Chapter 14: Unable to Bear Witness (Dedicated to Diamond Member Solely Loving Azure Robes)

—Perhaps... Mo Zhicheng has already noticed her!

Ye Shenghan spoke softly; in the darkness, it was impossible to discern his expression. Yet his voice, like a biting northern wind, carried a parched hoarseness tinged with a faint melancholy, making one instinctively curious about the secrets concealed within this man. After hearing him, Bai Yuchen was stunned, turning to glance at him. Ye Shenghan still propped his chin, gazing out the window, silent as a statue. The world outside was like a swathe of black velvet—sky and earth indistinguishable, marked only by scattered neon lights and the sparse reflection of distant stars.

Bai Yuchen also fell silent for a moment, gripping the steering wheel as he watched the road ahead. Perhaps the hush inside the car was too oppressive to bear, so he spoke again, idly, “Shenghan, maybe you’re right. That Linglan girl’s greatest talent is being unpredictable. Don’t be fooled by how meek and unremarkable she usually seems. If she does nothing, nothing happens; but once she acts, she’ll scare you half to death!”

He recalled how in the past, every time Linglan saw Ye Shenghan, she would avoid him, clearly not fond of his presence, yet she was strangely close to himself. That girl had kept him in the dark for years, making him foolishly believe she liked him. This thought, Bai Yuchen kept buried in his heart. But just then, in the darkness, he caught the faintest sound of laughter. Bai Yuchen was taken aback—Ye Shenghan was laughing? Since the disaster at the Ye family, he had rarely seen Shenghan smile. He didn’t think his own humor had broken through; it must have been something about Linglan.

Tentatively, Bai Yuchen asked, “Why did you go buy the medicine yourself tonight, only to not use it on her?”

“—”

“Don’t tell me that, though you say nothing, deep down you can’t bear to see her in pain! You’re hurting so much you can barely breathe, so you’d rather turn away than face it!”

Ye Shenghan froze, then sighed deeply. He gave no reply, only reached into his pocket for his phone. The screen lit up with a photo of a little girl, about eight years old, round-faced with a sweet smile at the corners of her mouth, and clear, dark eyes gazing steadily at him as he looked back at her. After a moment, he opened his messages, hesitated, composed a few words, and only after much deliberation did he finally hit send.

***

Ye Linglan slept until dawn. Groggy, she fumbled for her phone on the bedside table to check the time, but the first thing she saw was a message from Ye Shenghan.

“The medicine and cotton swabs are on your bedside table. Don’t act impulsively again.”

Though it was just a single sentence, seeing the timestamp—one o’clock in the dead of night—Linglan couldn’t help but smile gently, though the pain at the corner of her mouth lingered. She frowned, pressing her wound, but her smile bloomed like a flower. Linglan traced each word on the screen, then turned over and opened the drawer. Inside was a delicate medicine box. She took it out, found a bell-shaped sticker from her makeup kit, and affixed it to the box. Satisfied, Linglan smiled to herself and thought, “This belongs to Ye Linglan!”

At that moment, her phone rang again. Linglan immediately answered, only to hear her supervisor’s reprimand on the other end. She had been transferred from her position as a dealer—Linglan paused, realizing this was likely Mo Zhicheng’s doing.

“What about Xiaowen?” Linglan asked cautiously.

“She’s been fired. You’d best worry about yourself!”

Xiaowen was fired?! Linglan frowned. Leaving Nightcity was a blessing for Xiaowen. As for herself... her future was uncertain!