Shen Wangjing lowered his eyes to Jiang Xun, his gaze deep and heavy, as though he wanted to carve the person before him into his bones, inch by inch.
"The day you were locked in that warehouse, when I ran there alone, all I could think about was you lying on the ground. Have you ever thought about what I would do if something happened to you?"
Jiang Xun's lips moved, but he could no longer force a single word from his throat.
"I'd kill everyone, myself included." Shen Wangjing's voice was so low it was almost scattered by the wind blowing through the window.
"But I don't want that. I want to settle this cleanly, then stand before you with clean hands and go nowhere."
He took Jiang Xun's fingertips and slowly folded them into his palm, one by one.
"Only when I've torn it out by the roots will I have the right to stand beside you. Otherwise, when will these days ever end?"
Jiang Xun's tears kept falling. No matter how much he wiped, they would not stop. In the end, he gave up and shoved his face hard against Shen Wangjing's chest, rubbing against his clothes as though they were tissues.
Shen Wangjing let him, resting a palm on the back of Jiang Xun's head and gently rubbing the short hair that had newly grown there.
"Stay here, safe and sound, and wait for me." His lips brushed the tip of Jiang Xun's ear, his voice barely more than a breath. "I promise I'll come back in one piece."
Sunlight slanted through the window, merging the two of them into a single shadow, indistinguishable from each other.
Over the next few days, Jiang Xun stuck to Shen Wangjing like a little sticky rice cake.
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