The winding mountain road, much like her current mood, twists and turns, leading to a perplexing end that she can’t see, as if standing at a three-way intersection, unsure whether to go left or right.
The higher she climbs, the lower the temperature drops.
Tang Li felt her arms grow goosebumps from the cold.
The dim and unclear streetlights only allowed her to see a few steps ahead of her feet.
Beyond that was pitch darkness.
Her cellphone lacked a flashlight function.
After walking for about half an hour, Tang Li faintly saw a pair of wrought iron gates.
—It should be Yunqi Villa.
She thought to herself.
She stopped walking and didn’t move forward.
On the side of the wrought iron gate was a surveillance camera lit with a red light.
If she continued to approach, she would definitely be caught in the surveillance range.
Suddenly feeling a pain in her left ankle, Tang Li looked down to find that the skin near her ankle had been cut at some point, and the blood had already coagulated.
She belatedly remembered passing through a thicket of bushes.
The wound wasn’t serious, so she didn’t bother to treat it.
Having walked for too long, her body emitted signals of fatigue, so Tang Li sat down on the nearby flower bed and stretched her legs out.
Sitting alone on the mountainside in the middle of the night, her heart was increasingly filled with confusion.
It felt like a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Because she couldn’t find a reason for coming here.
Nor did she know why she was sitting here.
It felt more like a bet she placed with herself, wagering that by doing this, she might encounter the person she wanted to see.
Her enthusiasm, along with her increasingly cold fingers, gradually faded.
"She probably won’t appear..."
She silently told herself.
...She was just being too greedy.
Having enjoyed warmth, she couldn’t help but draw closer, couldn’t help but want more.
Even though she had been through so much, she now resembled a little child yearning for care.
At that moment, the light from two approaching car headlights broke through the distance.
Tang Li forgot to get up.
The two wrought iron gates ahead slowly opened, and a black sedan drove in. She just watched quietly from start to end without making a sound.
The sedan stopped not far away, its red taillights glowing.
Then, it reversed back towards her.
Tang Li recognized it; it was the Lexus.
—Song Baiyan’s vehicle.
As the sedan’s engine shut off and stopped beside her, Tang Li finally stood up. The passenger side window rolled down, and in the streetlight, she saw the man in the driver’s seat, indeed Song Baiyan.
She stood next to the car, watching Song Baiyan, who was also taking her in.
After a long moment, Tang Li heard Song Baiyan ask, "Why are you here instead of at school in the middle of the night?"
[I came to find you.]
Yet, this answer she could not reveal to him.
Tang Li lowered her eyelids, and in less than three seconds, she looked back at him.
Gazing at the girl’s tranquil yet emotion-filled eyes, Song Baiyan sighed inwardly, then said, "Get in, I’ll take you back to school."
"..." Tang Li did not move.
She simply asked, "Does my presence here trouble you?"
As she spoke, Tang Li felt the corners of her eyes grow warm.
Even in her past life, after suffering many misfortunes, she had only cried twice, once when her mother died, and the other time when she learned that Han Jifeng and Lai Shengxia had slept together. Reality taught her early on that tears wouldn’t get her anything, and that what she wanted could only be achieved through her own efforts.
She once again felt that helplessness.
Tang Li said softly, "You don’t need to take me, I can get back on my own."
After speaking, she turned and walked back the way she came.