Lin Qi had booked a hotel right across the street. The moment the four of them walked in, a staff member came to greet them. Lin Qi handed over the cake: “Bring it out after we finish eating.” Then he pulled Nan Chu into the private dining room.

Nan Chu extricated herself from his grip. “Is it your birthday?”

They’d met at the end of last year and he’d never mentioned a birthday.

Inside the private room, Lin Qi pulled out a chair and sat down, legs spread wide, slapping the seat beside him and beckoning Nan Chu over with the exact same manner as someone else she knew.

Once Nan Chu sat down, Lin Qi picked up her cup and started filling it with water. He talked as he poured: “No pressure, I don’t expect any kind of gift from you. Just having you all here to have a meal counts as celebrating with me.”

He pushed the cup over. “Drink up. Not poisoned.”

Nan Chu’s hand had barely touched the cup before he added: “You know how hard it is to get my brother out anywhere? Once every ten days if you’re lucky. Can you guess what he does?”

Nan Chu cooperated perfectly and shook her head.

“Firefighter.” Lin Qi said it with complete reverence and a great deal of pride. “Surprised? Didn’t see that coming, did you?!”

“……”

This kid, Nan Chu thought. What a handful.

As they spoke, two more people came through the door.

Taking their sweet time, those two.

Lin Qi turned around and slapped the seat across from himself. “Ge, sit here!”

Lin Luxiao sauntered over with his hands in his pockets.

Xia Wan, following behind, said with annoyance: “Lin Qi, how come you didn’t ask me to sit?”

Lin Qi, utterly unaware of any undercurrent, said: “You’re not my brother.”

Xia Wan: “……”

Nan Chu couldn’t help feeling a moment of sympathy for Xia Wan.

The emotional intelligence of these two brothers was appallingly low, one after the other.

When Lin Luxiao had taken his seat, Lin Qi looked back at Nan Chu: “Where was I?”

“You said your brother was a firefighter, and asked if I was surprised.”

Nan Chu said it while glancing at Lin Luxiao, who, for once, turned the corner of his mouth almost imperceptibly upward.

“……”

Lin Qi nodded. “Right, right, right! My dream since I was little was to be a firefighter.”

Nan Chu: “I remember you telling the press your childhood dream was to be a violinist.”

Lin Qi: “I also told the press I wanted to be a scientist. You believe everything you read?”

Then he caught himself, slapped his thigh, and said: “Wait — you’ve been looking through my interviews? Do you have a crush on me?”

In your dreams.

Nan Chu gave him a look.

Lin Qi saved himself from his own embarrassment. “Never mind, if we make headlines together, you’ll have to deal with people coming after you.”

Lin Qi had a fairly good public image at the moment — occasionally said something slightly ridiculous, but he was young, endearing, and had a pair of hands more elegant and pristine than most women’s. He’d gathered quite a following, though the classical violin world was a small one, and not many knew of Lin Qi outside it. Still, those who were fans were fiercely devoted — more than capable of going to war if needed.

Tearing Nan Chu apart would take them no effort at all.

Lin Qi looked at Lin Luxiao with something like regret. “I wasn’t built like my brother — couldn’t get into the military academy. Not like him, top of his class. Everyone there used to call him ‘Iron Wolf.’ Muscles like bricks.”

At that.

Lin Luxiao shot Lin Qi a warning look.

Lin Qi, blissfully unaware of consequences, suggested: “Ge, want to lift your shirt and show off the abs?”

“……”

Nan Chu gave Lin Qi an approving look.

Well played.

Xia Wan’s ears had gone red. “Lin Qi, you can’t just sell out your own brother like that.”

Lin Qi: “I’m not selling him out! Plenty of male celebrities post pictures of their abs on Instagram — heavily edited, every last one. I was there in Milan last time, there was this American guy who kept insisting we look at his muscles — made me feel sick for half a month afterward. When it comes to abs, nothing beats what my brother’s got — the real thing.”

Nan Chu remembered that incident: the large American man had been harassing Lin Qi and tried to drag him off to a hotel room, and it had frightened Lin Qi so badly he wouldn’t agree to go back to that bar with her for a full month afterward.

As Lin Qi finished speaking, his hand reached out — and was immediately caught by Lin Luxiao, pushed firmly back. “Don’t cause a scene.”

Lin Luxiao was generally easygoing and didn’t mind a joke, but when he was serious, his face emptied of all warmth, and that alone was enough to make people wary. Lin Qi didn’t dare push further, and sheepishly shifted the conversation elsewhere.

The staff began bringing out the food.

The atmosphere went slightly quiet. Lin Qi was somewhat in awe of Lin Luxiao, and under that kind of pressure, he didn’t dare breathe too loudly. He could only stick out his tongue at Nan Chu, pouting miserably in his seat.

Xia Wan glanced at Lin Luxiao.

He had his head down, eating.

Xia Wan called to him: “Lin Luxiao.”

He looked up, unhurried. “Mm?”

Xia Wan hesitated for a moment, looked down, and said: “Something happened to me recently.”

Lin Luxiao: “Mm.”

Xia Wan’s chopsticks kept pressing into the rice in her bowl.

Nan Chu looked at Lin Luxiao and suddenly thought: this man’s emotional obliviousness might actually be a blessing in disguise.

Xia Wan felt her way forward carefully: “There’s this patient of mine who’s been sending flowers to my ward every day recently. Now everyone assumes I have a boyfriend. I don’t even know how to show my face at work anymore. What do you think I should do?”

