But Li Weiyi was thinking, with so many classmates, why did you choose her as your partner? Was it because of admiration? Or because you got along well?

But Zhang Jingchan hadn’t thought that much. He chose this classmate purely because he thought her mind was good, certain viewpoints coincided with his own, and working together on this data portion wouldn’t hold him back. Now Zhang Jingchan was already a junior boss at Huicui, already almost operating with a business manager’s mindset, seeing people more in terms of how to use them. How would he think about romantic feelings between men and women?

“You’re really overthinking it.” He patted her head again and continued typing on the computer. “I’ve really been very busy lately. Ancestor, don’t let your imagination run wild.”

Li Weiyi remained silent.

After a few minutes, Zhang Jingchan also became irritated. He had always been an extremely focused and efficient person, but these past few years, if Li Weiyi was unhappy, if she was sad or upset, he couldn’t concentrate on anything at all.

After all, he was only just over twenty. He said: “What exactly do you want from me? Can you have a little more trust? What am I working myself to death for? Isn’t it all for our future?”

Li Weiyi had always been someone who lived life freely since childhood, but facing her boyfriend, for the first time she felt so aggrieved she couldn’t say anything. What could she say? The affection in that girl’s eyes—she understood it with one glance. Say that she was also afraid, afraid that as he spent time with others day and night, he would involuntarily be attracted to more excellent people. Say that life still had such a long, long road ahead, she was only eighteen, couldn’t see anything clearly about the future, couldn’t grasp hold of it.

“I’ll go back first. Come find me when you’re done with your work.” She turned and walked away.

“Come back!” Zhang Jingchan stood up.

She walked even faster.

Zhang Jingchan caught up with her. He really had a headache and had never coaxed a girl before. Plus, he’d been really too busy and tired lately, so tired he didn’t have any energy left to discern things. He grabbed her hand and his temper also flared up: “Can you be a little reasonable? How can you also do such unreasonable things?”

Zhang Jingchan swore, that one sentence really just slipped out.

Li Weiyi looked at him coldly: “What if I’m just going to be unreasonable?”

Zhang Jingchan cursed under his breath, reached up to press his temples that ached faintly from many days of insufficient sleep, and raised his hand to stop her: “I’m not going to argue with you now. Let’s cool down for a couple days, then we’ll deal with this matter.”

Li Weiyi waved down a taxi. Zhang Jingchan instinctively followed, and she yelled: “Don’t follow!” Zhang Jingchan stopped in his tracks and watched her drive away in the car.

When it comes to quarrels, once there’s a first time, there will be a second time. And cold wars, whether long or short, don’t help resolve past grievances. Instead, they make the more insecure one trace over the crack in their heart again and again, making it increasingly clear and deep.

Actually, for most couples, do they really have such irreconcilable major conflicts? Really, they don’t. Many relationships wear away in small conflicts and contradictions. Most people want to compete for control and attention in relationships without even realizing it. Couples in their early twenties are even more so. After the initial intensely burning honeymoon period, people have to face reality. People tend toward calmness, even because during the most passionate loving, they overdraft most of their soul-level strength. When the passion fades and the pressure of reality hits, they’re often more rational, because they blindly and confidently assume they won’t lose each other.

From beginning to end, from life to death, loving as intensely as at the start—that’s not human, that’s divine.

Zhang Jingchan and Li Weiyi only broke up once.

It was four months after their first quarrel. Although that day’s quarrel eventually led to them talking things out and making up, Li Weiyi still had a knot in her heart—she neither truly eliminated her sense of crisis nor stopped feeling ashamed of herself. And Zhang Jingchan had a slight feeling of displeasure at being misunderstood, though when he saw that female classmate again, he would deliberately avoid her and further distance himself. Aside from thesis matters, he barely spoke to her.

But Zhang Jingchan still didn’t take it too seriously. He never thought anything could affect their relationship, because they were destined soulmates in this life.

During that period, he became busier and busier. Much of the time he had to go out with his father to discuss projects and attend social engagements, and he couldn’t bring Li Weiyi. They saw each other less and less. Sometimes he wouldn’t get home until late at night. When he remembered to send her a text, he’d think it was too late and worry about waking her. Gradually, sometimes they wouldn’t even exchange one text message in an entire week. Zhang Jingchan also knew this wasn’t right, but he was really too tired, had too many things to think about in his mind. For the father and son to make their comeback early, there were too many people around them harboring various intentions. They had to be extremely vigilant—it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they were walking on thin ice.

Many times, in front of many people, Zhang Jingchan had already matured like a young entrepreneur. Only in front of Li Weiyi would he occasionally reveal his youthful spirit, teasing her, acting spoiled, bickering, being thick-skinned. But such times were truly brief. As soon as he left her side, he had to put on that skin called mature, steady, and worldly-wise. Gradually, that also became the real Zhang Jingchan. In front of her, he no longer had that impish arrogance. His words were low, his gaze sharp, his actions decisive. The commanding presence of many years later was finally beginning to show. And many times, Li Weiyi, still a sophomore, looking at his contemplative face, no longer knew how deep or far his heart reached.

That year, approaching winter break, Li Weiyi participated in a school sketching and field observation activity that would take her to another city for ten days. Zhang Jingchan personally drove her to the train station, but along the way, he kept answering phone calls—work requests, business partners… The two of them barely exchanged a few words. Only when she was boarding did he put down his phone, hold her without any regard for the eyes around them, kiss her deeply, and instruct her to be careful and safe, to call him if anything happened. The day she returned, he would come pick her up again.

During those ten days after, Li Weiyi thought of him more than once while sketching. But she didn’t want to call during the day and delay his work. Often the two would only exchange goodnight texts before bed. He always worked until very late; she couldn’t wait for his time.

The day Li Weiyi returned to Chen City, her train arrived at 10 PM. She waited at the train station until 11:30, waited until all her classmates had left, but no one came to pick her up. She didn’t call him and took a taxi home alone. On the road, she finally cried her heart out.

Zhang Jingchan, leading his team, had already pulled several all-nighters in a row preparing for an important bid. That day was the last day. He worked until after 7 PM, only hastily stuffed some food in his mouth, really couldn’t hold on anymore, and fell asleep in the study at home. He set an alarm for 9 o’clock to go pick up Li Weiyi.

The alarm rang for a long time, but he didn’t wake up. His mother Wu Xinhui walked into the study, turned off the alarm with a heartache, thinking her son still wanted to stay up working. Under no circumstances could she let him get up and stay up late again.

Zhang Jingchan slept until 8 AM the next morning before waking up. Fortunately, the bid documents had been prepared properly yesterday. He took a shower, cleared his head, remembered Li Weiyi, and immediately called her. No one answered.