Love Finds Its Time - Chapter 37

The next day, the boy looked somewhat sullen. Even when bringing food to Wen Qinghan and Shi Qingqiu, he remained silent. Yet unlike yesterday, his mood wasn’t openly angry. Apart from delivering the meals and collecting the bowls, he never took a step closer to the door. This left Wen Qinghan puzzled, unsure how to approach.

After dinner, when she handed her bowl back, she was just about to speak when she noticed the boy setting the bowl aside, facing her with his head lowered in silence.

He must want to say something, Wen Qinghan thought.

Dragging her chair to the door, she sat down and turned to him. Instead of addressing it directly, she spoke slowly. “Actually, winning or losing this competition doesn’t matter much to me. You must have a reward for being here. Just hold on until the last day, that’s enough.”

Shi Qingqiu’s words echoed faintly in her ears, distant yet clear. Wen Qinghan curved her lips into a faint smile. It had already been nearly two days since she last saw Shi Qingqiu. She wondered if the other woman had any books to ease her boredom.

The boy was still in long sleeves, his thumbs and forefingers twisting together. He sat in the same spot as yesterday when speaking to Wen Qinghan, silent.

Wen Qinghan stood and fetched a book—a collection of short stories, Call to Arms by Lu Xun. Perhaps it had been left behind by a student who once stayed here. She had bought the same book herself more than a decade ago in middle school. Flipping through it yesterday, she realized she could barely remember its contents.

“When I was in school, there was a classmate who never listened in class and always disobeyed. He never did homework, argued with teachers, refused to do chores, and constantly made the class leaders look bad. Everyone hated him so much, we wished he wasn’t in our class.” Wen Qinghan paused, then asked the boy outside, “If you were there, you’d find him annoying too, wouldn’t you?”

The boy froze, turned his head toward her, then slowly nodded. “Yes.”

Wen Qinghan went on. “Back then, our homeroom teacher was a really good teacher. He played ball with us on the playground, and whenever a student had trouble with a problem, he would explain it one-on-one with great patience until we understood.” She paused again. “You’d think he was a good teacher too, right?”

The boy nodded. “Yes. Our teacher is like that too.”

Wen Qinghan shook her head, cradling the book in her hands, her thumb brushing over the gilded title. Her long lashes quivered faintly. The setting sun fell across her figure, her calm aura resembling that of a sage who had seen through the dust of the world.

“But once, that student argued back against him—arrogantly, even saying he would smash all the desks. The teacher slapped him on the head.” Wen Qinghan turned to the boy. “The student wasn’t hurt, and his parents agreed with the teacher, saying a child should be disciplined when wrong. But afterwards, he became gloomy. Whenever someone raised a hand, he flinched instinctively. He looked much more obedient than before.”

The boy stared at Wen Qinghan, his eyes unblinking, the trace of sadness from earlier gone, replaced by confusion at her story. His eyes stung from staring too long, and only then did he blink, asking, “Why?”

Opening the book’s title page, Wen Qinghan let the sunlight cast its glow on the paper, her mood steady. “Because he was afraid. Everyone thought what happened to him wasn’t bad. Even if a few disagreed, it made no difference. Since his parents didn’t object, it slowly turned into this outcome.”

The boy sniffled, clutching a bar of the iron gate. Wen Qinghan’s words were like nails—at first their sharpness could hardly be felt, but once enough of them were driven in, the pain grew from faint to unbearable.

“Sometimes, we desperately want to do something for the people we care about, hoping to help in our small way. But when we lack the ability, when we simply cannot, it makes us miserable. That initial drive turns into anger, and the original intention loses its direction. At such times, what begins as a good thought can become harm. Like the teacher I just mentioned—his intentions were for the student’s sake, but his action was violence. By reason and by law, he was wrong.”

Closing the book, Wen Qinghan turned to the boy. Her deep eyes resembled an endless sea, serene on the surface yet hiding waves capable of swallowing everything beneath. That was the feeling she gave at this moment—like the deep ocean waiting for its time, ready to unleash a storm to engulf all it had in its grasp.

She parted her lips slightly, her voice low and resonant. “Just like your father.”

Wen Qinghan braced herself for failure again, waiting for the boy to explode as he had yesterday. But this time, he didn’t.

He still couldn’t quite believe it, yet he no longer refuted her. Perhaps what he struggled to believe was how precisely Wen Qinghan’s words struck the truth.

Lowering his head, he began to sob softly. “I shouldn’t go against Mom, but I really don’t like the Dad I have now. Last night he hit Mom again. I wanted to stop him, but he hit me too…”

Wen Qinghan hesitated, then chose to reach out and stroke the boy’s head. She used the same right hand that had been slammed against the iron bars yesterday. Faint bruises marred the pale back of her hand, standing out starkly.

The boy pulled her hand down to look at it. His tears fell as he whispered an apology. “Sister, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have treated you like that yesterday.”

