Guiying nodded.

Bai Feng and the others left.

Guiying walked to the end of the corridor and stopped beside Zi Sihan.

For a moment neither of them said anything.

The city moved outside the window, indifferent and ordinary, entirely unaware that something significant had just happened in a small courtroom on the fourth floor.

Guiying looked at the window latch and pushed it open.

Cool air came in, unhurried, carrying the ordinary sounds of a Thursday morning outside.

"It’s just us here," he said quietly. "You can cry. I won’t judge you." He looked at Zi Sihan’s profile, at the careful, exhausted stillness of someone who had been holding the dam for a very long time. "You’ve been holding it since the proceedings started."

Zi Sihan looked at the open window.

Then the dam broke.

It was quiet and complete, the kind of crying that had been stored for so long it came out without sound at first, just tears, then a breath that shook, then something that had no name but that Guiying recognized from the inside out.

He did not say anything.

He did not reach for him. He simply stayed where he was, close enough to be present, far enough to give it room.

After a while Zi Sihan’s voice came through, unsteady and small.

"I loved him," he said. "For so many years. I kept thinking if I just waited, if I just tried harder, if I was just patient enough he would change." A pause.

"Seven years. I gave him seven years." He pressed the back of his hand to his mouth for a moment. "I really did love him. But it was too much. I couldn’t take it anymore." He looked at the window. "I’m going to choose peace now. For myself and for my daughter."

Guiying looked at him.

He thought about his own years.

Five of them lived, two of them died trying to find a door that Zi Sihan had found but only Zi Sihan was still alive to walk through it.

"You’re strong," Guiying said simply.

"Stronger than you know."

Zi Sihan looked at him.

"You sound like you understand," he said.

Guiying looked at the open window and the ordinary Thursday morning outside it.

"I do," he said. "More than I can tell you right now."

They stood in the corridor in the quiet that followed, and Guiying thought that some things did not need to be explained to be understood, and that sometimes the most useful thing one person could do for another was simply to stay in the room while they found their footing again.

He was lucky, Guiying thought. Zi Sihan had Bai Feng and the entire foundation showing up with housing and healthcare and legal proceedings and the absolute certainty that he was not doing this alone.

Guiying had died to escape.

But Zi Sihan had lived to fight.

He admired him more than he knew how to say.

By the time they stepped out of the building the afternoon sun was warm and unhurried.

Zi Sihan walked out with his daughter’s hand in his.

She was a beautiful little girl, chubby cheeked and bright eyed, clutching a small stuffed rabbit in her free hand. She looked up at her father and smiled.

Zi Sihan crouched down and held her face in both hands for a moment. Just a moment. Something in his expression went very still and very certain.

In his other hand he held the keys to his new apartment. In the bag Liang Xueyi had handed him was a letter of employment, a folder of housing documents, and a healthcare card.

Everything he needed to start over again.

Liao Changsheng would not be hunting him anymore.

Guiying watched Zi Sihan look at his daughter and thought that some things were worth everything they cost.

Then he heard the voice.

"You shameless thing!"

Liao Changsheng’s mother was coming up the courthouse steps fast, her face twisted with the kind of anger that had been building since the verdict and had finally found its exit. She pointed straight at Zi Sihan.

"You ruined my son’s life! Seven years he gave you, seven years, and now you walk out of here with his child like you’ve done nothing wrong! You should be ashamed! My son is a good man and you destroyed him with your lies!"

Zi Sihan went still. His daughter pressed closer to his side.

Guiying stepped forward. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Madam," he said, his voice calm and clear, "the court has made its decision. This is not the place—"

Piak!

The slap landed before he finished the sentence.

His head snapped to the side, his cheek burning hot and immediate.

Bai Feng went still.

Mingzhu’s expression moved through shock and arrived somewhere considerably colder.

Zi Sihan made a sound like he had been struck himself.

Guiying straightened his head slowly and looked at the woman in front of him.

"You’ve made a grave mistake," he said.

Liao Changsheng’s father stepped forward.

Piak!

The second slap came from the other side.

"You have no respect for your elders," the man said.

The silence that followed was a different kind of silence.

Bai Feng moved.

"That is assault," he said, his voice dropping to the register he used in courtrooms when he wanted words to land like verdicts. "Twice. In front of witnesses. You will both be charged."

Mingzhu was already at Guiying’s side, her hand at his jaw, turning his face carefully. Both cheeks were red. One, already beginning to swell.

"Does it hurt badly?" she said quietly.

"I’ve had worse," Guiying said.

Mingzhu looked at him with an expression that found that answer both believable and deeply upsetting.

Slightly to the side, Wang Chengli had his phone to his ear. His voice was very low and very brief.

In Liu Corporation boardroom, Liuxian was in the middle of a quarterly strategy presentation with seven senior directors when his phone buzzed.

It was butler Wang.

He let it buzz once.

Twice.

Wang Chengli did not call during working hours unless it was necessary.

He picked up.

And listened for exactly forty five seconds.

"Something has come up," he said to the room. "Wait for me."