Before opening the door to leave the room, Lin Qing repeatedly cautioned her mother: when they were in front of Lu Zhou, please, for the love of everything, don’t say anything reckless.

Not like that scene in front of Liang Meng — that had nearly frightened Lin Qing into an early grave.

But the moment her mother opened the door and saw Lu Zhou’s somewhat familiar face, she slapped her own thigh and hollered right there in the Four Seasons Hotel corridor: “Aren’t you the son of that woman whose cousin married the nephew of her third aunt-in-law’s neighbour who works with Supervisor Sun from our factory!”

Excuse me?!

Lin Qing froze on the spot.

Her mother excitedly grabbed her sleeve and kept tugging: “Supervisor Sun! Supervisor Sun — do you remember him? How could you not?! Your dad’s memorial service — he came and gave a thousand yuan, and he even held you as a baby! And his wife — do you remember her? Tall, plump, always liked to pin up that flight attendant bun!”

Lin Qing gave two cold and unimpressed laughs to herself.

This must be what people meant by “all those people your mother assumes you know.”

“Are you talking about Auntie Liu Mei?”

What—?!

Lin Qing turned around, her features rearranging themselves in total disbelief.

There stood Lu Zhou, clear-eyed and earnest. And he actually knew who that was?!

“That’s right!!” Her mother instantly released Lin Qing’s arm and warmly took hold of Lu Zhou’s instead. “Liu Mei! Math teacher at the primary school! Wanted a promotion to vice principal before she retired but didn’t get it! She’s been complaining about it for half her life! Lu Zhou, how do you address her? What does she count as on your side of the family?”

Lu Zhou was carrying Lin Qing’s largest suitcase in his left hand while Lin Qing’s mother gripped his right arm, pulling him off-balance in both directions as they swayed toward the elevator. He answered her seriously as they walked: “Aunt Lin, by my father’s side of the family, she’d be a certain title. But my mother’s side carries a higher generation — my mother’s younger cousin married Auntie Liu Mei’s second cousin.”

“What?! Goodness me, I didn’t even know that! What a small world!”

“Yes indeed.”

Lin Qing walked behind them, silently weighed down by bags both large and small.

It really was a small town.

Just a little while ago, her mother had still been hesitating up in the room, asking Lin Qing whether she should accept the goodwill of her “classmate” Lu Zhou.

But before the elevator had even reached the ground floor, her mother and Lu Zhou were already chatting away like old neighbours about to burst into flame.

“That deputy factory director at the cotton mill — everyone called him ‘Monk Li.’ Do you know him?”

“Aunt Lin, you mean Li Jianping?”

Lu Zhou loaded the luggage into the trunk and the two of them continued their enthusiastic conversation.

“Exactly — Li Jianping!” Her mother chatted away as she naturally settled herself into the Volvo’s front passenger seat. “Xiao Lu, with a full head of hair like that, why did everyone call him ‘Monk Li’?”

“That I genuinely don’t know.”

Lu Zhou shifted smoothly into gear and pulled out.

“Ha! Twenty years ago, when our small town had just started using water dispensers — Old Li was a notorious penny-pincher. Every single day he’d lug a pot from the office and carry back a whole pot of purified water to cook his meals at home. They say ‘three monks and no water to drink’ — but only a monk would ever haul water in the first place. That’s how he got the nickname. The way that man squeezed every drop of value out of the system — tsk tsk tsk…”

“Ha. That is pretty outrageous.” Lu Zhou offered a polite response. “Though he’s actually my great-uncle on my mother’s side!”

Lin Qing’s mother lurched forward as though she’d nearly been thrown from her seat. She laughed in mortified awkwardness: “Ha— hahahahaha… Good for him! That’s called being thrifty! Knowing how to live properly!”

Lin Qing followed along behind them, her head buzzing with a dense tangle of exasperation.

She was completely losing her mind right now, and she was pretty sure even the doorman at the Four Seasons had overheard.

Mum. Could you possibly read the room?

Lin Qing and Lu Zhou had been reunited for two whole years, and they hadn’t even managed ten sentences to each other yet — but somehow her mother was already holding an entire hometown reunion with him.

And Lu Zhou wasn’t off the hook either.

One glance at him — clear and untouched as a breeze off a lake, dressed head to toe in white Descente, perfectly upright and tall — and every ambitious socialite and wealthy heiress in the Four Seasons lobby would have looked twice.

