In the end, Qi Xi and Gu Yan practically fled the private, luxurious two-person VIP screening room. Fortunately, the Michelin restaurant afterward held no more landmines.

The restaurant could be called elegant and quiet, but after the fright from the film screening, Qi Xi seemed a little wilted, and the fruit wine she’d drunk during the movie was slowly showing its effects. She grew somewhat sluggish. Fortunately, Gu Yan’s table manners were quite proper — he didn’t talk while eating — so there wasn’t much need for conversation during the meal.

The side effect of the alcohol setting in was drowsiness. Qi Xi felt her head grow a little dizzy, and against the light, elegant background music of the Michelin restaurant, she yawned more than once, her eyes beginning to close on their own. Fortunately, the last dessert finally arrived, and clinging to her resolve to hold out until the end, Qi Xi picked up her fork.

Gu Yan’s voice rang out just as Qi Xi was about to fall asleep.

He called her name.

Only then did Qi Xi force her eyes open. She propped her chin up with both hands, barely managing to keep her head from lolling to one side.

Maybe it was the restaurant’s lighting, but Gu Yan looked even more handsome and striking under it. Though she didn’t want to admit it, he had extremely, extremely captivating eyes.

Being drunk made it hard for Qi Xi to hide her gaze — someone she couldn’t look at directly while sober, she now stared straight at, unable to look away.

In the end, it was Gu Yan who faltered first. The man lowered his eyes and began reaching for his water glass with unusual frequency.

“Hey, what did you call me for just now? Why’d you say my name and then nothing?”

Once Qi Xi spoke, Gu Yan seemed to remember something. He lifted his head again and pointed at the corner of her mouth. “Dessert. It got on your lip.”

“Oh.” Qi Xi responded with zero sincerity, then casually wiped at the corner of her mouth with her hand.

“Not that side. The other side.”

Just as Qi Xi was about to wipe the other side, Gu Yan rose slightly from his seat, picked up a napkin, and — gently, even tenderly — wiped the corner of her mouth himself.

It was clearly not something he did often, which made him look a bit ill at ease.

Sluggish and tipsy, Qi Xi stared at his every move. Aside from that initial awkwardness, Gu Yan’s expression was remarkably composed, so much so that her alcohol-dulled mind began to doubt itself — was this sort of thing between colleagues actually normal and not crossing any line?

By the time they left the restaurant, Qi Xi could barely walk steadily. It was only then she noticed that, as luck would have it, it had begun raining outside at some point without her realizing.

Without an umbrella, Qi Xi hesitated at the restaurant entrance, looking out at the rain. Gu Yan was still inside, presumably using the firm’s meal vouchers to cover the bill. It was around then that Qi Xi saw him take a phone call.

The call didn’t take long. He quickly finished settling the payment, then spotted Qi Xi, who had already stepped outside.

Even though it was only a few steps away, Gu Yan strode quickly over to her, then smoothly and naturally took off his coat, meaning to drape it over her shoulders. His tone carried a hint of reproach, but his eyes held far more helplessness than anything else. “It’s so cold out, and it’s raining — why did you come out first?”

Qi Xi looked at him a little blankly. His gaze was so gentle it made her feel like her drunkenness had deepened.

“Gu Yan!”

At almost the exact same moment, a voice rang out from across the street — surprised, and a little choked with emotion.

Qi Xi looked up and saw Gu Yan’s girlfriend.

Whether she had simply been passing by, or whether that phone call from Gu Yan earlier had been to tell her the location so she could come meet him and go home together, wasn’t clear.

At this moment, Gu Yan’s girlfriend was standing on the other side of the street.

She hadn’t brought an umbrella either, and looked as if she’d already walked some distance in the rain — her hair was slightly damp and clinging to the edges of her face. Her expression carried a touch of panic and unease, but the moment she saw Gu Yan, it melted into relief, as though she’d finally been rescued.

She stood there waiting for the crosswalk light to turn green, calling out Gu Yan’s name and also waving and smiling at Qi Xi.

In her eyes, Qi Xi was probably just one of Gu Yan’s colleagues.

Qi Xi suddenly felt she couldn’t bear to stay there for even one more second.

The senses that had been dulled by Gu Yan’s gentleness back in the restaurant snapped back all at once. In an instant she felt the cold wind on the street, the rain the wind was flinging against her face, and a piercing ache in her chest.

Qi Xi suddenly felt like a thief — and not even a skilled one, foolishly trying to steal a heavily guarded jewel.

She felt she had no right to be standing there in front of Gu Yan and his girlfriend, because her presence was illegitimate. Gu Yan’s gentleness, Gu Yan’s time, the focused way he looked at her — everything about him didn’t belong to her, but to his girlfriend. So every minute she spent with him, she was, in effect, playing the role of a thief.

That was immoral, and it was something Qi Xi couldn’t accept.

