After a moment of silence, the crowd erupted in chaos.

Uncle Ye was stunned. “What… what’s going on?”

Jiang Yan had rehearsed today’s procedures several times and knew them by heart. After pressing the button, he hadn’t even looked back at the screen. Only when he noticed the commotion below did he turn around, his face flashing with shock and panic.

He hurriedly shut off the video and grabbed the microphone. “I apologize, that was an accident. Please give me some time to—”

Before he could finish, a voice rang out from below: “Jiang Yan, you know in your heart whether this was an accident or the truth.”

Everyone turned toward the source of the voice.

Standing among the crowd was a man about Jiang Yan’s age. As all eyes followed him, he walked toward the stage while speaking: “This technological achievement of Jiang Yan’s was developed jointly by him and me in the laboratory. Although we did work independently in the later stages, the data and models he used in his results were plagiarized from my work.”

“Tian Xuanyue!”

Jiang Yan’s composure was gone. His fingertips trembled with anger and panic as he glared at him with bloodshot eyes. “Stop spreading these vicious lies!”

“Vicious lies?”

Tian Xuanyue walked onto the stage and headed straight over. He held a USB drive in his hand, intending to plug it into the computer on stage. When Jiang Yan saw this, he immediately lunged to grab it, but Tian Xuanyue pushed him away, sending him sprawling to the ground in utter humiliation.

But Jiang Yan was beyond caring about appearances now. He shouted “Security!” ordering them to remove Tian Xuanyue.

Security guards immediately rushed into the hall.

But at that moment, another voice rose from below: “If the work is truly yours, what are you afraid of? Let’s see what he wants to show.”

After all, everyone here had come prepared to spend large sums to bid on this patent. No one wanted to risk buying a counterfeit.

Jiang Yan had no choice but to stop, watching Tian Xuanyue intently with rapidly changing emotions.

Tian Xuanyue inserted the USB drive into the computer and opened a folder.

The large screen behind them displayed screenshots of data, chat logs, videos, and other evidence. Tian Xuanyue played them one by one, clearly explaining the whole story from beginning to end.

The murmuring from below grew increasingly chaotic.

The organizing staff of the bidding conference urgently cut off the microphone and approached: “We apologize, distinguished guests, but today’s bidding conference will end here. We will notify everyone of subsequent developments later. We sincerely apologize.”

“No… this isn’t true.”

Jiang Yan scrambled up from the ground in panic and ran after Tian Xuanyue, grabbing him by the back of his collar and yanking hard—

The Jiang Yan of the past might not have done something like this.

Back then, before he had glimpsed hope in his life, he had been cautious and calculating, terrified of taking a wrong step. Even when he had personally heard Old Master Lu belittle him and his mother, he hadn’t found the courage to confront them.

But now things were different. He had grown accustomed to the halo and honor of being at the top. He was no longer that poor young man who had once walked alone toward the summit.

“Why did you have to destroy me? Why!”

Jiang Yan gritted his teeth, his eyes dark with hatred, his rationality worn dangerously thin by that hatred.

Until—BANG—a tremendous crash.

Before everyone’s eyes, Tian Xuanyue fell from the steps, his forehead striking hard against the corner of the stage. Bright red blood immediately gushed forth, and something seemed to have been knocked over, making a sharp, brief sound.

Jiang Yan stared at the scene before him, his mind exploding in an instant. His legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

…

No one present had anticipated any of this. A long silence fell over the crowd, followed by someone crying out in panic: “Quick, call an ambulance!”

Zhou Wan was standing in the front row, close enough to see the dark red, viscous blood on the ground. She seemed to fall into some kind of memory, her legs weakening, her vision darkening.

Just as she felt she might not be able to remain standing, a warm hand grasped hers from behind, and her back pressed against a chest. Her nose filled with a familiar, faint tobacco scent.

Zhou Wan blinked, coming back to herself somewhat, and looked back to see Lu Xixiao. He was looking down at her, asking softly, “Are you alright?”

Zhou Wan looked at him for a long moment, then shook her head gently. “I’m fine.”

She looked at Jiang Yan, still collapsed on the ground, finding him both strange and somehow oddly familiar at this moment.

Lu Xixiao’s fingertip brushed her cheek lightly. “Alright, stop looking.”

Zhou Wan turned back. “Do you know what this is about?”

“Just as Tian Xuanyue said. This matter will be reinvestigated, and there should be results soon.”

“Mm.”

With this mishap, the companies that had come to bid had no choice but to leave, while Zhou Wan needed to pursue a new angle for her interviews and document the process.

After saying goodbye to Lu Xixiao, she went to the hospital with Uncle Ye.

Uncle Ye went to inquire about the situation from the doctor, while Zhou Wan found a seat to draft her news article and send it to her colleague. After finishing these tasks, she got up to go to the bathroom.

After washing her hands, Zhou Wan looked at herself in the mirror and tied her hair in a ponytail. As she was leaving, passing through the open corridor, she caught a glimpse of Jiang Yan crouching on the ground, smoking.

