Shen Heyu had been taking care of Yuexue in the hospital for some time. After waiting for her to fall asleep, she got up to leave. Just as she opened the door, she unexpectedly ran into Lu Yi standing at the entrance. Startled, Shen Heyu glanced back and was relieved that Yuexue was already asleep and had not noticed Lu Yi.
Shen Heyu didn’t let Lu Yi come in. After leaving, she closed the room door quietly and said to Lu Yi with some apprehension, "Come with me."
Shen Heyu led Lu Yi away from Yuexue’s hospital room door, and the two walked to the end of the corridor, a long distance from Yuexue’s room. Confident that they wouldn’t disturb Yuexue, Shen Heyu stopped walking.
"You’re not thinking of stopping me from seeing Yuexue, are you, worried that my current appearance will scare her?" In fact, Lu Yi didn’t think his transformation was a bad thing. He had become the person Shen Heyu liked, that is, Pei Yansi. Besides, Pei Yansi was Yuexue’s biological father, so she must be more familiar with his obsessive side.
"I hope you can leave a good impression on Yuexue. With you looking now, it will only scare her and shatter the perfect image of you in her heart." That’s what Shen Heyu truly thought, but her words were completely misinterpreted by Lu Yi.
"Are you really afraid I’ll ruin my image in Yuexue’s heart, or are you worried that by becoming the man you like—that is, the obsessive Pei Yansi—I’ll harm Yuexue? That’s what you’re really thinking, right?"
Hearing her words, Shen Heyu felt her breath catch.
"Why would you think that? You know very well that Yuexue has been poisoned, and we only have one month left for detoxification. She’s a smart child, and if she senses your changed demeanor with her eyes closed, she will definitely realize something."
"I don’t want your situation to cause her any more trouble. Can you understand what I mean? For her sake, since you once genuinely cared for her, and she is just a three- or four-year-old child, please don’t disturb her. At least not for this month. Once the month is over, and her body has fully recovered, you can go to her and say what you want to say. I won’t stop you, but please, not now."
"Shen Heyu, don’t you think you are being cruel? I have such a good relationship with Yuexue; in her heart, I’m like her father. And now you’re actually trying to strip me of my right to see her. Do you really see me as so unworthy?"
"But haven’t I become the person you like? Pei Yansi looks just . I don’t understand why you can be deeply in love with Pei Yansi but dismiss someone like me, who is the same, even going so far as to prevent me from interacting with Yuexue."
Shen Heyu saw Lu Yi’s near madness and sighed helplessly. She had said so much to Lu Yi; why hadn’t he taken any of it to heart?
"Fine. You just want me to give you an explanation, right? Well, I’ll make it clear to you now; you’re wrong, completely wrong. You haven’t become Pei Yansi at all. Yansi never looked like what you’ve become now, do you understand?"
If Lu Yi really had become like Pei Yansi, she should have felt a sense of familiarity, but she never did; instead, she felt only estrangement. That could only mean that Lu Yi had failed to become the tiger he intended to mimic and ended up like a dog instead.
Lu Yi had imagined the reasons Shen Heyu might give for her actions. She might say she could only love one person, so even if Pei Yansi had let her down, she couldn’t love someone else.
He had even thought of excuses for Shen Heyu, perhaps that Pei Yansi’s type made her feel afraid, and so she couldn’t accept a man who was similar to Pei Yansi. But he had never expected Shen Heyu to say that, despite his great efforts, he was not like Pei Yansi at all. How was that possible? He had evolved to be exactly like Pei Yansi.
Lu Yi sneered, realizing only at that moment the special place Pei Yansi held in Shen Heyu’s heart—so special that even a personality duplicate of Yansi was seen as irreplaceable and beyond imitation in Shen Heyu’s eyes.
Perhaps in Shen Heyu’s mind, anyone who tried to imitate Pei Yansi would become a mere buffoon, like Lu Yi, who now deeply understood how ridiculous his actions were.
"I never thought your reasoning would be this. If Pei Yansi really is so unique to you, why did you ask me to leave him back then? If it hadn’t been for you stepping aside, and ending things with Yansi, how would I have seen even a glimmer of hope? I wouldn’t have thrown myself completely into the effort."
"Lu Yi, are you blaming me now? Isn’t today’s situation a result of your stubbornness, only ever considering your own desires and never the feelings of others?"
"If you think this is all my fault, I can take the blame for it. But I hope that in the future, we can keep our distance. Your presence now feels alien to me and chills my heart. I wish I had never met you."
Lu Yi, upon hearing Shen Heyu’s words, laughed bitterly. The impact of her words was too great.
"Since I’m already completely unrecognizable to you, I shouldn’t stubbornly wait any longer. You said I changed, so I reflected on whether I should revert to my original self, back to that gentle outward appearance. But then I realized my thoughts were utterly wrong."
"Because in your heart, I’ll never measure up to a single finger of Pei Yansi’s. So no matter how hard I try, in your eyes, it’s always wrong. In that case, I have nothing more to worry about. Do you want me to tell you that no matter what I become in the future, it’s all because of what you’ve done?"
Shen Heyu listened to Lu Yi’s desperate, resigned tirade, drawing in a shocked breath. What did Lu Yi mean by these words? It was tantamount to declaring war on her.
These words also implied that he would stop at nothing to prevent the divorce and even interfere with more of Shen Heyu’s affairs.
"Lu Yi, do you even realize what you are saying? I urge you to pull back from the brink. Why do you continue on this stubborn path?" Shen Heyu felt pained as she looked at him with the eyes of a stranger.
"I am well aware of what I am saying. Shen Heyu, just watch carefully. Just as Pei Yansi stopped at nothing to keep you from leaving him, I can do the same."