When Jiang Ruoqiao brought Lu Siyan to the children’s hospital, Lu Yicheng had already registered and was waiting at the entrance.

Knowing she wouldn’t be able to carry Lu Siyan, he had decisively waited at the hospital entrance. He lifted Lu Siyan out from the back seat of the car. The sudden movement caused Lu Siyan to open his eyes and glance around. Perhaps because of the fever, his face was a little flushed, and his eyes were exceptionally dewy and bright. His curly hair drooped listlessly, and he looked quite pitiful.

Lu Siyan looked up, saw it was his father holding him with his mother anxiously watching from beside him, and felt reassured. He obediently nestled against Lu Yicheng’s shoulder and closed his eyes to sleep again.

Hospitals always have emergency services, and Lu Yicheng had already registered in advance. He carried Lu Siyan and strode quickly inside, with Jiang Ruoqiao jogging to keep up.

In this moment, they looked exactly like a true family of three.

Lu Siyan wasn’t the only sick child at the emergency room — there were others too, mostly brought in by parents or grandparents. The children slept while the adults’ faces were filled with worry.

The doctor gave Lu Siyan a quick examination, asked a few questions, and then wrote out a form for a blood test.

It was at this moment that Jiang Ruoqiao felt grateful she had made the right choice.

She could never have managed on her own — registering, finding the doctor to get the form, taking the child for the blood draw… It was not an exaggeration to say it was like fighting a battle.

By the time the blood results came back and the doctor had prescribed medicine, the horizon was already turning pale with the first light of dawn.

Jiang Ruoqiao felt this was more exhausting than the eight-hundred-meter fitness test at school.

Fortunately, it wasn’t serious. The doctor concluded that Lu Siyan had likely gone up into the mountains over the past couple of days and then returned to the city, where the temperature difference was significant. On top of that, he had been changing sleeping locations frequently, which was too much for a child’s body to handle, resulting in a fever. They were simply told to give him his medicine and keep a close watch on him. As long as the child was in good spirits and the fever broke, there would be nothing to worry about.

Jiang Ruoqiao’s legs felt weak. She murmured, “I thought it was because I hadn’t taken good enough care of him.”

Lu Yicheng was tired too. Holding Lu Siyan, he sat down beside her and said reassuringly, “How could that be. The doctor also said that summer colds are common. Going from hot to cold — even adults can’t always handle it, let alone a child. I can see that Siyan’s spirits are quite good. Don’t worry.”

After a while, they prepared to leave the hospital.

Jiang Ruoqiao still felt a lingering unease.

Although Lu Yicheng said it had nothing to do with her, she was still shaken. She told Lu Yicheng to take Lu Siyan back with him, and that she would come see Lu Siyan at noon.

Lu Yicheng hadn’t even nodded in agreement when Lu Siyan — who had woken up at some point while resting against his father’s chest — proved that a sick child was far less cooperative than usual. He pursed his lips and said unhappily, “I don’t want that. I want to sleep with Mama.”

When a child is sick, the person they want most is their mother. They seek comfort from their mother above all else.

In the end, Jiang Ruoqiao nodded and agreed.

She actually understood Lu Siyan.

Because when she was very little, she had also wanted to stay by her mother’s side whenever she fell sick.

The nod she had once never received — she didn’t want Lu Siyan to be disappointed in the same way now.

Jiang Ruoqiao took Lu Siyan from Lu Yicheng’s arms and said softly, “But I’m not as good at taking care of you as your father is.”

That was the truth.

Taking care of herself was already quite an accomplishment. How could she possibly know how to look after a child?

Lu Siyan’s eyes were soft and dewy. He shook his head, and whatever he was thinking, he pursed his lips and gave her the lightest little kiss on her forehead. “That’s not what I think. Mama is very capable too.”

Jiang Ruoqiao froze for a moment, then lowered her head with a smile.

That smile was different from any she had smiled before.

Lu Yicheng watched her.

Perhaps it was just his imagination, but in this moment, Jiang Ruoqiao gave him the impression of a little girl. Not a mother, but a little girl who might have been the same age as Siyan.

