As the clock hand pointed to seven, the last trace of light at the horizon was swept away. Row after row of street lights suddenly illuminated in perfect unison. Even from a hundred miles away, with the light filtered through curtains, Ruan Sixian still found it blinding.

She shielded her eyes and turned to switch on the light.

Her hand hadn’t yet touched the switch when she heard the person behind her say, “What about you? What would you choose?”

Ruan Sixian’s hand froze in mid-air. The light remained off, leaving the living room in darkness.

Dong Xian stood two meters away from her and spoke softly, “The last chance in this lifetime to take the pilot exam, or continue to be a dutiful wife and mother staying at home—what would you choose?”

A prolonged silence filled the room, even the air seemed to stand still.

The atmosphere around her was choking her throat and mind. She couldn’t think. Her nerves pulsated violently as if they might explode at any second.

“I won’t make her choose between the two.”

Suddenly, a hand covered the back of Ruan Sixian’s hand and pressed the switch. A bright light illuminated the entire living room.

He held Ruan Sixian’s hand and stepped sideways in front of her, blocking Dong Xian’s direct gaze.

“Auntie, asking such questions is meaningless. This kind of hypothetical scenario doesn’t apply here.”

Hearing his firm voice, Ruan Sixian looked up, staring at him in a daze, her throat itching.

The wind was strong outside. He had just returned, his clothes still carrying a chill, but his palm was warm.

When Dong Xian had asked that question, Ruan Sixian’s temples had suddenly tightened. She felt like she was standing on a tightrope above a cliff, where a single move could make her fall.

His voice was like a strong rope pulling her back to shore.

Fu Mingyu’s sudden arrival broke the subtle, tense atmosphere between Dong Xian and Ruan Sixian.

He glanced at the dining area. The dishes on the table were barely touched.

“Auntie, have you eaten? Would you like to sit down and have dinner together?”

His “invitation” sounded more like a dismissal.

Dong Xian didn’t need further explanation. She weighed her position against Fu Mingyu’s in this house, and the answer was clear.

She very distinctly felt Ruan Sixian’s dependence on Fu Mingyu.

The two stood opposite her with what seemed like a barrier between them, indicating they had taken different positions.

In the end, they would part on bad terms.

She silently sighed and walked to the dining table, testing the temperature of a bowl of soup with the back of her hand.

“It’s still warm,” she said. “The pigeon is fresh, and the herbs were carefully selected. They can calm nerves and anxiety. Drink it while it’s hot.”

When the sound of the door closing rang out, Fu Mingyu turned to look at Ruan Sixian.

He raised his hand, wanting to touch her cheek.

But before he could touch her skin, she suddenly walked forward, dropping onto the sofa and burying herself in the cushions.

“I’m exhausted.”

While Fu Mingyu wasn’t paying attention, she rubbed her eyes. “Why did you come?”

“Afraid my treasure was being bullied.” Fu Mingyu picked up the dishes from the table and walked toward the kitchen. “And didn’t someone want me to join her for dinner?”

Ruan Sixian rolled her eyes on the sofa, hugging a cushion and turning over to face away from him. The corners of her mouth curved slightly as she got up to carry the remaining dishes into the kitchen.

Fu Mingyu put the dishes in the microwave. “Why did Auntie come today?”

“To bring me some food.” Ruan Sixian pointed to the table outside. “See that? Fresh pigeon soup.”

The first dish was heated, and he brought it out while asking, “Just to bring food?”

Ruan Sixian made an “oh” sound. “And to have a little heart-to-heart chat.”

A heart-to-heart chat that resulted in such an atmosphere?

If he hadn’t known Dong Xian was coming and felt uneasy about it, rushing back immediately, who knows—with Ruan Sixian’s temperament, she might have gotten into a big argument at home.

Fu Mingyu turned around and leaned against the cabinet, slightly hunching his back, bringing his eye level even with Ruan Sixian’s.

The corners of his mouth showed a faint smile. “Did you argue with your mom?”

“Hmm.” Ruan Sixian turned to serve the rice, with a hint of feigned indifference in her tone. “Didn’t you hear?”

