From the company building to home, Sang Yan's mood had been noticeably off. His actions after entering the house were purposeful and deliberate, clearly indicating he'd learned something from someone.
Wen Yifan followed his gaze downward, looking at the wound on her leg. Her struggling ceased as she spoke quietly, "I was pushed and scratched by a tree branch. It's not serious—I've applied medicine. It'll heal quickly."
As these words fell, the room grew profoundly quiet.
Wen Yifan moistened her lips, feeling inexplicably uneasy. She raised her eyes again, meeting Sang Yan's gaze. His expression remained impassive, as if waiting patiently for her to continue.
This went on for quite a while.
Sang Yan seemed to lose what little patience he had left. "Finished?"
"..."
Sang Yan's voice was flat. "Who pushed you?"
Wen Yifan answered truthfully, her voice small. "...The man who claims to be my uncle."
Sang Yan fired off questions in rapid succession. "How long has it been?"
Wen Yifan blinked. "Huh?"
"How long has he been harassing you?"
"..." Wen Yifan reflexively denied it. "He hasn't."
Sang Yan, as if he hadn't heard her denial at all, continued relentlessly, "Since the last time he came when you were 'working overtime' and bothered you? Or even before that?"
"No, I haven't encountered him much. I didn't even know he was in Nanwu before." Wen Yifan tried to explain. "And recently there hasn't been—"
"Recently?" Sang Yan cut her off, enunciating each word with harsh precision. "So how long has it been?"
"..."
"Wen Yifan—" Sang Yan laughed, but it was bitter and without warmth. "'If anything happens, tell me.' How many times have I said this to you recently?"
After so long, hearing him call her by her full name again made Wen Yifan freeze. She moved her lips, suddenly feeling afraid to speak. After a long moment, she managed to stammer, "I'm sorry."
Sang Yan simply looked at her, waiting.
"I just felt there was no need to affect both our moods because of this." Wen Yifan's voice was barely above a whisper. "Besides, I didn't think it was a big deal. I could handle it myself."
"Didn't think it was a big deal." Sang Yan repeated her words slowly, his tone devoid of any warmth whatsoever. "Then what would you consider a big deal?"
Wen Yifan couldn't answer.
"Do I have to ask a question for you to give me one answer?" Sang Yan stared at her, his voice cold and hard as steel. "Even if something serious happened, it still wouldn't be a big deal to you—is that right?"
"..."
"Wen Yifan." Sang Yan's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "Can you consider my feelings?"
It made him feel as if their relationship had reached its absolute limit.
No matter what else he did.
He simply couldn't enter her heart.
"I understand you have things you don't want to say. Fine, it's okay. You can tell me whenever you want to." Sang Yan slowly released his hold on her, finishing his sentence with deliberate care. "But when you don't even tell me about something like this—do you think I'm not trustworthy?"
"That's not what I meant." Wen Yifan had seen Sang Yan angry before, but she felt particularly unsettled now. "It's just that you were about to leave for Yihe, and I wasn't seriously affected by this incident. I didn't want you to worry."
Sang Yan didn't speak anymore. He just looked at her.
After a long, painful silence, the emotion in Sang Yan's eyes gradually faded. That fury seemingly extinguished itself, his expression returning to his usual unapproachable state.
He didn't continue the topic. Instead, he took the car keys out of his pocket and said flatly, "I'll leave the car keys here. You can drive yourself to and from work these days. Remember to lock the door before bed."
"..."
Sang Yan lowered his eyes and methodically pulled her trouser legs back into place, then lifted her down from the shoe cabinet. Everything was put back exactly as if nothing had happened.
Their argument from moments ago seemed like an illusion.
"I'm leaving." Sang Yan didn't look at her again, opening the front door. "You go rest."
Staring at the closed door, Wen Yifan unconsciously wanted to follow him. But because of Sang Yan's tone and demeanor in those final words, she felt somehow restrained. She slowly stopped in place, not daring to continue forward.
That look on his face—Wen Yifan found it familiar.
It was like the last time she'd seen him before their reunion.
Wen Yifan didn't know if she'd done something wrong.
If she'd made the same mistake all over again.
She just wanted to be good to him, to keep the unsightly parts of her life far away from him, to make him feel that being with her was an easy and ordinary thing, to make him want to stay with her forever.
But it seemed she still hadn't done well enough.
It seemed she had, once again, hurt Sang Yan.
