Lu Rangchen’s words were deeply compelling.

So much so that in that very instant, Zhu Yunque genuinely couldn’t stop herself from wondering — if this man were to be a boyfriend, just how good could he be, and just how bad could he get when he was being difficult?

Yet when it truly came down to it, everything seemed far harder to realize than what she had imagined.

Too much stood between them.

Perhaps a single argument would be all it took — and he would no longer be the person she had idealized, and she herself would no longer be the calm, rational, effortlessly composed version of herself she believed she was.

When that moment came, if it was over, it would truly be over.

She didn’t know whether she could bear it — the prospect of becoming the most familiar of strangers with Lu Rangchen somewhere down the road.

And yet, even so.

She still couldn’t suppress the tidal surge of feeling and fondness rising inside her.

The fingertips he held trembled faintly, but she didn’t pull them away.

Holding on to the last shred of her composure, Zhu Yunque said, “Lu Rangchen, I hope you think this through carefully.”

Lu Rangchen raised an eyebrow lightly. “Think what through.”

Zhu Yunque looked up at him, her gaze appearing calm on the surface yet brimming with undercurrents beneath. “Whether or not the two of us are suited for each other.”

Quite the mood-killer of a statement.

A normal person wouldn’t, in an atmosphere like this, make the person they liked want to retreat.

But she did exactly that.

Lu Rangchen truly hadn’t expected her to say something like this.

He studied her for two seconds, finding it a little amusing. “Is this how you turn down blind date prospects?”

“……”

Zhu Yunque moved her lips. “I’m not joking. We don’t really know each other.”

“Then we get to know each other more.”

Lu Rangchen tilted his head and glanced at her, his eyes very deep. “Do we need to know every single thing you hate and love, or learn every last detail about you, before we can be together?”

“……At the very least, I don’t understand you.”

Zhu Yunque slowly opened herself up. “And you don’t really understand me either.”

Lu Rangchen was genuinely amused by her advance-and-retreat, attack-and-defend manner.

After a brief pause of two seconds, he said, “I don’t understand you — I don’t understand why your eyes are clearly full of me, yet you refuse to take a single step toward me.”

“Zhu Yunque,” he said her name with great gravity, “what on earth are you afraid of? Are you afraid I’m not sincere?”

“What terrible thing must I have done in a past life, to make you have reservations this deep?”

“……”

Zhu Yunque was rendered utterly speechless by his exasperated tone.

In a certain sense, Lu Rangchen had indeed seen through her.

Remaining silent, she looked away and rolled down the car window.

The night was thick as ink.

Set against it was the dazzling, glittering spectacle of the bustling street scene.

Zhu Yunque spread her five fingers and stretched her hand outside, pausing for a few seconds, then began speaking, unhurried. “But, Lu Rangchen — I don’t want to be a kite.”

She turned her head and looked at the young man she had been in love with since she was seventeen. “I only want to be the wind.”

The deep, lacquer-dark color of his eyes seemed to be lit up by her words.

Lu Rangchen raised his gaze and fixed it steadily on her.

That look held no confusion, no contempt or disdain — just a quiet, straight-forward intensity, as if nothing in the world was more worth caring about than her presence before him.

Suddenly, he made a quiet sound of acknowledgment, his tone carrying a warmth that seemed to merge with the very moment around them. “Why.”

Zhu Yunque pressed her lips together and said, “Because wherever the wind blows, the kite has to follow.”

A moment of silence.

Lu Rangchen let out a soft breath of laughter, as though he understood something.

Sometimes he rather admired Zhu Yunque — something very complicated, and she could make it clear in just two sentences.

No need to tear anything apart, and she would never say anything so wounding or unpleasant.

Perceptive to the point of being headache-inducing.

But still, he wanted to ask: “Then what if you can’t manage to be the wind?”

Zhu Yunque looked at him with meaning for the first time.

She said, “Then I’ll be nothing at all — I’ll just be myself.”

Lu Rangchen gave a snorted laugh. “You think I’d agree to that?”

Zhu Yunque said nothing.

Lu Rangchen narrowed his eyes, as if he’d decided not to bother thinking about something he couldn’t figure out, and spoke in a tone that was almost stubbornly forceful: “Anyway, whether it’s wind or kite, whatever metaphor you use — you’ll be using it on me.”

Zhu Yunque: “……”

The perfectly good atmosphere was disrupted just like that by his willful insistence.

She pressed her lips together to hold back a smile. “Are you a bandit or something? This bossy.”

Lu Rangchen laughed with poorly concealed exasperation. “Who’s the bandit here — me or you? You come right in wanting to be the wind, blowing me around as hard as you can. Can’t you be a little nicer to me?”

……Zhu Yunque was already beginning to regret saying any of this to him.

She tried to pull her hand back.

Lu Rangchen made it plain he wasn’t letting her go — he tightened his grip on her hand, and no matter how many times she tugged, he didn’t budge an inch.

