The five runaways slept one night in Kuichong. The next day happened to be the weekend. After breakfast, they went their separate ways.

Liu Sijia planned to go to Wen Liyan’s house first — not to the sanatorium.

She intended to sit down with Wen Liyan and try to talk, calmly and openly. If it didn’t go anywhere, then so be it… In any case, from this point on, Liu Sijia had decided to love herself.

Ning Chao, meanwhile, was absentmindedly rubbing the back of his head and thinking — maybe I should find a dream worth working toward.

Liu Sijia and Ning Chao happened to be going in the same direction, so the two of them shared a taxi. They sat side by side in the back seat, the car moving forward. Ning Chao had his arms crossed, head leaned back against the rear seat, eyes closed in rest.

Liu Sijia looked up at his sharp, composed profile, and thought of how Lin Weixia had teased the two of them yesterday with that knowing look in her eyes — and of everything that had unfolded between them over the past while.

Ning Chao had always treated her well.

And she — at some point she couldn’t pinpoint, her heart would race whenever he came close to her. Yesterday, when he grabbed her by the wrist and ran, the skin where he’d touched her had burned.

She wanted to find out.

Did he like her too?

Ning Chao had his arms folded, eyes still closed. “Staring at this handsome face costs extra, you know.”

Liu Sijia pulled her gaze away immediately and rolled her eyes.

The car drove for about twenty minutes and reached Zhongtan Road. Ning Chao got out. He seemed to think of something, propped his elbow on the car door, and stuck his head in, looking at Liu Sijia:

“Go straight home when you get there — don’t go wandering off partway.”

“Okay.”

Liu Sijia’s hand rested on the door handle, her mind turning over the same question — should I find out or not? She hesitated for all of two seconds, then decisively stepped out of the car.

A thunderous slam of the car door behind her made Ning Chao turn around — and there was Liu Sijia, standing right in front of him.

“Ning Chao, I have something to say to you,” Liu Sijia said, having hesitated for a long while — and still not quite able to look at him.

Ning Chao rubbed his head, a little out of his element: “Go ahead.”

“Ning Chao, I… I like you,” Liu Sijia said — she felt her heartbeat so fast her chest might burst, but she kept her expression perfectly composed.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

After a full minute and a half had passed, Liu Sijia looked up at Ning Chao. He rubbed uncomfortably at his close-cropped hair and hesitated for a long time:

“Thank you… but… what I feel for you right now is the kind of liking you have for a friend.”

Liu Sijia’s expression crumpled in disbelief. Her eyes began to go hot — humiliated and hurt — but she still pressed on: “Then why did you come to the sanatorium to pick me up? Why have you been so good to me all this time?”

Getting straight to the most pressing question. Ning Chao exhaled.

“I wanted to help pull you up, because you’re not bad at heart. And it’s not only me — when you were in the hospital, Lin Weixia also came to check on you secretly, several times.” Ning Chao’s words came out more haltingly than usual — the smoothness was gone.

The brutal truth crashed into her. Liu Sijia felt as though she’d been hollowed out.

Of course. Everything made sense now. The people she’d encountered were simply too kind, too genuine — they’d simply wanted to help her, as friends.

“Then — at Christmas — why did you take my lighter?” Liu Sijia still couldn’t let it go, eyes red, stubborn.

“That really was a coincidence,” Ning Chao said quietly.

He genuinely didn’t spend much time online. Every day he had too many things to do. He truly hadn’t seen the post where Liu Sijia had hinted that the lighter was his.

“Then you took me to your family’s restaurant—!” A tear fell; Liu Sijia raised her hand and wiped it away in an instant.

Ning Chao went quiet.

His silence made her feel like a fool. Was it pity? Or something else? Liu Sijia kept turning it over, tears falling steadily onto the ground.

“Alright,” Liu Sijia said, eyes still red, maintaining every bit of her pride with a voice that barely held its composure. “Last question. Did you ever have feelings for me?”

She didn’t believe it. The way he’d once smiled at her, the red that crept into his ears in quiet moments between them — those details couldn’t all have been nothing.

“Yes,” Ning Chao said, looking at her steadily. His dark eyes were clear as still water.

Watching Liu Sijia — proud as she was — crying without being able to stop, Ning Chao felt something constrict in his chest too. His curled fingers shifted — but he held back the impulse to wipe away her tears.

