Zhu Yunque often felt as though she were dreaming.

Living inside an impossible, beautiful dream.

Someone like her — a person whose luck had never been particularly good, not from childhood, not ever — had somehow, at nineteen, gotten exactly what she’d once longed for.

She had the boy she had dreamed of since she was seventeen.

And his feelings for her seemed to run even deeper than anything she had ever dared to hope for.

This reality left Zhu Yunque with a recurring sense of bewildered disbelief, the feeling of being unexpectedly, almost undeservedly cherished — so much so that when she went back to find Feng Yanlai in the supermarket, Feng Yanlai took one look at her expression and immediately noticed the dazed, faraway quality in it.

Feng Yanlai studied her for a moment. “What’s the matter with you?”

“……”

Zhu Yunque was actually quite good at lying, but in that moment, her earlobes went red anyway.

The memory of that wild, unguarded kiss the two of them had shared deep in the corridor flashed through her mind. She lightly pressed together the lips Lu Rangchen had kissed to a faint flush of color, and said it was nothing.

Cheng Liru chimed in from the side. “She’s probably uncomfortable from her period. Get her some ibuprofen on the way.”

At that, Feng Yanlai’s expression cleared at once, and she smiled at Cheng Liru. “You’re always so thoughtful.”

Cheng Liru looked at Zhu Yunque with a fond warmth. “Young girls should be pampered and raised like little princesses — only then will they grow up too wise to be deceived.”

This was a point on which Feng Yanlai was not quite in agreement.

She knew Zhu Yunque far too well, and gave her a mildly critical look. “With a temperament this stubborn, if I spoiled her like a princess, she’d probably be even harder to keep in line when she’s older.”

Cheng Liru laughed and said, “How could that be? My child is the truly difficult one — and right now I have no idea where he’s wandered off to.”

And with that the two of them finished checking out.

As they pushed the cart toward the exit, Cheng Liru asked Zhu Yunque, “Did you happen to see Lu Rangchen?”

Zhu Yunque said she hadn’t.

Cheng Liru had no choice but to call him.

In the brief window that bought, Feng Yanlai said goodbye to Cheng Liru and prepared to leave, saying she had things to take care of, that they’d have a meal together sometime soon.

Cheng Liru nodded and agreed. The two exchanged a few parting pleasantries and said goodbye.

Zhu Yunque followed Feng Yanlai out of the supermarket. Once they were back in the car, Feng Yanlai asked Zhu Yunque plainly, “You and Lu Rangchen — there’s really nothing between you two?”

Zhu Yunque was replying to Ye Tian’s messages with her head down when she heard this. Her fingers paused.

After a brief silence, she said, “No.”

A moment passed in quiet. Then Feng Yanlai said, “Good.”

Zhu Yunque looked up at her, something steady and probing in her gaze. “Why would it not be good?”

Feng Yanlai looked at her, mildly exasperated. “What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing. Just curious.”

Feng Yanlai’s tone was not particularly warm. “Don’t tell me there’s actually something going on between you two.”

Zhu Yunque’s expression remained perfectly composed. “Of course not.”

A brief silence settled over them.

Feng Yanlai held her words in check for a moment, then said, “I’ll say it again, Yunque — people like them, a family like theirs, Lu Rangchen included — they’re not for you. I’m not trying to meddle in your love life. I just don’t want you to get hurt later on.”

Zhu Yunque’s lips parted slightly.

She wanted to ask how Feng Yanlai could be so certain she would end up hurt, but though the words hovered at the edge of her tongue, she couldn’t quite bring herself to say them.

She genuinely didn’t know what it was that Feng Yanlai was so worried about.

But she didn’t dwell on it.

Perhaps sensing that the mood had shifted, Feng Yanlai took it upon herself to change the subject several times afterward, and Zhu Yunque responded with only half her attention, until they arrived at the First People’s Hospital where the elderly woman was staying.

Zhu Ping’an had a train run to make over the next few days.

Deng Jiali was the one keeping watch at her bedside.

Being ill had softened the old woman somewhat — she wasn’t as sharp-tongued as usual, and lay quietly in bed without a word, while the two women did all the talking.

It was only later that Feng Yanlai came to learn that during those days, Deng Jiali had actually treated Zhu Yunque fairly well.

So over the past two years, the two of them had managed to maintain a reasonably civil surface between them.

Deng Jiali knew that Feng Yanlai had come to bring her money, and was completely taken aback — she looked as though she were on the verge of tears.

Feng Yanlai had no patience for emotional scenes. “Don’t thank me,” she said. “Thank Yunque — it was her idea to help your son.”

Deng Jiali looked at Zhu Yunque, her eyes reddening.