Wen Qinghan lifted the corners of her lips. “It’s all right.”

She drew her hand back, intending to return the book, when she suddenly heard the boy outside the door ask, “Sister, you can help me, right?” He began to feel an inexplicable trust toward Wen Qinghan, as though the situation had suddenly reversed.

Originally, Wen Qinghan had been the weaker one, trapped in a locked room, while the boy who held the key was in the stronger position. As long as he closed the door, no sound could be heard, no sight could be seen. Yet somehow, without realizing it, he had let Wen Qinghan speak straight into his heart.

Wen Qinghan put the book back on the shelf. Standing before it, she turned to look at the boy. Even though they were filming a program, she could not keep from speaking the truth. “I may not be able to help you, just like the story I told you earlier.”

A lawyer can only accept a case if the client has the will to seek help. Only then can she offer it. But according to the boy, his father’s situation was poor, and his mother kept forgiving him again and again. That, at the root, cut off her ability to intervene.

“No! You’ve told me so much, you must know how to help me!” The boy stood up, gripping the iron bars with both hands. His childish voice lingered in echoes around the room.

Wen Qinghan looked at his expression. Even with her experience handling major cases, she could not help but feel a trace of pity.

Adults always have more self-control than children. They restrain their emotions. But in children, emotions magnify tenfold. Joy is like this, and so too now were the boy’s helplessness and sorrow.

“I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”

For Wen Qinghan, who had already looked past winning or losing this round, there was no thought of exploiting this sudden advantage. She walked to the bed and sat down, uncertain whether the cameraman was still recording at this moment. She sighed, her thoughts already drifting toward the county town she would be going to in a few days.

The boy’s outburst naturally alerted Shi Qingqiu in the next room.

Shi Qingqiu opened the door to find the cameraman pointing his camera toward the room next door. She frowned. Because Wen Qinghan had remained silent, she decided to quietly observe.

The boy was caught in the height of emotion and did not notice Shi Qingqiu at all. In his mind, the only person who could help him now was Wen Qinghan.

He shook the barred door, instinctively wanting to go inside, when he suddenly remembered—Wen Qinghan was still locked in. Even if she wanted to help, she couldn’t.

“Would you be able to help me if you came out? Then I’ll let you out! I’ll open the door for you!”

Shi Qingqiu leaned against her door with interest. When the boy had been around, she had never opened it, so she had no idea what had happened. But now it seemed that Wen Qinghan had seized control. The child, who clearly held the key, had already fallen into a passive state.

She thought Wen Qinghan would agree. But just as the boy was pulling out his keys, Wen Qinghan’s calm voice drifted over. “That’s not what I meant. Even if I came out, I might not be able to help you. You don’t need to—”

“I don’t believe you!”

The boy’s expression hardened with resolve. He lowered his head again, rifling through his keyring until he picked out a silver one. With a sharp click, the barred door before Wen Qinghan swung open.

Each room was not only being filmed but closely monitored by the production crew. As soon as something happened, the host had been notified.

The moment the lock turned, the host came up with a smile. Crew members moved in to lead the boy away. Even as he left, he looked back again and again at Wen Qinghan, his eyes filled with the same stubborn trust from moments earlier.

“Congratulations, Team Qingqiu. Qingqiu and Lawyer Wen are now released!” The host walked over, opening his palm to reveal a key—the one belonging to Shi Qingqiu’s side.

Wen Qinghan set aside her thoughts of the boy for now, took the key from the host, and went to Shi Qingqiu’s door.

When it opened, the two could finally see each other with no barriers between them. Though it had been only two short days apart, there was a faint current of emotion flowing between them.

In the past two days, when Shi Qingqiu had spoken to her, she had only been able to imagine her expressions. But now, seeing her in person, her features seemed even clearer. Her eyes, her nose, her lips—her cool and distant bearing was sharper, clearer than on any day before.

“Thank you for waiting.” Wen Qinghan reached out her hand, the corners of her lips lifting.

That smile cut through the chill that had always surrounded her, like the first touch of green in early spring, sweeping away the harsh cold of winter.

“I didn’t wait long. I think the time we have left is enough for us to go again.” Shi Qingqiu placed her hand in Wen Qinghan’s, stepping out to stand at her side before the camera. Their hands clasped tightly.

“Congratulations! You are the first team to succeed in getting your guard to unlock the door,” the host announced excitedly.

As soon as his words fell, an announcement declaring Team Qingqiu first place rang out, echoing across the empty campus.

Wen Qinghan asked, “Has that boy been sent away yet?”

The host replied, “Not yet. Though he didn’t last until the very end, he’ll still receive a reward.”

Wen Qinghan nodded and asked again, “May I see him? And I’ll need my luggage and phone—I have something to do.”

The host clapped his hands, understanding flashing in his eyes for a brief moment before he laughed. “Of course, no problem. You’re out now, no longer part of the game. Change your clothes and I’ll arrange another dormitory for you. You can meet him there.”