Tan Yin had single-handedly succeeded in driving a wedge between Chu Hang and his dog’s relationship. Having eaten her fill of dog biscuits, she crept quietly upstairs.

Chu Hang was in his study, browsing the internet, his handsome brow slightly furrowed, his expression grave and serious.

Was he looking at some professional architecture materials?

Curious, Tan Yin leaned in to glance at the screen.

On the screen, in bold letters, was the headline: “Science Explained: The Secret Behind French Baldness.”

……

Chu Hang read for a while, closed the page, then opened a new one—

“World Baldness Rankings: The French Powerfully Break into the Top Three.”

……

Soon, Chu Hang somberly clicked open another—

“Why Do the French Go Bald So Young?”

As one page after another opened, Chu Hang’s expression grew ever more grave, and by the time he reached the last page, he clearly couldn’t take it anymore. He got up and left the computer, as if unable to accept reality and in need of some time alone.

Tan Yin stared at the screen he’d left behind.

This time it was a Q&A forum page.

“My boyfriend is only 25 and his hairline is receding badly, how do I stop his hair loss from getting worse?”

The answers below were varied.

“Try a silicone-free shampoo.”

“Eat more black sesame, and brush frequently to stimulate the follicles!”

……

The original poster was evidently quite touched, and added some further information—

“Forgot to mention, my boyfriend has French ancestry!”

This time, the responses that followed were much more unanimous…

“French ancestry, then his baldness is a lost cause.”

“Don’t bother trying, no hope, just accept it.”

“Bald father, bald pot, OP get ready—your future kids will probably be bald too, baldness genes are pretty stubborn!”

……

Tan Yin looked at Chu Hang’s back as he stood by the window, and for some reason, she saw in that upright spine a hidden sorrow and resilience she hadn’t noticed before…

Though he’d seemed unbothered on the surface, it turned out he’d actually taken her comments to heart after all…

Tan Yin thought with a touch of sympathy that once she got back to school, she’d buy him something for hair growth and hair care. Jiang Yilu had mentioned a hair-growth helmet a few days ago that supposedly worked really well!

Ugh, but when would she even be able to get back to school? She’d have to wait until Chu Hang ordered dinner delivery and opened the door again, right? Damn this sudden thunderstorm!

Tan Yin instinctively glanced out the window, and that glance revealed something was seriously wrong!

The rain, she wasn’t sure exactly when, had gradually lightened, and the thunder was about to fade away too—it looked like it was about to stop!

This was terrible! She needed to hide, and fast!

Tan Yin barely had time to think it through. The study she was currently in had no place to hide a person, so she rushed out, saw a room nearby with its door open, and without a second thought dashed inside and dove straight under the bed.

Almost the instant she’d smoothly finished all this, the thunderstorm stopped.

But before Tan Yin could even catch her breath, it caught in her throat again.

Along with a set of footsteps, Chu Hang walked into the room. He walked to the edge of the bed, took off his shoes, and then Tan Yin felt the bed board above her head sink—Chu Hang had gotten onto the bed.

Of all rooms, she’d had to hide in his bedroom…

Even more terrifying, along with a familiar bark, the dog came in too!

And most horrifying of all, this grudge-holding dog now seemed to catch Tan Yin’s scent, and without a word, let out two barks and lunged under the bed, seizing her pant leg and pulling with all its might, trying to drag her out…

Perhaps fueled by the shame of the dog biscuit incident, the dog’s fighting spirit was through the roof—Tan Yin nearly ended up wrestling with the dog under the bed. The commotion was so loud that it shook Chu Hang right off the bed.

Unable to withstand the golden retriever’s fighting power, Tan Yin couldn’t help but cry out in surrender: “Stop biting! I give up! I give up!!!”

But no matter how Tan Yin begged, the dog absolutely would not let go. Tan Yin finally managed to fight her way through the cramped space under the bed, half her body finally emerging from underneath.

At this point, she no longer cared about being discovered by Chu Hang. Almost instinctively, Tan Yin grabbed hold of Chu Hang’s ankles right in front of her, looked up, and forced a smile at Chu Hang, who was frozen in shock—

“Hey, Chu Hang, could you help me out?” Tan Yin gestured toward the lower half of her body still stuck under the bed, trying to sound calm and natural. “Could you get your dog to let go? And then maybe give me a pull? Your bed is really low, I’m stuck…”

Unfortunately, in the end Chu Hang didn’t extend any helping hand at all. He watched, as if he’d seen a ghost, as Tan Yin struggled to shake off the dog herself and painstakingly crawled out from under the bed…

This was truly an epic-level disaster scene, but faced with the crisis, Tan Yin instead grew calm. She brushed the dust off herself, and steeling herself under Chu Hang’s glare, stood up.

Research has shown that when a person encounters something extremely shocking and irrational, if the people around them remain completely calm and normal, it’s very likely to create a kind of collective psychological suggestion—that this is all totally normal! Take it easy! Don’t make such a big deal out of it!