“The timing wasn’t right for us,” Ning Chao said, still looking at her.

How could he not have felt something for a girl that beautiful and vibrant and alive? That night the two of them ran hand in hand, trying to avoid Teacher Liu — hiding together beneath the cramped billiard table, close enough to hear each other’s heartbeats.

His heart had burned like something had touched it.

But then — that time he’d seen Liu Sijia lead others in targeting Lin Weixia. When he’d reached for the hose to snap her out of it, and she’d said those things about the distance between them.

Ning Chao had come to his senses in an instant. How could a boy who grew up on the chaotic, grimy streets of Jinyu Street dare reach for a rose that was far beyond his grasp?

No rose was within his reach. None of them.

Around that same time, his mother’s old illness had flared up, and she needed money for surgery. When Ning Chao went to his relatives to borrow money, the angle of his lowered head, the curve of his back, let him see the frayed edges of his sneakers where they’d worn away.

A relative threw the money at him, voice sharp and contemptuous: “You people with the Ning surname have no shame! How many times is this?”

The self-respect of someone without money, crushed underfoot — all you could do was pick it up, wipe it clean, and keep walking.

Ning Chao had no choice but to keep his head bent and keep on smiling.

In that moment, Ning Chao saw reality clearly. He understood the distance between them. After that, he reined himself in — put himself back where he belonged. And by the time Liu Sijia came to apologize later, he found that the feeling was already gone.

The stirring of a young heart comes fast and leaves fast — like a wind blown through on a summer night, gone before morning.

He thought he was laughable too.

He’d kept helping her after that because Ning Chao felt —

If a rose grows crooked and rotten petals form, the answer is to pull those petals away, move the flower into the sunlight, and let it grow properly from there.

The feelings that had come and gone, and the things in his heart he’d left unsaid — Ning Chao wouldn’t speak them aloud. He didn’t want to hurt Liu Sijia any further.

“I’m sorry,” Ning Chao said, the words hard to get out.

Liu Sijia shook her head. She wiped the tears from her face and restored her composed, beautiful expression, then looked at him with sincerity:

“Thank you for having felt that way.”

“I hope you find your dream.”

“I hope you become someone extraordinary.”

With that, Liu Sijia turned her back to Ning Chao and walked forward — long, steady strides. She worked hard to keep her spine straight, so that the final parting would not look too bad.

If no one loves you, at least you can stay beautiful.

Liu Sijia raised her chin and kept walking. The line of her neck was elegant and long — just like the black swan everyone had admired at school.

She understood it all. The timing had simply been wrong.

She had been too proud. At first she hadn’t liked someone like Ning Chao. Then she’d realized her prejudice against him — and found that he was clean-hearted and good.

Ning Chao was such a good person. His eyes, when they looked at anyone, were always clear. His presence had something of a stray dog’s quality — pure and naturally untamed. And yet what had she done.

When she’d first found out Lin Weixia and Ban Sheng were together, the anorexia had flared up again — that overwhelming sense of losing control had swept over her completely. Why had the course of things changed again?

Her closest friend was now with the boy she had cared about for so long.

Her eyes had changed. When she looked at herself, the softness was gone.

Everything was the same as it had always been. Her mother’s departure. Her father’s repeated attempts to form a new family. The sense of losing control growing stronger and stronger. The world falling away beneath her.

She had tried desperately to correct the trajectory of events — so she had done those things. She’d believed everything would go back to the way it was when they’d all first met.

But she had been wrong.

What she’d done caused real harm to Lin Weixia. And in her extremity, she’d hurt Ning Chao too.

Everything that had happened to her — she had brought it on herself.

The punishment the universe had given her was the loss of her best friend, and missing someone genuinely good.

This wasn’t one of those stories about pride and prejudice with a happy ending. That only existed in the movies.

If she hadn’t done those things back then — would she have had a different outcome?

But there were no “ifs.”

Goodbye, Ning Chao.

Jinyu Street wound through a series of left and right turns; home was still a long way off. Ning Chao walked with both hands in his pockets, chest tight from what had just happened, deciding to take the long way on foot.