Lin Qi slapped the table and burst out laughing. “You’re asking my brother that question?! What exactly are you implying?!”

Nan Chu glanced at Lin Qi — could the boy have finally had a moment of clarity?

Xia Wan thought she’d been seen through already and said quickly, a little flustered: “That’s not — I wasn’t implying anything. I was just putting it out there as a general question. It’s not like Nan Chu isn’t here too! She’s beautiful, she must have dealt with all kinds of situations like this. Don’t overthink it!”

Lin Qi: “I wasn’t overthinking! As for Nan Chu — forget it, nobody in the entertainment industry dares go near her.”

Idiot, Nan Chu thought.

Xia Wan relaxed slightly and turned to look at Lin Luxiao. He had no expression whatsoever and was shoveling rice into his mouth at speed.

Xia Wan tapped the table. “Hey. Can you say something? This person — someone is pursuing me! Sending flowers to my office every day! Everyone assumes I have a boyfriend! What should I do?”

Each word of someone is pursuing me rang out like a drumbeat.

Nan Chu thought: if Lin Luxiao still didn’t react after this, Xia Wan’s next move would probably be announcing that someone had assaulted her.

Lin Luxiao ate quickly — two, three bites and the bowl was clear. He reached for a paper napkin, wiped his mouth, tossed the napkin into the bin, shoved both hands into his pockets, leaned back in the chair, and said with complete ease: “That’s fine.”

Xia Wan stared at him, incredulous. “What?”

Lin Luxiao continued: “It’s not like you have a boyfriend.”

Xia Wan jabbed at her bowl with her chopsticks. “You don’t have a girlfriend either!”

Lin Luxiao said nothing.

Nan Chu, rarely one to interject: “Commander Lin still hasn’t found someone yet?”

Xia Wan said stubbornly: “No, and with that attitude, who would ever marry him?”

Nan Chu looked at Xia Wan and said, slow and easy: “I think quite a few people would.”

Xia Wan stopped smiling. She looked at Nan Chu with sudden wariness.

Lin Luxiao stood up.

Lin Qi called after him quickly: “Ge, where are you going?”

“For a smoke.”

He didn’t look back.

Lin Luxiao left. The private room was down to three. Not long after, Nan Chu stood up as well.

Xia Wan watched her. “Where are you going?”

This is where women differ from men.

A woman’s sense of threat requires nothing more than a single glance.

Nan Chu smiled, genuine and gracious: “The bathroom. Want to come?”

Xia Wan rose with equal composure. “Sure, I’ve had a bit to drink anyway.”

The two walked out together. Lin Qi watched their retreating backs and muttered to himself: “What is it with women and going to the bathroom together.”

It had been a long time since Nan Chu had walked side by side with someone toward a restroom.

Near the entrance, she could see Lin Luxiao’s silhouette — he was smoking. His spine was straight, always perfectly upright no matter when or where he was standing. The T-shirt draped over him caught a gust and billowed briefly, then pressed back against him — and in the instant it clung to his back, the lines of his body appeared.

His build wasn’t the kind with muscles bulging out everywhere. It was proportional — everything where it should be, nothing missing.

The definition of: a jacket that hides everything, and nothing underneath.

Xia Wan looked at Nan Chu. She was sensitive by nature, gentle and obedient since childhood, and had been fast-tracked all the way through school on merit. Her parents were ordinary wage earners who had spent every resource they had and pulled every connection they could to help her stay on at the hospital where she now worked.

Xia Wan understood clearly: everything she had was earned through effort.

She had been strict with herself from a young age, never permitting herself a single misstep — including in love. She knew what she needed and had always known.

She and Lin Luxiao were inevitable.

She believed this.

No woman in the world suited Lin Luxiao better than she did.

Certainly not Nan Chu.

The two stood side by side at the wash basin. Xia Wan asked, in a tone of idle curiosity: “You’re close with the abbess at Qingchan Temple?”

Nan Chu turned on the tap. “I’ve attended her teaching sessions for a while.”

“The teachings there are really something. The abbess is a person who sees things clearly.” Xia Wan agreed.

Nan Chu didn’t respond, and waited for what she was building toward.

“The abbess told me my life has a benefactor — someone from the military.”

Nonsense.

The abbess would never say such a thing.

Nan Chu didn’t call her out. She turned off the tap and drew a paper towel from the dispenser, quietly drying her hands.

Xia Wan looked at her: “I’ve heard quite a lot of gossip about you.”

Nan Chu glanced at her, then leaned against the marble countertop, reached into her clothes, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. She shook one out: “Such as—”

Xia Wan was caught slightly off guard — she was starting to feel that this girl was not as easy to manage as she’d assumed.

“A lot of tabloids have dug into it — they say your father is a crime boss.”

Nan Chu placed the cigarette between her lips, bent her head, and lit it. Smoke diffused around her. Her eyes narrowed to a half-close, her voice utterly flat: “Go on—”

Xia Wan felt an inexplicable tightening in her chest.

“They say you’ve had a lot of men.”

Nan Chu took the cigarette from her mouth and gave a short laugh — the sardonic kind.

The bathroom was filling with her smoke; through the pale wisps, Xia Wan suddenly thought Nan Chu looked like something out of a ghost story.

Two girls, facing each other in the mirror.

Xia Wan cut straight to it: “Lin Luxiao has the looks and the blood. Of course he catches girls’ eyes. But you two are impossible. So don’t go getting any ideas about him.”

Nan Chu drew the cigarette away from her lips and aimed a smoke ring in Xia Wan’s direction, then said: “And what if I already have?”