Lin Tao received Tao Jia’s message on Saturday morning. The two of them had added each other at the end of first year’s final exams, and their chat history had stayed frozen at that same time.

The most recent message was one she had sent about half an hour ago.

【Lin Tao, we’ve settled on a time for dinner — today at four in the afternoon. Are you free?】

Lin Tao had just woken up. After seeing the message, she rolled over, tossed her phone aside, and dozed for a few more minutes before coming back to herself.

She blinked her eyes open. Above her was a delicately decorated ceiling, with a small floral print pattern that her mother had carefully chosen.

Lin Tao hadn’t pulled the curtains closed all the way before sleeping, and a thin sliver of light was now sneaking in through that narrow gap.

She let out a quiet sigh, reached over to grab her phone, and slowly typed out a reply: 【I have to go to the hospital this afternoon to get my cast taken off — I probably won’t have time to come. You all go ahead. We can find another time to get together.】

The reply came back: 【Okay.】

Lin Tao set her phone aside. Honestly, her impression of Tao Jia was a very faint one — limited to the sense that she was a pretty girl.

The two of them had a rather interesting twist of fate in common, but had never grown particularly close. In class, Tao Jia had her own regular group of friends, and Lin Tao spent most of her time hanging out with Jiang Yan and the others.

Girls’ intuition is usually reliable.

Lin Tao was aware that Tao Jia didn’t particularly like her. Maybe back when they’d first met at the exam hall, she had genuinely wanted to become friends. But now, Lin Tao knew — that sincerity was no longer there.

As for why it had faded, Lin Tao had no interest in finding out. After all, she was a devoted believer in the philosophy of: “what’s it to me, what’s it to you.”

By the time she got up, it was past ten. The family’s resident workaholic had no days off, so Lin Tao was alone in the house.

She got up, shuffled in her slippers into the bathroom, and brought her phone with her to put on a drama while she was in there.

Whether Jiang Yan’s influence had something to do with it or not, Lin Tao was now very interested in melodramatic primetime soap operas.

The theme song from a romantic drama was playing on her phone.

She picked up her toothbrush and squeezed out some toothpaste. Just as she finished squeezing, her phone rang — it was an unfamiliar number, but the location showed Xixi City. Probably some kind of sales call.

Lin Tao had the toothbrush in her mouth and didn’t pick up.

The call went to missed call, and then rang again immediately — still that same number, with the clear attitude of: I will keep calling until you answer.

She gave in, accepted the call, her mouth full of foam, and mumbled vaguely: “Hello?”

From the other end came a burst of background noise, followed by a familiar voice. Hu Hanghang had quite the set of lungs. “Tao Sis, why didn’t you answer when I just called? Don’t tell me you’re still in bed — on such a glorious Saturday morning, how can you waste it like that?”

“……” Lin Tao lowered her head to rinse her mouth, and only after clearing out the foam did she speak. “Just got up. I wasn’t wasting it — I was about to get up and study.”

A silence fell on the other end.

Lin Tao smiled to herself, thought, still trying to joke with me, and continued: “Anyway — what did you call for?”

This time it was Xu Yichuan’s voice. “Sis, Tao Jia told me you’re not coming to the dinner today — how come? Is something up?”

In the gap of his speaking, Lin Tao had already taken her phone and walked out of the bathroom. “Yeah — my mom scheduled a doctor’s appointment at three this afternoon to get my cast off. It’ll probably run late, so I’ll skip this one.”

“I see — how about this: we come with you to the hospital, and then we all go for dinner after? We can wait.” After saying it, Xu Yichuan felt this plan was basically perfect. “The dinner’s in the evening anyway — a little later doesn’t really make a difference. What do you think, Sis?”

“I think — no.” Lin Tao walked to the living room, genuinely unable to fathom his thought process. “With that many people, anyone who didn’t know better would think we were showing up to cause trouble at the hospital.”

“Too many people? That’s easy to fix.” In the internet café, Xu Yichuan cast a sidelong glance at a certain person who had been sitting nearby since early morning, wearing an expression as flat as stone while he played his game. He cleared his throat. “Just Jiang Yan going with you is also fine.”

The expressionless person’s eyelid twitched.

“……Are you out of your mind?” Lin Tao walked into the kitchen.