One cigarette after another, the ground around his feet was littered with half-smoked butts.

Zhou Wan’s steps faltered.

She had never known when Jiang Yan had started smoking. This scene of swirling smoke seemed utterly incompatible with him.

Hearing footsteps, Jiang Yan looked back, started slightly, then turned away again, lowering his head. His voice was hoarse: “How is he?”

“Eight stitches in his forehead, mild concussion. Fortunately, he’ll be fine.”

Jiang Yan: “Mm.”

He exhaled a puff of smoke, stubbing out his cigarette beside his foot, and said softly: “Zhou Wan.”

“Mm.”

“You must look down on me.”

Zhou Wan remained silent.

Jiang Yan gave a slight laugh: “That’s right. If I were you, I’d look down on myself too. After trying so hard for so long, only to end up in complete defeat, utterly humiliated.”

“So what Tian Xuanyue said was true?” Zhou Wan asked.

Jiang Yan was silent for a moment, then buried his head in his arms: “I was just too impatient.”

He let out a breath, his voice trembling, “Zhou Wan, I was too rushed. I wanted success, I wanted everyone to see me, I wanted all those who looked down on me to regret it.”

Zhou Wan stood beside him, not crouching down, just standing quietly like a detached observer.

“Jiang Yan when you won the highest award, I wasn’t particularly impressed,” Zhou Wan said softly, her tone calm. “Rather, I admired you more back in school, when you were steady and humble, taking things one step at a time.”

“Back in school… At that time, Old Master Lu once commented about me, saying that it’s hard for a poor family to produce noble children.”

Jiang Yan gave a bitter laugh, “But if we could choose, who would choose to be born poor? If I had everything Lu Xixiao has, I could be just as free and unconstrained as him.”

Jiang Yan always remembered his first meeting with Lu Zhongyue.

He was very young then, and because he had no father, his kindergarten classmates would mock and bully him. One day, when he walked out of kindergarten and saw a black car, his mother standing beside a man, saying this was his father.

Many of the details had become unclear, but he remembered the man’s pleasant scent, his crisp, well-tailored clothes, and the many lit buttons inside the car.

It was all entirely new to him.

The man took him to dinner and then to an amusement park.

Young Jiang Yan was overjoyed, feeling he finally had a father.

But after the weekend, the man left, and the times he could see him could be counted on one hand.

His mother always said Dad is too busy, you need to study hard, if you get first place, Dad will be happy and will come to see you more often.

So Jiang Yan was obedient and sensible from a young age, and thus received many rewards from Lu Zhongyue, though opportunities to see him remained rare.

Until one day after school, when his mother couldn’t pick him up and he had to take the bus home himself. While waiting at a traffic light, that familiar car stopped beside the bus.

Jiang Yan excitedly opened the window to greet him, only to see a boy sitting in the passenger seat. Though he was still very young then, he suddenly understood everything.

Jiang Yan closed his eyes tightly in hatred: “All of that should have been mine.”

Zhou Wan frowned slightly.

Even now, he was still stuck in his narrow perspective, unable to see clearly.

Zhou Wan didn’t know what to say to him and knew that whatever she said wouldn’t get through to him.

“Tian Xuanyue is awake,” she turned to leave, “You should go see him if you want.”

Jiang Yan remained silent. Only when Zhou Wan’s hand was on the doorknob did he speak again, calling out softly: “Zhou Wan.”

“Mm.”

“If Lu Xixiao and I switched places if I were the one born into the Lu family, would I be the one you loved?”

“No.”

Zhou Wan answered directly, “My love for him has nothing to do with whether his surname is Lu or not. And he didn’t become who he is today because he was born into the Lu family.”

“Jiang Yan, in your entanglement, everyone is a victim, but there’s only one perpetrator—Lu Zhongyue. Yet you’ve never blamed him. Instead, you curse Lu Xixiao and his mother.”

Zhou Wan looked at his back, “I don’t believe you can’t understand this. But even back in school, you insisted definitively that it was Lu Xixiao’s mother who broke up your family. You self-righteously slung mud at him, making yourself Lu Zhongyue’s accomplice in the process.”

Jiang Yan’s back stiffened for a moment.

“What you’ve spent your life pursuing is exactly what Lu Xixiao has long since cast aside. His mother died within those mansion gates. He fought desperately to break free and has long since cut ties with the Lu family. His current achievements have nothing to do with the Lu family.”

“Impossible.”

At this point, Jiang Yan finally spoke.

He turned his head, his eyes slightly red, showing stubborn disbelief and self-deception: “Zhou Wan, that’s impossible. Without the Lu family, he would be nothing.”

He enunciated forcefully, staring intently at Zhou Wan, trying to dig out any trace of evidence that she was lying.

Zhou Wan suddenly felt pity for Jiang Yan.

He saw Lu Xixiao as a thorn in his eye, unable to bear seeing any good in him.

