On a rainy day with poor road conditions, Zhuang Zi drove very slowly and arrived at the company just at eight o’clock.

As she walked into the office, the previously lively environment suddenly became much quieter, as if everyone had a mutual understanding.

Her colleagues and the young receptionist were all secretly glancing at her, observing her condition and mood, looking for something new.

Due to insomnia last night, she didn’t look well, which made everyone even more certain that this incident had hit her hard.

Lost in her own thoughts, Zhuang Zi walked to her desk with her eyes slightly lowered, not noticing the inquisitive looks from everyone.

As soon as she sat down, a young male colleague at the next desk leaned slightly towards her and softly comforted her, “What is lost was meant to be lost. Something better is surely waiting for you.”

Zhuang Zi put down her bag and looked at him, puzzled.

The male colleague, a handsome guy with bright eyes, looked at her sympathetically. “I hope you can get out of the gloom soon.”

He went back to his work, and Zhuang Zi also turned on her computer and began to immerse herself in her tasks, soon forgetting his inexplicable words.

It wasn’t until she went to the cafeteria for lunch that she suddenly understood what her colleague’s sudden comfort meant.

There was a wall-mounted LCD TV in the cafeteria, and the local TV station was broadcasting the midday news.

On the TV screen, a pretty girl stood tearfully in the middle of a heart made of candles, surrounded by pink rose petals. In front of her, a well-dressed man knelt on one knee, looking noble and handsome, holding a large bouquet of blooming red roses and a black velvet ring box containing a sparkling diamond ring.

The background was the Wanda Plaza in the city center, with the large display screen showing several eye-catching English letters: “mArrY me.”

It was a romantic and grand proposal scene, and the man proposing was all too familiar to Zhuang Zi.

Jiang Tianchen, the man she almost married two years ago.

She stared at the screen for two seconds, squinted slightly, then calmly looked away and continued to eat her lunch.

After returning from the cafeteria, she finally realized the sharp gazes everyone was casting her way, as if they were trying to cut open her body and see into her heart.

She pretended not to notice, continuing to work as usual. All the way until she went home after work in the evening, she showed no abnormal emotions and wasn’t affected by the incident at all.

In the evening, she simply cooked some noodles, took an early bath, and went to her room to continue reading her reference book.

At one in the morning, she turned off the light and lay in bed but couldn’t sleep.

She took a sleeping pill and lay in the dark, staring blankly.

No matter how hard she tried to live her life, she couldn’t escape the threads of fate.

She thought that if it weren’t for the sudden changes in the Zhuang family and their decline, maybe the Jiang family wouldn’t have broken off the engagement back then.

Was she sad?

She didn’t know.

Because such a luxurious thing was something she was destined never to encounter in her life, and she never hoped for it.

…

The next day.

The rain had stopped, but the weather remained overcast.

After the rush hour for work and school had passed, the neighborhood was quiet.

Suddenly, a piercing siren shattered the silence, coming closer and closer, heading straight for the community.

Soon, a crowd of onlookers gathered outside a unit building, drawn by the sound. Everyone was talking at once, curious about what had happened.

“Someone on the third floor attempted suicide!” An excited old lady pointed at the figure above. “The door is locked from the inside, and the police are climbing the wall to rescue them.”

Some worried about the police officer climbing the wall. “It’s so high, what if he falls?!”

A tall, lean man in black plainclothes, using a rope thrown down from the fourth floor by his teammates, deftly climbed from the second-floor balcony up to the master bedroom window on the third floor, using the outer wall for support.

…

Inside, the blackout curtains were drawn, making it as dark as night.

Zhuang Zi was awakened by an urgent and frantic knocking.

To be precise, she wasn’t fully awakened.

Her body remained in a deep sleep, but her mind momentarily cleared.

For some reason, she couldn’t muster the strength to open her eyes.

In a semi-conscious state, she tried to move but found herself weak all over. Her head hurt, and she felt nauseous.

A strange smell filled the air, causing her to instinctively frown and try harder to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt glued shut, and all her efforts were in vain.

The only clear sensation was the noise in her ears.

She retained a faint sense of awareness and heard what seemed like someone knocking on her window.

Suddenly, there was a loud “bang,” accompanied by the sounds of metal breaking and glass shattering.

Her heart raced with fear.

Someone had broken in through the window!

She struggled to turn her head toward the window and tried once more to open her eyes.

Through a blurry vision, she saw a nimble figure backlit by the light, leaping gracefully from the high wall outside into her bedroom.

Before she could react, the bed beside her sank slightly, and a faint scent of fresh grass mixed with a hint of tobacco enveloped her.

A man’s fingers, slightly calloused and cool to the touch, pressed against her neck to check her pulse.

The thin blanket was suddenly pulled off her, and perhaps because her pajamas were so light, he draped a coat over her. In the next second, she was lifted into the air and cradled in a warm, unfamiliar embrace.

Her neck, too weak to support her head, leaned against his shoulder.

She was carried out of the bedroom into the living room, and after the door opened, an unfamiliar voice asked, “Captain Si, how is she?”

She heard the man holding her speak, his chest vibrating with strength, “She’s alive.”

She tried once more to open her eyes with great effort.

Through a faint and blurry glimpse, she saw it.

The man’s side profile, handsome and chiseled, yet indistinct.