After returning to the main villa with her big brother, Luo Cheng lay down in her own room, tossing and turning for half the night.

It wasn’t entirely because of the terrifying dark and rainy night—she was indeed very afraid of dark places, and had been since she was a child. If it was pitch black all around, her whole body would freeze in place, and her legs wouldn’t be able to move at all.

It was just that this was something from when she was three or four years old, as the adults said. Her own impression was not very deep.

As she grew older, although this fear was still there, it was much better than the utter helplessness of her childhood.

Seeing that frightening scene when she delivered the food just now, Luo Cheng had almost recovered, but she was still a little shaken.

…

More than that, Luo Cheng couldn’t sleep, mainly because she was still worrying about what had happened during the day.

She was in a hurry to find Luo Zhi, and because of the recent events, she was holding a grudge and insisted on proving her own ability, so she didn’t ask her big brother or Jian Huaiyi for help.

Contacting Li Weiming’s fans was also an idea that popped into her head when she saw someone post about encountering Luo Zhi while browsing Weibo.

She was just thinking of using those people to find Luo Zhi. As soon as she got the location, she rushed over. She had no idea that there were so many people outside the hotel, and even many people holding their phones and brazenly live-streaming…

The more Luo Cheng thought about it, the more annoyed she became. She hugged her pillow and sighed gloomily.

So many cameras had captured her chasing out of the hotel, shouting “Second Brother.”

Luo Cheng’s mind went blank. She was afraid that these people would find out she was Luo Zhi’s sister and despise and hate her as well. So she had no choice but to take a stand with those people and draw a line with Luo Zhi, and then she apologized to Li Weiming on Luo Zhi’s behalf in public.

She was so surrounded that she couldn’t get away. She was both embarrassed and mortified. She had no choice but to say those things.

But Luo Zhi probably held a grudge against her for this.

The situation at the time was very chaotic, but in her panic, the glance she had taken was still particularly clear in Luo Cheng’s memory.

Something was wrong with Luo Zhi’s body again. He was leaning motionless against the roadside.

Those people also knew what was important. Fearing they would get into trouble if they hurt him, no one dared to touch him again. Instead, they seemed to avoid him as if he were a plague, forming a small circle around him.

Luo Zhi looked at her, and it seemed as if he were looking through her at many things.

No one dared to care about him, so his body just slowly collapsed from exhaustion. Before his quiet black eyes completely lost focus, they suddenly flickered with a brief moment of clarity.

It was in that one instant that Luo Cheng saw him lower his eyes and smile faintly, wearily.

Luo Zhi was neither in pain nor sad. Or perhaps these emotions were simply too extravagant for him.

He was just a little sad, and this sadness had just uncontrollably overflowed for a moment along a slowly cracking fissure, almost drowning the completely unprepared Luo Cheng on the spot.

…

Waking up from that state, Luo Cheng realized that moonlight was falling in from the window.

The raging storm had stopped at some point. The clouds had dispersed, the fog had cleared, and the wind was calm.

The moonlight sprinkled on the carefully trimmed plants in the garden, reflecting in the puddles on the ground. It was a bright and quiet that had been absent for the past few nights.

Like the light that had finally dissipated in Luo Zhi’s eyes.

Luo Cheng was suddenly filled with an inexplicable sense of guilt.

She didn’t know what the consequences of being captured by those live-streaming cameras would be, but she at least knew that there would definitely be a lot of gossip about the Luo family online again.

She had caused trouble. She didn’t dare to tell her father and big brother, and for some reason, she didn’t want to tell Jian Huaiyi either. So she had hastily brought Luo Zhi back to the sea-view villa and hidden him, wanting to discuss it with him when he woke up and let him make a decision.

…In her heart, Luo Cheng actually didn’t know why, at a time like this, she would instinctively want to ask Luo Zhi.

Luo Zhi was clearly more deeply involved in this matter, and Luo Zhi clearly didn’t want to talk to her anymore… and clearly, in the car, when Luo Zhi still had a little consciousness left, he kept repeating in a low voice not to go to the Ren family.