So she pushed his coat away, smiled at him, and gestured with feigned lightness toward the other side of the street. “You two head back together, then. I’ve got something to take care of — I’ll get going first.”

The moment she finished speaking, Qi Xi practically bolted into the rain. She didn’t even wait for the light, dashing straight across the street and running as fast as she could toward a bus that had just pulled up at the stop on the other side.

In that moment she had only one thought — get away from Gu Yan and his girlfriend, don’t watch them being affectionate and intimate with each other, and then she wouldn’t get hurt.

Because of that, Qi Xi barely registered which bus she was boarding. It wasn’t until it started moving that she realized she’d gotten on the wrong one — heading in the exact opposite direction from home.

The bus pulled away without hesitation, and soon it was moving at speed. Looking out the window, Qi Xi saw Gu Yan running toward the bus and her, heedless of the worsening rain, but he was quickly cut off by traffic and left behind, out of sight.

He would go home with his girlfriend, forget about Qi Xi soon enough, and the two of them would spend a pleasant night together. They might kiss, embrace, or perhaps something even more intimate would happen — none of it had anything to do with Qi Xi.

The gentle, dominant, aggressive — perhaps even, when out of control — side of Gu Yan all belonged to someone else.

Just thinking about it made it hard for Qi Xi to breathe, the dampness of the rainy night seeming to spread and bloom inside her chest.

Having absentmindedly boarded the wrong bus, it took Qi Xi much longer than usual to get home. The rain kept getting heavier, and during the transfer she inevitably got soaked without an umbrella. By the time she made it back to the rented apartment, she looked so bedraggled that Zhao Yiran almost didn’t recognize her.

“What happened to you?” Zhao Yiran exclaimed, hurrying to fetch a towel. She asked, tentative, “Did you get your heart broken?”

Qi Xi sniffled and answered thickly, “No.”

How could she have gotten her heart broken? She hadn’t even gotten anywhere close to being in a relationship.

“Are you really okay, Qi Xi?” Zhao Yiran still looked worried. “So, our enforcement division just got a message from a client saying some deadbeat debtor drove his Rolls-Royce to a bar nearby, and the car’s parked there right now, so our colleagues in enforcement are working overtime tonight to go seize the car. I’m planning to tag along to see how it’s done, so I won’t be home tonight — will you be okay by yourself? If not, I won’t go.”

Qi Xi waved a hand. “Go ahead, I’ll be fine.”

With that, no longer bothering to keep up appearances of being strong, she wearily headed into the shower.

After showering and changing, Qi Xi found several missed calls and WeChat messages from Gu Yan on her phone, all asking whether she’d made it home safely. The last message said he wanted to see her, that he had something he wanted to say to her.

What was there left to say?

Qi Xi glanced at it and didn’t reply.

It was around then that the long-silent Gu Yan Appreciation Society chat suddenly lit up with a new message.

She opened it and realized the last message in the group before this one had been her own long, rambling attempt to give back to the community.

This group, which Qi Xi had assumed her enthusiasm for had long since faded, had finally produced a new message after all this time.

She opened it, expecting some kind of thanks for her earlier post, but instead found…

Just a string of question marks.

The group, which had been silent for so long, suddenly erupted — question mark after question mark, almost every member suddenly active, firing off giant question marks as if Qi Xi had done something utterly baffling.

“You’re saying Gu Yan likes pink? You gave him a pink tie? And he actually took it? Happily?”

“You’re saying Gu Yan likes sweets? You went and got dessert together?”

“You’ve been treating him to durian regularly?”

…

Even though just hearing the name “Gu Yan” now made her chest ache, Qi Xi had, after all, gotten some valuable information from this group before, so faced with this flood of questions, she answered them one by one: “Yes, I used to be Gu Yan’s classmate, and now I’m his coworker, so I have a lot more chances to interact with him. Things between us have actually gotten better lately — and yes, I really do owe you all thanks for so generously sharing that ‘Complete Guide to Gu Yan.'”

After she finished, the group filled up with ellipses.

Fortunately, the group admin finally showed up and put a stop to the low-effort ellipsis spam, then messaged Qi Xi privately.

Seeing the private chat notification pop up, Qi Xi finally felt a little relieved — so there was at least one reasonable person in this group. She figured the admin had come to thank her for giving back to the community.

But the moment she opened the chat, she nearly had a stroke.

“Hi there. How long have you had this condition?”

What was that supposed to mean?! Before Qi Xi could even respond, the next message came—

“I know Gu Yan is amazing and perfect, and everyone wants to get close to him. But there’s a distance between dreams and reality. Sure, we all fantasize about this or that happening with Gu Yan sometimes, but sweetie, take it from me — excessive delusions aren’t good for your health. Given how far gone you are, you really should see a doctor…”

…

Did the group still not believe she really was Gu Yan’s classmate and coworker?

