Jiang Ruoqiao had always believed herself to be fundamentally incompatible with the concept of “going with the flow and not worrying about anything.”

But as she came out of the Lin Family Jewelry building, the phrase came to her unexpectedly. It was a little like her current state of mind: the original novel was the original novel, and reality was reality. As long as nothing was brought directly to her door, she had no intention of entangling herself with anyone over things that hadn’t yet happened in the real world. In fact, she genuinely hoped she would never have cause to use that name card in her lifetime. She was truly busy — busy with classes, busy with work, busy earning money to spend on her son… from the very bottom of her heart she hoped her life would stay peaceful and not throw any more troublesome surprises her way.

After she saw Meili’s assistant back to the hotel, she checked the time and saw it was still early.

Schedules varied by department, but in her particular field, third-year coursework was genuinely light. She checked her timetable and saw she only had two classes tomorrow morning, so she proactively sent Lu Yicheng a WeChat message: 【I’ve finished my work for today. I’ll go pick up Siyan and take him for dinner tonight.】

By the time she stepped onto the subway, Lu Yicheng had replied: 【Okay.】

Lu Siyan normally took the school bus to and from kindergarten, but Da Feng Che Kindergarten’s policies were flexible — parents were welcome to pick their children up themselves, and the homeroom teacher would keep a note of it, then deduct a portion of the following month’s school bus fees accordingly.

Jiang Ruoqiao gave notice in the class group chat and through the school app that a family member would be coming to pick Lu Siyan up in person today.

When she arrived at the kindergarten gate, she discovered something new.

There were parent volunteers helping maintain order at the entrance.

Security had set up signs at the gate: families from Class One Line Up Here, families from Class Two just beside them, and each parent was to queue according to the signs. The vast majority of those picking up children were grandparents — young parents were a rare sight. Jiang Ruoqiao found the sign for Class Three, and obediently took her place in the queue. In front of her was a mother; behind her, a grandmother. The kindergarten released one class at a time, and since Class One hadn’t come out yet, Class Three families were looking at at least another ten or so minutes of waiting.

Jiang Ruoqiao had absolutely no intention of striking up conversation with anyone.

But, as luck would have it — the grandmother behind her was extraordinarily enthusiastic. She grabbed Jiang Ruoqiao’s arm and began asking, “I’ve never seen you before! My grandchild’s been with this teacher since nursery class. I heard from my grandson that there’s a new classmate — that must be yours, right?”

The grandmother looked Jiang Ruoqiao up and down. “Are you his older sister?”

Jiang Ruoqiao wasn’t quite sure how to answer this, so she laughed it off and changed the subject.

Indeed — no one so far had assumed she was Lu Siyan’s mother. At the root of it, she simply looked like a student in her early twenties. It was inconceivable that she could have a child this age.

On top of that, with the two-child policy having opened up in recent years, whenever people saw Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Siyan together, their first instinct was to assume she was an older sibling.

“What kinds of extracurricular activities has your family signed the child up for?” the grandmother asked. “My grandson is such a handful. His parents had him enrolled in some coding thing before, and just yesterday he was kicking up a fuss wanting to learn roller skating. His parents are both at work, so I’m the one doing drop-off and pickup every single day.”

The grandmother’s remark jolted Jiang Ruoqiao awake: that’s right! Siyan wasn’t enrolled in any extracurricular activities yet!

The mother in front of Jiang Ruoqiao turned around. “Roller skating? I have to warn you — don’t sign up for a long course. My son learned, and then flat-out refused to keep going. I’d already paid for a whole year’s worth of classes.”

The grandmother was galvanized, and squeezed up close to Jiang Ruoqiao. “Really? I hadn’t even thought of that — I have to go home and tell my daughter-in-law!”