Yet the moment he opened his mouth, he was effortlessly chatting away with her mother about local gossip as though they’d known each other for decades.

Behind this world champion, this white moonlight of her youth — this was what he was actually like.

Lin Qing began to question her own taste.

“Lu Zhou, you went to the county school in middle school, didn’t you?”

Her mother remembered to ask at this point.

Lu Zhou steered the wheel. “My dad transferred us for my last semester of middle school so I could sit the county high school entrance exam.”

“Ah.”

Her mother finally went quiet, and the hometown reunion officially came to a close.

When they walked into Lu Zhou’s serviced apartment, her mother was already perfectly at ease.

Given their twisted, winding, eighteen-bend mountain-road of a connection, Lin Qing’s mother felt she could accept this favour with a perfectly clear conscience.

Lin Qing was still making polite, formulaic noises to Lu Zhou.

Meanwhile her mother had already, without ceremony, deposited her luggage in Lu Zhou’s bedroom.

“Lin Qing, stop fussing over there! Come help! We’re practically family out here — favours are built by bothering each other!”

Lin Qing gritted her teeth and hissed under her breath: “Mum, we are not ‘practically family’… would you please stop talking.”

Lu Zhou smiled warmly and gave Lin Qing’s shoulder a light pat. “Your aunt is right. Lin Qing, you and I have known each other since we were little. You don’t need to be so formal with me.”

Fine, fine. We’re under your roof — whatever you say.

And then the very next second.

Lin Qing watched, helpless, as her mother — utterly at home from the very beginning — pulled the most expensive golf club from the club bag in Lu Zhou’s living room.

Lin Qing lunged forward but was too slow to stop her.

Her mother was already turning it over in her hands with boundless curiosity: “Lu Zhou, why do you have so many shoehorns at your place?”

Shoehorns…?

Lin Qing and Lu Zhou stared at each other, both frozen.

“How did you develop a hobby of collecting these things!” her mother muttered to herself. “This one’s quite heavy too. Oh! It’s metal! Steel!”

“Mum! Why are you touching other people’s things?!”

Lin Qing panicked and lunged forward to snatch it away.

“Do you know what these are worth?! These are all golf clubs worth tens of thousands each!”

Her mother stumbled back slightly, visibly startled by her daughter’s sudden outburst.

Lu Zhou stepped up to steady her and said to Lin Qing, “Don’t startle your aunt — this thing won’t break.”

Lin Qing was already quite exasperated by her mother’s total lack of self-awareness as a guest.

Lu Zhou was willing to help them — that was already an overwhelming act of loyalty and generosity.

Her mother simply could not carry on like she owned the place.

“Mum, come here a second.”

With that, Lin Qing seized her mother and hauled her into the bathroom, locking the door behind them.

“Mum! We are only staying here temporarily! Lu Zhou is helping us as a gesture of goodwill. You need to watch yourself — stop acting like you belong here!”

Her mother actually had the nerve to look aggrieved. “He’s willing to lend you his home — can’t you just accept someone’s kindness openly and graciously?! You’re half-accepting and half-squirming the entire time — it makes everyone uncomfortable.”

“I already owe Lu Zhou an enormous favour,” Lin Qing stressed. “Right now, if you go out there and keep this up — forget borrowing the apartment — you’d have a hard time borrowing a single paper napkin from anyone. It’s Lu Zhou’s apartment! Why on earth should he let you live here for free?!”

Her mother saw her daughter’s anxiety and didn’t argue back.

She took a breath. Three seconds passed.

Then, when they had both calmed down, her mother spoke slowly: “Lin Qing, I don’t know the exact nature of your relationship with Lu Zhou. But I believe — if he’s willing to help you, then he hopes you’ll accept it with happiness. That way he feels a sense of accomplishment, and you’ve fulfilled his sense of heroism as a man. Everyone wins.”

Lin Qing pressed her lips together, stubbornly refusing to speak.

Her mother could be a little oblivious, but when she saw things clearly, she truly did see clearly.

“We’re only borrowing the apartment for a few days. If you really feel uncomfortable about it, we’ll pay a bit more in rent. Keep the place clean and tidy while we’re here. And when we leave, add a few pieces of furniture, some linens, some small appliances to make up for it.”

