Ling Lie was waiting at a red light at an intersection, surrounded by the deafening roar of traffic. At that moment, it was as if he had suddenly gone deaf; he couldn’t hear a thing.

When the pedestrian light turned green, he took two steps back against the flow of people, stunned. “What did you say? Who’s dead?”

Shen Xun said, “Wei Liang, Wei Zhiyong’s son.”

Suddenly, the sound of fingernails scraping across a blackboard, the sound of train wheels misaligning on the tracks, echoed in Ling Lie’s mind. He shook his head in pain, moving further and further away from the road until he collapsed onto a flowerbed by the roadside.

“Impossible. I…” I just went to Feng City to see him. That man, that scumbag, was still working fine at the hot pot restaurant!

Shen Xun said, “I know. When you went to Feng City to visit Wei Zhiyong’s grave, you stopped by Wei Liang’s family’s hot pot restaurant for a meal. Wei Liang was still alive then.”

Ling Lie’s ears were buzzing. Anger, hatred, and fury surged through his blood, making it impossible for him to calm down and analyze the purpose of Shen Xun’s call.

Shen Xun said, “Ling Lie, Le Ran has already arrived in Xiarong City. He will take you to Feng City.”

“I don’t need a ride, I’ll go right now…” Ling Lie stood up from the flowerbed, his vision momentarily turning black as dizziness washed over him. He wanted to say that since Wei Liang was dead, he would definitely go to Feng City to find out the truth. But after the dizzy spell, he suddenly noticed something odd in Shen Xun’s words. “Le Ran is coming to get me?”

At that moment, a black sedan pulled over to the side of the road. The window rolled down, revealing a young face. Le Ran met Ling Lie’s gaze for a moment, then decisively got out of the car and ran to him. “Brother Lie, get in the car first.”

Ling Lie completely calmed down, his voice turning icy. “Is Wei Liang’s case related to me?”

Shen Xun said, “Get in the car with Lele first. He has the detailed investigation report from the local police.”

The car headed for the airport. Ling Lie sat in the back, taking the tablet Le Ran handed him.

On July 13th, the Feng City police received a report from a deliveryman who claimed to have found a body in his vacant old house. And on July 8th, the Old Master Liang Hot Pot restaurant had reported Wei Liang missing.

The police quickly confirmed that the deceased was the missing Wei Liang.

When Wei Liang was discovered, his body was stiff but had not yet begun to decompose. He had been tied to the bed in the bedroom, his mouth gagged, unable to make a sound. The building was on the edge of the city, awaiting demolition, and the residents had long since moved out. The faint noises he made before his death could not be heard.

There were no obvious mechanical injuries on the body. The police’s preliminary judgment was that he had died of thirst, and the scene was horrific. However, after an autopsy and toxicology analysis, a large amount of “Snow Child” was found in his system, which was why the special operations team had intervened.

He had needle marks on both hands and his internal organs were failing. The onset was much earlier than that of Dan Jin and other known “Snow Child” victims. There were two reasons: one, the dosage this time was much larger, twenty times that of Dan Jin’s; two, Wei Liang was in extreme fear before his death, deprived of water and food, and had been struggling constantly while conscious.

The police reviewed the surveillance footage and found that a customer had behaved strangely that day. Old Master Liang Hot Pot was a well-known local restaurant with many customers, and tables were almost always seated with four or five people. This customer, however, came alone, ordered far more than one person could eat, and sized Wei Liang up every time he came to serve a dish.

Twenty minutes after he left, Wei Liang also took off his apron, left the hot pot restaurant, and never returned.

This customer was Ling Lie.

The local police didn’t know who Ling Lie was and naturally treated him as a key suspect. There weren’t many public surveillance cameras outside the hot pot restaurant, so they couldn’t see where Ling Lie and Wei Liang went. But following a conventional line of inquiry, Ling Lie was definitely a person of interest.

When Shen Xun saw the local police report, he was stunned for a moment. He was aware of the relationship between Ling Lie and Wei Liang, so he naturally didn’t suspect Ling Lie. However, how could it be such a coincidence that on the very day Ling Lie went to see Wei Liang, Wei Liang disappeared and was murdered?

The car arrived at the airport. Ling Lie’s palms were already slick with cold sweat. He was more shocked than anyone. The eyes that were always smiling in front of Ji Chenjiao had now become as fierce as a demon’s.

