"For him to lose his memory or for me to lose mine, it would be best if we both lost our memories together. Start from scratch, with a clean slate."
"Without the heartache of Ling Rui, without all those shackles, he loves me and I love him. We could fall madly in love all over again."
This seemed to be the only way out of their predicament.
"But I don't want to," Shen Nian said after a pause.
"I don't want to forget Ling Rui," she repeated, her expression distant.
"When my parents passed away, and I thought my life would be dark forever, Ling Rui appeared and pulled me out of the abyss. I don't want to forget her at all."
"..." It took Lu Lingchen a long time to speak. "Love really can change a person. You and him were formidable figures in the business world, but when it comes to love, you're like idiots being beaten on the spot. Your IQ plummeted from 200 to 2, essentially making you mentally disabled."
Shen Nian was amused by his frank words. "So rude, is that how you talk to your sister?"
"By the way," Shen Nian said, remembering something, "Can I take two days off?"
Then she added, "You know, we just had a fight, and he's probably annoyed by the sound of my voice right now."
"Granted," Lu Lingchen readily agreed. "I'll talk to him about it."
"Thank you," Shen Nian smiled.
"How about the lawsuit...?" she asked again.
"Everything is going smoothly," Lu Lingchen told Shen Nian everything he knew. "The person is currently detained, and many others are implicated besides those two, including the forces behind them."
It was a major case.
After all these years of entanglement, Lu Lingchuan finally understood that to make those two scumbags pay, he had to uproot their backers from the roots.
Over the past two years, Lu Lingchuan had uncovered evidence of corruption, bribery, and abuse of power by them. Only after ensuring he had enough to nail them did he release all the information he had.
"..." Shen Nian lowered her eyes.
She knew that these past few years, after Lu Lingchuan had regained his footing, he had been quietly gathering evidence against the forces behind Wang Yong and Yang Hao.
"Xu Lawyer hasn't contacted me for a while. Let me know when you need me to step in."
Lu Lingchen said, "For now, it doesn't seem necessary. The victims we've found are enough to prove their crimes beyond doubt."
"Okay," Shen Nian agreed. "That's good."
It was good if everything went smoothly.
Lu Lingchen sensed her weariness in her voice, so he didn't say more. "Rest up these few days."
"Okay."
"I'll hang up then."
"Okay."
Just as Lu Lingchen was about to hang up, Shen Nian's voice came through again. "Brother."
"..."
Lu Lingchen paused.
Though he knew Shen Nian had always treated him like a brother all these years, this was the first time she had actually called him that.
Shen Nian lowered her eyes, looking at Ling Rui's messages on her phone, her voice soft.
"Sister... might not be able to hold on much longer."
Lu Lingchen was still recovering from being called "brother" when he heard her say that, leaving him bewildered. He instinctively responded,
"What?"
"Nothing," Shen Nian looked up with a nonchalant smile. "My love for your brother, I might not be able to hold on to it anymore, so I thought I'd let it go. You go ahead, I'll hang up."
Then, she hung up.
...
After being discharged, Shen Nian left the hospital. Her health was fine, she just couldn't drink alcohol anymore.
Xiao Mubai helped her into the passenger seat, ensuring her seatbelt was fastened before walking around to the driver's side.
He started the car and drove away.
On the way, Xiao Mubai gripped the steering wheel and asked her, "Do you want to go home now? I can drop you off."
"Home..." Shen Nian murmured those two words, then nodded. "I want to go home."
Xiao Mubai understood. There was an intersection ahead, so he prepared to make a U-turn.
Shen Nian's residence was in the opposite direction.
"My home," Shen Nian suddenly added.
Hearing this, Xiao Mubai only paused for a moment before comprehending.
Her home, not the one she shared with Lu Lingchuan.
"Okay," Xiao Mubai agreed, then said, "I've never been there, you'll have to guide me."
"Sure."
Shen Nian led Xiao Mubai back to her home, the one she shared with her parents.
It was an upscale residential community.
After entering the community, they parked in the underground garage and took the elevator up.
Exiting the elevator, they turned left and stopped at one of the doors.
She keyed in the passcode and opened the door.
Inside, it had been vacant for a long time.
Shen Nian found the light switch, illuminating the space.
Disposable dust covers had been placed over the floor and furniture, now layered with dust.
Shen Nian bent down and began tearing off the dust covers from the entryway.
"Let me," Xiao Mubai crouched down to help her.
He worked swiftly, quickly removing the cover at the entrance.
"Should we take them all off?" Xiao Mubai asked.
"Yeah," Shen Nian nodded. "It's been several months since I've been here. There's too much dust on the covers, we'll take them off and replace them."
"Got it," Xiao Mubai nodded and continued working.
Shen Nian tried to help him, but Xiao Mubai refused, first removing the cover from the living room sofa and telling her to sit and wait for him.
"But I can..."
"Go sit, don't make me angry," Xiao Mubai cut her off, knowing what she was about to say.
What did a gentle person like him look like when angry?
Shen Nian pouted, her mind conjuring up Lu Lingchuan's face.
The Lu Lingchuan of old was as gentle as Xiao Mubai, but he was forced to become a cold, ruthless man.
Okay, that was quite intimidating.
Shen Nian sat on the sofa, hugging a cushion, silently watching him work.
Xiao Mubai moved deftly, the large dust covers easy to remove and gather.
Soon, he had collected all the covers.
"Where are the trash bags?" Xiao Mubai asked.
"In the second drawer of the entryway cabinet," Shen Nian replied.
Xiao Mubai opened it and found a half-used roll of trash bags.
He tore off a few, opened them up, and stuffed the dirty covers inside, filling three large bags. He tied them closed and placed the bags by the door.
Shen Nian watched him and commented, "Here, you're either a driver or a laborer. If it were me, I would have run away already."
She was joking.
After putting the trash bags by the door and closing it, Xiao Mubai smiled at her words. "It's fine, I've already received my reward."
"Oh?" She hadn't paid him.
Xiao Mubai gestured toward himself, then the house. "Am I the first to come here?"
"..." Shen Nian fell silent.
This was not the first time; Xiao Mubai had been here before.
Everything Xiao Mubai had just done... Lu Lingchuan had done many times before.
Moreover, he had even used his own earnings to pay her exorbitant electricity bills, ensuring that for the next hundred years, whenever she wanted to return home, as long as she flipped the switch, the lights would be on.
He said,
"You may not live here, but the lights at home will always be on for you, waiting for you to come back home."
