Long Xinyi probably didn’t expect Jin Yiken to be there too.

Apart from giving him the computer before, the two had no other interactions. Jin Yiken’s ex-girlfriend Bai Aiting was also his dream goddess. So this time seeing the real person, he momentarily didn’t manage his facial expression well. Awkwardness and nervousness were written all over his face. His raised hand came to an abrupt halt in mid-air. It was quite comical.

Jin Yiken put his phone in his pants pocket, looking over there while asking, “What’s your brother’s situation?”

Long Qi didn’t say. In her heart she was violently beating up Long Xinyi. On the surface, she calmly took out her apartment key, “You take the things upstairs first. I’ll go chat with him for a bit.”

Long Xinyi at that time looked at the two of them as if looking at the hottest scandal couple in newspaper headlines. Apart from being a bit at a loss when first seeing Jin Yiken, now those eyes were filled with “holy crap this is so explosive” information. He was just short of taking out his phone to take photos.

Jin Yiken had little interest in this person Long Xinyi, so he didn’t stay. Before leaving, he had Long Qi put on his own jacket to ward off the cold, then went upstairs. Long Xinyi kept staring at his back.

Sure enough, after Long Qi came before him, the first sentence he blurted out was, “You’re amazing, you’ve actually already reached the level of the main wife!”

“Main wife?”

The girl beside him sensitively caught this word, softly repeating it, looking at Long Xinyi with curious eyes. Only then did Long Xinyi realize his word choice was inappropriate. Long Qi asked lazily, “How did you know I live here?”

“I asked my mom. You mentioned it to my mom last time.”

“What do you want from me?”

Long Xinyi gave her meaningful looks, meaning she should understand in her heart. But she deliberately remained unmoved. So Long Xinyi helplessly said it a second time, “Well… you two met at the steakhouse last time, so no need for introductions. To make a long story short, her family had some issues and she temporarily needs a place to stay. I think it’s inconvenient for a girl to stay at a hotel alone, and renting is also unsafe, so I brought her here to you. Don’t you rent an apartment? She can share the rent with you. Helping you share some of the living pressure wouldn’t that be quite good? You two girls can also conveniently look after each other.”

When Long Xinyi called in the morning, he still had that attitude of taking advantage of Long Qi. After a whole day of refused calls, he seemed to sense her strong attitude and temporarily added those last few sentences on his own initiative, attempting to increase the possibility of her taking in this girl.

Long Qi put her hands in the pockets of Jin Yiken’s jacket. Warm, especially warm. But in an instant she remembered that Dong Xi used to also like putting her hands in her pockets. The guilt that had been suppressed for a long time suddenly surfaced a bit. Her mood and temper became worse accordingly. She asked expressionlessly, “Does her family give her living expenses?”

“No.”

“Is she working part-time jobs?”

“No.”

“Then where does she get money to pay rent?”

“Oh,” Long Xinyi seemed to suddenly remember this matter, saying in a seemingly serious manner, “You help her find one. Your circle is large. It’s convenient to find.”

In other words, he had brought this girl to find a nanny. Long Qi immediately turned around to leave. Long Xinyi quickly grabbed her, pulling her hand out of Jin Yiken’s jacket pocket, and also pulling out the villa key from Jin Yiken’s house from the pocket. The key fell to the ground with a “clap.” Long Qi glared at Long Xinyi and squatted down to pick it up. But that girl squatted faster than Long Qi. The key was picked up by her one step ahead. She handed it to Long Qi, “Here.”

When receiving the key, she touched this girl’s skin. Probably from being blown by the cold wind for a long time, her skin was especially ice cold. The blue veins under her skin were faintly visible. After the girl stood up, she shivered. Long Qi saw it, but even so, she still had no intention of taking in this girl. She said, “Turn left when leaving the residential complex. There’s a budget hotel on that street. Clean, safe, and inexpensive. Take her there.”

Long Xinyi pulled Long Qi’s shoulder to turn away from the girl, “How can you be so cold-blooded? You don’t even know how to go through the motions. Just one night, okay? Just one night.”

“Fine. You pay the rent.”

“She’s really a good person, just like the female leads in those idol dramas you girls like to watch.”

