After lights out, Ruan Yu lay in bed, gazing through the curtain gap at the row of freshly washed clothes hanging on the balcony. The water drops were still falling straight down. Though silent, after staring for a while, she could almost hear the “pitter-patter” sound.

Ruan Yu rolled over, shifting her gaze away.

Across from her, Jian Xiangxiang lay on her bed, her troubled face illuminated by the iPad’s soft glow. She was still agonizing over her decision. Earlier, both Ruan Yu and Xia Qiaofeng had offered suggestions, but she remained unsatisfied.

Jian Xiangxiang was completely love-struck. Her whole heart was filled with Zhou Xihe – she wanted to give him her very best. She probably felt that no perfume was worthy of Zhou Xihe.

Being in love seemed quite troublesome, and expensive too.

Ruan Yu let out a soft sigh and closed her eyes. She had been single since birth and couldn’t relate to those feelings. Fortunately, she had no such desires either.

Sunday afternoon, Ruan Yu went to the Tang residence at the time Shen Bing had specified, but the main gate was tightly closed. No one answered no matter how many times she rang the doorbell.

By all accounts, Tang Hao should have been home.

Ruan Yu scrolled through her phone contacts – she only had Shen Bing’s number, but Shen Bing was away on a business trip. It would be awkward to contact her suddenly.

After some thought, she sat quietly in the portico to wait.

The neighborhood consisted entirely of villas, each with its yard, connected one after another. Looking at them individually, they resembled magnificent castles; viewed from afar, they appeared like a fairy tale town.

From some direction, piano music drifted over.

Ruan Yu didn’t understand music and couldn’t identify what was being played, but she felt that having something to distract her during this boring moment was nice, even though the melody didn’t seem particularly cheerful.

An hour slipped by silently…

She leaned against the portico pillar, checking the time occasionally.

Where had Tang Hao gone? Could he be deliberately not answering the door?

Remembering those hostile eyes, she thought it wasn’t impossible.

“Tang Hao! Tang Hao!” Ruan Yu called out toward the second-floor windows several times.

No response.

She felt deflated and didn’t want to wait any longer – this was simply too much wasted time.

Ruan Yu stepped back and was about to leave when she accidentally kicked a black ceramic flowerpot near her feet. The pot had been placed behind the portico pillar by someone unknown, containing a jasmine plant. Perhaps from neglect, the jasmine’s stems were weak and its leaves small, with visible signs of life ebbing away.

This lifeless little jasmine at the villa’s entrance seemed out of place, completely unsuited to its surroundings.

Just like her.

Ruan Yu crouched down and moved the flowerpot outward to a position where it could enjoy sunlight, then opened her backpack, took out her water bottle, unscrewed the cap, and watered the cracked, dry soil in the pot.

“Why aren’t you going in?”

A voice suddenly came from behind.

Ruan Yu’s hand trembled, nearly dropping the water bottle.

She turned around to find Tang Yi standing behind her, though she hadn’t noticed when he’d arrived.

He wore a dark baseball jacket, looming over her like a dark mountain.

“It seems no one’s home,” Ruan Yu stood up, tightening the bottle cap. “I rang the doorbell for a long time, but there was no response.”

Tang Yi glanced up at the second floor without speaking, then turned to open the door.

It was a digital lock – he quickly entered the code and pushed the door open.

Ruan Yu stood still, not moving.

He held the door for her, turning sideways: “Aren’t you coming in?”