Chapter 10: A Gentle Fissure

"Starting tomorrow, I will find a way to earn back your tutoring fees as well."

Jiang Yi’s voice, in the quiet of the night, was like a pebble dropped into a lake, stirring up wave after wave of ripples in Xu Yuan’s already chaotic heart—ripples that refused to settle.

She looked up abruptly, staring at him in disbelief.

The dim, yellow streetlights of the park cast soft shadows across his cold, sharp facial contours. Those black eyes, usually filled with frost and guardedness, were now watching her quietly, holding an emotion she could not decipher but which was undeniably earnest.

He said he would help her earn the money back.

The boy who, just moments ago, had declared his intention to draw a line between them and had pushed her away with the most hurtful words, was now offering her a heavy, deeply personal sense of responsibility in the clumsiest of ways.

Xu Yuan’s heart felt as though it had been gently grasped by a warm hand—sore, burning, and carrying a trace of sweetness so faint it was almost imperceptible.

"You... how will you earn it?" Her voice was very soft, trembling in a way she hadn't even noticed herself. "Aren't you... also broke?"

She regretted the question as soon as she asked it. It was too cruel, like rubbing salt into his already bleeding wounds.

True enough, Jiang Yi’s gaze darkened.

But he didn't bristle with his usual spikes. Instead, he looked away toward the city neon in the distance, his voice calm and ripple-free.

"I don't have money, but I have a brain."

His tone carried an innate, absolute confidence belonging to a genius. Even when dragged through the mud, this pride had never been worn away in the slightest.

"There is a university programming competition in Binhai City next month. The first prize is fifty thousand," he said slowly, as if stating an established fact. "I will win it."

Xu Yuan was completely stunned.

She was well aware of that competition; it was a top-tier event with immense prestige nationwide, where all the participants were the brightest programming geniuses from major universities.

Yet he spoke of it so lightly, as if that fifty-thousand-yuan prize were already in his pocket.

"But..." Xu Yuan’s lips moved, but she couldn't help but worry. "That competition is very difficult, and even if you win the prize, that’s a month from now. I... I can't wait that long."

She needed the money now—immediately, right away.

The medical expenses at home could not be interrupted, and she had her own living expenses to cover.

Jiang Yi fell silent.

This was the most realistic problem, standing between them like a cold, impenetrable wall. Distant water cannot quench a nearby thirst.

The alley fell back into a deathly silence.

Xu Yuan looked at his tense jawline, a wave of helpless guilt surging within her. She shouldn't have turned her own predicament into another mountain for him to carry. He was already struggling enough.

"Forget it," she took a deep breath, forcing a light smile, and took off the hoodie she was wearing to return it to him. "I'll figure my own problems out. Today... thank you."

Thank you for not truly leaving me behind.

Jiang Yi did not take the hoodie. His gaze fell upon her face—which was putting on a brave front and looked even paler than the streetlights—and a complex emotion flashed through his dark, heavy eyes.

He suddenly reached out and took the phone with the shattered screen from her hand.

"Unlock it," he commanded.

Xu Yuan didn't understand why, but she instinctively entered her passcode.

She watched as Jiang Yi’s slender fingers tapped rapidly on the screen. Then, he looked up at her and said, word for word: "I have a mentor who is a technical consultant at a tech company. Their firm is currently recruiting online testers. It’s paid by the hour, with daily settlements."

Xu Yuan’s eyes lit up instantly!

Daily settlements!

This was like life-saving rain from the heavens!

"Really? That..."

"I’ve already used your phone to send your resume," Jiang Yi interrupted, handing the phone back to her. "Wait for a notification tomorrow."

His tone remained that emotionless, strictly professional cadence, as if he were merely handling a trivial matter.

But Xu Yuan knew this was no small matter.

When the whole world had abandoned her, this was a sliver of light he had chiseled out for her.

Clutching the cold phone with the shattered screen, she felt it weighed more than a thousand pounds. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but realized all language at this moment seemed so pale and powerless.

In the end, she could only lower her head and say in a barely audible voice, "...Thank you."

"We are just partners," Jiang Yi said dismissively, as if to remind her, and perhaps himself. "Your 'investment' can't just starve to death before we've even begun."

With that, he took the gray hoodie and, without allowing for argument, draped it back over her shoulders.

"Let's go. I'll walk you back to the dorm."

...

On the way back to the school from the park, the two remained silent.

