The moment Xu Yinian saw the wound on Bai Ran’s hand, her face turned pale, her eyes filling with a mixture of panic and heartache. Her fingers tightened around Bai Ran’s wrist until her knuckles turned white, her hands trembling slightly.
“It… it must hurt so much. What should we do? Why… why would they put a snake in there?”
Her words were frantic and disorganized. Her existing fear of the Terror Box had reached its peak, leaving her utterly helpless in the face of the bleeding wound.
Bai Ran, the victim, actually turned things around and began to comfort her in a soft, gentle voice. “It was just an accident, Niannian. Pet snakes aren’t venomous.”
The organizers finally snapped out of their shock and rushed forward to apologize. “We are so incredibly sorry! When we borrowed it, the owner told us it was very docile and had never bitten anyone. There are probably just too many people today, which caused it to lose control. This was entirely our oversight… Please, let us take you to the infirmary to get it disinfected and bandaged.”
“It’s fine; it wasn’t your fault,” Bai Ran replied. Her tone held no hint of blame. She was approachable, possessing a temperament that never wished to trouble others. “Just put the box away so no one else gets hurt. I’ll go by myself.”
This display of warmth and kindness toward everyone reminded Xu Yinian of how Bai Ran had just comforted her despite her own injury. She felt herself almost drowning in this endless sea of tenderness.
“Sister Ran, I—I’ll go with you,” Xu Yinian said urgently. Fearing that Bai Ran would refuse to “trouble” her, she didn’t let go of the other woman’s hand.
“But isn’t Shen Ruoshuang still here?” Bai Ran asked. “You made plans to have lunch with her. Going with me will take too long; you’ll break your promise.”
Unlike the flustered and dull Xu Yinian, Bai Ran could feel the icy, sharp gaze Shen Ruoshuang was currently leveling at her. Bai Ran mentioned the date as if it were an afterthought, her eyes drifting toward Shen Ruoshuang. Though there was a faint smile on her lips, her expression was one of lofty condescension.
It was a casual scrap of attention tossed toward Shen Ruoshuang, but it was also a silent nudge, forcing Xu Yinian to voice her rejection and break the date herself.
Xu Yinian was oblivious to the manipulation. Under Bai Ran’s deliberate guidance, she realized she had completely forgotten about Shen Ruoshuang—and the reward that had been hastily stuffed into her bag.
She instinctively looked up and saw Shen Ruoshuang standing alone a short distance away. Her eyelashes were lowered, masking her expression. Every time they met, Shen Ruoshuang always seemed to be by herself.
For some reason, her figure looked particularly lonely and fragile today.
Xu Yinian knew she was too worried about Sister Ran to go to lunch with Shen Ruoshuang, but even as the rejection reached her lips, she couldn’t bear to say it.
Unexpectedly, Shen Ruoshuang looked up. Her gaze locked onto Xu Yinian once more, but the burning intensity in her eyes was entirely different from the previous romantic tension. It was the look Xu Yinian feared most—the look of obsession.
Back when they had first reunited, that same overwhelming fixation in Shen Ruoshuang’s eyes had made it feel as though she wanted to swallow Yinian whole. Staring stubbornly at the girl, Shen Ruoshuang’s voice was incredibly cold, yet her words sounded like those of a sulking child.
“You can break our date, but you’ll owe me,” Shen Ruoshuang said. “Next time, you have to eat lunch with me alone. Just the two of us.”
For so long, she had watched the person she loved pour out all her worry and admiration for someone else. There wasn’t even a sliver of it left for her. Yinian didn’t even remember her.
How could the proud Shen Ruoshuang, who never bowed her head, not fall into a state of obsession again?
Unlike before, when facing Shen Ruoshuang’s obsession only brought fear, Xu Yinian now felt a surge of guilt because she knew she had repeatedly ignored and stood her up.
Her naturally soft voice became even more submissive. “O-Okay.”
Bai Ran watched as Xu Yinian held onto her wrist while simultaneously acting so obediently toward another person. She deftly turned the tables, shifting her hand to envelop Xu Yinian’s.
Yinian flinched visibly but didn’t pull away. She allowed herself to be handled, likely fearing that being too rough would aggravate Bai Ran’s wound.
The girl’s hand was soft, delicate, and felt almost boneless. It was small enough to be completely encased within Bai Ran’s palm, as if it could never fly away again.
Niannian is never wrong, Bai Ran thought. The only ones in the wrong are the people who lead her astray.
Upon entering the infirmary, Xu Yinian was immediately hit by the embarrassing memory of her encounter with Ji Yan. She surreptitiously glanced at the innermost bed; it was empty, and she finally relaxed.
Even though it was just an infirmary, the air was heavy with the oppressive scent of disinfectant. Xu Yinian wasn’t the only one who grew tense; she noticed Bai Ran’s grip on her hand tighten as well.
Xu Yinian looked at Bai Ran cautiously. She assumed Bai Ran was sensitive to the smell because she had been sickly as a child.
What she couldn’t possibly imagine was that it was because of her—specifically, a surge of excitement and agitation.
When Xu Yinian appeared alongside the scent of disinfectant, the feeling of drowning in a swamp while coveting the bright moon above struck Bai Ran’s senses again after many years. Suffocation, long-lost darkness, and a muddled sense of pleasure surged all at once.
What remained unchanged was her morbid obsession with beautiful things.
In the past, she had thought about how to make that pure white moon fall into the same mud as her. Now, she wondered how to make that moonlight shine only on her.
The memories Xu Yinian had locked away in fear were the only “medicine” Bai Ran had relied on to survive during the ten years they were apart.
Inside the infirmary, besides the medical staff, there was a woman Xu Yinian didn’t recognize. She was dressed in formal attire and appeared to be a secretary or assistant.
Sure enough, the woman addressed Xu Yinian: “Hello, I am Miss Bai’s private secretary. My surname is Chen.”
“H-Hello, I’m her roommate, Xu Yinian.”