Qi Xi was baffled. Seriously? She’d given so much detailed evidence about her time spent with Gu Yan recently, all of which matched up with the “Complete Guide to Gu Yan” — wasn’t that enough?

She explained, “I really am Gu Yan’s classmate, and now his coworker!”

But the admin wasn’t buying it at all. “Sweetie, in our group applications, every few days we still get people insisting they’re Gu Yan’s secret wife.”

“…”

While Qi Xi was still speechless, another message came through: “Sweetie, seeing you like this actually makes my heart ache a little, so let me just tell you the truth — yes, we did write a ‘Complete Guide to Gu Yan,’ but the one we gave you was completely fake. It was written to be the exact opposite of Gu Yan’s actual preferences in real life.”

“What Gu Yan hates most is durian. He doesn’t like pink at all, doesn’t like metal accessories, doesn’t like heavy metal music, doesn’t like candy, sweets, or chocolate, and doesn’t like cilantro, mushrooms, soy products, or rice. He likes black, he likes pastries and noodles, he likes spicy food, he likes drinking milk, and in his free time his favorite thing to do is exercise — he loves outdoor activities and nature, loves sunbathing, and believes the meaning of life lies in the journey, not the outcome…”

Before Qi Xi could even process it, the admin’s messages kept coming, one after another—

“Everything we told you was the opposite of the truth. That’s because ever since we started the ‘Gu Yan Appreciation Society,’ we’ve seen way too many girls who just want to get close to him for his face alone — some of them genuinely obsessive and unhealthy about it, even wanting to stalk him. Even though all of us in this group adore and admire him, we don’t want our admiration to cause him any trouble. We want to keep it as pure appreciation that doesn’t intrude on his actual life.”

“That’s why we originally set up an entry questionnaire — you had to know Gu Yan well enough to get at least eighty percent of the questions right before we’d actually let you into the real group. Your original answers were almost all wrong.”

“So, to deal with people like you, we specifically target you ‘face-obsessed’ types who only have a shallow understanding of Gu Yan. We hit back hard — we set up this fake group and gave you a fake ‘Complete Guide to Gu Yan,’ hoping that people like you, if you used that information to try to get close to him, would end up getting everything about his preferences completely wrong and drive him away instead.”

Qi Xi stared blankly at the messages popping up one after another on her phone. She recognized every single character, but strung together, she genuinely couldn’t process what they meant for a moment.

“I really didn’t want to say this, but looking at you… ugh, it’s obvious your obsession with Gu Yan has gone a bit too far, to the point where you’ve started imagining things. That’s the only way you could’ve deceived yourself into fabricating scenes that sound like you’ve genuinely spent time with him and had a great time together — making it sound so real, saying he actually likes sweets, pink, durian, all that.”

“Because what you’re fantasizing about simply isn’t possible — that ‘Complete Guide to Gu Yan’ we gave you was written completely backwards. Whatever Gu Yan hates, we wrote that he likes.”

“So it’s clear you’ve never actually had real, in-person contact with him — you’ve just been using that fake guide we gave you to fuel your fantasies. You’re probably still pretty young, so I wanted to give you a heads up, sweetie — given your condition, you really should go see a therapist…”

…

Qi Xi’s phone kept buzzing, the admin still sending message after message urging her to see a doctor, but Qi Xi felt she couldn’t take in anything else.

So — Gu Yan didn’t actually like pink, didn’t like durian, and definitely didn’t like sweets or heavy metal music?

Then… then why had he eaten every bit of the durian she’d prepared for him, worn the pink tie she’d given him, and gone happily to the heavy metal concert she’d taken him to?

Qi Xi’s heart felt like it had been fitted with some kind of accelerator, pounding almost wildly.

Was it because of her?

Because it was durian she had bought, a pink tie she had given him, tickets to a heavy metal concert she’d gone through a scalper to get?

Because of the lingering effects of the fruit wine, Qi Xi’s mind still felt a little foggy. It was as if she’d grabbed hold of an important puzzle piece, but didn’t know where it was supposed to go — she felt lost, flustered, and then, following close behind, wronged and unwilling to accept it.

She thought, resentfully, that it would have been better not to know any of this.

Not knowing, she could have believed Gu Yan had never been particularly special toward her, and the pain would have felt a little duller, wouldn’t have given rise to this unwillingness, this wishful thinking — and she wouldn’t be feeling this awful right now.

Qi Xi felt like someone eagerly waiting for a lottery drawing, someone who had assumed all along that she simply hadn’t won — only to be told that she actually could have won, that she’d had a real chance, but because she’d been too slow, because she hadn’t fought for it, the winner of that hundred-million prize had already become someone else.

This wasn’t the same scale of disappointment at all.

She began to feel regret and frustration. Back before that female neighbor and Gu Yan had gotten together — if only she had come to her senses sooner and taken the initiative back then, would Gu Yan be hers now? He clearly had been special toward her, clearly might have — once — been genuinely drawn to her…