"Is there something important you need to tell me?" Kang Xin was drying her hair with a towel, eyes fixed steadily on HuMing.
But the moment HuMing saw how she was dressed, he immediately turned his head and said,
"No need. I’ll just change right here," Kang Xin replied, as if his presence didn’t matter in the slightest.
Just like that, she began to take off her towel right in front of him. But HuMing turned away again, refusing to look.
He hadn’t expected Kang Xin to be so bold, completely unafraid of him seeing her body. More than that, ever since he entered the room, she had remained completely calm—so calm that HuMing almost felt situation was perfectly natural, as though it was just normal for him to be in Kang Xin’s room .
Behind him came the soft rustle of clothes. A faint, clean scent of body wash drifted through the air from the girl behind him.
To ease the tension, HuMing decided to speak while she was changing.
"Kang Xin, have you had anything to do lately?"
"Aside from getting along with my classmates, it’s mostly just going to and from school. Not that different from working as a maid in the Han household."
There was a subtle tone to her words—was it HuMing’s imagination, or did it carry a trace of resentment?
HuMing could only smile wryly. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to give her tasks—he simply didn’t dare. Some things were too dangerous, and he could only handle them himself.
But his thoughts were still stuck on something else—the brief glimpse of her back. He hadn’t known she had a tattoo.
"I saw it earlier… the tattoo on your back. When did you get that?"
He couldn’t tell if Kang Xin didn’t want to answer or simply didn’t know how.
Of course, he knew she had her secrets. There was no need to press her.
"You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to..."
Still, she didn’t say a word. Unable to hold back his curiosity, HuMing eventually turned his head to look at her.
She was already sitting in a chair, at some point having taken up the hairdryer from the table. Without looking at him, she said,
HuMing’s mouth parted slightly, caught off guard. Not because her request was strange, but because she’d actually made a request of him at all. That was rare.
And since she’d asked, HuMing naturally had no reason to refuse.
He stepped forward, took the dryer from her hand, and began to dry her dark, damp hair.
"That tattoo… it’s from a long time ago. Before I met you."
Kang Xin suddenly began to speak, and HuMing knew she was finally ready to share a piece of her past.
He’d always sensed there were many mysteries surrounding her. Never mind how she’d appeared in the snowy wilderness in the dead of winter—just her combat ability alone hinted at something unusual.
More than that, she didn’t act like a naïve girl.
Silence, for her, was often a form of self-protection. No wonder the original HuMing had never figured out her secrets—he’d probably been misled by her appearance like so many others.
Kang Xin told him how she’d grown up in an organization, subjected to brutal, inhuman training. In that hellish place, she met a dear friend and an older sister figure.
It had been a rare, beautiful time. Back then, she could still smile.
But one event changed everything.
The leader of the organization handed a pistol to that older sister—told her to choose between them.
And Kang Xin had seen it—someone was aiming a gun at the older sister’s back too. If she didn’t pull the trigger, she would die.
She remembered that moment vividly. The girl who was the same age as her had pointed at her chest, then smiled.
"Pull the trigger. If you don’t, neither of us is leaving here alive."
She would never forget the conviction in that girl’s eyes.
In the end, the older sister fired the gun.
And with that gunshot, all their lives changed.
Kang Xin had been knocked unconscious and dumped in a faraway city. That older sister probably became the organization’s heir. As for the one who was shot…
Kang Xin leaned back, unafraid of falling—she knew HuMing was right behind her.
HuMing listened quietly, stunned to realize how similar her childhood had been to his own.
Both of them had been crushed by the same kind of organization. But their fates had diverged.
He had met HuMin, and that changed him. Kang Xin had been discarded—and ended up in the Han household.
Different paths forged different people.
HuMing reached out, wrapping an arm around her shoulders—just like HuMin had done for him back then.
Kang Xin felt the warmth of his body… and the motion, the way he held her, was just like that older sister had once held her, whispering words of comfort in her ear.
If she hadn’t met that sister back then, she would have died in that place.
Those buried memories surged forward like a tidal wave.
She gripped HuMing’s arm tightly and whispered, "HuMing… I’m scared. I’m scared of losing everything around me again..."
"If I had been stronger… maybe the one she aimed at would’ve been me. Then the other sister wouldn’t have had to die, right?"
"But if that happened, I never would’ve met you. Kang Xin, you have to understand—everything we’ve been through, whether painful or joyful, is what made us who we are. Don’t dwell on regrets. No amount of thinking will change the past. All we can do is keep moving forward."
Those were HuMin’s words to him once. He never thought one day, he’d be passing them on to someone else.
HuMing had to admit—there was still a vast gulf between him and HuMin.
No matter how much he learned, HuMin would always be the one who had taught him what it meant to live.
Kang Xin held his hand tightly, unwilling to let go.
She understood what he meant. And more importantly, it was true.
Just like that sister had once said—only after tasting freedom would she realize the world wasn’t as ugly as she’d believed.
She was lucky to have met HuMing.
"You don’t need to thank me."
Kang Xin slowly rose to her feet. Then, without hesitation, she undid the buttons of her shirt, smooth skin gradually revealed to the air.
HuMing instinctively covered his eyes.
"Wait—hold on. I was just comforting you, not asking for you to throw yourself at me!"
"This tattoo… the three of us got it together. Both my sisters have the same lotus flower on their backs," Kang Xin said, half her shirt loosened, revealing the design.
HuMing slowly lowered his hand. At last, understanding dawned across his face.
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