Actually, from the moment she saw Xing Wu’s father that evening, Qing had been pondering a profound question: what exactly had Li Lanfang seen in such an unusual man?

He had neither looks nor height, his emotional intelligence was negative, and he was so poor that even charity organizations wouldn’t look his way. What had bewitched Li Lanfang?

At this moment, Qing finally had her enlightenment – so he was strong in that way, exceptional in that particular aspect.

Originally, Qing had thought that at their age, wouldn’t ten or fifteen minutes be enough? But this went on for over twenty minutes. Perhaps because Qing had turned off the lights, they assumed everyone was asleep and became more uninhibited. The rickety second floor wasn’t very sturdy, and they were making such a commotion – it was impossible to sleep.

It was already embarrassing enough, but what made it worse was that she was sharing the same space with Xing Wu, both of them listening to these indescribable sounds. The situation couldn’t get any more bizarre.

Qing had never experienced anything so awkward in her life, but her unofficial aunt and uncle were like newlyweds reunited after a long separation. It would be rather heartless to stop their passionate reunion – she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

So she turned over very slowly, very quietly, and secretly looked at Xing Wu. He hadn’t made a sound since the noises started. He was leaning against the headboard with his eyes closed, completely still, but Qing knew he must be awake. With this racket, anyone who could sleep through it would deserve her respect.

After a while, seeing that the noises showed no signs of stopping, Qing finally spoke: “Have you… done it?”

As Qing had expected, Xing Wu wasn’t asleep. He slowly opened his eyes and turned to look at her: “Done what?”

“Love.”

Everything froze – their gazes, the air around them, everything stopped in that instant.

After a long moment, Xing Wu looked away and answered: “No.”

“With Sister Shu?”

“No.”

Xing Wu’s answer remained crisp and clear. He suddenly raised an eyebrow and glanced at her: “Do I look like that kind of casual person?”

Qing laughed: “What’s wrong with that? Some people in my old class did it too. There were lots of foreigners in our international school, so… they were pretty open-minded. Quite a few people dated in middle school, and teachers weren’t very strict about puppy love and such. Sometimes when couples formed in class, teachers would even joke about it privately.”

“So you are from an international metropolis, with such progressive thinking.”

“That’s not what I mean. Of course, teachers didn’t encourage it, but they would properly educate us about sex. My former homeroom teacher even said it was a necessary stage of life – rather than suppress it, it’s better to guide it correctly.”

Xing Wu stayed silent. He just found it amazing – it was his first time hearing about teachers discussing such things with students. If this happened at their school, it would cause an explosion.

Qing continued making conversation: “I heard my American classmates say you can get addicted to this. Is it the men who get addicted, or the women, or both?”

Xing Wu suddenly felt the room getting very hot.

He raised his eyebrows: “How do good students like you even talk about these things?”

“It’s academic discussion! A mature top student should explore knowledge in all areas, thoroughly implementing the spirit of asking when you don’t understand. If you only know what’s in textbooks and nothing else, wouldn’t that make you a bookworm? You’d get taken advantage of in society without even knowing how it happened.”

Xing Wu remained silent for a long while, then suddenly called out without warning: “Qing.”

Qing responded with a puzzled “Hmm?”

“Are you sure you want to discuss this topic under these circumstances?”

He turned to stare at her, his eyes like those of a wolf in the night, carrying an intense predatory quality that startled Qing. She hurriedly turned away, saying hastily: “I’m tired, going to sleep.”

Qing had thought that since things were already so awkward, they might as well talk it out openly – fighting poison with poison might make it less awkward. But clearly for Xing Wu, hearing his parents doing this in the dead of night was bad enough, and having the girl sleeping beside him discuss it with him made it even worse. What made it most unbearable was that this girl held a fatal attraction for him.

Qing fell asleep quickly enough, after all, she had to get up early the next day. But unexpectedly, what woke her the next morning wasn’t her alarm, but the sound of arguing downstairs. She jumped straight up from her bed and then heard Xing Wu’s roar. Truthfully, in all the time she’d known him, although his temper wasn’t great, she’d never heard him this angry. It startled her. Just as she was about to rush downstairs to see what had happened, she heard the sound of a motorcycle outside – Xing Wu had stormed out and ridden away.

Initially, Qing thought Xing Wu had been arguing with his father until she went downstairs and saw Li Lanfang crying inconsolably. Only then did she realize Xing Wu had been yelling at Li Lanfang.

Qing hurried over to ask Li Lanfang what had happened. Li Lanfang started cursing, saying that last night Old Xing had told her about a big business deal in another city and needed money, so she gave him her card. But this morning she discovered he had also taken all the money from the cash register. What made it even worse was that Du Qiyan had given Li Lanfang the money he owed Xing Wu yesterday afternoon, and before Li Lanfang could give it to Xing Wu, his father had taken that too.

Qing hadn’t quite processed it all and asked: “Where’s Xing Wu’s father?”

Li Lanfang cried out between sobs: “Gone.”

On her way to school, Qing was still in a daze. She couldn’t understand – last night Li Lanfang and Comrade Xing Guodong had been passionately intimate until the early hours, and this morning he just took the money and ran. What kind of bizarre operation was this?

No wonder Xing Wu would say emotionlessly that his father was “dead.” This behavior was indeed worse than being dead. The key point was – he abandoned his wife, mother, and child. Just left like that? This behavior was fraud and seduction!

