“Head back together” — but the first stop Lu Rangchen took Yunque to that night was a pharmacy.

Close by the hotel, not far at all.

Lu Rangchen pulled the car over to the curb, and when Yunque asked where he was going, he looked at her like it was self-evident, his gaze going directly to the broken skin at the corner of her mouth. He said: “It’s already broken. Are you going to wait for it to heal on its own without putting anything on it?”

“……”

Only then did Yunque understand what he had in mind.

This was how he always was.

He said little and did much — whatever Yunque happened to need, he had a way of anticipating it and placing it within reach before she’d even said a word.

A man like that — it wasn’t an exaggeration to say you couldn’t find another even searching by lantern light.

And yet, years ago, she had let him go without a second thought.

While Lu Rangchen was inside buying the medicine, Yunque sat alone in the passenger seat, staring out at nothing. She thought about the meal the two of them had shared that evening. She thought about the things Niu Haifeng had said. She thought about every look Lu Rangchen had given her throughout the night.

Clear, composed, and filled with quiet possession — every one of those glances had moved something in her.

Niu Haifeng had also told her: when Lu Rangchen handed over the red envelopes, he’d acknowledged their relationship without hesitation.

His tone had been flat and unreadable, his words stripped down to their essentials: “Dated. Broke up.”

Niu Haifeng had been quite surprised to hear it and asked directly what the situation between them was now.

“What situation could there be.”

Lu Rangchen had given a lazy, lopsided smile, entirely nonchalant, and said: “It’s up to her.”

A flippant answer, thrown out like a joke.

And yet hearing the recounting of it, Yunque’s heartbeat seemed to falter and stop for a beat.

Niu Haifeng was not the sort of man who liked to involve himself in other people’s private affairs.

In the end, all he had said to Yunque was: “Rangchen is a good man in every respect — character, capability. Countless girls have chased him without getting anywhere. Stop hesitating.”

Perhaps teachers did just have a sharper eye for people.

In that moment, Yunque felt as though something had stung her squarely in the chest — a faint, electric ache, leaving her completely at a loss for how to respond.

And she couldn’t help thinking: how could Niu Haifeng be so certain, after all this time, that Lu Rangchen still wanted no one but her?

He was that good. And that proud.

So many people adored him.

He could, without any effort at all, choose someone worthier than her. Someone more certain.

Those thoughts drifted further than they should have, and a quiet, formless weight settled in behind them.

Yunque had been sitting motionless in the passenger seat for quite a while before Lu Rangchen finally came back.

He opened the door, got in, and dropped a plastic bag full of things onto her lap.

Yunque blinked and came back to herself. She opened the bag and found several kinds of ointment, along with bandages.

She looked at Lu Rangchen in mild confusion, not quite understanding the bandages.

Lu Rangchen raised an eyebrow and said: “For the one on your neck. You still have to cover it up — or were you planning to just walk around like that?”

Yunque instinctively touched her neck — and only then realized that the bandage she’d put on that morning must have come off at some point.

The thought that she’d been sitting at that dinner table with something that conspicuous on her neck made her color with an almost involuntary embarrassment.

Lu Rangchen simply tore open the bandage packaging himself, and said to her: “Come here. I’ll put it on for you.”

An entirely natural tone of voice.

In that already small, enclosed space, it felt as though some unspoken arrangement already existed between them.

And perhaps it did, in a way.

After all, last night, the two of them had kissed the way they’d kissed.

He’d left a mark on her — but she hadn’t exactly gone easy on him either. She knew far too well how to ignite Lu Rangchen, that particular bundle of dry kindling.

But the night was one thing, and the present was another.

When the charged currents of desire ebbed away, what remained was only clarity.

She was still herself. Lu Rangchen was still himself.

Yunque curled her fingertips inward. She couldn’t have said why, but that blocked, stubborn pressure rose in her chest again.

She said: “It’s fine. I can do it myself.”

She reached over and took the bandage from Lu Rangchen’s hand. Their fingertips grazed for a brief moment.

Lu Rangchen slanted a look at her and said nothing.

Yunque took out her compact from her bag, angled the mirror, and applied the bandage herself. When she turned her head, she found Lu Rangchen watching her — his gaze deep and utterly open, like a predator’s fixed on its mark.

Something trembled at the very tip of her heart.

