with eyes brimming with tears.

There was a time when this man's promises were worth their weight in gold, but right now, they failed to bring her even the slightest sense of security.

She gently pushed Lin Yu down onto his back, her soft lips falling recklessly upon his bare skin.

She no longer cared how pitiful and desperate she looked.

Amidst her despair and helplessness, she decided to use a different way to make Lin Yu stay.