Two couples were coming to view the apartment that afternoon, and Lu Yicheng still needed to go tutor his student — fortunately, he had already arranged things with Jiang Ruoqiao the day before. After lunch, she would take a car over. August was practically the hottest time of the entire year, and when Jiang Ruoqiao stepped outside and faced the blazing sun, she couldn’t help but shake her head at herself: *Jiang Ruoqiao, oh Jiang Ruoqiao, look at what you’re doing for your child.*

In the past, no matter who made plans with her, she would never have gone out at high noon. No one could have made her make an exception.

There was a saying online that went: the only thing that could get a person out the door in this kind of heat was true love.

It seemed that her boyfriends had never been her true love — but her son had managed it.

Jiang Ruoqiao was armed from head to toe.

She had applied sunscreen not just on her face, but even behind her ears and around her ankles, then put on a UV-protective jacket and a sun hat — and even after all that, she still grabbed a parasol before stepping out of the apartment building like a warrior marching into battle. She walked briskly through the sunlight until she reached the entrance of the complex, where her ride-hailing driver was already waiting.

The roads were completely clear at this hour, and she arrived at the base of Lu Siyan’s building right at one o’clock.

Lu Yicheng was politely waiting downstairs about ten minutes early, and Lu Siyan had absolutely insisted on coming down too to welcome his mother.

Lu Yicheng fished his access card out of his pocket. Lu Siyan sighed like a weary elder: “Going to kill this baby again.”

The smile that flickered at the corner of Lu Yicheng’s lips vanished in an instant. He turned to explain to Jiang Ruoqiao: “We live on the sixth floor.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “……”

It was fine for Lu Yicheng — he’d been living like this year after year, and at twenty years old, he had boundless energy. Climbing six floors in one go was nothing to him, like child’s play. Lu Siyan and Jiang Ruoqiao, on the other hand, became his unwitting comparison group.

Lu Siyan huffed and puffed: “Can’t climb anymore……”

Jiang Ruoqiao wasn’t faring much better. In P.E. class, she avoided every physical activity she possibly could. Now, with the heat and six flights of stairs, the fair, flawless complexion she was so proud of had flushed a deep crimson.

Lu Yicheng opened the door. Lu Siyan slipped inside with the agility of a loach and eagerly retrieved a pair of watermelon-pink slippers from the shoe rack, setting them neatly at Jiang Ruoqiao’s feet. He tilted his head up, smiled, and revealed the faint dimples at the corners of his mouth. “Mommy, put your shoes on.”

Jiang Ruoqiao stared at the slippers, then looked over at Lu Yicheng with a hint of surprise.

She wasn’t sure why — she and Lu Yicheng weren’t even that close — but she felt absolutely certain that no other woman had ever worn these slippers.

Lu Yicheng lowered his gaze. “Siyan insisted on buying them.”

Lu Siyan spoke in the tone of someone awaiting credit for a good deed. “Yep, yep! Daddy is just too stingy — he kept wanting to buy the cheap ones. Mommy, you’ll just have to put up with how ugly these are.”

Jiang Ruoqiao smiled warmly and slipped on the watermelon-pink slippers.

That color was quite demanding of one’s complexion.

Bright, vivid colors tended to make those with less fair skin look darker by contrast.

Jiang Ruoqiao’s skin was naturally fair, and she was extremely diligent about sun protection. Her largest monthly expense was, without question, spent on her face. She had always lived by one principle: there were many things in life where effort yielded no return no matter how hard you tried — but investing in yourself was not one of them. Put in the work, and it would always pay off.

She was a disciplined person, whether it came to studying or cultivating her appearance and bearing.

Everything else came after herself.

……

Jiang Ruoqiao was indeed meticulous from the tips of her hair to the backs of her heels.

Her feet, even after a whole summer, remained an even, fair tone — no “tan lines” from wearing sandals all season. At this moment, the pair of slippers on her feet somehow didn’t look nearly as plain as they should have.

Jiang Ruoqiao also took stock of the apartment.

The layout was very similar to her maternal grandparents’ place — perhaps all older apartments were designed this way?

From what she could tell, it was a two-bedroom, two-living-area unit.

