The company’s shuttle drove through several streets before finally shaking off the reporters’ cars.

By the time they returned to the villa on Tao Jiang Road, it was nearly dawn.

Xi Tang went upstairs. The light in Zhao Ping Jin’s room was still on.

He didn’t come out.

Early the next morning, Xi Tang woke up early, but Zhao Ping Jin was up even earlier. When she came downstairs, he was already eating breakfast in the dining room.

After Xi Tang finished her milk, Zhao Ping Jin pushed back his chair and said, “Let’s go.”

Xi Tang asked, “Where to?”

Zhao Ping Jin stood beside her, looking down at her, “Weren’t you called back temporarily from visiting home? I’ll take you back.”

The highway stretched clear and smooth toward the horizon. Zhao Ping Jin sat in the driver’s seat with the soft southern morning sunlight streaming through the window.

He had never been to her hometown.

When Huang Xi Tang was studying in Beijing, she only had two short holiday breaks each year to go home. After she got together with him, during her junior year spring festival, before she started filming movies, she had time to go home for the New Year. Zhao Ping Jin had originally said he would take her home, but when the time came, how could he possibly get away during the Spring Festival? It was the same every year. Not to mention the overseas relatives returning to Shanghai, just the social connections in Beijing that needed to be maintained—his father and uncle were no longer appropriate to handle these matters personally, so they were entrusted to Zhao Ping Jin. Leading three secretaries, he was overwhelmingly busy, unable to spare even a single day. In the end, Huang Xi Tang went by herself.

He had always thought there was no rush, not realizing that time would fly by so quickly.

Zhao Ping Jin turned slightly to glance at the person beside him. She was very calm.

Xi Tang was quiet.

Zhao Ping Jin concentrated on driving the whole way, with only the navigation system’s voice filling the car.

After riding in his car several times, Xi Tang discovered that Zhao Ping Jin only played classical symphony music in his car, making him feel stuffy.

He wasn’t like this before. He used to play Beijing People’s Radio, with various traffic reports, advertisements, emotional programs, and popular music taking turns. Xi Tang would sit beside him, singing loudly along with the popular songs on the radio. Some new popular songs she sang so off-key they were all over the place, and Zhao Ping Jin would beg while driving, “My lady, please stop singing, can’t you spare me?”

Sometimes the radio would play Ma San Li’s crosstalk, and Zhao Ping Jin would laugh heartily.

They were both once people who loved liveliness.

Now everything had changed.

Xi Tang leaned forward and asked, “Can you turn on the radio?”

Zhao Ping Jin answered coldly, “Sit still. I don’t listen to the radio.”

Xi Tang tried to break the deadlock: “It’s too much trouble for you.”

Zhao Ping Jin said, “Don’t talk nonsense.”

Xi Tang ignored him after that.

When the car reached the outskirts of Xian Ju County, the navigation guided them onto a main road leading to the town. That road happened to coincide with the midday market. Both sides were packed with chicken cages, pig cages, and various agricultural products. Villagers heading to the market on motorcycles and electric bikes made the road completely congested, and the road surface was full of potholes.

Zhao Ping Jin could only slow down, carefully maneuvering through the crowd of people and vehicles.

This stretch of road was stop-and-go, taking almost an hour. Xi Tang sat in the passenger seat, feeling overwhelmed just looking at the road conditions.

Zhao Ping Jin kept one hand on the steering wheel and used the other to take out a medicine bottle from the front compartment.

Xi Tang watched him unscrew the cap with one hand and asked softly, “What’s wrong?”

Zhao Ping Jin said, “Nothing. I didn’t sleep well last night. Headache.”

Xi Tang didn’t know how his health was, or when he had been discharged from the hospital after the last car accident. When Shen Min contacted her, she said he had already been working for several days, though he had been in such pain at the hospital.

She silently handed him water.

Zhao Ping Jin dropped her off in town and checked into a room at a hotel.

Xi Tang noticed his unwell complexion: “Are you alright?”

Zhao Ping Jin wasn’t feeling well, and couldn’t muster his usual arrogance. His voice was a bit weak: “You go home by yourself. I’m going up to get some sleep.”

Xi Tang arrived at her home’s doorstep. Her younger sister was calculating accounts at the counter, and her mother was at the door helping to clear bowls and chopsticks. “You rushed off yesterday afternoon, what happened?”

Xi Tang smiled cheerfully: “Didn’t I tell you it was just a temporary company matter? Now that it’s done, I still have vacation days, so I’m back.”

She hurried to help clear the tables: “Mom, let me.”

