After Su Tingxuan yelled at Shen Wanwan, he immediately began to regret it.
He had originally thought that, given her young lady temper, she would come up and slap him, or perhaps kick him a few times.
But Shen Wanwan only quietly walked up to him and gently patted his shoulder.
Her palm was soft, and her tone was unprecedentedly gentle.
“I’m sorry, you’ve really worked hard these years.”
There was no cruelty, no questioning of his mistakes.
She said, “From now on, you can do anything you want. We’re done.”
The small warmth on his shoulder quickly faded away.
She turned around and walked away with determination.
Su Tingxuan felt like crying.
Suddenly free from her control, he felt an inexplicable emptiness in his heart.
Bai Ling comforted him, “You’re just not used to it for now. You’ll get over it soon.”
Right.
He really could start embracing a new life!
What he needed was a thoughtful girl like Bai Ling.
Even if she was already asleep, she would come to comfort him and cheer him up because of his sadness.
Definitely not like Shen Wanwan, the arrogant young lady.
Bai Ling comforted him some more, and Su Tingxuan slowly began to let go. The two of them returned to their place. As they passed his room, Bai Ling seemed to notice something and paused.
The pale-pink hair tie that had fallen by the door looked like Shen Wanwan’s.
Had Shen Wanwan come to find Su Tingxuan earlier?
“What’s wrong?”
Su Tingxuan, seeing her hesitation, asked curiously.
Bai Ling awkwardly avoided his gaze. “Nothing.”
Su Tingxuan waved his hand at her. “Alright then, you should get some rest too. Goodnight.”
Bai Ling bit her lip, seemingly in the middle of an inner struggle, before saying, “Tingxuan, maybe Shen Wanwan has feelings for you.”
Su Tingxuan was stunned, then looked at her with affection. “But you know how I feel. Love is something that can’t be forced.”
Bai Ling blushed.
“Goodnight.”
The next moment, the door to the next room opened, and Shao Yuye hurriedly walked out holding a phone.
Bai Ling instinctively brushed her loose hair, and Shao Yuye quickly glanced at the two of them before turning and walking down the empty corridor.
On the other end of the phone, Shao Hongyuan’s angry voice came through.
“Did you block your sister’s number?”
Shao Yuye sneered. “Spit it out if you have something to say.”
“How dare you talk to me like that? It’s your stepmother’s birthday on Sunday, get your ass back here. We’re celebrating as a family!”
“Who the hell is ‘family’ to you?”
Shao Yuye sneered. “Shao Hongyuan, my mother’s surname is Shen! I’m not coming Sunday. I wish you all happiness, and may you all die happy.”
Shao Hongyuan cursed on the phone for a while. “You really want to keep opposing me, huh?”
“Fine, if you’re so brave, never come back. I’ll have someone clear out your mother and sister’s things tomorrow!”
Shao Yuye became furious. “You dare!”
“Then you’d better come home honestly. Jiajia wants to see you. Don’t make it hard for me.”
After Shao Hongyuan hung up with a ‘click’, Shao Yuye stood at the window with a grim expression, veins bulging on the back of his hand, his short hair shadowing his cold, wild eyes.
When his mother and sister left that year, his father shamelessly brought his mistress into their home.
Shao Hongyuan had tried more than once to make him empathize:
“I can’t help it.
“I thought your mother and I could make it work, but Qing’er is my true love, I just can’t help it.
“Ha, what’s the point of telling you this? You’re still too young, you don’t understand love.”
Shao Yuye really didn’t understand love.
He only knew that his family had been torn apart by what was supposed to be a beautiful true love.
Within six months, that woman had given birth to a daughter.
Shao Hongyuan smiled and planned a bright future for him.
“See, nothing has changed.
“You always liked younger sisters, right? Now you have one again.
“She’s really cute, don’t you think?”
But none of that stopped Shao Hongyuan from continuing his affair the next year and welcoming new love.
Shao Yuye’s expression darkened as he gazed out the window.
The lights were bright.
But none of them felt like home.
That night, Shao Yuye slept uneasily.
In his dreams, he seemed to return to the year his parents divorced.
The scene had a warm, yellowish old-time hue. This time, as their parents were about to separate them, he tightly hugged his sister.
He heard himself speak in a cold, indifferent tone, calmly telling them:
“If you’re getting a divorce, do as you wish. I’ll take my sister with me.”
Since the current family is already unhappy, then removing the factors that make them unhappy should solve the problem.
He had already become strong enough—fully capable of protecting his sister.
