◎ “Exciting enough?” ◎

Though her period had arrived, that night — on account of Zhao Qijia’s phone call — Lu Rangchen still pressed Yunque down and made her endure quite a lot of his “retaliatory” nonsense, though of course the one who ended up suffering most was himself.

Later, even when Yunque offered to help, he still took himself off to the bathroom to deal with it on his own.

It took rather a long time. By the time he came back, Yunque had already curled up in the blankets and drifted off.

Lu Rangchen lay down beside her with a soft curve to his lips, pressed a kiss to her forehead, and pulled her closer.

Sensing it was him coming back, Yunque stirred slightly, turning to nestle into the crook of his arm, wrapping her arms around his lean, firm waist in return, and went right back to sleep, comfortable and content.

The next day.

Yunque called Xu Linda to tell her about Zhao Qijia’s request for help — and Xu Linda laughed so hard over Lu Rangchen’s reaction that she was beside herself.

“Hahaha, why is he so dramatic?”

“Honestly, I’m dying. Married and still this worked up over Zhao Qijia — what, has this guy genuinely become his personal nemesis?”

“Though Zhao Qijia really something too — of all people to ask for help, he comes to you? Is he not worried about Gaoge being put out?”

At the mention of Gaoge, Yunque was also somewhat resigned.

She said: “Zhao Qijia’s point is that she doesn’t have any friends willing to come help. And you know — Zhao Qijia doesn’t have many female classmates he’s close to either. In Nancheng, besides the two of us, there’s nobody else.”

“Whatever else — you’re not doing it as a bridesmaid.”

Xu Linda gave her a firm reminder: “You being married is one thing. But on top of that, you know what Gaoge is like — she’d probably resent you showing up and outshining her on her own wedding day.”

“Why would I be outshining her.”

Yunque sorted through test papers in a matter-of-fact tone. “I’m just a perfectly ordinary schoolteacher.”

“Oh, give me a break!”

Xu Linda said without pulling punches: “You know what I think? The moment she finds out you and Lu Rangchen are already married, she’ll be lying awake feeling sour about it for days.”

Yunque: “…”

She genuinely did not understand the way Xu Linda’s mind worked.

She also didn’t believe that Gaoge, now with Zhao Qijia in her life, would still care anything about Lu Rangchen after all these years.

As it turned out, Xu Linda understood Gaoge’s type of mind far better than Yunque did.

When Gaoge found out that the bridesmaid Zhao Qijia had gone to such lengths to find was Xu Linda — and that it had been arranged through Yunque’s help — Gaoge was absolutely furious.

She had a major argument with Zhao Qijia about it.

Zhao Qijia was genuinely baffled. He had no idea that slights between girls could be nursed for so many years, and he pointed out that if she didn’t have any friends of her own, he’d had no choice but to go to Yunque. And besides, the one being asked to be bridesmaid wasn’t Yunque — it was Xu Linda.

At the mention of Xu Linda’s name, Gaoge backed down.

Compared to Yunque, Xu Linda was actually not a bad option.

And besides, her own mother and Xu Linda’s mother knew each other, and her mother had previously suggested asking Xu Linda for help.

At the time, Gaoge had been unwilling.

Not because she looked down on Xu Linda, but because the two of them had never quite gotten along since childhood, and she couldn’t bring herself to ask.

But sometimes what you resist most comes right for you anyway.

Gaoge went through every option and couldn’t find anyone else. So the evening before the wedding, Xu Linda ended up at the makeup studio Gaoge had booked for the bridal party trial.

Xu Linda had originally wanted Yunque to come with her. Gaoge had assumed Yunque would come, and had taken special care to dress herself up with impeccable style and beauty — determined not to be outshone by either of them.

As it happened, the punch landed on cotton.

Yunque didn’t show up at all that evening.

Gaoge was genuinely taken aback, and frankly a little disappointed. Xu Linda, while being styled, noticed this and said deliberately to provoke her: “What — you’re annoyed you couldn’t show her how well you’re doing now?”

Xu Linda had always had the gift of saying exactly the one thing that would go clean through someone.

Gaoge, stung, sat there looking as if she’d swallowed something she couldn’t get down — it took a long time to find her breath. Then, flushing with embarrassment and irritation, she snapped: “Xu Linda, don’t talk nonsense.”

Xu Linda stuck her tongue out at her — that same incorrigible, high-school-era insolence — utterly impossible to deal with.

