Jiang Ruoqiao knew herself that her comment wasn’t entirely fair.

After all, Lu Yicheng was also a man.

Better to just gloss over that part. She moved on: “You’d still remember that girl’s game username, wouldn’t you?”

It was phrased as a question, but her tone was certain. Lu Yicheng’s memory was exceptional — she had heard Jiang Yan praise him more than once: how Lu Yicheng was the most diligent and hardworking person in their department, how his memory was remarkably good…

Lu Yicheng was silent for a few seconds, then gave a small nod.

He couldn’t possibly not remember what had happened last night, especially when the whole thing was this sensitive.

“What was it?”

Lu Yicheng countered, “What are you planning to do?”

“Nothing in particular — I just want to know.”

The two of them held each other’s gaze. Lu Yicheng gripped the mineral water bottle. After a moment, he said quietly, “Stars Not Moon.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “…?”

“I’m saying it once. That’s all I’m saying.”

Jiang Ruoqiao had already memorized it. Her memory happened to be just as famously sharp as his.

Looking at Lu Yicheng’s expression, there was clearly something more she didn’t know. “Is there anything else?”

“No, that’s everything.”

Jiang Ruoqiao’s lips curved slightly. “You’re really not good at lying.”

It was simple enough that anyone could see through it at a glance.

Though someone like that — if they ever truly decided to lie — might be precisely the kind of person no one in the world could catch.

“Fine, I won’t push you,” Jiang Ruoqiao said, letting him off the hook. She knew he was in a difficult position — after all, the “scoundrel” collecting sisters was his good friend. The fact that he had told her this much was probably out of consideration for her being Lu Siyan’s mother.

Lu Yicheng, it had to be noted, felt a palpable wave of relief at hearing those words. It genuinely felt like a pardon.

He also found it curious, however.

From everyone who knew her, Jiang Ruoqiao was described as understanding, warm, and gentle. Jiang Yan himself had said so more than once.

And yet in their brief time together these past two days, Lu Yicheng found these descriptions sitting somewhat awkwardly on her.

Jiang Ruoqiao turned toward the living room and called, “Lu Siyan, you can come out now.”

Lu Siyan appeared at the doorway in an instant, his now-flattened backpack on, without a moment’s delay.

“Off you go,” Jiang Ruoqiao said. “See you tomorrow.”

Lu Siyan waved. “Bye~”

Jiang Ruoqiao looked down at the mosquito repellent tablets in her hand. “Lu Yicheng, how much were these? I’ll transfer it to you.”

Lu Yicheng very nearly said it was only a few dozen yuan and it didn’t really matter, but thinking about the nature of their relationship, he decided it was better to keep things clear. He pulled out the receipt from his pocket and handed it to her. “Cash or WeChat?”

“Send me your payment code.”

This was another thing she appreciated about him.

Fussy as he was about coming upstairs, he wasn’t prim about money matters. Any other man would probably say “don’t worry about it, it’s on me,” but Jiang Ruoqiao genuinely disliked that kind of thing. They weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend, weren’t even in an ambiguous situation — she hardly needed someone to treat her for a few dozen yuan. And the worst part was that some men would then feel perfectly entitled to say “I treated you, so that means you agreed to have dinner with me”…

Lu Yicheng took out his phone, navigated to his payment code, and held it out to her.

Jiang Ruoqiao scanned it and transferred the amount.

It was only then that Lu Siyan noticed the enormous watermelon his father was holding. He was stunned. “That watermelon is huge!”

“Mm, a student’s family gave it to us,” Lu Yicheng said, glancing down at his phone to confirm the payment had arrived.

Lu Siyan said without thinking, “Then give Xiao Qiao half! Mom loves watermelon!”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “…”

“I don’t.”

“Whenever we buy watermelon at home, Dad always saves the sweetest, most central bite for Mom — Mom clearly loves watermelon~” Lu Siyan said.

Lu Yicheng: “…”

Dissonance.

Sheer dissonance.

He always had this feeling that the version of himself Lu Siyan described was not him at all.

The child didn’t bring up things from the future very often, and Lu Yicheng hadn’t gone digging, while Jiang Ruoqiao had no interest in learning about the details of their future domestic life. So when Lu Siyan suddenly brought it up in front of both of them like this, both Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao felt distinctly awkward.

Because right now they were practically strangers to each other, with a relationship that was… complicated.

“Let’s go,” Lu Yicheng said, taking Lu Siyan’s hand and saying goodbye to Jiang Ruoqiao.

“Right, okay!” Jiang Ruoqiao replied.

Please just go!

She watched the father and son disappear into the elevator before quickly shutting the door.