Xu Yichuan suddenly dropped his voice down, squeezing it out like air escaping a very narrow valve. “Sis, Jiang Yan’s been in a weird mood today — just think of it as doing a good deed and take him off our hands… consider it the three of us begging you. Please?”

“……”

Lin Tao took a bottle of yogurt out of the fridge, leaned against the cabinet door, and replied in a tone of complete indifference: “Then you do a good deed too and give me a way out.”

“……”

That afternoon at three-thirty.

A royal blue and sky grey taxi slowly came to a stop at the entrance of the City People’s Hospital. The driver turned to look at the two young passengers who hadn’t exchanged a single word since getting in. “City Hospital — we’re here.”

Lin Tao, sitting in the back, made a sound of acknowledgment and unlocked her phone to scan the payment code — but an arm reached out from beside her first, its voice cool. “Fifty — keep the change.”

And then the person pushed open the car door, swung those long legs out, and stepped out.

Lin Tao paused for a moment, exchanged a look with the equally stunned driver, and pressed her lips together. With an expression like she’d rather be anywhere else, she told him: “Sorry about that — he’s got a condition. The kind where he thinks he’s the richest person in the world…”

The driver gave two understanding nods and then, being genuinely kind-hearted, told her: “So you’re bringing him in today? City Hospital’s neurology department isn’t as good as the Provincial Hospital, you know.”

“……”

Lin Tao took her money and got out of the car. Jiang Yan was still standing by the roadside. She walked past him and calmly tucked the money into her own bag.

Jiang Yan watched her, with an expression that clearly said “you’re really not going to give it back,” but he said nothing — just kept his eyes on her with that calm, lowered gaze.

Lin Tao met his eyes without a trace of guilt. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing.” Jiang Yan said flatly.

“Looking won’t help anyway.” Lin Tao turned and started walking toward the hospital. “I earned it fair and square — that means it’s mine.”

Jiang Yan curved his lips into a cold smile. “Earned it by telling the driver I have brain damage?”

“……”

Lin Tao had no idea what kind of supernatural hearing this person possessed, and she still didn’t understand why she had, at the last moment, agreed to Xu Yichuan’s request.

Probably because she was just a genuinely good person.

After the downpour, the temperature had dropped considerably. The air was humid, and the ground still bore the uneven sheen of not-yet-dried puddles.

Lin Tao had dressed for convenience — a short-sleeved top with light blue jeans and canvas shoes.

Jiang Yan, by contrast, had come very prepared for the temperature drop — a black hoodie over matching black jeans.

The collar of the hoodie sat slightly low, revealing a hint of collarbone. The bone structure was clean and visible.

Lin Tao blinked, forced herself to look away. “Let’s go.”

Lin Tao’s mother had arranged everything before they’d arrived, so the entire process didn’t take long.

After the cast came off, the doctor gave a few instructions. “Your situation means this cast came off a little early. Be sure to take care once you’re home — don’t make any large, sudden movements.”

“Got it. Thank you, Dr. Chen.”

After that, with the help of a nurse, Lin Tao performed a few movements that looked, frankly, a bit ridiculous.

Throughout the whole thing, Jiang Yan sat without a word on the long sofa beside her, expression unhurried, eyes fixed on her the whole time.

Lin Tao caught his gaze once and reminded him, “Mr. Jiang, I think you might want to give me a little privacy.”

Jiang Yan raised an eyebrow. “Why?” Then he answered his own question: “Because you look like an idiot right now?”

“……”

“No need,” Jiang Yan said, and the corner of his lip curved slightly. “You look more like an idiot than this on any normal day.”

“……”

Lin Tao shifted her gaze away without expression.

Neither of them spoke again. The young nurse beside them looked down and laughed quietly. “You really can’t say things like that to a girl — you’ll never find a girlfriend if you keep this up.”

“He won’t find one even without saying it — who’d date a walking ice dispenser?” Lin Tao let out a short scoff and added coldly, “No one.”

“……”

The little nurse said nothing. She just glanced back at the air conditioning unit behind her with a puzzled look — the cold air hadn’t even been turned on, so why did it feel so chilly all of a sudden?

By the time they left the orthopedics department, it was an hour later. Lin Tao moved her arm around, still not quite used to being without the cast.

Jiang Yan walked behind her, watching her wave her arm around like she was putting on a show. He suddenly reached out and grabbed her arm. “Didn’t the doctor just say no large movements? You forgot already?”