That night, Xi Tang called Zhao Ping Jin, but his phone was turned off.

The hotel was only a street away from their home. Xi Tang hesitated, wondering whether to go check on him, but ultimately decided against it.

Early the next morning, she got up to help her mother open the shop. She moved tables and chairs under the eaves, laid blue tablecloths, cleaned the house thoroughly, and then went back to the kitchen to chop green onions.

Her mother was chatting with the chef in the kitchen. Xi Tang helped on the side, while her younger sister helped serve customers and clear dishes in the dining area.

By seven o’clock, customers gradually increased. Today, Xi Tang wanted her mother to take it easy and didn’t let her run around serving meals. She herself was running around non-stop, when suddenly her younger sister came in and whispered in her ear: “Sis, someone’s looking for you outside.”

Upon hearing this, Xi Tang’s heart skipped a beat. She probably knew who it was and quickly glared at her sister: “Don’t make a fuss.”

Her sister’s eyes sparkled with excitement: “So handsome, so handsome.”

Xi Tang wiped her hands and walked out.

Zhao Ping Jin wore a white shirt and sat at a table under the eaves. Around him was a jumble of early-rising customers buying vegetables and hurrying to work. He alone occupied an entire table, and clearly, no one dared to crowd him. Zhao Ping Jin seemed not to notice, sitting there for half the morning. Utterly bored, he held his phone but didn’t turn it on, just fidgeting with it idly. With his handsome features, clean and fresh appearance, and leisurely demeanor.

The aunties and young wives eating noodles nearby couldn’t help but keep looking at him.

Seeing Xi Tang come out wearing a dark green apron, her hair grown a bit longer, and looking particularly obedient, he couldn’t help but feel happy at the sight of her.

Xi Tang held an order pad in her hand, walked to his side, and asked in a low voice: “What are you doing here?”

Zhao Ping Jin answered matter-of-factly: “Eating noodles.”

Xi Tang handed him the menu: “What would you like?”

Zhao Ping Jin casually pointed at an item.

Xi Tang said: “Your stomach is cold. You can’t eat that. Let me order for you.”

Zhao Ping Jin said: “Alright.”

Xi Tang lowered her head to write the order, then heard Zhao Ping Jin say: “I’m new here. Won’t you show me around?”

Xi Tang said: “I’m busy.”

Zhao Ping Jin pouted: “Then I’ll just sit here all day.”

Xi Tang glanced at him and said through gritted teeth in a low voice: “After you finish the noodles, wait for me at the video hall entrance at the end of the street.”

Zhao Ping Jin smiled happily: “Go on then, cook some noodles for me.”

Xi Tang glared at him hatefully, then turned and left.

Xi Tang pressed her lips together to suppress a smile, but as she turned her head, she suddenly saw her mother standing behind the hall door, her gaze cold and expressionless as she watched them.

Xi Tang wiped her hands on her apron and walked into the kitchen as if nothing had happened.

After the breakfast rush, Xi Tang found an excuse and slipped out of the house.

Zhao Ping Jin was still waiting for her there.

By the time Xi Tang arrived, he had already gone inside and had a couple of rounds of tea with the owner. Finally, as he got up to leave, Zhao Ping Jin walked out of the shop and casually stuffed several discs into her hand.

Xi Tang asked puzzledly: “What’s this?”

Zhao Ping Jin looked straight ahead: “The owner sold them to me.”

Xi Tang looked down at the discs: “Full Nude Housewife Series,” “Obedient Pet Candidate”…

She couldn’t help pushing him: “Hey! Have you lost your mind?”

Zhao Ping Jin justified himself: “Who told you to take so long? Making me stand at the door waiting.”

Xi Tang’s cheeks grew hot: “What should we do now?”

Zhao Ping Jin stuffed them into her backpack: “Keep them for me. I’ll sell them to Old Gao when I get back. He’s sure to like them.”

The two walked toward the street.

Zhao Ping Jin suddenly asked: “What’s that across the way?”

Xi Tang looked: “That’s the Central Elementary School.”

Zhao Ping Jin asked with interest: “Did you study there as a child?”

“Mmm.”

“Let’s go take a look.”

He walked straight in.

Xi Tang followed behind him: “Hey, didn’t you want to go to tourist spots? What’s so interesting about a school?”

It happened to be Sunday, and the school was quiet. Xi Tang turned a circle around the flagpole, pushed aside a thick clump of grass on a large stone, and could still see a mark carved at the bottom of the stone. Xi Tang smiled: “It’s still here.”

Zhao Ping Jin leaned over to look: “Oh, were you bullied as a child and carved a memorial?”