Zhu Yunque was looking down at her phone at that moment. Lu Rangchen had just messaged her saying he was taking Cheng Liru to dinner at a very good Japanese restaurant, and that he’d have to take her there next time too.

To keep Feng Yanlai from noticing anything unusual, she had taken the precaution of changing his contact name.

What to change it to? She thought about it, and in the end settled on an English word — “dream.”

She had just finished typing the last letter when Deng Jiali, voice catching with emotion, said to her, “You really are something, child — you don’t hold grudges against anyone, and you’re always so thoughtful.”

Is there any mother who doesn’t love hearing someone praise her child?

Feng Yanlai felt inwardly pleased herself. “Exactly — this child has always had a soft heart, ever since she was little. I’ve always worried she’d be taken advantage of.”

Zhu Yunque wasn’t sure if she was reading too much into it, but she had the distinct sense that those words were aimed at someone.

She didn’t bother dwelling on it. She glanced mildly at Deng Jiali and said evenly, “Auntie doesn’t need to think anything of it — I did it for Ye Tian.”

Ye Tian could not drop out of school.

That was Zhu Yunque’s one non-negotiable condition for Deng Jiali.

The moment Ye Tian was brought up, Deng Jiali’s frustration flared. She let out a sigh and said, “That child has a good heart — he just can’t keep his temper in check.”

This fight hadn’t been out of mischief. He had seen a group of troublemakers at school bullying a classmate, and stepped in to help. Things had escalated from there.

The boy who’d been hurt came from a family with money and connections, and they were refusing to let the matter go.

They were demanding an apology and compensation — or else Ye Tian would be expelled and handed over to a juvenile detention center.

Zhu Ping’an was nothing more than an ordinary city resident, with no connections to speak of. When all was said and done, there was nothing for it but to pay up and accept the loss.

And then there was the elderly grandmother in the hospital on top of everything else. He had been sick with worry over it all for days.

He had barely stepped out of the hospital when Zhu Ping’an’s phone call came through. He asked Feng Yanlai, with considerable embarrassment, for those thirty thousand yuan.

Whatever had happened between the two of them was something Zhu Yunque had never much cared to pay attention to.

In the end, all she heard Feng Yanlai say was: who else are you to me, if not Yunque’s father?

Zhu Yunque listened quietly, and found herself thinking — Feng Yanlai wasn’t entirely without warmth, after all.

After spending a little more time talking with Deng Jiali, the two of them finally left the hospital.

It was nearly three o’clock in the afternoon. Feng Yanlai took Zhu Yunque out to make up for the lunch they’d missed.

It just so happened to be the same Japanese restaurant where Lu Rangchen had taken Cheng Liru. Feng Yanlai ordered a few dishes without much thought, and the total already exceeded a thousand yuan.

Zhu Yunque was genuinely surprised.

The most expensive meal she could remember Feng Yanlai taking her to outside of home had been an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet at 398 yuan per person.

Over the meal, Zhu Yunque couldn’t resist asking whether Feng Yanlai’s business was really doing that well, given that she was now taking her to restaurants this expensive.

Feng Yanlai didn’t bother hiding it. “The business is doing well, that part is true — otherwise your mother wouldn’t have had the money to play the charitable benefactor just now. But as for this restaurant, a friend gave me a gift card. I’d never spend this kind of money on a meal otherwise.”

Zhu Yunque thought: that friend was probably a business partner.

Though come to think of it — maybe a suitor, not entirely out of the question.

Feng Yanlai had an energy about her lately, something vibrant and self-assured, a certain air of someone who was flourishing.

She was still fairly young. Finding someone new wouldn’t be out of the ordinary at all.

Zhu Yunque ate and let her mind drift, and before long her thoughts had drifted to Lu Rangchen — wondering what he had planned for her tonight, and what excuse she could give Feng Yanlai.

She didn’t think she’d ever been like this before.

So thoroughly scattered, not quite sure what she was supposed to be doing at any given moment.

When she got home, she shut herself in her room and half-heartedly tidied up some odds and ends.

Then she found a long-unused metal tin. She opened it — inside were a few things: a diary, a necklace inside a small jewelry box, and the little bear keychain she had won as a prize at a restaurant raffle.

Zhu Yunque looked at them in silence for a moment, and just then her phone gave a small vibration.

dream: 【What are you doing?】

It had to be said — love was such a peculiar thing. Even a throwaway message from the person you liked could bring you a small, involuntary lift of happiness.

Zhu Yunque took a photo of the things in the tin and replied: 【Tidying up things at home.】

The autumn days in Nancheng were shorter.

The bedroom light was off, and the light was a little dim.

