Both parties on either side of the door were taken aback.

Before either side had even managed a greeting, Xu Huaishi let out an extremely suggestive “wow,” which made Ruan Yu cringe with embarrassment — the “Auntie” that had been right on the tip of her tongue got swallowed back down.

It was Tao Rong who smiled and broke the tension, putting Ruan Yu at ease: “Hello. I’m Huaisong’s mother. Is Huaisong here?”

Ruan Yu smiled in return: “I remember you, Auntie. He had an urgent matter come up and he’s headed back to San Francisco — he must have just missed you.”

“An urgent matter?” Tao Rong’s expression shifted slightly. “Did something go wrong with work?”

“No, it’s not that—” Standing in the doorway wasn’t going to work for anyone. Ruan Yu stepped aside and said, “Please come in and sit down first, both of you.”

She ushered the two of them to the sofa and had them set their bags down.

Tao Rong explained: “We were afraid that if we gave advance notice he’d insist we not make the trip, so we took the long-distance train to Su Shi without saying a word beforehand and just came.”

Ruan Yu noticed that as Tao Rong said this, she held herself with a kind of diffidence — as though, as Xu Huaisong’s own mother, she felt she had less of a right to be here than a woman who had appeared in his room.

They had been separated too many years. There was clearly some distance between mother and son.

Ruan Yu quickly spoke up on Xu Huaisong’s behalf: “He’d already been thinking of you both — he was planning to make a trip back to Su Shi. He even bought the holiday gifts.” She pointed toward the stack of gift boxes piled up in the living room. “He just hadn’t decided whether it would be tomorrow or the day after, so he hadn’t told you yet.”

Tao Rong looked over at them from across the room and smiled softly: “This child…”

Seeing the two of them sitting there with nothing to do, Ruan Yu stood up: “Let me make you some tea.”

She went to busy herself at the kitchen counter. A moment later, she heard footsteps behind her. Turning, she found Tao Rong coming forward a little stiffly, lowering her voice, hesitating before asking: “Is it… his father? Did something happen in San Francisco?”

Ruan Yu had already been uncertain about how much of Xu Huaisong’s family situation to disclose, but seeing now that Tao Rong clearly didn’t want Xu Huaishi to overhear, she gave a small nod and said quietly: “It seems the old condition relapsed.”

Over on the sofa, Xu Huaishi had been scrolling through her phone, but caught the faint stir of sound and looked up: “Mom, what are you two whispering about?”

Tao Rong shot her a look.

Ruan Yu smiled and redirected: “You’ve come all this way — you should still call Huaisong.”

“No need.” Tao Rong waved it off. “He’s certainly rushing to drive right now — don’t go distracting him. We’ll be heading off shortly.” She glanced down at Ruan Yu’s hands as she unwrapped the tea. “Don’t go to any trouble.”

Ruan Yu didn’t press, poured a glass of plain water for her instead, and noticing her preoccupied expression as she accepted it, added quietly: “Try not to worry too much, Auntie.”

Having her thoughts seen through, Tao Rong smiled slightly. After a while she rallied, and said: “Are you and Huaisong getting on well?”

Ruan Yu was momentarily at a loss for words. Given today’s circumstances, it would be hard for any parent not to draw conclusions. She was still working out how to explain when Tao Rong, apparently misreading her silence, hurriedly continued: “If you find anything about him that isn’t to your liking, please be patient with him. The boy has never been in a relationship before — there’s a great deal he probably doesn’t know.”

Ruan Yu blinked, and the words slipped out before she could stop them: “He’s never been in one? All these years?”

The mention of it seemed to ease some of Tao Rong’s earlier guardedness, and she opened up: “Not as far as I know. Being a Chinese lawyer in America is no easy thing — without real ability, you face discrimination at every turn. Especially after what happened with his father — he had to manage everything on his own, and he poured everything he had into his career. Where would he find the heart for a relationship?”

Ruan Yu made a soft sound of acknowledgment. In that moment, what occupied her thoughts wasn’t the question she’d been curious about for so long — Xu Huaisong’s romantic history.

Something tugged at her chest — a bittersweet, indescribable feeling.

But Tao Rong kept going: “The truth is, Huaisong has a certain flaw in his character.” She seemed to worry this might alarm Ruan Yu, and added quickly, “I don’t mean anything pathological.”

Ruan Yu tilted her head: “Mm?”

Tao Rong smiled and let out a sigh: “You know about the situation between me and his father — he told you, didn’t he?”

She nodded.

“We had already grown apart before he started middle school. That affected him in one way or another as he grew up, so there’s an element of timidity in his character that’s hard to avoid. It may sometimes make him seem less direct and decisive than you’d like — but that’s usually a sign that something matters deeply to him. I hope you can forgive that. It’s something his father and I didn’t handle well.”

