Han Yiming remained silent, his gaze fixed on Wei Zhi. Already tall, his intense stare made her feel like an ant on a hot pan.
“Damn, caught between a rock and a hard place,” Wei Zhi thought. “But the tiger is still scarier than the wolf.”
Feeling the piercing gaze on her back, Wei Zhi straightened her spine. Steeling herself, she faced Han Yiming, taking a deep breath. With a symbolic sword hanging over her head, she had no choice but to speak clearly.
“Brother Han, as you can see, I have a boyfriend now,” Wei Zhi began. “My parents know about it too. My mom’s quite angry, but she knows there’s no use in that. I haven’t hidden my social media posts from anyone these past few days, so you must have seen it all. It’s exactly as it appears. You… you’re such a great catch. Surely many people admire you. Even Jiang Nanfeng says you’re, um, a good match.”
“I’m sorry, Jiang Nanfeng,” she thought, cringing internally.
“Please don’t waste any more time on me,” the young woman continued earnestly. “There’s no need. I’m not some fairy princess worth all this effort. Besides, if I were going to like you, I would have fallen for you ages ago. I’ve always seen you as just a brother.”
She bombarded Han Yiming with a flurry of “brother” cards, metaphorically showering him with them.
Wei Zhi felt nervous but also exhilarated after speaking her mind.
Emboldened by the adrenaline rush, she couldn’t help glancing back at Shan Chong, silently urging him to come over now or never.
Surprisingly, the man understood her complex message from afar. He paused, pocketed his phone, and stepped out of the car. Unhurriedly, he approached them.
After hearing Wei Zhi’s speech, Han Yiming didn’t react angrily or resignedly. Instead, he gave the young woman a bitter smile. “Xiao Zhi, do you need to distance yourself from your brother in a place like this?”
It was truly unexpected.
Han Yiming had initially thought Wei Zhi was just going through a late rebellious phase, suddenly resisting the idea of marriage.
Her dramatic exit from what was essentially an engagement dinner, fleeing overnight, had seemingly confirmed her impulsive nature. While surprised, he wasn’t particularly angry about it.
He simply assumed the little girl in his memories had grown up and developed a temper.
From what he’d heard, she had been timid since middle school, remaining so until college graduation, never dating anyone. Han Yiming guessed that the sudden mention of marriage had frightened her.
So he hadn’t interfered when she left town. He wasn’t in a rush, planning to start properly courting her and dating once she calmed down and returned…
But he never expected her to come back claiming she had a boyfriend.
He had noticed the potential signal when she first posted about an unfamiliar man on social media, and then it happened again and again.
The man stood with one hand in his pocket, his forced gentleness visibly fading. His expression grew cold and distant, though he still smiled, saying, “Do you need to distance yourself from your brother to the point where you won’t even get in the car?”
Wei Zhi remained silent, knowing Han Yiming’s question didn’t require an answer.
At that moment, the man who had returned to the car came back, tugging on the brim of her baseball cap. As she stumbled towards him, he steadied her and took her suitcase.
He asked with a smile, “What’s taking so long? Do you have some essay to share with your brother?”
His voice was gentle and patient, unlike anything Wei Zhi had ever heard from him.
She turned to stare at him dumbfounded, almost wanting to ask if he was possessed or had eaten something strange.
Speechless, Wei Zhi noticed Han Yiming’s expression darken through her peripheral vision. His eyes turned pitch black, emanating a palpable pressure as he stared at Shan Chong’s fingers on the suitcase handle.
“Hello,” the more mature Dr. Han finally extended his hand, “Han Yiming.”
Shan Chong raised an eyebrow, surprisingly not ignoring him. He turned slowly and casually shook the man’s hand. “Shan Chong. I’ve heard my little one mention you before.”
“Little one,” indeed.
Shan Chong only called Wei Zhi when he was feeling particularly affectionate.
More often, he addressed her by her full name (usually accompanied by mockery, lectures, sarcasm, or warnings).