Turning into a commercial street, the road was busy with people. Ning Chao walked with hands in pockets, saw an empty can by the side of the road, and kicked it flying. Another can was a little farther on — just as he raised his foot to kick it —

Thud. A powerful force. A man in a black cap collided into Ning Chao’s shoulder, paused for a split second, and ran straight ahead.

Ning Chao was about to say something when he noticed the man, as he ran, turned back to shoot him a vicious glare. The crowd around them began to stir with frightened screams.

Something was wrong. When they’d collided just now, he’d caught a whiff of blood.

He looked back — there were police behind them, in active pursuit, shouting: “Stop! Don’t run!”

Without stopping to think about how dangerous it was, Ning Chao’s blood went hot, and he charged forward. He’d always been a fast runner. He pumped his arms, sprinting hard.

The man in the black cap saw the kid coming and spat on the ground, crashing through stalls and sending things flying — a child nearby burst into terrified tears.

Ning Chao ran until his throat went raw. The man was like a slippery eel — nearly impossible to grab. Ning Chao’s eyes darted — then he hit the brakes halfway, cut sharply into the alley on the left.

The man in the black cap saw the kid drop back and relaxed slightly.

Then, a gust of wind. Dust and sand hit him in the face. Before he could react, a figure shot out — someone kicked him straight in the chest.

Nobody knew these streets near Jinyu better than he did.

The man in the black cap went straight down to his knees. Ning Chao charged in and kicked him at the back of the neck; the man collapsed forward.

Just as Ning Chao was about to pin his arms, the man in the black cap arched upward and tackled him to the ground, slamming a fist into him. He growled roughly: “You want to die?”

The man had Ning Chao’s neck locked under his thick arm, kicking and striking him with real force. Wounds opened and bled. He snarled: “Stupid kid! Mind your own business.”

Ning Chao’s breathing grew labored. His face flushed red. He pulled in a deep breath, put everything he had into his arms, and threw himself upward — using the counter-force of his whole body, hands and legs together, driving the man down with all his strength.

The veins at his neck stood out.

The police arrived just in time. As the assailant tried to fight back, there was a sharp click — silver handcuffs locked around his wrists.

Ning Chao panted heavily, sweat dripping steadily from his chin to the ground, instantly evaporated by the sun’s heat. He’d just come through a fight; his mind was still scrambled. He propped his hands on his knees, staring blankly at nothing, blood still dripping from his chin to the pavement.

All at once, Ning Chao was startled by a burst of applause from the crowd. He looked up, still dazed. The onlookers were smiling at him. An older man clapped and called out: “Young man — kindhearted and righteous! A bright future ahead of you!”

“Brave and selfless — well done!”

“Mister, you’re amazing!” a small girl said in a sweet, babyish voice.

People in the crowd kept raising their phones to photograph him. The praise made Ning Chao uncomfortable. A police officer in his mid-thirties, with a friendly face, smiled and clapped him on the shoulder, handing him a piece of paper:

“You showed real courage, young man. That individual was a violent offender who had just committed a crime in public. On behalf of the people, I thank you for your bravery.”

The officer’s skin was tanned from the sun. He gave Ning Chao an appreciative once-over and said with a smile: “Good instincts. You haven’t started university yet, have you? If you get the chance, consider applying to the police academy.”

“Do you think I could do it?” Ning Chao froze.

The officer put his cap back on, smiled, and said easily:

“When you’re young — what can’t you do?”

“Lieutenant Li — let’s go!” someone called from nearby. The officer acknowledged with a sound, clapped Ning Chao on the shoulder once more, and escorted the prisoner away.

The blazing golden sunlight poured down. Ning Chao stood there, watching the officer walk away — the five-pointed star on his shoulder glinting in the light.

His heart started pounding.

The blood beneath his skin ran hot, as if scorching something deep in his mind — growing and growing, wilder and wilder, slowly taking shape.

His blood was on fire.

And so the people in the crowd watched as the boy who had seemed faintly embarrassed just moments ago suddenly launched himself into the middle of the street — face still streaked with fresh blood from his wounds — and began to run. The wind lifted the fabric of the T-shirt on his back.

He shouted at every single person he ran past:

“I have a dream!”

“I’m going to be a police officer for the people!”

In the middle of the crowd, a girl lowered her phone — she’d been filming — and watched Ning Chao’s retreating figure with a laugh. This guy is something else. She said:

“Absolute puppy.”