The person speaking from beyond the crowd was someone Xia Xiaolan knew all too well – it was her boyfriend Zhou Cheng, whom she hadn’t seen in ages!

Since their argument over the Shi family matter, they hadn’t been in contact at all. Xia Xiaolan truly hadn’t expected Zhou Cheng to suddenly appear in such circumstances.

The crowd parted to make way. Though Zhou Cheng was in plain clothes, his presence still overwhelmed the uniformed police officers.

“Who are you?”

“I’m her boyfriend. Here are my work credentials.”

Zhou Cheng handed his ID to the police, and they immediately got a headache upon opening it. Even within the judicial system, they least wanted to deal with people from that unit. When people from that unit committed crimes, they were handled by special courts – it was a completely different system that they had no jurisdiction over.

Director Nie had said to bring the young girl to the police station and frighten her a bit – she’d tell the truth then. But this sharp-tongued young girl was already trouble enough, and now a young official had appeared who seemed even more troublesome.

The lead officer returned the credentials to Zhou Cheng, “Comrade, we don’t have to take Xia Xiaolan with us, but she needs to answer our questions.”

Zhou Cheng nodded, “Go ahead and ask. With so many witnesses, she couldn’t lie even if she wanted to.”

The police could only ask about Xia Xiaolan’s whereabouts.

But Xia Xiaolan’s routine these past few days had been simple – just between the guesthouse and Jiang City University. She had never gone anywhere alone, always traveling with Hou Qi. There was no way she could have arranged this.

“We found out you made a phone call from the guesthouse—”

“Oh, I called Pengcheng. My uncle lives there. I was just letting him know I was safe. That’s not illegal, is it?”

It wasn’t illegal, just suspicious.

Xia Xiaolan wrote down the phone number for the police, “You can check for yourself – my uncle is still in Pengcheng. I’m just a student, I don’t have that kind of capability. Although Senior Nie questioned my qualifications to attend the symposium before, we had a misunderstanding, but that’s long been cleared up. Senior Nie and I have made peace!”

Several people immediately vouched for Xia Xiaolan’s statement.

She had quarreled with Nie Weiguo in the guesthouse cafeteria, but at the symposium, Xia Xiaolan proved she was qualified to be invited. She hadn’t pursued the matter with Nie Weiguo, instead graciously saying his challenging her was out of “concern.”

Zhou Cheng frowned, “Do you have any other questions? Perhaps I’m suspicious too, since I happen to be in Jiang City. Should I go to the police station to assist in your investigation?”

Of course, that wouldn’t be necessary – it’s easy to invite trouble in, but hard to get rid of it.

As Zhou Cheng said, if he went to the police station and refused to leave, what could they do?

After the police left, Hou Qi comforted Xia Xiaolan briefly, telling her not to overthink things, and then left too. Others also didn’t stay to be third wheels.

Ning Yanfan stood at a distance, “No need to go over there. The Zhou family’s young man is here – he won’t let Xia Xiaolan suffer any disadvantage.”

The Zhou family’s fierce protection of Xia Xiaolan must be because Zhou Cheng valued her greatly.

Nie Weiguo had no evidence. To try taking Xia Xiaolan away in front of Zhou Cheng… Nie Weiguo might be the Deputy Director of the Provincial Architectural Design Institute, but he wasn’t the Deputy Governor of Hubei Province – he couldn’t control everything!

The crowd dispersed, leaving just Xia Xiaolan and Zhou Cheng.

“Why did you come?”

After a long silence, Xia Xiaolan finally broke the awkwardness.

They hadn’t spoken for so long that his face seemed almost unfamiliar to her.

Zhou Cheng looked at her, his voice strained:

“Tomorrow is your birthday. I’d be failing as your boyfriend if I wasn’t here. On days like this, I’ll try my best to be by your side.”

A twentieth birthday was special.

There was no Minor Protection Law then, and the state hadn’t stipulated that eighteen marked adulthood. To judge whether someone was an adult, the legal marriage age was a better criterion. If you could start a family, you were certainly an adult.

July 24th was Xia Xiaolan’s birthday, and she hadn’t forgotten.

She just hadn’t expected Zhou Cheng to suddenly appear in Jiang City… was he planning to surprise her?

“I thought you had no leave.”

Xia Xiaolan’s voice was dry.

Zhou Cheng’s feelings ran deep, but she was still hung up on the Shi family matter – perhaps that was quite frustrating. But the Shi family issue wasn’t just about a house or a job; it revealed fundamental differences in their values. Those differences, overlooked during their passionate romance, became impossible for Xia Xiaolan to ignore after the Shi family incident.

Thinking about spending decades ahead arguing with Zhou Cheng over similar issues, their cold wars, and growing to detest each other – wouldn’t it be better to part while they still had good impressions of each other…

“Xiaolan, were you going to ask about the Shi family?”

At six in the afternoon, Xia Xiaolan and Zhou Cheng sat on a bench at Jiang City University, their good looks drawing glances from passing students.

The handsome man and beautiful woman looked like a painting, pleasing to the eye.

But these two, wanting to be close, seemed to have reservations.

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “Call me petty if you want, but while I understand you want to compensate the Shi family, I don’t agree with your method. I don’t like Wei Juanhong’s certainty, how she makes demands of you that you always fulfill… To be blunt, even if Shi Kai were alive, he couldn’t meet her demands! You’re my man – what does it mean to be running around at another woman’s beck and call? With the Shi family, we should help when appropriate – help in emergencies but not enable dependency. Help them stay on the right path and become self-reliant – I agree with all that! But as I said, you need to know your limits, understand what you’re doing, and whether it’s right.”

Even if Shi Kai were alive, he couldn’t afford a quadrangle courtyard house in Beijing worth tens of thousands.

It wasn’t that Xia Xiaolan looked down on Shi Kai – work unit salaries were very transparent, with pay tied to rank.

Shi Kai’s salary would certainly increase over time.

But if he stayed with the work unit, relying on that salary, he could never afford a Beijing quadrangle courtyard.

He couldn’t afford it in ’85, and even thirty years later in 2015, Shi Kai likely still couldn’t afford it.

A quadrangle courtyard was beyond the Shi family’s income level.

Zhou Cheng suddenly elevates the Shi family’s position so high – it’s easy to raise their standard of living, but hard to lower it. This wasn’t helping the Shi family; it was spoiling them. Why should they work hard if their maximum effort couldn’t match what Zhou Cheng could give them? They might as well just ask Zhou Cheng for everything.

“Mm, anything else?”

Zhou Cheng hadn’t come to argue. He’d been calm long enough – he needed to resolve this knot with Xiaolan.

If things stayed cold any longer, Xiaolan would still be Xiaolan, but whether she’d still be his wife was uncertain.

There were plenty of others in the world who could see how excellent Xiaolan was!

Xia Xiaolan decided to lay it all out – keeping things bottled up was uncomfortable:

“I also don’t like that Jiang Yan. Even if you shared life-and-death experiences on the battlefield, what right does she have to control who you date?”

Don’t think Xia Xiaolan hadn’t noticed Jiang Yan’s nitpicking!