The memories after that were hazy. He only remembered his sister shouting with all her strength:
“Brother—”
Shao Yuye jolted awake from the dream, drenched in cold sweat. He sat at the edge of the bed, gasping for breath.
In the room, the soft, alternating snores of Zhang Yiran and Li Yan echoed faintly. Dawn was just breaking, and a weak light filtered in through the window.
Everything in the dream still seemed to float before his eyes.
He lowered his gaze, as if once again plunged into deep darkness.
If only he had been a bit stronger back then, strong enough to break free from Shao Hongyuan’s grasp…
Or if he could have run just a little faster, fast enough to catch up with the car that was taking his mother and sister far away…
Would everything now be different?
Shao Yuye got up and walked to the bathroom, turning on the light.
Warm yellow light spilled down from above.
He took a deep breath, leaned down, turned on the tap, and splashed a handful of water onto his face.
Droplets clung to his long eyelashes, making his vision a bit blurry, but the mirror still reflected his sharply defined face, every line from the corner of his eyes to the arch of his brows revealing suppressed agitation.
With the night behind him, all the unpleasantness had been turned to a new page.
The next day would be the last day of the first stop.
After today, the first eliminated team would be decided.
Jiang Qianfan and Su Tingxuan were still stuck on level 13;
Jialu and Chi Tian were on level 14.
It was highly likely that the eliminated team would be one of those two.
When Shen Wanwan saw Shao Yuye, there were dark circles under his eyes and clear signs that he hadn’t slept well.
Shen Wanwan teased, “Got beat up or something?”
He shot her a cold sideways glance, clearly in a foul mood.
Since the livestream hadn’t started yet, Shao Yuye’s entire aura screamed ‘Do not approach.’
Shen Wanwan fell silent for a moment, then suddenly said:
“Hey, a UFO.”
What an obvious bluff, wasn’t it?
Shao Yuye grumbled inwardly but still couldn’t help tilting his head up.
The sightseeing car’s roof was transparent.
The sky was a clear blue, with nothing in sight.
Suddenly, someone lightly tapped his right shoulder.
He turned—nothing behind him.
When he turned his head back again, he was met with Shen Wanwan’s stunningly beautiful face, smiling brightly at him.
That familiar feeling almost peaked in that moment.
Memories from years ago came crashing back.
Whenever his little sister was in a bad mood, he used to cheer her up like this.
She would say, “Brother, you’re so annoying,” while lifting the corners of her mouth in a smile.
A sharp pain suddenly pierced Shao Yuye’s heart.
When he looked up again, his dark eyes were already frosted over.
“Don’t bother me.”
Shen Wanwan raised an eyebrow, unaffected: “You said it.”
Just don’t regret it later.
For the rest of the morning, neither of them spoke.
Viewers in the livestream watched over and over, confused by the sudden tension.
[What’s going on? Weren’t they getting along fine last night?]
[Did they fight again?]
[No, this looks like a cold war.]
[…Emmmm suddenly they look like a pair of puzzle-solving machines.]
[Not even any drama… At least when they argued, it was entertaining. Now it’s like watching two strangers clear a game together.]
[Maybe they were pretending the whole day yesterday and just couldn’t keep it up anymore kkkkk…]
That whole morning, Shao Yuye moved like a zombie, mechanical and numb.
By the time the lunch break came, he finally couldn’t resist and called Brother Li.
Brother Li picked up almost instantly.
“Hey, what happened with you and Shen Wanwan again?! Both of you looked like crap this morning. Did you fight again?!”
Shao Yuye ignored his questions and went straight to the point:
“Any news about my sister yet?”
Brother Li went quiet for a moment on the other end.
“To be honest, the investigation is progressing very slowly.
“It’s really hard to find someone from just childhood photos—especially since your sister went abroad.”
It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Shao Yuye’s left hand, hanging by his side, clenched tightly.
On the phone, there was a dead silence, as if all sound had been sucked away.
Brother Li couldn’t bear it and said, “Ah Ye, you’ve been looking for so many years already. Are you… really going to keep searching?”
“Yes.”
Shao Yuye replied without hesitation, firm and resolute.
Brother Li rubbed his brow in frustration, trying to persuade him:
“Ah Ye, I think you might be getting a bit obsessed. It’s been so many years…”
He had just started speaking when Shao Yuye abruptly cut him off, voice sharp:
“Brother Li!”
Brother Li fell silent instantly.
Shao Yuye said, “I only have one little sister.”
How could he possibly stop looking?