For some unknown reason.

The moment she saw him, the moment he actively asked about her situation, the grievance Shu Nian had been suppressing inexplicably surfaced again, and her eyes gradually reddened.

“Yes, he came over and scolded me for no reason,” Shu Nian hung her head, her voice nasal, handing him her phone to see, as if she was tattling, “My phone got dropped too.”

Xie Ruhe took her phone and examined it briefly. Noticing that the screen was somewhat unresponsive, he put his phone in Shu Nian’s hand and said softly, “Use this one for now.”

Shu Nian nodded.

Because they lingered, the elevator doors automatically closed and continued to ascend. Occasionally people passed by, their gazes unconsciously drawn to them, before quickly hurrying away.

Xie Ruhe checked her other hand and asked, “Besides here, are you injured anywhere else?”

Shu Nian shook her head, “No.”

Xie Ruhe turned to press the down button of the elevator and slowly exhaled, “What did he say to you?”

Shu Nian couldn’t bring herself to say it, and still kept her head down without making a sound.

Seeing this, Xie Ruhe slightly bent over, lowering his head to look at her. He tilted his head, meeting her gaze, the fierceness in his eyes gradually dissipating as he coaxed her softly, “Don’t be unhappy.”

Shu Nian sniffled, holding back her tears.

Xie Ruhe touched the corner of her eye with his fingertip, the corner of his mouth curving upward as he repeated in a gentle voice, “Nian Nian, don’t be unhappy.”

Shu Nian stared at him, her eyes round and large, with slightly downturned corners, like a little puppy. She looked up at him, with a faint mist of tears in her eyes, appearing utterly pitiful.

Xie Ruhe’s voice was slightly hoarse, his tone intimate yet cold.

“I’ll help you get rid of all the trash.”

The two left the building.

Shu Nian’s emotions had calmed down a bit.

Except for the harsh words Xu Zeyuan had said, which Shu Nian couldn’t bring herself to repeat, she roughly recounted everything else to Xie Ruhe: “I had just come out of the bathroom when he suddenly grabbed my wrist, and then…”

“Mm.”

“Later, Miao Man saw us.” Shu Nian rubbed her eyes hard. “They don’t seem to be a couple yet, probably Xu Zeyuan was still pursuing Miao Man. She came over, hit Xu Zeyuan, and scolded him.”

“Did she scold you too?”

“No.” Shu Nian honestly said, “She protected me, she’s a good person.”

Xie Ruhe made another sound of acknowledgment, “That’s good.”

“Anyway, it’s all over now, I didn’t suffer any real harm.” Shu Nian was silent for a while, then recalled Xie Ruhe’s words from earlier, “Don’t go looking for him.”

Xie Ruhe paused for a moment without responding.

Shu Nian sniffled, “We should just live our own lives.”

He lowered his eyes and casually agreed with a “fine.”

Shu Nian was led by Xie Ruhe toward the parking lot. She forcibly erased the previous events from her mind and changed the subject, “When I was in the recording studio, did you go home?”

“No.” Xie Ruhe pointed in a direction. “I was in that coffee shop.”

“You didn’t go back?”

“No.”

“…” Shu Nian’s mood sank again. “I feel like I’m taking up so much of your time.”

“Hmm?” Xie Ruhe didn’t see any problem with this, his tone indifferent, “If you don’t use it, wouldn’t it be wasted?”

Shu Nian asked, “But don’t you need to write songs?”

“I can write anywhere.”

When they reached the car, Xie Ruhe opened the passenger door for Shu Nian. After she got in, he closed the door and walked to the other side.

Sitting in the car, Shu Nian watched for his movements.

Xie Ruhe’s footsteps stopped as if he had seen someone, his gaze fixed on a certain spot. Not long after, he opened the car door and said to Shu Nian, “I’ll go buy you some milk tea.”

Shu Nian was stunned and said softly, “I don’t want any right now.”

Xie Ruhe asked, “Is there anything else you’d like to eat?”

“I want to eat a soy milk box.” Shu Nian had already fastened her seatbelt, but as she said this, she lowered her head trying to unfasten it, “I’ll go with you, and while we’re at it—”

“No need.” Xie Ruhe interrupted her, saying with an unchanged expression, “It’s too sunny outside, you wait here. I’ll be back soon.”

Shu Nian hesitantly withdrew her hand, looking at the blinding sunlight outside.

Then, she heard the sound of Xie Ruhe closing the car door.

Shu Nian watched his back through the window, wondering which dessert shops were nearby. She lowered her head, rummaged through her pocket, and took out the phone inside.

Seeing it, Shu Nian remembered that she and Xie Ruhe had exchanged phones.

Shu Nian hadn’t used Xie Ruhe’s phone much before and rarely touched it. Her brain suddenly short-circuited, and she habitually unlocked it with her fingerprint. To her surprise, it unlocked.

The screen showed their WeChat conversation.

Shu Nian’s expression froze, thinking that Xie Ruhe hadn’t set a lock screen.

She naively turned off the screen, wanting to try again.

Pressing the power button directly to light up the screen, she found it required a password.

Shu Nian hesitantly used her fingerprint to unlock it.

It unlocked instantly.

Shu Nian blinked, somewhat bewildered, not knowing when Xie Ruhe had registered her fingerprint. She didn’t dwell on this thought and sent herself a WeChat message: [Where are you going to buy it?]