Fu Mingyu wrapped his arm around her neck and cupped her chin with his hand. “Then tell your brother, what did you argue with mom about?”

His tone was light, truly sounding like an older brother comforting a child.

But Ruan Sixian had always known that all this time, Fu Mingyu had vague guesses about her family situation.

But she hadn’t spoken about it, so he hadn’t asked.

Ruan Sixian kept her head down, not speaking.

The microwave made a “ding” sound. Fu Mingyu released her and reached to open it.

“It’s okay. If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to. Let’s eat first.”

When Ruan Sixian had no important matters, she usually ate only until 70% full at dinner.

Eating too much made her drowsy and clouded her mind.

But that one hour when Dong Xian was present seemed to have drained all her energy. Her stomach felt empty, and without realizing it, she had an extra bowl of rice.

The pigeon soup sat to one side, cooling off at some point, emitting a fishy smell.

Fu Mingyu sat across from her and filled a bowl of winter melon soup.

Ruan Sixian was about to reach for it when he brought it to his lips.

“…”

Fu Mingyu’s hand paused. “You can still eat?”

Ruan Sixian withdrew her hand and nodded in resignation.

“Fine, I can’t eat anymore.”

Fu Mingyu smiled, took a sip—the soup was just the right temperature—and then passed it to Ruan Sixian.

Ruan Sixian turned her head away. “I don’t eat food offered with contempt.”

The person across looked at her, eyes half-narrowed. “Do you want me to feed you?”

Normally, Ruan Sixian would roll her eyes and say, “I’m not disabled.”

But recalling what Zheng You’an had said at noon, she lowered her head and touched her fingernails. “But I heard some girls have boyfriends who never let them wash fruit themselves, tie their shoelaces, or even open their water bottles.”

“That’s other people.” Fu Mingyu drank the soup and nodded. “You’re different. You’re a woman who can open bottle caps with one hand.”

“…”

“Let me tell you.” Across the table, Ruan Sixian nudged Fu Mingyu’s calf. “I’m very popular now. You’d better be good to me, or my 63,108 Weibo followers could verbally destroy you, each with a single word.”

Not only that but just yesterday at dawn, many media outlets had competed to interview her.

Ruan Sixian didn’t have the energy or time for all that, declining most of them and only accepting invitations from a few very formal mainstream media outlets. Otherwise, if she had accepted them all, she would have needed to find an agent.

Fu Mingyu let out a light laugh.

Ruan Sixian detected a hint of disdain in his laughter.

“What do you mean by that?”

Fu Mingyu looked up at her, raising his eyebrows slightly, and walked to her side.

“Open your mouth.”

Ruan Sixian seemed to have PTSD from these two words, instantly recalling the events of this morning. Not only did she not open her mouth, but she clenched her jaw tightly.

Seeing her like this, Fu Mingyu stirred the soup in the bowl with his spoon, casually saying, “Didn’t you want me to feed you?”

“You said that this morning too—” The spoon reached Ruan Sixian’s mouth, and her brain froze, her earlobes slowly turning red.

“Hmm?” Fu Mingyu touched her lower lip with the spoon. “What did I say this morning?”

Ruan Sixian snatched the bowl from his hand and pushed him away using both hands and feet. “Get lost, I’m not disabled.”

While drinking the soup, Fu Mingyu sat beside her, leaning against the chair back, head lowered in thought.

He touched his pants pocket, feeling a hard box inside.

He was about to take it out but thought better of it.

“Go ahead and smoke if you want.”

Ruan Sixian put down her bowl and said, “It’s not like I haven’t breathed secondhand smoke before.”

“Just one.” Fu Mingyu took out the cigarette pack. “No time to sleep, very tired.”

Ruan Sixian let out a cold laugh.

“No time to sleep, yet when you lie in bed, you keep your eyes open and do all kinds of things.”

“What kinds of things?”

“…”

Ruan Sixian grabbed the lighter from his hand, lit it, and glared at him fiercely. “Need to burn incense at your grave?”

