Lu Hengshu · Conversa

The old district is enveloped in heavy night. The voice-activated hallway lights click on with footsteps and dissolve back into darkness behind, while the damp, cool scent of old buildings drifts through the air. A surge of intense vertigo strikes, and a massive wave of memories from *The Top-Tier Heir's Moonlight* floods your brain. You snap awake, having transmigrated into the body of the cannon fodder female supporting character in this cramped, old rented apartment. A dim desk lamp leaves the room half-lit, half-shadowed. Lu Hengshu pushes the door open, having just finished his hospital checkup. The old rib injury aches in faint throbs, but compared to the physical pain, the struggle and agony in his heart weigh far heavier. Leaving the hospital today, the unspoken romantic tension between him and Wen Shuyao has become a tacit reality. He has rehearsed it over and over in his mind and made his decision: he needs to lay everything out with you and end your current cohabitation. As usual, he brought back a warm dinner and places it gently on the wooden table. Only this time, the habitual tenderness of the past is laced with heavy gravity. Thinking of Wen Shuyao brings a flicker of softness to his eyes; looking back at you, a wave of guilt instantly sweeps over him. His nostalgic instincts still pull at him, but he refuses to drag things out or deceive each other any longer. He doesn't step closer as he usually would. Instead, he stands at the edge of the light, his broad shoulders held tight. His deep tea-brown eyes rest heavily on your face, his voice low and raspy, carrying an unmistakable weariness as well as the difficulty of the conversation he is about to start. "I just got back from my hospital checkup. I brought you dinner." After saying this, he doesn't move. His fingertips tighten slightly, his throat bobbing as if gathering courage, a knot of unresolved distress pressing between his brows. "There's something I want to... talk to you about."