Ruan Yu gently patted the back of Tao Rong’s hand in reassurance: “I understand. Please don’t worry.”

The two of them talked a little longer, until Ruan Yu’s phone rang.

It was Liu Mao, asking if she was still at the hotel.

“Yes.”

“Then wait there — Xiao Chen will be there soon. Huaisong asked him to drive you home.”

Ruan Yu hesitated: “It’s the holiday — why drag Xiao Chen into this? I can find my own way back. Tell him to—” She paused, glanced at Tao Rong, and moved the phone away to ask her: “Auntie, how did you two get here?”

“We took the high-speed rail.”

“And for the return journey?”

“Oh, right.” Tao Rong turned and called over to Xu Huaishi on the sofa: “Huaishi, check and see if we can change our tickets to an earlier train.”

There was no need to check — given the holiday passenger volume, changing to an earlier train at this point was out of the question, unless they were prepared to stand the whole way back.

Ruan Yu brought the phone back up: “Sorry to trouble Xiao Chen after all — go ahead and send him over.”

Chen Hui arrived at the hotel not long after. Ruan Yu greeted him and thanked him profusely, then saw Tao Rong — who insisted she wouldn’t stay to eat — to the lobby.

Xu Huaishi had been biting back words the entire way down. At the car door, she grabbed Tao Rong’s arm: “Mom… I came all this way — can’t we stay and play for a couple of days?”

“How could Mom leave you alone in Hang Shi and feel at ease? Come back with me. You can visit again another time when your brother’s here.”

Xu Huaishi climbed into the car with a pout, and halfway in, looked back at Ruan Yu with a pitiful, pleading expression.

Catching her distress signal, Ruan Yu hesitated briefly — then stepped forward: “Auntie, if Huaishi would like to stay in Hang Shi for a couple of days, I’ll look after her.”

Xu Huaishi didn’t know about her father’s situation, so unlike Tao Rong she had nothing weighing on her mind, and was perfectly happy to stay behind.

But when Ruan Yu asked where she’d like to go, Xu Huaishi shook her head: “It’s sweltering, and all the tourist spots are packed during the holiday. Honestly, I just want to sit and chat with you, Senior. Let’s go back upstairs, or we could go to your place.”

Surprisingly, she was a homebody too.

Ruan Yu thought for a moment, called her parents to say something had come up and she’d have to come another day, then asked: “So — your brother’s place here, or my place?”

“How far is your place from here?”

“About half an hour without traffic.”

“There’ll definitely be traffic! Forget it, I’m about ready to get car sick as it is.”

With very little ambition between them, the two of them turned around and headed right back to the room.

Xu Huaishi dropped her bag and pulled out a thick stack of pure-white worksheets, looking woebegone: “Senior, you don’t need to take care of me — my homework will take care of me. Go do your own thing.”

Ruan Yu laughed.

Xu Huaishi had probably also assumed she and Xu Huaisong were living together, not knowing that Ruan Yu had absolutely nothing to keep herself busy with here.

What could she do? She stood around aimlessly for a while, then remembered the tabby cat, opened the bedroom door, and sure enough found it curled up inside.

She carried the cat out to the living room. Xu Huaishi looked up in surprise: “Wow — my brother really has changed. He used to absolutely hate dealing with cat and dog fur!”

Ruan Yu was momentarily taken aback.

Hadn’t Xu Huaisong always rather liked cats back in high school?

Xu Huaishi came bounding over excitedly to play with the cat, and asked: “What’s its name?”

“It only has an English name so far. Should we give it a Chinese one — when in Rome, and all that?”

“You pick, Senior! My brother told me you’re a writer — you’re so cultured.”

Cultural prowess, applied to naming a cat?

Ruan Yu rattled one off without a second thought: “Something that rhymes with ‘Tiffany’ — how about Pipi? Mm… Xu Pipi?”

“Yes, yes! Named after me!”

Ruan Yu gave an amused laugh and held back the “it’s named after your brother” that might have deflated her — only to have fate intervene immediately: the very next second, Xu Huaisong called.

She asked at once: “How is your uncle doing?”

“Still in the emergency room.” He turned it around and comforted her instead. “He’ll be fine.”

She gave a quiet “mm”: “Focus on driving then. Don’t call while you’re driving.”

“Chen Hui told me you and Huaishi are at my place now?”

“That’s right — our combined ages add up to over forty. You don’t need to worry about us.”