Their handshake was brief, both men seemingly eager to use hand sanitizer afterward.
After this basic social courtesy, Shan Chong didn’t rush Wei Zhi back to the car. Instead, he casually placed his hand on the back of her head, gently pulling her closer, and asked, “Finished talking?”
Wei Zhi nodded.
Shan Chong turned to Han Yiming with a smile. “I’ll take her home. It’s a bit worrying otherwise… Sorry, you came all this way for nothing.”
Han Yiming: “…”
Wei Zhi: “…”
It was truly eye-opening to see someone combine “sorry for your trouble” and “came for nothing” into a seemingly polite phrase…
However, upon closer inspection, the phrasing was rather sinister.
Unsure how long this facade of civility would last, Wei Zhi followed Shan Chong, eyes fixed on her feet as they quickly moved towards the Mercedes van.
Feeling guilty about letting Han Yiming leave empty-handed, she unceremoniously offered up Jiang Nanfeng as a consolation. The Lao Yanr was naturally furious—
But it was futile. At that moment, no one feared him; he was unfortunately at the bottom of the food chain.
Sitting properly in the car with her hands on her knees like a schoolgirl, Wei Zhi was still in a dreamlike state of disbelief. She watched as the man bent down to follow her, closing the door with a “thud.”
As he settled in, his cold expression softened slightly. He glanced at her, asking, “What are you looking at?”
Gone was the previous gentle demeanor.
His tone was as cool as ever.
“You’ve never spoken to me so gently in your life,” Wei Zhi said. “You showed me an extraordinary side in front of Han Yiming, which proves you’re capable of it. You just choose not to.”
“Choose not to what?”
“Choose not to speak like a decent human being.”
After Wei Zhi finished, she heard the man snort and lazily curl his lips into a smile. Leaning back with his arms crossed, he said irresponsibly, “Dr. Han seemed cultured. I couldn’t just tell him to f off… That’s how I talk to backstabbers.”
Backstabber: “?”
Backstabber: “Hey.”
Backstabber: “Just because I’m not talking doesn’t mean I’m dead.”
The delinquent turned to Wei Zhi: “Little junior sister, Master is bullying me.”
Wei Zhi glanced at the backstabber, then reluctantly turned back to Shan Chong: “Don’t bully him.”
Shan Chong looked between the two of them: “Since when did you two become allies?”
Wei Zhi: “…”
“Since you threatened to recreate weird manga scenarios with me if I kept reading them…”
And the backstabber knew—
Not only did she read weird manga.
She even created them.
:).jpg
Then Shan Chong asked for the address of Wei Zhi’s small apartment and relayed it to the driver. The rest of the journey was silent.
Wei Zhi absent-mindedly played with her phone, noticing through her peripheral vision that Shan Chong had been staring out the window expressionlessly the entire time. After about forty minutes, she saw him take out his phone and press a few buttons.
Without looking up, he asked, “What’s the name of your community again? Which characters?”
Wei Zhi told him, and the man typed it into his phone. Looking at the navigation map, he said without raising his head, “We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Wei Zhi stared at him blankly.
“Wei Zhi,” he suddenly called her name.
His tone made the other three people in the car instinctively shift in their seats, turning to look at him silently, worried he might be planning something strange again.
At that moment, the man lowered his eyes, his thick lashes hiding his emotions. His voice sounded a bit cold: “I came to Nancheng with you just to be your shield?”
Wei Zhi: “Huh?”
“You’ve gotten rid of the unwanted person, perfectly achieving your goal,” Shan Chong said. “And now you can go the rest of the way without saying a word to me, right?”
Wei Zhi: “?”
She furiously typed on WeChat—
[Girl Chirp: What’s wrong with him?]
[Backstabber: You’re asking me?]
[Girl Chirp: Let me rephrase, is he angry or just being coy?]
[Backstabber: This is the first time I’ve thought these two things were the same… Just understand it as “both,” and act accordingly.]
