Genshin Impact: Please don’t bully me, fellow stragglers

My father lives in a hotel next to the airport.

When Nan Ke arrived by bus and subway, it was the hottest time of the day.

Nan Ke asked the front desk for a bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi water and drank it while waiting for the elevator. By the time she arrived at the door of her father's room, her brain had awakened from the heat and was clearer than ever.

Nan Ke clenched his fists, put them against his chest and took a deep breath.

"Dad." She knocked on the door. "It's me, Nan Ke."

After Nan Ke finished speaking, he listened attentively to the movement inside.

There was no sound through the door. After a while, a slight noise appeared, which gradually became louder as the distance got closer.

It was the sound of a pair of slippers dragging their feet and rubbing against the floor as they approached her.

Nan Ke secretly tightened the strap of the shoulder bag.

The sound of the door core turning was crisp and short. Nan Ke couldn't help but take a step back. He looked up and saw that the door had opened.

My father stood inside with a frown on his face, a watch on his other hand pressed against his forehead.

"Come in." Her father glanced at her with an unpleasant expression, but his tone was still gentle.

After saying this, he turned and walked back to the room.

Nan Ke followed his father inside and smelled a strong aroma of food. He looked around and saw several boxes of takeout on the table in the suite, but his mother and Nan Yi were not there.

"Where are Nan Yi and the others?" Nan Ke asked.

"Your mother has taken Nan Yi back home," the father sat down at the table and tapped the table with his fingers, "Let's eat first and then we can talk."

"Nan Yi, are you feeling unwell?" Nan Ke hung the bag on the corner of the chair.

"If you know it, don't ask."

"You all know that taking Nan Yi on a long journey is not a good choice, but you still brought her out." Nan Ke looked at the dishes in front of him and his tone turned cold.

These are things that would never appear on the table when Nan Yi was around.

From the beginning, my father had no intention of letting Nan Yi stay in City A for long.

"Why, you're blaming me?" His father paused as he tore the chopsticks, and the calmness on his face also broke. "If you hadn't messed around and instigated Nan Yi to protect you, would I have asked for leave from the company and come all the way to ask you to go back?"

"So, Dad, why do you insist that Nan Yi come?"

Nan Ke ignored his attempt to change the subject, his eyes full of aggressive accusations.

This is the expression Nan Ke would only show when Nan Yi was in danger.

Nan Ke sat with his back straight.

A pair of particularly dark pupils, who knows where he got them from, but they did not fluctuate with the outward emotions. They were dark and intimidating, staring straight at him.

My father frowned even deeper, threw away the broken chopsticks and said nothing.

Nan Ke simply made it clear: "Because you want me to understand that even without me, there is still Nan Yi who is just like me. If I don't compromise, everything I will experience in the future will be passed on to Nan Yi who is just like me."

"I just don't understand, what does this have to do with Nan Yi? Why are you being so stubborn?" The veins on the back of my father's hand popped out, and he said with a click of the tongue, "Your uncle is an upright person. He admires you. It is a blessing for you and our family. He helped us in times of need, and we should repay him. Where did you hear these rumors that made you think he would harm you?"

Nan Ke clenched his fingers and retorted: "It's not what I heard..."

"Let's say, without his help, Nan Yi's expensive surgeries, regular checkups, and medical treatment would have bankrupted our family long ago," her father interrupted her and continued, "just for this reason, isn't it worth it for you to show some good face? Aren't you most concerned about your sister?"

"…This is different from what's happening now. When I graduate, I will definitely work hard to repay him."

"By then, people would have already given up on us!" My father raised his voice. "We agreed that you would go to medical school, and your uncle arranged everything for you. But you did this, and everyone's efforts were in vain. How am I supposed to end this?"

"Dad," Nan Ke couldn't bear to listen any longer, so he suddenly closed his eyes and opened them again, then stood up and stared at him and asked, "Do you really not understand what that means?"

"Why don't you tell me, what's the point?!" The father banged the table hard.

"Let me move to his house as soon as I come of age and call him dad..." Nan Ke felt that these words were ridiculous. She bit her lip and suppressed the hardness in her voice, "But you are my father..."

