My Dearest General: It Has Always Been You

Both of them were silent along the way, Shi Nian with her thumping heartbeat and Xu Binchen with his raging fury. Shi Nian didn't understand, she was just admiring the night scenery. The rain, cloudless night, brilliant dots of lights scattering throughout the houses, made her realize that during her busy life filled with school and work, she had never stopped to appreciate the simplicity of life around her.

She was just obediently standing there. So, what made him so angry?

Shi Nian couldn't resist protesting for her innocence as soon as she got her board.

Xu Binchen saw her indignation and sneered. "I had just left for half a day and something happened. What I got when I returned was the news of you getting into another coma, so…what do you think? Should I be happy instead?"

Shi Nian pouted. [You will get old quickly like this.]

Xu Binchen glared with bloodshot eyes. "You—!" Take a deep breath, take a deep breath, this was just a little girl, she is not little fatty whom he could bully whenever he wanted. He tried his best to suppress his boiling temper. "What are you doing running around the hospital after waking up?"

[I am looking at the night scenery.]

Xu Binchen rolled his eyes dramatically. "And?"

[And you came.] She couldn't help but feel aggrieved. Jiang Jinyan went and talked to her! The real Jiang Jinyan! If not for Xu Binchen, then they would have been talking and getting to know each other by now.

It was all uncle detective's fault!

Shi Nian momentarily forgot about her fear and glared at him. [You're getting mad at a patient.]

He snorted. "And?"

[I can report you to Doctor Chun for intentionally causing harm toward the patient and you will not be allowed to enter anymore!]

For a moment, they were engaged in a glaring combat which no one would want to step back from. Sweat formed on Shi Nian's forehead and she was slowly losing her momentum. To begin with, she wasn't the kind of person who would engage in a high emotional rollercoaster.

Yet to her surprise, it was Xu Binchen who first gave up. "Okay you win."

Shi Nian: "…"

She won? Just like that?

"So...can we talk properly?" Xu Binchen sat down on the couch and even though his tone softened, his face remained haughty and expressionless, making Shi Nian so furious that she wanted to whack his head with her board.

Who wasn't talking properly?! Since the beginning, it was he who had gotten angry out of nowhere. It was he who made a mountain out of a hill. It was he who was getting unreasonable. So, who was it that wasn't talking properly?!!

In one second, ten thousand words of abuse passed through Shi Nian's mind but in the end, she grabbed her cup and chucked down the water in two large cups, then banged the cup back to the table like a person drinking wine. Her chest heaving hard.

Xu Binchen: "…" Teenager. Heh.

He raised both of his hands in surrender and gestured for her to go on. "Say it, what happened? The police have gone through the surveillance record as well as asking the people around but they didn't find anything worth mentioning. So…why did you suddenly have such a huge reaction?"

Shi Nian's throat rolled and following Xu Binchen, she sat down opposite him. Her pen rolled back and forth on her palm. With her lips pursed and pale face, she looked so thin under the loose hospital gown, inducing pity and heartache.

But the heartless Xu Binchen leaned forward and tried to steal a peek. "What is it? Do you really remember something?"

Shi Nian's pen glided across the board and she flipped it for Xu Binchen to see. There was a drawing of a butterfly with one of its wings chipped. [Have you seen something like this?]

Light flashed through Xu Binchen's dark eyes. "What is it?"

[I saw it.] She was visibly getting more and more uncomfortable. [Countless butterflies. Flying around me. Choking me.]

The man frowned. "You said it before. So, what happened in the hospital garden?" he paused. "...Butterfly? You saw butterfly?"

Shi Nian nodded, her face paler than paper. [Butterfly. Terrifying.] She could only write those two words and after that, her fingers trembled violently and the pen slipped out from her palm, clattering down to the floor. Her shoulder shook and her eyes got unfocused.

Butterflies. Countless butterflies.

Someone was screaming, their words blurry in her mind.

But the man's voice was crystal clear as if he had whispered it right before her ears. "The butterfly, it suits you."

Shi Nian had never feared anything in her life. She was an independent girl who could register her paperwork on the first day of school by herself. She could go grocery shopping and cook for herself. She didn't even fear working until late into the night.

But when she faced the butterfly, an unprecedented terror ran through her spine, making her legs go soft. She couldn't even run even if she wanted to.

"Shi Nian!" Without her realizing, Xu Binchen had gotten to his knees in front of her, holding her shoulders tightly, his brows furrowing into deep lines. "Look into my eyes! Can you hear me? Follow me, breathe in, breathe out. Good, continue…that's right…"

The forceful hold on her shoulders and the man's deep voice pulled her back to the ground and finally, she could clearly see Xu Binchen's worried and irritated face.

Suppressed fear, anxiety, terror, it all burst out at that moment. A whimper escaped her lips. Squeezed from the deepest part of her throat, like the sound an animal made on its last breath, struggling to give its final resistance. Tears slid down her cheeks and she grabbed onto him like he was the only anchor amidst the raging storm.

Xu Binchen's shocked face was truly rare and if Shi Nian was in her right mind, she would have laughed.

But no, not right now, not when her whole body was trembling wildly.

Her dried and chapped lips moved.

Again and again, the same sentence, she mouthed out. Her tongue rolled, but no sound came out.

"What?" Xu Binchen leaned forward and tried to read her lips. "What are you saying?"

From such a close distance, Xu Binchen slowly spelled out. "He. Asked. Me. To. Scream.." Realization dawned on him and he pressed forward. "He asked you to scream? Who is this 'he'? What do you know?!"