Tan Yin flipped her hair back, trying to maintain elegance and composure. “Chu Hang, there’s quite a bit of dust under your bed, huh. I bet you don’t realize, but the space under the bed is actually a spot that’s easy to overlook when cleaning. I just went in and had a look—I’d suggest you get a Dyson vacuum. Manual cleaning just doesn’t get it thoroughly clean, and too much dust can cause allergies, you know about dust mites, right…”

Tan Yin’s voice was natural and fluent, her body language entirely conveying her calm and composure. If not for the paw prints still on her clothes and her slightly messy hair, no one would have guessed she’d just crawled out from under a bed.

“Tan Yin.”

“I’ve used Dyson before, seriously not bad, the V10, you should buy one, you deserve it…”

“Tan. Yin.” Chu Hang’s tone was cold. His gaze fixed unblinkingly on Tan Yin, he said, word by word, “First, explain to me why you’re in my house, under my bed.”

“…”

Chu Hang’s gaze was quite cold. “How did you know where I live? How did you get in? What were you planning to do hiding under my bed?”

Even though Tan Yin was usually pretty glib, this time she found herself somewhat at a loss for words. She glanced carefully at Chu Hang. “I just suddenly wanted to perform a magic trick for you—the vanishing act?”

Chu Hang pressed his lips together, his expression serious.

“Actually, it’s like this… I was napping at school at noon, and I have this condition where I sleepwalk, and I don’t know how I ended up here—I just woke up and found myself under your bed?”

“It’s a thirty-minute drive from school to my house. A two-hour walk. Want to demonstrate a sleepwalking trip back to school right now?”

“…”

“Fine, nothing more to say to you. I’m calling the police.”

The police?! That would never do! Something like this would definitely end up on the front page of the school forum! She might even get a disciplinary sanction! How would she ever be able to show her face again!

Tan Yin reached out to try to grab Chu Hang’s phone. “Chu Hang, please, don’t call the police! I have my reasons, I swear!”

Chu Hang clearly didn’t believe her, and looked at Tan Yin, somewhat gritting his teeth. “Then you’d better give me a reason not to call.”

“It’s all because I love you too much!”

This shocking, heartfelt confession, sure enough, stunned Chu Hang into stillness.

Humans have a certain instinct—they generally aren’t too harsh toward their own admirers, and might even feel a bit of pity for someone pining unrequitedly after them. Now, to avoid Chu Hang calling the police, Tan Yin could only think of this desperate gambit! It would both reasonably explain why she’d suddenly appeared under Chu Hang’s bed, and maybe, just maybe, move him emotionally enough to convince him not to call the police!

“Chu Hang! I’m sorry! I lied to you!” Tan Yin said, her face full of anguish. “When I said before that I had no other feelings for you, that was a lie. I… I still can’t let go of my old feelings for you. Whenever I think about how you don’t want to be with me, I… I still feel so much pain, my heart aches, like I can hardly breathe.” She took a deep breath, and enduring Chu Hang’s complicated gaze, continued as if forcing herself through the pain, “But I know, this kind of love of mine has already become a burden to you. I also know that truly loving someone means respecting their wishes and giving them freedom and happiness. I… actually, after an intense internal struggle recently, I’ve convinced myself to let go of these feelings.”

Hearing Tan Yin’s “honest confession,” Chu Hang’s mood did seem to ease somewhat, though his manner remained wary. “Then what does sneaking into my house mean?”

“Well, it’s like this—I’ve actually been working part-time delivering food recently, and I wasn’t intentionally stalking you, it’s just that the delivery happened to bring me to your house, and then, in a moment of weakness, I… I committed an unforgivable sin… I know this makes me a disappointment to the people, to society, to the teachers who worked so hard to raise me, and even more so to my own conscience. But! Chu Hang! Listen to me! Even though I gave into temptation this time and hid in your house, actually, all I wanted was to fulfill a long-held wish—I… I just wanted to experience the space you live in up close, to breathe the same air as you, and even more importantly, I couldn’t bear the thought of you eating takeout all the time, it’s not healthy, it’s all gutter oil—I thought I’d hide in your house and make you a full, delicious dinner, clean under your bed for you, and then quietly slip away. Being able to be like the snail fairy for you, that’s my dream…”

Tan Yin held up three fingers as she spoke. “But, I swear, before I gave into temptation, I’d already made up my mind—this time, for me, this was a farewell journey to you! I decided that after this one risky venture, I’d stop for good! Let go of my obsession with you, retire from this whole affair and go home, study hard and make progress every day…”

To make her words more convincing, Tan Yin quickly tugged at her own delivery uniform. “See! I’m not lying to you, I’m not one of those deliberate, premeditated stalker criminals. I… I’m just a crime of passion, my friend in the law school told me, this kind of crime of passion has less subjective malice and less social harm than premeditated crime… I still have room for reform and redemption, please don’t give up on me…”

Chu Hang’s gaze remained wary, but he stared at Tan Yin’s uniform for a moment. Though his expression remained sour, this tearful, impassioned confession of hers seemed to have shaken him somewhat. He hesitated for a moment, and finally lowered his phone.

But the look Chu Hang gave Tan Yin grew increasingly murky and complicated. He stepped back further, warning her, “Stay away from me.” As soon as he’d said it, he added, “Keep ten meters away from me.”

Tan Yin looked around the room. “Your room isn’t even ten meters big…”

“Tan Yin!”

“Okay, okay! I’ll go stand at the farthest corner from you on the diagonal, then.”