Wei Zhi looked up from her phone, tossed it onto the seat, and shifted closer to the man. Under everyone’s gaze, she leaned in and kissed him on the corner of his lips.
“Is this better?” she asked.
Shan Chong remained silent.
“Nancheng isn’t far from Guangzhou. I’ll go find you after I put down my luggage and tidy up at home.”
He still didn’t speak, but his large hand had already settled on her waist.
Discreetly, he wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her still to prevent her from fidgeting—
He had frowned countless times at Wei Zhi’s outfit before they left today. The young woman wore a hoodie on top and a short skirt below—a dark gray pleated skirt that barely covered her thighs. Below that was a pair of matching over-the-knee socks, which she claimed were for keeping warm in Urumqi…
At that moment, the edge of her socks tightly pressed against the section just above her knees, which was so fair that not a single pore was visible. A small mound of white flesh bulged where the elastic edge of the sock squeezed it.
As she snuggled closer, all of this was exposed right under his eyes.
That strip of white wasn’t large, but its presence was undeniable.
He lifted his eyelids and glanced at Backstabber and Lao Yan sitting in the front.
The man raised his hand and forcefully tugged at her skirt until it overlapped with her over-the-knee socks, covering every millimeter of exposed skin.
“Sit properly,” the man said coolly. “You’re not sitting like a lady.”
She shifted and settled in. “Do you want me to come visit you?”
“At Guangrong?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“What for?”
She raised an eyebrow.
The man chuckled, tightening his arm around her waist. His voice sounded a bit carelessly husky: “Come on over.”
…
Soon, the car arrived at the entrance of Wei Zhi’s residential complex. Vehicles weren’t allowed inside, so Wei Zhi got out, and Shan Chong unloaded her suitcase for her.
At this point, Backstabber poked his head out: “The driver says there’s no rush. He says you can take your time saying goodbye.”
Shan Chong gestured his thanks, then pushed the suitcase with one hand while naturally taking the young woman’s hand with the other, leading her into the complex.
…This feeling was quite special.
Since getting together, they had seen each other every day upon waking. Now they were suddenly going to be separated into two different cities—
Shan Chong bent down to look at Wei Zhi, seeing her expression was natural as if nothing was amiss.
Tch.
The first time in Chongli when she had to go home, she stood in front of him crying like an idiot… How come she did not react at all now?
Could this be the so-called “once you have it, you don’t cherish it anymore”?
As Shan Chong was pondering this, he suddenly heard the person beside him point to one of the high-end apartment buildings and say, “We’re here.” Then she abruptly let go of his hand, pitter-pattered up the steps, ran to the entrance, used her facial recognition to open the security door, and propped open one side of the glass door.
She scampered back, about to tell Shan Chong “I can take the suitcase from here,” but found that he was standing motionless under the tree shade in front of the building.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the tree canopy, forming round spots of light. Half of his body was shrouded in the shadow cast by the trees, with dappled light scattered across him, one spot landing right on the tip of his high-bridged nose.
The man was backlit, so Wei Zhi, standing on the steps, couldn’t see the expression on his face…
But instinctively, as if sensing the subtle atmosphere floating in the air, she felt that at this moment, the man was looking at her calmly, with furrowed brows.
His dark eyes were hidden in the double shadow cast by the trees and his eyelashes, emitted a somewhat cold light.
The air suddenly fell silent.
Wei Zhi’s motion of descending the stairs froze, with one foot on the second-to-last step and the other on the third-to-last, her hand gripping the railing.
She stood there, dumbfounded and confused, her almond-shaped black eyes like those of a small animal sensing danger in the air, now gazing at him with uncertain speculation.
As if silently asking: What’s wrong?
Her bewildered look.
Shan Chong suddenly clicked his tongue and sneered.
The man lowered his eyes, concealing the dark light within them, and said coolly, “Leaving already?”
Wei Zhi hesitantly scuffed her shoe soles against the ground, her skirt swaying. In the sunlight, the flesh between her long socks and short skirt was plump and radiantly white… It was unclear what the young woman ate to grow up like this as if she had developed according to all the base aesthetic preferences of men worldwide.