But this time, the silence was no longer the suffocating awkwardness and confrontation of before. It was a subtle, tacit understanding.

He walked in front, his pace neither fast nor slow, always keeping a half-step distance from her.

She followed behind, wrapped in his oversized hoodie that still held his warmth. The scent of him—clean and refreshing—lingered at the tip of her nose, and the frozen lake in her heart began to melt, little by little, in silence.

When they reached the girls' dormitory building, Jiang Yi stopped.

"Go on up," he said.

"Yeah." Xu Yuan nodded and took off the hoodie to hand it to him.

This time, he took it.

"About... tonight," Xu Yuan hesitated, then gathered her courage. "I'm sorry, I messed everything up."

She was referring to her clumsy and impulsive performance at the karaoke bar.

Jiang Yi looked at her, his dark eyes deep as the ocean in the night.

"You didn't mess up," he said after a brief silence. "If it weren't for you, I might have been the one carried out of that room tonight."

Xu Yuan’s heart gave a violent jolt.

This was the first time he had, in a near-candid way, admitted his own vulnerability.

He had admitted that her existence was not entirely meaningless.

"Get some rest." He didn't give her a chance to ask further questions, turned, and disappeared into the night.

Xu Yuan stood in place, watching his retreating figure for a long, long time without moving.

It wasn't until her best friend Lin Feifei’s frantic, repetitive calls started ringing that she snapped out of her daze and hurried back to the dorm.

"Xu Yuan! Where the hell have you been? You didn't answer your phone or your texts! Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

As soon as she entered, Lin Feifei rushed over and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her hard.

"I'm fine..." Xu Yuan looked at her friend's face, which was etched with worry, and felt a warmth in her heart.

"Fine? Look at the state of you!" Lin Feifei pushed her onto a chair, her eyes scanning her like searchlights. "What happened at the KTV? Are you hurt? Where's Jiang Yi?"

"We..." Xu Yuan was just about to find an excuse to brush it off when Lin Feifei’s phone rang.

It was her well-connected older brother.

Lin Feifei put it on speaker, and a lazy male voice came through the other end: "It's done. I've already spoken to the people at Dynasty KTV, and the security footage has been wiped clean. Li Wenfeng’s father also received a call from a 'friend,' guaranteeing his son will be very well-behaved for a while. Tell your little classmate not to worry; no one will bother him again."

Xu Yuan was completely stunned.

Lin Feifei hung up the phone with a "praise me" expression. "How about that? Your bestie is reliable, right? The moment I saw things were wrong, I had my brother handle it. That punk Li Wenfeng won't dare bother Jiang Yi again!"

A huge, belated wave of warmth instantly engulfed Xu Yuan.

So, while she wasn't looking, someone had already smoothed away all the worries for her—and for Jiang Yi.

"Feifei..." Her eyes reddened again.

"Alright, alright, stop crying, go take a shower and get some sleep!" Lin Feifei pushed her toward the bathroom. "Look at you, you'll have dark circles under your eyes for class tomorrow."

That night, Xu Yuan took a hot shower and lay in her soft bed, but she couldn't fall asleep for a long time.

In her mind, she replayed everything that had happened that night.

Jiang Yi’s cold yet gentle eyes, his profile as he focused on applying medicine for her, and his final words: "You didn't mess up."

And his hoodie, still carrying his warmth and that clean, pleasant scent.

She turned over and buried her face in the pillow, the corners of her mouth curling upward uncontrollably.

Perhaps things weren't so bad after all.

Perhaps she could really change their cold, fated destinies.

With this small yet incredibly precious hope, Xu Yuan finally drifted into a deep sleep.

However, she did not know that once the gears of fate begin to turn, they do not stop easily.

Midnight.

She once again fell into that familiar, cold, and dark dream.

But this time, there were no raging storms, no blood, and no violence.

What she saw was a very, very small boy.

He was about seven or eight years old, wearing an exquisite little suit, sitting all alone in a vast, cold living room decorated like a palace.

In front of him sat a huge birthday cake with candles on it, but they were not lit.

A woman in luxurious clothing, her expression extremely cold, was looking down at him from above, her voice devoid of a single trace of warmth.

"Jiang Yi, you must remember, you have no right to make a wish."

"Because your birth itself is a mistake."

The dream ended abruptly there.

Xu Yuan opened her eyes wide, her heart pounding, her back soaked in cold sweat.

This time, it wasn't fear or panic.

It was an overwhelming, suffocating sense of heartache.