When Zhu Shiyu returned from buying hand soap, she found that Meng Siyi was nowhere to be seen. The place where he had been standing was empty, and the path they had taken to the residential area was now desolate, with only withered flowers, grass, and trees remaining.

His phone went unanswered, leaving Zhu Shiyu puzzled. She decided to head back home first, and upon pushing open the door, she found him sitting on the sofa, seemingly in a daze. His eyes were vacant, and he looked a bit lost, causing Zhu Shiyu to wonder if he was still under the influence of alcohol.

“Why did you come back by yourself?” Zhu Shiyu asked softly as she approached him.

Meng Siyi seemed to snap out of his trance, his eyes moving slowly to focus on her face.

“I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you,” he said, his speech clear and normal, showing no significant abnormalities. Zhu Shiyu felt slightly relieved but still asked with concern, “Do you want some water? Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”

Meng Siyi nodded, then shook his head.

His face was pale, and his lips were dry and chapped. His gaze met hers briefly before he looked down, silently staring at his hands resting on his knees.

“…Did you just come back from outside?” he asked.

“Yes,” Zhu Shiyu replied, not understanding his question. “After throwing away the trash, I remembered that we were out of hand soap, so I went to the convenience store. When I came back, you were gone.”

Meng Siyi looked up and saw the bag in her hand.

“You mentioned wanting water, right…?” Zhu Shiyu asked uncertainly. Earlier, he had nodded and then shaken his head, which she realized was his way of answering both of her questions at once.

Meng Siyi paused for half a second before nodding lightly again.

“Are you really okay?” Zhu Shiyu asked again as she brought him a half glass of warm water from the kitchen and handed it to him.

“Do you want some hangover medicine? My dad has some.”

“No need,” Meng Siyi said softly, his eyes downcast.

“I’m not drunk.”

Zhou Zhen and Zhu AnYuan had gone out for their usual post-dinner walk, leaving the two of them alone in the house. The living room was quiet, with no one speaking.

Under normal circumstances, Zhu Shiyu would have retreated to her room by now, watching videos or editing clips. But today, Meng Siyi was here, sitting on the sofa.

Zhu Shiyu thought for a moment and then sat down next to him with her water glass.

The remote control was on the coffee table. She leaned forward, picked it up, and turned on the TV.

Not knowing what kind of shows he liked, Zhu Shiyu chose a channel that she thought wouldn’t be a mistake. When Meng Siyi looked up at the sound of the TV, he saw the words “People and Nature” in the bottom right corner of the screen.

He remained silent, his eyes fixed on the screen.

Seeing that he was watching intently, Zhu Shiyu thought he must like it, so she left the TV on that channel.

The two of them sat in silence in the living room, watching CCTV’s “People and Nature.”

Time passed, maybe half an hour, or perhaps just a few minutes. Meng Siyi’s gaze shifted from the TV to Zhu Shiyu’s profile as she watched the show attentively.

The hand resting on his knee moved unconsciously.

“Shiyu,” he called her, his voice slightly hoarse.

“Hmm?” Zhu Shiyu turned to look at him without any guard.

“When I went downstairs for a walk just now, I think I saw someone looking for you at the entrance of the residential area,” Meng Siyi said with difficulty.

“The security guard wouldn’t let him in.”

“I heard him say that he seemed to know you.”

“Who was it?” Zhu Shiyu instinctively furrowed her brows, trying to recall if she had any friends who would come directly to her house to find her.

This thought led her to consider a certain possibility.

Her body stiffened, and she came back to her senses, asking Meng Siyi carefully.

“Could you describe what he looked like?”

Zhu Shiyu’s expression was serious, her gaze fixed on him without blinking. Meng Siyi slowly sat up straight, as if lost in thought, and began to describe the person’s features.

Almost as soon as she heard the third descriptor, Zhu Shiyu confirmed that the person was Lu Ge.

“I’m going out to make a call,” she said decisively, standing up abruptly.

Meng Siyi’s body stiffened as he watched her take her phone and walk out without any hesitation, her steps hurried and eager.

He lowered his eyes and continued to stare motionlessly at his hands on his knees.

It was as if he had turned into a lifeless wooden statue.

—

In the fire escape stairwell, a window was half-open, and the surroundings were quiet and deserted.

Zhu Shiyu leaned against the wall and found Lu Ge’s number in her contacts. She removed him from the blacklist.

Over the past two months, his harassment had not stopped. Several times, he had used unknown numbers to send her messages and call her, all of which Zhu Shiyu had ignored and blocked.

According to her colleagues in Beijing, around the New Year, he had even gone to her company to look for her. But at that time, Zhu Shiyu had already returned to Wenbei City and was too busy to deal with him.

Zhu Shiyu thought that her actions would make Lu Ge realize the situation, but she didn’t expect him to come directly to her house to find her.

Apart from the other implications, if her parents saw him, it would cause another difficult dispute.

Lu Ge’s field of study almost guaranteed that he could only work in the city where his university was located, and he had no intention of returning to Wenbei City. Wenbei City was just a small second or third-tier city, with far fewer opportunities than a big city.

When they were together, her parents had strongly opposed their relationship, but they could never change Zhu Shiyu’s mind. Eventually, they treated her boyfriend the same way they treated her job—with indifference.