Seeing her silent and just swaying there, clearly afraid to speak or approach, the man kindly reminded her: “If you can’t come to Guangzhou soon, we might not see each other for a few days.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Shan Chong: “You won’t be able to hug me.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Shan Chong: “Or kiss me.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Even Wei Zhi, as slow as she could be, finally understood.
My goodness.
My goodness.
Oh my god—
Standing on the steps, Wei Zhi realized what his unusual behavior all along had been about. It all boiled down to one simple phrase: “I don’t want to part with you!”
Oh my.
In an instant, standing on the steps in the sunlight, the young woman’s long eyelashes fluttered, and she smiled, waving her hand at the man.
He hesitated for two seconds, then stepped forward, moving from the shade into the sunlight, stopping at the bottom of the steps.
Wei Zhi hopped down the steps, stopping on the second one. Taking advantage of her higher position, she rarely had the chance to look down at the man. She wrapped her arms around his neck—
In the sunlight, he seemed naturally blessed by heaven, his flawless skin with faint blue veins visible beneath.
For someone like him who spent every day on the ski slopes without paying attention to sun protection, most men would have developed a raccoon-like tan line from their ski goggles… but he didn’t have a single blemish.
At this moment, his slightly narrowed eyes took on the shape of peach blossoms, and the light brown mole on the side of his high-bridged nose raised his fox-like charm to the maximum.
Wei Zhi’s gaze was glued to his face, unable to look away, as if truly locked in by those deep-colored pupils, sinking in.
She leaned down and took the man’s lower lip between hers.
At first, as if to punish her for her slowness, he refused to respond, lazily standing there letting her make the effort, her soft lips tasting of peach and mint pressed against his thin ones—
There wasn’t a single part of her that wasn’t soft, including her lips.
Like she was made of water.
Her long assault failed to break through his teeth, and frustrated, she suddenly bit the corner of his lip. She pulled back slightly and looked at him: “Are you going to kiss me or not?”
Faced with such a blunt question, the man’s Adam’s apple bobbed. The slightly calloused pad of his thumb gently pressed against her moist lips, and then he chuckled, his large hand pressing the back of her head, pulling her towards him.
This time, the man’s lips and tongue accurately and unhesitatingly invaded, parting her teeth, and eliciting a low, hesitant “mmph” from her…
Her hands, which had been hanging around his neck, relaxed, then suddenly gripped the fabric of his hoodie at his shoulders.
As her knees weakened, the man effortlessly lifted her and set her on the stair railing. Once she was steady, his long fingers tucked her fallen hair behind her ear—
His fingertips patiently caressed the soft skin of her cheek.
She liked this.
Like a lazy cat basking in the sun, she narrowed her eyes slightly, her tongue entwined with his, her nose nuzzling his… After a while, during a brief separation, she said breathlessly, “Oh no, now I don’t want you to leave. Are you a devil?”
Shan Chong chuckled softly.
The young woman opened her arms, hugging his shoulders and burying her face in the crook of his neck, nuzzling hard: “The winter camp doesn’t start for a couple of days, right? Hmm? Stay with me a bit longer, okay? Hey, you’ve already met Han Yiming, why not go all out and meet my mom who won’t stop crying until she meets her son-in-law—”
“I’ve met her.”
A middle-aged woman’s voice sounded from behind them.
The young woman’s face was still buried in the man’s neck, her ears twitching, thinking her hearing must be playing tricks on her.
Three seconds later, she raised her face and, through the gaps in the man’s hair, saw Mrs. Yang standing behind them at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in a business suit and incongruously carrying a bag of lotus root, a bag of pork ribs, and some string beans.
Wei Zhi: “…”
Wei Zhi silently patted Shan Chong.
Mrs. Yang: “What’s the use of patting him?”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Wei Zhi: “…Nothing, just felt that since we’re all involved in this scandalous act in broad daylight, I wanted to call him to share the responsibility.”