Chapter 86: Comfort Only Works in the Moment

Ren Queyue stopped in her tracks and turned around, looking at her seriously. “I really did know.”

Upon hearing this, Zhao Shutong’s smile slowly faded, and a sour feeling welled up in her heart. She muttered softly,

“…Fine. You knew… Then why didn’t you come comfort me back then? I was actually pretty scared at the time.”

Ren Queyue fell silent for a few seconds, then turned back around and continued gazing at the shimmering river surface.

“Comfort only works in the moment. It can’t guarantee that the same thing won’t happen again in the future.”

Zhao Shutong pressed, “Oh? Then… what does work?”

Ren Queyue didn’t answer.

That question dissipated into the night breeze, left without a response.

Back to the present.

Zhao Shutong pulled herself out of the memory and let out a soft sigh. She said to Feng Miwan and Xiong Yibai,

“Later, she applied to the same university as me. We were at the same school, just different majors—she studied medicine, and I studied finance.”

“Our parents from both families simply rented two adjacent small apartments near the school for us. We didn’t live in the dorms.”

“But university was different from before. Even at the same school, our class schedules were completely different, so we couldn’t go to school and come home together like we did as kids.”

“Then she said she could adjust her schedule to match mine, trying her best to go to school and come home with me.”

At this point, a somewhat helpless yet amused expression appeared on Zhao Shutong’s face.

“When I heard her say that, I thought this person was way too obsessed.”

Time flashed back to the past.

Zhao Shutong half-jokingly asked Ren Queyue, “Queyue, are you my little shadow? Do you like following me around that much?”

“Why? Could it be… you’re afraid I’ll get kidnapped again?”

The young Ren Queyue didn’t retort with words like she usually did.

She simply turned her head and looked into Zhao Shutong’s eyes, which carried a teasing glint.

“Yeah, exactly.”

Back to the present.

Zhao Shutong continued to Feng Miwan and Xiong Yibai,

“When I heard her admit it so straightforwardly, the retort on the tip of my tongue—’What good does following me do? You’re just a girl too. If something really happens, can you even fight them off?’—died in my throat.”

She paused.

“But right then, an image suddenly flashed in my mind: the sight of her boxing before.”

“That power, that speed… it seemed like even an average guy might not be able to withstand it.”

“She really… seemed capable of protecting me.”

“That realization made me swallow my words, but my heart could no longer stay calm.”

“That night, back in my apartment, I couldn’t sleep at all. My mind was like a movie reel, desperately replaying when exactly she had started to change.”

“The more I thought, the clearer it became. The starting point of all those changes pointed straight to the time after my kidnapping.”

“I sat bolt upright, a guess popping into my head that even I thought was a bit far-fetched, but also incredibly logical:

She learned boxing, defied her parents’ wishes and shed her scholarly demeanor—could it be… all for me from the very beginning?”

“To gain the strength to protect me, so I wouldn’t have to go through that kind of danger again?”

Time flashed back to the past.

Once that thought emerged, it grew wildly in Zhao Shutong’s heart like weeds.

Her heart pounded fiercely. She threw off the covers and, still in her pajamas, rushed out the door to knock on Ren Queyue’s door next door.

The door opened quickly. Ren Queyue looked somewhat surprised to see Zhao Shutong standing there in her pajamas.

“Knocking so late—what’s up?”

Zhao Shutong sidestepped right in. “We’ll talk inside.”

The two sat down on the sofa in Ren Queyue’s living room.

As soon as Ren Queyue sat, she picked up her phone and started looking at something.

Zhao Shutong asked, “What are you looking at?”

Without lifting her head, Ren Queyue replied, “The surveillance replay from our front door. Checking if any suspicious people were lurking around while we were out during the day.”

Zhao Shutong leaned over and saw that the phone screen indeed showed live footage and a playback list from the camera at their apartment door.

She was somewhat speechless. “…Ren Queyue, isn’t your safety awareness a bit over the top? You check this every day?”

Only then did Ren Queyue look up from her phone and glance at Zhao Shutong. “Better safe than sorry.”

After finishing her check, she set the phone down. “You still haven’t said why you came over so late.”

Zhao Shutong hesitated for a moment, then steeled her resolve. “I want to ask you something.”

Seeing how unusually serious she was, Ren Queyue straightened up and nodded. “What is it? Go ahead.”

Zhao Shutong looked straight into her eyes. “Why did you learn boxing, exactly?”

Ren Queyue’s gaze flickered, and she avoided direct eye contact.

“Didn’t I tell you? Just a hobby.”

Zhao Shutong leaned forward, closing the distance between them.

“A hobby?”

“For a hobby that popped up out of nowhere, you went against Uncle and Aunt, arguing with them?”

“Your whole family is from scholarly backgrounds, and yet you alone suddenly changed your entire vibe? Do you even believe that excuse?”

Ren Queyue struggled to respond and countered, “Then what do you think it was for?”

The room fell quiet. Zhao Shutong stayed silent for a while, as if gathering her courage.

Then she lifted her head, her gaze crashing straight into Ren Queyue’s eyes.

“Ren Queyue, do you… like me?”

The moment those words left her mouth, the air seemed to freeze.

The two stared at each other, neither looking away.

Ren Queyue fixed her gaze on Zhao Shutong’s eyes, trying to discern the true intent behind the question.

Was it curiosity?

A test?

Or… did she feel the same?

Zhao Shutong stared back, searching those eyes—now resolute, yet revealing a hint of tension in that moment—for the evidence of the answer that had lingered in her heart for so long.

Time stretched on, so long that Zhao Shutong thought there might be no response, until Ren Queyue finally spoke.

“Yes.”

Zhao Shutong froze for a second, then an irrepressible smile bloomed from the corners of her mouth, growing wider and wider.

“So, you learned boxing… to protect me?”

“Yes.”

“Applying to the same university as me, wanting to go to school and come home together?”

“Yes.”

“Shedding that old scholarly air, turning yourself into… well, a bit fierce-looking?”

Ren Queyue nodded.

“Yes.”

“Being too refined wouldn’t intimidate troublemakers.”

Zhao Shutong even started guessing wildly.

“Then choosing to study medicine… don’t tell me that was…?”

But Ren Queyue affirmed once more.

“Yes.”

“I originally wanted something more direct, like police academy.”

“But my parents… I couldn’t win that argument.”

“In the end, we compromised on something relatively refined like medicine. At least, it could come in handy in critical moments.”