“Yan Feiguang?” Shen Manyun still tightly clutched the silver box he had given her.
When she opened the door, she stumbled forward, her head bumping against Yan Feiguang’s chest.
Shen Manyun clearly heard the sound of his heartbeat, so close, so real.
Moreover, the sensation of her head against his chest felt so familiar.
Suddenly, Shen Manyun remembered that after treating Yan Feiguang’s injuries last night, she had collapsed onto him from exhaustion.
Startled, Shen Manyun took two steps back and whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry for. You haven’t wronged anyone,” Yan Feiguang said, looking down at her.
He could only see the top of her head; she always kept her head down, never meeting his gaze.
“I woke up and then took you back to your room,” Yan Feiguang said, now draped in a long robe, with no visible signs of his injuries.
“Alright, thank you,” Shen Manyun replied.
“I should be the one thanking you,” Yan Feiguang’s voice was deep, polite yet carrying an insurmountable distance.
“Hmm…” Shen Manyun blinked.
She didn’t mention the abnormality in Yan Feiguang’s body.
He hadn’t intended to tell her this secret; would she upset him by bringing it up?
“I won’t tell anyone,” Shen Manyun carefully chose her words, speaking slowly and deliberately.
“If you get injured again in the future, can you… can you come to me?”
“Lying down for a night like before will do,” Yan Feiguang said.
He turned around as if to leave.
Shen Manyun’s eyelashes drooped in disappointment.
She thought, he really ignored the latter part of her sentence.
As an outsider, how could she even attempt to get close to his life?
Shen Manyun slowly stepped back, planning to tidy up and leave.
But Yan Feiguang, who had been outside the door, turned back.
He was holding a white porcelain bowl filled with porridge.
Yan Feiguang handed the porridge to Shen Manyun, who instinctively cupped it with both hands.
The porridge was warm but not hot, having been kept at a comfortable temperature by his hands.
“Alright,” Yan Feiguang said to her.
“Ah…” Shen Manyun looked at the greens and shredded meat in the bowl and asked,
“Alright what?”
“I’ll come to you in the future,” Yan Feiguang said, picking up another bowl of porridge for himself.
“But you should go to Xinglan to train your body. I’m quite heavy,” Yan Feiguang added.
“Oh, alright,” Shen Manyun stirred the porridge in her bowl and smiled softly.
She could help him again.
Yan Feiguang had saved her and even found her a new job.
Now, she could finally repay him.
The two sat side by side under the corridor, drinking porridge, with a distance neither too close nor too far between them.
Shen Manyun took a sip of the porridge he had given her.
It was delicious.
The rice grains were soft and tender, melting in her mouth, with a sweet and savory flavor from the other ingredients.
It was the most delicious food she had ever tasted, far better than the small restaurant at the end of the street.
Shen Manyun couldn’t cook; she had always eaten out before.
She wondered who had made this porridge.
Could it be Yan Feiguang?
“Did you make this?” Shen Manyun asked.
“Yes,” Yan Feiguang replied, eating quickly.
His bowl of porridge was soon empty.
“It’s very tasty,” Shen Manyun said, eating slowly.
“It’s just ordinary porridge,” Yan Feiguang said, serving himself another bowl.
When he ate, like Shen Manyun, he made almost no sound.
When they weren’t talking, the place was eerily quiet.
But Shen Manyun enjoyed the current state of affairs.
She felt an inexplicable sense of comfort.
This was the first time she had eaten a meal so attentively, rather than simply fulfilling the task of replenishing her body’s energy.
“Do you need to go to the clinic again to check your injuries?” Shen Manyun finished her meal, and the porcelain spoon accidentally clinked against the edge of the bowl, producing a clear “ding—” sound.
“No need, I’m already healed.” Yan Feiguang wasn’t lying to Shen Manyun.
His body healed astonishingly fast.
After the fatal wound was treated, the rest of his injuries quickly mended.
“Give me the bowl, I’ll wash it.” Shen Manyun reached out her hand to Yan Feiguang.
Yan Feiguang’s gaze fell on the thin calluses on her palm and thumb, then his eyes moved upward, landing on Shen Manyun’s lowered face.
He placed the empty bowl in her hand.
Shen Manyun washed the bowl carefully, noticing that the kitchen in Yan Feiguang’s house bore traces of long-term use.
It seemed he had always taken care of himself, living like an ordinary person.
Suddenly, a white eagle flew into the courtyard, flapping its wings before landing in front of Yan Feiguang and raising its talon.
A letter was tied to the talon.
Yan Feiguang took it and opened it directly.
He lowered his head to read the letter, and as he did, Shen Manyun noticed that a warm, radiant light seemed to envelop him.
Because of this letter, even his emotions softened.
It was obvious who the letter was from.
The white owl obediently walked into the large cage in the courtyard to rest.
Shen Manyun thought of the dusk orchid she had picked up.
She vowed to keep the secret of the flower the female lead had discarded buried deep in her heart, ensuring Yan Feiguang would never find out.
It was understandable that the female lead didn’t care about him now.
After all, in the eyes of most readers, Yan Feiguang couldn’t compare to the other male characters.