With a quiet, restrained sense of anticipation, Zhu Yunque waited for Lu Rangchen to reply.

He didn’t disappoint her. Very quickly he wrote back: 【These two things look like they’re both connected to me somehow.】

He meant the jewelry box and the little bear pendant.

Zhu Yunque’s lips curved faintly. She said: 【They’re kept because they’re connected to you.】

dream: 【Is that jewelry box for that necklace?】

He meant the one that had turned out to be the same style as Lin Zhinian’s.

Zhu Yunque said it was.

dream: 【That’s fine, don’t worry about wearing it — you have a new one now anyway.】

The new one was, of course, the jade Guanyin pendant.

She had brought it with her when she came back.

After a couple of seconds, Lu Rangchen added: 【As for the little keychain — don’t throw it away. Mine is still at home somewhere. I’ll look for it later.】

Zhu Yunque: 【I figured you’d long since lost it.】

dream: 【No.】

dream: 【That was the first thing you ever gave me.】

“……”

Zhu Yunque genuinely couldn’t tell whether this was his honest feeling, or just sweet words meant to please her.

She thought for a moment, then couldn’t resist calling his bluff: 【If it means that much, why don’t you carry it with you?】

Lu Rangchen replied in an instant: 【Come find me, and I’ll show it to you in person.】

He wasn’t joking.

He added: 【Wasn’t it your boyfriend who was supposed to put the necklace on you himself? Come out.】

His tone was effortlessly casual, yet entirely deliberate in its pull — like a bad boy coaxing a well-behaved kid into sneaking out to run wild.

If it weren’t for the fact that she had to meet Ye Tian later, Zhu Yunque genuinely might not have been able to hold herself back. But it couldn’t be helped — she and Ye Tian had already made plans. She was meeting him for dinner.

Zhu Yunque was not the kind to lose her head over romance.

She replied: 【Didn’t you say you’d come pick me up tonight?】

Lu Rangchen replied without a trace of shame: 【I did. But I can’t wait that long — I want to see you sooner.】

Many years later, Zhu Yunque would still think back to that quiet afternoon, and to those words from Lu Rangchen.

Simple. Direct. And yet — so quietly devastating in the best possible way.

It seemed as though he never concealed anything from her. Hatred was hatred, love was love; reluctance to let go was genuine, and when he gave something up, he truly never looked back.

……

That evening, Zhu Yunque held firm and turned Lu Rangchen down. She went out to meet Ye Tian.

Ye Tian had been staying at his father’s place for the past few days.

His father was a drunk — no money, a gambling habit, and a man who beat his wife. That was why Deng Jiali had left.

But Ye Tian wasn’t afraid of him.

After all, he just needed somewhere to be — it didn’t make much difference where.

Still, drifting through life this numbly was no way to go on. Only Zhu Yunque could say anything that would get through to him.

The two of them met at the noodle shop Ye Tian loved most. Zhu Yunque ordered several of his favorite dishes.

The two of them had never needed many words. Often a single look was enough for each to understand the other.

Like right now — Ye Tian ate his noodles in silence, cheeks bulging, while his eyes were red and raw.

Zhu Yunque sat watching him quietly. The expression on her face was even more open and unguarded than the one she wore with Feng Yanlai.

She said, “Once things are sorted out, go back to school and keep your head down. Stop making your parents worry — they have it hard enough as it is.”

“If things are weighing on you, study hard, get yourself into university — even a third-tier school is fine. Come to the capital. I’ll be there, and we can look out for each other.”

“There’s not much I can actually do for you. The most I’m capable of is this. Ye Tian, I’m not going to lecture you — I just want you to take responsibility for your own life.”

Adults had told him all of this before, many times.

But Ye Tian could only ever hear it from Zhu Yunque.

She said it simply, without any particular weight, yet Ye Tian’s tears dropped one after another, nothing like the composed young man he usually tried to be.

They ate in quiet for a while.

Ye Tian looked up at Zhu Yunque and said, “I’ll pay your mom back one day.”

Zhu Yunque smiled lightly and said fine.

Ye Tian pressed his lips together and said nothing more for a long while, and then finally asked, “Are you doing alright up in the capital?”

Zhu Yunque said, “Pretty good, actually. I’m even seeing someone.”

She said it the way you’d mention the weather — casual and easy, as though it were nothing at all.

To anyone else, she would never have said it. Only to Ye Tian — Ye Tian had her absolute trust.

Ye Tian blinked. “Do I know him?”

Zhu Yunque shook her head.

He paused, then asked, “Is he good to you?”

Zhu Yunque gave a soft laugh. “What do you think?”