She looked a little satisfied, a little happy, and when she lowered her head, he could even catch a trace of something like relief.

Relief? Perhaps he was seeing things.

Lu Yicheng very rarely, very rarely took a taxi. This time, he hailed one and brought Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Siyan back to the hotel. Ordinarily, out of propriety, he shouldn’t have gone up — but he glanced at her slender pale arms and felt that asking her to carry Lu Siyan all the way back to the room with her strength alone would be far too much of an ordeal. So, with Jiang Ruoqiao’s silent permission, he carried Lu Siyan into the hotel elevator and followed her all the way to the door of her room.

Jiang Ruoqiao swiped her room card and the door opened.

Lu Yicheng carried Lu Siyan inside. His gaze fixed straight ahead, he was careful not to look too closely at anything in the room — he would have preferred to pretend he was blind. Once he had laid Lu Siyan on the bed, he prepared to leave. Jiang Ruoqiao wasn’t particularly uncomfortable with his presence. Because Lu Siyan was there, she hadn’t left any of her undergarments strewn carelessly about, so there was nothing in view that would make Lu Yicheng — a man of straightforward sensibilities — feel awkward.

“Where are Siyan’s dirty clothes from yesterday?” Lu Yicheng asked.

Jiang Ruoqiao gave a start. “On the shelf in the bathroom. I was going to call for laundry service this morning.”

Lu Yicheng nodded. “Find a bag. I’ll take them with me.”

Jiang Ruoqiao said, “…Oh.”

Lu Yicheng went into the bathroom to collect Lu Siyan’s dirty clothes, placing them one by one into a bag — but his gaze drifted to the hook on the wall, where a white sundress hung.

It was the dress she had been wearing yesterday.

He hesitated a moment, then deliberately looked away.

Jiang Ruoqiao caught up on her sleep.

By the time she woke, it was almost noon.

The first thing she did upon waking was take Lu Siyan’s temperature. The fever was slowly going down. She let out a sigh of relief and sent a text to Lu Yicheng about it — and only then noticed that before she had fallen asleep last night, a new email had arrived in her inbox. It was from the HR department of that company, scheduling her for an interview that afternoon.

She was thrilled.

She hadn’t expected to pass the written test at all.

Generally, passing the written test meant the interview was more or less secured — as long as she performed normally. She quickly replied to the email, affirming that she would definitely arrive at the company on time that afternoon.

There were just over three hours left before the scheduled time.

Jiang Ruoqiao glanced over at Lu Siyan, who had already recovered his energy and was cheerfully watching television.

This interview opportunity was far too precious. She wasn’t even a beginner yet, and she was worried that asking HR to reschedule would leave a poor impression on them.

But leaving Siyan alone in the hotel room seemed unreliable no matter how she thought about it. At the same time, the weather was so hot today — packing Lu Siyan up and sending him back to Lu Yicheng’s place might be too much of an ordeal for a sick child, especially since the fever was going down but hadn’t fully broken yet.

After turning it over in her mind, Jiang Ruoqiao had no choice but to text Lu Yicheng, asking whether he was free today.

Lu Yicheng received the text while he was in the kitchen pan-frying dumplings.

He freed up one hand to reply to her message, when Jiang Yan came out of his room, shuffling along in his slippers on his way to the bathroom. He happened to pass the kitchen and, seeing that Lu Yicheng was busy, stepped inside.

Lu Yicheng hadn’t noticed Jiang Yan come in at first.

By the time Jiang Yan reached his side, his phone screen was still showing the text conversation with Jiang Ruoqiao.

Lu Yicheng panicked slightly and tried to lock the screen, but pressed the wrong button and hit the volume key instead.

Fortunately, Jiang Yan hadn’t noticed his phone, and was only staring at the pan. “Pan-frying dumplings?”

Lu Yicheng said, “Mm.”

With Jiang Yan having come over, Lu Yicheng suddenly realized that he wasn’t the only person in the apartment.

But there weren’t many dumplings left — around ten or so — which definitely wasn’t enough for two people.

