Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng had booked train tickets for the following afternoon.

After lunch, Lu Yicheng pulled Lu Siyan aside and hesitantly gave him some money. Although this was Jiang Ruoqiao’s maternal grandparents’ home, and Siyan called them great-grandma and great-grandpa, Lu Yicheng still felt a little uneasy about the situation. He had considered giving the grandparents money, but before he could even reach into his pocket, Grandma seemed to know exactly what he was about to do and stopped him with a very stern look. Left with no other option, Lu Yicheng turned his attention to Lu Siyan instead.

Having taken care of Lu Siyan for an entire semester, Lu Yicheng knew firsthand that calling human children “gold-devouring beasts” was no exaggeration.

His own toothpaste cost twelve yuan a tube. Lu Siyan’s cost over fifty.

The snacks Lu Siyan liked weren’t cheap either. A bag of cheese sticks was nearly twenty yuan and contained four or five pieces — Lu Siyan could finish all of them in ten minutes.

On top of that, Lu Siyan’s beloved Lego sets were also expensive.

Lu Siyan’s absolute favorite was Muscat grape — the fragrant kind. Very pricey. A single jin nearly matched two days of Lu Yicheng’s own living expenses.

Lu Siyan also loved blueberries, but he wouldn’t eat the small ones. He only wanted the big, plump blueberries — and naturally, those weren’t cheap either.

Still, Lu Yicheng knew that blueberries were good for eyesight, so he always bought them for Lu Siyan.

A parent raises their own child — that was how it should be. But now that Lu Siyan was being left with Jiang Ruoqiao’s grandparents, just thinking about the boy’s usual expenses gave Lu Yicheng a headache and made him feel genuinely uncomfortable.

Elderly people tended to be frugal.

What was he supposed to do?

Lu Siyan looked at the money his father was handing over and asked in surprise: “Is this pocket money for me?!”

Did he finally have pocket money of his own?!

And it looked like quite a bit — there were red bills in there.

Lu Yicheng hesitated and said, “If you want to eat something, you can pay for it yourself.”

At that, both Lu Siyan and Lu Yicheng fell silent.

Five-year-old Lu Siyan understood the difference between ten yuan and one hundred yuan, but paying for things on his own was still no small challenge for him.

Lu Siyan stretched out his little paw to take the money.

Lu Yicheng pulled his hand back with lightning speed.

Lu Siyan: “?”

“I thought about it — that’s too much. It’s not safe.” Lu Yicheng pulled the bills back one by one, withdrawing several hundred-yuan notes, until the small stack that remained had not a single red bill. “This much will do.”

Lu Siyan took the money, counted it once, counted it again, then pursed his lips. “There’s not even a hundred yuan.”

Lu Yicheng: “When I was in middle school, I didn’t have a hundred yuan in pocket money either.”

Lu Siyan: “Fine then.”

“Same as before,” Lu Yicheng reminded him once more. “If you want to eat something, call me and I’ll order it online for you.”

Lu Siyan: “Am I really such an unreasonable kid? I know, I know — if I want to eat something, if I want to buy something, I tell Dad, I tell Mom, I don’t go pestering Great-grandma and Great-grandpa!”

Lu Yicheng was satisfied.

“But what if Great-grandma and Great-grandpa insist on buying things for me?” Lu Siyan asked.

Lu Yicheng’s expression remained completely flat: “If you don’t drop hints, nobody will insist on buying you anything.”

Lu Siyan: “……”

That afternoon, Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng got ready to head to the train station. Both of them kept looking back every few steps, unable to stop worrying about Lu Siyan — but at that hour, the boy was happily napping, so no matter how many times they looked back, there was nothing to see.

Once they had settled into their seats on the high-speed rail, Jiang Ruoqiao finally said to Lu Yicheng, “I feel like we’re a bit like those parents who go off to work in the city after the New Year, leaving their kid behind in their hometown.”

The comparison made Lu Yicheng laugh. “That’s a fair description.”

“The only difference is that the little one didn’t come crying after us.” Jiang Ruoqiao let out a sigh.

They’d barely been apart, and she already missed him a little.

Lu Yicheng understood exactly how she felt. He offered some comfort: “He’ll grow up and leave us on his own someday.”

By the time the two working adults arrived in Jing Shi, it was already evening.