Lin Qing’s face reddened and she looked away.

She knew she was being “both ungrateful and self-righteous,” and she was ashamed of herself for it.

But she couldn’t understand why — facing Lu Zhou, her gratitude came pouring out completely uncontrolled, as though she couldn’t stop herself.

“You.”

Her mother sighed, then pulled the bathroom door open and walked out.

Just from watching her daughter, she understood it all: this girl cared far too much about what this Lu Zhou thought of her.

In front of Lu Zhou, Lin Qing had felt inferior.

Inferior to the point of treating his help like a burning coal she could barely hold.

They were the same age, and yet Lu Zhou was already a world champion with a fully furnished apartment in Shanghai.

While she was still dragging her mother behind her, rootless and adrift, their days precarious as leaves in the wind.

She felt she had no merit whatsoever, and no way to ever repay a debt this large.

Lin Qing’s mother had a growing suspicion that this Lu Zhou was something different to her daughter — entirely unlike the previous Zeng Rui.

“I’m going out to grab some breakfast. We can all share a simple meal.”

Her mother made up a pretext and left, giving the two of them space.

Her own feelings were her own to sort out.

Before walking out, her mother cast Lin Qing one long, meaningful glance sharp enough to cut.

After her mother left, Lin Qing sat on the sofa. She stopped making any mention of “paying rent” or “owing such a huge favour, I’ll have to treat you properly to a meal” and all that kind of thing.

Without her mother there, Lu Zhou gradually began to blush as well.

Now it was his turn to be flustered — asking “do you want some water?” one moment, then “do you want some cola?” the next.

The two of them sat in stiff, nervous silence, tangling up the thread between them until the atmosphere tied itself into a dead knot.

Then Lin Qing’s eyes landed on something on top of Lu Zhou’s TV cabinet: a figure of Ye Xiu from The King’s Avatar.

Back in the day, the novel by Butterfly Blue had taken the world by storm. During the winter break of their third year of middle school, Lin Qing and Lu Zhou had dashed off to an internet café together to eagerly follow the updates.

Afterwards they would run out, eat grilled sausages side by side, and have spirited debates about it well into the evening.

This particular figure had been released two years ago at an original retail price of over a thousand yuan. Lin Qing had bought one without a second thought and mailed it to Lu Zhou.

Perhaps, somewhere in the depths of her heart, she truly had feelings for this white moonlight of an older brother figure.

The moment Lu Zhou received it, he immediately transferred Lin Qing two thousand yuan in a red packet. She didn’t accept it, and the red packet was refunded the next day.

Two days later, Lin Qing received a gift box of YSL heart-shaped lipsticks.

Her dormitory roommates teased her, saying “this Zeng Rui isn’t just rich, he’s got a romantic side too.”

Lin Qing didn’t correct them.

Following Lin Qing’s gaze, Lu Zhou rose quietly and walked over. He picked up the figure, held it against his jawline, flashed a peace sign, and pulled a face at her.

Then he took out his phone. Lin Qing saw that his phone wallpaper was a photograph of this very figure.

“When I’m not home, Ye Xiu watches the place for me. When I miss ‘him,’ I just look at the photo on my phone.”

A wave of something warm and rising welled up in Lin Qing’s chest.

She had never posted photos of herself on social media or her social circle feed — she didn’t like sharing her life that way, had never been in the habit of it.

So she knew, with complete clarity, what a photograph of that Ye Xiu figure truly represented.

“Lu Zhou, I…”

All the complex, long-fermented emotions of these years surged at once to the back of her throat, and the corners of her eyes began to grow warm.

She was wondering: when feelings arise from some unknown place, where do you even begin?

Lu Zhou gently set the figure back in its place, then sat back down with easy composure. “Lin Qing, just settle in here and don’t rush to move out. Buying a home is a major decision — you should look around more, ask more questions, compare more options.”

With one sentence, Lu Zhou drew Lin Qing back to the present.

“Alright.” She nodded, docile and quiet.

“Okay, I’m off! Terminal H at Pudong — I’ll basically have to run for it.”

Lu Zhou got up to go, not even having time to say a proper goodbye to her mother.

He had come back solely to solve Lin Qing’s problem.

Now that the problem was solved, he had to race back to his competition.

That was Lu Zhou.