Zhu Yunque didn’t smile often. Most of the time there was a cool, detached quality about her, a kind of distant reserve that made it seem as though nothing in the world quite touched her.

But right now she was different.

Ye Tian watched her in silence, and all of a sudden felt it — her whole essence had changed.

No longer that faint, muted shade of blue-grey.

Now it was something warm. Something like the color of a gentle light.

A quiet relief settled over Ye Tian. He said, “As long as he treats you well.”

Zhu Yunque’s smile held, the curve of it lingering at the corner of her lips. She was just about to say something when her gaze suddenly snagged on something behind him.

She truly hadn’t expected him to come, and her eyes stilled for just a moment.

Ye Tian noticed and followed her gaze, turning to look — and there was someone very striking standing there: black jacket, white hoodie, tall, understated yet expensive in that particular way that couldn’t be concealed no matter how casually he dressed.

Even when he sat down beside him, the air around him carried that deep, cool scent of dark wood and oud — the kind of fragrance that spoke of money without trying.

Lu Rangchen sat himself right down between the two of them, entirely at ease, and with a natural authority that put him several notches above everyone around him — yet he still fixed Ye Tian with a look that hovered somewhere between amusement and assessment.

Ye Tian froze. Then he looked at Zhu Yunque.

Zhu Yunque looked at Lu Rangchen. “What are you doing here?”

Lu Rangchen sized Ye Tian up for a moment, then glanced sideways at Zhu Yunque. “What time is it?”

“……”

Zhu Yunque didn’t need to check. It had to be past six.

The time they had originally agreed to meet was six o’clock.

Lu Rangchen had had no choice earlier, so he’d told Zhu Yunque to go ahead and see Ye Tian first, said he’d come pick her up afterward, and had asked for the address of where they’d be meeting.

And then he’d simply grown impatient, gotten in the car, and come over himself.

Zhu Yunque was glad, inwardly.

But she didn’t want it to show. She kept her composure and introduced them plainly. “This is my boyfriend. Lu Rangchen.”

Lu Rangchen gave her a meaningful sidelong look — he seemed pleased by the title, the faintest smirk tugging at his mouth.

He extended a hand toward Ye Tian, eyebrow raised with unabashed audacity. “You can call me brother-in-law.”

“……”

Zhu Yunque immediately aimed a kick at the toe of his shoe under the table.

Lu Rangchen didn’t so much as flinch, just kept the corner of his mouth pulled up like it was someone else’s problem.

Ye Tian weighed Zhu Yunque’s reaction carefully, then reached out and shook his hand. “Ye Tian.”

It had to be said — Lu Rangchen’s grip was firm to an almost pointed degree. Zhu Yunque actually saw Ye Tian’s eyebrow twitch.

After they paid and left the restaurant, Zhu Yunque didn’t give Lu Rangchen a single warm look the whole way out.

Lu Rangchen, for his part, had kept that same upward curve at the corner of his mouth from the moment he’d spotted her, and hadn’t let it drop once.

Just before they parted ways, Zhu Yunque pulled Ye Tian aside, and Lu Rangchen leaned against the car smoking while he waited.

Zhu Yunque said to Ye Tian in a low voice, “Don’t tell anyone that I left with Lu Rangchen. If anyone asks, say I was with you.”

Ye Tian was rather put out by this and frowned, glancing across the street at Lu Rangchen smoking. “Is he actually a decent person?”

Then he looked straight at Zhu Yunque, clearly annoyed. “I really didn’t think you’d turn out to be this shallow.”

Zhu Yunque knocked him on the head and said, “What’s wrong with being shallow? What’s wrong with liking someone good-looking?”

Ye Tian suppressed something that might have been wounded pride, face tight. “You’re not afraid he’ll date ten girls at once?”

Zhu Yunque shot a cool glance in Lu Rangchen’s direction, her tone utterly certain. “Would he dare?”

With that, she reached into her pocket and pulled out an envelope — plain yellow, the ordinary kind, but stuffed thick.

She held it out to Ye Tian. “Take it. Lu Rangchen wanted to give it to you.”

Ye Tian genuinely froze at that.

He took it and opened it to find a thick stack of bills inside — all hundreds. There had to be two thousand at the very least, perhaps three.

“He said it’s a gift for meeting you. He went and withdrew it from an ATM on the way here.”

Ye Tian stared, as though something had lodged in his throat and wouldn’t go down. He looked at Lu Rangchen from a distance, incredulous.

Lu Rangchen was squinting toward the two of them, smoke rising faintly around him, his gaze carrying something that could only be described as quietly dangerous.

Ye Tian couldn’t manage a single word.

Zhu Yunque watched the look that passed between the two of them and stifled a laugh. “Still think he’s bad news?”