This was already the absolute limit of what Jiang Ruoqiao could bring herself to do.

Before today, she hadn’t imagined she even had this side to herself.

Even in the years when her heart first began to open up to feelings, even when she’d had a crush on a certain boy back then, she would never have let go of her pride and composure like this.

Jiang Ruoqiao stood up, flustered and irritated. Today could end here. For someone this slow on the uptake, he could just go home and fold his roses in the dark — fold all nine hundred and ninety-nine of them.

Lu Yicheng was still in a daze, hadn’t quite come back to himself, but when she rose and began walking toward the door, his first instinct was to stop her. “Where are you going?”

Jiang Ruoqiao gave a slight smile — it was as if they were back to the day they’d first met. In the flickering candlelight, she said, “Going home. It’s getting late; I want to go to bed early.”

Only then did Lu Yicheng lower his hand.

He obediently walked her to the door, then looked out at the pitch-black corridor and felt uneasy about letting her go alone. “Wait a moment — let me walk you upstairs.”

The power was still out, which meant the elevator was out too. Getting upstairs meant taking the stairs.

Jiang Ruoqiao ignored him completely and walked on outside without a second glance.

Lu Yicheng hurriedly grabbed his keys from the shoe cabinet, didn’t even bother changing out of his slippers, and followed after her.

He knew he’d managed to ruin things.

He wasn’t normally a slow person — it was just that whenever he was around Jiang Ruoqiao, his perceptions and reactions weren’t as sharp as usual. Jiang Ruoqiao turned on her phone’s flashlight and headed into the stairwell, and Lu Yicheng followed close behind. She had no intention of acknowledging him — but he turned on his flashlight too, illuminating the stairs at her feet. She slowed for a moment… and suddenly a phrase came to her: “brine sets tofu — everything has its match.” Lu Yicheng really might have been sent by the heavens specifically to exasperate her. She’d been a little upset just moments ago, yet in less than a few minutes, her anger had deflated like a balloon with a hole in it.

It wasn’t like her to be so patient and even-tempered in a relationship.

But even if the anger was gone, she couldn’t let it show.

She continued up the stairs.

She was living with a roommate, though that roommate had gone back home a couple of days ago to celebrate the New Year. She had the whole place to herself.

When they reached the door, she was rummaging in her bag for her keys.

Lu Yicheng still stood behind her, a little lost.

She unlocked the door and stepped inside, then turned to look at him standing in the doorway. She sighed inwardly. “Lu Yicheng, is there something you need?”

Lu Yicheng was silent for a few seconds. If anyone epitomized losing the plot at the critical moment, it was him — because what he managed to say now was: “I’m sorry.”

“Noted,” said Jiang Ruoqiao, looking at him steadily. “Anything else?”

She’d decided to give him yet another chance.

Lu Yicheng glanced at her, then shook his head slightly. Nothing more — she’d said she wanted to rest early, and he genuinely didn’t know what to say.

Jiang Ruoqiao: “Bye-bye~~”

The next second, the door closed.

On the other side of the door, Jiang Ruoqiao leaned against it, staring into the darkness of the room. She should have been feeling deflated — but she couldn’t help wanting to laugh. And then as she laughed, she recalled the moment of tracing the character “Lu” into his palm, and her smile instantly froze on her face.

She was embarrassed by herself.

First time in her life, wasn’t it — the first time she’d ever flirted with a man, only to have that man leave her completely stumped.

How. Mortifying.

Outside the door, Lu Yicheng stood there for a long time. He raised his hand to knock several times, but each time he let it fall back.

He turned and walked toward the stairwell.

One step — and he thought of summer vacation, when she’d leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed and laughed coldly at him: “You guys really do love claiming girls as little sisters, don’t you.”

One step — finding a kindergarten for Siyan, and her walking beside him holding a sun umbrella to shade him from the heat.

One step — outside the subway station, her face perfectly serious as she told him, “I don’t want to put you in a difficult position. I’ll break up with him.”

One step — the night she and Jiang Yan broke up, her turning in the hallway to smile back at him.

……

Exhausted, drowsy, she fell asleep leaning against his shoulder.

She wore a hooded cape, and they stood gazing at each other across a vast expanse of white snow.

Without realizing it, he had accumulated so many memories. Without realizing it, she had become a vivid, defining color in his life. Lu Yicheng — what are you afraid of? Afraid of losing her? But you’ve never had her.