“Seriously.” The mother pulled out her phone. “Actually, there’s a roller skating center nearby that’s running some kind of promotion right now. I saw the instructor posting about it in Moments — there are trial classes, very cheap. With the current deal, three trial sessions are under two hundred yuan. Let your grandson go try it out first. If he genuinely loves it, then enroll — the worst outcome is that you pay for a whole term and the child has no interest. Then the parents suffer, and the child suffers too.”

Without quite realizing it, Jiang Ruoqiao had also taken out her phone.

Before she even knew what she was doing, she had added the mother on WeChat, clicked the link she’d shared, and purchased three trial roller skating classes.

Jiang Ruoqiao: “?”

Wait. No. What just happened?

She’d come to pick up a child — how had she ended up being sold something? And worse — she’d actually been sold!

This defied all logic!!

The mother continued: “Actually a lot of extracurricular classes offer trial sessions. I’ll share some with you next time. The most important thing is never to just impulsively enroll in something — let the child try it first, and only sign up if they truly enjoy it.”

Jiang Ruoqiao stared blankly. “…Thank you.”

Honestly, what just happened??

Wasn’t she supposed to be the most strong-willed person in the dormitory? Whenever she went to a hair salon and the stylists talked themselves hoarse, she never got a membership card. Even when the fruit stand had a promotion — top up two hundred yuan and buy durian at eighteen-ninety per pound — she was never tempted. It’s all tactics, she’d think; quite possibly the shop would be gone before you even spent the balance. To this day, apart from her meal card and library card, she had never signed up for a single membership — not one, a record worthy of going down in history.

The question was: who could explain to her why her fingers had acted entirely on their own, buying three classes before she’d even found out where the studio was??

This was genuinely dangerous!

—

Lu Siyan had no idea his mother was coming to pick him up today.

Children who normally took the school bus would stay in the classroom with the care teacher. Children not taking the bus would be brought to the gate by the homeroom teacher and another staff member.

He’d always been in the classroom group before, but today the homeroom teacher called him out to line up and head toward the gate. He was a little confused, and after a moment of processing, quietly asked his teacher: “Teacher Xiong, is someone from my family coming to pick me up?”

Teacher Xiong was very fond of Lu Siyan, and smiled warmly at the question, also helping him straighten his collar. “That’s right.”

Lu Siyan’s excitement was immediate.

It could only be either Dad or Mom coming for him.

Was it Dad or Mom?

Just guessing — just that alone — was an entirely joyful, happy thing.

As Class Three lined up behind Class Two and marched in orderly fashion toward the gate, Lu Siyan imitated his classmates and stretched his neck to peer outside. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack — but perseverance paid off, and he finally spotted his mother in the crowd! It was actually Mom!!

Lu Siyan clutched the straps of his backpack, face flushed red with excitement.

When he swiped his card and walked through the turnstile, the machine read out in its mechanical voice: Class Three, Lu Siyan.

Lu Siyan came charging out and launched himself into Jiang Ruoqiao’s arms. She caught him and reached up to feel the sweat on his forehead.

“Little Qiao, how come you came?!” Lu Siyan was very well-behaved — in public, in front of other people, he never called her Mom. It was always Little Qiao.

Jiang Ruoqiao replied: “Little handsome boy, from right now until your bedtime, all that time belongs to me. So tell me — what do you want for dinner tonight? Anything at all. Dad’s not here, so maybe we can be a little indulgent.”

Mother and son both had the giddy thrill of getting away with something.

It was simply human nature — ice cream eaten in secret tastes sweeter, spicy strips snuck on the sly taste better.

The two of them grinned at each other. “Mama, I want burgers, and I want pizza, and I also want ice cream, and I want barbecue and hot pot…”

Wanting everything — only an all-you-can-eat buffet could handle that.

Jiang Ruoqiao made a decisive choice and picked a well-reviewed buffet restaurant nearby.

Jiang Ruoqiao paid full price; Lu Siyan half price. Jiang Ruoqiao only got herself a steak, while Lu Siyan’s side of the table was piled high, his little cheeks puffed out as he ate with total contentment. And truthfully, part of why she was so at peace these days was the “healing” effect Lu Siyan had on her.