Luo Cheng hesitated by the window for a while, then put on her clothes, took a flashlight, and quietly went out.

She just wanted to ask Luo Zhi to help her come up with an idea.

Even if Luo Zhi was really angry with her, and her agreement with Director Gong Hanrou was likely to have no hope… she just wouldn’t insist on it anymore.

Just using his brain and mouth to help her think of what to do, Luo Zhi would agree, right?

After Luo Zhi came up with an idea, she would arrange a car to send him away from the Ren family. This way, Luo Zhi wouldn’t have to be sad about seeing their family tomorrow, and he wouldn’t be scolded by her father and big brother.

See, she could still handle things well.

Luo Cheng walked and rehearsed in her mind, thinking all the way about how to start. She had never apologized to Luo Zhi before. Now that she had finally built up enough mental preparation, she had already arrived at the window of that small room.

Luo Cheng, with the help of the moonlight, leaned in and called out, but then she suddenly froze.

Luo Zhi was not in the room.

The room was empty, not covered in dust as it had been when she brought him back. Every corner had been carefully tidied. The mold had been completely removed, and the long-decayed and dilapidated furniture had been tidied up as much as possible.

Looking in like this, the small room was empty and clean, even showing a strange tidiness.

The only thing that was out of place with the whole room was the meal she had brought.

The rainy night was dark and eerie. Luo Cheng didn’t know that the bag she had brought was so dirty.

The outside of the insulated bag was covered in mud and water, and some had seeped in along the unsealed opening. A little of the soup inside had also spilled out.

It hadn’t been opened. It was left where it was, in the pale moonlight coming in through the window, slowly growing cold with the last rain, with not a trace of warmth left to be felt.

…

Luo Cheng stood frozen in place, stunned for a few seconds.

Had Luo Zhi really gone to live in another room?

It wasn’t impossible.

After all, this dilapidated room, whose purpose was unknown, was not suitable for living in, no matter how clean it was.

…How had she not noticed this before?

Luo Cheng subconsciously looked around, trying to find which room Luo Zhi had gone to, but she found some tracks on the ground at her feet.

It had just rained, and the soil in the garden was soft from being soaked in water, making it easy to leave footprints.

The footprints in front of her led out of the small room. The left track was normal, but the right one had a slight, not obvious drag.

The tracks did not lead to the main villa, but went deeper into the garden, and finally disappeared into the depths of the tree shadows.

A sudden, inexplicable panic arose in Luo Cheng.

She followed the footprints, pushing through the dense branches and leaves under the pattering remnants of the rain. Finally, a few dozen meters away, she saw the shadow leaning against a tree to rest. “Luo Zhi!”

“Luo Zhi!” Luo Cheng raised her voice, panting. “Where are you going?!”

The figure did not respond to her, but just hung his head and rested quietly for a while, then slowly stood up straight and continued to walk step by step into the depths of the woods.

The water accumulated on the branches and leaves kept falling on him, but he seemed to have no feeling, and didn’t know it was cold.

Luo Cheng’s face burned with embarrassment, and she couldn’t help but bite her lip.

…She knew it. Luo Zhi must have held a grudge against her for what happened outside the hotel.

For all these years, she had never once bowed her head to Luo Zhi. Now, being treated with such obvious coldness by him, besides her hidden guilt, a feeling of indignation uncontrollably rose up.

If Luo Zhi was angry with her, he could just tell her to her face. What was the big deal?

Why did he have to treat her with this attitude?

The woods were full of flickering shadows. The deeper she went, the darker the light became, and that fear that had been dispelled by the moonlight quietly caught up with her again.

Luo Cheng was both aggrieved and indignant. She stopped at the edge of a patch of moonlight, watching the figure that was walking further and further away.

“Luo Zhi! Come back with me! Dad has had a room prepared for you!”

She glared at the stubborn figure that remained unmoved, and let out a vicious threat out of frustration. “If you don’t come back with me, then don’t ever come looking for us again!”

These words were almost shouted out at the top of her lungs, making her throat raw. Luo Cheng didn’t believe that Luo Zhi couldn’t hear her voice.

