"Because I pitied you."
Lin Yu slowly uttered this answer that Tang Manman found deeply unsettling.
Pitied me?
Tang Manman silently repeated his words, lost in thought.
After a moment, she asked again in a soft voice,
"Is there really no other reason?"
Lin Yu shook his head slightly, but then, as if murmuring in his sleep, he added,
"I also wanted you to live happily."
"Without being bullied by bad people."
After these drowsy words left his lips, the small room fell into a silence so deep you could hear a pin drop.
Tang Manman sat frozen beside Lin Yu, staring at his half-asleep face while his two vague sentences echoed endlessly in her mind. Her fair skin flushed deeper and deeper, as if swept by crimson tides, until even her cheeks burned a frightening shade of red—like she had a high fever.
And in truth, her mind was just as feverish.
Live happily?
Without being bullied?
What does that mean?
Is this a confession?
No, it doesn’t sound like one.
Is it just concern between classmates?
No, that’s not it either.
Words like these, almost like a vow, felt far too intimate.
If anything, they sounded like...
Something a father would say to his daughter.
Even though she knew Lin Yu’s words were just a platonic expression of care, Tang Manman couldn’t control the storm of emotions raging inside her.
It was as if his words had flipped some strange switch.
Her face burned hot enough to scorch her skin, and her heart pounded so violently it ached in her chest.
Those two sentences felt like a curse. Combined with the memory of how Lin Yu had saved her multiple times over the past few days, her breathing grew heavy.
That strange, indescribable feeling—one that had completely vanished by noon—suddenly surged back, stronger than ever, leaving her utterly defenseless.
"Then... then why did you act like that earlier today to scare me?"
With her face flushed nearly crimson, Tang Manman whispered the question that weighed most heavily on her mind.
"Because..."
Half-asleep, Lin Yu was about to answer honestly when a sudden sense of unease struck him.
Tang Manman’s question felt like asking a barely conscious person for their phone’s payment password—it had brushed against the most sensitive part of his mind.
Finally, his sluggish brain kicked into gear. Key words flickered in his thoughts, piecing together scattered memories as he forced himself to think.
Noon?
Acting?
Scaring her?
These fragments slowly formed a name he knew all too well.
Tang Manman!
Lin Yu jolted awake, as if realizing mid-dream that he’d left the stove on. He tried to bolt upright, only to collapse back from a splitting headache.
What the—?
Where am I?
Why are you here, Tang Manman?!
His eyes darted around in panic, and when they landed on Tang Manman, his expression turned even more terrified than if he’d seen the Fire Scorpion Gang’s enforcers.
"W-what acting?"
"What do you mean, scaring you?"
"I wasn’t acting!"
"Listen, Tang Manman, I’m not a good person."
Instinctively, Lin Yu responded with hostility, hoping she’d react like she had at noon—fleeing from him like a startled deer.
But his hopes were dashed.
Not only did Tang Manman not run, she didn’t even look the slightest bit afraid. Her flushed face was instead filled with urgency and concern as she pleaded,
"Don’t get worked up! You’re still weak—you need to rest!"
"I’m not worked up!"
Lin Yu grew increasingly uneasy at the sight of her reddened cheeks. Desperate, he doubled down, hoping to revert her back to her earlier fear.
"Tang Manman, why aren’t you scared of me?"
"I’m warning you—leave right now!"
"Or don’t blame me for what happens next!"
"I-I’d harass you if I could move right now!"
His breathing ragged, Lin Yu glared at her with a ferocity that could frighten anyone.
But beneath that terrifying exterior was a silent plea.
Tang Manman, I’m begging you.
Go back to hating me like you did at noon, okay?
I swear I’ll never get near you again!
"Alright, alright, harass me then, harass me!"
"You terrify me, okay?"
"Just calm down first!"
Tang Manman was so focused on his injuries that she blindly agreed to whatever he said, not realizing how suggestive her words sounded—until she saw the shock on Lin Yu’s face.
Her lips snapped shut, her cheeks and even her slender neck flushing a deep, rosy pink.
She was so mortified her brain short-circuited.
Lin Yu wasn’t much better. Hearing her baby him like this, he felt his life was over.
How did this happen?
How did Tang Manman’s affection level skyrocket like this?!
Am I doomed to become the homewrecker from the manga’s ending?
Ugh…
I can never face the forum bros again.
Might as well hang myself with a sturdy spaghetti noodle!
Mid-misery, Lin Yu suddenly realized something he’d overlooked.
Where the hell am I?
Forgetting his despair, he glanced around and came to a conclusion:
This was an unfamiliar room.
Where is this place?
That question led to another, far more pressing one:
How did I even get here?
His throbbing head refused to cooperate, so he turned back to Tang Manman—her face still burning red, her peach-blossom eyes full of panic—and asked,
"Where is this?"
"How did I end up here?"