Rebirth: Once Again With You

The time ticked by, and by the time they finished shopping, it was already 9 PM.

Li Caiyi took Shen Qiang to the city's center, where the street was busy and crowded.

"It's very crowded here," Shen Qiang muttered while looking around. He noticed the street had lanterns decorated, and people moved around busily. "Were they celebrating something?"

His question stopped Li Caiyi on her track. Then she looked back at him incredulously. "Do you seriously not know what day is tomorrow?"

Shen Qiang scratched the back of his head, and Li Caiyi sighed in exasperation. "Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival. How can you not know that?"

"Ah. So that's why," Shen Qiang replied flatly as if the world festival didn't strike an impression on him.

Li Caiyi watched his reaction, but she couldn't find any sense of longing in his eyes. Usually, people would return to their family during the Mid-Autumn Festival, but Shen Qiang acted like it was unrelated to him. He didn't even remember it until she mentioned it. It meant that for him, this festival brought little to no significance to his life.

Up to a few hours ago, Li Caiyi still thought that she could spend the mid-autumn festival with her family, but who would have thought that they had never waited for her to come? They looked busy trying to save the family's face after her supposed allegation.

Bitterness came from the edge of her throat when she recalled her family's cold eyes towards her. As if she was an unwanted person in her own house.

Thinking about that, she couldn't help but wonder whether Shen Qiang also had a poor relationship with his family.

"Since it's so late already, how about we go back for now?"

Li Caiyi turned her head to Shen Qiang, and she found him looking at her with an inexplicable expression. She wasn't that slow to notice that Shen Qiang had been sneaking glances towards her many times today. Every time, his gaze was full of indescribable emotion, and it somehow made her uneasy.

Li Caiyi avoided his gaze as she pretended to look at the lantern on the street with interest. "That's right; we should go home."

Both of them remained motionless, despite knowing that their fun date had ended. None of them spoke a word, as though a single sound could break this comfortable silence.

Every good thing has to end, eventually. Li Caiyi learned that the hard way. Only unhappiness would follow if they prolonged short-lived happiness, and she didn't want that.

Instead, she would let this short happiness last forever in her memory by ending this quickly.

Li Caiyi tucked her hair behind her ears while putting on her best smile. "Thank you so much for today. It's been a while since I had so much fun. If you are still interested, let's meet at that building tomorrow morning."

Shen Qiang hadn't said anything, but Li Caiyi didn't have any words left to say, so she turned away.

She was considering whether she should stay at the hotel tonight when a pair of powerful arms suddenly wrapped around her waist from behind.

Li Caiyi gasped in surprise as she tried to maintain her balance. She jerked her head sideways, and her eyes met with Shen Qiang's deep eyes. He lazily pressed his cheek on her shoulder as she stared at her.

His eyes were like the endless night that hid a thousand mysteries. From this distance, Li Caiyi could see how long his eyelashes were, and she suddenly forgot every scolding word that had already been on the tip of her tongue.

"Don't go."

Li Caiyi could feel her legs grow weaker when the vibration of his voice tickled her ears. He was too close to her comfort!

"Can you stay with me tonight? I don't want to be alone."

Shen Qiang's voice was as calm as always, but Li Caiyi could still feel a trace of loneliness and desperation in it, as if he was a child clinging to his mother's sleeve, begging for affection.

He said he'd never interacted with women that much, but based on this alone, Li Caiyi could tell that this guy was a natural! He knew very well how to evoke a sense of pity from women, and she felt conflicted because of it.

In the end, she couldn't give him a straight reply. "Let me go first, then we talk."

Instead of letting her go, his hold on her waist tightened. "No. I want to stay like this. Didn't you say you were going to fulfil my last wish?"

Did he have to bring that up now? That was a dirty move!

"I did say that, but I never said I'm going to sleep with you. I'm sorry if I misread your intention, but please don't treat me like an easy woman."

Shen Qiang's hand flinched a bit. It took him a few seconds to realize that he had upset her, and a guilty look flashed across his face.

He reluctantly let her waist go. "No, you didn't read it wrong. I did say that with an impure intention in mind."

The degree of his honesty never ceased to surprise her. Wouldn't a guy usually make an excuse at times like this? But this guy just outrightly admitted it without an ounce of shame.

"However, I had never once thought of you as an easy woman. I wanted you because it was you, Li Caiyi."

Shen Qiang's sudden declaration made her heart skip a beat.

His voice was unyielding and mixed with a hint of aggressiveness. He hadn't averted his eyes from hers even for a second, as though he wanted to convey his sincerity to her.

She had never received such a direct and bold declaration like this before. He perfectly caught her off guard, and he used this opportunity where she was frozen to take her hand in his.

Li Caiyi didn't know where this hotness came from, her face or hand.

"I won't force you to do anything you don't like, but I don't want to lie to myself or you. I want you, and only you." Shen Qiang's gaze deepened. "Li Caiyi. If you can find it in you to trust me, even if it's just a little, can you grant me a chance to hold you in my arms?"

His words were too much for her to bear. Her head became dizzy from overheating.

Li Caiyi pulled her hand from his, and his crestfallen face felt like a stab on her conscience. "Why? We haven't spent that much time together, and you said you already have someone in your heart. I don't understand why you would suddenly tell me this."

No matter what, Li Caiyi couldn't stand to become a substitute woman anymore. She didn't want to feel more miserable than this.

"Honestly, I also don't know. I don't understand complicated things like that. What I know is that I feel happy and at ease when I see you smile. That's why I want to prevent your smile from fading." He paused before he continued. "I have a bad feeling that if I let you go just like that tonight, you'll go somewhere quiet to cry alone."

An inexplicable emotion washed over her like an avalanche. She couldn't bear to face Shen Qiang's penetrating gaze, so she averted her eyes.

​ Shen Qiang saw that, and a sad smile appeared on his face. "You have done so much for me today. I want to at least be there with you when you feel lonely. Because I… probably understand how hard it is for you."

His gentle words were like water filling in the gap in her heart and slowly filling in her eyes too. She felt so lost and empty before, but now she felt suffocated by this overwhelming emotion. And all of this was because of Shen Qiang.

'Why? Why does this person keep saying things I wanted to hear the most?'

Before she realized it, Shen Qiang had reduced the gap between them and tightly embraced her quivering body. "Li Caiyi, in my last remaining times, I want to protect you from anything, even from yourself. Would you allow me to do that?"

That was the last wall of her defense. Shen Qiang, this stranger, had completely pierced and broke down her defense and pulled her out from the bottomless swamp she was in.

The dam in her eyes was broken, and she sobbed uncontrollably.

Li Caiyi felt so safe in his arms that she subconsciously pulled him closer to her. She hugged him tightly as though he was her last anchor to this world.

So warm.