They Regretted it After Their Hearts Turned to Ashes - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 – High Fever

Sometimes, Luo Zhi is actually curious.

Whether he was a character with a predetermined destiny in a story, so no matter what he does, he can never change the established trajectory.

Or if he do something extremely sinful in his previous life and owed everyone, so he will be punished and atone for those sins in this life.

Otherwise, how can a person live like this?

If nothing is wrong, why does everyone he meets hate him, and he wants to disappear soon?

…

“Xiao Zhi?”

Ren Chenbai held his arm and said: “It doesn’t matter to you, does it?”

Luo Zhi lowered his gaze.

He calmed down and looked at Ren Chenbai’s hand that was covering his arm.

The slender and powerful hand stopped him cleanly. Compared to the clean white hand that was grasping him, the shirt lined with blood and dust appeared to be even more ugly and dirty.

…even now, Ren Chenbai didn’t know that Luo Zhi saw what happened that day.

The day after the dim sum was thrown away, Ren Chenbai still came to visit him.

Ren Chenbai has always taken good care of Luo Zhi, brought him comic books and game cassettes, and told him about the outside world. Ren Chenbai’s eyebrows seemed to be naturally calm and tolerant.

Ren Chenbai stretched out his hand and gently ruffled his hair, telling him that the dim sum was delicious.

He couldn’t help but ask about the details of the stuffing. Those gentle eyes showed a little confusion and embarrassment, before falling into a brief moment of silence for a few seconds. The topic was then swiftly changed as if nothing had happened.

…

You can say that it was self-deception, or like drinking poison to quench his thirst, but Luo Zhi instinctively didn’t want to expose Ren Chenbai.

After all, even if he is acting, this is one of the few people in the world who is willing to talk to him amiably.

As long as he doesn’t have any other contact with Ren Chenbai on any occasion, Luo Zhi can deceive himself with his ability, and let himself only remember the days when he was with the Ren family. It was a nice dream.

“I saw the hot search… I got a little worried.”

Ren Chenbai said, “I can take you home for a time to avoid the limelight.”

Luo Zhi shook his head.

He doesn’t know if he caught a cold or not, but it was as if someone had stuffed a piece of pig iron in his head. His head was throbbing with pain.

It wasn’t a sharp stinging pain, but a chaotic pain mixed with dizziness, nausea, and loss of consciousness. Even his temples were pounding, and a certain blood vessel hidden underneath it seemed like it would burst open at any time.

Luo Zhi could go anywhere. He still has some money, so staying in a hotel for some time, renting a house, or leaving the local area to relax all are good plans.

The only thing is that it can’t be with the Ren family.

He didn’t want want to cause any embarrassment to the Ren family.

For Luo Zhi, this is a rare place where there is still warmth and kindness for him. He does not want to cover this warmth with new memories.

“Brother Chenbai, thank you.” Luo Zhi said. “But I don’t want to go.”

Only now did he realize that he might have a fever, or it might have been a heatstroke or something else. In short, his arms and body were severely weakened, and he couldn’t break free from Ren Chenbai’s hold no matter what.

Luo Zhi was forcibly pulled and hung his head slightly to one side. He found that when he exhaled his breath was scalding hot, his throat hurt, and his voice became hoarse.

“I feel sad when I go. And I have somewhere to go.”

Luo Zhi slowed down and let his mouth continue to speak. “I’ve been in a bit of trouble these days, but it’s not so hard that I can’t go on…”

“How that be done then?” Ren Chenbai asked softly beside his ear.

It was Luo Zhi’s injured ear. Most of the time, this ear couldn’t hear things clearly, but these words suddenly penetrated into the eardrum clearly and continued to penetrate into his brain.

Luo Zhi raised his head a little dazedly.

Ren Chenbai didn’t seem to expect that he would hear it. Ren Chenbai’s eyebrows froze for a moment, then calmly eased: “…it’s so uncomfortable to live outside, and your health is not good. Don’t be angry, come back with me.”

His tone was very natural, as if “how can that be done then?” was not a question about “it’s not so hard that I can’t go on”, but an ordinary prefix for the following sentences.

It was as if in that inadvertent moment, the terrifying chill that washed over him was just an illusion that Luo Zhi had created himself in his moment of confusion.

Maybe it was just an illusion.

If you are ostracized by the Luo family, you can still trace back to the source and connect it with the past. When the whole internet was blackened and the internet exploded, he could at least trace the source back to Jian Huaiyi, who was the one pulling the strings while hiding in the shadows…

No matter how much he thought about it, Luo Zhi couldn’t figure out what he did to provoke Ren Chenbai.

He has always been obedient in the Ren family, he did cause any trouble or make a fool of himself and was almost like an invisible transparent person.

When he was too idle, he would just accompany Ren Chenbai’s mother to bake cakes and snacks or find a chance to get into the study and read a book in it for a day.

There was no conflict in the business of the Luo family and the Ren family. Ren Chenbai is the only heir of the Ren family, and the whole person is the standard control group of those rambunctious second-generation little ancestors.

Ren Chenbai is the best of their generation. He is calm and decisive in the business, and gentle, mature, and reliable in private. Even Luo Jun will inevitably be compared to him from time to time.

There is no need for such a proud person to be like Jian Huaiyi, who is always worried about the stolen things, and always worried that everything will be taken away again, so he always has to fight with Luo Zhi endlessly to keep them.