That entire day, Xing Wu didn’t come to school. Qing kept looking back, worried about him.

After school, Qing saw Yellow Hair at the school gate and specifically asked him where Xing Wu was.

Yellow Hair said: “Brother Wu called at noon, and said he had business at Shun Yi.”

Qing had already started heading back but decided to make a trip to Shun Yi.

Shun Yi was open, and quite a few people were standing at the entrance, some Qing didn’t recognize, though she knew Huabi. As she approached, Huabi had already seen her and asked: “Looking for Brother Wu?”

Qing nodded, and he called inside: “Quanya.”

Quanya walked out from Shun Yi. Qing felt somewhat awkward seeing him this time, after all, he was Shu Han’s brother. Although she didn’t know what they had discussed that night when they returned to Shun Yi, Qing knew it must have been about her.

Quanya came out and told Qing: “Wu’s working. He doesn’t let people in when he’s working.”

“Oh…” Qing stretched her neck to look inside, and indeed, the wooden door behind the curtain was tightly closed.

Quanya looked at her and asked: “Have you eaten?”

“No, just came from school.”

Quanya simply walked toward her: “Let’s have some noodles next door. He’ll be a while.”

So Qing followed Quanya to the nearby noodle shop. Quanya asked Qing what she wanted to eat. Qing ordered a bowl of three-delicacy noodles. The shop wasn’t very big, mostly filled with men working in the nearby electronics street. While Qing was waiting for her noodles, a young man was about to sit next to her with his stool, but Quanya coldly said “Go elsewhere,” and the man, seeing Quanya, left without a word and moved to another table.

Among Xing Wu’s friends, Quanya gave Qing the most steady impression. Although her first impression was that he looked quite refined, different in temperament from people like Da Hei and Huabi, ever since Qing saw him kick a stool at Da Cao that day, she knew he wasn’t what he appeared to be. Some people have very deceptive appearances but are not to be trifled with – Quanya should belong to this category.

The noodles came, but the portion was very large, and Qing could only finish half.

Quanya had also finished eating but showed no signs of getting up, so Qing asked: “Why doesn’t Xing Wu let people in when he’s fixing things? Is he afraid they’ll steal his techniques?”

Quanya raised an eyebrow, then suddenly smiled: “Fixing things? He’s not fixing anything.”

“Then what’s he doing?”

“Playing games for others.”

“For others? You mean as a substitute player?”

Quanya glanced at her but didn’t speak.

Qing frowned and asked: “If he has the skill, why doesn’t he participate in competitions himself instead of playing for others?”

Quanya said flatly: “Quick money, less trouble, freedom.”

“But he’ll always be underground. No matter how well he plays, no one will know him. Success requires sacrifice.”

“Success?” Quanya suddenly seemed to find this amusing, twirling his Zippo lighter in his hand before saying mockingly: “If he had chosen success, he would have been at the peak of professional competition two years ago. Not everyone can choose success as freely as you can. You don’t know what price others have to pay for choosing success. No one wants to display their shame in public.”

Qing stared at Quanya, her heart suddenly tumbling. It was as if she was suddenly looking through a layer of fog – many things became unclear.

She asked directly: “If I hadn’t appeared here, would Xing Wu have accepted Ma Bin’s proposal that night?”

“Yes.” Quanya’s answer was definitive.

Qing’s eyelashes trembled. Quanya lit his lighter and a cigarette: “If he hadn’t met you, he wouldn’t have any regrets, nor any hopes. With Wu’s abilities, even staying in Zhazha Ting, he could make money on his own, enough to keep life from being too bad.

He’s not a greedy person. He would be content with the status quo. After graduating high school, perhaps after a few more years, he would have given Shu Han an answer too. After all, we grew up together, there’s an emotional attachment there. His life would have been stable like most people’s.

But because you appeared, he started having desires, wanting more. Once a person has desires, they fall into endless suffering. Perhaps this sounds cruel, but I don’t have high hopes for you two. You’re on different paths.”

Qing lowered her head and added another large spoonful of chili oil to her bowl, took a sip of the soup, and immediately her mouth burned, even her chest felt burning hot. She raised her head to stare at Quanya: “I’ll pull him onto another path.”

Quanya carelessly extinguished his cigarette and said meaningfully: “We can bet on it – you won’t be able to pull him away.” His confident gaze suddenly caused an inexplicable panic in Qing’s chest.

She straightened her back, staring steadily at Quanya, her mouth curving: “We’ll see.” With that, she stood up and strode out of the noodle shop.

Before she reached Shun Yi’s entrance, Xing Wu called. Just as he called, he saw Qing, hung up, and said to her: “What did you eat? Your mouth is all red.”

“Had some chili.”

“…You can’t handle spicy food but you still ate it.”

Xing Wu glanced at Quanya behind Qing. Quanya maintained an unconcerned expression and asked: “How did it go?”

Huabi nearby laughed: “With Brother Wu on the job, an easy five thousand yuan.”

Xing Wu told them: “I’m leaving first.”

He mounted his motorcycle, and Qing walked over and sat behind him, putting her hands in his jacket pockets. At this moment, she only felt cold, as if winter’s chill was approaching, cold to the bone.

Huabi and the others smiled suggestively. Xing Wu looked down but said nothing. Qing turned her head to stare expressionlessly at Quanya, who just stood by the curb with his arms crossed, smiling, as if nothing had happened between them.