This action didn’t intimidate Fu Mingyu at all. Instead, he tilted his head and lit his cigarette using the flame in Ruan Sixian’s hand.

With the cigarette in his mouth, he lowered his head. The light cast shadows on his brow and nose bridge, creating a deep, almost unreal effect.

Yet this very unreality made her unable to look away, keeping her eyes fixed on the scene like a movie.

Soon, white smoke drifted beside her.

The soup in the bowl was almost gone. Ruan Sixian put down the lighter. The spoon in her hand clinked against the ceramic bowl, making a crisp sound.

“The last time I had this soup was during summer vacation in ninth grade.”

“Hmm?”

She suddenly brought this up out of nowhere. Fu Mingyu’s fingertips paused slightly, and some ash fell from his cigarette.

“The shop had just opened then. My mom came to pick me up from school for dinner, at this very place.”

This statement came after she had contemplated for the entire meal, looking for an opportunity to bring it up.

Just now, when Fu Mingyu asked about her family matters, she hadn’t spoken—not because she was unwilling to talk, but because she didn’t know where to begin.

Dong Xian wasn’t just anyone; she was her mother, and also the wife of Fu Mingyu’s business partner. For both personal and professional reasons, he should be informed.

He was different from others.

If she couldn’t tell him, Ruan Sixian didn’t know who else she could tell.

So even if he didn’t ask, Ruan Sixian would find an opportunity to tell him.

But even years later, old stories still felt like scars—they hurt even with the slightest touch.

It took courage to tell everything.

“When I was fourteen, my mom divorced my dad. After that, she seemed very busy, visiting me only once or twice a year. The first time she came back was to take me to dinner at Xi Xiang Yan. Before that, our family could never afford such restaurants.”

Ruan Sixian started from the beginning of the story, her voice neither loud nor soft, as if telling someone else’s story.

When she got to the part about the misunderstanding, she even laughed at herself.

The high school segment was monotonous, she summed it up in two sentences.

“In senior year, an airline came to recruit pilots, but they didn’t take girls. Did you know that?”

Fu Mingyu nodded. “I know.”

This wasn’t unique to World Airways; at that time, almost all airlines were like this.

“Later, during junior year of university, airlines also came to the school for recruitment tours.” Ruan Sixian lifted her chin. “I was very confident then, thinking I would be selected because the interviewer liked me, and even the pilot who came to give the presentation exchanged contact information with me, so I went back to the dorm and packed my bags.”

Fu Mingyu looked up and said, “Exchanged contact information?”

“Yes, he was very handsome. Do you want to see?”

Ruan Sixian said this while taking out her phone to show him.

Fu Mingyu didn’t look at the phone, only seeing her mischievous smile. He let out a cold snort and said, “You have quite a wide network.”

“If my network were that wide, I wouldn’t have ended up in that situation.” Ruan Sixian put down her phone heavily. Recalling that incident, there was contempt in her eyes. “What happened? I thought I had received a VIP pass, but it turned out to be just a ‘P’. I didn’t even know when people with connections took my spot, without any sound or notice. In the end, I found out from someone else’s mouth.”

The cigarette between his fingertips had burned more than halfway, with nearly an inch of ash about to fall.

He sighed softly, the ash fell off, and he extinguished the cigarette.

Under the warm yellow light of the dining room, Fu Mingyu’s gaze seemed obscure.

Ruan Sixian cupped her face and looked back at him, suddenly experiencing a strange feeling.

If she hadn’t lost that position back then, she might have met Fu Mingyu much earlier.

“If I had met you at that time,” she thought of something and asked directly, “would you have liked me?”

Only a wisp of smoke remained in the trash can, rising slowly between Ruan Sixian and Fu Mingyu, slowing the passage of time.

“If I had met you at that time,” Fu Mingyu looked straight at her, “you would already be Mrs. Fu by now.”

Mrs. Fu.

Ruan Sixian was stunned. A strange feeling slowly crept into her heart, tingling and itching, like a cat’s paws scratching.

Those three words “Mrs. Fu” sounded quite nice.

Mainly because they immediately made one think of wealth—” Mrs. Fu (Rich)” indeed.

