The reason Ling Chen had come to Australia this time was an invitation from an internationally acclaimed composer, who lived there, to tour his rose estate.

Ling Xingyan had been excited about this for days.

This maestro’s compositional style was bizarre and unsettling; in his youth he’d gone unrecognized and buried in obscurity for years, but now his fortunes had turned entirely — he was in high demand and had stolen the spotlight at every major international music award.

Inviting Ling Chen to tour his flower estate — wasn’t that essentially extending an olive branch for collaboration?

But from what Ling Xingyan knew, eccentric geniuses tended to have difficult personalities without exception.

On the way there, he’d worried whether Ling Chen’s temperament would clash with the maestro’s — that the two of them, having nothing to say to each other, might just turn around and book flights home.

To his surprise, the two got along famously. At the height of their enthusiasm, the maestro suddenly tore up several sheets of manuscript paper and began babbling incoherently in his native German.

At the time Ling Xingyan had felt a bit uneasy, unsure whether Ling Chen had said something to upset him.

But the next morning, the maestro’s assistant called to say the original plans had changed — he wanted to invite Ling Chen to Western Australia to see the black swans.

Ling Xingyan had been overjoyed then, as if the international award was already beckoning to his cousin.

Then Ling Chen turned around and said he was going home.

Leaving Friday. Not staying a single extra day.

Even though Ling Xingyan flew into a rage at the time, he couldn’t stop Ling Chen’s course of action; furious, he told him to go explain it to the maestro himself.

That night, Ling Xingyan sat in the hotel suite’s living room, staring at the mural on the wall with a face like ashes, unable to make out what Ling Chen was saying to someone on the balcony.

In any case, the Western Australia trip was off, and Ling Xingyan felt the collaboration he’d been longing for had gone cold too.

Until Friday morning, as they were about to depart for home.

The hotel front desk called — there was a visitor.

The visitor was a young man, the maestro’s assistant.

He held a bouquet of fresh roses, saying the maestro had picked them from his own estate that morning to give to Ling Chen.

This gave Ling Xingyan quite a fright — he wanted to say, brother, your career’s doing well now, please don’t compromise it just for a bigger international stage.

Then the assistant added — the maestro had one more message for him —

“All your wishes come true.” –

In the bright morning light, Ling Xingyan dragged his oversized suitcase toward the airport, his mood remaining heavy the whole way.

Time had been tight, so he’d only managed to book two first-class tickets; Lu Manman and the others stayed behind in Australia, planning to return home as originally scheduled.

Once on the plane, Ling Xingyan, exhausted, changed into slippers and reclined his seat.

Before closing his eyes to sleep, he turned to the person beside him.

“So why exactly do we have to go back?”

Beside Ling Chen, in the empty seat space, sat that bouquet of fresh roses.

He looked out at the runway and said quietly, “Class reunion.”

Ling Xingyan: “…”

He glanced at the flowers beside Ling Chen and nearly staged a criminal incident right there on the plane.

“What, are you planning to propose at the reunion or something? You can already bring her home — you’re missing just this one reunion to seal the deal?! How did I never notice you were such a lovesick fool before—”

Halfway through, Ling Xingyan noticed a man who had just boarded turning to look their way, and immediately shut his mouth.

“Ling Chen?”

The man spoke. “What a coincidence, we meet again — you’re flying home today too?”

Ling Chen turned and met Yin Yueze’s gaze.

“Yeah.”

“You know him?” Ling Xingyan asked quietly beside him.

“High school classmate.”

Ling Chen replied in a low voice, then watched out of the corner of his eye as Yin Yueze took his seat, separated from him by just one aisle.

“I heard from Xu Guangliang that you’ve found time to come to the reunion. Everyone’s going to be thrilled for days.”

Yin Yueze sat down, fastening his seatbelt as he spoke. “We’ll have to have a couple of drinks when we get there.”

“Sorry.”

Ling Chen said, “I don’t drink.”

Yin Yueze paused for a moment, then nodded. “Oh right, you have to protect your voice.”

At that, Yin Yueze’s gaze dropped to the roses beside Ling Chen. “Hey, carrying flowers all this way home — for a girlfriend?”

Ling Chen was silent for a moment before saying flatly, “Not yet.”

Yin Yueze paused briefly at that before catching Ling Chen’s meaning.

He laughed. “These flowers are so pretty, and you’re carrying them thousands of miles home — that’s definitely for a girlfriend.”

“Thanks.”

Ling Chen lowered his lashes. “I’ll take your good words.”

“You’re welcome.”

Their conversation ended there; Yin Yueze turned to attend to his own things, not particularly bothered by Ling Chen’s cool, distant manner.

After all, they’d had some overlap in high school, and he knew Ling Chen had always been like this.

Ling Xingyan, on the other hand, sensed something was off.

Having spent so many years alongside Ling Chen, he was very attuned to his moods.

Ling Xingyan clearly noticed that ever since this high school classmate had come over, Ling Chen — though he’d kept the same posture and spoke just as flatly as before — had grown subtly tenser in his bearing.

So Ling Xingyan stole several glances at Yin Yueze.

The man, once settled, chatted with his companion beside him, showing nothing unusual either.

Ling Chen, meanwhile, leaned his head against the window as if lost in thought, so Ling Xingyan asked no further questions.

After a while, the plane began to taxi.

Through the reflection in the glass, Ling Chen watched Yin Yueze laughing and chatting with his friend.

He seemed to have never changed at all.

Sunny, warm, easy to like.

When Ling Chen had been at his most wretched, this was how Yin Yueze had treated him.