Gaoge was simultaneously exasperated and wanting to laugh.

And she found, despite herself, that she was curious.

She thought about it and actually came right out and asked — why had Yunque not come? She had assumed those two were so close that Yunque would definitely be here with her.

But Xu Linda said: “Why would she come here? She’s not doing nothing, you know. Why would she waste her time on you?”

“…”

Gaoge was genuinely speechless. “Could you give me a break for five minutes? I’m a pregnant woman, can’t you go two seconds without being insufferable?”

Xu Linda made a noncommittal sound. “You want me to go easy on you? Did you go easy on me? And what about you — didn’t you spend half of high school making little digs at our Yunque?”

That wasn’t untrue.

Back in high school, Gaoge had appeared to look down on Yunque with great indifference — but behind the scenes, she had made plenty of snide, pointed comments about her. Xu Linda had witnessed more than a few.

Though Gaoge’s “nastiness” wasn’t the deep-seated malice of someone like Lin Zhinan — at worst, it amounted to a few cutting remarks. She would never have genuinely hurt Yunque.

After all, she had her own pride. That pride was what held her back.

So neither Xu Linda nor Yunque had ever truly taken her to task over it.

But Gaoge herself had never quite gotten over those old feelings.

Even if she was very reluctant to admit it, she knew in her own heart that throughout her teenage years, she had been jealous of girls like Yunque.

The slender frame, the small bones, the smooth and translucent skin — even eating too much never caused her to gain weight or break out.

That clean, understated face — never needing calculated layers of makeup and products, always so fresh, so scholarly, so immediately memorable.

If it hadn’t been for the glasses she wore that covered more than a third of her face — and for her personality, never competing for attention, never joining in the fuss — Gaoge would not have won the class beauty title back then.

The one thing Gaoge had taken pride in back then was that her grades were better than Yunque’s.

And even that one edge gradually disappeared over the second half of second year — as if Yunque had simply applied a bit of effort, and just like that, surpassed her.

What stung Gaoge the most was that Yunque then went on to become so close to Lu Rangchen.

She never quite knew when rumors started circulating, but at one point there were constant whispers that Lu Rangchen seemed to have feelings for Yunque. Gaoge heard it several times. The time it hurt the worst, she had even cried about it, alone.

A teenage girl’s feelings are always bittersweet and too tender to speak of. Gaoge had never said a word of it to anyone.

But for some reason — right here, right now, in that makeup studio with no one there but her, the stylist, and Xu Linda — she found herself baring it all to Xu Linda.

Telling her outright that she had once been jealous of Yunque.

Xu Linda was genuinely surprised.

She had never expected Gaoge — so proud, so self-sufficient — to one day open up to her like this, and actually admit with her own mouth that she had been jealous of Yunque.

Gaoge, for her part, was quite unbothered. “So what? Are you telling me you never got jealous of anyone in high school?”

She narrowed her eyes at Xu Linda. “What about that girl in Class C — Liu Sitong? She was always hanging around Deng Zhe, and every time you saw her, you were so furious you’d stamp your feet. Then you went home and copied her style of wearing little pink dresses—”

“Hey, hey, hey — stop right there. We’re talking about you, what are you dragging me into this for!” Xu Linda’s face went warm. She rolled her eyes in her best unbothered manner.

A draw — Gaoge laughed with satisfaction and said, judging by that reaction, she clearly hadn’t forgotten Deng Zhe.

“Forgotten? As if.”

Xu Linda said with cheerful bluntness: “I’ve gone through how many rounds of dating since then? He’s still just… sitting there doing nothing with himself.”

Gaoge let out a surprised sound, then seemed to think of something. “I heard a few years ago his family had some trouble — they went bankrupt, his father jumped from a building, and he was left in poverty having to pay off debts on his own. Is that true? And now he’s working at Lu Rangchen’s club? Lu Rangchen’s managing him?”

“No — it’s a supermarket.”

Xu Linda said, and suddenly felt a twinge of irritation. “Why are we even talking about him? This is your wedding, not his.”

“I’m just making conversation.”

Gaoge had found herself a sore spot to press, and she smiled with gleeful satisfaction. “Sounds like you still care about him quite a bit. You know, with how well you’re doing now, if you chased after him a bit more, he’d probably say yes.”

“…”

Xu Linda couldn’t resist glaring at her — one short step away from giving her the middle finger. “Pregnant woman. Don’t push me into arguing with you.”