The local police also found a set of footprints in the room, suspected to be the killer’s. Others couldn’t see the problem with these footprints, but the moment Ling Lie saw them, his heart skipped a beat.

In the case at 4-2 Xieyang Road Old House, the killer had used his shoes to leave footprints in the room to frame him. This time, the footprints were very similar to the last!

Those shoes were an important piece of evidence. He hadn’t worn them since, and they should still be with the serious crime squad. But the shoes themselves were very common and easy to buy on the market. A trace evidence examiner of Xi Wan’s caliber could easily determine that although the tread was the same, it wasn’t him who committed the crime.

But that was absolutely not the point!

The killer murdered Wei Liang after he had visited him and left footprints similar to those at 4-2. This was less a frame-up and more a provocation!

The strong sense of weightlessness from the plane taking off made Ling Lie feel as if he had fallen into a wildly churning torrent of clues, entangled and submerged, as if being pulled into chaos.

And his most primal emotion at this moment was pain. After so many years, he had ended up watching Wei Zhiyong’s only child die. Die because of him.

His heart ached as if being repeatedly cut by a blunt knife. He heard a curse from within his heart: You were born in the most evil of places. you can’t protect anyone. They will all die because of you. You don’t belong to this land. Get back!

“Brother Lie, Brother Lie!” Le Ran called out. “We’ve arrived in Feng City.”

During the few minutes the plane was descending, Ling Lie felt as if he were falling into hell. But he wasn’t. He was sitting securely in his seat, and the flight attendant’s gentle voice came over the broadcast, looking forward to seeing the passengers on their next journey.

Le Ran said, “You look terrible.”

Ling Lie took a deep breath, burying his face in his hands for a long while. “I didn’t expect to return to the special operations team this way.”

Le Ran’s eyes widened. “You’re rejoining the team?”

Ling Lie was in a terrible mood. He didn’t want to go back to the special operations team. Even if Xu Jiajia’s case was related to “Snow Child,” he was only serving as a special consultant for the Xiarong City task force. But now, it was as if a giant whirlpool was pulling him into the abyss.

At this moment, his mind was consumed by hatred, and he had thrown everything about Xiarong City to the back of his mind.

At the Feng City Municipal Bureau, in addition to the local police, three members of the special operations team were investigating Wei Liang’s case. With the arrival of Ling Lie and Le Ran, the number increased to five.

Ling Lie started working for the special operations team at eighteen and officially became a member at twenty-one, but he wasn’t close to his teammates, their interactions limited to nods of acknowledgment.

The local police were extremely surprised that their only suspect was a member of the special operations team. Ling Lie suppressed his personal emotions and explained his old connection with Wei Liang’s deceased father, Wei Zhiyong. After paying respects to Wei Zhiyong that day, he had stopped by to see how Wei Liang was doing, and then took the high-speed train back to Xiarong City.

The station was able to retrieve video footage of Ling Lie. He left the hot pot restaurant at 1:20 PM, entered the train station at 2:30 PM, and his train departed at 3:00 PM. Wei Liang left the hot pot restaurant at 1:40 PM. The walk from the hot pot restaurant to the place of death was half an hour, and from the place of death to the train station was only a six-minute walk. If calculated to the absolute limit, it was still possible for Ling Lie to have committed the crime.

But even if Ling Lie wasn’t a member of the special operations team, after understanding the timeline, it was difficult for the local police to continue treating him as a suspect, because the possibility was just too low based on the timing.

Ling Lie proactively brought up the footprints, which necessitated mentioning the case in Xiarong City and getting the 3D model of the 4-2 footprints from Xi Wan. When he picked up his phone, he froze for a moment, only then remembering it was still off.

After turning it on, a dozen messages flooded in, along with ten missed calls. They were all from one person: Ji Chenjiao.

The black threads enveloping Ling Lie seemed to recede slightly, as if another, completely different force was resisting them.

Ling Lie stared blankly at the contact name “Xia Chengshi,” as if the name itself represented a different world.

Ling Lie’s phone was finally on. Before this, Shen Qi had already tracked Ling Lie to Feng City and found out that the last time Ling Lie left Xiarong City, his destination had been Feng City.

“Bro! Brother Lie’s phone is on!”

Ji Chenjiao had already received the feedback on his end and immediately dialed Ling Lie.

