I will not draw a line in the sand.

Zhou Chenjin and Fu Huanian returned to the apartment around 9 p.m., having brought back a full load of goods.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" The elevator doors had just opened when the two of them were startled by Chen Xiaojing, who was leaning against their doorway. "What's wrong? Where's Professor Zhang?"

"He took his medicine and went to sleep. He's still weak from just getting back." She was wearing pajamas and pulled Zhou Chenjin over. "Chenjin, come with me. I have something I want to tell you."

Pulled into her room, Zhou Chenjin was still bewildered: "What's wrong? We've only been out for a short while, what happened?"

Chen Xiaojing sighed, "I feel that Ren Yin is acting strangely now, with a kind of inexplicable inferiority complex." She sat down next to Zhou Chenjin and told her in detail, "How should I put it, it's just a feeling, she's not as close as she was when we were still at S University of Science and Technology."

“That’s normal. Given his current health condition, he doesn’t want to hold you back.” Zhou Chenjin thought for a moment. “But speaking of which, Xiaojing, are you prepared that his eyes and voice may never recover? If he’s like this for the rest of his life, you’ll have a very hard time.”

Chen Xiaojing hesitated.

“I have a built-in audience, which is my weapon to save him and my way out to protect myself.” She thought for a long time. “I will not abandon him, but I will not confine myself to him. I will date him for the rest of my life, but I will not get married.”

Zhou Chenjin looked at her and suddenly seemed to breathe a sigh of relief: "I'm relieved that you have such awareness." She took her hand and said, "I happen to have a few more days of vacation left. Let's go out and have some fun tomorrow after Professor Zhang's things arrive. Just the four of us, let's find a beautiful place to relax."

"Come on, there's no place like that in City B."

“Let’s drive to the suburbs. It’s a minivan anyway, so it’ll be comfortable.” Zhou Chenjin looked at Chen Xiaojing’s tired eyes with concern. “You’ve been working too hard lately. You deserve to relax.”

"Okay." Chen Xiaojing yawned. "I'm going to sleep now. Let me know when you set the wedding date. I just ordered the materials for the round fan."

Before closing the door, Zhou Chenjin gave her an OK sign.

Chen Xiaojing went into the guest room. Zhang Renyin had taken the medicine prescribed by the doctor and had fallen asleep. Fu Huanian had bought him some temporary supplies to tide him over. Perhaps because he had been blind for a while, he was not at all uncomfortable with the darkness, and although he bumped into things a few times, he was not seriously injured.

Chen Xiaojing recalled the warmth of his hand as he instinctively gripped hers when she first rescued him from the villa where he was imprisoned in J country—his love had never changed.

"I believe you'll be alright." Chen Xiaojing tucked the blanket around him and gently closed the door.

Meanwhile, the engaged couple informed their families about their engagement, and the atmosphere was harmonious, with blessings filling the air over the phone.

"SeSe, have you thought about getting married?"

“Let’s pick a good day, but I think we should wait until Professor Zhang is feeling better so that Xiaojing will have the energy to be a bridesmaid.” Zhou Chenjin flipped through the calendar. “The blood data collected from Professor Zhang at the hospital should have already been sent to your research team.”

"Understood, we will all do our best." Fu Huanian nodded. "Get some rest, Manager Zhou."

"The same to you."

At least the four of them had a peaceful night without any dreams.

She didn't know what time it was the next morning, but Chen Xiaojing was woken up by a loud "Duang". Still half asleep, she sat up and belatedly realized who the sound could have come from.

She opened the master bedroom door and, as expected, saw Zhang Renyin sitting on the sofa rubbing her knees, with bruises already on her skin.

"Where did you bump into?" She ran over to see, and Zhou Chenjin and Fu Huanian helped to wrap the sharp corner, but they forgot about the edge of the coffee table she had bought earlier. "You could have just called me if anything happened, I'm fine."

He waved his hand and pointed to the door.

Chen Xiaojing was puzzled, but she still opened the door in the direction he pointed, and a large express delivery package was placed at the door.

"This is... Ah, Ren Yin, this is what you had at S University of Science and Technology sent by your colleague." She carried it into the house with great effort, opened the package with a knife, and sorted the items on the floor.

Zhang Renyin groped his way to her side, reached out, and just happened to touch his laptop.

He carried the laptop bag back to the sofa separately, and after Chen Xiaojing tidied up a bit, he turned on the laptop.

She hadn't forgotten her earlier promise to publish the paper on his behalf, so when she saw that he had turned on his computer, she took over and handled it for him.

“D drive, research folder,” he wrote in her palm. “Browser, SCI website.”

"Account and password."

"Your ID number and your birthday are the passwords."

Chen Xiaojing paused for a moment, then continued typing. After logging into Zhang Renyin's personal page, she copied and pasted his paper as an attachment and clicked upload.

The progress bar moved very quickly, and the upload was completed in no time.

"Oh, Xiaojing, you're up so early today." Zhou Chenjin opened the door familiarly. "Professor Zhang is here too. Perfect timing, we arranged with Xiaojing yesterday for the four of us to go out today."

"Wait a moment, let me change my clothes and wash up."

"Okay, we'll wait for you."

Chen Xiaojing was about to get up and go to the bedroom to change her clothes when Zhang Renyin grabbed her wrist and wrote in her palm, "I'm not feeling well."

“It’s alright, consider it a belated Teacher’s Day celebration for you, dear Professor Zhang.” She whispered close to his ear, “How about it?”