Ruan Sixian spread her fingers to cover half her face, not even looking at him, her heart beating wildly. She quickly changed the subject, “My dad didn’t buy commercial insurance. After he passed away, he didn’t leave me much money. Even in university, I had to work part-time for living expenses. While others went on dates and traveled, I was always working.”

Fu Mingyu frowned.

It was hard for him to imagine how Ruan Sixian had managed alone during that period.

If only he could have met her earlier.

He definitely wouldn’t have let her live that kind of life.

At this moment, Ruan Sixian suddenly looked up and smiled proudly, “But in university, I was one of the richest in our class.”

“…”

Fu Mingyu’s thoughts came to an abrupt halt.

“Well, what can I say? It’s because I’m beautiful.” Ruan Sixian smoothed her hair and explained to Fu Mingyu, “Taobao shops were always looking for me to model. I could earn 1,000 yuan for a day’s shoot. One store even paid for me to go to the beach to shoot, 2,500 yuan per day. After four years, I had several tens of thousands in my little savings.”

“…”

Fu Mingyu contained his overflowing sympathy and raised an eyebrow. “The beach?”

“Yes.”

“What did you wear?”

“Is that important?” Ruan Sixian closed her eyes and inhaled, nearly exasperated by him. “The point is 2,500 yuan per day.”

“Do you still have the photos?”

Ruan Sixian paused.

She did.

And the store must have been very satisfied with her photos, as they were featured on the homepage, with a large image appearing as soon as you entered. She had also saved the original images.

The photos turned out so well that there was nothing she couldn’t show him.

Ruan Sixian opened her phone and found those photos in her cloud storage.

Although they were taken several years ago, the photographer had good aesthetics, so they didn’t look outdated even now.

And although it was an online store, it positioned itself as a mid-range swimwear brand—sexy but not vulgar. Without the watermarks, they could easily pass as artistic photos.

Blue sea, blue sky, golden sand, a twenty-year-old girl in a brightly colored swimsuit sitting on a rock, one leg extended downward, toes touching the sand, blindingly white.

Fu Mingyu held Ruan Sixian’s phone, and looked for a few moments, his expression unreadable.

“Not good?”

Ruan Sixian stared at him.

If you dare say “yes,” you’re dead.

Fu Mingyu didn’t answer. He closed the phone and placed it face-down on the table.

“If I say they’re good, will you wear it for me tonight?”

“No, get lost!”

Fu Mingyu glanced at her, stood up, and walked toward her room.

“I don’t have it!” Ruan Sixian immediately stood up and blocked him with her hand. “I haven’t been in the water for a long time!”

“You don’t? That’s okay.”

Fu Mingyu leaned close to her ear and said, “I’ll buy you one next time, even a revealing one is fine.”

He paused, then lowered his voice again, “Preferably one with ties, easy to take off.”

Ruan Sixian pressed her lips together and nodded. “For every piece of clothing you take off me, I’ll peel off a layer of your skin. How’s that?”

“…”

Fu Mingyu and she stood in a deadlock. He nodded as well. “Fine, as you wish.”

He put on his jacket and touched her ear. “After the interview tomorrow afternoon, my parents want to invite you home for dinner.”

“Mm, okay—wait.”

Ruan Sixian suddenly grabbed his arm. “Why do they want to invite me for dinner?”

Fu Mingyu found it amusing, “Isn’t that appropriate?”

Seeing her hesitation, Fu Mingyu comforted her gently, “Don’t feel pressured. I’m not forcing you. The dinner invitation is because of yesterday’s incident.”

Although Fu Mingyu said not to feel pressured, going to her boyfriend’s house for dinner for the first time was more nerve-wracking than a first job interview in college.

To ensure she would be in good condition, Ruan Sixian sent Fu Mingyu home immediately, then took a bath, applied a face mask, and did a hair treatment… after all these preparations, she fell asleep.

As for Fu Mingyu, after leaving Ruan Sixian’s place and entering the elevator, he suddenly thought of something and made a call home.

Doudou, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to put up with some discomfort tomorrow.