Ruan Yu leaped to her feet in an instant.
Ten minutes — ten minutes again. How was it always this nerve-wracking?
She scrambled frantically to the wardrobe, ran through her emergency routine, and at the nine-minute mark dashed out the front door clutching a stack of documents, bolted into the elevator, and bent over her knees gasping for breath.
Stepping out of the apartment building, she had barely caught her breath when she spotted a Range Rover parked along the roadside in the distance — and broke into a jog.
All over a ridiculous mix-up, and the precious Attorney Xu had gone three whole days without sending her so much as a punctuation mark. How could she dare keep this great deity waiting even one minute?
By the time she reached the car, a faint flush had already spread across Ruan Yu’s cheeks. Through the windshield, she recognized the driver as the young man who had received her at the firm last time — Chen Hui.
Xu Huaisong was in the backseat. He rolled down the window and swept a glance over her.
She stood beside the window, leaning slightly forward, greeting him with unsteady breath: “Attorney Xu…”
Xu Huaisong tilted his chin, signaling her to get in.
Since he was sitting in the back, Ruan Yu naturally chose the front passenger seat. After all, the driver this time was not a blind date prospect — no need to observe any awkward propriety.
Xu Huaisong’s gaze cooled at once. He said evenly, “To the firm.”
The car door closed. The silence that settled over the vehicle was eerily strange. Curiosity gnawed at Ruan Yu from within; she held back as long as she could, then couldn’t help herself and turned to ask: “Attorney Xu, what brought you this way?”
“From the airport to the firm. It was on the route.”
Ah — so he hadn’t planned to come at all. He had made a deliberate detour after receiving her message.
Ruan Yu smiled. “Sorry for the trouble.”
The words had barely left her mouth when Chen Hui, just as he was about to start the car, suddenly received a phone call. After a few brief exchanges, his expression grew grave.
He turned around and said, “Song-ge, Sister Zhang is handling the case at the construction site — something unexpected has come up.”
Xu Huaisong was quiet for a moment, then gave a single nod. “Send my luggage to the hotel afterward.” With that, he pushed open the car door and stepped out, his long legs unfolding as he descended.
Before Ruan Yu could even process what was happening, she watched him circle around to the passenger side. He leaned down to look at her through the half-open window and asked, “Are you going to the construction site?” Even as he said it, he was already pulling open her door handle.
Ruan Yu let out two quick sounds of acknowledgment and finally understood — Chen Hui could no longer drive them. She hurried out of the car, privately grumbling to herself about how exhausting it was to communicate with Xu Huaisong.
Would it kill him to add one more sentence of explanation?
The door slammed shut, Chen Hui pressed the accelerator, and the car vanished from sight.
It was the height of noon. The sun blazed like fire. Hang Shi had been unusually sweltering these past two days — the temperature inside and outside the car were like two entirely different worlds. Ruan Yu held her documents under one arm, shielded her forehead from the sun with her other hand, and looked up at Xu Huaisong. “Should we just call a ride?”
Xu Huaisong apparently found the heat unbearable too, and couldn’t be bothered with the back-and-forth. He frowned and said, “No.” Then glanced at the apartment building behind her.
This time Ruan Yu was quicker to catch on, and immediately understood. “Should we talk at my place?”
Xu Huaisong didn’t say yes or no, only said: “If it’s inconvenient, we can do it another time. I’ll head back to the hotel—”
“It’s convenient! Totally convenient!” She cut him off at once.
Five minutes later, standing in front of her door fumbling slowly with the lock, Ruan Yu was sorely tempted to slap herself.
Just because the man behind her had been cold for a few days, look how shamelessly flattering she’d become. Convenient? Convenient her foot.
If she remembered correctly, she had been frantically rummaging through everything in her rush to get ready just now. The living room sofa was probably buried under a pile of clothes. And possibly every kind of clothing imaginable.
This wouldn’t do.
The instant the lock clicked open with a soft snap, Ruan Yu spun around, pressed both hands behind her back against the door, and tilted her head up to look at Xu Huaisong. “Could you… wait here for just a moment?”
He looked down at her and nodded.
Ruan Yu pushed the door open just enough to slip through, pulled it shut behind her, and tore through the living room like a whirlwind.
Xu Huaisong stood quietly, not looking around. Three minutes later, the door shifted open a crack again, and a head peeked out: “…All good.”