Something clicked for Lu Yicheng. He went back to his apartment, changed into his running shoes, picked up his phone, and went out the door.

He ran, nearly at full sprint.

The cold wind cut through everything, and on the street the few passersby were hurrying along with their heads down. He ran into that bitter wind, his heart surging. He ran for a long time, going from one flower shop to the next. Many of them had already closed at this hour, and he didn’t know how long he’d been searching outside before he finally — finally — found one that was still open. The staff inside were already preparing to close up when they saw a young, handsome man step through the door and looked up in mild surprise. “Hi, are you here to buy flowers?”

Lu Yicheng nodded. “Yes. I’m here to buy flowers.”

He didn’t know how to confess his feelings. He’d only heard that the proper way involved having a bouquet of flowers.

A bouquet of flowers and a sincere heart.

The shop assistant blinked. “What kind of flowers?”

“Roses.”

About ten minutes later, Lu Yicheng emerged from the shop cradling a bouquet of roses.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ruoqiao — with nothing to do and her emotions still unsettled — had settled onto the sofa and was aimlessly scrolling through tutorials on how to fold paper roses.

She was genuinely that bored.

The video was about ten minutes long, and somehow she watched it all the way through. Afterward, she couldn’t help but laugh. It really was difficult — hadn’t Lu Yicheng complained more than once about how hard the craft projects in kindergarten were? And here was someone like that, folding roses every single day. He really was dedicated. She’d actually been tempted to try folding one herself, but after a few minutes of watching the video, she decisively gave up… That was something she’d leave to Lu Yicheng.

Just as Jiang Ruoqiao got up to find her way to the bathroom in the dark, someone knocked on the door.

She was startled. Who would be calling at this hour?

She half-suspected it might be Lu Yicheng — but when she thought about it, she doubted it. This slow-on-the-uptake man probably hadn’t come back to his senses yet.

If she were living alone in a different neighborhood, on a night like this with the power out and someone knocking on her door, she’d definitely be imagining all kinds of scenarios fit for a true crime broadcast. But the moment she remembered that Lu Yicheng lived downstairs, she wasn’t afraid of anything.

She went to the door and peered through the peephole. Outside was pitch black.

Then a voice came from the other side: “It’s me — Lu Yicheng.”

Jiang Ruoqiao let out a quiet breath of relief.

But then the urge to tease him stirred. “Just because you say so doesn’t make it true. We need to verify the password first.”

Outside, Lu Yicheng, still slightly out of breath, heard this and let out a bright little laugh. “Alright. What’s the password?”

Jiang Ruoqiao leaned against the door. “Who are you looking for?”

“Jiang Ruoqiao.”

“What’s Jiang Ruoqiao’s favorite color?”

Lu Yicheng smiled. “Purple and blue this year. Green last year. Next year is still unknown — I’ll ask again when the time comes.”

“Fair enough. Confirmed you’re Lu Yicheng.” Jiang Ruoqiao opened the door — still with a smile on her face — and then she saw it: a bouquet of roses in his arms.

She felt her heart, as if someone had pressed the pause button.

So he’d gone to buy flowers?

She stared at him, momentarily stunned.

Lu Yicheng had run all the way back and then climbed several flights of stairs in one go. He was probably a little warm — his down jacket zipper was open, revealing the sweater underneath. The one Jiang Ruoqiao had bought and given to him.

“I just went to buy flowers.” Lu Yicheng clearly felt a little regretful about one thing. “I didn’t ask what flowers you liked.”

Jiang Ruoqiao had never imagined he would actually go and buy a real bouquet — a genuine fresh bouquet. She’d assumed that even if he gave her flowers, it would be one of his folded paper roses.

But then, thinking about it, this person had never been ordinary in his obtuseness. If Siyan said nine hundred and ninety-nine, he probably truly decided he would fold nine hundred and ninety-nine. Not one less. Well, that was his prerogative… she couldn’t very well stop him.

She didn’t take the bouquet from him. Instead she asked, “What does this mean?”

Lu Yicheng met her eyes and said, “You said your luck was bad — the pen kept pointing at you when we were playing the game. Now consider it pointing at me. You choose — truth or dare. Truth or dare, whatever you ask I’ll answer, whatever you tell me to do I’ll do.”

