Shen Hanyin ate her meal in silence.
Suisui had been shut inside her bedroom. Hearing an unfamiliar voice outside, the kitten kept scratching at the door and meowing anxiously when Shen Hanyin didn’t let her out.
“Let her out,” the man said. “I don’t eat cats, and I don’t eat people either.”
Even though she didn’t fully trust his assurance, Shen Hanyin knew she couldn’t keep Suisui locked up forever.
She opened the door.
Suisui immediately darted out, jumped into Shen Hanyin’s lap, and rubbed against her affectionately. After confirming that Shen Hanyin was unharmed, she hopped back down and stared at the man.
The man crouched as well, meeting the cat’s gaze.
One person and one cat stared at each other for a long moment.
Eventually, Suisui lowered her tail.
The man reached out and stroked her head.
“Your cat is pretty interesting.”
Then he picked Suisui up and sat down on the sofa. Suisui didn’t resist at all, allowing him to pet her fur as much as he liked.
Seeing that he truly meant no harm, Shen Hanyin finally relaxed a little.
She noticed him rubbing his temples and pressing at the corners of his eyes.
“Do you have a cold?”
His voice had carried a slight nasal tone from the beginning, but she hadn’t paid much attention until now.
“Yeah.”
The man answered casually before setting Suisui on his lap and continuing to pet her, completely unconcerned by the layer of cat fur accumulating on his clothes.
After a moment of thought, Shen Hanyin returned to her room. From her space, she retrieved a box of cold medicine and a bottle of mineral water.
She handed them to him.
“Take some medicine. I don’t want you passing your cold to me or Suisui. In weather like this, getting sick can kill you.”
The man looked surprised that she was offering him medicine.
Still, he declined.
He wasn’t someone who accepted favors from strangers, especially when he couldn’t tell whether they were truly favors.
Shen Hanyin stubbornly kept her hand extended.
Eventually, the man sighed and took the medicine, placing it on the coffee table.
“Thanks.”
He still didn’t take it.
So Shen Hanyin simply stood there, staring at him without moving.
The man looked back at her.
Then, as if finally understanding her meaning, he picked up the medicine, unscrewed the bottle of water, and swallowed the pills.
Only then did Shen Hanyin nod in satisfaction and return to the dining table to finish her meal.
After dinner, she sat in the living room sketching absentmindedly.
The man continued petting Suisui without speaking.
Judging by his behavior, he genuinely liked cats. It didn’t seem fake.
That was good.
Anyone who liked Suisui was one less threat to Suisui.
Night gradually fell.
The two retreated to their separate bedrooms.
Shen Hanyin turned off the space heater in the living room.
She wasn’t planning to sleep yet.
Based on her experience, the cold medicine would make him drowsy.
Tonight, she intended to take a risk.
She was going to get rid of him.
Finally, at one in the morning, when she was usually at her sleepiest, she found herself more awake than ever.
Her nerves were stretched tight.
Using a spare key, she quietly unlocked the guest bedroom door.
Drawing her pistol, she stood outside in the darkness.
She had no intention of entering the room.
As long as she fired repeatedly toward the bed, it should be enough.
She could have teleported directly into the room using her space.
But she was worried.
What if he wasn’t asleep?
What if she missed and he fought back?
How would she explain suddenly appearing inside the room?
So she settled on the most clumsy method available.
The moment she extended her arm through the doorway—
A powerful force yanked her entire body into the room.
Her gun hand and body slammed against the wall.
An iron grip closed around her throat.
Shen Hanyin couldn’t breathe.
Her airway felt completely crushed shut.
For a terrifying moment, she genuinely believed she was about to suffocate to death.
Only then did the man release her.
She crawled out of the room and collapsed against the hallway wall, retching violently.
Her throat burned with pain.
The man’s deep voice sounded from the darkness.
“I’m saying this one last time. I only want a place to stay.”
“If you try anything again, I won’t be so lenient.”
Her throat hurt too much to speak.
After sitting there for a long time, she finally recovered enough to think.
A moment ago, she could have sworn she’d seen the gates of the underworld opening before her eyes.
At last, she accepted reality.
She wasn’t this man’s opponent.
Not even close.
Continuing to provoke him would only get her killed.
Returning to her room, she silently cursed him in her heart.
Let him freeze to death.
