Lu Yuwen ran two restaurants.

On the way to the high-speed rail station, he called the restaurant manager and briefly mentioned that he was having surgery—a way of giving his staff advance notice.

He figured that after surgery, he would naturally need time to recover. To avoid raising any suspicions, he simply gave himself a two-month leave of absence and told the manager he wouldn’t be around for the foreseeable future.

Two months away from the business might cause some chaos at the restaurants. But when he thought about his foot, Lu Yuwen felt it was worth it.

He bought an afternoon ticket, and by the time he arrived at the address embedded in his mind, it was already evening.

Traffic was severely congested by then. Car horns rose and fell in waves, and pedestrians hurried by on both sides of the road. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Though his heart was brimming with curiosity, Lu Yuwen reined in his feelings, found a nearby restaurant, and settled the matter of dinner first.

After eating, he ordered a cup of tea and drank it slowly, deliberately dragging out the time.

The restaurant’s customers grew fewer and fewer. By eleven o’clock it was closing time. Lu Yuwen left the restaurant and strolled unhurriedly along the sidewalk.

He observed his surroundings carefully, turning over in his mind what kind of person he might encounter, or what kind of event might unfold, in a place like this…

The nearby shops gradually switched off their lights one by one. In the end, only a twenty-four-hour convenience store remained.

Lu Yuwen walked in and bought a small tourist booklet of local attractions.

Even if nothing happened, he couldn’t have made the trip for nothing. Now that his foot was healed, this was a good opportunity to wander around and take things in.

It was a shame he had no friends with him. All this happiness with no one to share it.

He couldn’t help but feel a little wistful.

Lu Yuwen exhaled quietly.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught the shop attendant’s gaze on him. He looked up and gave her a polite smile.

The female attendant turned red with embarrassment.

This sort of thing was familiar to him. In the past, when he sat somewhere, young women would often come over to chat. But the moment he stood up and took a few steps, the look of shock on their faces would follow—and then they would leave awkwardly.

After it happened enough times, he had taken to keeping a walking cane beside his seat, even though he didn’t actually use one when walking.

Fang Zixin was the only woman who, after seeing the cane, had persisted anyway. That was how she had become his girlfriend.

He had thought she would be different…

……

The man tilted his head slightly, gazing out the dark window as if lost in thought.

He wore a crisp white shirt, his trousers neatly pressed. He stood at ease beside the magazine rack with an air of refined elegance. On such a late night, with such fine looks, one couldn’t help but let one’s imagination run a little.

The young female attendant couldn’t stop herself from asking: “Are you waiting for someone?”

Lu Yuwen returned to himself and smiled gently. “More or less.”

The attendant made her tone sound casual: “Waiting for a girlfriend?”

Lu Yuwen just kept smiling.

He should have answered that he didn’t have a girlfriend. But he also knew that once he said it, this impromptu piece of small talk would take a different direction. To spare himself the trouble, perhaps he should simply nod and say yes…

His mind was still weighing the most sensible response when—across the street, a loud thud rang out!

Followed immediately by the shriek of a hard brake!

Lu Yuwen looked over in shock and saw someone lying in the middle of the road. Not far away, a red car was speeding off into the distance!

“Hurry—call emergency services!” He threw out a quick instruction, and was already rushing out the door.

……

The victim of the accident was a middle-aged man in his fifties.

The car had slowed down before impact, so the injuries weren’t severe. But at the time of the crash, the man had suffered a heart attack. Had Lu Yuwen not gotten him to the hospital in time, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

The patient was now out of danger. Lu Yuwen sat in the hospital corridor, still somewhat dazed.

Everything had happened so suddenly that he hadn’t thought to check the time. He wasn’t sure whether what had occurred at 11:30 PM was this car accident—or something else entirely…

If it was something else, had he already missed it?

Rapid footsteps sounded in the corridor.

He had barely looked up when he saw a young woman striding toward him with a fierce expression. She grabbed him by the collar with both hands and slammed him against the wall!

“You’re the one who hit my dad?!”

Lu Yuwen: “???”

This girl had a terrifyingly strong grip!

—