The messy, sticky tangle of loves and grudges all seemed that much less important.

Life — really, the better approach was to put your heart and your time into things that genuinely mattered.

Compared to revenge, she even found checking in every day to earn Lu Siyan’s little gold star stickers more entertaining.

Lu Siyan was in the middle of eating a shrimp when he looked up and found his mother resting her chin in her hand, watching him. He gave a little start. “Mama, why are you looking at me?”

Jiang Ruoqiao smiled softly. “I just think… Siyan is like a doctor.”

Siyan, to her, was her child — but somehow felt even more like a doctor.

Nobody knew that deep inside, she carried a small girl who was lonely and sensitive and fragile. Sometimes that little girl would surface, dragging her mood down into a deep well — no matter how happy the occasion, she couldn’t be moved. But since Siyan had arrived, it seemed like that had never happened again.

No wonder people said that when you become a parent, you can’t help pouring everything you ever lacked, and more, into your child.

And naturally alongside that comes projecting your own dreams onto them, placing the weight of the things you never achieved onto your child’s small shoulders.

How she hoped she could always be the kind of mother who gave and gave, rather than the kind who took endlessly.

At those words, Lu Siyan’s eyes went wide with astonishment. He put down his fork — it clinked brightly against the plate.

“That’s so strange!” Lu Siyan exclaimed. “Mama, you said this before too — you said I was your doctor!”

Jiang Ruoqiao smiled serenely, unsurprised.

In that future, Siyan was “her” doctor. So what kind of role did Lu Yicheng play?

—

After they’d eaten their fill, Jiang Ruoqiao walked Lu Siyan home.

It was still early, so Jiang Ruoqiao told Lu Yicheng he didn’t need to see her out — but Lu Yicheng still insisted on walking her to the entrance of the residential complex.

As Jiang Ruoqiao was about to leave, Lu Yicheng hesitated for a moment, then called out to her. “What would you like for breakfast tomorrow morning?”

That question?

Jiang Ruoqiao turned back to look at him. “You’re still going to bring it?”

Lu Yicheng gave a nod. “Yes.”

“Oh, oh.” Jiang Ruoqiao actually gave it some genuine thought. “I’ve heard the mixed noodles are quite good — are they?”

The cafeteria mixed noodles were popular among students.

She’d never had them, making her something of an uncultured soul in this regard.

Lu Yicheng paused for a moment. “They’re not bad.”

“Are there long queues at that counter?” Jiang Ruoqiao asked.

“Not too bad — I usually wake up pretty early.” Lu Yicheng looked at her. “I’ll bring you the mixed noodles tomorrow then.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “Thank you.”

—

The next morning, Jiang Ruoqiao asked Yun Jia to go down and pick up breakfast on her behalf.

She’d gotten an unexpected call from a teacher, asking her to fill out a form as soon as possible.

But just as she opened her laptop, logged into her email, and before she’d even had a chance to click open the file the teacher had sent — Yun Jia appeared in the doorway, visibly out of breath, clearly having sprinted up the stairs. Her fringe was disheveled. She braced herself against the doorframe, face bright with excitement but also struggling to hold it back, wearing an awkward, conflicted expression: “Ruoqiao, I simply cannot bring this breakfast up.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “?”

Yun Jia dragged Jiang Ruoqiao out to the balcony. Only then did Jiang Ruoqiao understand what Yun Jia meant.

Down below the girls’ dormitory building stood two young men, both with straight-backed, upright posture.

Jiang Ruoqiao had excellent eyesight and immediately recognized who they were.

Lu Yicheng and Jiang Yan.

Lu Yicheng stood on the left, Jiang Yan on the right. Between them was a gap of over three meters.

Both were holding something in their hands — breakfast, by the looks of it.

So they were staging a standoff??

—