The ringtone sounded abruptly in the conference room. Everyone looked at Ling Lie. The gazes from his teammates and the local police were different. Ling Lie gripped his phone tightly, feeling somewhat at a loss.

He had never taken a call during a meeting. In fact, he rarely received calls at all, almost always from teammates or his captain. It was even rarer for him to get a call when other team members were present.

Le Ran looked at the flashing screen and whispered, “Brother Lie, hurry up and answer it. Someone’s looking for you!”

Ling Lie shot up from his seat and, under everyone’s gaze, hurried out of the conference room.

At the end of the corridor, on the terrace, his fingers trembled slightly as he swiped to answer. This was the first time he had ever taken a personal call during urgent work.

Besides work, it seemed someone was thinking of him.

“Hello—”

“You finally answered!” Ji Chenjiao’s words came out in a rush. He had so much to ask Ling Lie, and he wanted to scold him, but hearing that “hello,” which was huskier than usual, the anger he had been holding in suddenly dissipated.

He knew Ling Lie had left with people from the special operations team, that Ling Lie was not in trouble. But he was still angry at Ling Lie for leaving without a word. He wasn’t worried about Ling Lie’s safety, but after Shen Qi found out Ling Lie had gone to Feng City, his impulsiveness overrode his reason.

“I have something to take care of. I’m in…”

“I know you’re in Feng City. I’m about to turn off my phone. We’ll talk when I get there.”

Ling Lie felt his ears ringing again. “What did you say?”

Ji Chenjiao said, “I said I’m about to board the plane and can’t talk. Didn’t you also turn off your phone because you were on a plane? I’ll be in Feng City soon. Ling Lie, you left without a word. I’m coming to find you, and you can explain the reason to my face!”

The summer wind carried a scorching touch, yet Ling Lie felt as if his face had been numbed by a cool breeze. The call had already ended, but he remained on the terrace, watching the traffic flowing below, as if he could see a person rushing towards him.

A sharp intake of breath echoed in Ling Lie’s ears, snapping him back to reality. He strode back into the conference room and quickly explained that in the spring of that year, similar footprints had appeared in his rented house. He had been framed by the killer, but the Xiarong City police had already cleared him of any connection to the murder.

This sudden clue linked the two cases. He immediately called Xi Wan, who responded quickly, joining a video call to display the footprint model from Liu Yixiang’s case. Ling Lie sent her the footprints from here. She looked at them and said, “The tread is the same, but the wear is different, and the gait is different. But I need more data to make a final judgment.”

“If the shoe matter isn’t a coincidence, then both cases are targeting me.” Ling Lie suddenly became unusually calm. “This is all the information I can provide right now. I am not the killer. I have no motive to kill Wei Liang.”

Le Ran whispered, “Brother Lie, I believe you.”

Ling Lie stood up, pushed his chair back in, and looked down at Le Ran. “I have a personal matter to attend to. I need to leave for a bit.”

Le Ran: “Okay. Is there anything I can help with?”

Ling Lie thought for a moment. “Lend me the car.”

The flight from Xiarong City arrived on time. Ten minutes earlier, Ling Lie had sped down the highway and arrived at the arrivals gate.

Ji Chenjiao called Ling Lie as soon as he got off the plane. He had brought no luggage, just his phone, making it his most unplanned trip ever. When the call connected, he heard a noisy background, identical to his current surroundings. He considered a possibility, but it felt unreal.

“I’ve arrived,” he said. “Where are you? I’ll come to you now.”

Ling Lie had already spotted Ji Chenjiao and waved. “Here.”

Ji Chenjiao was momentarily speechless. He had left in a hurry, intending to confront Ling Lie, but now that he was face-to-face with him, the words of accusation and blame wouldn’t come out.

He saw that Ling Lie’s eyes didn’t hold their usual playful, annoying glint; they were deeper than he had imagined. An indescribable feeling surged within him, something related to protection, concern, and heartache.

He finally made his way through the crowd and stood before Ling Lie. They looked into each other’s eyes as a female voice made announcements over their heads. Ji Chenjiao’s Adam’s apple bobbed. In an unprecedentedly gentle tone, he asked, “What happened to you?”

On the way from the Feng City Municipal Bureau to the airport, Ling Lie had imagined all sorts of scenarios for meeting Ji Chenjiao. This sarcastic serious crime squad captain would surely interrogate him like a suspect. He was good at dealing with that kind of Ji Chenjiao—by playing dumb, acting cute, provoking him, changing the subject. Although he was in a terrible state now, it wasn’t impossible to muddle through.