Zhu Yunque’s expression flickered with mild annoyance.

Lu Rangchen, with amusement dancing in the corners of his eyes and brows, delivered a very apt assessment: “I can see you’re genuinely quite stubborn.”

“Not just stubborn. Bossy, too.”

“And not quite as gentle as you look — you’ve got a real personality.”

“Mm. Quite a handful.”

His tone was leisurely and nonchalant. These were plainly words that exposed her flaws, yet there wasn’t the slightest trace of mockery or criticism to be heard — only a blatantly obvious, indulgent fondness.

Zhu Yunque suppressed the corner of her mouth.

She couldn’t quite name her feeling, but she muttered, “Good that you know.”

Lu Rangchen, however, broke into a casual smile, pulled off an abrupt reversal, and spoke as if deliberately provoking her: “But I just happen to like stubborn girls.”

“……”

Both of Zhu Yunque’s cheeks began to burn.

She suddenly understood what Lu Rangchen meant by the word “bad.”

This kind of bad from him.

Was actually the sort that left people completely unable to defend themselves.

What surprised her even more was that Lu Rangchen seemed to care very much about her attitude toward him.

He raised an eyebrow and shifted to another topic. “So — is there anything else? Say it all so I can hear it.”

But Zhu Yunque’s spirit had returned.

She looked away, her expression blank. “There’s nothing left to say.”

Lu Rangchen let out a suppressed laugh.

With inexhaustible patience, he peered at her. “If you won’t say it, that’s fine — I’ll say it for you.”

Zhu Yunque was mildly taken aback.

Lu Rangchen leaned lazily in the driver’s seat, his other hand resting on the steering wheel, the expression on his face relaxed, at ease, and settled.

After a brief consideration, he spoke quite sincerely: “Zhu Yunque, don’t let my appearance fool you — I’m actually a pretty serious person. At least more serious than you imagine.”

“And I’m not someone who makes promises lightly. But I want you to know—”

He paused for a moment, then turned his head and looked at the young woman with complete directness, his low, magnetic, mellow voice carrying a certainty as solid as bedrock.

“If you come with me, I will never let you regret it.”

“So then!!!!!”

“After all that — you two still didn’t get together and kiss and hug and go get a room?!?!?!”

“Zhu Yunque, have you ever tried to kick an addiction?!?!”

“Is something wrong with him or something wrong with you?!?!”

Nine o’clock in the evening.

The dormitory room, with only the two of them inside, was filled with Liang Tian’s wave after wave of high-decibel outbursts — like a thousand cavalry had galloped through.

Zhu Yunque laughed. “Liang Tian, have you lost your mind?”

Liang Tian stared at her with wide, rapidly blinking eyes. “I think you’re the one who’s lost her mind. You’ve liked him for so long, he’s actively pursuing you, and you still turned him down — I really can’t figure out what you’re thinking.”

The words hit Zhu Yunque, and she exhaled a light breath.

She said nothing.

On the desk sat several dishes they’d brought back from a restaurant.

There was also a large bag of snacks and fruit that Lu Rangchen had bought for her — as if money meant nothing to him.

That had happened when the two of them returned to campus.

Lu Rangchen had kept her locked in the car until he’d finished buying everything, only then letting her out.

He’d also walked her to the foot of the dormitory building before leaving.

Splitting the fruit and snacks with Liang Tian, Zhu Yunque looked down and said, “I told him to take some more time to think it over.”

Liang Tian held the big pile of food in her arms and hit the nail on the head: “That’s not you letting him think it over at all — that’s you putting him through a test for a while.”

“But I don’t want to be hasty about this.”

Zhu Yunque thought about it and said, “I just want to let him figure out whether what he feels for me is a fleeting impulse, or whether he genuinely likes me.”

There were so many interesting people in this world.

If she was going to do it, she wanted to be the one who left a permanent mark on him — not someone interchangeable and easily forgotten.

“You really are something else when it comes to keeping a clear head,” said Liang Tian, peeling open a banana in admiration. “So what — you two aren’t going to see each other for a while, then?”

Zhu Yunque’s thoughts drifted.

She said she didn’t know.

She didn’t know what Lu Rangchen would think either — maybe by the next morning he’d have convinced himself they weren’t suited for each other after all.

If that was how it turned out……

Zhu Yunque suddenly felt a bit unsettled, and realized she hadn’t even figured out what she would do.

On the other side of town.

After sending Zhu Yunque back to the dormitory, Lu Rangchen returned to the apartment he had newly rented.

A two-bedroom, one-living-room unit with no warmth or life to it.

Even the decor carried the aura of a professional urban office worker.

The moment Lu Rangchen switched on the light, the little chubby cat came meowing over and rubbed against his legs.

He crouched down and petted it for a while, changed its cat food and water, and then received a call from Lin Zhi.

