Zhou Wan felt her blood run cold, the autumn breeze cutting through her clothes despite not being bitter cold.

She quickly turned her head away, not wanting Guo Xiangling to see her.

But in such a situation, it was futile.

How could Guo Xiangling not notice her?

Though shock and confusion flashed across her face, she didn’t show it. Her acting was better than Zhou Wan’s, maintaining a fawning smile.

After a pause, she continued: “Xiao, tomorrow’s the weekend, come stay at home with me.”

Seeing him silent, Guo Xiangling added: “Though your father doesn’t say it, you’re his son, he must miss you. Come home for the weekend, Xiao.”

Playing the role of the caring stepmother.

Lu Xixiao stopped walking, head lowered, lightly stamping his foot in place, suddenly letting out a laugh.

Sarcastic and mocking.

“You think you’re my mother?”

He looked at Guo Xiangling, his gaze cold. “With all this energy, why don’t you think of ways to give Lu Zhongyue another son instead?”

The words were harsh, and Guo Xiangling’s expression changed slightly.

Though cruel, the words offered a practical solution.

How could Guo Xiangling not have thought of it? Though nominally she was Lu Zhongyue’s partner now, Lu Zhongyue wasn’t a fool. He had no intention of officially marrying her, always making excuses.

Guo Xiangling had considered having another child. Even though she was no longer at an ideal age for childbearing, one child could secure her future life of wealth and comfort.

She would have truly made it.

But Lu Zhongyue wouldn’t let her schemes succeed.

Lu Xixiao finished speaking and started walking.

Zhou Wan didn’t follow, still frozen in place.

He looked back, voice flat: “Zhou Wan.”

“Ah.” She responded absently.

Lu Xixiao watched her for a moment, noticed her uncomfortable expression, and without further words, stepped forward, his arm wrapping around her shoulders to bring her to his side.

He wore a loose jacket, open at the front. With this motion, Zhou Wan seemed to be pulled into his embrace, appearing especially intimate.

Guo Xiangling opened her mouth, but watching their retreating figures, her brow suddenly twitched, and she couldn’t say anything.

Zhou Wan let Lu Xixiao lead her quite a distance before thinking to look back.

The black car remained stationary for a moment before turning around and leaving.

“Not going to ask who that was?” Lu Xixiao’s voice suddenly came from above.

“What?”

He didn’t repeat himself.

Zhou Wan suppressed her uneven heartbeat and said slowly: “Your stepmother?”

Lu Xixiao sneered: “Stepmother? She’s not worthy.”

“…”

Lu Xixiao tapped her head lightly, saying carelessly, “If anyone else said that, they’d get beaten.”

Zhou Wan glanced at him: “Do you hate her?”

“She’s annoying.”

“Does your father like her very much?” Zhou Wan asked.

Lu Xixiao smiled slightly: “He just needs a beautiful, obedient woman he can control.”

Zhou Wan was stunned.

She had heard similar comments from neighbors’ gossip, but she couldn’t understand – if not for love, why do this? Guo Xiangling needed it, but Lu Zhongyue didn’t.

Her shoe tip kicked a small stone, which rolled away and fell into a drain cover’s gap.

“Then if—” Zhou Wan paused, “she does something your father doesn’t like?”

“Then he’ll dump her,” Lu Xixiao said indifferently.

Reaching the community entrance, Zhou Wan bid him goodbye, reminding him again to take his medicine.

She had thought Lu Xixiao would be impatient with such reminders, but he just tugged at the corner of his mouth: “Too bitter.”

Zhou Wan patiently said: “Good medicine is bitter but cures the illness.”

He laughed, leaning slightly forward, saying playfully: “If I take it, do I get a reward?”

Zhou Wan was startled, and confused: “What reward do you want?”

He smiled, lifted his chin, and opened his arms.

Lu Xixiao indeed had what it took to attract girls.

Even with his terrible reputation and countless rumors, countless girls still fell for him.