Wen Yifan stood blankly in place, suddenly turning to look at the wall clock.
It was almost 7:30 already.
Worried he might not be able to catch a taxi, Wen Yifan snapped out of her daze, grabbed the car keys again, and opened the door to rush outside. She took out her phone and sent Sang Yan a message: [Let me drive you there, it's hard to get a cab at this hour.]
Wen Yifan hesitated, then typed: "Can we talk when you get back?"
Before she could send it, Sang Yan replied: [No need]
Sang Yan: [In the car already]
Her fingertips froze instantly, and her footsteps stopped as well. After a long while, Wen Yifan deleted the unsent words and typed again: [Then be careful on the way.]
Wen Yifan lowered her eyes: [Let me know when you arrive.]
At this hour, from the city to the airport, Wen Yifan wasn't sure if he could catch his flight. She couldn't focus on anything else, calculating the time anxiously as she asked: [Have you reached the airport?]
Sang Yan almost always answered her questions.
However, each reply was extremely brief, as if he had no patience for typing. Not much different from usual, really. But in the past, after typing a few sentences, he would inevitably switch to sending voice messages instead.
Emotions can't be discerned from text alone.
It seemed to forcefully widen the distance between them in some intangible way.
Because of his coldness, Wen Yifan didn't dare ask too frequently, only relaxing slightly after confirming he'd boarded the plane. She returned to her room feeling utterly exhausted, lying on the bed without wanting to move at all.
But thinking of the wound on her leg, Wen Yifan still forced herself up to take a shower. She carefully avoided the injury, quickly rinsed her body, and then sat on the bed to apply medicine.
Wen Yifan used a cotton swab to wipe off the water that had inadvertently touched the wound, treating it carefully and meticulously.
All around her was silence.
Gradually, an intense loneliness began to consume her, peeling away her defenses layer by layer.
Wen Yifan's hand holding the cotton swab tightened gradually, her mind drifting back to the night after they'd first gotten together.
— "Will you help me apply medicine again tomorrow?"
— "Come find me after your shower."
The red marks before her eyes gradually blurred, nothing looking clear anymore.
Wen Yifan continued applying medicine to herself, silent and quiet to the extreme. She blinked hard, and a large teardrop fell directly onto the wound, bringing a sharp, stinging sensation.
She snapped back to reality, wiping away her tears clumsily with the back of her hand, then using the cotton swab to dry the watermarks again.
The next afternoon, Wen Yifan received another call from the police station, asking her to come provide additional testimony. For a reporter, going to the police station was routine work. She finished the article she was working on, then packed up and left the office.
This time, they mainly questioned Wen Yifan about Che Xingde's continuous harassment.
The police had reviewed the surveillance footage from the broadcasting station, and indeed, Che Xingde could be seen lingering outside Nanwu Broadcasting almost every single day. But he hadn't done anything to substantially harm Wen Yifan, nor had he made any particularly extreme moves.
Che Xingde's attempted robbery had been unsuccessful, and he hadn't fled after being discovered, so the circumstances weren't considered severe. Che Yanqin had approached Wen Yifan that day to propose a settlement, but after being refused, she'd started yelling about hiring a lawyer.
Wen Yifan didn't know what the exact outcome would be.
She was distracted all day, lacking the heart to work properly, and too exhausted to care much about these matters. She only did what absolutely had to be done, and for the rest, she didn't have the energy to think about even a bit more.
Noticing Wen Yifan's state, Gan Hongyuan assumed she was affected by the Che Xingde incident. Additionally, considering that she'd come to work on several recent days off due to breaking news, he generously gave her three days off to deal with these matters.
Given the unexpected time off, Wen Yifan wasn't as happy as one might imagine. She even briefly considered asking Gan Hongyuan if these three days could be postponed to a week later.
After all, Wen Yifan didn't have much to do alone at home.
She would have preferred to take these three days off when Sang Yan returned. But she was also worried that if she mentioned this, Gan Hongyuan might think she was fine and change his mind, revoking the leave entirely.
After Gan Hongyuan approved the leave, Wen Yifan didn't immediately go home. She stayed at the company until 6 PM, then turned off her computer and habitually opened WeChat, composing a message to Sang Yan: [Have you eaten?]
Her fingertip hovered over the send button. Her palm closed slowly, pressing down after a few seconds of hesitation.
This time, Sang Yan didn't reply immediately like before.
