Lin Yiran didn’t want to appear too pathetic, so she buried her head in her arms. She didn’t want to show her sadness in front of Qiu Xing, wanting to maintain some dignity.

But she neither knew how to argue nor did she want to deliberately use “Doctor” to hurt Qiu Xing again.

That “Doctor” that Lin Yiran had almost said aloud had made her regret it ever since, not wanting to use it as a weapon to hurt Qiu Xing during arguments. Qiu Xing had only completed high school because he had no choice.

So Lin Yiran was both angry at what Qiu Xing had said and blamed herself for saying the wrong thing.

She crouched there with her head buried, so she didn’t see when Qiu Xing silently stared at her for a moment before walking toward her.

Lin Yiran felt Qiu Xing’s leg touch her knee, but she had tears on her face, so she didn’t look up.

“Little Boat Lin,” Qiu Xing nudged her arm.

Lin Yiran didn’t answer him.

“Crying?” Qiu Xing asked again.

Lin Yiran said, “No.”

Qiu Xing also crouched down, resting his elbows on his knees. Lin Yiran wouldn’t raise her head, so Qiu Xing just remained crouching.

“No Doctor then?” Qiu Xing suddenly asked.

Lin Yiran didn’t want to answer this question, so she remained silent.

“If you say there isn’t, I’ll tell you something else,” Qiu Xing said.

Lin Yiran still didn’t want to talk to him, yet she wanted to hear Qiu Xing’s “something else.”

So Lin Yiran raised her face, her eyes reddened at the corners, looked at Qiu Xing, and honestly said, “There isn’t.”

Even though she was so angry, Lin Yiran still properly answered Qiu Xing. She was truly good, truly obedient.

Qiu Xing raised his hand and wiped away her tears, saying, “I’ve always felt that my life stopped being a life since my father’s incident.”

Lin Yiran hadn’t expected him to say this, and to start so directly. Her expression became serious.

“I don’t hate my father. Everything I’ve done has been willingly, of my choosing.” Qiu Xing looked at her calmly and said, “I did all this, and even if I roll in the mud, I’m still upright and honorable. If I hadn’t done it, no one would ever speak well of our family.”

Qiu Xing continued, “Even now, there are no kind words, but at least we don’t owe people anything anymore, except for a life.”

Lin Yiran couldn’t help saying, “That has nothing to do with you.”

“Yes, it has nothing to do with me,” Qiu Xing said, “but my life is already gone.”

These words fell heavily on Lin Yiran’s heart, making her feel a sharp pain for a moment.

“I’ve already fallen,” Qiu Xing said again.

This was the second time Qiu Xing had said “fallen”; the last time was that summer. After they had developed some ambiguous feelings, Qiu Xing had said these words to her, which was truly the first time he had pushed her away.

“It’s as if I fell from one parallel space into another, starting to live a different life, and once I crossed over, I could never go back,” Qiu Xing had told her.

Qiu Xing didn’t like to talk about his inner thoughts; he always kept them hidden, not showing them on his face. It was difficult to hear anything from him, and whenever Qiu Xing spoke to her so seriously, it was to push her away.

Lin Yiran’s heart was already on edge, afraid this would be another complete severance.

“To me, you are a person from that previous space. I’ve been supporting you to live well, not wanting you to come over here. Not just you—everyone else is from there. On this side, it’s just me and my mother,” Qiu Xing continued.

Lin Yiran was almost afraid to hear what Qiu Xing would say next.

Their relationship had already reached its current state. If Qiu Xing seriously rejected her once more, they would truly be completely over.

“After being here for so long, I feel I don’t deserve to live well; I can only rot away here,” Qiu Xing said with a slight smile.

Lin Yiran couldn’t smile. She was too sad to speak.

“So I don’t want to be with you,” Qiu Xing said.

He had finally said it.

Lin Yiran closed her eyes, and tears fell down one side of her face.

