You’re finished.

Lin Luxiao had already settled himself into the private room, cigarette between his lips, leaning back in the chair — still turning Nan Chu’s expression over in his mind from when she’d walked away — when Da Liu smacked him on the back of the head and snapped him out of it. “What are you daydreaming about? You remember Xu Ya, right? From our high school days?”

Xu Ya was smiling in a composed, gentle way, her gaze settled on him.

Lin Luxiao felt a headache forming. He turned away, poured himself a beer, and drank two long gulps without comment.

His impatience was so transparent he hadn’t even bothered to spare her feelings.

Xu Ya’s complexion began to drain; the smile she’d been holding at the corners of her mouth finally failed to hold, and she reached awkwardly for her own glass: “Da Liu, I forgot to mention — we’re at the same unit now. We ran into each other there not long ago.”

The private room was quiet — just the sound of wine being poured.

When Xu Ya had finished filling her own glass, she stood and poured for Lin Luxiao as well. She set down the bottle, put the smile back in place, and lifted her glass toward him: “Come — let me drink to you.”

She raised it and didn’t wait for him, knocking it back in one go.

Out at the entrance just now — unless her eyes had betrayed her, Lin Luxiao had been holding that young girl’s hand. And if her eyes hadn’t betrayed her, the girl had also pushed back at him slightly.

Xu Ya had liked him since high school. She’d come in through a special admissions program from an outlying county; the troublemakers in the class liked to tease girls, and she had no patience for them and didn’t run with that crowd. Lin Luxiao was well in with the unruly set — no, he was well in with all the boys, so she’d automatically grouped him among them. On the surface she’d made a pretense of finding him irritating, while in private, whenever the girls in class started talking about him, she’d been unable to stop herself from quietly leaning in to listen.

She’d known his calling and ambition was the military.

She’d known he loved guns, tanks, aircraft.

She’d known he loved football.

She even had a clear memory of how he’d looked during class breaks, sitting in his chair, working through a problem with the boys around him — the way he’d picked up a pen, made a few marks on the paper, and left the other person nodding in sudden understanding, clutching his workings and going off to study them.

All this time she had felt that a man like him was unattainable — that falling for someone like him was unimaginable.

She had always believed he was different from ordinary people.

But in the end, his choice had come down to the same things: a good figure, a good face.

Nan Chu had obvious advantages in both. She wasn’t so deluded as to think she could compete.

But giving him up entirely — that was hard to bear. Even if she couldn’t be his partner, she didn’t want to lose this person as a friend.

So tonight she’d asked Da Liu to arrange this gathering.

Da Liu nudged Lin Luxiao, who was sitting calmly watching Xu Ya drink her way through two glasses: “Drink something, would you? What are you just sitting there for?”

Lin Luxiao gave him no response, and finally opened his mouth — the first thing he’d said since entering the private room: “Xu—”

Xu Ya cut across him.

She waved a hand. “Lin Luxiao!”

She’d gotten ahead of herself. That wine had gone to her head.

Da Liu felt the atmosphere in this room getting stranger by the minute. He blinked in wide-eyed innocence, looking from one to the other.

He glanced at Xu Ya — there seemed to be something between these two. Then he looked at Lin Luxiao — but the man was perfectly open, not a trace of anything complicated. Da Liu quietly wondered whether they might have been involved recently and this one had already broken it off, as was his track record.

Xu Ya had poor alcohol tolerance; one glass in and her face and eyes were already red.

“Hear me out.”

When Xu Ya said this she glanced at Da Liu. Her voice was slightly unsteady. Da Liu picked up that what came next was probably not for his ears, and made a smooth show of getting to his feet and pushing back his stool. “I’m going to use the facilities. You two talk.”

Xu Ya waited for him to leave.

Da Liu, considerate soul that he was, also pulled the door shut behind him on his way out.

The private room held just two of them.

Lin Luxiao’s patience was nearly exhausted. He creased his brow and reached for the cigarette packet on the table, pinched one free, and was about to step outside to smoke.

Xu Ya, as though she could read him, said: “Smoke in here if you like. I have something to say.”

He didn’t particularly care either way. He leaned back in his chair and lit up.

Xu Ya actually disliked cigarette smoke intensely — had hated boys smoking ever since high school. She’d sometimes see two or three of them clustered at the corner after school sharing a cigarette, and she’d wrinkle her nose in disgust. But strangely, she’d never minded it on him. And there was never that grimy odor on him that clung to the others.

