Chapter 1224 A Small Breakthrough

"Yuzhu," Li Xiangqian took a deep breath, his tone softened but with strong determination, "You can't go on like this. The reason you are lost is that you blindly magnify your fear, infinitely magnify the shadow of failure, and finally trap yourself in that corner. But you have to know that courage is not the absence of fear, but your courage to move forward in the face of fear."

He Yuzhu kept his lips tightly shut and remained silent for a long time. His heart was like an undercurrent in the sea, churning endlessly. Li Xiangqian's voice echoed in his mind, and that sentence seemed to be constantly hitting his heart. He lowered his head, his eyes dim, as if he had given up all resistance.

"I don't know." He Yuzhu finally spoke, his voice still hoarse, "I want to stand up again, I really want to, but I don't know how to start."

Li Xiangqian looked at him, feeling a pang of sympathy in his heart. He knew that now was not the time when empty encouragement could change He Yuzhu's predicament. He needed to take concrete actions to help him gradually find his rhythm and regain the lost strength.

"I understand." Li nodded and took a light step forward. "But no matter what, I am willing to walk this road with you. You don't have to bear all the pain alone. You are no longer the lonely person, Yuzhu."

He looked into He Yuzhu's eyes and found that the void in them had not completely disappeared, but was flickering with a faint light. Li Xiangqian knew that this was a tiny breakthrough. Although this did not mean that He Yuzhu had completely freed himself from confusion, at least he began to accept the help in front of him and began to rethink his life.

"I don't know how to start." He Yuzhu said softly, "I'm afraid. I'm afraid of failing again."

"Failure is inevitable." Li Xiangqian answered without any hesitation, "But failure does not mean the end of everything. Instead, it is the starting point for you to start again. What you need to do now is not to think about failure, but to do it, to try, and to take action. Only by taking action can you slowly take away those stagnant feelings."

"But..." He Yuzhu's voice sank again, "I don't know what else I can do. I don't even know what I should do."

"Then start with the simplest things." Li Xiangqian's tone was full of determination. "Reorganize your life and find those things you once loved to do again, even if it's just starting from the most basic. You can't suppress yourself blindly and live in the shadow of the past. You can go running, write, chat with friends, and do the little things you have always wanted to do. You know how powerful you are, but you haven't realized it yet."

He Yuzhu's eyes flickered slightly, and he was silent for a while, as if he was thinking about Li Xiangqian's words. Li Xiangqian did not speak again, but stood quietly beside him, waiting for his reaction. At this time, Li Xiangqian was not in a hurry, he understood that helping He Yuzhu regain his confidence was not a one-time thing, but a gradual process.

"Will you stay with me and walk with me?" He Yuzhu suddenly asked, his voice low but with a hint of expectation.

Li nodded forward with a determined smile on his face: "Of course. I will always be with you until you get out of the confusion, until you find your own way."

He Yuzhu's eyes trembled slightly, as if he felt a long-lost warmth for the first time. He looked away from Li Xiangqian's face and looked at the other side of the courtyard. The familiar scenes began to become less strange. Perhaps, all this was just as Li Xiangqian said, we just need to walk step by step, out of the haze, towards the light that was once lost.

The courtyard is still the familiar courtyard. The summer sun shines through the tall locust trees onto the bluestone ground, and the light spots are mottled. Time seems to freeze at this moment. Li Xiangqian stood there, with a trace of worry in his eyes. What he just said did not seem to completely touch He Yuzhu. The once energetic friend still clung to the silence and confusion. However, Li Xiangqian's intuition told him that He Yuzhu was not so simply lost in his fear. Hidden under this silence, there must be a secret that he himself did not want to look back on.

On this day, Li Xiangqian decided to dig deeper and find out the root cause of He Yuzhu's confusion.

He waited for He Yuzhu to recover, and his eyes were no longer just on him, but began to observe everything in the courtyard. The furnishings in the courtyard were like witnesses of the past years. Every stone slab, every plant, every fallen leaf seemed to tell a story about growth, change and loss. He walked to the corner of the courtyard, where there was an inconspicuous wooden box, which had been wiped out by time and the edges were severely worn.

Li Xiangqian couldn't help but walk over and gently pushed open the box. The box was filled with messy old things, books, diaries, and even some faded envelopes and photos. He picked up a worn diary, the cover had turned yellow, and the paper had become fragile due to the passage of time.

Turning to the first page, Li Xiangqian saw a line of familiar handwriting, which was exactly the handwriting of He Yuzhu. The words were written a little sloppily, but revealed a long-lost tenacity. He read on quietly, and the words were full of longing for the future, expectations for life, and even some fantasies about the unknown world. At that time, He Yuzhu was obviously a person full of ideals and passion.

However, as he turned the pages, Li Xiangqian's brows gradually furrowed. The words gradually became heavy, full of pain and struggle. He saw He Yuzhu wrote: "I am increasingly afraid of my original dreams. They are becoming distant, like untouchable bubbles. I began to feel confused and wondered if I could continue."

Li Xiangqian stopped, feeling heavy in his heart. He Yuzhu had never told him this secret. It turned out that He Yuzhu had always been fighting against the fear and confusion in his heart, but he had never shown it. He had hidden it so deeply that even Li Xiangqian had not noticed it.

He turned to the last page, and the contents of the diary became more desperate: "I don't even know why I should persist anymore. I am afraid to face those unfulfilled dreams and the person I used to be. I dare not think about my former ideals anymore, as if they were wounds that I dare not touch."

Li Xiangqian closed his diary, his mind in a mess. It turned out that He Yuzhu was not lost because of external pressure or changes in the environment. His loss came from the huge fear deep in his heart, which was his escape from his unfulfilled dreams and insurmountable self-doubt. He was afraid to face his past self and to re-examine the goals that he thought were unachievable.