Lu Zhe closed his eyes.

He had rarely interacted with girls. He didn’t know if all girls were like Su Ci— not only delicate, but also full of bad ideas.

“Mm.” Lu Zhe responded softly.

Su Ci’s hand was still covering Lu Zhe’s eyes. Like a snail, she continued to shift her feet bit by bit, wanting to avoid this kind of awkwardness.

Just as she moved half a step away, in the next second, the boy’s large hand clasped her wrist.

His palm was cold, the pads of his fingers rough.

She was a little startled, wanting Lu Zhe to stop messing around. His big hand removed hers from his eyes.

Lu Zhe’s pitch-black eyes were deep, bottomless. He glanced at her, lowered his head, and by her ear returned the words she had said earlier, “Don’t move around.” The soft sensation kept spreading from his chest— he wasn’t numb; it wasn’t that he had lost all sensation.

Su Ci was just about to say something when she heard the footsteps of the female employee coming out from inside.

The female employee pushed open the door to the administrative office in front of the lockers, followed by the sound of a chair being pulled.

Silence fell around them again. Su Ci didn’t hear anything unusual.

Estimating the time, Su Ci lowered her voice, “Hurry, let’s go.”

She squeezed past the front of Lu Zhe’s body.

The office door wasn’t closed. As Su Ci walked out from behind the lockers, she saw the female employee holding a knife, the tip pointed at her own wrist.

Su Ci stood at the doorway and didn’t step forward.

Lu Zhe followed out and also saw what the female employee was about to do.

The female employee looked at the two standing at the door in shock, not expecting them to come back. “You… you two, why did you return…”

“Oh, I left something behind and came back for it.” Su Ci’s voice was very soft, her tone lightly indifferent. “You’re about to slit your wrist?”

The female employee froze, clearly stunned by Su Ci’s bluntness.

She gripped the knife tighter. “Don’t come over.”

Su Ci nodded. “I won’t go over.”

She looked at the female employee and asked her, “Why do you want to die? With one cut, watching the blood drain from your own body— don’t you think that’s tormenting and agonizing?”

The female employee’s gentle face held deep sorrow. “You’re still young. You don’t understand that some things can be more terrifying, more unbearable than death.”

Su Ci nodded. “It’s true I don’t understand. I don’t understand what could be more frightening than death.”

The hand holding the knife trembled, her eyes filled with sadness.

“I might not be able to empathize with you, but I know life only comes once. Nothing is more precious than life.”

Su Ci looked at her and spoke softly, “But in this world, for many people, wanting to live is already a luxury.”

Sometimes it was quite ironic.

Those who want to survive don’t live long; those who live long don’t cherish life.

Before she transmigrated, Su Ci had always had severe heart disease. Since she was young, she had known she wouldn’t live long.

However, she had never once thought about giving up.

Even when her family later went bankrupt, and her parents passed away, she still never thought about giving up her life. Being able to live even one more day was a blessing to her.

Until later, during filming, her heart disease flared up and she died. When she opened her eyes again, she had become a rabbit.

Now this body was healthy. Although, looking at her own life value, her life was still bound to the short-lived Lu Zhe, she was still grateful, still cherished her life.

Even Lu Zhe— even knowing he had a terminal illness, his limbs numb, his body slowly stiffening— he continued to live seriously every day: going to school, working part-time, taking his medicine on time, exercising.

Both she and he knew that with each day they lived, one less day remained.

“Dying might end everything, but do you think it’s worth it?”

Su Ci’s gaze fell on the knife in the female employee’s hand. She softened her voice, trying to persuade her: “Every matter has a way to be solved. We don’t have to choose such an extreme method. This is just running away, not solving the problem.”

She quietly took a step closer to the female employee. “Maybe you can tell me. We can figure it out together. You can talk to me, complain to me— it’s better than holding it inside.”

The female employee shook her head. Her lips pressed tightly together, her gaze turning blank.

Su Ci continued coaxing her: “You can talk about it. Any matter will always have a solution.”

The female employee murmured, “Can I talk?”

Su Ci nodded firmly. “Of course. I’m very willing to listen.”

The female employee was silent for a long moment. Then she slowly spoke: “I… I once took some… inappropriate photos.”

A person who has held things in for too long—

Once the first sentence is spoken, continuing becomes much easier. “The other party keeps using the photos to threaten me. Every day I have to see that disgusting face of his, and I just want to throw up. I don’t want to die, but I have no way to deal with him.”

The knife in the female employee’s hand shifted away, her whole body seeming to lose its strength.

She didn’t truly want to die, she just had no way out.

When she first entered the workforce, she had been young and ignorant, far too naïve. She couldn’t see her superior’s ferocious true face and was deceived into taking inappropriate photos, then constantly blackmailed afterward.

“So, you chose to slit your wrist here in the office because you wanted to scare that man?” Su Ci turned slightly. “This kind of method is stupid. If you die, he might forget you the next second and still live perfectly well.”

“I know, but this is the only path to relief I have left.” The female employee’s face was full of anguish.

“Do you know where that man keeps your photos?” Su Ci asked.

The female employee nodded. “On his computer, but I can’t get near it.”

Su Ci tilted her head toward the boy beside her. “Lu Zhe, can you?”

Lu Zhe walked over to a computer. “A man can’t say he can’t.”

Realizing his meaning, the female employee bit her lip, tossed aside the knife, and said, “I know the IP address of his computer.”

“Mm.” Lu Zhe turned on the computer, his slender, well-defined fingers tapping across the keyboard.

