The band members could understand what he meant and why he felt that way.

Ji Yan asked, “You don’t plan to go see her?”

“She’s a good girl,” he leaned back on the sofa, his posture relaxed. “Better not ruin her life.”

Ji Yan: “Captain…”

Shi Si couldn’t help saying, “Captain, you shouldn’t think like that. Why else would the Pride of Pingchuan dye her hair blue all these years? I don’t believe it has anything to do with you. How could you call it ruining her life? You’re Lin Qingye! You can do whatever you want. For someone else, starting over might be impossible, but you definitely can.”

Lin Qingye curled his lips self-mockingly and let out a scoffing laugh.

Everyone hadn’t seen each other for so long, so they changed the subject: “Does your father know you’re out?”

“No, haven’t had time to tell anyone yet.”

“Take some time to go back and see him. Uncle hasn’t had it easy,” Ji Yan had learned more about his family situation through Xu Zhinan. “Not long after you left, he got divorced.”

This was unexpected. Lin Qingye raised an eyebrow but didn’t react much.

“I’ll go back when I have time,” he said flatly, and no one could tell what he was thinking.

After the late-night meal, they didn’t stay long. They cleaned up the remaining trash and got ready to leave.

Guan Chi asked, “Captain, are you going back to your apartment to sleep or staying here?”

“Too lazy to go back,” Lin Qingye lit another cigarette for himself. “Go on, you all can leave.”

When the three reached the door, Shi Si turned back and said, “Captain, whatever your plans are in the future, if you need us for anything, just say the word. Back when you first won the Golden Melody Award, you turned down so many offers for our sake. We remember that. Whatever it is, just one word from you.”

Lin Qingye smiled and waved his hand.

The three left.

The studio room was once again left with only him.

Lin Qingye finished his cigarette and got up to take a shower.

Water droplets slid down his defined muscles. Looking at himself in the mirror, he felt a moment of disorientation.

Then he slowly turned to the side. The tattoo on his back was also wet, its lines flowing and delicate, especially the eyes, which were remarkably expressive.

He looked at it for a long time with his head turned sideways before finally putting on his clothes, not bothering to dry himself completely.

Walking out of the bathroom, he found his phone and turned it on.

As soon as it powered up, it was bombarded with a flood of random text messages, causing it to freeze and become unresponsive.

Lin Qingye tossed the phone aside and went to open the window. With his crew cut now, he didn’t even need to use a hair dryer anymore. Just a few minutes in the breeze would dry it.

It dried in just a few minutes. He picked up his phone again. Many apps had 99+ notification badges in the top right corner, but Lin Qingye wasn’t compulsive about such things and couldn’t be bothered to address them.

There were also many spam messages in WeChat.

Xu Zhinan’s chat was pinned at the top, making it easy to find.

There was only one message, or more precisely, one picture.

Lin Qingye wasn’t prepared when he opened it, and when he saw the photo, he realized he had been too careless.

It was a selfie of Xu Zhinan with her blue hair.

The background looked like a bathroom, with a warm yellow heat lamp above. Her hair was still wet, probably just after washing.

Blue dye fades easily. She was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, with blue stains spreading onto her shoulders and chest.

He hadn’t seen Xu Zhinan for two and a half years. Seeing her so unexpectedly like this, the impact was tremendous, making his heart feel like it had been squeezed tightly. For a moment, he couldn’t even breathe.

Honestly, Xu Zhinan had changed a lot.

Though she was beautiful before, her beauty now was even more radiant, with something more emanating from within, becoming her unique temperament.

Gentle yet dazzling.

Below that photo were three recalled messages. He didn’t know what Xu Zhinan had sent him at the time.

Lin Qingye looked at the photo in his phone for a long time, then saved it to his album and opened Xu Zhinan’s Moments.

Coincidentally, she had posted something just an hour ago.

In the photo were two people. He recognized the one beside her as her former roommate, who was wearing a wedding dress. Xu Zhinan was wearing a blue formal dress that accentuated her delicate figure. She looked as exquisite as a painting, making it impossible to look away.

After looking for two minutes, he turned off his phone again and lay down on the bed to sleep.

But even with his eyes closed, he couldn’t fall asleep.

He had genuinely meant it when he said he wouldn’t ruin Xu Zhinan’s life, but now that he had seen her photo, he suddenly found it impossible to resist.

His obsession with Xu Zhinan was deeply rooted.

In his younger, more reckless days, he had been hurt by her unintentional words, and had thoughtlessly hurt her in return, pulling her into his life without asking what she wanted.

