After returning home, I felt dazed.

Wen Xun seemed to notice something was off about me. He came over, hugged me without saying anything, and quietly stayed by my side. He appeared obedient and harmless.

After a while, I spoke faintly, “I saw your grandfather today.”

Our eyes met.

Wen Xun’s smile froze, and a shadow darkened in his eyes.

Although the boy was still smiling, an inexplicable coldness and danger crept into the atmosphere.

“Oh? What did my grandfather say?” Wen Xun’s tone was light. “Did he say I’m crazy? Mentally ill? A performer?”

His voice remained soft, but his grip on my hand tightened, causing pain. I pulled my hand away forcefully.

Wen Xun noticed the red marks around my wrist, and his expression softened instantly. He kissed my wrist repeatedly, apologizing non-stop.

“Brother, I’m sorry. I hurt you.

“I was just so scared. I was afraid you’d abandon me. I lost control for a moment.”

This time, I didn’t pull my hand away. Instead, I looked at him with a complicated expression.

In just a few sentences, he switched between two completely different faces. I didn’t even know which of his words were real and which were lies anymore.

“So, you’ve been lying to me from the start?”

Wen Xun fell silent.

He admitted it without saying a word.

A wave of anger surged from deep inside me, and I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly at myself. How could I have been so foolish?

I had been so pleased, thinking I had found the perfect boyfriend, only to realize I was nothing more than a joke. A clown.

Thinking this, I no longer wanted to look at Wen Xun.

“Your grandfather said he wanted to take you home. You’re just a lying scoundrel. Go with him and get out of my sight.”

I stood up, preparing to leave, but in the next moment, Wen Xun wrapped his arms tightly around my waist from behind and pressed me down onto the sofa.

Feeling the weight of his body on top of me, I opened my mouth to curse him, but before I could speak, he said, “Brother, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied to you.

“I just wanted to get close to you, but I was afraid of scaring you.”

Then, Wen Xun started to tell me about the past, and that’s when I realized that we had known each other for much longer than I had thought.

My mom had a mental illness, and for as long as I could remember, she had been in the hospital. My dad loved her deeply and rented a house near the hospital.

At that time, the area wasn’t as deserted as it is now. We often visited my mom.

When I was a teenager, I met a little boy at the hospital, around seven or eight years old. That boy turned out to be Wen Xun in his younger years.

Wen Xun had been surrounded by a group of older kids, who were beating him up. He was bruised all over, and one of the kids had cruelly snatched off one of his hearing aids, taunting him.

“Little deaf boy, want your hearing aid back? Crawl under my pants, and I’ll give it to you! Haha!

“I heard insanity is hereditary. His mom’s a lunatic, so he must be a little lunatic too!

“Haha, I bet the lunatics in the mental hospital all crawl on the ground. Does your mom crawl around all day too, twisting and turning? Haha! Come on, crawl and twist for us!”

Wen Xun was furious. He rushed at them, trying to fight back, but he was small, and there were too many of them. He ended up getting beaten even worse.

Maybe because I had been through something similar, or maybe because I couldn’t stand hearing someone insult his mom, I rushed over to help him.

Those kids were all cowards. As soon as I fought back, they ran away.

I picked up the hearing aid from the ground and handed it back to Wen Xun, ruffling his hair as I did.

“Don’t listen to them. People like that just have foul mouths.

“If you don’t want to hear it, just take out your hearing aids and let them say whatever they want.”

At that time, Wen Xun had looked up at me and said, “Brother, you’re such a good person.”