Lu Yicheng walked Jiang Ruoqiao up to her door, waited until she was inside, then headed downstairs and back to his own place. He turned his key and opened the door to a room full of darkness. In that moment, he thought he heard something — as if he had an auditory hallucination — Lu Siyan’s voice calling out in delight, “Dad’s home!” But when he turned on the light, he was the only one there. The cold quiet that he had long since grown used to felt unbearable now in a way it hadn’t before. He set down his backpack and, out of habit, walked into the study. The child wasn’t there. He had more time on his hands now, no need to rush through washing up like he was fighting a battle — he had all the time in the world to sit and stare into space.

He didn’t know how long he sat there in the study.

Then he heard a sound and looked up at the ceiling. It was coming from the floor above.

At that very moment, Jiang Ruoqiao had just finished her shower and was blow-drying her hair. Thinking of Lu Yicheng downstairs, she jumped up and down twice, playfully, as if playing a little prank.

The old building’s soundproofing wasn’t great. If he was in his study right now, he should be able to hear her saying hello, shouldn’t he?

Sure enough…

Jiang Ruoqiao’s phone buzzed. It was a message from Lu Yicheng.

Lu Yicheng: 【What’s wrong?】

Jiang Ruoqiao kept blow-drying her hair while typing a reply with one hand — a high-difficulty maneuver.

She never imagined she’d find herself doing something like this one day.

Before she met Lu Yicheng, she thought of herself as very mature and clear-headed.

Now, she was beginning to realize she could be just as childish as anyone.

Jiang Ruoqiao: 【Are you going to file a noise complaint against me?】

A brash tone. A smug little sentence.

Lu Yicheng sat in his chair and let out a quiet laugh before typing back carefully: 【No, I thought something might have happened to you.】

Jiang Ruoqiao: 【.】

Lu Yicheng thought to himself — he’d said the wrong thing again.

He reread it and realized that what he’d said was indeed a bit of an unlucky turn of phrase.

Lu Yicheng was still typing.

Then a new message from Jiang Ruoqiao arrived first: 【Sorry.】

Jiang Ruoqiao: 【Was that what you were going to say? I said it for you.】

Lu Yicheng: 【/grinning-face emoji/ /grinning-face emoji/】

……

It was still early. Lu Siyan sent a video call request from Grandma’s phone.

In no time at all, the family of three was gathered together on a video call.

Jiang Ruoqiao’s sharp eyes caught something immediately. Lu Siyan was wearing a strange piece of clothing, and she frowned. “Lu Siyan, what on earth are you wearing?”

Lu Siyan called out loudly, “Great-grandma! My mom is asking what I’m wearing!”

Then, turning back to face the screen, he told Jiang Ruoqiao, “After I woke up from my nap, Great-grandma took me out to buy it.”

From somewhere in the background came Grandma’s booming voice: “A smock! A smock!”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “?”

She thought she must have been seeing things.

What on earth — her son, who was so handsome and adorable, had gone from that to… this, in the span of just a few hours?

“Grandma!” Jiang Ruoqiao raised her voice too. “Why did you make Siyan wear something like that? It’s so frumpy! Take it off, take it off right now!”

Grandma came over and squeezed in next to Lu Siyan. “What do you know? He’s been playing with the kids in the courtyard — climbing trees, playing in the sand. The clothes you bought him get dirty too easily, after a day they’re an absolute mess. A smock is much better! And it’s warm too!”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “Then just wash them when they’re dirty.”

Grandma let out a cold laugh. “You think the stains wash out? You think I can keep up with the washing? Little Lu, come and weigh in on this!”

She added, “You don’t know the first thing about living practically. Little Lu does. Let him be the judge of whether this smock should be worn or not.”

Lu Yicheng had been quietly laughing up until then. Suddenly called out by name, he immediately composed himself and straightened his back without even thinking.

This one… he was not getting involved in.

Jiang Ruoqiao turned on Lu Yicheng with a threatening tone: “Lu Yicheng, you say something. Look at how your son turned out — doesn’t he look ridiculous?!”

Lu Yicheng: “…He doesn’t look that ridiculous.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “?”

“Lu Yicheng!”

Grandma declared herself the winner with great satisfaction. “You’re in Jing Shi and the child is here with me. You’ve got no say in this. Rest easy — I take better care of children than you two ever could!”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “……”

She really… had no say.

Not unless she could somehow fly to Xi Shi right now.

“You dare call it frumpy — you were dressed just like this when you were little,” Grandma said. “Want me to take photos of your childhood pictures and post them to the family group chat so Little Lu can have a look?”