Now, released from prison with a burden of guilt, his future unclear, he wanted to let her live a comfortable, peaceful life. Yet seeing her photo had changed everything.

His heart raced uncontrollably, carrying him from that hell back to reality.

Early the next morning, Lin Qingye went to find Wang Qi.

He navigated with ease to Wang Qi’s office on the 16th floor and pushed the door open. Wang Qi was there, and looked up, equally stunned to see him.

Lin Qingye was the first to break the silence: “Uncle Wang.”

Wang Qi opened his mouth but no sound came out. He coughed and then said, “Qingye?”

“Yes.”

“When did you get out?”

“Yesterday.”

“Does your father know?”

“No, I’ll tell him later.”

“What about Xu Zhinan?”

Lin Qingye let out a laugh.

Somehow, everyone seemed to ask if he had seen Xu Zhinan.

“Not yet.”

Wang Qi paused, looking at him for a moment: “Have you thought about what you’re going to do in the future?”

“I came to get the half-finished album from before.”

Wang Qi’s expression brightened: “You still want to continue?”

“Let’s see how it goes.”

“Having a goal is good, having a goal is good,” Wang Qi said approvingly. “Whatever you decide to do, I can help you.”

Lin Qingye smiled: “Uncle Wang, you’re a company director, not a charity. There’s no need to help someone like me who can’t even see the road ahead.”

“You plan to do it yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Being an independent musician is expensive,” Wang Qi asked carefully, “Are you going to borrow money from your father?”

“No, I have my own money from before. It’s enough.”

Lin Qingye had accumulated quite a bit from his Golden Melody Award prize money, copyright income from his songs being used commercially, his substantial salary from the bar, and the earnings from the “I’m Here for Music” program. Even without Lin Guancheng’s help, he had never lacked money.

“To be honest, you say you can’t see the road ahead, but as an observer, I see it. Lin Qingye, do you know how important talent is? To truly reach the top of an industry, talent is more important than hard work. Hard work alone might get you a piece of the pie, but the top? Don’t even think about it. That’s how cruel it is.”

Lin Qingye gradually grew quiet as he listened.

After spending two years in that sinful, chaotic place, he sometimes forgot what it was like to be the radiant, spirited person he once was.

“The fact that you won first place in that show was proof enough. I’m willing to help you not just because I know your father, but because of you. You’re Lin Qingye. I know investing in you won’t disappoint me,” Wang Qi said. “Think about it. Stay with the company, and you can focus entirely on what you want to do.”

“After talking for so long, do you still have the album demo?”

“Not with me.”

“Where is it?”

“I gave it to Xu Zhinan.”

Lin Qingye’s fingertips paused, and he looked up.

Wang Qi shrugged: “I gave it to her two years ago. If you want it, go find her yourself. I’m sure she hasn’t lost it.”

He didn’t speak, his eyes darkening, becoming intensely black and intimidating.

Wang Qi: “Not planning to find her?”

“We’ll see,” he answered casually.

“Lin Qingye, sometimes I think you’re quite a bastard. At least for that girl, with your current attitude, you’re a bastard!” Wang Qi pointed at him.

He leaned back in his chair, hands in his pockets, appearing lazy and indifferent, showing no reaction.

“You think this is what’s good for her? What she’s thinking, what she wants, who she’s waiting for—I don’t believe you don’t know,” Wang Qi said. “If you could let go so easily, why did you let yourself fall into such a situation for her in the first place?”

After a long time, he finally said softly: “Uncle Wang, you don’t know what it’s like in there. Many people come out, face contempt and cold stares, and can’t go back to normal life. They end up committing crimes and going back in.”

Wang Qi was taken aback, then said: “But do you think this means you’re not ruining Xu Zhinan’s life? Let me tell you, you’ve already ruined her completely. That girl has been with you for so long and waited for you for two years. If you don’t find her, you’ll have ruined the rest of her life too.”

“Not finding her—that’s what’s ruining her,” Wang Qi emphasized each word clearly and forcefully. “Now only you can make it up to her.”

A flash of light appeared in Lin Qingye’s eyes, the first time he had shown such an expression since his release.

But this wasn’t the first time Wang Qi had seen it.

When Lin Qingye had stood at his door, telling him he wanted to make an album, saying “To protect her, I need to achieve something myself,” Wang Qi had also been struck by the look in his eyes.

Wang Qi: “If you’re a real man, make sure she lives comfortably from now on, instead of avoiding her and forcing her to live without you.”

Xu Zhinan was in a store when she received a call from Fang Houyu.