Gaoge, sharp as she’d been at age thirty as she was in high school, made a dismissive sound. “Go on then. Argue. I’d like to see what flower you manage to grow from it.”

From Gaoge’s vantage point, Xu Linda had absolutely nothing left to sting her with.

Her life now was going quite smoothly and pleasantly.

A respectable position at a reputable state-owned company. A respectable partner. In-laws who were people of standing in their circles.

She genuinely didn’t believe Xu Linda had anything left that could get under her skin.

As it turned out, Gaoge had miscalculated.

Xu Linda had not just one thing that could unsettle her.

First and foremost: Yunque was married, and to someone Gaoge happened to know.

“In fact, I’d say every person who ever went to Nancheng Third Secondary knows him.”

At this point, Xu Linda had just changed into the bridesmaid dress. She stepped out from behind the curtain and stood before the mirror, casting Gaoge a languid glance. “Oh, right — you even wrote him a love letter and tried to pursue him once, didn’t you.”

At those words —

Gaoge’s face, just fully made up, went visibly strained.

She looked at Xu Linda in disbelief. “You’re not talking about Lu Rangchen, are you… Wait — didn’t they break up in university?”

Back when Lu Rangchen and Yunque got together, it had shaken the entire circle of former classmates.

So many people had marveled at Yunque, saying she knew how to play her cards, while so many others predicted the relationship would fall apart within months.

And it had, in the end. When they broke up, the gossip behind the scenes had been even livelier.

At the time — being honest about it — Gaoge had been privately quite pleased. She had even made a bet with someone, insisting that Lu Rangchen must have gotten tired of her, that with two families involved in that kind of scandal, he would surely despise her and kick her to the curb.

But what actually happened was nothing like what she’d imagined.

Xu Linda let out a cold laugh right away: “Lu Rangchen kick Yunque out? It was Yunque who ended things with Lu Rangchen. Lu Rangchen even flew all the way to Australia to beg for a second chance — and even then, she didn’t say yes.”

“…”

Gaoge looked as if she’d been slapped at full speed, her expression one of complete disbelief.

Every trace of smug superiority over Yunque crumbled and collapsed in an instant.

“Yunque ended things with Lu Rangchen?” she said. “Why?? Was she out of her mind?”

“Yunque is calm and clear-headed.”

Xu Linda herself hadn’t understood it at the time — why Yunque had made such a clean, resolute break from Lu Rangchen. But years later, having grown into someone with real understanding of the world, she finally grasped just how right that decision had been.

“Think about it — the pressure his family was putting on them back then was enormous. She couldn’t have withstood it. Even if she’d clung on, and Lu Rangchen gave up his comfortable life for her, the two of them would have had resentments sooner or later. Human nature isn’t easy to predict — who knows whether Lu Rangchen might have genuinely grown tired of it eventually? And at that point, if they’d broken up, it would have been over for real.”

“Look at it the other way — because they broke up when they did, there was at least one thread of hope left.”

“You know what it means to be someone’s unattainable ideal — something pursued but never possessed, never forgotten, haunting you for a lifetime?”

“There’s no way Lu Rangchen could have forgotten her.”

“And besides all that — even without all of this in between — Lu Rangchen adored our Yunque right from the start. He applied to the same university as her, following her there. You want to talk about something impressive?”

“And now Yunque is her own person. She doesn’t have to be afraid of anyone anymore. The two of them getting back together — that was just nature taking its course.”

A precise and incisive analysis.

Even Gaoge was left momentarily speechless.

And then Xu Linda added, lightly, almost as an afterthought: “There is one thing they did get right, though — it was Yunque who made the first move to reconcile. But she’d barely taken a few steps before Lu Rangchen caved. After so many years of never letting go — of course he did. And from what I heard, barely after getting back together, he was already dragging her off to register the marriage. Everyone around them was floored.”

“Oh — and Lu Rangchen sent both marriage certificates away. Sent them somewhere only he knows.”

“What do you know, being a devoted romantic and looking like that at the same time.”

Xu Linda gave an envious shrug, then turned back to Gaoge with a thin, pointed smile. “So? Exciting enough for you?”

Gaoge: “…”

Gaoge suddenly understood what “making trouble for yourself” meant.

