Chapter 29

Li Zhuyuan slept deeply. There were no dreams, no midnight trips to the bathroom, and he didn't even shift his sleeping position. He simply closed his eyes and opened them again, and the long night was over.

Habitually turning his head to the side, he found no surprise: the girl was sitting in the chair by the door.

But soon, Li Zhuyuan noticed something was wrong, because the girl had not changed her clothes.

She was still wearing the same black training uniform from yesterday, and the stains from her rushed work were still clearly visible.

This meant the girl had not returned to the east room to sleep last night; she had sat here for the entire night.

Li Zhuyuan could roughly guess why she had done this. Because he had exhausted his energy so severely yesterday, she was worried he might suffer sudden death in his sleep.

This reason, which would be difficult for outsiders to understand, was the girl's purest and simplest thought.

Although she had not spoken a word in front of him since their first meeting, Li Zhuyuan found that he was increasingly able to read her.

He got up from the bed and walked toward the girl.

Her face remained exquisite, showing not a trace of fatigue.

Perhaps she was used to staying up late like this; in her world, the concept of day and night had long since blurred.

Otherwise, Liu Yumei wouldn't constantly remind her to coax Ali back to the east room to sleep every night.

The girl raised her head, meeting the boy's gaze.

In her eyes, Li Zhuyuan saw a nearly complete version of himself.

It wasn't that he hadn't analyzed why the girl treated him so differently.

It all stemmed from that night when the old cat demon came. The girl had stood on the courtyard, looking up at him standing on the second-floor terrace.

He was likely the first person to ever enter her dreams.

It was certainly no beautiful dream, because her eyes could see the terrifying underside of this world.

A ten-year-old... no, she must have been like this even earlier, when she was much smaller.

It was hard to imagine how a toddler, barely able to speak, could face such an environment—surrounded by nothing but infinite ugliness and filth.

She must have cried, felt fear, and screamed, but the world did not change because of her emotions. Ultimately, she chose to change herself, sealing herself off completely.

Autism, OCD, selective mutism, and other symptoms were merely outward manifestations; the true internal cause was her rejection of all contact with the outside world.

Though he felt a bit flushed, it was the truth: his appearance that night was like a sudden beam of light appearing in her long, dark night.

He was like a balcony enclosed in a glass window; she stood on that balcony, cautiously touching and perceiving the outside world through him.

Perhaps, he was simply the one who, at that exact moment, temporarily carried all her passion and expectations for the world.

But at the same time, wasn't it the same for her regarding him?

His mother already disliked him, his father could no longer endure this family, and whether it was Grandpa Nan or Grandpa Bei, he wasn't their only grandson.

But at least in the eyes of the girl before him, they were filled entirely with him.

Li Zhuyuan reached out, wanting to tidy the slightly messy hair by Ali's ear, but the girl reached out first, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her face against his chest.

Ever since she saw him do this to Li Sanjiang that day, she had remembered it and grown to like the gesture.

She had been secretly imitating it—clumsy, yet adorable.

Li Zhuyuan could only reach out and pat her head, continuing to recite that line

"I'll buy you whatever you want, Ali. I have money, I have plenty of money."

Although the line was somewhat out of place,