But Ji Chenjiao… why did he have to ask like that, to look at him with such sadness?

It was a sad look, right? Ji Chenjiao was sad because of him?

He suddenly couldn’t react. All the emotions he had prepared crumbled, leaving only an unmasked him, just like when he stood outside the glass house all those years ago, taking the life-saving chicken wing from the “young master’s” hand, devouring it, real and pathetic.

“I…” He opened his mouth but couldn’t speak.

Ji Chenjiao suddenly grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the airport exit.

It was peak time at the airport. Ling Lie, his mind in a daze, bumped into someone pulling a suitcase. The force of the pull separated him from Ji Chenjiao, but Ji Chenjiao held on tight. He apologized to the person with the suitcase and continued walking with Ji Chenjiao towards the exit.

The sun was high in the sky. The car was parked just outside. Sunlight shimmered at the exit, searing a deep shadow onto his retinas.

The force of the impact still lingered. He felt as if he were split in two: one half following Ji Chenjiao, daring to go anywhere; the other half dragged back by the spirits of the dead. He had been saved on his journey by people who stood in the light, yet he couldn’t even protect his old friend’s only descendant.

He suddenly stopped. Ji Chenjiao turned around. “Ling Lie?”

He looked at Ji Chenjiao. At that moment, Ji Chenjiao didn’t let go, his gaze only growing more concerned.

“Something happened to me.” He began to regret not telling Ji Chenjiao his story during his repeated inquiries. He wanted to tell him now, but would Ji Chenjiao still want to listen?

Ji Chenjiao realized Ling Lie was answering his earlier question.

Ling Lie felt a forward pull on his captured wrist. Before he could react, he was pulled along with that force towards Ji Chenjiao.

“It’s okay.” Ji Chenjiao hugged him. “I’m here. We’ll figure it out together, solve it together.”

Ling Lie closed his eyes.

He had been lonely his whole life. He had a sister, but she wasn’t his alone. He had a good friend named A’xue, but when he fell from the cliff, A’xue didn’t come to save him. A policeman named Wei Zhiyong saved him, but he got separated from Wei Zhiyong. He had a captain who taught him to live with his head held high, but that captain was someone else’s family.

No one was his. But at this moment, he believed with an almost childish faith that the person hugging him was his. He wouldn’t disappear. He was his alone.

In the unstarted car, Ling Lie, for the first time, told his story.

For as long as Ling Lie could remember, he didn’t know who his biological parents were. He was born outside the northern border, in the criminal organization called “Chen Jin,” the product of a one-night stand between two mercenaries or assassins, or perhaps the sole survivor of a family that was nearly wiped out.

He had no name. His sister named him A’dou and his friend A’xue. They promised to escape together to see the southern spring. But during a winter when the mountains were sealed by heavy snow, he fell off a cliff. It was Wei Zhiyong who saved him.

Wei Zhiyong wasn’t there for him, but for a child trafficking case, having come from a place called Feng City to the border town of Weiti to assist the local police.

He couldn’t explain his origins, so Wei Zhiyong kept him by his side. At first, he always had nightmares, dreaming of mercenaries coming to catch him, dreaming of A’xue turning into a bloody corpse, just like his sister.

But it didn’t happen. The darkness that had followed him like a shadow since childhood seemed to dissipate upon meeting Wei Zhiyong. This man became his shield.

The trafficking case was successfully solved. Wei Zhiyong wanted to take him back to Feng City, but along the way, he and Wei Zhiyong got separated.

He was only six years old then, small and skinny like a turnip due to long-term malnutrition. He had no way to contact Wei Zhiyong and didn’t dare ask for help.

He walked and walked, arriving in Xiarong City the following spring. But Xiarong City was too big, bigger than the village he grew up in and Weiti Town where he had stayed for a short time. He got lost in this village of reinforced concrete, and then, at a McDonald’s, he met… the “young master.”

He stayed at the Linglanxiang Orphanage for a while before being taken away by a wealthy family and raised in their villa.

Hearing this, Ji Chenjiao asked with some surprise, “A wealthy family?”

“The Yu family of the Yu Group.”

