Ever since Chinese New Year when he used He Yuguang's identity and stayed a whole night and day in Lijiang, "He Yuguang" and Ji Yi had grown quite close. "He Yuguang" and Ji Yi practically messaged each other every day.
The phone had been left on the bed only because they exchanged messages on WeChat till late the night before. Before going to sleep, he just tossed it to one side.
When he unlocked the screen, he noticed there were notifications for several unread WeChat messages. He Jichen casually opened WeChat and saw that those messages were from Ji Yi, but he didn't open to read them as another notification popped up. His phone was running out of battery.
As he sat up against the headboard, He Jichen found the charging cable and plugged in the phone. With one hand raising a cigarette to his mouth, he tapped Ji Yi's name and read her message. "Yuguang Ge, last night, I was too sleepy, so I fell asleep. So sorry."
Last night, she hadn't replied to his last message. He waited for so long, but when his phone remained silent for so long, he knew in his heart that she probably fell asleep. He sent her a message to say "goodnight" and he fell asleep too.
He figured that once she woke up the next day, she'd send him a reply when she saw his message.
He Jichen quickly tapped on the phone screen. After he sent the words "It's fine," he reached for his lighter and lit up his cigarette.
He didn't smoke it but held the cigarette between his fingers and leaned against the headboard. As he inhaled the tobacco, he waited patiently.
About about a minute, the phone vibrated in his hand.
Ji Yi replied: "Yuguang Ge, it's so late. Why are you still awake?"
He Jichen flicked the ashes of his cigarette into the ashtray by the bedside table then held his cigarette between his fingers. He started to type away on the phone screen. "Just about to go to bed."
After he sent that text, He Jichen realized it was almost twelve yet Ji Yi was still up, so he tapped on the screen again. "What about you? Why are you still up?"
"I can't sleep." Ji Yi probably had her phone in her hand since she replied to his message so quickly.
Can't sleep ?
He Jichen stared at those two words and started to furrow his brows. "What's wrong, Manman?"
Ji Yi: "Nothing."
Nothing is stopping her from sleeping? Clearly, there's something… It can't be her wound preventing her from sleeping, right?
At that thought, He Jichen sat up on the bed and stretched his legs out before his mind flashed back to how he lectured her in her room earlier. Then he froze completely.
For a while, he held his stance as though he was about to get out of bed before he finally pulled his legs back into bed again. He stared at the night sky out the window for a while then tapped the phone a few times. "Is it because of the wound on your waist?"
"Yuguang Ge, how did you know?" It was just as He Jichen thought - Ji Yi replied with a question.
Before he sent out that last message, he already thought of a good excuse explaining how he knew. He typed it and was just about to send it when he received another message from Ji Yi. "He... He Jichen told you, didn't he?"
He Jichen, who just typed the words "Jichen told me," quickly deleted the message and changed it to "Mhm." He sent it out.
Ji Yi didn't reply on her end.
He Jichen figured she thought "He Yuguang" knew the full details of how she planned for herself to get injured, so she probably didn't know how to respond.
After some thought, he typed another sentence on the screen. "Don't do stupid things like that again for those people. It's not worth it."
After about five minutes, Ji Yi finally responded, "I know it's not worth it, but Yuguang Ge, in this world, I can only rely on myself. I can only rely on these stupid ways to protect myself."