"How many times do you want me to explain this? Your uncle is completely well-intentioned. These things will not harm you at all." Seeing Nan Ke's shoulders trembling slightly, the father paused for a long time, lowered his head and sighed.

"Nan Ke, I really don't know how to persuade you... You can't expect us to take care of you like we did for Nan Yi. You are making things difficult for me and your mother."

No.

Nan Ke had never expected this before.

She just had a premonition of a bad future for herself and wanted to take advantage of her last chance to struggle and seek freedom.

Nan Ke glanced at the canvas bag beside her. In the compartment was the admission certificate she had received a few hours ago.

"There's one more thing that your mother and I haven't told you yet."

Seeing Nan Ke reaching into her bag, the father's frown relaxed a little and he spoke more slowly.

"In the near future, maybe Nan Yi will be able to travel... For her recovery, we will move abroad for three or four years."

Nan Ke pinched the thin paper with his fingers, paused, and increased the strength.

It turned out to be... like this.

Nan Ke had long been excluded from his father's plan, so he was eager to give her to someone else...

Nan Ke calmed himself down, took out his admission certificate, and slowly and neatly placed it on the table in front of his father.

Nan Ke witnessed his father turning his eyes with mixed emotions to the thin paper, first showing surprise, then disbelief, and then suddenly widening his eyes, his eyes filled with almost anger and hatred, shooting towards him like an arrow.

It is difficult for Nan Ke to describe his feelings.

She was a little breathless. The urge to strangle herself surged out in front of others for the first time. She suppressed it forcefully, but it surged up again, over and over again, like a tide in the middle of the night, growing stronger and stronger.

It was as if some weak vine was climbing up the dark part of her body, twisting and withering irreversibly under her father's gaze, breaking into pieces and falling to ashes.

"What's this!!!"

The father slammed the table and yelled at Nan Ke.

The next second, all the food on the table was overturned, and the corner of the table hit Nan Ke's arm. She took a step back and saw the vegetable leaves and soup splashing on her feet.

Nan Ke looked down at his hands. There were some scratches on his skin, but no bleeding.

She then looked up at her father and said calmly, "A receipt for early admission."

The father stepped on the enrollment certificate, and not feeling satisfied, he grabbed it and tore it into pieces, asking, "Where is the withdrawal application?"

"I burned it."

"you……!"

"Did your uncle also help Nan Yi go abroad for treatment?" Nan Ke looked at him and asked.

My father's chest was heaving violently and he had no time to reply.

"If that's the case, then I'll go discuss it with him." Nan Ke bent down, picked up the canvas bag on the ground, and took out his cell phone.

"and many more!"

Without waiting for his father to stop him, Nan Ke had already dialed the number.

The mechanical dial tone sounded one, two, and three times.

There was no expression on Nan Ke's face. He held up his cell phone and looked at his father who was rushing towards him in panic.

"Hello, Nan Ke?"

An elegant, gentle, hoarse laugh peculiar to middle-aged people rang out.

My father froze.

Nan Ke opened his lips: "..."

……

The sky was clear and cloudless.

Nan Ke was standing at the stairs outside the hotel, carrying a dirty bag.

The scene of her father holding on to a chair, almost unable to stand, and staring at her before he left still appeared in her eyes.

It was a look of fear and unfamiliarity.

As if he wasn't her father.

Nan Ke stood blankly in the sun, sweat oozing out from her forehead, condensing into a strand that flowed down, passing over her eyebrows and into her eyes.

Nan Ke rubbed his sore eyes, and in his peripheral vision, he saw cars speeding past.

After being exposed to the sun for a long time, she finally realized it.

Located near the airport, the weather is hot and it seems difficult to get a taxi.

Just as he was thinking about it, suddenly, a car stopped in front of Nan Ke without any warning.

Nan Ke narrowed his eyes and looked at the open car door.

"Ms. Nan Ke."

A handsome man walked out with a faint smile and opened a parasol.

