The seashell was not found.

It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was the seashell itself that was too eager, too impatient, too desperate to be discovered at a glance.

Although it had obediently hidden behind the reef, it was afraid of not being found, so it had specially placed a large pile of star lights around it and drawn the biggest smiley face on the beach.

Those glittering stars were too conspicuous, too unguarded, and attracted the cold, dark undercurrents hiding in the sea trench.

The vicious undercurrent rushed up from the bottom of the sea, snatched the seashell, and washed the smiley face completely clean.

…

Even so, this matter actually didn’t lead to any terrible consequences.

Of course, there would be no misunderstanding. How could there be a misunderstanding? Luo Chi believed in Aunt Ren more than he believed in himself, and Aunt Ren liked Xiao Huo Miao more than anything else.

It was just that both of them were too worried about the other, too unwilling to let the other feel any discomfort or unhappiness.

Because they cared too much, and wanted to mend all the scars worn down by the world, they naturally had infinite patience and caution.

Aunt Ren stood behind the reef, facing the empty beach, thinking. Xiao Huo Miao had encountered too many bad things. He must still be nervous, still not daring to bravely say what he wanted. She had to be patient, she couldn’t rush.

Luo Chi curled up in bed, tossing and turning with his arms as a pillow. Aunt Ren had too many worries recently. Bringing him home was such a big deal, of course, it had to be considered with special care and thoroughness. He had to wait slowly, he couldn’t rush.

Can’t rush, take it slow, can’t rush.

Until Aunt Ren suddenly fell ill without any warning.

Aunt Ren lay in her hospital bed, sighing out of boredom and flicking the IV tube. She finally steeled her heart and grabbed Luo Chi, who was busy taking care of her.

…It wasn’t until Aunt Ren tapped his head again and again, asking when the wish in the seashell would finally be made, that Luo Chi was suddenly stunned and realized that something must have gone wrong here.

He had buried the seashell, but it hadn’t reached Aunt Ren’s hands.

Something must have gone wrong.

Luo Chi only then discovered that something was wrong here.

“Little squirrel,” Aunt Ren still didn’t know, tapping his forehead to interrogate him, “where on earth did you hide the seashell?”

When he was first sent to the Ren family, the ten-year-old Luo Chi was still very prone to anxiety. Whenever he received something he liked, he was never willing to use it and had to hide it all away.

Aunt Ren was moved by his diligent spirit of hoarding treasures and simply found a tree in the garden and hid a super-secret safe for him in the tree.

At that time, whenever Luo Chi had something good, he would hold it in his arms and secretly run up the tree when no one was around.

Aunt Ren stood under the tree, laughing until her stomach hurt. To tease him, she would deliberately say that she had raised a little squirrel.

The little squirrel stood rooted to the spot, his heart beating so fast it almost burst out of his chest.

…

He absolutely could not be anxious.

Aunt Ren’s illness absolutely could not have any drastic emotional fluctuations.

In those exceptionally brief few seconds, Luo Chi had already quickly figured out what to do.

The little squirrel buried his head and obediently accepted the scolding, apologizing in a small voice, saying he liked the seashell too much and was unwilling to bury it in the sand. Also, being able to make only one wish was too little. He was afraid of wasting it, so he had been thinking about it.

Aunt Ren was both angry and amused, and heartbroken. She pinched his cheek, telling him to just not write a letter anymore, but to write a bunch of small notes and stuff them inside.

Aunt Ren certainly knew that Luo Chi knew everything, so she simply didn’t even make up a story.

Aunt Ren openly promised him that he could write whatever he wanted, write whatever he pleased, and Auntie would help him turn all the small notes into reality.

The little squirrel also blushed and turned over a new leaf, standing at attention and swearing that he would hand over the seashell within three days.

…

After dark, Luo Chi took care of Aunt Ren until she fell asleep, then ran back to the beach alone and turned the entire beach upside down.

He used a flashlight to search all the seashells he could see on the beach, but every one of them was empty. He thought that it had been too long, perhaps it had been carried into the sea by the rising tide, so he went back and forth in the near-shore waters to search.

It had been too long. It was actually very normal not to find it.

Every seashell was empty, with only seawater, seaweed, and wet sand.

The seashell Aunt Ren had given him was lost.

He couldn’t let Aunt Ren know.

Luo Chi’s right leg was acting up again. He tripped and fell into the seawater. The words he had heard the doctor say at the hospital during the day finally popped into his mind.

Luo Chi lay motionless in that patch of seawater.

Only after all the moisture in his body had drained out did he suddenly sit up, vigorously wipe the seawater from his face, and gasp for breath.