Qiu Xing wiped them away again and said, “The better you are, the less I want you to come here. There’s no sunlight on this side.”

Lin Yiran shook her head, “I don’t want to listen.”

But Qiu Xing smiled and asked her, “Are you sure? I suggest you listen.”

“Won’t listen,” Lin Yiran said through her tears.

Qiu Xing continued, “I never thought about getting married. I don’t want anyone to come over, especially not you.”

Lin Yiran’s tears fell more fiercely. Qiu Xing always had this ability—he would speak rejection with a straight face, yet one couldn’t hate him, and even felt heartache for him.

“You should go live the life meant for you—bright, dignified, and free.”

Lin Yiran still shook her head.

“If there was a Doctor, I would let go,” Qiu Xing looked at her and said, “But now you’ve made yourself look so miserable, saying there is no Doctor, I want to change my mind.”

Lin Yiran’s breath caught as she stared blankly at Qiu Xing.

“Later I thought, maybe my side isn’t so bad after all,” Qiu Xing wiped Lin Yiran’s tears clean and said, “I can’t go back, but with you and my mother, this is also a life. If I earn more money, don’t argue with you, and let you both remain innocent, perhaps it could be quite good.”

Lin Yiran was completely dumbfounded and mumbled, “…What do you mean?”

Qiu Xing answered, “Think about it for a few more months. If you still want to be with me after you go back, we’ll start over.”

The room suddenly fell silent. Lin Yiran blinked quietly, not knowing how the topic had suddenly turned to this.

Qiu Xing glanced at Lin Yiran’s calves, thinking of the mosquito bite marks from earlier, and said to her, “Take better care of yourself.”

Lin Yiran’s arms were still wrapped around her knees, crouched in a small bundle. After a while, she hesitantly said, “But I’m still angry… You can’t just break up whenever you want and then everything’s fine when you change your mind.”

Qiu Xing made an “Mm” sound and said, “We’ll talk when you’re not angry anymore.”

Lin Yiran stared at him carefully for a while, as if confirming the sincerity of his words. Qiu Xing’s gaze neither dodged nor wavered as he looked back at her.

Afterward, Lin Yiran turned her face away and stopped looking at him.

Because of this small episode in the morning, the state between the two was again somewhat different from yesterday.

Qiu Xing’s shoes and clothes weren’t dry, and the weather hadn’t improved, so he couldn’t leave. He didn’t seem in a hurry to go, either. He used tools to repair and fix up Lin Yiran’s room, and even took down the mosquito net to wash it.

In this weather, the school had no classes, but there were still children who couldn’t stay at home and came to school wearing raincoats.

Some children who hadn’t seen Qiu Xing yesterday looked at him curiously.

“Who are you?” a student asked him.

“He’s Teacher Little Boat’s boyfriend,” replied Jinjin, who had a good relationship with Lin Yiran.

Both Qiu Xing and Lin Yiran turned to look, but this time Qiu Xing didn’t speak up; only Lin Yiran denied it.

“Are you a teacher too?” the student asked again.

Qiu Xing said, “I’m not.”

Qiu Xing said he wasn’t a teacher, but in the afternoon, he started teaching physics to the middle school students.

At the time, only Lin Yiran and a few students were in the classroom. The students were free to do as they wished—reading, studying, or laying their heads down to sleep—while Lin Yiran rested her head sideways on the desk, lost in thought.

Qiu Xing pushed open the door, sat in the first row, and found a book to read.

“Teacher Little Boat,” a student who usually attended the second year of middle school came over with a workbook and asked Lin Yiran, “Do you know how to solve this problem?”

It was a challenging physics problem about calculating the pressure of a car tire.

Lin Yiran didn’t teach them physics, but she wasn’t completely unfamiliar with middle school physics. However, having not studied science for so many years, she was afraid of giving the students wrong information without looking at the answer key, potentially misleading them.

