My Dearest General: It Has Always Been You

In Shi Nian's eyes, only Jiang Jinyan's silhouette was reflected. When the man stepped into the dark, something stirred inside of Shi Nian's heart. Her mind jolted, telling her to chase after him, telling her not to leave him alone.

Otherwise she would regret it one day.

Her ringtone rang once again, but in her ears, it seemed to come from a place far away. She stepped forward, her steps faltered at first before she started to run without hesitation.

Jiang Jinyan's legs were long. In the time when Shi Nian was in turmoil, he had walked quite far and when she started to run after him, he had turned into a corner and disappeared from her sight. Shi Nian's pupils shrank and she accelerated.

When she passed through the alley and returned from where she came from, a force tugged on her arm and she struggled in reflex. "Calm down, it's me." Xu Binchen's voice came from behind her. When Shi Nian turned around to show an urgent and anxious expression, he frowned. "What's wrong? Where had you gone to?"

Shi Nian looked at Xu Binchen in daze as if she hadn't processed what was happening. When she turned around, Jiang Jinyan had already vanished from her sight. No…Shi Nian couldn't reconcile. Her mind was buzzing loudly, her eyes looked back and forth anxiously.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

She ignored Xu Binchen's inquiry and shrugged his arm off.

She chased after the corner where Jiang Jinyan disappeared into. Like any other time before, the man had disappeared without trace. Only an empty street illuminated by streetlamps was left. She looked around for his presence to no avail.

Xu Binchen's footsteps echoed behind her. He grabbed her shoulder and turned her around with force. His dark and deep eyes stared fixedly into her. "Calm down. Look at me. Tell me, what's wrong?" The man's calm, steady and even tone miraculously soothed her anxious mood.

Once again, Shi Nian glanced at the empty road behind her and her entire person became dejected, aggrieved. No matter how Xu Binchen asked, she just shook her head. The relationship between her and Jiang Jinyan…it was unlike others.

She didn't know how to explain it and no one would believe her anyway.

No matter how close they were in their past lives. In this lifetime, they were just a pair of perfect strangers.

Xu Binchen stared at her with a frown, his eyes fixing down on her as if trying to open her skull and see what she was thinking about. In the end, he relented with a sigh. Well, so be it. He didn't have any right to intrude on her personal affair anyway. As long as the girl was okay, he was fine with anything.

"Let's go back." He said.

Shi Nian nodded, her eyes downcast. The atmosphere between them turned somber. No one talked and Shi Nian clearly looked like she had a lot in her mind thus Xu Binchen tacitly remained silent. It didn't take long for them to arrive on the road that led to the apartment building.

The district had east and west wing in which multiple apartment buildings were built above the land. The road was evenly divided and there's security guard on the outer gate and in front of every building. Even though one didn't have a sense of direction, one wouldn't possibly get lost in this place because if they kept walking, they would be able to return to the initial place.

Xu Binchen's apartment was situated in the east wing and there's also two other apartment buildings beside it. However, compared to the other two, Xu Binchen's was clearly the best, cleanest with excellent service and it was evened out with the most exorbitant prices of each room.

Shi Nian walked down the road absentmindedly, her mind was filled with the scene of Jiang Jinyan brutally fighting people, the hostility and rigidness between his brows and the strong alienation he exuded. In the two months since they last met in the hospital, he had changed considerably.

What could have made him change so much? And his leg…

"Hey." Xu Binchen snapped his fingers in front of her face. Shi Nian blinked and looked up at him in confusion. The man deadpanned. "We have arrived."

Only then did Shi Nian realize that they had arrived in front of the apartment building.

"Go in first." He added. "I will return to work."

Shi Nian nodded and turned around only for her arm to be grabbed by Xu Binchen.

There's a layer of hesitation and struggle in Xu Binchen's dark eyes. "If something happens…call me."

Upon hearing her words, Shi Nian finally smiled. She gave him an obedient nod and shushed him off to work. As Xu Binchen drove his car out, Shi Nian waved him goodbye and turned to walk to the door. Her eyes drifted to the side and she froze.

That familiar figure…

It was Jiang Jinyan!

The man stood in the store inside the apartment building where the janitor auntie sold multiple household appliances like flask, hot termos, kettle, blanket, pillow, toothbrushes, soaps, cups etc. Jiang Jinyan was carrying two large bottles of mineral water, a box of bandaids, gauze and alcohol swaps.

The auntie behind the cashier scanned his thing and said in worry. "Young man, you'd better compress your face or else it will be swollen tomorrow. Were you fighting?" Jiang Jinyan gave her a soft grunt which didn't answer anything but the middle aged woman became more concerned. "You're not breaking any bones, are you? Are you new here? I have never seen you before."

Jiang Jinyan took the plastic bag from her. "I have just moved here. Thank you."

"Please come again! If your swelling doesn't go down by tomorrow, auntie can boil eggs for you!"

Jiang Jinyan strolled out, his gaze straight as he made a beeline toward the elevator.

Meanwhile, Shi Nian—who witnessed all of these exchanges—stood in place, dumbstruck.

What were the odds that the person whom you've been searching for turned out to live in the same apartment building as you? For a moment, that information was too much for her to process and her brain crashed. Only when the security guard came out to inquire did she finally snap out of her thoughts and smiled in apology.

She clenched her fist and chased after his trail and saw the elevator ascending. Three…five…seventeen…it stopped at nineteen. Nineteenth floor. Only one floor beneath her. The tip of her fingers trembled ever so slightly and the haze covering her eyes vanished in an instant.

Oh my God…

Shi Nian rubbed her face and pressed on the elevator button.. Her heart beating hard in the process.