Luo Zhi tried to draw his arm back twice again.

Ren Chenbai still held him tightly.

That strength is not strong, but it is also not easy to resist, at least the current Luo Zhi does not have enough physical strength to resist.

Ren Chenbai lowers his head and looks at Luo Zhi with dark eyes. A shadow of Luo Zhi appears in his eyes.

During this time, there were already many people nearby.

Even regardless of anything else, Luo Zhi’s clothes, which he hasn’t had the time to change, are already eye-catching enough in the mall.

After all, it is also a negative example on the cusp of the storm, and it didn’t take long for someone to recognize Luo Zhi’s face. The hostility in real life is not as daring to love, dare to hate, and rejoice in enmity as on the Internet1. At least no one has rushed up to give Luo Zhi a blow. At most, they just pointed at him and whispered with contempt.

But it doesn’t feel good either.

What is it like? It was like a thin thread that was tangled up one after another, digging into people’s skin, and then seeping into the flesh and blood little by little.

It doesn’t hurt to say that it hurts, but that kind of alienated and ridiculed eyes will be engraved in the memory that he didn’t even notice.

…

Next, when you meet any line of sight, or any passer-by looking at you, this feeling will jump out in an instant.

Ren Chenbai’s mother kept a lot of psychology books in the study. Luo Zhi flipped through a few of them. He remembered that he couldn’t focus on the surroundings at this time, so he shook his already fevered head, and raised his eyes to look at the figure in front of him.

“Brother Chenbai, I’m not feeling well.” Luo Zhi said. “I want to go to the hospital.”

Luo Zhi’s voice was almost hoarse, and he didn’t know if he had spoken out. “Let me go first, and wait for me to turn around…”

Ren Chenbai let go of his hand and stepped back holding his arm.

Luo Zhan was startled for a moment. His vision had already begun to blur, like a faint layer of white mist, but he could still see the arm that Ren Chen had nothing to do with him.

There are already a lot of people pointing fingers around, but Ren Chenbai obviously had no intention of dealing with it for him.

… When this idea appeared, Luo Yu even smiled self-deprecatingly.

He always had unrealistic fantasies about the people and things around him. Among these fantasies, the most self-righteous and brazen part is probably all about Ren Chenbai.

Luo Zhi was also unclear about his attitude towards Ren Chenbai.

Maybe it’s an older, reliable friend that you’ve relied on since childhood, maybe it’s the best standard you want to catch up with, or maybe it’s the only thing left about “home”.

He wisely didn’t raise his head, gave up checking the other’s eyes, and just walked towards the elevator step by step while holding the railing.

Ren Chenbai stood behind him, watching Luo Zhi stagger down the escalator.

Luo Zhi subconsciously groped and walked slowly, through the crowd, and disappeared outside the mall.

…

Luo Zhi walked to the parking lot.

He was so uncomfortable that he couldn’t stand up anymore. He repeatedly tried to open the door but he couldn’t. Then he remembered that he had not unlocked the door. He finally found the key from his pocket, but his trembling fingers couldn’t bear the last bit of strength.

The keys fell from his fingers and slid under the car.

Luo Zhi squatted down.

Having a fever has some benefits.

The hot chaos engulfed all emotions. He didn’t even get upset because of this series of troubles, but just bent down and tried to reach for it.

The key was just a few centimeters further than his fingers could reach.

Luo Zhi tried patiently, little by little. He curled up in the shadows, his hot forehead pressed against the cold metal of the car body, and the coldness of the garage hooked the coolness in his bones and fled.

A hand reached out and picked up the key for him.

Ren Chenbai wrapped his arms around Luo Zhi and let him rest on his shoulders. He fished out the bunch of keys with his right hand and handed it to Luo Zhi.

His movements and strength were so gentle that Luo Zhi almost recalled in a trance that when they were young, Ren Chenbai hugged himself, who had suffered from heatstroke outside, and fed him iced mung bean soup with white sugar little by little.

…memories and tenderness are all over the place.

Ren Chenbai handed him the key and stepped back, waiting for Luo Zhi’s next step.

Luo Zhi took a little extra time to realize that the subtext of this action was “if you don’t go back with me, then find a way by yourself, I won’t care about you”.

Of course, you can’t drive in this state.

In fact, you shouldn’t have come to the parking lot in the first place. You should directly take a taxi at the roadside. But he couldn’t think anymore. He just wanted to stay away from that place as far as possible by instinct.

Luo Zhi raised his deep eyebrows that were soaked in a cold sweat. He bent his eyes and smiled at Ren Chenbai.

Luo Zhi held the station steady and thanked him softly.

For some unknown reason, Ren Chenbai stood in front of him and was stunned by him for a moment.

Luo Zhi didn’t let go of this advantage. He didn’t care whether he was embarrassed or not. He turned the key to unlock it, opened the door, and used the ground to get in. Then quickly closed the door.

Luo Zhi locked the car door and waved his hand at Ren Chenbai, who was stunned with anger hidden in his eyes. He then reached up to put down the sun visor.

After doing this, he also used up the last bit of his strength.

Luo Zhi’s field of vision went completely dark. He didn’t even have time to adjust to a more comfortable posture before his body quietly relaxed against the steering wheel.

people are not as open to showing their hostility in person compared to when they are online