Once again in the man's embrace, the familiar scent that belonged only to him lingered around her nose. Shen Nian was stunned for a moment.
She was stiff all over, her expression dazed, not knowing where to put her hands.
Was he...still not sober?
That should be it, otherwise it would not explain why he suddenly hugged her.
If he was sober, he would loathe her, let alone hold her in his arms.
In a daze, as if dreaming.
But even though Shen Nian knew this embrace was fleeting like a glimpse of a sinking flower, she still couldn't bear to make a sound. Every extra second she could spend in this moment was a gain for her.
One of Lu Lingchuan's hands was on her back and the other was on her side waist, holding her steady in his embrace.
His chin rested on her shoulder, tilting his head slightly so his lips brushed her earlobe.
He was very sober, one could even say the moment he took her into his arms, he was already sober.
Feeling the stiffness of the woman in his arms, Lu Lingchuan's heart was also racing out of his control. His nose was too close to her ear. Afraid she would notice something wrong, Lu Lingchuan tried hard to keep his breathing steady, make it seem as normal as possible so she wouldn't detect anything off about him.
Now the relationship between the two was not even as substantial as sand, more like a dandelion that would blow away with the slightest puff of air.
But even so, Lu Lingchuan was still desperately clinging to this tiny bit of warmth. Perhaps the time was short, but to him it was an extravagance.
It had been four years. This was the first time they calmly embraced each other like this.
Neither wanted to break this rare tranquility, she didn't speak, and he didn't speak either.
A fleeting moment of halcyon days.
After a while, their phones rang, disrupting the atmosphere. Lu Lingchuan’s phone on the bedside table lit up, vibrating.
Lu Lingchuan frowned, displeased that the atmosphere was disturbed. He picked up his phone, saw who was calling, then immediately sat up and put on his slippers to get up from the bed while answering the call and heading towards the balcony.
"Is Lawyer Xu on his way to the airport already?"
"I will go early to meet him there..."
Shen Nian also slowly sat up. He had opened the sliding door to the balcony. The wind from outside blew in, lightly fluttering the gauze curtains, vaguely revealing the back of the man on the phone.
Shen Nian rubbed between her brows.
She had suffered from insomnia for years. The first year after Lu Lingrui's accident, she would stay up all night, often just lying in bed staring blankly at the ceiling until dawn came.
Later she started relying on melatonin pills to forcibly get some rest. One pill didn't work at all, she had to take two or three together. After that, her worsening mental state from the lack of sleep led her to get prescribed sleeping pills from the doctor.
With the sleeping pills, her sleep gradually returned a bit, although she still didn't sleep for long, at least she could get four hours.
Her sleep was very light. Whenever her emotions were too volatile, even sleeping pills became useless.
She was in such poor spirits yesterday yet still managed to fall asleep without the help of sleeping pills, and she even slept very soundly.
Picking up her phone next to her, she checked the time. It was already past 8 am, almost 9.
What time did she fall asleep yesterday? She couldn't remember, but it probably wasn't too late.
That meant she had slept for at least ten hours yesterday.
It had been a long time since she had such a solid sleep.
Staring at the sunlight outside, she had lived for another day.
Shen Nian closed her eyes with a long exhale, adjusting her breathing, then slowly opened her eyes again.