But the figure still didn’t stop.

Not only did it have no intention of stopping, it didn’t even offer the slightest reaction.

The ground in the depths of the woods was uneven, and the light was dim. He walked with difficulty, stumbling and staggering, but he kept walking slowly inwards.

Luo Cheng was furious with him. She was certain that Luo Zhi was punishing her with this kind of cold violence. And thinking of her own pathetic state, chasing after him in a hurry, was simply ridiculously stupid.

…

But no matter what, she had, after all, done something to wrong Luo Zhi.

The two emotions overlapped and pulled at each other. Luo Cheng stood in place for a long while, and then squeezed the corner of her clothes in frustration.

Forget it.

If Luo Zhi wanted to go, then let him go.

Anyway, Luo Zhi hadn’t been answering anyone’s calls these days, hiding and hiding. Wasn’t it just because he didn’t want to be found by the Luo family and Brother Chenbai?

She would pretend she hadn’t seen what she had seen tonight, and let Luo Zhi leave. That would be her apology for what had happened.

Luo Cheng thought this with a sense of dejection. She gripped her flashlight, turned around, and left the woods along the path she had come.

…

…

The air after the rain was fresh.

The successive downpours had washed away the excess fallen leaves. They were soaked and piled up under the trees, waiting to be buried in the soil to corrode and decompose, waiting for the day they would disappear.

Luo Zhi closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

It seemed like he hadn’t truly breathed for a long time. It was as if someone had set up a pot in his chest and boiled a full pot of seawater. In the end, the last drop of water vapor had evaporated, leaving only a thick, coarse, and hard salt crust.

His lungs were filled with rust spots.

These blood-red rust spots spread and grew, rusting his limbs, waist, and back, and his body also began to disobey him.

Suddenly taking in such cold, fresh air, his body immediately reacted. His chest spasmed with a jolt, which immediately triggered a bout of choking coughs.

Luo Zhi waited for the coughing to pass.

He steadied himself by holding his right leg, and after the white spots in his vision disappeared, he continued to walk forward along his memory.

Through the garden, there was a small door. Out of the small door, one could take a shortcut to the seaside, which was very close to the port.

When would the cruise ship arrive?

Luo Zhi raised his hand, his fingertips fumbling at his neck, and found the broken glass pendant. He held it in his palm.

He sometimes thought that maybe there was nothing wrong with his right leg at all.

The reason why it would suddenly lose strength and disobey him, becoming so soft that it couldn’t move, was just because he missed Auntie Ren too much.

When he was learning to walk again, every time he exhausted his strength and his right leg went soft and he fell, Auntie Ren would always reach out in time and hold him steady.

His body, without his consent, had acted on its own, simulating the state in his memory.

Actually, if he had been asked in advance, he would have known that this was useless.

How could it be of any use?

Auntie Ren would not come to hold him again.

When would the cruise ship arrive?

Luo Zhi pushed open that small door from his memory.

The soil outside the door had already begun to turn into gravel. Luo Zhi couldn’t lift his right leg, tripped on the threshold, and lost his balance, falling forward.

He was clutching the broken glass pendant. Because he couldn’t let go in time, the thin string was actually snapped by the force, leaving a fiery red mark on his neck.

Luo Zhi knelt on the ground, looking at the broken thin red string.

During the time he was tidying up the small room, he had found another piece of memory, something that had happened on the day he escaped from the hospital.

His pendant had fallen. He bent down to pick it up, and then the glass suddenly turned into Ren Chenbai’s eyes.

He must have fallen into an absurd and suffocating illusion. In the illusion, Ren Chenbai looked at him with a cold smile, saying something word by word. His precious glass was embedded in Ren Chenbai’s eyes, and was also tinged with a cold, mocking irony.

Luo Zhi’s gaze seemed to be fixed by that piece of glass.

He held the just-washed rag, forgot where he had been cleaning, and also forgot what he was going to do.

He sat motionless in the corner of the room, which was brightly lit by lightning, his shadow reduced to a small patch by the blinding light.

“Luo Zhi, how could you forget?”