Su Ci lowered her head to look at the female employee’s wrist. The life value displayed there had already changed— now five yellow blocks, meaning she still had fifty years of lifespan left.

Curling her lips slightly, Su Ci turned to look at Lu Zhe, who was busy at the computer.

Mm, a serious Lu Zhe was really handsome.

Every part of him matched her personal aesthetic standard perfectly. If only Lu Zhe could cooperate properly and let her kiss him, he’d be even more handsome.

Before long, Lu Zhe stopped typing. He asked the female employee, “It should be this folder. Take a look.” He stepped aside, not looking at the photos inside.

The female employee’s hand trembled as she held the mouse. When she opened the folder, tears instantly filled her gentle face.

“These are the ones.” She tried her best to keep her hand from shaking and clicked delete on the folder.

The female employee then noticed an encrypted folder nearby. Her heartbeat suddenly quickened. “Could you help me open this encrypted folder?”

She knew that man had embezzled a lot of money from the company, and the evidence was also on his computer.

“Mm.” Lu Zhe easily unlocked the folder that had several layers of encryption.

“Thank you.” The female employee’s heart was almost leaping up to her throat. She copied all the evidence inside the folder.

Su Ci looked at the woman’s expression and already guessed what she intended to do. She approved of it, one less scumbag like that was a service to the people.

Clutching the evidence tightly, the female employee looked gratefully at Su Ci and Lu Zhe. “Thank you. If not for you, I just now would have already…”

Her voice choked. She bowed deeply to Su Ci and Lu Zhe. “Thank you for helping me escape the abyss.”

She had once fantasized that someone— anyone— might reach out a hand to help her, but all she received was despair. She hadn’t expected that at the moment she wanted to give up, someone would actually reach out to her.

“Thank you!”

Gratitude filled the gentle lines of her face.

“I just ate your snacks earlier. Consider that your thanks.” Su Ci licked her lips. “They were pretty good.”

The female employee smiled, life returning to her eyes. The heavy sorrow between her brows disappeared, and her smile was beautiful. “My name is Li Ran. May I know yours?”

Su Ci curved her red lips. “Su Ci.”

Li Ran silently repeated it in her heart.

When they stepped out of the building, the sunlight wasn’t as harsh as before.

Su Ci opened an umbrella. For a beauty-conscious girl like her, she didn’t want to get tanned at all.

“Lu Zhe, can you hold the umbrella for me? My hand suddenly feels so sore.” Su Ci handed him the umbrella, smiling brightly at him.

Lu Zhe already knew— the pitiful, innocent look Su Ci had earlier was just an act. This little rascal now, always harboring mischief in her eyes and heart, was her true face.

He took the umbrella from her hand.

Su Ci immediately slipped under the shade, completely unwilling to let even a bit of sunlight hit her.

“Lu Zhe, I saved another person just now,” Su Ci said.

“Mm.” She had indeed saved a life.

Su Ci cast him a sideways glance, sighing to herself, “You’re not even going to praise me?”

Lu Zhe tilted the umbrella toward her side without replying. Instead, he asked, “How did you know she was going to slit her wrist?” Su Ci had pulled him behind the lockers, as if she had known in advance what Li Ran would do.

Under the sunlight, Su Ci’s small face looked even fairer. She blinked and made something up. “Li Ran’s expression told me something was wrong. I didn’t expect I was so smart, I actually guessed right.”

She wanted to tell him the truth too, but unfortunately, the system didn’t allow it.

Lu Zhe didn’t say whether he believed her or not. Holding the umbrella, the sunlight fell across his shoulder.

Su Ci reached out to tug his clothes. “Lu Zhe, come a bit closer…”

She didn’t finish her sentence. In the next second, Lu Zhe’s whole body lurched forward as he fell.

“Lu Zhe!”

Su Ci hurriedly caught him. He had already collapsed once before, at the night market.

Lu Zhe didn’t fall all the way. He reacted in time— only his hand scraped against the ground.

Su Ci frowned.

Had she not kissed Lu Zhe? Why was he now having trouble even walking?

Fugui: [Master kissing Lu Zhe can only keep him from dying by increasing his lifespan. His illness does not change.]

Lu Zhe could keep hanging onto life without dying, but his ALS still existed. In the end, he would become completely stiff, unable to move.

Su Ci: “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Fugui’s voice was tiny: [Master didn’t ask.]

Lu Zhe had already steadied himself. He straightened his back, continued holding the umbrella, his pace slow. His cold, expressionless face showed nothing, as if the one who had almost fallen just now wasn’t him at all.

Su Ci: “Is there any way to cure Lu Zhe’s ALS?”

Fugui’s milky little voice sounded extremely unwilling: [If he eats enough golden cotton candy, he can be cured.]

Su Ci knew that after she saved someone, Fugui would receive one ball of golden cotton candy. So it worked on Lu Zhe too?

Su Ci narrowed her eyes. “I saved Li Ran just now. You received golden cotton candy, right?”

Fugui happily shared: [Fugui received it. Thank you, Master.]

Su Ci: “Hand it over. Lu Zhe needs it.”

Fugui felt wronged to death.

Su Ci didn’t care at all— it dared to hide something this important from her. She shut Fugui off immediately.

Now that she knew the use of the golden cotton candy, Su Ci felt deeply that she was absolutely Lu Zhe’s tool person— solid proof!

She turned her head to look at the almost invisible, silent Lu Zhe. “Lu Zhe, you must be incredibly lucky to have met an unparalleled treasure like me.”