Long Qi was too lazy to respond because Long Xinyi was going off topic again. Long Xinyi continued with another sentence, “As for you, someone like you wouldn’t qualify to be any female lead. If our current life were a novel, you’d definitely be the cold-blooded and heartless third female character. You wouldn’t even qualify to be the second female lead. The second female lead is generally like Bai Aiting, a lady from a good family. You’d generally be that kind of third female character who’s ambitious but looks down on people. Any author who chose you as the female lead would definitely have a hole in their brain.”

Long Qi didn’t respond to him at all and prepared to leave. Only now did Long Xinyi feel he had indulged his mouth at the wrong time. Still grabbing her arm and wanting to say more, she directly replied with one sentence, “If you continue like this, I’ll call Jin Yiken down.”

This made Long Xinyi shrink back.

Throughout this process, that girl kept watching them without saying a word. She seemed to clearly know Long Qi didn’t welcome her, but of course couldn’t say anything. She just occasionally looked at Long Xinyi and occasionally shivered. Before leaving, Long Qi glanced at her. For approximately a fraction of a second, this girl gave her an illusory feeling as if Dong Xi was standing in the cold wind. But after just that fraction of a second, her mind cleared up. She sighed facing the cold wind.

Then she reached into Jin Yiken’s pocket, took out his wallet, pulled out several bills and stuffed them into that girl’s jacket pocket. Long Xinyi looked at her completely puzzled. The girl also looked at her. She said, “Not taking you in isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For running away from home, the first person you seek help from shouldn’t be a male student. Who knows what they’ll do to you relying on the favor. Take the money to stay at a hotel. Speaking of which, it’s also me helping you out here. Long Xinyi doesn’t qualify to use this favor to make you repay anything. And you should also rein in your heart. From this experience, you can also see he’s not any rich second generation. If you really want to date him, don’t make him do things beyond his ability anymore. His monthly living expenses are less than a thousand. He also owes me money. Think about it carefully.”

The more Long Xinyi listened, the more he felt something was off. By the end, he was about to explode. The girl put her hand in her pocket, touching the money Long Qi gave without making a sound. Long Qi also put both hands in her pockets, “The words just now might have been said arbitrarily, but they really are my sincere advice to you. Mixing with someone like my brother, there’s a fifty percent chance each that you and he will be ruined. I also have a twenty percent chance of being implicated. Being a rebellious person really isn’t a happy thing. If you really have nowhere to live, you might as well go home. What can’t be overcome between family members?”

“Then why have you run away from home for so long and still haven’t gone back!”

Long Xinyi purely refuted her for the sake of refuting her. Long Qi replied instantly, “Because I’m different from her. There’s an outrageously terrible bastard at home.”

…

…

After Long Xinyi was reluctantly sent away by her, she took the elevator upstairs.

The elevator was old-fashioned. With each floor it rose, it made heavy creaking sounds. She leaned against the elevator wall with closed eyes resting. Tired, quite tired. There was also a gloominess in her heart that wouldn’t dissipate for a long time. So much so that later she still opened the campus network, using the stealth function to visit Dong Xi’s homepage once.

Dong Xi’s latest status still remained on that comma. There were no new updates. She also still hadn’t blocked Long Qi. While browsing her homepage, Long Qi thought about her appearance. Finally, when reaching her own floor, she took a light breath, clicked on the friend management page, and slowly moved her account toward the trash bin.

There was no other reason.

Only because she physically had Jin Yiken now, so psychologically she shouldn’t have anyone else. Only because morality wasn’t that high, but at least she wouldn’t be a person who straddled two boats. She cut off the threads on Jin Yiken’s side, so she also had to cut off the threads on her own side. When she broke up with Zhuo Qing, she had said such things. When she cut ties with Jin Yiken, she had maintained such principles. Then when breaking off with Dong Xi, she also had to do what she said.

And she also understood Jin Yiken’s potential. She understood she might fall into another irredeemable pit for him in the future. But even so, it didn’t matter. She would release another kind of emotion from her heart. She would only put her gaze on him. She would bear the gossip together with him. Because in this world, the person who without a second word was willing to accompany her to hell—currently there was only him.