Wen Yifan waited for a while, then silently put her phone back in her pocket and left the company. After returning home, she took out her keys to open the door, staring at the shoe cabinet for a long moment, thinking back to their argument the previous night.
The next moment, her phone ring interrupted her thoughts.
Wen Yifan immediately pulled the phone from her pocket and answered. Zhong Siqiao's voice came through, teasing lightly, "How is it? Without your boyfriend around, doesn't the world feel much fresher?"
"..." Wen Yifan looked away, walking toward the sofa, managing only a slight smile.
"Let's go out for a meal when you're free. Isn't Sang Yan going away for a week?" Zhong Siqiao continued cheerfully. "Ever since you started dating, he's been monopolizing all your time. I haven't seen you in forever."
Wen Yifan said softly, "Okay."
"What's with that tone?" Zhong Siqiao joked. "Sang Yan's only been gone one day and you're already missing him? I never realized you were so clingy before."
Wen Yifan just smiled, not saying anything.
Zhong Siqiao quickly sensed something was off and asked more seriously, "Hey, what's wrong? Usually when I mention Sang Yan, you have plenty to say. Why aren't you saying anything today? Did you two fight?"
Wen Yifan was silent for a moment, not directly admitting it, only saying quietly, "He thinks I don't tell him anything."
"Ah, you do have that problem pretty severely—keeping everything to yourself." Zhong Siqiao sighed. "But couples can't interact like that, Diandian. It's fine once or twice, but if it happens too often, you two will start drifting apart."
"..." Wen Yifan said somewhat blankly, "But it's not that I don't tell him anything."
"Huh?"
Wen Yifan said earnestly, "I just don't tell him the bad things."
Zhong Siqiao laughed despite herself. "That's the same thing."
"..."
"If you don't say it, the other person won't know why you're not saying it. They'll just think that maybe your relationship hasn't reached the point where you can be completely honest with them about everything." Zhong Siqiao's tone grew more serious. "If they end up hearing it from someone else instead, they might feel quite disappointed, right?"
After a moment of heavy silence, Wen Yifan's voice came out distant and hollow. "Qiaoqiao, maybe it's because I've been with Sang Yan for a while now. I keep thinking about something from the past lately."
"What is it?"
Wen Yifan spoke slowly, carefully. "You remember how I told you back then that I was going to apply to Nan University?"
Not knowing why she'd brought this up, Zhong Siqiao was taken aback. "Yeah, I was quite puzzled when you ended up going to Yi University instead. I thought we'd be at the same school again."
"When it was time to submit the college applications, Sang Yan asked me about it. I promised him I would apply to Nan University." Wen Yifan had never dared mention this to anyone—not even a hint to Sang Yan himself. "But I—"
"What happened?"
Wen Yifan found it difficult to say. "I changed my application at the last minute."
"..."
Wen Yifan said softly, "I'm very worried that he'll care about this."
It seemed that once you had something you truly cared about, you started to become weak.
You became cautious about everything you did.
"So I don't dare bring this up with him again, and I try to accommodate him as much as possible, not to cause him any trouble." Wen Yifan asked slowly, almost pleadingly, "Did I do something wrong?"
After a lengthy pause, Zhong Siqiao asked carefully, "...So what was the reason you changed it?"
Wen Yifan didn't answer.
Knowing it might not be something good, Zhong Siqiao didn't press further. "And you haven't told him?"
She softly made a sound of confirmation.
"Well, I'll say it again—no matter what the reason is, if you want to keep going with him, you need to bring this up eventually." Zhong Siqiao's tone was gentle but firm. "Otherwise, it'll be a thorn embedded in both of you."
"..."
"Diandian, it's not only saying things that can cause harm." Zhong Siqiao spoke seriously. "Avoiding talking about it can too."
The phone fell into silence.
A few seconds later, Zhong Siqiao sighed heavily. "Don't make the same mistake again."
The next evening at 8 PM, in Yihe City.
After having dinner with Sang Zhi and Duan Jiaxu, Sang Yan had fully intended to go straight back to Duan Jiaxu's place to sleep, not wanting to spend any more time with this sickeningly lovey-dovey couple.
Who knew Sang Zhi would insist on dragging him to a movie, even arranging for him and Duan Jiaxu to sit in the couples' seats together?
Sang Yan found it both annoying and absurd, directly telling Duan Jiaxu to get lost, then leaned back in his seat to look at his phone.
