He knew she was watching.
Starting from that humid, rusty afternoon, Hiiragi's eyes were like a weak but persistent pursuit of light, always falling on him. She saw through the cold calculations under his gentle skin, and understood the precise layout behind every "just right" helping hand he gave. She knows everything.
She knew she was his prey.
But she had already sacrificed her soul in advance in her barren youth. Her secret love is a flower blooming on thorns. She knows that picking it will prick her palms, but she can't resist the dangerous fragrance.
So, when he accurately captured her in the hustle and bustle of the world, he heard her cry and ask: "Beilu, do I look like a madman?"
He wasn't surprised at all. He just wrapped her tear-stained hair around his fingers, like an owner confirming his belongings.
"Yes," he agreed, his voice filled with strange satisfaction, "my little madman."
This is a tacit conspiracy.
He pulled her out of the quagmire of the city and the ruins of the past, and built a seemingly safe cage for her. He enjoyed her seemingly fragile dependence, and indulged in his silent erosion - he wanted to devour her, and he was greedy for her complete warmth at the moment.
And she, lingering on the edge of atonement, stared soberly at this poisonous redemption. She wrapped around him like a vine wrapping around the only tree, both attachment and bondage.
"I told you, you can't run away." He tightened his grip on her wrist, his voice gentle and deadly.
Until that day, she turned around and walked towards him at a crowded high-speed rail station. Everything around him was reduced to a blurry background.
She raised her pale face and sent her trembling voice into his ears:
"You said you wouldn't let me run away."
This is not surrender, but return. It was her final confirmation of this dangerous balance.
All the noise in the world has nothing to do with her.
Hiiragi drew a non-existent circle in his palm. It was a twisted and solid city that only belonged to them.
She was wandering on the edge of the cliff of atonement, and he became the only salvation she dared to catch.
Purpose: Novel, plot