He shouldn’t have made that wish. He should have wished for Aunt Ren to be healthy and live a long life.

How could he have forgotten to wish for Aunt Ren to live a long life?

The seashell was lost.

He couldn’t tell Aunt Ren. He couldn’t let Aunt Ren know.

Luo Chi sat in that patch of seawater. He noticed the tide was rising. He mustered all his strength to stand up, dragging his right leg as he struggled ashore before the tide could submerge him.

“Don’t be scared,” Luo Chi scolded his right leg. “You’re not allowed to be scared.”

He pressed down hard on that leg and told himself in a low voice, “There’s a way.”

There was a way for everything.

He would find a way.

Perhaps it had listened to his scolding. That leg, apart from the scraped skin from the fall, which burned and stung from being soaked in seawater, had no other problems.

Luo Chi returned to the beach and collected all the seashell shells he had thrown away.

He shone his flashlight on them, carefully comparing them, found one that looked the most like the one in his memory, and brought it back to his small house.

The angles of the seashell shell were, after all, subtly different. He carefully cut off the slightly different parts with a small knife, then polished it smooth with sandpaper and washed it exceptionally clean in the water.

He still had to take care of Aunt Ren, so he also washed himself clean with hot water, carefully treated his wounds, made himself a hot meal and ate it, and changed into comfortable lounge clothes.

He took care of himself in a way that would definitely reassure Aunt Ren.

Then Luo Chi, with that seashell, sat under the desk lamp and made a wish with single-minded concentration.

He stuffed it full of crumpled little notes. Wishing for Aunt Ren to be happy, for Aunt Ren to be healthy, for Aunt Ren to take a good rest without worrying about work for a while, for Aunt Ren to get well soon, for Aunt Ren to no longer worry about anything.

Luo Chi sat at the desk and checked all the notes. He felt again that this would not be able to pass Aunt Ren’s inspection, so he gripped his pen and tried his best to add a few more things about himself.

…Live to be eighty.

He hoped Aunt Ren could live to be one hundred and eleven, so he would live to be eighty, so they could fall asleep together.

Be happy and joyful.

Find many people who liked him, many happy things, to put Aunt Ren at ease.

Find a person he liked the most and bring them back for Aunt Ren to see.

Grow up quickly, become an adult quickly, get a driver’s license, and drive Aunt Ren out on a trip.

Learn to sail a boat. Sailing a boat seemed to also require a license. Then he would buy a small boat and take Aunt Ren out for a ride on the sea.

Aunt Ren also wanted to try skydiving, bungee jumping, and deep-sea surfing. He was a little afraid of the deep sea, but he could swim alongside. He thought he would soon no longer be afraid.

Luo Chi wrote for a whole night. The next morning, he ran back to the hospital with the seashell.

Aunt Ren leaned against the head of the bed, looking at the small notes one by one.

Luo Chi’s heart was almost about to jump out of his throat.

Fortunately, Aunt Ren didn’t seem to notice anything unusual about the seashell. She just finished reading the notes, then happily praised the brand-new, top-quality surfboard Luo Chi had brought for a long time.

Aunt Ren didn’t ask any more questions. She just hugged Luo Chi, chatted with him softly, and then slowly taught her Xiao Huo Miao many principles.

Aunt Ren said that the most important thing in life is to live happily, not to live long.

Aunt Ren said that sometimes, some things are just unreasonable and unavoidable. So if it happens, it’s not anyone’s fault.

Aunt Ren said that the surfboard was so great, he must take it with him. She loved the sea the most and wished she could sleep in the sea forever.

Aunt Ren told him that Xiao Huo Miao must live well, must live well, otherwise Auntie would be sad.

…

The cruise ship was silent in the lights of the harbor.

The wind lifted the curtain a little, and the pale moonlight slipped to the bedside.

Luo Chi clenched his jaw in an unconscious chaos. He curled up in a daze, burying himself in that cold moonlight.

Perhaps taking it for seawater, Luo Chi didn’t make a sound, just letting the moisture seep out from under his tightly closed eyelids.

Ming Lu turned on the oxygen machine and spoke softly, “Sir.”

The current situation was not suitable for rashly waking Luo Chi up.

The Luo Chi trapped in the fog didn’t care much about his own body. Although he didn’t resist treatment, he only did so because Mr. Shadow wanted him to take these medicines and get these injections, so he complied.

But the memory unexpectedly triggered by the seashell tonight made him, in this chaotic daze, still struggle with all his might to protect the Aunt Ren in his memory from being sad.