Yunque looked away, and said quietly: “What are you looking at.”

Lu Rangchen’s gaze didn’t waver. His voice was low and even: “Trying to figure out what’s going on in that little head of yours.”

The cadence of it held something that wasn’t quite tenderness but was too gentle to be anything else.

The air between them shifted — the way it does when both people know, without saying it, that the reckless kiss of last night had changed something between them.

Yunque was quiet for a few seconds. Then she gathered herself and looked at him.

Her eyes were clear and dark, bright and unguarded. She said: “You were supposed to be with Zhang Leyao and the others tonight. Why are you here.”

She’d been holding that question back for a long time. It had never quite found the right moment to surface — and even now, Yunque hadn’t anticipated how offhand Lu Rangchen’s answer would be.

He furrowed his brow slightly and said: “Zhang Leyao is who?”

“……”

The wave of sheer disbelief hit her immediately.

Yunque stared at him, incredulous. “You’re not joking?”

Lu Rangchen gave a short laugh: “What would I be joking about? I don’t know her.”

He sounded genuinely unbothered.

Yunque was stunned for a moment, then offered: “The one at Old Liu’s place that day — the one who opened the door. She looked quite pretty.”

At that reminder, something surfaced in Lu Rangchen’s memory after a beat. “You mean her?”

His point of focus was entirely different from hers. He furrowed his brow slightly, and said with a quiet laugh: “Pretty? Her?”

“……”

“Is something wrong with your eyes?”

It had to be said — Lu Rangchen’s tongue could be genuinely vicious when he aimed it.

And Yunque’s speechlessness was equally genuine.

She also finally understood — with some delay — that from the beginning, Zhang Leyao had probably been making the whole thing up. Bragging. Deliberately provoking her.

And she had actually believed it.

The silence that followed.

And then the realization seemed to hit Lu Rangchen as well.

He half-narrowed his eyes, his expression somewhere between amused and knowing: “So. What exactly did she say to you.”

Yunque pressed her lips together. One second of awkwardness.

She angled her gaze slightly away. “Nothing.”

Lu Rangchen’s mouth curved at one corner. He naturally didn’t believe that.

He gave her a brief, considering look, and said: “So you were jealous over something completely fabricated.”

“……”

Yunque’s lips parted slightly, the impulse to deny it nearly automatic.

But the emotion written across her eyes and brow couldn’t be lied away.

She had been jealous.

And not mildly.

And layered over that was the weight of the harsh things Lu Rangchen had said last night — she’d been almost certain everything between them was finished. How was she supposed to have anticipated he would simply turn up like this?

The shadow over her mood had dissipated without her even noticing when it happened.

She said: “How did you know where the dinner was?”

“I found a mutual classmate and asked. Simple as that.”

His tone was the same one you’d use to solve an arithmetic problem — as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Then he raised an eyebrow and asked: “Did the teacher take your red envelope?”

Yunque shook her head. “No.”

She looked at Lu Rangchen, a resigned helplessness in her expression. “What did you go and combine them for.”

Lu Rangchen made a quiet, satisfied sound at that, in a manner that was frankly a little insufferable. “Then just pay me back.”

And he actually pulled out his phone, bringing up his WeChat QR code and holding it out to her.

Yunque didn’t see that one coming and very nearly choked.

But quickly enough, from the direct, unwavering look Lu Rangchen held out along with the phone, she understood his actual purpose.

Lu Rangchen was entirely unabashed about it — gaze steady, not a flicker of evasion. He said: “Go on, then.”

Yunque: “……”

She really did obediently scan his code with her phone.

Their fingertips nearly touched again in the exchange.

So — he had her phone number, and now they had each other added on WeChat as well. Something had quietly thawed between them.

Once the connection went through, Yunque actually asked in earnest: “How much was the red envelope?”

Lu Rangchen wrapped his hand around the steering wheel, ready to start the car. He glanced over at her with a perfectly serious expression, then let out a muffled laugh. He said: “Yunque. Are you allergic to romance?”

“……”

Her expression fell.

Yunque suddenly had no interest in speaking to him.

That streak of stubbornness was still identical to the old days — only back then, whenever she went quiet like this, Lu Rangchen would simply kiss her, prying her mouth open with action rather than words.

The memory surfaced unintentionally. Lu Rangchen’s thoughts drifted somewhere else before he could stop them.

