Chapter 27 The Contradictions Carried by the Candy Wrapper Boat
——She pushed him away when she was awake, but in her nightmare she clung to the corner of his clothes tightly, as if she was holding on to the only drifting wood.
Ruan Xingchen woke up screaming again.
Cold sweat soaked through her silk nightgown. Her nails dug into her palms, her breathing quickened like a drowning person, and the images in her dream still lingered.
The cold auction table.
Greedy eyes.
The cold light of a syringe piercing the skin.
The bed beside her sank, and Mo Xiaohan woke up almost the moment she gasped in surprise. He reached out to embrace her, only inches away from her shoulder, but froze when she trembled violently.
"...Don't touch me!" Ruan Xingchen shrank back to the head of the bed, his pupils dilated. "Don't inject me... Please..."
Moonlight leaked in from the gap in the curtains, shining on her trembling shoulders and Mo Xiaohan's hand hanging in the air.
He slowly withdrew his hand, his voice hoarse: "Okay, I won't touch you."
But when Ruan Xingchen was attacked by nightmares again and curled up unconsciously, that hand firmly supported her head, preventing her from hitting the headboard.
After dawn, Ruan Xingchen found a small boat made of rainbow candy wrapper next to his pillow.
Written in pen on the sail:
[Today's wish: I hope the stars can finish their breakfast]
She picked up the boat in a daze, and suddenly some fragmented images flashed before her eyes. Inside the medical team's tent, a young man with wounds all over his face carefully took the candy paper boat she handed over.
"This is Happy Magic! Mommy said you can make a wish on each boat!"
"I wish your eyes would heal quickly!"
"I wish Brother Xiaohan's injury will heal quickly!"
"I wish..."
With a tremble of his fingertips, the candy wrapper boat fell to the ground.
The fragments that were awakened were too blurry, like a faded old dream seen through frosted glass. She wanted to grasp at something, but in the end, she only found a handful of emptiness.
As she paused, the morning mist drifted across the manor, and the sun streamed through the window lattices, casting narrow patches of light across the floor. A new day had begun, and the struggle between her and him would begin anew.
During the day, Ruan Xingchen would deliberately avoid Mo Xiaohan.
She sat with her knees hugged in the corner of the terrace where the sun was shining the most, not saying a word all day. But whenever Mo Xiaohan passed by, she would immediately tense her back, like a vigilant cat.
Don't come near me, the blood on your hands scares me.
But why... am I more afraid when you are not around?
But at night, when drugs and nightmares blurred her mind, she would instinctively seek that embrace.
In the first half of the night, Mo Xiaohan always stood silently outside the door, listening to the suppressed sobs coming from inside.
In the second half of the night, he sat on the carpet, letting her clutch the corner of his clothes tightly in her sleep, wiping her tears on his shirt stained with the smell of gunpowder.
They gradually formed a strange tacit understanding——
In the early morning, Ruan Xingchen would expressionlessly push away the milk offered by Mo Xiaohan;
Late at night, she would close her eyes and grab his wrist, guiding him to soothe the tremors in his nightmares.
One time, when she was half asleep and half awake, she felt someone gently kissing her trembling eyelids.
"Xiaohan...Brother?" she murmured vaguely, her voice as soft as a dream.
The hand that was tucking the quilt for her suddenly tightened.
"Yeah." In the darkness, the man's voice was choked and unrecognizable. "I'm here."
On the stormy night, Ruan Xingchen's screams were more shrill than usual.
When Mo Xiaohan rushed into the room, he saw her scratching the ring on her left hand with her nails, and her knuckles were bleeding.
“I can’t take it off…why can’t I take it off…” she cried hysterically, “This is a product number ring, right? Just like those girls at the auction house…”
Mo Xiaohan knelt on one knee at the edge of the bed and forcibly grabbed her wrist.
"Look at me!" He raised his left hand and placed the "Starlight" engraved on the ring in front of her eyes. "This is your ring, and mine is a pair."
Ruan Xingchen's struggle suddenly stopped
Rain in the Slums
Sunflower Skirt
The boy in the tire
Ruan Xingchen suddenly curled up, his temples throbbing.
She remembered more fragments—
Tents at the medical camp
The crooked "Mo, Xiao, Han"
Someone said to her, "Wait for me."
More fragments of memory came flooding back, and she held her head in pain.
Mo Xiaohan immediately let go of her and took a half step back, but he heard a faint, sobbing voice: "...Don't go."
He froze in place, watching Ruan Xingchen slowly move to the edge of the bed, resting her forehead on his heart, and finally falling asleep in his arms.
The drug made her fall into a drowsy sleep again, but her subconscious mind was much more honest than when she was awake. Her fingers were tightly grasping his collar, as if she was afraid that he would disappear.
Mo Xiaohan leaned against the head of the bed and carefully wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes with his fingertips.
Thunder roared outside the window, and they finally found a temporary balance on this rainy night.
He looked down at the person in his arms, then at the small candy paper boat on the bedside table, and suddenly felt that the bloody road of seventeen years might have been exchanged for this moment.
Even if it's just for one night.
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