After returning home the previous day, she remembered she hadn’t bought a wedding gift for Zhao Qian yet. Since Zhao Qian loved collecting perfumes, she had gone to the mall to buy herself a bottle.

The shop assistant enthusiastically recommended: “You could try this one. It suits your style.”

“It’s not for me. It’s a wedding gift for a good friend.”

“I see. Well, you should still try this one first. It’s newly released, with a fresh and special fragrance, perfect for summer.”

The assistant sprayed some on her wrist.

That’s when Fang Houyu’s call came in.

Xu Zhinan walked to the side: “Uncle Fang.”

“Nan, Su Qian is dead,” Fang Houyu said.

Xu Zhinan was stunned.

After the incident, Su Qian had remained in a vegetative state, never waking up.

“Will this…” her throat went dry, “affect the previous sentence?”

“Don’t you know?”

“Know what?”

Fang Houyu was surprised: “I just found out when I contacted a colleague at the detention center about the sentencing. Lin Qingye was released early yesterday.”

For a moment, Xu Zhinan couldn’t move or speak. Her mind went blank, and her feet were rooted to the spot.

Early release.

Yesterday.

How could she not know about this at all?

Even after hanging up, she had no idea what Fang Houyu had said at the end.

She felt as if she had been struck by lightning, her fingers uncontrollably starting to tremble.

The shop assistant, seeing that she hadn’t moved since ending the call, approached and asked: “Would you like to smell the fragrance again? The top notes have faded, and it will smell even better now.”

Xu Zhinan came back to her senses, her black eyelashes trembling rapidly. It took her a while to regain her composure.

She raised her wrist and sniffed it delicately.

The assistant explained beside her: “This is a unisex fragrance, but it also has a special girlish quality. The middle notes are lemon and sweet orange, and the base note is sophora flower, which is fresh with a hint of astringency, making it unique.”

Xu Zhinan also smelled the base note beneath the others—the scent of sophora flowers.

Suddenly, she felt nauseous, like a stress response. The nausea came quickly, and she covered her mouth, turning her head to dry heave.

The assistant was startled, thinking she had a severe reaction to the fragrance. Hurriedly, she took a water spray and sprayed it on her arm again, diluting the previous scent.

Back then, Su Qian had taken her to that abandoned building. After she managed to escape and headed downstairs, she saw Lin Qingye with blood on his hands and Su Qian lying at his feet.

At that moment, the wind had carried the scent of sophora blossoms.

Xu Zhinan’s legs had weakened, her consciousness receding, but her senses had remembered the scene.

The scent of sophora blossoms became the memory trigger for that moment.

Consequently, every year when the sophora flowers bloomed, she would easily experience a stress response, as if the trauma from that year had been transferred to the flowers.

“Are you alright?” The assistant helped her up.

“I’m fine, sorry. I need to use the restroom.”

Xu Zhinan stood in front of the washbasin, cleaning the remaining perfume from her wrist, and splashed water on her face. Only then did she slowly catch her breath.

Looking at herself in the mirror, her face was pale and her eyes were red from the stress response, slightly moist.

Xu Zhinan supported herself on the basin. Her hair had gotten wet when she washed her face, hanging down her chest. It had grown very long. The blue tint reflected in her eyes, which gradually moistened again.

People came and went in the mall’s restroom. Xu Zhinan just stood there, not noticing when others looked at her strangely.

Time passed minute by minute.

She finally remembered to take out her phone and call Lin Qingye.

That number, deeply etched in her mind, which she hadn’t been able to reach for two and a half years.

Her hands shaking, she held the phone to her ear, too nervous to breathe, every second a torture.

Then the mechanical female voice gave her the final verdict: “Hello, the number you dialed is powered off.”

Xu Zhinan calmly lowered her phone, turned off the screen, and looked down at the marble countertop. Then her black eyelashes trembled lightly, and a tear fell without warning.

It merged with the water droplets on the countertop, disappearing into nothingness.

She was suddenly enveloped by an unprecedented sense of despair. She hadn’t felt this when she woke from her fever to learn Lin Qingye had been sentenced, nor during any of the difficult nights in the past two and a half years. Until this moment.

That night, Lin Qingye had told her that if she found someone else she liked, she could try dating them.

But after experiencing what he had given her, how could she possibly like anyone else?

After seeing a brilliant galaxy of stars, others would seem like mere fireflies flickering in a field.

No one could compare to Lin Qingye.

So she had engraved herself onto Lin Qingye’s back, telling him, “You’re mine now.”

She had cut off her retreat, as well as Lin Qingye’s. That tattoo design couldn’t be erased. He couldn’t possibly find another girl with such an image on his back.

