Chapter 41 The Storm She coveted his kindness; she wanted to hold onto it forever…

Cheng Mingdu had just finished showering, his hair was half-dry, and he was wearing a casual white T-shirt. His bone structure was even more defined than usual under such clothing, and his upright posture and fair skin looked like an ivory sculpture inlaid at the junction of light and shadow.

When he opened the door, the air was damp and carried a faint scent of vetiver, as if it were hitting her face, yet it was also like a white dove being slapped to the ground by the cold air. Before she could even be distracted, the white dove had already fallen to the ground.

It was extremely rare for Ye Yuying to ring his doorbell directly, and she only came upstairs after getting his permission.

Cheng Mingdu was mostly like a lone wolf. The moment he opened the door, his expression hadn't even had time to melt the frozen lake surface, as if he had lost interest in everything.

"What is it?" he asked.

She looked up at him for a few seconds before saying, "Brother, I have a very important question I'd like to ask you."

She repeated the questions that were nagging at her, those questions about good and evil.

As soon as she finished speaking, her lips pressed together quickly, leaving only a soft light flickering in her eyes. She looked at her timidly, unable to hide the darkness in her eyes.

At that moment, a strong wind blew in the courtyard, a harbinger of an impending thunderstorm.

The strong wind whipped her hair behind her head, but she was oblivious, her watery eyes fixed on the answer with fervent anticipation.

"Come in first."

He glanced up at the sky; dark clouds obscured the deep blue sky. He turned slightly to let her in and then turned to pour her some water.

This was her first visit to Cheng Mingdu's private estate. The house was very large. His residence was a small villa with a modern European style of decoration. Postmodern paintings hung on the walls. The overall decoration was completely different from that of the Cheng residence. It was like a pearl left behind in an ancient site.

She sat on the sofa, watching his departing figure, before daring to observe her surroundings.

The sofa was firm and didn't sag much when you sat on it. It seemed that Cheng Mingdu, who always maintained a proper demeanor, couldn't imagine him lying on a soft sofa like a couch potato.

The carpet underfoot had a cool-toned geometric pattern, but it was surprisingly warm to the touch. The coffee table was free of clutter, except for an open book, a dark blue metal-cased fountain pen, and a laptop that had just been closed and was cooling down.

He probably doesn't live here often, so the space, with its overly strong sense of order and monotonous color scheme, seems to lack a lot of human touch.

Cheng Mingdu walked back, holding a glass of warm water, placed it in front of her, and then sat down in the single seat diagonally opposite her.

Only then did she notice that Cheng Mingdu had two more books in his hand.

She held the rim of the cup with both hands, head down, her eyes intently observing the water droplets condensing from the steam around the edge of the cup, while her peripheral vision kept sneaking curious glances at the covers of the two books.

The two books were eventually placed in front of Ye Yuying: one was "Lord of the Flies," and the other was "The Crowd."

"I'm not an authority in psychology, and my ideas may not be of much reference value, but these two books might answer your questions," he said.

Ye Yuying shook her head, her voice low: "I haven't seen it..."

He leaned slightly forward, his long, slender fingers tapping lightly on the cover. The hard cover made a dull thud, and you could tell that his nails were neatly trimmed and rounded.

"Lord of the Flies, written by Golding, tells a fantastical future story about a group of young boys who are stranded on a desert island because of war. At first, they establish rules, divide tasks, and cooperate to maintain order. Later, they gradually break away from the rules and become savage and cruel. In the end, they even begin to brutally murder those who resist."

“But they were all just kids, none of them were what you would call ‘typical bad guys,’ yet they all ended up becoming villains.”

"They're only teenagers."

Cheng Mingdu glanced at her, seemingly implying the age she described, but not at her personally.

Ye Yuying was stunned, unsure whether it was the contents of the book that chilled her heart, or the calmness with which he spoke that made her more uneasy.

"So the malice in human nature has nothing to do with age?" Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried this uncertainty.

Cheng Mingdu sat opposite him and withdrew his hand. "What really corrupts people is never the environment, but something that has always existed in their hearts but no one has pointed it out—wildness, resentment, jealousy, or even pure hedonism."

Ye Yuying stared at the ripples in the glass and continued, "I used to think that they were all junior high school students, how bad could they be? But today... I saw them holding my friend down, not letting her go to the toilet, and watching as blood flowed down her pants, while they laughed at her."

She hesitated whether to tell Cheng Mingdu the truth, feeling that it might be difficult to talk about these things in front of him, but the guilt was an objective fact, so she changed to a more tactful way of expressing it.