Jiang Yan seemed to remember something and said with some delight, “Ruoqiao just sent me a message. She wants to meet up this evening.”

She had blocked him.

On such a lovely day, something good really had come his way!

He had woken up to a message from Ruoqiao.

Jiang Yan was overjoyed, completely unaware that Lu Yicheng was calmly and expressionlessly flipping the dumplings in the pan.

“Do you think she’s forgiven me?” Jiang Yan kept thinking about it and felt more and more certain. “She knows what I was like before. She must have thought it through and realized it was all just a misunderstanding.”

Lu Yicheng said nothing.

Once Jiang Yan finally left the kitchen, Lu Yicheng reached back into his pocket and took out his phone. He looked at her text, his expression calm and composed, and replied: 【Free.】

So she was asking if he was free because she genuinely needed something.

After receiving his reply, Jiang Ruoqiao let out a breath of relief: 【Send me your ID number. I’ll book an hourly room.】

She thought about it, then sent another message: 【I have an interview at two-thirty this afternoon. It’s important to me, and I don’t want to miss it. I’ll book a separate room for you right next to mine and leave word with the front desk. You help look after Siyan while I’m gone.】

At critical moments, one couldn’t afford to scrimp.

Having Lu Yicheng come over to watch the child was perfectly fine.

But leaving him alone in her room while she was away… that seemed a little inappropriate.

She was also worried he’d feel too constrained.

Given how careful and conscientious he was, he probably wouldn’t even sit on her bed.

Lu Yicheng started to type “no need to waste money,” but his fingers hovered over the reply field as he reminded himself — that was Jiang Ruoqiao’s room.

Even though it was a hotel room, spending several hours there alone did seem genuinely improper.

He deleted the words “no need” and typed instead: 【I’ll book it myself.】

Jiang Ruoqiao replied: 【.】

Lu Yicheng froze. What did a period mean?

He was still puzzling over it when Jiang Ruoqiao sent another message: 【Good thing Siyan can recite your ID number from memory. I’ve booked an hourly room for you — six hours.】

Lu Yicheng let out a quiet sigh of resignation. So a period, apparently, was a sign of mild displeasure — or opposition.

He understood now.

He replied: 【Thank you.】

Jiang Ruoqiao received the message, and the corners of her lips curved upward. This Lu Yicheng… he really was unfailingly polite.

The reason Jiang Ruoqiao had texted Jiang Yan about meeting up had nothing to do with some miraculous act of forgiveness.

Forgiveness didn’t even enter into it. It was just that earlier today, the shop owner had called her — partly to confirm that she had received her payment, and partly out of curiosity about what was going on between her and Jiang Yan. Apparently, Jiang Yan had even gone to the gardens where they usually did their shoots the day before. The shop owner had spotted him and greeted him, only for him to turn around and ask whether Jiang Ruoqiao was staying at her place and whether she knew where she was now — which had left the shop owner thoroughly taken aback.

That was a bit annoying to deal with.

Still, thinking back to the original story, even the male lead had gone through a period of desperately trying to hold onto the female supporting character.

They had broken up. What was there to explain? And what would explaining even accomplish?

Whether she explained or not, there was only one possible ending — and that was still a breakup.

Did he actually think that if she heard his explanation, she’d naively agree to get back together? As if the entire Pacific Ocean had flooded her brain — she would never humiliate herself like that, thank you very much.

What kind of person did he take her for?

That was what she thought, but Jiang Yan evidently didn’t see it that way. She mulled it over and decided that since Jiang Yan wanted to explain, she would let him explain.

Once the explanation was done, they could each go their separate ways and live their own lives, couldn’t they?

She genuinely did not want to still be putting on an idol drama performance with him once school started.

This person had absolutely no sense of the situation! He could honestly be ranked as the most oblivious, most self-unaware person she had ever dated or had feelings for.

If it were anyone else, they wouldn’t have the face to explain anything. Break up and break up cleanly — stay quietly in your corner and that would be that. Not him, though. He seemed determined to let the whole world know.

—