The living room was on the small side, but Lu Yicheng had kept the place impeccably clean. The furniture, though simple — even vintage — had a few spots where the wall paint had peeled, yet the whole space was tidy and uncluttered. There was no mountain of accumulated junk; every corner had been organized with care. Even the old-fashioned glass windows had been wiped until they gleamed. Comparing herself to Lu Yicheng, Jiang Ruoqiao felt she had been living quite carelessly.

Lu Yicheng had also specifically bought a case of bottled water, and reminded Jiang Ruoqiao, “I’m not sure if you’re used to boiled tap water, so I got mineral water — we can offer it to the tenants when they arrive too.”

“Alright.” Jiang Ruoqiao nodded.

Lu Yicheng tapped at his phone for a moment, then looked up with a clear, composed expression. “I sent you the Wi-Fi password.”

“Got it.”

Jiang Ruoqiao noticed that Lu Yicheng wasn’t saying much today.

In truth, when nothing important was being discussed, Lu Yicheng was never much of a talker — but today was a little different, even quieter than usual.

After Lu Yicheng left, shouldering that same eternal black backpack he always carried, Jiang Ruoqiao turned to Lu Siyan. “What’s going on with him? He seems unhappy.”

Lu Siyan clapped both hands over his mouth, his expression torn with conflict.

At lunch, Daddy had told him not to say anything to Mommy about what had happened at the market that morning.

He had promised.

A promise had to be kept.

“Daddy said I can’t tell you, and I already promised.” Lu Siyan replied in a muffled voice.

Jiang Ruoqiao raised an eyebrow slightly. “Alright, I won’t ask then.”

The reason for Lu Yicheng’s mood today wasn’t hard to guess.

She suspected it had something to do with the post Jiang Yan had made on his social media.

Not that it was hard to understand — the four of them had been dormmates since freshman orientation and had spent two years together. There was bound to be real affection there. Four guys with similar interests and temperaments, and Jiang Yan in particular was the type who was fiercely loyal to his friends. These past weeks, she had also gotten to know Lu Yicheng better. No wonder he was considered the most well-regarded campus heartthrob A’Da had produced in recent years — the public had sharp eyes. There was simply nothing to fault about him: reliable and responsible, serious yet attentive. A person with that kind of moral integrity would have found it difficult enough to accept that Lu Siyan was his and her child.

And now? She and Jiang Yan hadn’t even broken up yet, and Jiang Yan was still making declarations of love on his social media. Was it any wonder Lu Yicheng’s feelings were complicated?

Actually, this was fine.

Without thinking about that “future” — the two of them, without Lu Siyan’s arrival, would never have had any deep connection at all.

And now, she wasn’t about to let things develop “naturally” between them just because of Lu Siyan.

They should both treat each other as convenient partners in a practical arrangement.

To him, she was simply the child’s mother who could share the risks and responsibilities.

Jiang Ruoqiao didn’t dwell on this for long, because the prospective tenants arrived. It was an engaged couple — they had already put a down payment on their own place but wouldn’t get the keys until the end of the following year, so for now they needed to rent. They hadn’t been particularly impressed by the apartment at first glance. The complex was old, the facilities dated, and it was a walk-up building with no elevator. Modern young people had grown accustomed to the convenience of lifts, and climbing six floors every day was genuinely exhausting.

But their opinion changed once they stepped inside.

The short-haired woman was polite. “Do you mind if I take a look around?”

Jiang Ruoqiao smiled. “Of course not.”

As she walked through the apartment, the woman kept remarking: “The place is a bit old, but I really like the clean, square layout. And it’s been well-maintained — look how bright those windows are, the floors are so clean, and there’s no damp smell at all……”

Lu Yicheng’s apartment did have its advantages.

The location wasn’t bad, for one — not remote at all. Within a kilometer there was both a bus stop and a metro station. Nearby were also a large supermarket and a fresh produce market.

For the same price and same area, the only alternative would be a tiny elevator studio room. Most importantly, Lu Yicheng wasn’t a subletter — it was his own apartment, which meant tenants didn’t have to worry about him disappearing, and direct communication between landlord and tenant was far more straightforward.

The couple agreed without hesitation to sign the lease.