Lin Tao’s arm was caught in his grip. She tilted her face up to look at him. “I didn’t forget — I’m just not used to it yet.”

Jiang Yan’s expression remained serious. He shifted his grip, took hold of her wrist, and held it up to roughly the same height she’d always kept it while she’d had the cast on.

Lin Tao stiffened slightly. She stared at the young man’s long, dark lashes and suddenly spoke up. “Are you in a bad mood today?”

He’d been like this since they’d met up this afternoon — subdued, not saying much, speaking in a very flat tone.

Jiang Yan held her wrist, the pad of his thumb resting against her pulse.

She was wearing a short-sleeved top, and her skin was smooth and soft — and a little cool, a complete contrast to the warmth of his palm.

He looked down, feeling the pulse beating under his fingertip. Thinking of the phone call this morning, he let out a quiet, unspoken sigh and said, against what he actually felt: “No.”

“Mr. Jiang, to be honest — I think you’re a pretty good person in most ways. It’s just that your talent for lying still leaves something to be desired.” Lin Tao drew her arm back from his hand and met his gaze. “You’ve been radiating a ‘strangers stay away, acquaintances too’ kind of energy all day. That tells me clearly — you’re in a bad mood.”

“……”

“Do you think I’m an idiot — that you’ve been this obvious and I still couldn’t tell?” Lin Tao felt her intelligence had been insulted.

At that, Jiang Yan looked up at her, his expression easing, eyes relaxing. He quietly replied: “Yes.”

“?” Lin Tao paused, quickly replayed their exchange in her head, and stared at him with something close to disbelief. “……I just said I was an idiot — and you agreed?”

Jiang Yan watched her flustered, indignant expression. The small cloud of irritation in his chest smoothed out little by little. A very small curve appeared at the corner of his mouth. “Didn’t agree to that. You’re not an idiot.”

“……” Lin Tao felt that this particular reassurance actually sounded more like an insult.

“I —” Jiang Yan seemed about to say something more, but his gaze landed on something behind her and came to a sudden stop.

The abrupt pause caught Lin Tao’s attention. She looked up and followed his line of sight.

A woman stood there.

A woman impeccably dressed from head to toe in designer labels. Her skin was well-maintained — smooth and refined — and her features were soft with an undercurrent of allure.

Lin Tao couldn’t immediately place her real age. She was just about to ask Jiang Yan if he knew her when the woman walked over to them first, her gaze falling on Jiang Yan, and she said very gently, “Yanyan.”

Lin Tao froze. She glanced sideways at Jiang Yan, and only then noticed that his expression had shifted entirely from its earlier casual ease — now it was ice cold, the kind of cold that seemed to seep out from the bone itself.

She didn’t say anything. She lowered her head and stood quietly to the side.

Jiang Yan was silent for a long moment.

The atmosphere was taut and uncomfortable. Just as Lin Tao thought the silence would go on indefinitely, Jiang Yan finally spoke. His voice was low and slightly hoarse. “Mom.”

“……?” Lin Tao’s eyelid gave a faint twitch. She still didn’t move.

“What brings you here? Are you ill?” Yu Fengyan’s voice was very gentle. “Why didn’t you answer when Mom called this morning?”

Lin Tao, head still lowered, saw Jiang Yan’s hand — hanging at his side — clench tightly, then slowly relax. Then she heard his voice, weighted and a little subdued: “No, I didn’t see it.”

Yu Fengyan seemed to know he wouldn’t elaborate, and she didn’t push it. Her gaze moved to Lin Tao standing beside him. She looked like she wanted to say something, but in the end said nothing — and asked something else instead. “Do you have time tonight? Let’s have dinner together.”

Lin Tao’s head was full of question marks. Was this normal for a mother and son?

But she didn’t dare ask anything or say a word right now.

Jiang Yan declined quickly. “No need — I have a class gathering tonight.”

Yu Fengyan seemed to have expected the refusal. Her expression didn’t show much disappointment. “All right then. I heard from the housekeeper at the old house that you moved out — was there something at home that wasn’t comfortable?”

Jiang Yan seemed to react strangely to those words. He suddenly let out a short laugh, his tone carrying a cold edge. “Do you think that’s a place I’d be comfortable in?”

