Chapter 253: Find Someone Who Does

Shichen carried the picture to his desk and checked that it couldn’t slip out before turning back to the bed.

Zhiyi was gathering the wrapping into a loose bundle, her hair falling forward as she bent. He took it from her and set it on an unopened box, then caught her hand before she could look for something else to clear away.

"Come here," Shichen said, drawing her between his knees as he sat on the mattress. "We can leave the rest."

Zhiyi rested her hands on his shoulders.

From this close, he could see the place where she had bitten her lip while helping him unwrap the frame. He touched it with his thumb, and she leaned toward him before he had to ask.

The kiss lasted until he forgot about the boxes crowded around his feet. When she moved closer, he put both arms around her, holding her against him while her fingers slipped into his hair.

He had imagined being alone with her here when they first prepared Jinhai.

Back then, he hadn’t known whether they would ever reach the tower, much less whether she would come into his room and ask him to make space for her clothes.

Zhiyi drew back enough to look at him.

"You’re holding me very tightly," she said, sliding her hands down to his chest. When his arms loosened at once, she caught his wrist. "I didn’t ask you to let go. I was wondering why."

Shichen looked at the hand she had placed over his.

"I keep remembering things I wanted to say to you at Xiling," he admitted. "Apparently I saved them all for this afternoon."

"You can tell me." Zhiyi brushed his hair away from his forehead, taking her time with the strands that fell back again. "But I don’t want you to spend the whole afternoon thinking about somewhere else."

He smiled and pulled her close enough to rest his face against her shoulder.

She smelled faintly of soap, and beneath his hand he could feel the warmth of her through the cotton shirt.

"I want you here tonight," Shichen said. "And tomorrow morning, when I’ve probably stolen half the blanket and you’re annoyed with me."

Zhiyi’s fingers paused in his hair. "You should get another blanket now, then. I don’t like being cold."

His laughter brought her closer, and he kissed her before answering.

When he stood to close the door, she stayed beside the bed, watching him with a smile he had never managed to capture properly on paper.

He returned to her without stopping at the boxes.

They had touched each other often over the years, but that afternoon he learned how much he had missed by always finding a reason to draw away.

Zhiyi reached for him without hesitation, telling him when she wanted him closer and smiling when he finally stopped trying to choose the perfect words.

The rain continued against the windows while the light faded across his desk. By the time the room grew dim, they had left the unpacking where it was.

Later, Shichen lay with her head against his shoulder and a second blanket pulled over their feet.

Her hand rested on his chest, moving occasionally when she spoke. He had spent years hoping for this, yet it was the sight of her hair spread over his pillow that kept making him smile.

Zhiyi noticed when she lifted her head to drink.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, accepting the glass he brought from the bedside table.

"My pillow," Shichen replied as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear while she drank. "I like you on it."

Zhiyi considered the pillow beneath her elbow before settling against him again. "It’s better than mine," she said. "You may have trouble getting it back."

He set the glass aside and drew the blanket over her shoulder. She stayed with him until they heard footsteps in the corridor, followed by Qinghe calling that dinner would be ready soon.

Shichen answered without getting up. Zhiyi pressed a kiss against his chest, then rested her chin there so she could look at him.

"I still need that drawer," she reminded him.

He cleared two before they went downstairs.

Over the next few days, her belongings began appearing among his.

A hair tie lay beside his pencils, and a book she hadn’t finished reading stayed on his bedside table.

She spent one afternoon helping him unpack, then abandoned the task halfway through because he kissed her while she was trying to decide where his brushes should go.

They hung the picture of her beside his desk.

Shichen found himself looking at it whenever she was elsewhere in the apartment, though he preferred the evenings when she sat nearby and talked while he drew.

Outside, the water kept rising.

By the time the street signs disappeared, the people on the lower public floors had moved again.

Jingwei watched them carry bedding up the stairs, but they remained well below the closed section. Their arguments reached the cameras long before anyone approached the protected doors.

Shichen was in the sitting room with Zhiyi when Zeyu called them over to the window.

A motorboat had appeared between the buildings, its bow lifting over debris that floated where the road had been.

Several people stood at an open window on the tower’s lower floors, waving towels and shirts.

"First one we’ve seen with a working engine," Zeyu said, passing the binoculars to Shichen. "There are two men up front. One’s carrying a gun."

Shichen found the boat through the lenses. It held several passengers beneath a plastic sheet, but the men steering it wore raincoats and had dry bags tucked beneath their seats.

One pointed toward the people waiting at the window.

Jingwei brought up the nearest camera while the boat approached. Its engine slowed, allowing it to drift against the building.

A man at the window leaned out with both arms extended, ready to help someone ashore.

Instead, the armed man stood and pointed his weapon at him.

The waiting man pulled back so quickly that he fell against the people behind him.

On the boat, a woman gathered a child against her chest while the second man dragged a bag from beneath their feet.

"He’s taking their things before he lets them off," Zhiyi said. She stood beside Shichen, her hand resting against his back as he lowered the binoculars.

The woman surrendered the bag. When she tried to follow it toward the window, the armed man pushed her down onto the seat.

Jingwei increased the camera’s sound, bringing the engine’s uneven rattle into the room. Shichen heard someone inside the tower shout that they had nothing to give.

The armed man reached beneath the plastic sheet and pulled the child away from the woman.

"Then find someone who does," the man called up toward the window. He held the child against his leg while his companion pushed the boat away from the wall.

"We’ll wait."