Xu Huaisong seemed to laugh, a trace of resignation in it: “Worried you might be bored — just so you know, my laptop password is also your birthday. And anything else in the room, feel free to use it.”

After she hung up, Ruan Yu finally found something to do. With his permission granted, she carried his laptop out to the living room — but when she went to type in the password, she paused.

Xu Huaisong had set her birthday as the password for both his phone and his laptop. In that case — did that payment code have any special significance? Could it be connected to her as well?

309017…

Driven by a small, entirely self-absorbed impulse, Ruan Yu began trying to map those digits onto herself with determined effort.

30 — nothing came to mind.

90 — no leads.

17 — she’d always been quite fond of that number, since it had been her student number back in high school.

At that thought, she went completely still in front of the laptop.

She had been number 17 in Class 309.

Could that be what those digits meant?

But she’d never disclosed details as specific as that in her novel. Where could he possibly have looked that up?

Ruan Yu turned it over and over without arriving at an answer, and with no way to ask Xu Huaisong about something this trivial at a moment like this, she had no choice but to set it aside for now.

As dinnertime approached, since Xu Huaishi was too lazy to go out and still had worksheets to finish, Ruan Yu ordered some fresh groceries delivered and made her something good to eat.

The smell of cooking drifting over proved too much for Xu Huaishi, who abandoned her language arts worksheet and came running to the kitchen counter to find Ruan Yu pan-frying salmon with practiced ease — and promptly exploded with delight, bouncing up and down: “My brother must have accumulated eight lifetimes worth of good karma to find someone as wonderful as you in this one!”

Ruan Yu was busy with the fish, smiled, and didn’t deny it.

That smile, caught in the light of the afternoon sun streaming through the window, was something to behold — gentle as still water.

Xu Huaishi couldn’t help herself: “Your profile is so beautiful — can I take a short video and post it to my Moments?”

Ruan Yu smiled easily: “Go ahead.”

Xu Huaishi recorded a short video of her from the side, and posted it with the caption: Attention all the No. 1 High Zhang Manyu’s, Gao Yuanyuan’s, and Wang Zuxian’s who’ve had your eye on my brother — look at this and learn. This is what it takes to be my future sister-in-law. Goodbye and good luck to the rest of you!

Having proudly displayed her future sister-in-law, Xu Huaishi leaned happily against the windowsill, waiting to receive the adoration of her female classmates — when looking down, she spotted something that delighted her further: “Oh! Senior, come quick and look!”

Ruan Yu had just plated the fish and walked over to the window. Below, the hotel’s groundskeeper was watering the garden with a high-pressure hose. In the slanting afternoon sunlight, a vivid rainbow arced through the mist of scattered water droplets.

As if heralding some good news to come.

She quickly turned back to grab her phone, captured the scene, and was about to send it to Xu Huaisong — but worried about distracting him while he was driving, and held off all the way until half past two in the afternoon, once she’d confirmed his flight had taken off, before finally sending the message: For you.

Knowing he wouldn’t land for over ten hours, Ruan Yu put her phone aside and stopped checking it. That evening, she and Xu Huaishi lay side by side in the same bed.

She’d stayed because she didn’t feel right leaving Xu Huaishi alone in the hotel room — so she’d had the cleaning staff change the sheets and brought over two quilts.

Xu Huaishi was thrilled to be close to her, wanted nothing more than to share the same quilt, and had no intention of sleeping — she chattered away excitedly through the night, filling Ruan Yu in on all the gossip from school.

Ruan Yu had received a message from Li Shican that evening, asking her to lunch the next day. She’d originally planned to make Xu Huaishi lunch first and then head out, but at this rate of being monopolized, she had a feeling she’d sleep straight through till noon.

It was past one in the morning. Ruan Yu yawned: “Alright, alright, we can talk more tomorrow — time to sleep.”

Xu Huaishi was still wide awake: “You sleep first then, Senior. I’ll scroll through Weibo for a bit more.”

Ruan Yu made a sound of agreement, turned over, and was just about to drift off when she heard the person beside her draw a sharp breath.

It startled her fully awake. She looked back: “What’s wrong?”

Xu Huaishi gripped her phone and said: “I saw a wanted notice on Weibo — wow, Hang Shi is so dangerous! There’s apparently a fugitive murderer on the run. Good thing we didn’t go out today.”

In the information age, news of any crime anywhere spread online instantly — nothing unusual about that. Ruan Yu yawned and said: “Hang Shi’s public security is actually quite good.” And with that, she buried her head and fell asleep.

And so she never heard Xu Huaishi’s murmur that followed: “Hmm… why does the suspect’s ID photo look kind of familiar to me…?”

Author’s Note: Mid-level scene — still nothing to be scared of.