Lin Zhi had mostly sobered up by then — her tongue was no longer tangled — and the moment she opened her mouth she asked him how things had gone with Zhu Yunque.

Lu Rangchen sprawled lazily on the sofa, a cigarette dangling between his fingers, unlit, and laughed with mild exasperation. “Did you know her before?”

Lin Zhi was baffled. “What’s wrong with you, Lu Rangchen? I haven’t seen you in so long — how would I know her? I’ve never even been to Nancheng.”

Lu Rangchen gave a snort of laughter. “Then how did she recognize you right away, and ask me if you and I would end up getting married?”

Lin Zhi made a sound of surprise. “Where did she hear that? She actually knows about that?”

Lu Rangchen said, “What does she know? Who’s going to marry you.”

Lin Zhi was displeased. “You’re awfully dismissive of me, aren’t you.”

Lu Rangchen, impatiently: “Just tell me the truth.”

Lin Zhi snapped at him: “You little brat, show some respect — at the very least I’m the same age as Zhitao, which makes me your senior in terms of seniority, so watch your tone.”

She’d always been someone who spoke her mind without filter, without a gate on her mouth.

The moment the words were out, she regretted them.

Seeing Lu Rangchen go quiet, she cleared her throat lightly and redirected: “Anyway, I genuinely don’t know her — don’t go making accusations.”

She might be impulsive, but she never lied.

Lu Rangchen was silent for a moment, then replied with an indifferent “alright,” and planned to ask someone else about it later.

Lin Zhi was still quite invested. “What happened — did you two not come to an agreement?”

Perhaps because he wasn’t sure who else to talk to about this.

Lu Rangchen put the cigarette between his lips and lit it, and after two seconds he made an affirmative sound and gave a brief account of their conversation.

Lin Zhi nearly lost it. “This girl is something else — she can actually turn you down?!?!”

Lu Rangchen gave a dry laugh. “What do you mean ‘me’? Am I not a person?”

His tone held a self-deprecating lightness, with just a faint edge of wounded pride.

Lin Zhi didn’t understand. “Didn’t you say she used to have a secret crush on you?”

Lu Rangchen smiled faintly. “She still has to tell me herself before that counts.”

Lin Zhi: “……”

She was genuinely at a loss. “Why didn’t you just ask her directly?”

Lu Rangchen scoffed. “With her personality? If I actually asked, there’d be nothing left to discuss.”

Lin Zhi said, “Why?”

Lu Rangchen thought about it for a moment and said, “She’s too pure.”

“……”

“And a secret crush is called a secret crush precisely because you don’t want to tell the person.”

Lin Zhi clicked her tongue in frustration. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“Don’t you jinx me.”

“I’m serious, it doesn’t feel good.”

Lin Zhi said, “It’s not that I think you can’t win her over — it’s that she has too easy a hold over you.”

Idly watching the crimson ember burning at the tip of his cigarette.

Lu Rangchen let his gaze drift, unfocused.

Lin Zhi said, “If the information your friend gave you is right, then it means this girl is frighteningly clear-headed. She’s been quietly liking you all this time and managed to hold it in — and even after you took the initiative to break through the window paper, she still asks you to think it over. That’s just pulling at you, isn’t it? Taking whatever sixty-out-of-a-hundred fondness you had for her and pulling it up to ninety.”

“My goodness, if I had that kind of self-control, I wouldn’t have gone through twenty-eight relationships.”

Lu Rangchen flicked off some ash, and she made him laugh despite himself. “Can you talk without making it sound so awful?”

Lin Zhi needled him: “Oh, oh, oh, she hasn’t even given you a title yet and you’re already defending her.”

Lu Rangchen laughed. “Enough of that.”

Lin Zhi said her piece and stopped there. “Anyway, just watch yourself — don’t end up falling head over heels for her without even realizing it.”

Lu Rangchen, utterly unconcerned, gave a casual smile. “Then I fall.”

He said, “As long as she’s happy.”

Lin Zhi almost wanted to shake some sense into him, but she also knew — when it came to feelings between a man and a woman, once someone was in that deep, no amount of talking could change a thing.

She thought about it and asked, “So what are you planning to do now? Actually give each other a few days to cool down?”

Lu Rangchen was very decisive. “Not a chance.”

He couldn’t cool down.

He’d had a hard time cooling down the entire evening.

Lin Zhi said, “Do you need me to do anything — like explain our relationship to her? Play the mediator?”

He took the last drag of the cigarette, and milky white smoke scattered in all directions.

Lu Rangchen’s mind inexplicably drifted to the reddened eyes Zhu Yunque had when she asked, “Will you and she get married someday?”

He stubbed out the cigarette, his tone lifting slightly at the end. “You can go — just don’t say anything you’re not supposed to.”

“My future girlfriend.”

Lu Rangchen’s voice was a helpless sort of fond, laughing without quite being aware of his own indulgence. “So hard to coax.”