What Also Cannot Protect

Ye Liangchen froze for a moment.

Staring at the shattered urn lying broken on the concrete ground, he instinctively turned to Long Aotian, stammering an apology: "I—I didn’t mean to!"

Seeing the veins bulge on Long Aotian’s clenched fist, the memory of that punch—the kind that could send one straight to the afterlife—flashed vividly in his mind.

Ye Liangchen took a step back. Before Long Aotian could explode, he grabbed Xue Shaohua’s arm and bolted from the scene.

Shen Xiu had already vanished without a trace.

Long Aotian didn’t give chase. The storm of emotions surging within him was forcibly suppressed.

He dropped to his knees, desperately gathering the scattered ashes with his hands...

As the pale gray dust slipped through his fingers, carried away by the wind, the pain in his heart erupted anew.

He couldn’t protect her when she was alive. Now, he couldn’t even safeguard the last remnant she left behind in this world. The backlash of grief hit him with brutal intensity.

His breathing ragged, Long Aotian slowly extended his hand, tenderly trying to gather the powdery remnants.

The harder he tried to hold on, the more the ashes escaped through his fingers.

In his daze, a familiar figure seemed to materialize before him, walking closer with playful arrogance gleaming in her eyes.

"Ha! Now you’ll never find me..." she teased, her voice echoing in his mind.

At that moment, the fragile composure he’d struggled to maintain shattered completely.

Her confession, her laughter, even her final words before leaving—"I’m letting you go..."—flooded back.

Her love had come suddenly, inexplicably, yet it ensnared him like an inescapable net.

---

The rehearsal for the performance shoot wrapped up.

Lin Wanning couldn’t find Long Aotian anywhere. His phone went unanswered.

A gnawing unease gripped her, and she immediately called Hu Yuying.

"Didn’t Brother Long say he was going to the restroom?"

"Yeah, but he’s been lazier lately. You know what they say—lazy people have more bathroom breaks," Li Qingxue joked lightly.

But when Lin Wanning explained she’d searched everywhere with no luck, their amusement faded into worry.

Over the past two months, Long Aotian had been improving—his complexion, his demeanor, everything.

The doctors had encouraged him to go out more, to rediscover joy and interests.

That’s why Lin Wanning had brought him to the performance venue today.

During their video call earlier, he’d seemed fine. What could have happened?

The old Long Aotian would never vanish without telling Lin Wanning where he was going. He knew how frantic she’d be if she couldn’t find him afterward...

The three women regrouped, scouring every place Long Aotian might have gone, but found nothing.

"Should we call the police?" Li Qingxue asked, her voice tight with anxiety.

"They won’t file a report unless he’s missing for 24 hours."

"But he’s a patient. They’d make an exception, right?"

Hu Yuying, silent until now, suddenly turned and walked away.

"Sis, where are you going?"

"Yuying, don’t panic. We’ll find him," Lin Wanning called after her.

Hu Yuying shook her head softly. "I think... maybe he’s already home?"

They’d searched all his usual spots outside. But they hadn’t checked the house yet.

Maybe, just maybe, he was waiting behind that door.

With no other leads, Hu Yuying’s suggestion became their temporary anchor—a fragile hope to cling to until they reached home.

They hailed a cab and sped toward the courtyard house.

After hopping out of the car, they sprinted through the alley and reached the front gate.

The moment the door swung open, they called out for Long Aotian.

The rooms were dark, no lights on.

Dread crept deeper into their hearts.

"What are you all doing?"

The voice behind them made them whirl around. There stood Long Aotian, watching them with mild amusement.

Relief melted into pouting indignation. They swarmed him at once.

"Where were you? Your phone was off! Do you have any idea how worried we were?"

"You—you absolute jerk! You scared us half to death!" Li Qingxue’s voice wobbled, her tough facade crumbling the second she saw him.

Lin Wanning even landed two light punches on his arm.

Her so-called "agent" had abandoned her mid-event without a word. Did he know how terrifying it was to lose him like that?

Long Aotian, unfazed, pulled a plastic basin from behind his back like a magician.

"I went for a walk, and guess what happened?"

"Some guy handing out flyers said if I attended a lecture, I’d get a huge basin like this." He gestured expansively.

"Sounded like a steal, so I went. Sat through this endless spiel, and what did they give me? This tiny thing! Total false advertising!"

His exaggerated storytelling and comically small basin had the three girls laughing despite themselves.

Hu Yuying sniffled. "You actually believed they’d give you a basin that big? Since when do free lunches exist? You taught me better than that!"

"Agreed. Classic marketing trap," Lin Wanning added. "Free gifts to lure you into buying overpriced junk."

"You didn’t spend money, did you?" Li Qingxue eyed him suspiciously.

Long Aotian tweaked her nose. "Little snot-bubble, do I look that dumb to you?"

"I don’t pay for things. But freebies? I’ll take ’em all."

No one hearing his quick wit would ever guess he was a patient.

Seamlessly, Long Aotian steered the conversation toward Lin Wanning’s upcoming competition in early May.

As expected, she lit up, gushing about the stage setup and professional equipment.

"You’ll all come to my first performance, right?"

"As your agent—occasionally flaky, but never absent for the big moments—I’ll be front and center," Long Aotian declared.

"I’ll even borrow phones to spam votes for you."

"Perfect! One vote from you, one from me—we’ll carry her through the eliminations!"

For the first time in what felt like forever, they laughed together like this.

It was... nice.