He then closed his eyes briefly, and all of a sudden, without any context, said, “Mom, stop worrying about me. I’m an adult now — I know what I’m doing.”

“I just want to —”

Before Yu Fengyan could finish, Jiang Yan cut her off. “I still have things to do, so I’ll head off now. Take care on your way back.”

With that, he ducked his head slightly, took Lin Tao by the arm, and left.

“Yanyan…”

Yu Fengyan still had more to say, but Jiang Yan paid no attention and walked into the elevator. The heavy metal doors slid shut, sealing the outside world away.

Lin Tao stood beside Jiang Yan. Their reflections were mirrored in the metallic wall — the young man’s face blank and cold.

She pressed her lips together, hesitating over how to say anything.

The elevator quickly reached the ground floor.

Jiang Yan was the first to step out. His legs were long, and a few strides put a wide gap between himself and Lin Tao, who was falling behind.

Lin Tao watched the distance between them stretch further and further. She stopped where she was, drew a deep breath — and then simply lifted her feet and ran to catch up, walking alongside him at the cost of some effort.

“That…” she began.

Jiang Yan said nothing, but his pace slowed.

“Are you still going to dinner tonight?” Lin Tao figured that with him in this state, dinner might be a grim affair for Hu Hanghang and the others.

Jiang Yan stopped walking and looked at her sideways. “Do you want to go?” He didn’t seem to think about it much. “Then I’ll take you.”

With that, he changed direction, walked to the roadside, and flagged down a car.

“……”

Lin Tao was genuinely startled. Wasn’t the entrance to City People’s Hospital supposed to be the hardest place in town to get a cab? How did he just casually flag one down like that?

Jiang Yan was already in the car. Lin Tao had no reason to make him get back out, so she followed him in.

The driver pushed down the meter and turned to look at the two passengers. “Where to?”

Where to?

Lin Tao thought: how on earth would I know where to?

Jiang Yan clearly didn’t know where to either. His whole being seemed locked up, his thoughts still not quite tracking.

In the end it was Lin Tao who named a destination. “Take us to the Tenth High School on Qiyun Road.”

“Sure thing.”

The car pulled away, the view outside the window flashing past. Since getting in, Jiang Yan had closed his eyes and leaned back against the seat, not saying a word.

Lin Tao sat beside him and didn’t dare speak either.

The silence in the cab was even heavier than on the way there.

The Tenth High was a good distance from City People’s Hospital, and traffic was heavy on weekends. By the time they arrived, it was an hour later.

The driver pulled over to the curb. “Here we are.”

Lin Tao paid, then glanced sideways at the person who may or may not have been asleep, and called out tentatively: “Jiang Yan?”

“Hm?” The young man opened his eyes. The corners of his eyes were tinged red. His mood was low.

Lin Tao looked at him like this, and something soft shifted in her chest. She lowered her voice gently. “We’re home. Let’s go home.”

Honestly, Lin Tao wasn’t sure whether that little room in the internet café counted as home to him. She just thought he looked right now like someone who had absolutely no sense of belonging anywhere — and she wanted to say something that might make him feel a little more grounded.

Home.

It was probably the word most likely to make a person feel at ease.

Hearing it, Jiang Yan lowered his gaze and looked at her for a moment. His eyes held a tangle of emotions. In the end he simply gave a quiet sound: “Okay.”

His voice was low and a little fragile.

The internet café was crowded on weekends. When Lin Tao pushed the door open, there were several young teenagers at the front counter.

Guan Che leaned out to see her, and then Jiang Yan behind her, and looked a little surprised. “Didn’t you two go out to dinner? Why are you back so soon?”

As he spoke, he handed some money to the kids in front of him. “The computers are in the back — they all connect automatically.”

“Got it, thanks, bro.” The group took their money and headed inside.

Guan Che looked at the two of them — both silent — and sensed something was off. His expression shifted to concern. “What happened? Is everything okay?”

Lin Tao let out a sigh and shook her head, while her eyes silently and urgently signaled him about Jiang Yan’s state.

Guan Che caught on immediately. He looked toward Jiang Yan, and seemed to understand something — without asking any questions. “Come on, go upstairs and hang out. I’ll bring you both something to eat in a bit.”

“Okay.”

