Chapter 7 | So It Turns Out You Weren’t Rejecting Me, You Were Afraid I Couldn’t Survive

The train station announcements continued to echo.

People flowed past, the sound of rolling suitcases clattering against the floor one after another. Yet Wen Yan felt frozen in place, hearing nothing at all.

She only looked at Shen Che.

At his bloodshot eyes, at his chest rising and falling rapidly from running, at him standing in front of her as if he had finally reached a dead end.

“What did you say?”
Her voice was so soft it barely seemed like a question.

Shen Che’s throat tightened.

He knew that once he spoke, there would be no turning back.

“The year you collapsed and were rushed to the hospital,”
he spoke slowly, as if afraid she couldn’t bear it, “the doctors said… you can’t endure intense emotional stress again.”

Wen Yan’s face gradually paled.

“If you continue to love like that,” he looked at her, almost begging her to understand, “you could be seriously harmed.”

“So you decided—”
She laughed suddenly, a trembling laugh. “—to decide for me?”

Shen Che didn’t deny it.

Because it was the truth.

“You kept your distance from me,”
she said, each word deliberate, “pushed me away, said hurtful things.”

“Watched me break down alone, watched me love someone else.”

“And now you’re telling me—”
her voice trembled, “you did it for me?”

Her breathing suddenly became erratic.

Her chest felt as though it had been clutched in a vise, pain so sharp she could barely stand.

Lin Yu noticed something was wrong and immediately steadied her.

“Wen Yan, calm down.”

But those two words seemed to ignite something inside her.

She flung Lin Yu’s hand away and took a step back.

“Calm down?”
Her eyes were red as she looked at Shen Che. “How am I supposed to calm down?”

“Do you know what those years were like for me?”

Her tears finally fell.

“Every day I wondered if I wasn’t good enough.
If I was too clingy, too useless, that’s why you left me like that.”

“I thought you didn’t love me.”
Her voice choked, barely a whisper, “But it turns out… you just thought I didn’t deserve to know the truth.”

Shen Che’s expression changed completely.

“No, it’s not like that.”
He stepped forward. “I just—”

“Just what?”
she nearly shouted. “You just thought you could carry it all alone?”

“Shen Che, how can you be so cruel?”

In that moment, she finally understood.

She understood what lay behind the words “don’t overthink.”
She understood that the coldness, the distance, the rejection—they weren’t lack of love.

But precisely because of that—
it hurt even more.

“If you had told me back then,” she cried, unable to stand, “even just a little…

I wouldn’t have loved you so humbly, like a fool.”

Shen Che reached out to hold her.

She stepped back.

“Don’t touch me.”

Those words shattered him completely.

“Wen Yan.”
His voice was so low it almost broke, “do you think it was easy for me?”

“Every day I watched you, yet I couldn’t come near.
Watched you love someone else, pretending I didn’t care.”

“I’d rather you hate me,” his eyes red, “than risk your life.”

The moment those words fell—
Wen Yan suddenly felt dizzy.

Her ears rang, her heartbeat raced.

Her vision blurred.

“Wen Yan!” Shen Che was the first to notice something was wrong.

The next second, her entire body collapsed forward.

Shen Che caught her, trembling all over.

“Doctor! Call a doctor!”

The train station erupted into chaos.

When she woke up, she was in a hospital.

The smell of disinfectant was strong.

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Shen Che.

He had sat by her bedside all night without sleeping, his eyes bloodshot.

When he saw she was awake, he jumped up, but didn’t dare touch her.

“How do you feel?”

She looked at him, her gaze calm.

“You win.”
She said softly.

Shen Che was momentarily stunned.

“Now I know the truth.”
She continued, “But have you ever thought—”

“That some loves, when deprived of the choice, hurt even more than death?”

Shen Che’s tears fell freely for the first time, unguarded.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “If I could do it all over again—”

“There’s no ‘again.’”
She cut him off.

She turned her face toward the window.

“I need time.”

“Not to forgive you,” her voice was light, “but to save myself.”

In that moment, Shen Che realized—
he hadn’t lost her.

But he hadn’t gained her either.

Their love had reached its most honest, most cruel stage.