In the hospital room, Ren Chenbai squinted his eyes at him, his dark pupils so cold they seemed to be able to pierce his brain. “You were the one who killed Mom.”

…

That was the last sentence he heard.

Accompanying this sentence was a bout of tinnitus so sharp that Luo Zhi had never heard anything like it before. It was like the static on a TV before it completely broke down. Then all sounds disappeared, leaving only an extremely quiet blankness.

He finally got the answer to the question “Why does Ren Chenbai hate me,” but this answer was even more bewildering than the question itself.

How could he have killed Auntie Ren?

He had no impression of it, nor did he remember doing such a thing.

How did Auntie Ren pass away? What happened at that time? What was the truth?

He didn’t remember at all.

…Then how could he guarantee that he hadn’t indeed done this thing?

Since he didn’t remember, how could he be completely sure that he hadn’t made some serious mistake and then deceived himself by forgetting everything?

Moreover, this seemed very reasonable from any perspective.

Reasoning backward from the result, if he had really done many unforgivable things, it would just happen to provide the most plausible footnote for his current situation.

When would the cruise ship arrive?

Luo Zhi knelt on the gray-black gravel. He found that some of them were stained with a little light red. He silently apologized and reached out to slowly and carefully wipe them away.

He tried to turn off the voices in his head too.

His memory was already just large patches of blankness and confusion. He didn’t remember anything, but if he didn’t believe in himself, then no one else would believe in him.

The voices couldn’t be turned off.

Because the outside world was absolutely quiet, the voices in his head became clearer and louder.

The rusty armor finally began to disintegrate. Knives and daggers pierced in without any hindrance, slowly carving away his flesh and blood, exposing his white bones, to repay everyone’s hatred for him.

Luo Zhi supported himself on the ground and slowly got up.

He put the pendant in the long-rusted mailbox outside the small door. His numb fingers slowly loosened, and the broken glass, pulling the broken red string, fell into an unseen corner.

The moon slowly reached its end.

The sky was about to brighten, but because the morning light had not yet peeked out, the night sky, dotted with sparse stars, became even colder and darker.

Luo Zhi walked along the sea breeze.

This stretch of road was very close to the seaside. The young Luo Zhi, even dragging a newly broken leg, could hop to the beach on a crutch in ten minutes.

But today it was so far away.

So far away that it was like a long, unending nightmare from which he couldn’t wake.

Luo Zhi slowly sorted through the gaps in the nightmare. He had plenty of time, and finally found a fragment.

He didn’t know the cause and effect, and the image was also very blurry. The person opposite was even just a shadow whose face couldn’t be seen clearly.

The shadow reached out and handed him a note with words written on it.

At that time, his thinking was so sluggish that he couldn’t even connect the meaning of those words, but at this moment, he suddenly recognized them all.

“…Waiting for you at sea.”

Luo Zhi looked at the note and read it out softly.

He decided to go and see. Anyway, there was nothing he had to do.

Luo Zhi gave his hand to the waiting shadow.

He knew he was in an illusion, but this illusion was better than those incessant questions, so he followed the shadow towards the sea.

The feeling under his feet changed from gravel to soft sand, then slowly became damp, and then became the surging waves.

The shadow suddenly stopped.

Luo Zhi also stopped.

The shadow in the illusion turned to look at him.

The shadow still held his hand and gently shook its head at him, as if correcting a part he had misunderstood.

The shadow raised its hand and pointed towards the horizon.

Luo Zhi followed and raised his eyes.

After an unknown amount of time, he saw the huge outline of a cruise ship in the faint mist.

So it wasn’t this “at sea.”

The hand holding Luo Zhi in the illusion suddenly let go.

It was as if he had been pushed in the chest by the shadow. He staggered back a few steps and fell wetly onto the beach.

His chest and abdomen, newly exposed to the air, spasmed and tightened. Luo Zhi lay on his back on the beach, turned his head to the side, and choked out a few mouthfuls of salty seawater.

The cruise ship entered the port, braving the morning mist.

The newborn sun followed behind it, neither bright nor hot, still just an orange ball of light.