Lin Tao walked ahead a few steps, then realized Jiang Yan wasn’t following. She turned back to look at him. “Why aren’t you —”

Why aren’t you moving, isn’t this literally your place? Kid, if you’re going to be like this, you’re putting me in a very awkward position…

She hollered the rest of that sentence in her head.

Jiang Yan’s thoughts had been running on slow mode this whole time. At this point he looked up at her, made a hoarse sound of acknowledgment, then lifted his feet and followed. “Come on. Let’s hang out in my room for a bit.”

……

This was Lin Tao’s second time here. The room was about the same as before — the only difference was that a TV had been added, mounted on the wall in front of the sofa.

She sat down in the same single-seat armchair as before, watching as he did the same thing as last time — picked up his clothes and put them in the laundry basket beside the sofa.

The window was open. When the breeze came through, the papers spread out on the desk rustled with a soft sound.

Lin Tao was tangled up inside right now — not knowing how to start — and at the same time she had a pile of unanswered questions, not knowing which to start with.

Take the earliest hint: Xu Yichuan and the others had mentioned something about Jiang Yan’s father and his second uncle. Lin Tao had assumed it was a straightforward family disagreement.

Then there was the birthday thing.

And then there was what he’d said here before — that when the time came, he’d just stop going back.

And now, the woman at the hospital today — the one he’d called his mother, who had felt nothing at all like a mother and son.

Lin Tao felt that her seatmate was like a mysterious treasure chest. When other people opened a box, there were pleasant surprises inside. Every time she opened his, there was another shock.

The secrets on him kept snowballing — growing bigger and bigger. Until one day, the snowball would grow too heavy to hold, and when it broke apart and scattered, everything hidden inside would be exposed.

And when that moment came — whether the person carrying all these secrets would be consumed by grief, or whether they would be reborn from the brink — that was still an unknown.

“Jiang Yan.” Lin Tao looked up at him suddenly.

“Hm?” He made a sound, and sat down on the long sofa beside her. When he saw her saying nothing, he looked over with a puzzled expression.

“Ah — nothing, I was just checking if you’d fallen asleep.” Lin Tao had wanted to comfort him, but there were too many questions she didn’t know where to start from.

“……” Jiang Yan leaned against the sofa, stretched his long legs out, tone casual. “I was standing just now.”

“So? You can’t sleep standing up?”

“……You can.” Jiang Yan looked at her.

Lin Tao had braced herself for him to argue back. She’d already readied her counterattack.

But the person just let it go that easily.

Trying to find a topic to redirect — why was that so difficult?

A stretch of silence.

Lin Tao looked at the TV in the room and asked, “Why did you buy a TV?”

“To watch TV.”

“……”

Jiang Yan leaned forward and found the remote on the table. “Want to watch?”

“Ah — either way is fine.” Lin Tao pressed her fingers into the bottom of the cushion she was sitting on, cycling through a hundred different conversation topics in her head and dismissing them one by one.

“Lin Tao.”

“Hm?”

“Never mind.” Jiang Yan glanced at her, then dropped his gaze again, and fell quiet.

“……”

Lin Tao had never really comforted anyone before — or more precisely, she had never in real life, only ever on TV, encountered someone whose fate was so turbulent.

She didn’t know how to begin. She was terrified of saying the wrong thing and jabbing at her seatmate’s currently sensitive and fragile heart.

The TV came on. Jiang Yan scrolled to a random channel and left it on something — another melodramatic soap opera, by the looks of it.

A strikingly handsome man was walking alone through the rain, something clearly having struck him a hard blow. He was soaked through. He stopped in front of a shop doorway. Inside, a girl saw him and immediately pushed the door open and ran out.

The two of them stood in the rain talking for a bit, and then the girl suddenly wrapped her arms around the man and said, in a comforting tone: “It’s okay. You still have me.”

“……”

Lin Tao suppressed a strong urge to roll her eyes. Her gaze drifted without thinking to the person sitting beside her, lost in thought — and something lit up in her mind.

“Mr. Jiang.”

“?” Jiang Yan looked up at her.

“Maybe right now,” Lin Tao paused, choosing her words carefully, “you need a hug?”

Author’s note: — Jiang Yan: come here —

I DID IT!! I actually updated on the sixth of the month!! I’m so full of energy!! I can do it!!

For those who didn’t understand last chapter why Jiang Yan took her phone — he was going to play for her, but Lin Tao didn’t appreciate it, so he just ended up keeping it