But then again — she no longer had feelings for Lu Rangchen. He wasn’t her ex. There was nothing truly at stake for her. At most, she felt a flash of sourness that Yunque had ended up with the man so many women had dreamed of.

She twitched the corner of her mouth and said: “What’s so exciting about it? That’s their business, nothing to do with me.”

“True enough.”

Xu Linda pulled her skirt around her and settled back before the makeup mirror, running a hand through her hair. “But there is one thing you definitely don’t know.”

The emotion from a moment ago hadn’t fully settled.

And in the very next beat, Gaoge’s eyes sharpened and went to Xu Linda: “What don’t I know?”

Xu Linda’s expression was the picture of innocence. “Oh, just that your dear sweet husband — the one he pined after without success, chased and never caught — that would be our beautiful and wonderful Yunque.”

The moment those words fell, the air went absolutely dead quiet.

Not just Gaoge — even the stylist was too awkward to know whether to keep working or not.

…What did it mean to talk someone to death without breaking a sweat?

This was it.

In the silence that followed — goodness knows how many seconds it lasted —

Gaoge finally snapped. She grabbed her phone and stood up sharply, gathered up her skirt, and stormed out of the makeup room in a fury.

The moment she stepped out the door, Xu Linda heard Gaoge’s formidable voice resounding down the corridor:

“ZHAO QIJIA, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!”

…

All in all, that evening had been quite the spectacle.

Spectacle enough that when Xu Linda recounted the whole thing to Yunque, Yunque was left simultaneously amused and exasperated — not quite sure what to say. Finally she settled on: “But she’s pregnant. Was it really necessary to provoke her like that?”

“She’s pregnant, so what?”

Xu Linda lowered her gaze to her freshly done manicure. “It’s not like I’m the one who got her that way. And besides — who told her to keep poking at me about Deng Zhe? That was incredibly annoying.”

The words were rough — but the logic was sound.

And beyond that, there was always someone persistently pressing at her soft spot to get a reaction, which was genuinely irritating.

“But the most important thing,” Xu Linda said, her eyes bright and sparkling as she looked at Yunque, “is that back then, it was her — Gaoge — who kept posting in the alumni group chat saying Lu Rangchen had dumped you, that he didn’t want you anymore, and she said quite a few other particularly unpleasant things. You didn’t know, but I’ve remembered every bit of it.”

Yunque smiled at that, and leaned over to loop an arm warmly around Xu Linda’s shoulders, coaxing her like a child. “My Linda is still the one who looks out for me most.”

Xu Linda squinted at her with a sidelong look. “Oh my — being with Lu Rangchen has really done something — now you know how to sweet-talk people.”

It wasn’t only sweet-talking people.

Since getting back together with Lu Rangchen and marrying him, something about the very air Yunque carried had shifted.

Others might not notice, but Xu Linda — who had known her since they were children — always saw it most clearly.

The Yunque of before was grey and muted — as if nothing in the world held any particular appeal for her, and she was living simply for the sake of living.

But now she was different. She was warm, luminous — her whole being radiating a soft and gentle energy. No longer the empty shell of someone just going through the motions.

Xu Linda was genuinely, wholeheartedly happy for the Yunque in front of her.

Yunque had been teased out of her retort by Xu Linda’s words, and the corner of her mouth was just lifting when, up ahead, a black large-body SUV rolled to a smooth stop in front of the two of them.

The window came down. Lu Rangchen gave a slight tilt of his head at them. “Stop chatting. Get in.”

They’d arranged this earlier.

Yunque was keeping Xu Linda company shopping for chest tape before the wedding, and Lu Rangchen would come to the mall to pick them both up and then drop Xu Linda off at Zhao Qijia and Gaoge’s wedding banquet.

Xu Linda hadn’t expected that Lu Rangchen and Yunque wouldn’t be going in. She let out a small “oh,” slightly disappointed. “Why aren’t you coming? It’d be so nice if you were there — there’ll be a lot of old classmates.”

Yunque knew Xu Linda wanted those people who’d talked behind her back to be faced with the evidence.

But those people — she genuinely didn’t care about them.

The fact that she didn’t care, though, didn’t mean others didn’t care on her behalf.

Lu Rangchen understood, more than anyone, just how much gossip had piled up on her shoulders over the years — all about the two of them and the relationship they had once had and lost.

So the man raised an eyebrow and looked at her. “Really not going?”

Yunque blinked, a little surprised. “…You don’t mind?”