Ruan Yu invited him in. As he stepped inside and scanned the entryway floor, his reaction was exactly the same as Li Shican’s had been before.
She had no choice but to repeat her explanation — there were no men’s slippers here, so please just come on in.
The two of them made their way to the living room without exchanging a word along the way. Ruan Yu felt more on edge than she would have if a celebrity had suddenly dropped by. The sense of “familiarity” she had slowly built up with Xu Huaisong through their video calls seemed to have vanished entirely — everything had reset back to square one.
It felt like finally meeting an online acquaintance in person for the first time.
Wanting to find a foothold across that invisible barrier and ease the atmosphere, she grasped for something to say and pointed to a desk in the living room: “That’s where I was sitting when I video-called you before.”
She followed this up with the kind of awkward smile reserved for international diplomatic summits.
Xu Huaisong, however, didn’t look at the desk. His gaze moved slowly across the row of beige sofas behind it, lingering on the spot where Li Shican had once sat.
He gave a quiet “mm,” and when he stepped forward, he bypassed that spot entirely and sat down on the other side instead.
Ruan Yu, for her part, had long since forgotten where Li Shican had sat last time, and paid no attention to this small detail. She asked him if he wanted something to drink.
“Coffee.”
“Instant okay?”
“Mm.”
Ruan Yu switched on the standing air conditioner in the living room, then went to the kitchen to boil water and make the coffee. When she returned, she found Xu Huaisong had taken off his glasses and was leaning back against the sofa with his eyes closed — looking thoroughly exhausted.
She set the coffee cup down gently and glanced at the time.
One o’clock in the afternoon, Beijing time — which meant ten o’clock at night in San Francisco. He had just arrived, the jet lag hadn’t been sorted yet, and on top of that he’d been sitting on a plane for over ten hours followed by several more hours in a car.
Ruan Yu pressed a hand to her forehead.
She had only been thinking about not letting this great deity make a wasted trip. But now that she calculated it properly, she should have sent him off to the hotel to sleep.
On second thought, she decided to keep quiet. She tiptoed over to the desk, moved her laptop to the coffee table, settled onto the sofa across from him, and began reading through her documents.
She would read for a while, then glance up at him. Read a while longer, then look again.
After a few times, she confirmed it — his breathing was steady and growing deeper. He had genuinely fallen asleep.
So what now?
Ruan Yu opened her mouth. The word “Xu” had already made it to the tip of her tongue before she swallowed it back down.
By the time the steaming coffee at her side had gone completely cold, she still hadn’t managed to wake him.
Her computer suddenly let out a soft ping — a WeChat message had come in. Ruan Yu quickly hit the mute button, checked that Xu Huaisong hadn’t stirred, then tapped open the conversation.
Yao-jie: Little Wen, the counter palette is ready, right?
This Yao-jie was a friend in the industry who had helped her put together the counter palette when the plagiarism incident first broke out. Later, when the case was handed over to Xu Huaisong, her involvement had stopped.
Ruan Yu tapped the keys as lightly as she could and slowly typed: Still a little short. Thanks for checking in, Yao-jie.
Yao-jie: Still not done after all this time? Keep your wits about you — is that lawyer dragging his feet on purpose?
Ruan Yu glanced at the motionless Xu Huaisong and immediately typed back: He wouldn’t do that.
Yao-jie: If he’s not dragging it out on purpose, then his competence is in question. You sure you picked the right person?
The subject of their conversation was sitting less than two meters away from her. Alarmed that Xu Huaisong might catch a glimpse of these words, Ruan Yu hastily replied: He’s quite professional — just very busy. Don’t worry, Yao-jie.
As she sent that message, she noticed the figure across from her shift slightly — he adjusted his posture, crossing his arms.
She stood up, crept over to the standing air conditioner, and adjusted the angle of the vanes so the cold air was no longer blowing directly on him. Just as she turned back around, she heard the sound of a voice call ringing out.
It was Xu Huaisong’s.
He was jolted awake. In the first second of opening his eyes, he looked over at her standing by the air conditioner — then picked up his phone and answered: “Mm.”
“Fell asleep just now.”
“Haven’t eaten.”
“Mm.”
Four short statements, and the call was over. Ruan Yu pieced together the meaning of the exchange and stepped forward. “You haven’t eaten yet?”