But now, though he was finally out of prison, he hadn’t come to find her.

Even in prison, when everyone wanted to visit, he hadn’t agreed. That proud and willful youth refused to let anyone see him in a pathetic state.

And now, though he was free, even his phone was unreachable.

Xu Zhinan slowly crouched down by the washbasin, crying silently yet with heart-wrenching despair.

Gentleness was him, radiance was him, and cruelty was also him.

By the time she regained her composure and left the restroom, a long time had passed.

The perfume shop assistant was surprised to see Xu Zhinan return.

Xu Zhinan had just cried, and her voice still held a lingering hoarseness: “Please package that classic bottle I tried first.”

“Certainly. Is there anything else you need?”

Xu Zhinan looked at the perfume that had caused her stress response: “I’ll take this one too.”

The assistant was surprised: “This one?”

“Yes.”

After buying the perfumes, Xu Zhinan went directly back to her shop.

Although her business was doing very well now, it fortunately had a different style from Lu Xihe’s “Assassin.” More girls came to her shop, while more men went to Lu Xihe’s.

There was a man in her shop today.

Even before pushing the door open, she could hear the commotion inside. Li Yan, who had been learning from her for over a year, was a hot-tempered girl, but this time she seemed to be at a loss with this man.

It almost seemed like he was there to cause trouble.

Xu Zhinan pushed the door open: “Li Yan, what’s going on?”

Li Yan hurried to her side, pulling her away and whispering: “Master, this guy is unreasonable. He’s deliberately taking advantage of the fact that there are no men in our shop. He wants a tattoo ‘there.'”

“Where?”

“You know, there!” Li Yan made exaggerated facial expressions.

Xu Zhinan understood: “Then just give him the tattoo. To a tattoo artist, it’s all the same.”

“That’s true in theory, but he has ulterior motives,” Li Yan stomped her foot in frustration. “He came in and didn’t even ask which artist specializes in the design he wants. He just directly asked for the prettiest one. When I told him the price, he complained it was too expensive. He’s an amateur. Isn’t he trying to take advantage of us?”

“And,” Li Yan sneaked a sideways glance at the man, “I overheard him on the phone just now, saying something about just getting out of prison. How scary is that! I didn’t dare yell at him, afraid that if I angered him, he might turn this shop into some crime scene.”

Xu Zhinan gave him a look.

The man had already been eyeing Xu Zhinan up and down several times. He raised his chin: “Hey, you there, you come and tattoo me.”

Xu Zhinan patted Li Yan’s shoulder: “Didn’t you say you have something at home tonight? Go ahead, I’ll handle this.”

“Are you sure?”

“Don’t worry.”

Li Yan was in a hurry anyway, so after a few more reminders to Xu Zhinan, she left. The shop was now just Xu Zhinan and the man.

She approached him: “What kind of tattoo do you want?”

The man took out his phone: “This one.”

It was a very ordinary design, requiring no special skill.

“For a design like this, you could go to a regular tattoo shop. It would be cheaper. If I do it, the price is higher.”

“How much?”

“My hourly rate is 3,000. This won’t take an hour, so based on the design, it’s 800 yuan.”

The man raised his eyebrows, looking her up and down again: “Fine, more expensive is fine, as long as it’s pretty.”

He emphasized the word “pretty.”

Xu Zhinan ignored it and began preparing.

The man didn’t say anything dirty anymore but started to make small talk, asking about her age one minute and her contact information the next.

She put on gloves and approached the work table with the tattoo pen.

At that moment, the door to the tattoo shop opened from the outside—

Someone stood at the entrance.

Then bang, bang, he raised his hand and knocked on the door twice.

White shirt, black pants, his figure desolate.

The lights in the tattoo shop were bright, with gray and black decor.

He leaned against the doorframe, looking lazy and casual.

Lin Qingye.

He looked different.

Crew cut, a scar under his eye, intimidating at first glance.

He didn’t look at Xu Zhinan but at the man, as if he knew him, smiling arrogantly and provocatively: “Hey, before you hit on a girl, maybe you should find out whose girl she is.”

He looked like a ruffian.

Xu Zhinan had never imagined that her reunion with Lin Qingye would be like this.

She stared at him, frozen in place.

The man beside her seemed intimidated by him, making a few “eh, eh” sounds but saying nothing.

Lin Qingye shifted his gaze to Xu Zhinan.

Then he smiled: “Nan.”

“I’m Lin Qingye,” he said.

His tone was casual, as if he had just stepped out for five minutes to buy a bottle of water.

Not like it had been that endless two and a half years.