“I used to think you were different — particularly masculine, not like the other boys in our class. When someone asked you something, if you knew it, you told them; if you didn’t, you said plainly that you didn’t. You never pretended to understand and then lashed out at someone for catching you out, the way my old desk neighbor did. Then I went to university, had a few relationships — the men had a bit of your quality about them in temperament. But each time, I’d end up discovering some flaw or another. I know you have flaws too. You smoke, and sometimes you swear — I don’t mind that. But I minded it in them. I think that’s because I didn’t like them enough. When I ran into you again this time, I kept feeling it was heaven giving me an opportunity — to tell you everything I’d wanted to say in high school but never dared to. So I worked up the courage and said it.”

She’d been able to predict the outcome. But when the rejection actually came, claiming it didn’t hurt would have been a lie.

Having said all of that, the one thing she really meant to say was simply: “Last time I was out of line. I shouldn’t have let myself think what I was thinking. Can we just be friends the way we used to be?”

And across from her, the man had held a cigarette the entire time, and hadn’t said a single word in response.

Xu Ya was fighting back tears, her pride and self-respect both abandoning her, and she still couldn’t get so much as a glance from him.

Da Liu finished his business, came out of the bathroom whistling to himself, and spotted a silhouette standing at the smoking area.

Slender, with long legs. He looked again — couldn’t help himself. Another look, and something clicked.

The girl turned around and gave him a bright smile: “Da Liu ge.”

Da Liu stood there making sounds of recognition for quite some time. “You’re the girl from Luxiao’s place that time—”

“What a coincidence,” said Nan Chu, eyes curving into crescents.

Da Liu had always loved talking to pretty women. He went over, rested his arms on the railing, and launched into idle chatter. “Haven’t seen you in ages.”

“What brings you here?”

“A high school classmate of Luxiao’s arranged dinner. Luxiao’s downstairs too — do you want to come join?”

Nan Chu smiled. “Better not — I don’t know his high school classmates.”

“It’s a girl.”

The moment it was out of Da Liu’s mouth he regretted it. The relationship between this girl and Luxiao was still wrapped in a good deal of mystery — and there was another equally mysterious situation playing out in the private room downstairs. Barging her into that really didn’t seem ideal. His emotional intelligence wasn’t up to managing all of this — he could have done with Shen Mu there to help him think it through.

He laughed awkwardly at himself, and then couldn’t help asking: “Listen, just between us — what exactly is your relationship with our Luxiao?”

Nan Chu smiled easily. “What does it look like to you?”

Da Liu rubbed the back of his head. “I really can’t tell. From one angle it looks like a couple — the last time I was at his place I got that feeling — but then again it doesn’t quite, because honestly, with Luxiao’s temperament, having a woman appear on his sofa is practically a miracle.”

Nan Chu gave a light smile and turned it back on him: “And what’s this girl’s relationship with Commander Lin?”

Da Liu had had a few drinks, and his tongue was running ahead of his brain. He unloaded the whole history of their high school dynamics: the bickering, Xu Ya always being the one to start things, Lin Luxiao never taking the bait. Da Liu talked himself into a good run, and without a single internal filter, spilled every last detail of the old story.

“Back in high school, he was a total magnet for trouble.”

“Is that so? I never would have guessed — he seems so composed.”

Da Liu made a dismissive sound. “That’s because you’ve never seen him when he was running wild. Knew he was good-looking and good at school and used it to fool around with girls.”

— This landed directly in the ears of Lin Luxiao, who had come up to retrieve Da Liu and happened to arrive at exactly that moment. He took two long strides over, grabbed Da Liu by the collar, and hauled him away from the railing: “What exactly are you out here saying to my wife?”

What—

Da Liu stumbled on landing, his face a portrait of total bewilderment. His gaze shuttled back and forth between the two of them in frank disbelief.

“Is it actually true?!”

Lin Luxiao kicked him in the back of the knee.

Da Liu, wise for once, bolted — and while running, pulled out his phone to call Shen Mu, barely containing his excitement, in a tone that could only be described as finding a new continent: “Holy hell, Luxiao actually has a girlfriend?!”

The voice on the other end of the phone was entirely composed. “Mm.”

Da Liu: “Luxiao’s girlfriend! That girl from before — unbelievable figure, legs literally endless!”

Shen Mu sat at his computer with his phone wedged against his shoulder. “Mm. She’s a model. Nan Chu.”

Da Liu: “Her mom’s the Best Actress winner?”

“Right.”

“Oh my god — how is this the one thing I didn’t know?!”

“They haven’t gone public yet. Just wait — Luxiao’s not getting out of this one—”

……

Da Liu was gone. Lin Luxiao scratched his brow, looked at her. “Who were you having dinner with?”

Nan Chu looked back at him steadily: “The production group.”

Lin Luxiao felt her gaze on him and grew vaguely uneasy. “What did Da Liu say to you?”

Nan Chu said sharply: “Why are you nervous?”

“Me, nervous?” Lin Luxiao laughed, glanced off to one side, then suddenly lowered himself toward her ear: “Come back to mine tonight? Whoever’s nervous is someone’s grandson.”

