The day for the surgery was set for Saturday.

Before Long Qi went in, she had instructed him with these words. She said: “Jin Yiken, I know you’re smart. Your mind is the most nimble. Wherever you’re placed, you can live as an upper-class person. So if something goes wrong, you have to cover it. You absolutely cannot let my family know even the slightest bit. I’m not embarrassed—I’m serious. If my mom finds out, she’ll definitely make trouble for your family. Given her personality, she’ll absolutely do that.”

He remained silent the entire time, the atmospheric pressure extremely low. He took the phone and rotated it in his palm. After a long while, he finally said: “I can cover it.”

Having this statement was enough. Although Jin Yiken’s sense of morality often went offline, at critical moments he could really handle things. When he said he could cover it, he truly could. Previously, whenever she caused any tricky situations, he would help resolve them without even furrowing his brow. She had long seen that he was a capable person, but those capabilities hadn’t yet been used on the right path.

As for feelings, Jin Yiken might have gotten somewhat serious about her, but relying on this alone wasn’t enough for two people to be together. There were too many obstacles. Their family backgrounds were too disparate. Their grades were at opposite ends—one at the top, one at the bottom. With his future prospects and status, he would have plenty of better and more beautiful girls rushing forward one after another wanting to win him over in the future. She really had no need to defeat Bai Aiting for the sake of those girls at this time. Moreover, his family’s old master was also a figure to reckon with. If the family discipline wasn’t proper, it was possible he could make it so Long Qi couldn’t survive in this city.

She understood it all.

She couldn’t remember how long the surgery lasted. Fifteen minutes? Half an hour? In any case, it didn’t exceed forty minutes. After Long Qi came out of the operating room, she didn’t say a word. She truly had no strength. Her entire body was soft. Jin Yiken’s eyes were also red. He had opened a room at a hotel near the hospital a day in advance. After the surgery ended, he took her there. Long Qi could still walk a few steps at first, but after arriving at the hotel, she completely couldn’t anymore. Her skin was cold and damp, her lip color pale. She could collapse at any moment. He supported her in the elevator, then carried her on his back after exiting the elevator. She said softly in his ear that it hurt so much.

It hurts so much, Jin Yiken.

Then a teardrop fell on his collar.

When had she ever cried? Never, she had never cried. She was on anesthesia and couldn’t feel obvious pain, but she knew her body wasn’t doing well. She had been drained once. That process no longer had any clear memories—it was all blurry. But she knew she deserved it, knew she would sooner or later pay the price for this child, knew this wasn’t rebirth but that she was completely ruined.

That night, Jin Yiken didn’t sleep deeply for a single moment. He held her, gripped her hand, fearing she would disappear at any moment, because her complexion at that time was truly too terrifying, too pale.

She slept through in a confused daze, but was still weak. The cold sweat on her body dampened the bedding and pillow. After waking from that sleep, she had also made her decision.

She said: “After I get better… let’s completely break things off.”

Jin Yiken didn’t speak. His lips kissed her forehead.

She said: “I was already a broken person to begin with, but after meeting you, I’ve become even more thoroughly broken. It can’t go on like this. I can’t continue living this way.”

He held her deeper into his embrace. He had no reaction to this proposal, perhaps having anticipated it long ago, anticipated it as early as when she firmly decided not to keep the child. Many days of brewing had led to this moment of calm acceptance. He only asked one question: “What are your plans afterward?”

“I can’t tell lies, and I don’t want to lie to you. You know what I’m thinking in my heart.”

Jin Yiken was only silent for two seconds before saying: “Do you know the gap between you and Dong Xi?”

“I know, but I’ll catch up.”

“You can’t catch up. You can’t even catch up to me.”

Long Qi coughed once. He continued: “I’ll give you one last chance, Qi. However big the gap between you and me is, that’s how big the gap is with Dong Xi. I’ll walk toward you, but Dong Xi won’t.”

Long Qi kept coughing, kept coughing until her stomach hurt, then said in a hoarse voice: “That’s not how it works, Jin Yiken.”

…

“If being together requires a distance of one hundred steps, you can only walk ninety-nine steps toward me. You’ll never walk that last step, and I won’t either. But for Dong Xi’s one hundred steps, I’ll walk all of them completely.”

Fine. This statement expressed the clearest possible attitude.

The morning after that, Jin Yiken left. Replacing him was an hourly worker he had hired. He wasn’t coming anymore.

Breaking off the relationship was something she had proposed, proposed so frequently. He had done his utmost duty by her. She knew what kind of person he was. The first, second, and third time, he could coax and indulge her, but by the fourth time, when his credit value was exhausted, he would start truly settling accounts with you. For Long Qi, this was an emotional debt, and moreover, an emotional debt that had cost him his own flesh and blood. The fact that his young master’s temper hadn’t erupted was already good. How she would live the days ahead, she would have to know for herself whether she was warm or cold.

Because there really was no one watching over her and looking after her at all times anymore.

She had requested a week’s sick leave from school before the surgery. After lying in the hotel for two days, she returned to her own rented small apartment and continued sleeping, sleeping as if dead.

The hourly worker auntie knew what surgery she had undergone. She quite thoughtfully made nourishing soup for her and said something—said it was quite a pity. She was so beautiful, the child would definitely have been beautiful too.

Long Qi replied while drinking the soup: “Auntie, I’m eighteen this year, in my senior year of high school.”

The hourly worker was stunned for a moment and said nothing else.

During the week Long Qi was absent from class, to say there were no rumors at school would be impossible. There was plenty of gossip. Some with big imaginations even guessed at this matter, but they just couldn’t guess the partner accurately. They would never think it could be Jin Yiken even if you beat them to death.

Someone posted a prophetic thread on the school forum, nailing down one statement: If Long Qi continues living like this, she’ll definitely get into trouble within five years. Betting fifty cents.

There were quite a few sarcastic follow-up posts too. Some said she would be kept as a mistress, some said she would get into drugs, others said she would hook up with some second-generation official or rich kid and live off the wealth, or continue living off her youth until she was no longer young and then marry some old and vulgar coal boss for the rest of her life.

But not a single person guessed correctly.

Not a single person guessed that afterward, her name would be screamed out by countless people, that her net worth would be jaw-dropping, that her every posture, movement, word, and action would become the object of imitation for countless people, and that she would become a woman they could never reach in their entire lives.