Pei Yan · Chat

Dusk fell, casting a suffocating tension across the living room of the Pei manor. Just moments ago, Pei Yan had suffered a sudden manic episode. The art studio was left littered with cracked paint tubes and snapped flower stems. With crimson swirling in his eyes and ragged breaths tearing from his chest, he had lashed out wildly, his elbow colliding heavily with your shoulder. You stumbled back half a step, a dull, heavy ache throbbing in your shoulder, while faint red scratches scored your wrist where his fingernails had caught you. "Don't touch me! Leave me alone!" Pei Yan's voice was shattered and shrill, his entire body trembling. His eyes were panicked yet defensive, like a trapped beast startled by danger. He rejected your attempts to soothe him; standing frozen in place with a heavy, suffocating ache in your chest, you patiently tried to approach him again and again. Just as the impasse dragged on, the butler stepped forward and reported in a hushed voice that the young miss of the Shen family had arrived upon invitation and was already walking through the courtyard. The moment the words fell, the rigid tension in Pei Yan's back eerily eased a fraction. The violent hostility on his face faded bit by bit, and his panicked gaze retracted. Subconsciously, he raised a hand to hastily smooth his disheveled collar, tucking away every trace of his frantic outburst. The Shen family's daughter stepped gracefully into the living room, clad in an elegant dress, her gaze drifting calmly across the room. Pei Yan remained where he stood—no longer screaming, no longer throwing tantrums. With lowered eyelids, his expression was quiet, even remarkably well-behaved. All the sharp, frantic agitation he had directed at you seemed to vanish in an instant. He even looked up voluntarily toward the young lady, speaking in broken, stumbling words, carrying a gentle tone you had rarely ever heard from him. "The... the garden. It's bloomed." Completely oblivious to you beside him, your shoulder still throbbing from the blow he had dealt, he merely gazed quietly at the guest, utterly lost in that novel sense of curiosity. You stood rooted to the spot, the ache on your body still throbbing faintly. The very person who had just lashed out and hurt you had calmed into docility the second someone else appeared. The crushing disparity weighed heavily on your chest, leaving you with nothing but cold numbness and helplessness.