“You talk big,” Jiang Ruoqiao muttered. “What if I told you to go pick a star out of the sky?”

Without waiting for Lu Yicheng to respond, she looked at him again — openly, directly — and asked, “I’m not interested in dare. I have a truth for you: Lu Yicheng, who do you like?”

She already knew the answer, but she was still nervous.

As the saying goes, you become like those you spend time with — Lu Yicheng had been picking up bad habits, because now he mimicked her earlier tone and said, “Hold your hand out for a moment.”

The corner of Jiang Ruoqiao’s mouth lifted. Still muttering “oh, mimicking me, are we,” she extended her hand, palm facing up.

Lu Yicheng was holding the bouquet with one arm. With his other hand, he touched her palm and used his index finger to trace a character — stroke by careful stroke:

Qiao.

What goes around comes around — heaven is watching!

Jiang Ruoqiao had finally gotten her revenge. She blinked and asked, “Qiao Dechang, comrade?”

Qiao Dechang was her maternal grandfather’s formal given name.

Lu Yicheng: “……”

Jiang Ruoqiao broke into laughter.

Vengeance delivered! Yes!

“I do indeed like Grandpa,” Lu Yicheng said, “but that’s not the answer to your question. Jiang Ruoqiao,” he said her name, “I like you very much.”

Jiang Ruoqiao lowered her head and thought for a moment.

She held out her hands.

Lu Yicheng placed the bouquet in them. She hugged it to her chest. “These flowers aren’t even fresh anymore. You really can’t pick flowers properly.”

Just then, the light fixture in the entryway let out a crackling buzz — the power was back.

After being plunged in darkness for so long, the sudden flood of light was almost too much for Jiang Ruoqiao’s eyes. She instinctively shut them — and in the very next second, she felt his hand cover her eyes, shielding them from the light.

His palm was warm.

She could still catch the faint scent of laundry detergent on his sleeve.

……

The moonlight was truly beautiful tonight, wasn’t it.

From that night onward, Lu Yicheng gained one more title — Jiang Ruoqiao’s boyfriend.

The following afternoon, Lu Yicheng sat at his office chair as though it had nails in it — restless, unable to sit still, glancing left and right, his gaze fixed entirely on his phone screen.

His behavior naturally attracted attention.

He Li walked over and plopped himself on the edge of Lu Yicheng’s desk. “What’s the matter with you? Is your chair uncomfortable?”

Lu Yicheng went still.

In truth, he was waiting for Jiang Ruoqiao to reply to his message.

At three o’clock, he’d sent her a message letting her know the hair dryer had been sold to a coworker and asking if she wanted to go out for dinner and shopping that evening.

It was now four-fifteen, and she still hadn’t replied — she was probably still busy.

“No, it’s very comfortable,” Lu Yicheng replied.

He Li said “oh,” then asked, “Want to grab dinner together tonight?”

Lu Yicheng shook his head. “I have plans.”

“You have plans?” He Li gave him a skeptical look. “What plans could a single guy like you possibly have?”

It wasn’t surprising that He Li was puzzled — in fact, the other colleagues in the office had all more or less heard: apparently Lu Yicheng was pursuing a girl. He Li had even privately done some research on their university’s campus beauty. Details like how she was an outstanding student, how she’d been approached by film and television companies and directors and could start acting in dramas any time she agreed, how many followers she had on her social media accounts — if she wanted to, she could earn a lot of money just from that kind of visibility.

In short, this girl was very hard to pursue, and Lu Yicheng was very bold.

Knowing he was chasing her was one thing — but everyone assumed he wouldn’t succeed anytime soon.

Hearing this, Lu Yicheng fell silent.

That question…

That morning, Jiang Ruoqiao had posted to her social media, with two photos attached: one of the bouquet of roses Lu Yicheng had given her, and one of a man walking through a white, snow-covered landscape, holding an umbrella — only his back visible.

*”The person in the second photo is my officially-licensed boyfriend. Guess who he is. Guess wrong and I’ll smack you, guess right and I’ll send you a red packet worth one jiao.”*

When Lu Yicheng had seen that post, he’d been in the middle of drinking water.

He’d nearly choked.

So then — he could answer that question now.

Lu Yicheng looked up at He Li, his expression perfectly calm as he enunciated each word: “It’s you, not me. I’m no longer single.”

He Li: “?”

Other colleagues who’d overheard: “??”

—