With Me Here

Now that his cravings had been satisfied, Shen Rui'an was in a wonderful mood. Flowers looked like flowers, grass looked like grass, and he no longer felt melancholy over the passing seasons.

He followed Baisui Chang'an on a stroll through the estate, with Su Tingbai beside them, introducing the sights along the way.

The estate had been maintained beautifully. It was summer now, with lush trees casting shade and flowers blooming in profusion. Just walking along the paths brightened his mood considerably.

When he grew tired, they rested in a pavilion. Shen Rui'an habitually took out his phone and found it covered in countless little red notifications.

He thought he was being cyberbullied!

But on second thought, he did not have a habit of leaving comments everywhere either!

When he opened the Douyin creator dashboard, he saw that they were notifications for private messages and new followers.

Shen Rui'an was utterly baffled.

Su Tingbai was worried about him and walked over. "What's wrong?"

Shen Rui'an opened the video with the most likes and scrolled through the comments. Everyone was asking whether it was Baisui Chang'an, and praising Baisui Chang'an for being adorable.

Shen Rui'an was delighted by the compliments. Ignoring the other comments, he replied to one praising Baisui Chang'an: [Yes! Cute, right? Mine!]

Shen Rui'an felt a little smug. Baisui Chang'an was incredibly good-looking. He had been handsome since he was little, and it was easy to imagine how upright and imposing he would look when he grew up.

Hearing Su Tingbai's concern, he looked up at him and raised his phone with a touch of pride. "Su Tingbai, look! Baisui Chang'an has become an internet celebrity. There are so many likes, and lots of people are following me too!"

Baisui Chang'an lay lazily at his feet. Shen Rui'an gently rubbed his head. "Baisui Chang'an, you'll have to support Dad from now on."

"Woof!" Baisui Chang'an did not understand, but he knew how to respond.

Su Tingbai took a look, only then realizing that he did not even have Shen Rui'an's account!

He followed each other with Meng Meng, Ya-ya, and the others, yet he had not followed him...

Su Tingbai shot Shen Rui'an a sour look, then took out his phone, noted down his ID, and searched for it. Shen Rui'an's account was the first result that appeared, and he decisively tapped Follow.

That follow seemed to light some sort of fuse. People who followed him noticed that he had added someone to his following list.

Because he did not follow many people, and most were friends following one another, Su Tingbai had not enabled privacy settings. Anyone could open his following list and view it.

And so they discovered that he was following Baisui Chang'an.

That single tap seemed to give the netizens their confirmation. Everyone knew that this had to be Shen Rui'an.

In an instant, Shen Rui'an gained tens of thousands more followers.

The little red notifications on the dashboard made Shen Rui'an's eyes hurt, so he disabled private messages and ignored everything else.

"So many people are following me. What should I do? I can't clear all these little red dots." Shen Rui'an looked troubled. He did not really want to make his account private, but he did not want to keep seeing the notifications pop up either.

"You can turn off all notifications, but once you do that, you won't receive notifications when other people like your posts either. Do you want to set it that way?" Su Tingbai asked as he sat beside him.

"It's fine. I don't really like looking at that stuff anyway. Can you do it for me? I don't understand it very well." Shen Rui'an handed his phone to Su Tingbai. He was not very interested in people online. They could be seen but not touched, which felt unreal to him, so he followed the habit of only watching videos without commenting or liking them.

"Alright." Su Tingbai took his phone, then paused. "I followed you. Should we follow each other?"

Shen Rui'an played with Baisui Chang'an in his arms without looking up. "Sure. If I come across anything fun, I can share it with you."

Mainly so that whenever he saw something delicious and got hungry, he could order it from Su Tingbai.

He had come to realize that everything Su Tingbai made was delicious!

Wasn't Su Tingbai worried about him eating unhealthy food? Then food Su Tingbai made himself should be fine, right? Hehe...

Shen Rui'an gently pinched Baisui Chang'an's ears, turned his face away, and secretly smiled, afraid that Su Tingbai would discover his little scheme.

At his words, Su Tingbai immediately pressed his advantage. "My main account gets too many private messages, so I might miss yours sometimes. How about I follow you with my alt account too?"

"Mhm, do whatever you want. Are you done setting it up?" Shen Rui'an urged.

Su Tingbai was very familiar with the Douyin dashboard. He quickly adjusted the settings for him, followed Shen Rui'an with both his main and alt accounts, made sure they were following each other, and only then returned the phone.

"Done." Su Tingbai glanced at the sky. The sun was growing hotter, and Shen Xiaoyao's delicate body probably could not take it, so he coaxed him gently, "Shall we head back? The sun's getting strong now. I'll make you some tea to clear the heat and cool you down. The mint by our front door is growing nicely—how about some mint water?"

The moment food and drink were mentioned, Shen Rui'an perked up. "Okay, okay! Let's hurry back. I'm tired of looking around anyway."

No matter how large the estate was, he had wandered through it for more than ten days. He had figured it all out, so he was no longer as curious about it.

Su Tingbai laughed. He knew it!

"You've been here for half a month now. What do you think of this place? If you're tired of it, there's a market fair in the town ahead tomorrow. I can take you there to see the excitement." Su Tingbai had not missed Shen Rui'an's mood. Seeing that he was a little bored, he suggested taking him out for fun.

"A market fair? What's that? Is it fun?" Shen Rui'an had never gone shopping, nor did he know what a market fair was.

For most of his more than twenty years of life, he had moved between various sanatoriums, hospitals, and the Shen Household. There were very few places he had gotten to explore, and he went to crowded places even less often. His poor stamina could leave him suddenly short of breath and unconscious at any moment. On the rare occasions he traveled far, he needed a wheelchair because he was too weak; walking for too long would make his legs go limp from exhaustion.

His condition had improved somewhat after he turned sixteen, and he had gradually been able to take walks on his own. He had thought things would get better, but after his twentieth birthday, it began again.

Going out was always troublesome for him, and over time, he stopped liking to leave the house.

Shen Rui'an was tempted by Su Tingbai's suggestion, yet also somewhat fearful. Could he really go?

Instinctively, he overlooked the fact that his bouts of weakness had gradually become less frequent over the past ten days.

"Can I?" He looked at Su Tingbai anxiously. He needed to explain to Su Tingbai how troublesome traveling could be for him.

Su Tingbai met his longing yet uneasy gaze and nodded. He understood Shen Rui'an's physical condition far better than Shen Rui'an imagined.

Back when the Shen family had approached his grandfather for help, he had stayed up all night studying Shen Rui'an's medical records, physical examination reports, and everything else.

No one could say exactly what illness he had, but rest and recuperation were always the right choice.

Still, Su Tingbai felt that Shen Rui'an might long to have fun like an ordinary person. The Shen family worried too much and had instead restricted Shen Xiaoyao, forcing him to tuck away his childish side.

It had been clear from that camping trip that Shen Rui'an did not dislike going out. He had simply reduced the number of times he went out because he felt he was inconveniencing others.

A foolish little cat who was soft-hearted and always thought of others.

"You can. Don't worry. I'm here." Su Tingbai held his hand. For no reason at all, those three words—I'm here—calmed Shen Rui'an's anxious, restless heart.

It was as though Su Tingbai's presence itself was a symbol of reliability.

And so, Shen Rui'an began looking forward to tomorrow.