Her voice trembled slightly, "They knew what it was, but they didn't care... They even thought it was funny. I was incredibly angry at the time, but after the anger came a sense of... well, you know..."

She suddenly stopped, as if pondering what adjective to use.

Cheng Mingdu slowly spoke: "Disappointed?"

He turned his gaze and said with certainty, "It is indeed disappointing; this world is full of disappointments..."

“Le Bon put it even more bluntly in ‘The Crowd’,” he said, his tone still calm: “Once individuals merge into a group, they lose themselves and their responsibilities. They will do things they never imagined they would do.”

He didn't look at her, but asked softly, as if to himself, "So you're telling me, can age erase all this? Would a child avoid the fact that he hurt others just because he's young?"

Without hesitation, Ye Yuying mustered her courage and blurted out, "No."

He paused, his gaze falling on her face. "So, that's not your imagination; that's just how they are."

Ye Yuying gave a bitter smile, her throat tightening as she recalled her actions that day: "...I couldn't help myself and hit them today. They bullied my friend..."

Her chest felt a little bright, so much so that when the words came out, she felt as if she had been injected with anesthesia and lost all sensation.

With her eyelashes lowered, she murmured, "I had only been a good student for a few days, and now... I've repeated the same mistakes."

Deep down, she wasn't afraid of being a bad student; rather, she was worried that she would cause trouble for Cheng Mingdu again.

After all, the reason she wasn't expelled last time was because Cheng Mingdu intervened and discussed it with the homeroom teacher; she knew that.

That time was an exception, not the norm. She never asked him how he persuaded the homeroom teacher, nor did she dare to ask. She only knew that if she got into trouble again, there might really be no one to cover for her.

She lowered her head and added softly, "...If you get into trouble again because of me and people gossip about you, I'm really... sorry."

"What's there to apologize for?" Cheng Mingdu asked casually.

Her chest heaved several times before she spoke in a very soft voice, "I'm afraid you... will be disappointed in me."

After he finished speaking, the room fell silent again.

After saying that, she felt uneasy. She was afraid that Cheng Mingdu would say, "I never had any hope for you. We are two unrelated people..."

The reason she was afraid of those words was that they were simply the truth.

A breeze swept through the window cracks, ruffling the edges of the curtains like someone's long hair being gently tugged.

Cheng Mingdu straightened up and leaned slightly against the back of the sofa. He looked more languid than usual, but his eyes showed no sign of laziness and were still sharp.

He looked at her, and called her name in a steady, low voice, somewhat seriously:

"Ye Yuying".

She looked up, a hint of panic in her eyes.

He stated bluntly: "Sometimes not every regulation is perfect and in line with human nature. What's your opinion on that?"

She was a little dazed, but thinking about everything that had happened since she started school, she nodded and said, "It seems so."

"You used violence against others to save your friend. Do you think that was right?"

"Yes, and no," Ye Yuying said honestly after a slight pause.

"But if you hadn't used violence, could you have saved your friend?"

"No, there are too many of them, and they are repeat offenders; we can't resolve this peacefully..."

"If you had to choose again, would you still save your friend at the cost of breaking school rules?"

Ye Yuying was even more determined this time, "Yes."

"So don't worry about labels like 'good student' or 'bad student.' If a label makes you feel positive and motivated, then accept it. If it traps you and affects your inner decisions, then ignore it and listen to your heart."

Suddenly, Ye Yuying looked at him with shock. She, who had never dared to look him in the eye for long, now had the courage to see if the expression on his face was as gentle as his words.

But just as his gaze reached her chin, a weight appeared on her head. His hand appeared on her head, gently forcing her to turn her gaze away.

Cheng Mingdu wouldn't allow himself to look at her at this moment.

Cheng Mingdu's hand was separated from her head by many layers of hair, but she could still feel the warmth from his palm, which seeped through the hair and affected the skin on her head inch by inch.

As if frozen in place, she silently shut her mouth and remained silent. Just as she was about to confirm whether Cheng Mingdu's action was her imagination, the weight on her head disappeared.

Cheng Mingdu has already withdrawn his hand.

His voice rang out again: "If you do something you think is right and immediately start to doubt yourself, deny yourself, and are afraid that I will disappoint you, then you need to be even more determined. Many things will go against school rules, so go against them. Protecting your friends is more worthwhile than exams, rankings, or the teacher's attitude."

She didn't expect him to say that, and she certainly didn't expect him to so seriously acknowledge her anger, her actions, and her choices.

In that instant, she was like a kite floating in a storm, pulled back just before being swept away by the wind and rain.

She responded softly, "...I understand."