Nan Chu wasn’t remotely moved. She pressed a fingertip to his chest and pushed him back. “I have plans tonight.”

Lin Luxiao, put in his place, looked down at her. Whoever gave that irresistible expression to anyone — and to whom was she displaying it here?

Nan Chu reached up and touched his face with a hand that held no particular intent. “Once this film wraps, I have two weeks off. I’ll come find you then.” And with that, she left.

Lin Luxiao had his hands in his pockets still, watching her back, and bit down on the inside of his cheek — the muscle in his jaw jumping.

Da Liu was waiting downstairs. Xu Ya had already left. By the time Lin Luxiao came down, Shen Mu had already arrived to pick them up.

At the entrance, the two of them in the car gave him a round of enthusiastic applause.

“Congratulations — you don’t have to spend Singles Day alone this year.” Da Liu laughed.

But when Lin Luxiao got in the car, his expression was not particularly cheerful.

Silence. A slightly uncomfortable one.

Shen Mu cleared his throat, checked the mirror, and offered: “It’s still early. Want to get a drink?”

Da Liu perked up immediately: “Let’s go — I know a new place.”

Lin Luxiao had no heart for it, his thoughts still turning over everything about that girl. He said flatly: “Not going.”

Da Liu waved a broad hand and slapped Shen Mu’s knee: “Never mind him. Drive. I’ve got the address. We’ll take him along — if he won’t drink, he can sit in the car.”

……

At dinner, Nan Chu received a phone call.

It was Jiang Ge.

The Jiang Ge who’d disappeared from her life recently without making any trouble — calling now with a noticeably impatient tone, and a manner toward her that had done a complete one-eighty from before. Nan Chu listened and understood what he was saying — roughly, to come quickly and collect someone. Nan Chu said thank you, and hung up in a quiet, cool tone.

A few minutes later, he sent a location over.

Nan Chu followed the coordinates on the messaging app — through a bustling main hall, the heavy bass of the music hitting her at the back of the ears until they ached.

She pushed open a private room door. A wave of stale cigarette smell hit her. She stepped inside. On the sofa lay a young man — hair a mess, three shirt buttons undone, sleeves pushed up to the elbow, and the pale skin of his arms mottled with bruises.

Nan Chu thought of Lin Luxiao.

His arms — how different they were. Clean, solid, full of strength.

She went over, pulled the person upright, and gave a few sharp shakes to wake him: “Lin Qi!”

Lin Qi startled awake. At his most extreme, consciousness scattered, he looked up in a daze and saw Nan Chu — then sagged back against the sofa and raked a hand through his hair. “What are you doing here?”

“Jiang Ge called me.”

Lin Qi fumbled with the name Jiang Ge, his thoughts working slowly. After a good long moment, he gave a long, slow sound of understanding. “That overseas Chinese — when did you get back in touch with him?”

Nan Chu looked at him calmly: “The stuff. Where is it?”

Lin Qi pointed toward the bathroom. “Flushed it.”

“Did you use any?”

Lin Qi clawed at his hair with agitation, wracked with misery, burying his head between his knees. “My luck has been terrible lately — what else was I supposed to do? Do you have any idea how many concerts I’ve had cancelled?”

Just as he finished speaking — the private room door was pushed open, and a stream of uniformed figures came in.

Police.

……

Da Liu and the others had barely made it into the bar when a routine inspection started. A server asked them to wait and produce their ID cards. Da Liu took one sweeping glance and clocked the face of an old acquaintance leading the sweep. “Luxiao — isn’t that Da Hua over there?”

All three looked over. It was.

In full uniform, looking absolutely commanding — nothing left of the boy who’d been reduced to wailing after they tormented him back in the day. In truth the whole group had been close, just occasionally falling out, and it had all become material for jokes as they grew older.

Da Liu raised a hand. “Da Hua ge.”

The officer turned — square face, fine-complexioned, and at the sight of familiar faces he almost smiled, caught himself, and said: “On duty here. You three — IDs out.”

All three fished them out somewhat sheepishly.

Da Hua glanced them over, pointed at Lin Luxiao’s: “This photo is from middle school, isn’t it. Still haven’t gotten it updated? Trying to pass yourself off as younger than you are?”

Lin Luxiao took it back, a slight, even smile: “Peak looks. Can’t be bothered to change it.”

Da Hua looked at him sideways. “Shameless as ever.”

He moved on to Da Liu’s. “Eat less. Your face is about to outgrow the frame.”

Da Liu wound up and prepared to swing.

Da Hua: “That’s assault on an officer!”

Da Liu lowered his arm, chastened. At that moment, someone came rushing down from upstairs, out of breath: “Captain Hua — there’s something upstairs.”