After waiting a few seconds without a reply.

Shu Nian idly exited WeChat and scanned the main interface.

Xie Ruhe’s phone didn’t have many apps installed, mostly just the built-in ones, not even a single game. She scratched her cheek, suddenly noticing Weibo in the middle.

She hesitated for a moment but still opened it.

Shu Nian didn’t look at Xie Ruhe’s messages. She opened Weibo’s trending topics and glanced at them, noticing that among the top ten, four or five were names she recognized—

[Miao Man Clarifies]

[Miao Man Xu Zeyuan]

[Xu Zeyuan Posts Ambiguous Weibo]

[Ke Yiqing Retweets and Quickly Deletes]

[Xu Zeyuan Gets Slapped in the Face]

These trending topics reminded Shu Nian of what had just happened. She pursed her lips and instinctively clicked on the top trending topic. The first Weibo post that appeared was from Miao Man.

A Weibo from over two hours ago.

Roughly during the time after Miao Man had slapped Xu Zeyuan twice.

@MiaoMan: No ambiguous relationships, no one I like, not dating anyone. I’ve been busy lately, with no time to live in your fantasy. [Picture]

The attached picture was of Miao Man dubbing in the recording studio.

A verified account had a screenshot of Ke Yiqing’s quickly deleted Weibo. Ke Yiqing retweeted Miao Man’s Weibo with a few words: Wuwu our Manman is so pitiful, never been in a relationship wuwuwuwuwu.

Perhaps it was discovered by her manager, or perhaps she forgot to switch to her burner account.

This Weibo was quickly deleted.

And yesterday, Xu Zeyuan also posted a Weibo with a screenshot from a TV drama starring Miao Man, with just two words in the text: Beautiful.

The comments below were polarized.

On one side were Miao Man’s fans, and on the other were Xu Zeyuan’s fans.

Miao Man was the type who attracted a lot of hate, where anything she casually said could be misinterpreted into something else, being criticized terribly. But in reality, apart from poor acting skills, there was no concrete evidence of any scandals. She had many corresponding fans with a strong fighting spirit.

As for Xu Zeyuan, since he had finished that singing show, he had subsequently appeared on several variety shows, and although the heat wasn’t as high as before, his traffic was still not low.

The fans of both sides were equally matched in fighting power, frantically tearing into each other.

The content was unsightly.

Shu Nian didn’t read further and exited.

Her finger inadvertently clicked on the message tab, and as her gaze casually swept over it, she suddenly saw in the messages from non-followed accounts, someone had sent a message: [A He, that Shu Nian you follow…]

Staring at that sentence, Shu Nian’s gaze lingered for several dozen seconds. By the time she reacted, she had already opened that message.

That person had sent several consecutive messages.

[Is she your girlfriend??]

[Ahhhhhhh are you dating? Planning to go public?]

[I want to cry.]

[By the way, is this Shu Nian from the Media Department of Ruchuan University?]

[I think I know her.]

Seeing the last two sentences, Shu Nian’s breath stopped, her grip on the phone tightened, and she blankly closed the Weibo interface. She spaced out for a while, then looked at the time. Half an hour had already passed, and Xie Ruhe still hadn’t returned.

He also hadn’t replied to her.

Shu Nian opened the contacts and called Xie Ruhe.

It rang three times.

The other end picked up.

“Xie Ruhe.” Shu Nian frowned, “Why aren’t you back yet?”

Xie Ruhe was silent for a few seconds, speaking slightly out of breath: “Coming back now.”

Shu Nian thought for a moment and asked, “Is there no place nearby selling soy milk boxes? If not, then forget it. Where are you? I can drive over to find you.”

Xie Ruhe’s voice lowered a bit: “I didn’t buy it.”

Shu Nian didn’t care much: “Then let’s not buy it.”

“I’m coming back now.”

“Okay.”

“Shu Nian.” Xie Ruhe suddenly called her.

“Hm?”

“…Don’t be angry.”

Shu Nian was confused, thinking he was talking about the soy milk box: “It’s fine, I don’t want to eat it that much. Besides, we can buy it near home when we get back.”

She wanted to say a few more words when there was movement at the driver’s side door.

Shu Nian looked over accordingly.

Xie Ruhe opened the car door and sat down. He kept his head down, not looking at Shu Nian, with one hand on the steering wheel, asking softly, “Shall we go home now?”

Shu Nian was about to respond when her peripheral vision caught his hand, and her gaze froze.

Xie Ruhe’s hands were long and beautiful, with prominent knuckles and fair skin. At this moment, his knuckles were purplish, with several places where the skin had broken, showing traces of blood.

Shu Nian stammered, “What happened to your hand?”

Hearing this, Xie Ruhe only then noticed his hand, unconsciously clenching his palm, then quickly releasing it. Realizing he couldn’t hide it, he resignedly raised his head and looked at Shu Nian.

Their gazes met.

Only then did Shu Nian notice that the corner of his mouth was also split.

Xie Ruhe’s Adam’s apple moved, and he said expressionlessly, “I fell.”

Shu Nian stared at him, doubtfully exposing his lie: “It doesn’t look like you fell.”

At these words, Xie Ruhe added, “Then I bumped into someone.”

“Ah, who did you bump into?”

“Xu Zeyuan.”

“…”