Sang Yan had missed his flight the day before yesterday and could only get one for the next afternoon, but he hadn't mentioned this to Wen Yifan. When Wen Yifan had messaged him the previous night, he'd still been on the plane.
After landing, Sang Yan had seen her message and replied briefly, only to receive a message telling him to sleep early. For the rest of the evening, his phone had remained silent.
Even until dinnertime today, Sang Yan hadn't received any messages from Wen Yifan.
He stared at their chat interface, the messages sparse and cold.
Remembering the anger he'd vented at her before leaving for Yihe.
Sang Yan's fingertips moved slightly, typing: [Home yet?]
There was no reply from the other end.
Just then, the movie started.
Sang Yan waited a bit longer, then tossed his phone aside, staring at the screen in front of him. He had absolutely no interest in watching the movie, couldn't concentrate at all, and only realized after a while that it was a 3D film.
But he couldn't be bothered to put on the 3D glasses.
The sound in the cinema was extremely loud, making his ears hurt slightly. Sang Yan remained completely unaffected, inexplicably feeling tired, his eyelids gradually drooping heavily.
Drowsiness overtook him, accompanied by an extremely disturbing dream.
Sang Yan dreamed of seventeen-year-old Wen Yifan.
In the dream, Wen Yifan was wearing the uniform of Beiyu High School, walking quickly and alone through the alley they'd walked through together many times. Someone seemed to be following her, and her expression was fearful, extremely helpless.
The next moment, someone grabbed her roughly from behind.
She came face to face with the extremely lewd smile of her "uncle."
Her appearance was full of wariness and terror, instinctively trying to break free.
But she couldn't break free at all.
The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet, with no one else in the world except the two of them. It was as if no matter how much she called for help, the situation would remain exactly the same—no one would come to help her.
The scene shifted abruptly.
Wen Yifan was sitting alone on a bed, the light extremely dim. Just like how she looked every time after sleepwalking—sitting alone in the living room. She wrapped herself tightly in the blanket, only lowering her eyes as tears fell drop by drop.
The door was being heavily pounded from the outside, making huge, thunderous crashing sounds.
The next moment, Sang Yan was suddenly jolted awake by someone.
He slowly opened his eyes, meeting Sang Zhi's slightly uncomfortable face. "Brother, let's go."
Sang Yan instinctively lit up his phone again to check, but there was still no reply. His expression remained somewhat dazed. He made a careless sound of agreement and stood up.
The three of them got back in the car.
Sang Yan sat in the back seat, looking out the window, his thoughts completely consumed by the dream he'd just had. Although based on various clues from this period, he was gradually able to piece together a conclusion.
But he didn't want to believe it at all.
In that memory from years ago, what Sang Yan remembered most clearly were those harsh words Wen Yifan had said at the end.
Those words had trampled all his self-esteem underfoot.
He had never thought there might be other reasons behind them.
But he'd rather there weren't any.
He'd rather it was just what it appeared to be.
The girl he'd liked for so many years—back then, simply because she couldn't stand his persistence, just for this reason alone—had used every means to distance herself from him.
It was simply that she hadn't liked him. That's all.
He didn't want there to be any other reasons.
He didn't want it to be that, in those years, she hadn't been doing well at all.
The car unknowingly arrived at the gate of Yihe University.
Sang Yan turned his head to look, staring at the familiar school gate, his focus gradually blurring. He remembered what she'd said a while ago when she learned he was coming to see Sang Zhi.
— "It does make one worry, having such a young girl over there."
Sang Yan unconsciously muttered aloud, "I should go back."
Sang Zhi in the front didn't hear clearly and turned back to ask, "What?"
"You two go on your date." Sang Yan looked back at his phone, saying flatly, "I'm going back to Nanwu."
It was nearly 10 PM when he reached the airport.
Sang Yan was queuing at the ticket counter, about to ask if there were any tickets back to Nanwu, when his phone suddenly rang. He paused, took out his phone from his pocket, and saw the caller ID: "Wen Shuangjiang."
His spirits visibly lifted, and he immediately left the queue to answer the call.
"Back home?"
"Ah." Wen Yifan's voice was soft. "Not yet."
"When do you get off work?"
"..."
After a moment of silence, Wen Yifan suddenly asked, "Sang Yan, are you free now?"
"Hm?"
"Can I come see you? I just got off a plane." After a few seconds, Wen Yifan added quietly, "At Yihe Airport."
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