Not just for his looks, but more for the charisma and presence in his every movement.

Just like now.

He stood tall and unrestrained under the yellow streetlight, shoulders broad and straight, his waist creating sharp angles in the wind, eyes downcast, corners of his mouth holding a casual smile, exuding an unruly and indulgent charm.

Zhou Wan stood in place, watching him for a while, then stepped forward, slowly approaching.

She didn’t raise her arms to hug him, and neither did he.

The movement was quite awkward. After two seconds, Zhou Wan raised her hands and very lightly hugged his waist.

Lu Xixiao laughed softly.

Zhou Wan immediately dropped her hands, stepping back: “I’m going in.”

“Oh.”

*

The house was very quiet. As Zhou Wan changed shoes in the entryway, her grandmother opened the door: “Wan Wan’s back.”

“Grandmother, why aren’t you asleep yet?”

“Napped too long in the afternoon, now I can’t sleep at night.”

Zhou Wan finished changing shoes and entered, putting her schoolbag on a chair: “We need to go to the hospital tomorrow.”

“Why go to the hospital again?”

“It’s nothing, just a physical examination. I talked with Dr. Chen a few days ago.”

“Didn’t we just have a check-up last month?” Grandmother said, “Wan-wan, I’m fine, don’t waste money on me.”

Zhou Wan smiled: “This check-up is different, there won’t be anymore after this.”

Of course, this check-up was different.

It was for the kidney transplant surgery.

*

Back in her bedroom, only the desk lamp was on.

Zhou Wan lay on the bed, her gaze suddenly falling on the peach butt plushie sitting on her desk with its embarrassed expression.

The one Lu Xixiao had won for her.

Zhou Wan looked at it for a while, suddenly tugging at the corner of her mouth in a light smile.

That’s when Guo Xiangling’s call came.

Zhou Wan looked at the caller ID, understanding that a storm was coming.

She got up to lock the door, hesitated for half a minute, then answered.

“Hello.”

She had barely spoken when Guo Xiangling’s voice overwhelmed her: “Zhou Wan! What exactly are you trying to do!”

Finally, no more pretentious “Wan-wan.”

Zhou Wan pressed her lips together.

Guo Xiangling’s lowered voice was full of fury and resentment: “You knew everything, didn’t you, Zhou Wan, I’m asking if you knew everything!”

Zhou Wan gave a self-mocking smile: “About you and Lu Xixiao’s father?”

“Zhou Wan!”

Her formerly obedient and quiet daughter showing her sharp claws for the first time left Guo Xiangling shocked and even more furious, anger nearly setting her ablaze.

“How do you know Lu Xixiao, what exactly is your relationship!?”

Earlier on the street, though initially surprised, Guo Xiangling had thought they might just be classmates—she could hardly imagine how her well-behaved Zhou Wan could be dating at this age.

But then she saw Lu Xixiao wrap his arm around her daughter’s shoulders, the gesture intimate and natural, holding her as they walked away.

Zhou Wan silently looked down at a pattern on her blanket, her eyes slowly filling with coldness and hatred.

Guo Xiangling continued venting: “Zhou Wan, you’ve been an ungrateful wretch since childhood! You only ever clung to your father then, what, now that your father’s dead, you want to force me to remain a widow for him!?”

“The biggest mistake of my life was marrying your father and having you! One useless coward, one heartless beast!”

Zhou Wan’s hands were ice cold, and her whole body trembling uncontrollably.

But when she spoke, she was extremely calm, truly like the heartless beast Guo Xiangling described.

“Mom.” She called very softly.

“Don’t call me mom.” Guo Xiangling said harshly, “I don’t deserve such an address.”

So Zhou Wan stopped calling her that, saying flatly: “My relationship with Lu Xixiao, can’t you see what it is?”

This time it was Guo Xiangling who fell silent.

Zhou Wan, taking advantage of Lu Xixiao’s earlier misleading gesture, smiled and said: “He likes me.”

