"So it's just going to end like this between us?" I heard myself say in a hoarse voice.

  Wu Yu looked at me with a very firm and deep gaze. He said, "The secret on the boat has not been cleared up yet. I always feel that something will happen again. I will do my best to protect you and won't let you encounter any mishaps."

  I sniffled and said: "Is it because you're now a straightforward and selfless person, so you want to protect me like those kids?"

  "He was quiet for a moment, then spoke softly and slowly: 'No, it's because of love.'"

  I was stunned, and tears fell down uncontrollably, but he remained calm as still water. Just like he said, this him would never have an end, no end. I grabbed his hand and said: "You can't be like this, who do you think you are? You want to protect me because of love, but you don't dare to be with me! You're afraid of dragging me down, afraid of losing me! I won't accept it! From now on, let's not see each other again! If I have any misfortune in the future, I'll bear it myself! Absolutely no more of your meddling!"

  He grasped my hand tightly, his lips moving several times. I had hoped he would finally be unable to hold back the words in his heart, just like earlier. But his gaze fell, and he ultimately said in a low voice: "Be with you? What if he targets you too?"

  I was stunned.

  At this moment, he looks like a trapped beast. I finally see that his eyes are truly red, and he's looking at me with an extremely cold and decisive expression. He says: "I've always thought I was smart. After the incident with Wu Miao, I vowed to catch him... But a year has passed, and I've searched all over the country, every possible place where he might have left a trace. I even got eyes that are more than human, but still, nothing. He's a true master of crime, without any humanity at all. And I can feel it too, he must have sensed that I'm after him... So what if he finds out about you? You and Wu Miao... His hand stops an inch away from my cheek, "and those victims, so similar."

  "Tan Jiao, go and live your life. Be a great writer, be happy and stable," he said. "Before I came today, I thought it over carefully, repeating it to myself many times, I didn't sleep all night thinking about it. There are many things in life that can't be helped, many things that can't be predicted. You can't fall into the same hole as me, listen to me, I'll watch out for you."

  ——

  That night, I secretly cried for a long time by myself. It was really pathetic.

  In the middle of the night, I got up and gazed at the bright round moon in the sky, thinking that actually I had never known what love truly looked like.

  Is it sweet and perfect? Now I know, definitely not.

  Is it just a futile pursuit? No, how can I give up like this?

  I sat up dazedly flipping through the calendar, calculating the time, and found that from our reunion to today, exactly fifteen days had passed, half a month's time.

  It's only been half a month, how can't I let go? Even if he has already rejected me, why is there still a thread of thought in my heart that doesn't want to give up?

  I really don't know what love is anymore.

  All I know is that now, when I look back on it, this half month, every inch of time, every moment we spent together, those seemingly ordinary moments that seem so warm and tender in retrospect, they were all love.

  I fell into this deep pit alone. But he didn't want to leave me and stay with me.