Lin Yiran was about to suggest waiting for the principal to return to ask him when she looked up and caught Qiu Xing’s gaze. Lin Yiran suddenly smiled and pointed at Qiu Xing, saying, “Go ask Teacher Qiu.”

“He said he’s not a teacher,” the student looked at Qiu Xing uncertainly.

“Who says?” Lin Yiran said with a smile. “Go ask him.”

And so, that afternoon, Teacher Qiu taught middle school students physics and advanced mathematics problems. The students brought out all the difficult problems they had accumulated, having Qiu Xing explain them one by one.

Lin Yiran watched from the desk, resting on her arms. Qiu Xing could not only teach physics and mathematics but also chemistry and English. The students just hadn’t asked about other subjects, but if they had, he probably could have taught those too.

Lin Yiran considered herself to have been an excellent student, but after so many years, there were still some concepts she wasn’t confident about and would need to consult reference books to be certain. Although these middle school problems were undoubtedly elementary for Qiu Xing, this afternoon still gave Lin Yiran a direct appreciation of what kind of son Uncle Qiu had constantly boasted about.

Over the next two days, Qiu Xing spent most of each day in the classroom. The students already liked new teachers, and Qiu Xing was so versatile—no other teacher could answer whatever was asked like he could.

In the evening before bed, Lin Yiran came to Qiu Xing’s room to light a mosquito coil for him.

The mosquito net wasn’t dry yet, and nothing was hanging over Qiu Xing’s bed. Lin Yiran said, “Even with the mosquito coil, it might not work. Why don’t you hang it up anyway?”

“No need,” Qiu Xing said. “I don’t attract mosquitoes like you do.”

Lin Yiran had just taken a shower. In the backyard, there was a simple bathing room, just a small cabin that could barely fit one person, partitioned by wooden boards and cloth curtains. On the roof was a black rubber water bag that absorbed heat when the sun was out, allowing for showers in the evening.

Previously, everyone took turns showering, not everyone could shower every day. On evenings when she couldn’t shower, Lin Yiran would simply wipe herself down in her room.

There had been no sun these past few days, so in the evening, Qiu Xing had boiled several kettles of water and climbed up and down the ladder to mix it in. Finally, Lin Yiran could take a shower that night and even wash her hair.

After taking a comfortable shower, her mood improved. Lin Yiran wore her pajamas with her hair still wet, a towel draped over her back, waiting for it to air dry.

Qiu Xing said, “Make sure it’s completely dry before you sleep.”

“Then I won’t be able to sleep tonight,” Lin Yiran said. “It won’t dry even by midnight.”

Qiu Xing added, “Don’t open the window when you sleep.”

Lin Yiran obediently answered “Okay,” and said, “Then I’ll go?”

Qiu Xing asked her, “Is it cramped?”

“It’s alright,” Lin Yiran answered. “Just not used to it.”

“Then sleep here,” Qiu Xing nodded toward the bed.

Lin Yiran immediately widened her eyes and shook her head.

“You sleep here alone. I’ll check if there’s an empty bed in the students’ room,” Qiu Xing said.

Lin Yiran smiled and said, “Then you won’t get any sleep. They’re very noisy.”

“Sleep,” Qiu Xing said, then took his phone and was about to leave.

“Hey,” Lin Yiran anxiously grabbed his arm and said, “Don’t go.”

Lin Yiran’s body carried a fresh fragrance, and a few strands of her damp, cool hair brushed against Qiu Xing’s arm, feeling slightly cool and rather ticklish. Qiu Xing turned to look at her. Lin Yiran’s clean face appeared both gentle and stunning in the yellow light.

Qiu Xing’s heart suddenly softened.

“You sleep here. I’ll go,” Lin Yiran released Qiu Xing, then opened the door and ran out.

After closing the door, Lin Yiran paused for a moment behind it, silently berating herself.

Pathetic.

She knew that if Qiu Xing had lowered his head just then, she might have wanted to kiss him.