It was Yunque’s phone ringing that finally pulled him back.

He instinctively glanced at her, and noticed Yunque’s brow had knitted — whoever was on the other end was speaking quickly, with some urgency.

Yunque’s expression turned serious. She said: understood, I’m on my way.

The call ended.

Lu Rangchen looked at her and said: “What happened.”

Yunque answered honestly: “My younger brother had an incident. He’s been taken to the hospital. My father isn’t here — I need to go check on him.”

The first name that surfaced in Lu Rangchen’s mind was Ye Tian.

He furrowed his brow. “What happened to Ye Tian?”

Yunque shook her head. “Not Ye Tian. A different one — my blood brother. My stepmother and my father’s son.”

She hadn’t talked about this particular brother much before.

So Lu Rangchen hadn’t heard much about him either — only that he was called Zhu Yuxuan.

He was already turning the car around. “Which hospital.”

Yunque paused for a beat: “You’re driving me?”

Lu Rangchen genuinely could not always help finding her reserve exasperating. He laughed despite himself and said: “If I’m not driving you, am I supposed to leave you at the side of the road?”

“……”

Yunque closed her mouth.

Several seconds passed. Then she spoke, quietly, naming the hospital.

The situation was urgent, and Deng Jiali hadn’t said much on the phone — only that Zhu Yuxuan had suddenly had difficulty breathing and an irregular heartbeat, and had been rushed to hospital. The family’s grandmother had been badly frightened, and sent Deng Jiali to call Yunque and Ye Tian right away.

By the time Yunque and Lu Rangchen arrived, Ye Tian was already there.

Seeing Lu Rangchen, he went very still.

Lu Rangchen was considerably calmer about it than he was. He gave him a brief nod of acknowledgment: “It’s been a while.”

Ye Tian nodded as well, said the same, then looked at Yunque — his expression something like: what’s going on here?

Yunque had no energy to explain the whole of it. She only asked how Zhu Yuxuan was doing.

Ye Tian snapped back to the present and said: “He’s stable now. Just waiting for test results. Our mother is in there with him.”

The three of them went into the hospital and headed toward the ward where Deng Jiali was.

As they walked, Ye Tian explained. Zhu Yuxuan had been having trouble with a classmate at school lately — the two of them had gotten into a physical fight, and it had been brought to the teacher’s attention.

The boy was timid by nature. The moment he heard that the teacher had called Deng Jiali, he frightened himself so badly that his breathing became labored, and the whole episode had unfolded from there.

They were nearly at the ward.

Yunque stopped and asked: “What did the doctor say?”

Ye Tian looked genuinely worried: “Possibly a congenital heart defect. Best to operate sooner rather than later.”

Something in Yunque contracted. She hadn’t expected this at all.

Then she asked: “And what happened at school?”

Ye Tian said: “The other kid’s from a wealthy family — the type that throws his weight around at school, bullies people, and Zhu Yuxuan’s had to deal with him for a while now. Now the family claims our kid hurt theirs and is looking to make trouble.”

“……”

Yunque was truly at a loss for words.

At a loss, and almost laughing from the sheer absurdity.

Just then, Lu Rangchen — who had been standing nearby taking it all in without a word — said, hands in his pockets, in a quiet, unperturbed tone: “This very important family. Who exactly are they?”

It really was a remarkable thing.

Somehow, whenever Lu Rangchen spoke, whatever the situation was seemed to lose some of its weight.

Yunque looked at him without quite realizing she was reaching for him, a kind of instinctive dependence she hadn’t noticed in herself.

He was already looking back at her. His deep eyes held something unspoken — a quiet, steady reassurance.

Ye Tian gave Lu Rangchen the name of the opposing family and their company. As chance would have it, that company and its owner had a certain prior connection to Lu Rangchen.

Lu Rangchen raised one eyebrow and said: “Wait here. I’ll step out and make a call.”

Yunque’s fingers closed — without thinking — around his sleeve. “Where are you going.”

Lu Rangchen turned and looked at her, and suddenly he laughed. “What — you’re anxious without me?”

“……”

Yunque’s ear tips went warm.

She let go.

But then Lu Rangchen reached up and touched her lightly at the corner of her mouth. He dropped his voice, and said with quiet ease: “I’ll be right back. Put the ointment on while I’m gone.”