On their end, Lu Yicheng and Lu Siyan rode the elevator down, walked out of the apartment building, and Lu Yicheng found a spot in the shade. He looked at Lu Siyan with a serious expression. “What happened today — did you let her know on purpose?”

At such a young age, already this calculating.

Was this really his child?

Lu Siyan said with equal seriousness, “Yesterday I heard everything you were all saying in the game!”

Adults always assumed children didn’t understand anything.

But children were people too.

There was no creature in the world more capable of sensing real emotion than a child.

And on top of that, Lu Siyan had, in the future he came from, been certified as having above-average intelligence.

“Yesterday that person said ‘little sister,’ but the other two uncles’ tones went completely off!” Lu Siyan said. “And Dad, your expression changed too. I could tell this wasn’t a good thing.”

Why it wasn’t a good thing, he didn’t know — but he just felt it wasn’t.

“So today you went ahead and told your mom?”

Lu Siyan was also a very candid child. “I had actually forgotten all about it. It was when Mom was on a video call and I recognized the uncle’s voice.”

“Then why did you tell her? Do you know what their relationship is?”

Lu Siyan raised his chubby hand over his ears. “I’m not listening, I don’t want to know.”

The hint of a smile crossed Lu Yicheng’s face and vanished. He crouched down, meeting the child’s eyes with complete seriousness. “Siyan, what you did wasn’t right. I hope you’ll grow into a principled, honest child — going behind people’s backs to tell on them is not acceptable behavior.”

“How is it not right?” Lu Siyan frowned. “That’s my mom! Someone was deceiving her, I found out, and I’m not supposed to tell her?”

Lu Yicheng was stumped.

Because he realized this child had a very clear sense of his own convictions. When an adult told him he was wrong, he would argue back with logic — and from an angle that was impossible to refute.

“Other people can deceive her, but I won’t,” Lu Siyan said. “She’s my mom. She’s my mom.”

Lu Siyan’s meaning was unmistakable. Jiang Ruoqiao was his dearest mother — if he didn’t know someone was deceiving her, that was one thing; but if he knew and still said nothing, could he really call himself Mom’s precious one?

Lu Yicheng stared at him. “So you do know what their relationship is?”

Lu Siyan went quiet.

“Siyan, let’s put this aside,” Lu Yicheng said. “For other situations, don’t act this way. Whether this kind of behavior is right or wrong depends on your intention. If it was because you didn’t want someone to deceive and hurt your mom, then I owe you an apology — I was wrong to blame you. But if you were deliberately trying to destroy their relationship… that I can’t endorse. And here’s why: you don’t know the full picture.”

Lu Siyan held out one hand and spread four fingers. “This much is because I didn’t want anyone to deceive my mom.”

Then he held out his little pinky, showing a fingernail-sized gap. “Only this much is because I don’t want them to be together!”

“Fair enough — then I apologize. I’m sorry.” Lu Yicheng ruffled his hair. “But you should know by now: you aren’t supposed to be here. At this point in time, she and I are nothing to each other. Even following the future timeline you’ve described, it would be six or seven years before we had you together. But right now, we both have our own lives. We can’t be together just because you arrived early, and you can’t go around thinking that everything your mom is currently doing is wrong because of that. Do you understand?”

“We will both take good care of you. But we truly will not change the direction of our lives because of you. Whoever she ends up with, she will always be your mom — that relationship will never change. So there’s no need to worry.”

Lu Siyan half-understood, half-didn’t.

Even if he was smarter than most children his age, he was still, in the end, a child. He had his own convictions and his own little schemes, but he could also hear that what his dad said was right.

“Oh,” he said — knowing what he knew, he still answered stubbornly with just that one syllable.

The two of them walked on. As they reached the building exit, Lu Siyan suddenly announced, “But I still won’t help anyone deceive Mom in the future. Including you, Dad!”

Lu Yicheng laughed. “Alright, alright, I know.”

“But what if someone really is trying to deceive her and hurt her?” Lu Siyan asked.

“Didn’t you just say it yourself? You won’t help anyone deceive her.”

“But…” Lu Siyan scratched his head. “What about you, Dad? What will you do?”

Lu Yicheng smiled slightly and said nothing.

Just then, a young man passed by them, head bent over a mobile game. The sight triggered something in Lu Siyan’s mental recycling bin — he dug around and retrieved something very important.

Young Dad was busy all the time — rushing off to give lessons, cooking meals, never once touching a game in the days since. But this morning, and again at noon, Dad had been playing games — even while cooking in the kitchen!

Dad didn’t even like games and never had time for them.

Lu Siyan was suddenly struck by a flash of enlightenment: Dad cares a lot about this matter too! He just knew it — anything to do with Mom always came first for Dad~

—