“Mind what?” Lu Rangchen’s tone carried a trace of amusement. His dark eyes settled on her, deep and compelling. “Mind whether Zhao Qijia still has feelings for you? I’d like to see him have the nerve.”

“…”

Yunque’s expression went a little awkward.

It was Xu Linda who laughed and said: “He definitely won’t have the nerve — Gaoge would destroy him!”

At that, Lu Rangchen’s lip curved too. He glanced again at Yunque, asking: “Either way — it’s up to you. If you want to go, we go. If you don’t, we don’t.”

As he spoke, he reached over and pinched Yunque’s cheek.

With no regard whatsoever for Xu Linda’s feelings, scattering affection in generous handfuls.

For a brief moment, Yunque’s heart actually did move — moved toward the idea of seeing those old classmates, perhaps getting a look at someone else’s wedding and how it was put together.

But when they pulled up to the hotel entrance —

Yunque changed her mind.

She handed the red envelope she’d prepared in advance to Xu Linda and said: “Could you give this to Zhao Qijia for me? I won’t deliver it myself.”

Xu Linda said “oh” and reluctantly agreed.

But before she could even walk in, Zhao Qijia spotted Lu Rangchen and Yunque from over that way and hurried over to them.

It had been quite a few years since they’d last seen each other in person.

The moment Lu Rangchen saw Zhao Qijia, his brow sharpened almost imperceptibly, and the arm he had around Yunque’s shoulder tightened slightly.

Yunque, however, looked at Zhao Qijia — dressed in his formal suit — with genuine surprise. “Why did you come out?”

Zhao Qijia said with a smile: “I came out to get some cigarettes and happened to see you both, so I came over.”

Even as he spoke, he glanced briefly at Lu Rangchen, then back to Yunque. “You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

Yunque parted her lips, before she could answer, Lu Rangchen cut in with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. “Why — were you hoping we’d come in?”

Though Lu Rangchen’s blunt remarks that other evening had been something of a precedent, Zhao Qijia still smiled and said: “Of course I would. We’re all classmates, and Yunque helped me out.”

He gave a small sound of acknowledgment and added: “Some of the old teachers came too — Yunque, don’t you want to come say hello?”

It had to be said — Zhao Qijia’s tone was genuinely sincere.

You could hear he’d moved past everything and was perfectly clear of conscience. Otherwise he wouldn’t have called Yunque for help in the first place.

And it was, after all, around dinner time — they were about to start eating.

Lu Rangchen wasn’t the type to fixate on old slights. He raised an eyebrow and glanced at Yunque. “What do you think?”

By her usual nature, she should have had no particular objection.

But Yunque looked at him with an unwavering calm, then turned to Zhao Qijia. “I’m sorry — I have something on tonight, I really can’t get away.”

“What could be that important?” Zhao Qijia was a bit confused. He remembered the scene with Gaoge storming at him the previous night, and suddenly said: “Oh — is it Gaoge? Don’t worry about it. I sorted everything out with her last night. She’s thought it through. Don’t let her put you off — honestly, having one more person there, she’d be happy.”

He’d even gone this far in persuading her.

There seemed to be no good reason left to decline.

Even Lu Rangchen gave her hand a gentle squeeze, his voice dropping low and warm. “We have nothing on tonight, really. Why don’t we just go in and take a look — it would be a good reference for when we—”

For when we have our own wedding someday.

But before he could finish the sentence, Yunque shot him a mildly displeased look and said: “Who said we have nothing on tonight?”

“…”

Lu Rangchen’s eyebrow shot up, genuinely caught off guard — and muffled a laugh despite himself.

He was just about to say, come on, what could we possibly have on that counts as real business —

Whatever it is can happen sooner or later, what’s the difference.

But the very next moment, Yunque lifted her head, furrowed her brow, and said to him with an air of mild exasperation: “Today’s your birthday. Did you forget?”

Lu Rangchen: “…”

Well.

He had genuinely, entirely forgotten.

The author has something to say:

To avoid anyone getting the wrong idea about the “female rivalry” angle — just a quick note: the reason Gaoge is so competitive is purely because of her innate pride and her tendency to compare herself to others who outshine her. It has nothing to do with any man.

And Xu Linda only got properly riled up because Gaoge kept poking at her about Deng Zhe.

The two of them have always communicated like this — they have their harmonious moments, and their moments where they’re arguing hard enough to turn red in the face.