However, some words reached this point, and there was no courage to continue.
Shen Yujing could only hear his own heart beating frantically, completely exposing his current panic and helplessness.
Words spoken to this point could still barely be classified as friendship.
But if he continued, it would truly be breaking through that thin paper window.
Shen Yujing pressed his lips together, and ultimately didn't have the courage to say the final words.
Though he remained silent, he still didn't let go of her hand.
The girl's body was soft and fragrant, like holding a doll, and most importantly, she was warm.
Just as Shen Yujing was hesitating about what to say next, he felt a hand rest on his back.
This was Song Yi's first time hugging him, and she said, "Happy New Year."
After thinking for a moment, Song Yi added, "It's okay if it's ugly, as long as it's warm. There's no need to knit a second one - you'd be better off doing more practice papers with that time."
As for him... it's okay if he's a bit silly, as long as he has no ill intentions.
Shen Yujing's heart beat faster and faster, until finally he pushed Song Yi away.
The young man's face was as red as an apple, and he turned his head away, not daring to look at Song Yi.
This won't do, this won't do - if this continues, his heart will truly explode, he'll die.
Song Yi only then noticed he was wearing just a thin jacket, and asked, "Aren't you cold?"
"...Cold."
Song Yi asked him again, "Then why don't you go back?"
Instead of answering, Shen Yujing asked, "What about you?"
Song Yi said, "I want to watch the stars a bit longer."
They say that when people die, they become stars hanging in the sky. Although her system hadn't died but rather went to accompany new task-takers, Song Yi still wanted to remember it this way.
Hmm... the biggest and brightest star in the sky would be her parents.
And the second brightest would be her system.
This way, it would always be watching over her, accompanying her, just like they did.
Hearing Song Yi say this, Shen Yujing said, "Then I won't leave either. I want to watch the stars too."
Song Yi naturally couldn't be bothered to mind him, but soon Shen Yujing sneezed for the first time.
Song Yi looked at him: "Do you still want to continue watching?"
Shen Yujing stubbornly answered, "Of course... achoo!"
Song Yi handed him the scarf in her hand, "Then you should wear this first."
Shen Yujing took it and draped it over himself, and after a while couldn't help but look at Song Yi again.
She was looking up at the starry sky, but her eyes were somehow slightly red, along with the tip of her nose.
The moonlight fell on her face, and the young girl looked quiet and beautiful, as if she was missing someone.
A cold wind blew past.
Shen Yujing opened up the scarf he was wearing and carefully draped one end over Song Yi's shoulders, then moved a bit closer to her.
Song Yi silently allowed his actions.
At this moment, Shen Yujing suddenly felt grateful that the scarf he had knitted was so big and long - it was useful after all.
*
At this moment, in the room.
The black bangs on the young man's forehead were soaked with sweat, and his usually gloomy and cold face bore an indescribable pain.
Clearly, Hang Feng was currently trapped in a nightmare.
In the dream, it was still Saint Slee Academy, still all of them.
Only the story was completely different from now.
In the dream, Shen Yujing had fallen for Song Yi very early on, pursuing her with fervent passion.
The school bully and the top student of their grade - this matter had caused such a stir in school that almost everyone knew about it. Countless people were watching the drama unfold, or rather, waiting to see Song Yi become a laughingstock.
These matters originally had nothing to do with Hang Feng; he had only heard some rumors but had no interest in them.
Until that day at the alley entrance, when she rescued him while he was covered in injuries.
That day he had originally not wanted to live, but she took careful care of him, making him rekindle hope for living and a slight attachment to this world.
The scenes in dreams always pass in an instant, like rapidly turning pages in a book.
The next second was a scene from Class A.
Song Yi and Jiang Yiheng's relationship gradually became closer, which sparked rumors and led to Murong Huan's pranks.
She was locked in the bathroom, doused with dirty water.
Hang Feng wanted to protect her, but was too timid to appear before her.
So he quietly left his jacket on the washstand to cover her upper body, helped open the door, and fled the scene.
But later, Song Yi still discovered the jacket was his. She took the initiative to find him and thank him, very grateful, wanting to be friends with him.
But once desire opens its door, it can never be stopped again.
He wasn't satisfied with just being her friend. He began to envy her closeness and care for others, he wanted to become the most special existence in her heart, he wanted to possess her exclusively.
These malicious thoughts grew like vines in the young man's heart until senior year when Song Yi and Shen Yujing got together, and he could no longer suppress his desires.
So he chose the most extreme method - he pretended to be sick and lured Song Yi to an apartment Xu Yuanguo had given him, then imprisoned her there.
He finally privatized the moon, but not through love - through malice.
Shen Yujing and Jiang Yiheng couldn't contact Song Yi; she seemed to have vanished from this world.
One month passed, two months passed, and they were still persistently searching.
Police cars passed by Hang Feng's house, but none of them suspected him.
After all, everyone knew that Hang Feng was Song Yi's most cherished friend.
Anyone might hurt Song Yi, but Hang Feng definitely wouldn't - when faced with police questioning, he had almost cried while fighting with Shen Yujing.
On the surface, he blamed Shen Yujing for not protecting his girlfriend well, but behind the scenes, he wore a smile.
At night when he returned home, he would caress his beloved girl's face and kiss her lips that had long lost their color.
In his view, she was his, his alone.
In the dream, Hang Feng seemed to stand at a god's perspective watching everything unfold. He reached out countless times trying to stop it all from happening, but could only grasp air.
He was like a powerless spectator, desperately wanting to prevent everything, yet merely an outsider to the play.
Until the day before school started.
The young man sat at his desk, looking up with a slight smile as he asked the girl, "We're going to move. I've already applied for off-campus housing at Imperial Capital University. Everything will be the same as now. Don't worry, I'll never abandon you no matter what, after all, I'm the person who loves you most in this world."
But the girl's eyes looking at him had long lost their former care, leaving only endless pain and hatred.
So in the deep night, she no longer hesitated. She fell from the high-rise, choosing to end her life.
She was like a butterfly yearning for freedom - falling, then perishing.
In his own dream, the present Hang Feng chased after Song Yi, but he couldn't touch her, couldn't stop her.
And that previous "fake" Hang Feng was still sleeping sweetly in bed, unaware of what had happened.
So the real Hang Feng chose to jump down with her, but unfortunately, he was ultimately an outsider to this dream.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't change any of it.
He stood on the ground unharmed, while the girl's body in the white lace dress gradually became soaked with blood.
"No... no!"
Hang Feng shouted, suddenly awakening from the dream, his back completely drenched in sweat.
His cheeks also felt cold; he slowly reached up to touch them and found they were all tears.
It turned out he had been crying uncontrollably in his dream.
The young man got up and sat leaning against the bed.
He slowly closed his eyes, his mind full of scenes from the dream, and the heart-wrenching sight of Song Yi jumping from the building.
He desperately comforted himself - this is a dream, just a dream, don't think too much about it.
Dreams and reality are opposites, everyone is fine, none of these things will happen, and he would absolutely never do such things.
But then...
He thought of the scene when he sent her home that day.
Those vows she had made him make, which seemed ridiculous at the time, now matched eerily with the dream.
The girl's light voice seemed to ring in his ears again.
"You have to promise me to just be friends, you can't fall in love with me! And you can't imprison me because of unrequited love! Most importantly, you can't kill me! Imprisonment is illegal! Murder is also illegal!"
At that moment, he thought it was utterly absurd, but now, the coincidence between these two things seemed to quietly point toward one answer—
Those events might have actually happened.
He had once destroyed his moon.