He remained silent for a moment, then slowly said:

“I’ve thought about what I would tell my sister if I really had one, and what I would say would probably be different from what others say.”

Ye Yuying didn't look at him, but asked curiously, "What's the difference?"

He leaned back on the sofa, his eyes seeming to hold a silent storm at sea.

"The difference is... I won't let her 'protect herself.' That kind of 'protection' often just means compromise and concession. What you shouldn't learn is how to shrink back, hide your sharpness, hide behind a door, and keep running away. Instead, you should learn to be angry, learn to refuse, and learn to draw your sword when it's time to fight."

"You should become strong, strong enough to stand up to a group of people on your own, and preferably strong enough to wield power and change the order. Don't be a good student who waits for someone to save you and lets others slaughter you. Be the 'bad student' who forces others to shut up, forces the world to give way to you, and makes evil people fear you."

Ye Yuying's eyes reddened and her body trembled, but she said nothing.

He spoke those words softly, yet they felt like a knife piercing his very bones: “If you are going to become free, excellent, and remarkable, then your path will inevitably be envied. That’s okay. You can fight back, overturn it, tear it apart, and eliminate those who try to drag you back into the mire.”

At that moment, blinding lightning flashed across the night sky, and a thunderclap swept across the sky. Ye Yuying was so frightened that she trembled violently, and a torrential downpour fell along with her tears.

She didn't look up, her face buried in her palms, tears leaking through her fingers like leaky roof tiles.

The rain pattered against the windowpane like countless fists striking gently, rhythmically and powerfully, with roars and silences that lasted only a moment.

Ye Yuying couldn't even explain the emotions that suddenly welled up in her heart, probably because... he was saying these words to his younger sister.

At this moment, she envied that fictional character so much. If Cheng Mingdu were her brother, her life would be much more than just happiness.

Cheng Mingdu didn't comfort her, nor did he advise her to calm down. He just sat there quietly, like a lighthouse—not shining, but steadfast enough.

As her intense emotions subsided, she slowly released her grip, her face streaked with tears, her eyes red-rimmed, and the whites of her eyes bloodshot. She looked at Cheng Mingdu and said with difficulty:

"If only I were really your sister."

She longed for this sense of security, this guiding power—things she had never possessed.

She was like a thief, taking advantage of Cheng Mingdu's lack of a sister to usurp her place and enjoy everything she had.

If she really is his sister, it doesn't matter if she gives up her delusions about Cheng Mingdu in this lifetime. She is greedy for his kindness and wants to keep his kindness forever.

For the sake of this kindness, it's okay to always be her younger sister, because... the time limit is at least forever.

He paused, his gaze drifting to the dark night outside the window. "I do indeed consider you my sister."

These words made her both happy and heartbroken, a contradictory feeling, a bittersweet mix of emotions.

At that moment, a crack in Ye Yuying's heart was quietly sealed off.

Cheng Mingdu never gave her any ambiguous impressions. His kindness towards her was measured and restrained, neither overstepping boundaries nor being indifferent. It was just right, like a responsible older brother.

"Wait until the rain subsides a bit before you go back. If you're interested in these two books, you can take them back with you. I'll go get you an umbrella." He stood up and went straight to the storage room.

Ye Yuying nodded and sincerely thanked her.

But half a minute later, when Cheng Mingdu came out with an umbrella, the person in the living room had disappeared, along with the two books on the coffee table. The door was half-closed and was suddenly blown open by the wind.

As he reached the door and closed it, the wind and rain almost blocked it. Downstairs, a small, thin figure was clutching two books to his chest, almost disappearing into the rain under the streetlights of the courtyard.

Cheng Mingdu stood by the door, not closing it immediately. The rain and wind lashed against the door frame, carrying a biting chill and an indescribable emptiness.

The white lights in the stairwell couldn't illuminate the rain, but that slender figure walked resolutely forward in the wind and rain, her shoulders thin yet stubborn, carrying those two books as if they were the weight of the whole world.

He watched her receding figure without calling out to her.

A flash of lightning streaked across the sky, as if a crack had been split open, only to quickly close again.

The door slowly closed, the air still carrying the dampness and scent of her tears.

Cheng Mingdu's hand remained on the doorknob for a long time without moving.

He looked down at the umbrella he was still holding; the thing that was supposed to be given to her was now useless.

Some roads, some rains, some wounds, are things that no one else can bear for you.

That girl will eventually grow her own sharpness and edge amidst the storm.

The door clicked shut.

But the rain continued to fall—torrential and intense, never stopping for anyone.

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Author's Note: 50 red envelopes [Cat emoji]