…To have such a vivid emotional reaction was definitely much better than that dazed calmness.

Ming Weiting nodded. He moved even more gently, bit by bit lifting Luo Chi out of the cold sweat.

Luo Chi, trapped in a dream, his shoulders, back, and arms instinctively tensed, but because the strength this body could muster was too weak, all that was left was a slight tremor overflowing from his bones.

Ming Weiting wanted to massage him to relax, but every one of Luo Chi’s joints was stiff, and his body was extremely cold. There was really no place to start.

So he held Luo Chi entirely in his arms, letting every part of Luo Chi be close to him.

After being together day and night these past few days, Luo Chi had become familiar with his scent and no longer resisted even when trapped in a nightmare. Unconsciously, the half of his body leaning against him began to become warm and soft.

Ming Lu adjusted the oxygen flow rate, walked over lightly, and handed the mask to Ming Weiting.

Ming Weiting raised his hand and touched the side of Luo Chi’s cheek nestled against his shoulder with the back of his hand.

Feeling that the temperature there had warmed up, he carefully turned Luo Chi over in his arms, took the mask, and put it on for Luo Chi. “Who did it?”

“That son of the Ren family,” Ming Lu’s voice was very soft. “He… he probably didn’t know what it was.”

Ren Chenbai didn’t want to see anyone liking Luo Chi, didn’t want anyone to give Luo Chi gifts.

Ming Lu even suspected that even avenging Madam Ren was just a cover—perhaps even Ren Chenbai himself didn’t know it was a cover.

Ren Chenbai was just using this as an excuse to destroy Luo Chi with a clearer conscience.

He obstructed Luo Chi’s self-rescue, destroyed the things Luo Chi cared about, blocked all the goodwill around Luo Chi… just to extinguish that flame that was too hot for him.

Ren Chenbai had probably long since fallen into a kind of intense, twisted paranoia. He used unscrupulous means to deal with Luo Chi, even forgetting what his original intention was for doing so.

Ren Chenbai had most likely forgotten that he had started doing these things because he felt insecure.

He found that Luo Zhi didn’t need to rely on him or the Ren family to live—he finally found that Luo Zhi couldn’t be hidden at all. That flame was eye-catching wherever it went, so bright and hot that just looking at it felt stinging.

Ren Chenbai began to feel intensely insecure, began to become irritable. He always felt that Luo Zhi would leave sooner or later.

Ren Chenbai always felt that Luo Zhi wouldn’t stay, wouldn’t stay in this uninteresting place, wouldn’t stay by the side of a person like him… He destroyed Luo Zhi’s things in a fit of anger, threw away the gifts Luo Zhi could have received.

But he didn’t know he had also thrown away a seashell.

…

Ming Weiting understood Ming Lu’s meaning.

“The other party has been informed of this matter,” Ming Lu said in a low voice. “He will know what he has done.”

Ming Lu had made arrangements before returning to the cruise ship. He lowered his hands and continued, “He wasn’t sent to their family’s hospital. Director Xun doesn’t mind taking in one more patient.”

Ren Chenbai’s car wouldn’t be able to reach his family’s hospital, unless someone in the Ren family was still not clear-headed and refused to give up on a half-mad, useless heir.

…The people of the Ren family were of course very clear-headed.

Ming Lu had checked the news. He had already received Xun Zhen’s reply. He looked up, “Sir, should we wake him up?”

“No rush,” Ming Weiting said.

Ming Lu waited for his instructions, but Ming Weiting stopped talking again.

Ming Weiting lowered his gaze. He stroked Luo Chi’s hair and placed the newly made seashell back into Luo Chi’s palm.

He could understand why Luo Chi, no matter what, didn’t want Madam Ren to know about this matter.

Even though the matter itself was just a series of unfortunate coincidences, it happened to coincide with Madam Ren’s illness, causing these unfortunate coincidences to finally divert fate in the coldest and most cruel direction, with no chance of being compensated for or corrected.

If Madam Ren had really learned of this matter during her illness, no matter how open-minded and optimistic she was, her emotions would have been destined to fluctuate violently—that wish was already impossible to realize at that time.

Patriarch Luo could throw a son out of sight and out of mind, but he would not tolerate Ren Shuangmei actually bringing this child home and completely becoming a member of the Ren family. This was almost like hanging a sign of “heartless and unrighteous” on him and pushing him out for people to point at and mock.

Ren Shuangmei’s health was the biggest crux. If her health was good, no matter how much trouble the Luo family caused, she would retaliate without hesitation.

