No Further Connection Between Us Whatsoever

A large, conspicuous paper seal was plastered across the front doors that had never once been closed before.

Everything from the courtyard to the main building was plunged into absolute darkness.

Wearing a peaked cap, a petite figure stood at the street corner, blankly staring at one of the windows on the topmost floor. For a long time, she could not tell what she was feeling inside.

Due to the experiences of her childhood, Xia Wan had lost all physical sense of pain, leaving her entire being numb and rigid.

It was only after reaching adulthood that she realized she was actually suffering from a severe form of alexithymia—emotional detachment disorder.

Because she had never received therapeutic intervention over a long period, this condition had long since become a subtle part of her, deeply engraved into her very bones.

By that time, she already knew that she... could no longer be cured.

At this moment, after silently gazing at that window for nearly a minute, Xia Wan finally made a complete break between everything about herself and this place...

About ten minutes later, the petite figure reappeared in a slum district.

She walked through a pitch-black, dilapidated alley, making her way to the innermost room, which was extremely remote and crude.

Xia Wan pushed the door open without hesitation, only to find the interior still in a state of utter mess.

Yet she felt no panic, for she had already known about all this as early as when she ran to the hospital to find Xu Maoyan.

......

That day, when Xia Wan returned home from grocery shopping, she found the front door unlocked.

As she stepped inside, she saw that everything in the room had been smashed to the ground.

The door to the only bedroom stood wide open, the shabby single bed inside was completely tilted to one side, and the bedding was scattered all over the floor.

And her grandfather—who had always stayed by her side and had long since become a vegetative patient—was actually gone.

......

Everything reeked of danger, and such an unbridled intrusion left her at a loss.

Xia Wan widened her eyes, and after freezing for three seconds, she suddenly turned around like a madwoman and ran all the way to the hospital in one go.

However, before she could even finish her sentence, Xu Maoyan shoved her right out the door.

Xia Wan stumbled and fell to the ground, the impact literally knocking one of her arms loose.

Not far ahead of her was the assistant's enduring, sarcastic smile.

Seeing her fall and unable to get up, there wasn't even the slightest sign that he intended to come over and help her.

In the eyes of these people, Xia Wan was merely a pathetic and laughable leech.

At that moment, Xia Wan finally confirmed... that she had been completely isolated by this world.

Yet as she wandered dazedly into the small garden, just as she was planning to reattach her arm, Xia Wan suddenly laid eyes on that man.

The man she had caught a glimpse of once on television, the one whose face she could never tear her eyes away from again, had actually appeared right beside her.

And it was not just once.

That was the first time Xia Wan truly felt her own heartbeat in a tangible way.

Accompanied by waves of unfamiliar soreness surging up to the bridge of her nose, the tears then rolled down from the corners of her eyes.

Yet why had she never known before that this heartbeat... could hurt so much?

It hammered heavily, fiercely, beat by beat deep inside her body.

It left her in a state of panic, with no choice but to plead for help from the person before her eyes.

......

Presently.

Gathering her wandering thoughts, Xia Wan blinked and began to tidy up everything before her.

Grandfather was gone, and Xu Maoyan had been arrested.

She and the Xu family, and indeed the entire world... truly had nothing more to do with each other.

There was no need to report a missing person to the police either; Grandfather Xu had always been a missing person whom no one cared about anyway.

Right now... she could only pray that he would not be treated harshly.

......

A short while later, after simply packing her belongings, Xia Wan locked the place up tight and turned to leave.

Yet at that very moment, she suddenly realized that there seemed to be someone else who needed her help right now.

......

On the other side.

Regarding Xia Wan's disappearance once again, Mu Qing did not choose to let the matter slide this time.

At that time, he went directly to the Si family residence, only to be informed that Si Qingchen was out on business and not at the estate.

Following a phone conversation, Si Qingchen still had someone sent to the school to retrieve the student records of this transfer student named Xia Wan.