The next day, Shen Hanyin slept in late.
After applying foundation and touching up her eyebrows in her room, she got dressed and stepped into the living room for breakfast.
The man was already sitting on the sofa.
When he saw her, there wasn’t the slightest hint of guilt on his face.
Instead, he felt something was strange.
The previous night, although she had been wearing a sweater, he’d clearly noticed something.
Boys generally had visible Adam’s apples.
She didn’t.
Combined with her behavior and mannerisms, something about her didn’t quite add up.
Perhaps because of the cold medicine, his thoughts felt sluggish.
In the end, he chose not to pry into someone else’s secrets.
“Give me a spare key. I’m going out.”
Hearing such an unreasonable demand, Shen Hanyin nearly ground her teeth to dust.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t beat him.
So all she could do was swallow her frustration.
She went into her room and retrieved two spare keys.
Before leaving, the man added casually,
“You’d better not lock the emergency exit door from the inside.”
Threatened yet again, Shen Hanyin merely smiled and nodded.
She had always believed there would be people far stronger than herself.
That was why she never took the initiative to provoke others or make enemies.
All she wanted was to survive quietly through this disaster.
Yet everything had happened too quickly.
The extreme cold hadn’t lasted long, and she had already encountered someone like him.
The world wasn’t giving her any time to grow stronger.
Objectively speaking, she could probably trust him for now.
He never asked questions about things that weren’t his business.
There was no greed in his eyes when he looked at her supplies.
He had no obvious agenda.
He liked Suisui.
If they could coexist peacefully, perhaps that wouldn’t be so bad.
There was another reason she was willing to trust him, at least temporarily.
Her intuition told her that he was a soldier.
People were complicated creatures.
Everyone carried a certain presence about them.
Aside from being military, Shen Hanyin couldn’t think of any other background that fit him so perfectly.
She plugged in the space heater.
Not in the mood to cook, she pulled fried dough sticks and soy milk from her space and sat down to contemplate life.
If the man never came back, she would gladly give up meat for seven days.
Unfortunately, reality had other plans.
Before nightfall, the man returned right on schedule.
Shen Hanyin pretended not to notice him.
Suisui, however, trotted over immediately.
The cat wasn’t fully familiar with him yet, so she didn’t leap into his arms.
Instead, she circled him twice.
After changing his shoes and outerwear, the man picked Suisui up and asked,
“Her name is Suisui?”
“Yeah.”
He placed a bag on the coffee table and sat down, playing with the cat.
“My name is Jiang Yanbei. What’s yours?”
“Shen Yan.”
“I know this is abrupt, but I might be staying for a while.”
“I’ll provide the ingredients.”
“Can you cook an extra portion for me? I’m not picky.”
“You know it’s abrupt, yet you still asked.”
“If you don’t cook, I’ll have to borrow your gas stove. That’s even more troublesome.”
“You can choose.”
“I can’t beat you anyway. Do I really have a choice?”
Though her tone sounded exhausted, she responded to every one of his remarks.
The tables had turned.
Now she was the one who couldn’t afford to provoke this walking disaster.
“Then I’ll take that as a yes.”
“The ingredients are in the bag. Make whatever you want.”
Shen Hanyin walked over and picked it up.
It was surprisingly heavy.
Inside were two packs of noodles, a small bag of rice, several potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, carrots, a large winter melon, and a bag of pork.
She was stunned.
If supermarkets still existed, she would have thought he’d simply gone shopping.
To gather this much food in less than a day and casually place it in front of her took either incredible skill or incredible confidence.
Perhaps both.
That evening, Shen Hanyin made winter melon soup, fish-flavored shredded pork, and enough rice for two people.
To save water, she used disposable plates.
Then she knocked on the guest room door and called Jiang Yanbei out for dinner.
When Jiang Yanbei emerged, darkness had already settled outside.
To conserve electricity, Shen Hanyin lit a disaster candle and refilled Suisui’s food bowl.
Jiang Yanbei wasn’t much of a talker.
After finishing his meal, he returned directly to his room.
Meanwhile, Shen Hanyin remained sprawled on the sofa, staring at the ceiling.
She couldn’t freely binge dramas anymore.
She couldn’t casually snack whenever she wanted.
Life had become boring, restrictive, and irritating.
No matter how she looked at it, she still wanted to get rid of him.