According to Ren Shuangmei’s temper, she might even deliberately bring Luo Zhi to various occasions where the Luo family was present, pushing Luo Zhi to the most dazzling and eye-catching place, to let all the Luo family see how outstanding the child they treated coldly was.

But Ming Lu had already gone to check. Ren Shuangmei was diagnosed with an aortic dissection at that time. The location was too bad, and the risk of surgery was so high that there was almost no chance of luck. She had to rest in bed, and the slightest carelessness could be life-threatening.

Ren Shuangmei didn’t want her family to cry and worry endlessly, so she had someone suppress the diagnosis results, but she couldn’t hide it from Luo Chi, who was taking care of her in the hospital.

It was probably around this time that Luo Chi, for the first time, self-taught, quickly and very covertly hid a part of himself.

…

In that state, Luo Chi no longer had the ability to sort out all his memories.

Luo Chi didn’t want Aunt Ren to be sad because of that matter, so he could only ask Mr. Shadow to help him keep it a secret from Aunt Ren.

Luo Chi didn’t know that Mr. Shadow was also there that day.

“I should have gotten off the ship,” Ming Weiting said. “Behind the reef is a very good position.”

He might have caught the troublemaking Ren Chenbai there, tied him up, and thrown him into the sea, then rearranged the star lights.

The shadow behind the reef was very deep, very suitable for standing there and watching a brilliant, dazzling fire.

Ming Weiting didn’t have the habit of getting off the ship at that time. He actually couldn’t quite imagine what kind of development that would be. He thought quietly for a while, but still held Luo Chi’s hand.

Luo Chi’s nightmare seemed to have ended.

Perhaps because he was too tired, or because he felt safe in the familiar scent, Luo Chi slept very deeply, and his body also relaxed.

Ming Weiting held his hand. He found that Luo Chi didn’t have the habit of grabbing onto anything in his dreams. That hand was always loosely curled, completely without force.

Perhaps it was also because, from a long time ago, there was no longer anything for Luo Chi to hold onto.

The main culprit who caused all this still didn’t even know what he had done, what he had destroyed with his own hands.

“That person,” Ming Weiting asked. “Doesn’t he have a dream?”

Ming Lu was stunned for a moment. “Ren—what dream should he have?”

Xun Zhen was personally watching Ren Chenbai. It was actually not difficult to make Ren Chenbai hallucinate.

That person’s current mental state was already extremely unstable. With just a little stimulation and appropriate guidance, he could be made to fall into a dream from which it would be difficult to wake up on his own.

Ming Weiting held Luo Chi’s hand, and together they held the seashell full of shells, and shook it gently.

The seashell rustled in Luo Chi’s palm.

Ming Lu suddenly reacted. “I’ll go make the arrangements.”

…How could they not let the main culprit see for himself?

Go into that dream, and see with his own eyes how good the future could have been—a future that would even make Ren Chenbai himself feel intense happiness and satisfaction.

What Ren Chenbai had painstakingly sought, even willing to destroy Luo Chi to obtain, was nothing more than this kind of future.

What it should have been like, what would have happened.

The possibility that he had completely destroyed with his own hands.

How could he just wake up so easily without seeing it clearly in a dream?

…

The seashell from back then should have been found by Ren Shuangmei.

Ren Shuangmei, having found the seashell, would have run all the way, picked up Xiao Huo Miao, and lifted him up.

Luo Chi might have been playing the guitar at that time, might have been startled, might have blushed, and would have been frozen with wide eyes.

Ren Shuangmei would have held the Xiao Huo Miao, laughing and shouting that the wish had come true. She would have taken Luo Zhi home without another word, and unceremoniously told everyone in the Luo family to get lost—Luo Zhi would have truly become one of their family.

The people around would have clapped and cheered loudly, scrambling to pat Luo Chi’s head, praising him for being sensible, praising him for being smart, looking like the most likable good child.

The bonfire party would have definitely become even more lively. Perhaps this liveliness would have spread all the way to the nearby pier.

Luo Chi would probably have been as hot as a small kettle in Aunt Ren’s arms, and might even have shed tears from the intense surprise of being thrown into a new life, and then had his nose playfully pinched by Ren Shuangmei.

But no matter what, Luo Chi would have been happy in the end.

Luo Chi would have jumped to the highest place, would have sung loudly without restraint, would have held his guitar and strummed his strings amidst the laughter and clapping of the people—what else was there for him to be afraid of?

He had been taken home. He was so happy he was about to fly.

That would have been a completely different world line.

In that world line, that scorching, brilliant, bright color would have spread along the surface of the sea and touched the ship moored there.