The silver hair on the side of his neck was glittering, like a handful of clear running water, rippling with light and shadow.

It's Kamisato Ayato.

"Mr. Ayato." The shadow covered Nan Ke properly, and Nan Ke also exchanged greetings politely.

She moved the hand that was rubbing her eyes to her left ear, and lightly touched the swaying earring with her fingertips. She said to him calmly, "You always find me."

"Maybe this is our destiny." Kamisato Ayato joked, glancing at the eye-catching hotel sign behind Nan Ke and noticing her eyes, "Ms. Nan Ke, are your eyes red?"

Nan Ke nodded, wiped the sweat off his face, and rubbed his eyes twice: "Mr. Lingren, could you please take me back?"

"It's my pleasure." Kamisato Ayato opened the car door gentlemanly.

On the way back, Nan Ke asked Lei Dianying's identity in a roundabout way.

"Didn't she tell you?" Kamisato Ayato pretended to be surprised, "She is the contractor of that community."

Nan Ke still thought that Lei Dianying was a teacher at A University.

Nan Ke hesitated for a moment and asked again: "Then, why is the rent..."

Is it so expensive?

Kamisato Ayato raised her lips: "Ms. Nan Ke, didn't you read the contract?"

"...Miss Ying sent it later. I forgot to read it."

The car turned a corner, and the sun shone on Kamisato Ayato's face. He slowed down, took out a pair of sunglasses and put them on his face, then slowly replied: "That is not a rental contract, but a lease transfer contract. As for the difference..."

Kamisato Ayato pressed the corners of his mouth and said slowly,

"Whether or not A-Liu can live with you is not decided by Ying, but entirely by your will. The deadline is not two months, but the next four years."

When she first heard that Nan Ke and A Liu were going to live together, Kamisato Ayato was shocked.

He had never heard of this before.

When I asked Lei about the movie, I was told that it was Nan Ke's own wish.

There was no need for Lei Dianying to lie, so Kamisato Ayato had to accept this statement with some doubts.

That's it, that's it.

It turned out that Miss Nan Ke was not clear about the details of the contract.

Both the General and Miss Nan Ke were inexperienced in the world. It was understandable that one did not explain clearly and the other did not hear clearly.

"That is to say," Kamisato Ayato said with a faintly excited tone, "Ms. Nan Ke, if you prefer to live alone, you have the right to ask A Liu to move out at any time...Ms. Nan Ke?"

Kamisato Ayato was halfway through her speech when she saw Nan Ke in the rearview mirror, leaning back in the seat with his head tilted back and covering his eyes with the back of his hand.

"My eyes..." Nan Ke replied softly, "It hurts a little."

"Is it serious?" asked Kamisato Ayato.

Nan Ke's head rolled half a circle on the chair: "It doesn't matter. ... Mr. Ayato, if you are free, can you have a drink with me?"

……

What happened afterwards was just a blank in Nan Ke’s memory.

She only vaguely remembered dreaming of a sea of ​​fire.

A dark, endless sea of ​​fire.

She was in the center of the sea of ​​fire, surrounded and burned by the flames.

It was lonely and silent all around.

The suffering is endless.

In the middle of the dream, the severe physical discomfort awakened Nan Ke to a state of clarity.

Nan Ke had a splitting headache, a dry throat, and couldn't open his eyes.

There is no place in my body that feels comfortable.

Is she still dreaming?

Drinking? Fire? Father?

Which one is the dream?

Nan Ke frowned and curled up, hugging the furry creature tightly in his arms. His chaotic thoughts became tangled in his brain and twisted into a sigh:

It’s a pity that she was drunk, but Guo Beng was still willing to come into her arms.

Tossing and turning in nightmares.

In a hazy state.

It seemed that what Nan Ke was holding was not just a little cat.

It was a naked young boy.

She has short dark purple hair, a beautiful and cold face, and quietly curled eyelashes.

Separated by a thin quilt, they slept with their foreheads pressed against each other, bathing in the moonlight.

"It's a dream..."

Nan Ke murmured, burying herself deeply in his arms.

"When I wake up... it's over..."