Zhou Wan narrowed her eyes, and lifted her chin, clutching the blanket tightly: “If his father finds out that Lu Xixiao’s girlfriend is your daughter, do you think he’ll be angry at his son, or you?”

Guo Xiangling was shaking with rage, both her person and voice trembling: “Zhou Wan!”

“Then you might have to slink away from the Lu family.”

Zhou Wan had never spoken with such a sneering tone in her life.

She couldn’t control her malice, but deep in her heart she deeply despised herself, and hated herself – this appearance did bear some resemblance to Guo Xiangling.

Guo Xiangling: “What do you want?”

She closed her eyes briefly, saying: “Give me 300,000 yuan, and I can keep quiet.”

“This is blackmail.” The sound of high heels quickly striking the ground came through the phone, probably Guo Xiangling walking somewhere else. She pressed her voice down, saying hoarsely, “Zhou Wan, you’re blackmailing me for 300,000 yuan, I can call the police right now and have you arrested!”

Zhou Wan thought she probably couldn’t feel heartbroken anymore.

Her mother threatened to have her arrested, and she could still laugh.

“Have you forgotten? You’re my mother. If you call the police, what do you think they’ll do?” Zhou Wan said, “Moreover, aren’t you afraid of this becoming public knowledge?”

Guo Xiangling might be heartless, but when it came to ruthlessness, she couldn’t match Zhou Wan.

She was like a wolf cub baring its fangs – though alone and weak, once she bit someone’s neck she would never let go, even if it meant mutual destruction.

After all, she had nothing left to lose.

Guo Xiangling stopped her angry shouting.

She was weighing her options.

Zhou Wan knew she had half succeeded.

Although she was using the misunderstanding that Lu Xixiao had inadvertently created to borrow his influence.

She knew clearly that if the police were called, she would completely lose.

If Lu Xixiao learned that she had approached him for such purposes, he would never deal with her again – he hated betrayal.

Guo Xiangling’s predicament would naturally be solved.

After a long while, Guo Xiangling said: “I only have 150,000. There’s 50,000 in your father’s card, I can give you another 100,000.”

Zhou Wan remained silent.

Guo Xiangling gritted her teeth: “This is all I can manage. My life isn’t as good as you think – Lu Zhongyue is guarding against me, I can’t possibly ask him for that much money.”

She was telling the truth.

Zhou Wan: “The remaining 150,000, you’ll transfer it to me within three months, or on this day three months from now, Lu Zhongyue will know everything.”

Guo Xiangling suppressed great nausea, her nails turning blue from clenching, before forcing out: “Fine.”

Zhou Wan hadn’t planned to do this today.

Everything had happened too suddenly – she hadn’t expected to meet Guo Xiangling today.

It was her excessive words that had pushed things to this point.

But this was good too.

As long as grandmother could get treatment, as long as grandmother stayed healthy, she would part ways with Guo Xiangling from now on, never interfering in her affairs again.

However, after three months.

Just three months.

After three months, would Lu Xixiao still be interested in her?

Zhou Wan was exhausted. She lay on the bed, and before long, her phone received a transfer notification.

Received: 150,000.

She looked at the zeros at the end, counting them several times.

Zhou Wan had never had so much money before, yet she couldn’t feel happy at all.

This heavy sum felt like evidence of some crime, stamping an unerasable mark on her.

Everything was irreversible now.

She had finally taken this step.

Greedy, dark, vicious, hypocritical, selfish, deceitful.

She lay quietly on the bed, arm across her eyes, as still as if asleep.

After a long while, Zhou Wan slowly curled up.

Her heart sank heavily.

Her jaw ached from clenching, but she still couldn’t hold back a whimper. She buried her face in the blanket, breathing rapidly and chaotic, knuckles white.

In the end, all efforts were pale and powerless.

She broke down crying on that quiet, night.

Fate had led her to finally fall into a mire of mud, her whole body dirtied, stained black, blocking out the light.