“How did you end up with them?” Ji Chenjiao’s confusion grew. The Yu Group was a business “aircraft carrier,” and Ling Lie was connected to them!

“Because the child of a female heir had been lost, most likely dead. The Yu family wanted to find a replacement. It was done flawlessly. Unfortunately, until I left the Yu family, my nominal mother and I never developed a mother-son bond.”

“Left the Yu family?”

“I ran away from the Yu family when I was sixteen. No one from the Yu family looked for me or cared. I wanted to find Wei Zhiyong and repay his kindness.”

At that time, Ling Lie was still using the name the Yu family had given him, Yu Ge. The real Yu Ge was probably no longer in this world.

“Yu Ge” didn’t remember Wei Zhiyong’s appearance very well; the man was just too ordinary. By the time he found Wei Zhiyong, Wei Zhiyong had become a photograph on a tombstone. The inability to repay his kindness drove him into a frenzy. He always felt there was something suspicious about Wei Zhiyong’s death, but no matter how he investigated, there was only one conclusion—Wei Zhiyong died of liver cancer.

At eighteen, he found out through various means that Wei Zhiyong had a good-for-nothing son named Wei Liang.

Wei Liang’s mother died early, and Wei Zhiyong was busy with work, with no energy to manage him. Thus, the son of an excellent police officer grew up to be a punk, getting into fights and collecting protection fees since middle school. He almost didn’t make it to high school, but Wei Zhiyong managed to shove him into a trashy secondary school.

Not long after, Wei Zhiyong died, and Wei Liang became completely lawless, in and out of the police station countless times. At first, Wei Zhiyong’s old colleagues looked after Wei Liang out of old affection, but later they couldn’t be bothered.

Wei Zhiyong had been poor his whole life, leaving Wei Liang only a house. Fortunately, Wei Liang’s maternal grandfather’s family ran a restaurant business and was relatively well-off. Pitying him for being an orphan, they never shortchanged him financially.

“Yu Ge” was looking for Wei Zhiyong to repay a debt of gratitude. With Wei Zhiyong gone, he suddenly lost his purpose. He followed Wei Liang for a period, gradually transferring his gratitude for Wei Zhiyong onto him.

At that time, what he lacked least was money and time. When Wei Liang was out of money, he would put cash in a delivery box and leave it at the Wei family’s doorstep.

A normal person wouldn’t do such a thing, and a normal person would have called the police long ago.

But neither he nor Wei Liang were that normal. He dared to leave the money, and Wei Liang dared to take it. Wei Liang spent the money of unknown origin even more extravagantly, until his misdeeds finally led to a major incident: he stabbed another hoodlum to death in an alley behind a nightclub.

“Yu Ge’s” first reaction was that the time to repay Wei Zhiyong had finally come.

Back then, surveillance wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is now. The entire back alley had only one camera at the entrance, too far to capture the scene of Wei Liang stabbing the person. And the two had left the bar due to a dispute to settle things privately, so there were no witnesses.

Although Wei Liang was a punk who constantly made small mistakes, killing someone still sent him into a panic. When “Yu Ge” approached, he brandished the knife, bluffing that he would silence “Yu Ge” as well.

But “Yu Ge” easily twisted his arms behind his back. The blood-soaked knife clattered to the ground.

“You leave immediately. I’m the one who killed him. I’ll be the one to go to jail and get the death sentence. Remember that!”

Wei Liang was terrified. “Who are you? Are you helping me? Why would you help me?”

“Yu Ge” looked at his face, smeared with blood and tears, and felt a surge of contempt and disgust. Wei Zhiyong, whom he hadn’t seen in over a decade, had long been beautified in his memory into a god. But the god’s child was a cowardly, stupid waste.

“Yu Ge” felt nauseous but continued, “Where did the money at your door come from?”

Wei Liang was horrified. “You, how did you know? Was it you?”

“Yu Ge” didn’t want to waste any more words with him. “So, do you trust me or not?”

Wei Liang knelt on the ground. “Thank you! Thank you!”

After the stray dog fled in panic, “Yu Ge” began to clean up the scene, turning himself into the murderer. He stepped in the blood and slowly walked under the camera at the alley entrance.

After dawn, the body was discovered. The police quickly found “Yu Ge” and searched his residence, finding the murder weapon.

“Yu Ge” sat in the interrogation room and confessed to the murder. With physical evidence and a confession, he became the confirmed killer. His plan, however, was disrupted by the special operations team, who were in Feng City investigating another case.