In the past, he had lived to gain Lu Zhongyue’s approval; later, he lived to surpass Lu Xixiao. He pursued quick success, rushing forward at full speed, yet in the end, he had never lived a single day for himself.

“I don’t care whether he’s successful or not,” Zhou Wan said. “I love him simply because he’s Lu Xixiao. He loves me when I have nothing, and I would love him even if he had nothing too.”

…

Walking out of the stairwell, Zhou Wan coordinated some work matters with Uncle Ye before heading downstairs.

As she left the hospital, Lu Xixiao messaged to say he had arrived.

She bought a roasted sweet potato and ran over to get in the car.

Lu Xixiao glanced at what she was holding and smiled: “Hungry?”

Zhou Wan shook her head: “My colleague ordered takeout at the hospital earlier, so I already ate. I just had a craving. I used to like roasted sweet potatoes when I was little, they’re so sweet.”

She peeled off the skin, revealing the steaming orange flesh inside. While waiting at a red light, she turned and asked: “Want some?”

Lu Xixiao didn’t answer, just leaned closer.

Zhou Wan tore off a piece of the sweet potato flesh, blew on it to cool it, and fed it to him.

The light turned green, and the car drove steadily forward.

Zhou Wan nibbled on the sweet potato while looking at the city’s distinctive night scenery outside the window, thinking about what Jiang Yan had said earlier.

She knew Jiang Yan had yearned for success and fame since their school days, but she had never asked Lu Xixiao this question.

“Lu Xixiao.”

“Mm?”

“What was your dream when you were in school?”

He paused, thought for a moment, then instead of answering directly, asked: “What about you?”

“I didn’t have any particularly concrete dreams. Back then, Grandmother wasn’t well, so I just took things one step at a time. I didn’t even have a specific university in mind, just a very general, broad dream.” Zhou Wan smiled and said softly, “I wanted to become a kind person, didn’t want to disappoint my father.”

If anyone else had heard this dream, they would certainly have laughed at how impractical it was.

But Lu Xixiao didn’t.

He understood the struggles and contradictions in Zhou Wan’s heart.

“And now?” Lu Xixiao asked, “Have you achieved it?”

“Not yet, I suppose, but I like my current job. Here, I can encounter many people and many things, and I can become a little kinder.”

Lu Xixiao smiled, freeing one hand to ruffle her hair: “Then next time, let’s go visit your father together.”

Zhou Wan was startled for a moment, then smiled and nodded, her eyes growing hot. She turned to look out the window to hide it, waiting a while before asking again: “You still haven’t told me about yours.”

“I didn’t think about dreams when I was in school. I was pretty depressed then.”

Ever since moving out of the Lu family home and experiencing so many setbacks, Lu Xixiao has gone through a long period of self-destruction and willing degradation.

The proud young man had been beaten back repeatedly by harsh reality, becoming so desperate that he refused to believe in romantic dreams. He didn’t dare hope for a future, only begged the gods not to let memories of past joys torment him in his dreams.

But he never expected that in his aimless existence, he would meet such a girl.

Quiet and reserved, carrying stories and mystery, yet pure and transparent.

Unlike some heartwarming movie stories, that girl wasn’t a warm sun, didn’t shower him with light, didn’t reach out to pull him from the abyss.

Because she was standing in the abyss too.

She stood beside him, and then gently took his hand.

Just like when he had casually asked Zhou Wan if she wanted to date him, and Zhou Wan had answered “Okay.”

If their story were made into a movie, the tone and color wouldn’t be of sunny blue skies and white clouds, but rather something dark yet warm.

Like that dim and noisy arcade.

Like that cherry blossom-filled but silent street.

Like that small, rundown noodle shop.

Like that little Western-style house lit with warm yellow light.

That girl stood under the night lights, neither fully in light nor shadow.

They were isolated from the world, developing a sense of mutual dependence, of destiny intertwined like flesh and blood.

The girl held his hand, walking toward the hazy future.

Let’s go.

Let’s go together.

Even if I don’t know whether what lies ahead is good or bad.

But I’ll be with you.

Even if it’s hell.

Then we’ll plant flowers in hell together.

…

“If we’re talking about dreams, I did have one,” Lu Xixiao said. “Later, when I started studying hard and working hard to become someone capable, it was all because of that dream.”

Zhou Wan’s heart suddenly skipped a beat, somewhat guessing his answer.

But that answer was too precious, she didn’t dare rashly break the moment, and softly asked: “What was it, that dream?”

“It was you,” Lu Xixiao said.

Because of you, there is the Lu Xixiao of today.

I love you in your glory, and I love you covered in mud.

Just as my destitution and disgrace came from you, my honor and glory were also bestowed by you.

In those lonely times of moving forward, it was Zhou Wan who supported him through countless hardships.

In those years when he couldn’t hold on, it was also Zhou Wan who gave him strength.

“Zhou Wan.”

He turned his head, reaching out to hold Zhou Wan’s hand. His voice remained soft but was firm and gentle: “You are my only dream.”