By noon, the dark clouds in the sky had dispersed, and warm sunlight streamed into the room through the windows.
Shang Nian had played herself tired and fallen asleep in Shi Ying’s arms. Her tiny hand clutched one of Shi Ying’s fingers tightly. Shi Ying cautiously tried to pull it free, but Shang Nian immediately frowned in her sleep and grabbed onto her again.
Shi Ying sighed softly and could only let the little girl keep holding her finger.
She gently stroked Shang Nian’s soft hair, finding the whole thing unbelievable even to herself.
Back in the real world, she had always stayed far away from children whenever possible. During holidays, whenever relatives brought their noisy little brats over to the house, they would scream, make a mess everywhere, and give her splitting headaches every single time.
But with Shang Nian, she always felt an inexplicable sense of closeness. Seeing the little girl happy made her happy too.
Maybe it was because Shang Nian was so obedient and polite. Shang Chenyan had raised her very well, which was why she liked her so much.
Apparently, she didn’t hate children.
She just hated annoying little demons.
Shi Ying yawned. The bedroom floor was covered with a thick, soft carpet that felt warm and cozy, making her sleepy as well.
When Shang Chenyan entered the room, this was the scene that greeted him:
The two of them squeezed together on the carpet—Shi Ying leaning against the sofa while Shang Nian slept sprawled across her lap.
This was a scene he had imagined countless times in the middle of the night.
In the first year after she disappeared, Shang Chenyan had felt as though he had lost his entire world.
Again and again, he led people searching for her across the globe in vain. Every time the search ended with nothing, he would lock himself inside his study, drowning his sorrows in alcohol and giving himself over to despair.
Until one day, Pei Yanchuan barged in carrying Shang Nian. He yanked open the curtains and stuffed the child straight into Shang Chenyan’s arms without caring whether he wanted to hold her or not.
Little Shang Nian had a pair of huge, round eyes that looked exactly like hers.
Holding that warm, soft little bundle in his arms, Shang Chenyan finally felt human warmth and life again after so long.
Pei Yanchuan had pointed at his nose and cursed him out, saying that if he didn’t know how to be a father, then he’d just find Shang Nian another dad.
Shang Chenyan had held the baby stiffly as he stared into her eyes. She seemed to smell the unpleasant scent of alcohol on him and immediately pursed her lips, on the verge of crying.
Instinctively, he bounced her gently in his arms, coaxing her in a hoarse voice.
This was the child he had with Shi Ying.
She carried Shi Ying’s blood in her veins.
The mere thought of that made his heart tremble. An indescribable bond wrapped tightly around the two of them.
Even after the full moon had risen high into the sky, he still couldn’t bear to put down the little bundle in his arms.
In the second year after her disappearance, Shang Chenyan began to feel that the world itself was erasing every trace of her existence.
The first time he noticed it was at a university reunion.
Throughout his school years, he had always been a loner. Aside from Pei Yanchuan and Ji Huanzhou, he had never had any real friends.
Shi Ying had been the ray of sunlight that shattered his dark world.
It was because of her that he had been willing to attend those boring class reunions.
At the gathering, someone took out their old graduation photo and started joking about how much everyone had changed over the years.
Then suddenly, that person paused while pointing at one of the girls in the photo.
“Who’s this?”
The others crowded over to look and scratched their heads in confusion.
“This is… why can’t I remember?”
Shang Chenyan silently stared at the person in the photograph for a long time before finally speaking his first sentence of the night.
“That’s Shi Ying.”
“Oh!” Several people smacked their foreheads. “Right, right, Shi Ying!”
“How come I barely remember her? Was she just not very noticeable in class?”
Shang Chenyan wanted to tell them no.
She had been incredibly noticeable.
She was like a little sun, always smiling brightly at everyone around her.
Later, he contacted Shi Ying’s university roommates and her club classmates, but all of their impressions of her were incredibly vague.
And later still, when he mentioned Shi Ying while talking with Ji Huanzhou, there had been a fleeting moment of confusion on Ji Huanzhou’s face.
It was as though he could barely remember who Shi Ying was.
One day, Shang Chenyan sat alone at his desk, staring at the framed photograph beside him for a very long time.