Xu Huaisong straightened his wrinkled shirt and sat up properly, then nodded.
“Would you like to go get something to eat first?”
“Too hot.” Xu Huaisong glanced out the window at the fierce midday sun and shook his head.
“Do you eat takeout?”
She doubted that he did — takeout wasn’t always sanitary, and a man like Xu Huaisong seemed unlikely to go for it.
Sure enough, he shook his head again.
But not knowing was one thing. Now that she knew he was sitting there on an empty stomach, asking him to discuss the case with her like this — wasn’t that just inhumane?
Ruan Yu thought for a moment, then pointed toward the kitchen: “I have food at home. Take a look and see if there’s anything that’ll do.”
This time Xu Huaisong nodded. But he had apparently not fully woken up from his nap, and as he rose, he knocked into a stack of documents on the coffee table.
The documents slid, collided with the coffee cup, and with a sharp crack, the cup fell to the floor and shattered into several pieces.
Coffee splattered in all directions.
Ruan Yu froze.
Xu Huaisong pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose.
He had slept only ten hours over the past three days, rushing to deal with the case — he was genuinely groggy.
Ruan Yu quickly waved a hand. “It’s fine, I’ll clean it up in a bit.”
She led him to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator to show him, and said: “With what we have here, I could put together a sandwich, or pasta.”
She had deliberately suggested Western options, but Xu Huaisong’s eyes settled elsewhere. “This,” he said, pointing to a package of rice cakes.
So he wasn’t entirely Westernized after all.
Ruan Yu asked, “How would you like them prepared?”
“Fried.”
She nodded and crouched down to take out the rice cakes. “Then go sit in the living room for a bit.”
Xu Huaisong stepped out.
Ruan Yu tied on her apron and got to work in the kitchen. Just as she was about to slice the rice cakes, she hesitated.
These were water-milled rice cakes, which weren’t really suited for frying. But in that moment, she suddenly understood why Xu Huaisong wanted fried rice cakes.
Because among the local specialties of Su Shi, there was a type of lard rice cake — and lard rice cakes were typically fried.
He was probably homesick.
And it just so happened that she had some lard rice cakes her mother had brought over not long ago.
The man was tired enough to fall asleep leaning against the sofa — she ought to at least make him feel properly looked after. Thinking this, she swapped out the water-milled rice cakes for the lard ones.
Working from her memory of the method her mother had taught her, Ruan Yu made the batter, beat the eggs, heated oil in the pan, and coated the sliced rice cakes in batter before frying them over low heat.
The pieces of rice cake quickly turned a deep golden color. A rich, fragrant aroma filled the kitchen.
She had already eaten lunch, yet even she was starting to feel a little hungry.
While plating the dish, Ruan Yu couldn’t help herself — she reached to sneak a piece, then worried Xu Huaisong might see and glanced back toward the living room. But she found him with his back to her, crouching down on one knee with his shirtsleeves rolled up, attending to something she couldn’t make out.
She blinked. Just then he rose and turned around — in his hands was a dustpan full of broken porcelain.
Ruan Yu hurried over. “Let me do that.”
Xu Huaisong set the dustpan aside and said simply: “Cloth. Tape.”
She responded with a quick “oh” and fetched both items. She was about to crouch down and clean it up herself when the cloth was pulled from her hands.
Without a word, he wiped down the floor, set down the cloth, and held out his hand toward her.
Ruan Yu placed the tape in his palm. Leaning over, she said: “With this material, there probably won’t be any ceramic fragments.”
Xu Huaisong paid no attention to her remark and went over the area piece by piece, pressing the tape down as carefully as if he were performing surgery.
Ruan Yu felt a faint tremor move through her.
He was taking responsibility for his own mistake, yes — but watching this scene, it would be an outright lie to say it stirred nothing in her heart.
And so, when she turned back to bring out the rice cakes and caught the look of faint surprise on Xu Huaisong’s face, she said something she would never have said under ordinary circumstances: “I switched to lard rice cakes. You probably haven’t had them in years, have you?”
And then came a question that pierced straight through her.
Xu Huaisong raised an eyebrow. “How did you know I’m from Su Shi?”

Author’s Note: Ruan Ruan: “I could say I divined it with my fingers… would you believe me?”