Thinking of Li Li brought to mind the fact that over these past few days, because of Li Li’s injury, she had been “neglecting” Lu Yuwen.

Su Man snuck a glance at him out of the corner of her eye, gave a soft cough, and said, “Actually, when Li Li suddenly showed up today, I was startled — I almost thought I was going to be found out. But just now when I looked at his face, there were no bruises, and his leg was fine, so this time it seems I’ve managed to slip past.”

She paused, and her voice dropped half a degree. “From now on… I won’t need to go to that apartment anymore.”

The implication was clear enough —

You can ask me out now.

Ask me out, please, ask me out~

Lu Yuwen hesitated for a few seconds, then said, “That young man named Li Li seems to have a certain hostility toward me. The way he looked at me at the hospital just now… was a bit off.”

Su Man’s face immediately flushed. She thought of all the things Li Li had been muttering under his breath about Lu Yuwen and felt mortified.

“He — he’s just like that!” Su Man answered with nervous energy. “His nose practically points at the ceiling; he doesn’t have a pleasant expression for anyone. Even after all these years of friendship he treats me the same way, so please don’t take it personally…”

Lu Yuwen smiled faintly and interrupted her. “It’s all right. It may be because he’s spent his whole life in a campus environment and hasn’t been exposed to the real world yet, so there’s a certain artlessness to how he carries himself — a kind of vibrant youthful energy. Quite endearing, actually.”

When Su Man heard that, she thought — well, isn’t that exactly it?

But the way he phrased things was a bit too deliberate. Immature is immature — yet he put it so diplomatically, calling it “artless.” Su Man turned the word over in her mind and felt a sudden urge to laugh; she thought it was remarkably fitting.

She drove on, nodding along in agreement. “Exactly. I also feel that since he hasn’t experienced the real world, that’s why he acts so dismissive of everyone.”

Lu Yuwen let out a low laugh. “He’s still your childhood friend — is it really appropriate to talk about him like this?”

“What does it matter!” Su Man tilted up the corners of her mouth, completely unbothered. “He’s insulted me far more times than I’ve insulted him~”

“He insults you often?” Lu Yuwen asked, amused. “You’re so fierce — you don’t beat him up for it?”

Su Man replied, “When we were little, if I got angry enough I would sometimes hit him. But he was far too fragile — even a light tap would leave him swollen for days… I was afraid our parents on both sides would find out, so I didn’t dare use force.”

Lu Yuwen laughed again.

Even though he hadn’t said anything in particular, Su Man’s face began, for no apparent reason, to slowly turn red.

She’d been flushing very easily lately.

Could it be that my circulation is too strong? Or maybe I’m overheated from the warm weather? Su Man thought: I need to eat a few more popsicles recently and cool down.

She wanted to keep chatting with him a little longer, but the hotel had already come into view.

Su Man pulled the car up to the hotel entrance and watched Lu Yuwen get out, feeling a little reluctant to let him go.

As if sensing the same thing, Lu Yuwen looked back at her, smiled, and gave a wave. “Head home now. See you tomorrow.”

See you tomorrow.

Those three words seemed to carry their own sweetness, placing the taste of candy on her tongue. Su Man broke into a radiant smile and drove away in high spirits.

On the way back, she thought: today was unlucky, but the final outcome was still a good one.

Her mood had plunged to the depths of the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, and now it was gradually climbing back up toward the summit of Mount Everest —

Su Man thought she was about to reach the peak. But she later realized she had been wrong.

Because the next day, she received notice of a suspension pending investigation, and her mood plummeted back into the abyss…

Su Man: “…”

She should have seen this coming.

As a traffic officer on duty, instead of properly checking for drunk drivers, she had gotten into a physical altercation with a pedestrian on the street. Even if her intentions had been to help someone, the moment the other party refused to appreciate it, the nature of what she had done skewed closer to “sticking her nose in where it wasn’t wanted.”

She really regretted it…

But if she encountered a similar situation again — could she hold herself back from stepping in?

Su Man thought about it seriously.

The answer she arrived at was: she would still intervene.

But the future was the future. For now, she needed to first deal with the written self-reflection report sitting in front of her.

—