“Yingying…”
Inside the empty study, he called out Shi Ying’s name in panic, but the only answer he received was deathly silence filling the room.
“Shi Ying… Shi Ying…”
He began calling her name over and over again. He covered the walls with every photograph they had together and obsessively stared at them day after day like a form of self-inflicted torture.
He forced himself to recall every tiny detail they had shared together. Every day, he talked to Ji Huanzhou and Pei Yanchuan about the past until Pei Yanchuan finally cursed him out for being insane.
He was terrified of forgetting her.
A faint rustling of fabric sounded in the room.
Shi Ying had not been sleeping deeply. She fought against her drowsiness for several minutes before finally managing to open her eyes.
The first thing she saw was Shang Chenyan’s face extremely close to hers.
His warm breath brushed lightly against her ear.
Startled, Shi Ying shoved him away immediately.
Shang Chenyan showed no embarrassment or guilt at all. Lowering his voice, he chuckled softly.
“The floor’s cold. I wanted to carry Shang Nian onto the bed so she could sleep more comfortably.”
Shi Ying lowered her head and looked at the sleeping Shang Nian in her arms, inwardly criticizing herself for being narcissistic.
For a second there, she had almost thought he was trying to steal a kiss from her.
Shang Chenyan bent down and picked Shang Nian up before turning back toward her.
“Do you need me to help you up?”
“N-No, it’s fine. I can get up myself.” Shi Ying’s legs had gone numb. Supporting herself against the sofa, she slowly stood. “President Shang, it’s almost two already, and Nian nian’s asleep now, so I should probably head home.”
The hand hanging at Shang Chenyan’s side quietly tightened.
“Won’t you stay for dinner before leaving?”
“No… I still have things to do.” Shi Ying refused.
Shang Chenyan smiled faintly and didn’t try to persuade her further.
“Alright. I’ll have the driver take you home.”
His polite and distant attitude made Shi Ying secretly let out a long sigh of relief.
She still preferred it when her boss stayed cold and aloof.
Shang Chenyan went downstairs first. Just as Shi Ying followed after him, she suddenly remembered the underwear she had left drying in the guest room two days ago.
Her footsteps halted instantly.
The man’s figure disappeared around the stairway corner. Shi Ying quickly peeked around to make sure he was gone, then immediately spun around and darted into the guest room, intending to find them and destroy the evidence as fast as possible.
But after searching the bathroom once, she still couldn’t find them.
They weren’t in the cabinet either.
Shi Ying dropped to her knees and bent down to peer underneath the bed.
“What are you looking for?”
The sudden voice startled her badly.
Shi Ying instinctively jerked upright, only to hear a muffled grunt from the man above her. Her head had slammed directly into his hand.
She had been leaning down to look under the bed just now, and when she sat up too quickly, she would’ve smashed her head against the bedframe if Shang Chenyan hadn’t blocked it with his hand.
“President Shang, are you alright?” Shi Ying stood up awkwardly, twisting her fingers together like a child who had done something wrong.
Shang Chenyan frowned slightly.
“I’m fine. What about you? What were you looking for?”
Shi Ying was so embarrassed that even the tips of her ears had turned red. Her voice was as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.
“I’m sorry, President Shang. I didn’t mean to… It’s just… when I stayed over that night, I lost a piece of clothing, so I wanted to look for it.”
Shang Chenyan looked puzzled.
“Then you could’ve just told someone directly. Did you find it?”
Shi Ying shook her head.
Shang Chenyan thoughtfully said, “Do you need me to help you look for it? Maybe Aunt Zhang put it away somewhere while cleaning the room. I can ask her.”
“N-No, no, no! There’s no need!” Shi Ying looked like she was on the verge of tears. “Forget it. It’s not anything important anyway. If it’s gone, then it’s gone. Forget it…”
Shang Chenyan nodded coolly.
“Alright then. The driver is already waiting downstairs.”
Only after Shi Ying’s car had driven away did the smile on Shang Chenyan’s face completely disappear.
Shi Ying seemed to have been avoiding him today.
Ever since he helped treat her wounds, she had been intentionally—or perhaps unintentionally—keeping her distance from him.
Had he done something wrong?
Why was Shi Ying avoiding him?