The dean's wrinkled face broke into a smile—years of exhaustion had aged her at an alarming rate—only her eyes remained as kind and gentle as when Qin Moyu had seen them as a child.
"Okay, okay, okay..."
She was as happy as a child, and only reluctantly touched her phone after the call ended.
Just as the dean never told Qin Moyu that his health was deteriorating and that he even fell while going out to buy groceries and couldn't get up for a long time, Qin Moyu never told the dean about the loneliness in her heart.
Because of his impoverished childhood, Qin Moyu matured early. He would do what he could to ease the burden on the dean from a very young age, and would take odd jobs whenever he had a holiday. His busy life left him no time to understand the carefree hobbies of his peers. It wasn't until he was about to graduate from university that he suddenly looked back and realized that he didn't have a single close friend by his side.
Loneliness is not a demon that constantly haunts you, but rather a bittersweet feeling that suddenly wells up in your heart at some unexpected moment.
—Perhaps it's a hotpot meal eaten alone, a movie watched alone, or even the smiles on the faces of a large group of people traveling alone on the street.
That slight envy turned into a needle, pricking my heart.
It doesn't hurt, but it makes you want to cry.
The graduation ceremony I once looked forward to seems less important now that the person I was looking forward to is gone.
After graduation, my roommates, with whom I seemed to get along very well, stopped sending messages in the group chat altogether.
No one rejected Qin Moyu; it was he who distanced himself from the crowd and became known as a busy person, so the invitation text message was automatically skipped from one person's contacts.
Qin Moyu hastily ended her university life and, as the dean had hoped, found a stable job, living a simple life day after day.
Instead of building a strong barrier for himself as he thought, he was like a deflated balloon, the emptiness in his heart like the tide, engulfing him in its ebb and flow.
When did things start to get out of control?
Qin Moyu snapped out of her daze and stared incredulously at the marks she had made on her arm.
One, two, three...
Prolonged depression led Qin Moyu down a dead end.
He desperately tried to save himself, frantically socializing on the edge of despair, searching for anything that might interest him.
But the fleeting pleasure could not cope with the immense emptiness that followed. Instead, the pain intensified after each encounter, with the emptiness and loneliness almost consuming him and urging him to surrender.
You look like you're about to cry.
Qin Moyu's scattered focus refocused on the face of the person in front of him at the sound of a voice.
Almost instinctively, he smiled and said, "No, I'm very happy."
The person in front of him stroked his chin with a hint of disbelief, looked Qin Moyu up and down, and tilted his head, saying, "So, do you want to save the world?"
ah?
Qin Moyu was stunned by his sudden question, and the next second a potted plant was stuffed into her arms.
He lowered his head, and he was like a lotus bud about to bloom.
The blue petals are soft and light, bowing slightly as if to express their gratitude.
How rare to see a blue lotus!
A sentence flashed through Qin Moyu's mind, and then she suddenly realized what it meant.
Wait a minute! Something seems off?
He looked up, but there was no one in front of him.
That question could only echo in my mind.
Can lotus flowers still be planted in soil pots?
Qin Moyu, still somewhat bewildered, carried the lotus home and placed it on her bedside table.
Insomnia is a common occurrence for him, but he doesn't want to take sleeping pills. Like a sick person who, before being diagnosed, stubbornly believes that hypnosis can heal itself.
Qin Moyu habitually turned over, skillfully opened his phone, and tried to find something to tire him out and put him to sleep.
My finger slid and I accidentally clicked on a novel. Since I couldn't sleep anyway, I figured I might get tired of reading it, so I started reading it chapter by chapter.
This is a very ordinary cultivation and leveling-up novel. The only special thing is that the book is not finished, and the author's name is rather strange, "Hua Hua, don't die!"
Qin Moyu stared at the author's name for a few seconds, then turned her head and saw the lotus flower by her bedside. She noticed that the lotus flower's drooping posture looked more like it was about to die than expressing gratitude.
"Save the world..."
He murmured to himself, then laughed self-deprecatingly.
If I can't even save myself, how can I save the world?
Qin Moyu pulled the blanket over her head, closed her eyes, and whispered something before falling asleep.
"If it can really be saved, then let's save them."
In a half-dream, half-awake state, he seemed to hear the voice of that person from the daytime again.
"Great, my flowers are saved."
Then came endless darkness.
…………
Forgotten memories, those haunted by emptiness, those surrounded by loneliness... all memories and emotions return at this moment.