Lu Yicheng was already on his way back.

Jiang Ruoqiao went online to check rental prices near A’Da, and for the first time she truly felt — raising Lu Siyan was not something that could be done on words alone.

Children were genuinely, devastatingly expensive.

For instance, the rent on Lu Yicheng’s apartment could barely get you a decent place near A’Da at all.

You could either find someone to share with, but most people were particular about their roommates, and almost no one would agree to live with a child in tow.

So the gap in rent alone would easily amount to fifteen or sixteen hundred yuan.

Fifteen or sixteen hundred was no small amount — that was nearly a full month of student living expenses.

Beyond rent, private kindergarten tuition was no laughing matter either. Monthly fees could range anywhere from three thousand to ten thousand yuan on average. Then there was the nanny’s salary, plus Lu Siyan’s daily living expenses. Just running through the numbers made Jiang Ruoqiao’s hands tremble.

On average, she would need to spend at least five or six thousand yuan a month on Lu Siyan.

And that was assuming no illness and no unexpected costs.

Jiang Ruoqiao couldn’t help but want to cry out to the heavens: *He’s a money-shredder, a gold-devouring beast!!*

In truth, her current income was sufficient to support both herself and Lu Siyan — but that would mean giving up on her plans to buy her maternal grandparents an apartment with an elevator anytime soon……

She did have some modest savings, but she was still inexplicably anxious — where was all this dread coming from?

Lu Yicheng’s stress was clearly no less than hers.

When they signed the lease, he was frowning the whole time.

In that moment, Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao’s feelings were perfectly in sync.

Lu Yicheng had a beautiful hand for calligraphy — but at that moment, Jiang Ruoqiao had no mind to appreciate the strong, decisive strokes that seemed to press right through the paper.

After the contract was signed, Lu Yicheng exhaled with some relief. At least for now, things had gone smoothly.

By the time everything was finished, it was nearly dinnertime. Lu Yicheng felt that, despite the need to maintain a safe distance from Jiang Ruoqiao, he wasn’t so ignorant of basic social graces as to not offer her a meal. She had helped him host the tenants today and done all the talking — he couldn’t possibly not treat her to dinner.

But eating out was poor value for money.

Two adults and a child eating something halfway decent could easily run a hundred to two hundred yuan, and the nutrition wouldn’t even be that great.

In the past, Lu Yicheng might have weighed various appearances and opted for a restaurant anyway — but things were different now. He was tightening his belt and looking for ways to increase income at every turn. At this particular juncture, he refused to spend a single extra yuan he didn’t have to. So he said decisively: “Stay for dinner. I’ll go out and grab some groceries — won’t be long.”

Under Lu Siyan’s expectant gaze, Jiang Ruoqiao nodded.

Lu Yicheng had said he’d be back quickly, and sure enough, about ten minutes later he returned carrying bags of various sizes.

As soon as he was back, he washed his hands and headed into the kitchen, working steadily and without fuss.

He washed and chopped the vegetables, the knife falling with practiced precision, cutting the spareribs into evenly-sized pieces.

When Jiang Ruoqiao came to wash her hands, she passed by the kitchen and instinctively glanced inside.

The evening sun’s last rays slanted through the window into the kitchen.

Lu Yicheng was bathed in a warm, amber glow, his back to her, bent slightly over the cutting board.

He was tall and lean, and that slight forward bend made the line of his spine unmistakably visible.

The kitchen wasn’t large — he seemed almost cramped inside it.

Lu Yicheng knew Jiang Ruoqiao was standing at the kitchen doorway watching him.

He kept his gaze down, focused entirely on the cutting board, and after finishing with the spareribs, moved with clean efficiency to rinse the board before beginning to clean the sea bass.

Jiang Ruoqiao watched for a while before Lu Siyan tugged her back to the sofa.

She was in the foreign languages department, and her professional skills were solid. Lu Siyan, with a coaxing, wheedling air, asked her to read an English picture book with him. On the sofa, mother and son leaned against each other as Jiang Ruoqiao read the story aloud in fluent English……The sound drifted into the kitchen, and Lu Yicheng caught fragments of her voice, reading to Siyan, in scattered pieces.

—