Jiang Ruoqiao immediately bowed her proud head and apologized sincerely, “Grandma, I’m sorry. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have questioned your judgment.”

Grandma was satisfied: “Put your mind at ease, do your job well in Jing Shi, and don’t worry about the child. I won’t let him go hungry or cold or sick. I’m not his wicked great-grandma, you know.”

Lu Yicheng felt a pang of regret.

He really had been curious to see what Jiang Ruoqiao looked like as a little girl.

Grandma went off to the kitchen.

Jiang Ruoqiao looked at Lu Siyan on the screen and finally understood — the difference between parents raising a child and grandparents raising a child was not the exaggeration the internet made it out to be.

She said, “Lu Siyan, while you’re wearing that smock, don’t call me Mom.”

Her son was supposed to be dashing and adorable — the kind who could outshine all those little boys on Instagram!

Lu Siyan: “Understood, sis.”

“Big bro, sis,” said Lu Siyan — now looking considerably more country-bumpkin in his smock — waving at the screen. “Bye-bye. I’m going to sleep. You two work hard and earn money to buy me Lego, okay?”

After returning to Jing Shi, both Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng were thrown into a spinning-top kind of existence.

Barely a moment to breathe.

Both of them were truly, genuinely working adults now.

One day, Jiang Ruoqiao accompanied a senior colleague to serve as interpreter for a business meeting. Afterward, the other party invited them to attend a dinner banquet.

The senior colleague was very fond of Jiang Ruoqiao, and had even gone into her own wardrobe to pick out an evening gown she had never worn before and give it to her.

The two women had similar figures, and the dress fit Jiang Ruoqiao perfectly.

The banquet was held in the grand ballroom of a five-star hotel in Jing Shi. The space was enormous. Jiang Ruoqiao, who couldn’t even call herself a novice, stayed dutifully behind her senior colleague throughout.

That afternoon, Lu Yicheng had been at the company working. His superior and senior schoolmate, He Li, had drafted him to come along as backup for what turned out to be the same business dinner.

Lu Yicheng had zero interest in this kind of banquet and his first instinct was to refuse.

He Li practically wore his lips out persuading him: “Yu Old Three was supposed to come with me, but he’s on a date with his girlfriend and stood me up. Come on, Lu, keep me company — treat it as broadening your horizons.”

In the end, He Li dragged Lu Yicheng to the dinner.

“Trust me, coming was worth it. It’s not like you have anyone to keep you company anyway — you’re not like Yu Old Three, always having to tend to a girlfriend.”

Lu Yicheng: “……”

The banquet was crowded. After He Li and Lu Yicheng entered the ballroom, Lu Yicheng found himself immediately thirsty, and made a beeline for the drinks area. He had just picked up a glass of sparkling water and hadn’t even had a sip when he spotted Jiang Ruoqiao not far away.

Jiang Ruoqiao was wearing a pearl-white evening gown, the skirt flowing with light, graceful ease.

Her skin was fair, almost luminous, and among the crowd she looked like a spirit of the snow.

Still a student, Jiang Ruoqiao wasn’t truly comfortable in settings like this either.

Her senior colleague was very attentive to her, making sure she didn’t drink any alcohol, and quietly advising her to stick to juice.

Just as Jiang Ruoqiao let out a small breath of relief, she felt a gaze on her. She lifted her eyes to the side, and through the crowd moving back and forth, through the clinking of glasses and the hum of conversation, she saw Lu Yicheng.

Their eyes met. Jiang Ruoqiao thought for a moment she was seeing things.

She closed her eyes, then opened them again. Lu Yicheng was still there.

Lu Yicheng was equally surprised.

He knew Jiang Ruoqiao had a banquet to attend that evening, but when He Li brought him here, it never once occurred to him that it could be the same one.

Both of them were students — novices among novices.

To be honest, both felt a little out of place; this wasn’t the kind of setting either of them was used to. And then, in the middle of all that discomfort, they spotted each other, and both of them smiled.

She was in her little evening gown.

He was in his suit.

It was as if two people had snuck out to experience adult society on their own, only to stumble upon each other.

What a coincidence — as though arranged by fate.

She didn’t walk over to greet him. Neither did he.

He Li had finished his rounds of pleasantries and came to find Lu Yicheng, draping an arm over his shoulder — only to catch the broad smile Lu Yicheng hadn’t had time to hide.

He Li eyed him suspiciously: “What’s gotten into you? Did you find money on the ground or something?”

Lu Yicheng: “What?”

“You suddenly look so delighted.”

—