Since… since she had come here, she would try to help Yan Feiguang pursue the female lead.
If he didn’t express himself and only relied on the cold numerical value of the system’s favorability, how would the female lead ever know how sincere and precious his feelings were?
After tidying up, Shen Manyun walked out.
When she appeared, Yan Feiguang indeed tucked the letter away.
The warm, soft aura around him dissipated completely, replaced by his usual stern demeanor.
“I’m heading back.” Shen Manyun bid farewell.
Yan Feiguang nodded but said nothing to her.
Shen Manyun returned to her own house, where a flower no one wanted still remained.
She thought of moving the dusk orchid to the courtyard to let it bask in the sun.
After being trampled like that, she wasn’t sure if this delicate flower could survive.
Shen Manyun ran to her room to open the door but found it difficult to push open.
Something seemed to be blocking it from inside.
Yan Feiguang lived next door, so Shen Manyun wasn’t too afraid.
The house she lived in was somewhat old, and it wasn’t unusual for the door frame or its components to be worn out and hard to open.
So, Shen Manyun put more force into it, leaning her entire body against the door to push it open.
She thought she would need to call someone to fix her room door another day.
Finally, with a creak, Shen Manyun stumbled into the room.
Due to the momentum, she fell forward, landing directly in the midst of something soft and cool… vines?
Shen Manyun lay in the vines, discovering that her room was now covered in green foliage, with occasional golden flowers scattered throughout.
The color of the small golden flowers was identical to the dusk orchid, and their leaves were the same shape.
However, the vitality of this plant was overwhelmingly vigorous.
The green vines extended beyond the windowsill, and the golden flowers, without needing any special care, eagerly grew toward the sunlight.
Has… the Orchid grown up?
But no matter what, for a nearly dead flower to grow to this extent overnight was undeniably eerie.
Shen Manyun confirmed that the surrounding vines posed no danger before she stood up.
She found the cracked flowerpot where she had planted the Orchid on the desk by the window.
Indeed, all the vines and leaves had grown from this pot.
The once fragile and delicate Orchid had now reached such a size.
What on earth had happened?
Shen Manyun cleared a small space in the room to walk around, pacing back and forth in frustration.
Had she caused trouble?
Only the female protagonist could control the Orchid, which was why Yan Feiguang had confidently given it to her.
But as an ordinary person, was she unable to restrain the flower’s wild growth?
Or had the Orchid been affected by some spell during the chaos last night, leading to this unexpected outcome?
Reason told Shen Manyun that she should inform Yan Feiguang about the Orchid’s bizarre growth and let him handle it.
However, the Orchid, which could survive past dusk, was the only one of its kind in the world.
How could she explain it to Yan Feiguang if he found out?
Tell him that his flower had been discarded by the female protagonist?
She had already decided to keep this secret.
She couldn’t tell Yan Feiguang-Shen Manyun resolved to handle this herself.
She went to the storeroom and fetched a large pair of scissors.
For now, the plant was quiet, showing no unusual movements.
She just needed to trim the excess branches and leaves.
But… Shen Manyun held the scissors over the vines for a long time, unable to bring herself to cut them.
This flower, from root to leaf, was a token of Yan Feiguang’s affection.
It was a plant he had intended to nurture with his heart and soul.
She couldn’t bear to cut it.
Shen Manyun put the scissors away.
She gently touched the lush green leaves beside her and sat amidst the tangle of vines, feeling utterly lost.
Finally, she decided to transplant the plant into the yard, where there was plenty of space for it to grow freely.
Shen Manyun carefully gathered the scattered branches and leaves from every corner of the room, placing them neatly on the table.
All that was left was to carry the flowerpot from the windowsill outside.
Shen Manyun stepped out and leaned out the window to pick up the flowerpot, but the vines connected to it were so numerous and heavy that it felt as if the pot was nailed to the table.
However, after running around these past few days, Shen Manyun had grown stronger.
She gritted her teeth, mustered all her strength, and managed to lift the pot.
But the moment the pot left the surface, all the vines that had spread throughout the room retracted.
They coiled back like snakes returning to their nest, all shrinking into the tiny stem at the center of the pot.
The immense weight suddenly diminished, and Shen Manyun, caught off balance, stumbled backward.
She expected to fall flat on her back.
But something reached out from behind, supporting her falling body.
The closed leaves seemed to cradle her like a baby.
Strangely, the branches that caught Shen Manyun had extended from the flowerpot she was holding.
The plant had no support on the ground.
How had it managed to catch her?
Once she was steadied, Shen Manyun reached back in panic and felt the cool touch of leaves.
Was it… the plant?
Could they really retract like that?
Shen Manyun stared at the flowerpot in her arms, utterly astonished.
Everything was too bizarre, surpassing the limits of her imagination.
She widened her eyes and stared at the Orchid in the flowerpot.
It had indeed regained its vitality, its golden petals swaying with her breath.
“What… are you?” Shen Manyun tentatively asked.
A vine extended from the Twilight Orchid, and the tip of its leaves gently tapped Shen Manyun’s head.
The gesture seemed to mockingly tease her for being foolish.