Xi Tang crouched down, looked up at him, and smiled: “How do you know so well? You must have bullied others a lot as a child, right?”

Zhao Ping Jin recalled his childhood as the number one bully in the People’s Liberation Army Land Forces compound and suddenly felt a bit embarrassed: “Ah, don’t say that.”

Xi Tang gazed at the stone, lost in thought. That day after school, Little Landlord followed behind Xi Tang. Xi Tang held his hand and used a small stone to carve a mark here, then said to him: “Will you be my little brother?”

Xi Tang still remembered six-year-old Little Landlord, with two streams of snot, nodding at her, smiling with a simple face.

The two sat under a tree beside the playground.

On the vast playground, a few children rode bicycles on the basketball court. From a distance came sounds of play and laughter. The late summer breeze blew past. Zhao Ping Jin supported himself with his hands behind him, stretching his legs: “It’s quite peaceful here.”

Xi Tang looked at the newly built plastic track in the distance, its red and green colors strikingly beautiful, and said softly: “The environment is better than before.”

Zhao Ping Jin stared at her distracted profile: “Is everything good at home?”

Xi Tang came back to herself: “Pretty good.”

“Is business decent?”

“Mm.”

She didn’t want to discuss her family matters with him.

But Zhao Ping Jin did know a bit about her family situation. After they started dating, Huang Xi Tang told him that her father had died early on, and her mother had raised her alone. She had always been quite simple, wearing white cotton skirts and jeans throughout the summer, and rarely spent his money. In her senior year, because his company was developing so rapidly and he was exhausted, she stopped working part-time jobs to be able to take care of him at any time. Director Lin Yong Chuan had specifically paid her film fee in advance, and she used that movie payment to cover her tuition for that year.

Later, his mother investigated her family background. The first time she went to his home, after passing through layers of questioning from the sentry guards at the iron gate, she finally entered the courtyard but wasn’t even allowed into the hall. His mother had called her over but only let her stand under the eaves of their house. She stood there in the cold wind from all sides, listening to Teacher Zhou’s harsh criticism. The exact words, which he learned from the family’s housekeeper, were that Teacher Zhou told her that her mother had never been married, that she was an illegitimate child born out of wedlock, and that at such a young age, she had lived with someone before marriage—the Zhao family didn’t want such a daughter-in-law.

Zhao Ping Jin remembered it was a few days before New Year’s Eve. Under the eaves hung crystal icicles. Huang Xi Tang’s wide eyes, her nose white from the cold, her face red with shame and indignation.

He received the news and rushed back, only in time to see her turning away in bewilderment, then violently pushing him away in the courtyard, fleeing like a wounded small animal, frightened.

That was Huang Xi Tang’s first meeting with his mother. Perhaps because she thoroughly understood that his family didn’t like her, she later began to grow increasingly insecure, often crying for no apparent reason over minor issues, and arguing with him. At first, Zhao Ping Jin would comfort her once or twice, but gradually he grew tired of it, his tone becoming less patient. Finally, one day when he was late for a meeting—he had promised to pick her up after filming but was more than an hour late—Xi Tang got angry and ignored him. Zhao Ping Jin couldn’t help shouting at her, “Can’t you stop being so delicate?”

Huang Xi Tang stared at him with tears welling in her eyes. She cried in front of him, and he finally found it annoying.

About a month before they broke up, while he was at work, Teacher Zhou came to their home in Jia Yuan and forcefully interfered in their lives, demanding that Huang Xi Tang move out. Supposedly, Huang Xi Tang had initially begged her to let them be together, but what kind of person was Teacher Zhou? In the end, their conversation broke down. Zhao Ping Jin didn’t know what Teacher Zhou said to her. Actually, despite their arguments, Huang Xi Tang had always silently endured the embarrassment that Teacher Zhou gave her because she was an elder, and more importantly, his mother. She never repeated a single word of what had been said to him. But later, his mother went home and told the elders that Huang Xi Tang had slammed the table, pointed at her, and said, “This is my home, you get out.”

Teacher Zhou wiped tears as she complained to his grandfather and grandmother: “What kind of girl is this? It’s the house that Zhou’er bought, yet she has the nerve to call it her home! What kind of family raises such a child? Someone so ill-mannered, if she were to enter our family, what would happen in the future!”

During that period, Huang Xi Tang couldn’t keep her composure. Thinking back now, he realized he shouldn’t have lost his composure either. During their arguments, they said so many heart-breaking things to each other.

He ultimately failed to protect her.

It wasn’t without regret.