The young captain, Xiao Yu’an, had merely heard that the city bureau had a murder case with a very straightforward confession and, on a whim, wanted to see what kind of person the criminal was. This one look was all it took to find the illogical threads in the investigation records.

No matter how smart “Yu Ge” was, he was only eighteen at the time and couldn’t deceive an unconventional elite.

“You did a good job cleaning up this scene.” Xiao Yu’an smiled at “Yu Ge.” “You were fully capable of not getting yourself involved. With all traces removed and no witnesses or physical evidence, it would be very difficult for the police to convict Wei Liang.”

“Yu Ge” said, “Then would Huang Qi (the deceased) have died for nothing?”

Xiao Yu’an raised an eyebrow, seemingly not expecting him to say that.

“Yu Ge” said seriously, “I don’t want to erase the crime of murder. Someone died, so someone should pay the price.”

This young man had such a profound understanding of life. Xiao Yu’an was intrigued. “Then why should the one paying the price be you? You did nothing wrong.”

“He doesn’t have a father,” “Yu Ge” said suddenly.

Xiao Yu’an was confused. “What does that have to do with you?”

“Yu Ge” had intended to spin a tale, saying Wei Liang’s father was a policeman, and without police, he would never have been found by his family, so he was grateful to all police officers.

But thinking of the past, the pent-up anger and fear all erupted under Xiao Yu’an’s gaze. He burst into tears, saying his life was saved by Wei Zhiyong. Since he couldn’t repay Wei Zhiyong, he had to at least protect Wei Zhiyong’s child.

Xiao Yu’an was silent for a moment. “You’re only eighteen. Why would you throw away your life for someone unrelated to you?”

He banged his head on the table, repeatedly saying, “I have no other way! I want to repay his kindness!”

Xiao Yu’an said, “I understand you.”

He was stunned. Besides Wei Zhiyong, another policeman said to him—I understand you.

“Do you want to go home?” Xiao Yu’an asked.

He shook his head vigorously.

“Then do you want to become someone like Wei Zhiyong?” Xiao Yu’an asked again. “You are very talented. If your talent isn’t used for good, it will surely be exploited by crime.”

His eyes were filled with tears, unable to answer.

Xiao Yu’an extended an olive branch to him. “Are you interested in working for me?”

Falling was much easier than living a difficult life, but there were always people pulling him out of the darkness, pushing him into the light.

At first, he could only be a peripheral member of the special operations team, without any position, like a ghost. Later, he earned merits. Xiao Yu’an and the leader of the special operations team at the time vouched for him. Following his own wishes, he broke away from the Yu family, changed his name to Ling Lie, underwent formal special training, and at twenty-one, officially became a member of the special operations team.

Halfway through the story, Ji Chenjiao felt the name Xiao Yu’an was familiar. He finally remembered: wasn’t the deputy director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau who was parachuted into Dongye City last year Xiao Yu’an?

It was Xiao Yu’an who had guided Ling Lie from a teenager on the edge of crime to the right path. He had no intention of delving into why Xiao Yu’an was transferred from the special operations team to a local city bureau, but the outcome of that event seemed to have had a huge impact on Ling Lie. So much so that—

Suddenly, a rustling sound came from beside him. By the time Ji Chenjiao came back to his senses, Ling Lie had already leaned over, like a wounded cat, and was curled up meekly in his arms.

“Ling…” For a moment, he was at a loss for what to do.

Ling Lie lay there without moving, not letting him move either, imperiously marking his territory. He could only place his hand on Ling Lie’s back.

“No one has ever truly belonged to me. Whenever I think someone belongs to me, they leave me.” Ling Lie murmured, as if talking in his sleep. “Xiao Ji…”

Ji Chenjiao subconsciously said, “I’m here.”

Ling Lie looked up, his reddened eyes with their rounded corners looking at him like a cat looking at a beloved toy.

“I just wish that the person accompanying me at a certain moment could accompany me forever.”

Perhaps bewitched by those eyes, Ji Chenjiao said slowly, “I’ll accompany you.”

Ling Lie shook his head. “Just for this moment…”

“No.” Ji Chenjiao interrupted, cupping the back of Ling Lie’s head. “However long you want, I’ll give you that long.”

Second Case: Closeness and Distance—End