When Ling Chen was at his most dazzling, Yin Yueze hadn’t shown a trace of flattery or fawning either. A privileged, well-off upbringing and an enviable family background had given him that kind of ease and confidence from the start.

Just like in the high school basketball games — sinking a three-pointer, he’d turn around unrestrained to smirk proudly at Zhu Wenshu.

Missing a shot, he’d just rub his head and flash a wide, easy grin.

And what had he himself been doing back then?

Ling Chen pressed his lips together and let out a long, heavy breath. –

After over ten hours of flight, the plane landed at Jiangcheng International Airport.

They’d departed under a sky glowing with gold morning light; by the time they landed, dusk had already settled in.

Ling Xingyan and Ling Chen each pulled a suitcase, but the distance between them kept growing.

Ling Chen walked very fast; Ling Xingyan practically had to jog while dragging his suitcase to keep up.

He didn’t understand what he was rushing for — was an hour or so really going to make a difference?

After a long walk, the two finally reached customs.

Because they’d moved quickly, there was almost no line ahead of them. It was only that the staff seemed unprepared, dawdling over something.

After a good while, a long queue had built up at the neighboring counter before the staff finally began checking and clearing people through.

As luck would have it, Yin Yueze ended up in the line right next to theirs, not far away.

Sensing his gaze, Ling Chen turned and met his eyes for a moment.

Yin Yueze only nodded in acknowledgment, said nothing, and then lowered his head to check his phone, as if something urgent had come up.

Just then, Ling Chen’s phone buzzed.

[Teacher Zhu]: By the way, you don’t need to pick me up tomorrow, a friend of mine is going the same way.

Ling Chen took a long time to reply.

He gripped his phone and turned once more to look at that man.

Yin Yueze’s fingers moved unhurriedly across his phone screen, his expression far gentler than it had been a moment ago.

“Sir, these roses can’t go through customs.”

The staff member finished speaking, then met Ling Chen’s gaze and paused, quickly double-checking his ID. His voice suddenly turned a bit uncertain. “Under the regulations, to prevent invasive species, agricultural products can’t…”

“Fine.”

Ling Chen said nothing more, only sighed. “Go ahead and dispose of them.”-

Zhu Wenshu had meant to go take a shower after sending that message, but seeing Ling Chen hadn’t replied right away, she added another.

[Zhu Wenshu]: It’s Zhong Ya, you remember her right? She wants to watch a movie with me tomorrow, she just bought a car, and after the movie we’ll head over together.

The moment she sent it, Zhu Wenshu felt a bit of regret.

Was she being too meticulous about the details?

Ugh.

She didn’t even know why she felt the need to explain so much.

Maybe it was because Ling Chen had said he’d come pick her up, and she was suddenly backing out — she felt a little guilty about it.

A while later.

[c]: …

Yep, that was definitely exasperation.

[Zhu Wenshu]: …

[c]: Next time, please say everything you need to say in one go.

Huh?

What kind of contradiction was that between the two messages?

Zhu Wenshu shook her head, thinking the big star sure had a lot of demands.

[Zhu Wenshu]: Guess I learned that from you.

[c]: I ran into Yin Yueze on the plane today.

“You talk in bits and pieces too—”

Zhu Wenshu was halfway through typing when she froze, staring at the message Ling Chen had just sent, then deleted the rest of what she’d written.

[Zhu Wenshu]: Huh? Isn’t he in America?

[c]: Not sure.

[Zhu Wenshu]: Oh…

It was strange.

Zhu Wenshu felt that whenever she talked with Ling Chen about her first boyfriend, something about it just felt off.

In the past, when classmates had asked her about Yin Yueze, she hadn’t been entirely unaffected, but she’d never felt this kind of resistance before.

[Zhu Wenshu]: I’m going to go shower now.

[c]: Okay-

The next day, Zhong Ya came to pick up Zhu Wenshu from her place as promised.

Zhong Ya had only recently gotten her driver’s license, and the drive was full of bumps and jolts — they arrived at the movie a few minutes late, and then, on the way to the restaurant, had to make an unplanned left turn after taking a wrong lane, circling a long way around before finally arriving.

Fortunately, Zhu Wenshu had anticipated this and skipped taking Zhong Ya for milk tea after the movie, pulling her straight to the parking lot instead, so they weren’t late.

Perhaps because classmates like Ling Chen and Yin Yueze would be present, Xu Guangliang had booked a fairly upscale Chinese restaurant.

When Zhu Wenshu and Zhong Ya walked in, besides Xu Guangliang and the two other men who’d attended the wedding, there was also Xiang Gefei, a female classmate she hadn’t seen in years.

Zhu Wenshu had previously heard Xiang Gefei worked in the capital, so she was rather surprised to see her here today.

“Wow, long time no see.”

“Yeah, long time no see.” Xiang Gefei propped her chin on her hand, looking at her. “How have you not changed at all? You still look like a high schooler.”

Zhu Wenshu had to admit Xiang Gefei had changed a lot over the years — polished makeup, fashionable clothes, her hair now styled in glamorous large waves, a far cry from her bare-faced high school self.

But Zhu Wenshu was wearing heels today too — how could she possibly look like a high schooler!

“Maybe it’s from spending so much time around kids, keeps my mindset young.”

Xiang Gefei smiled but said nothing more.

Zhu Wenshu had really just said it in passing, without any deeper meaning.

She saw the empty seat next to Xiang Gefei and simply sat down there.

It was a large round table seating ten. The three men and Xiang Gefei sat together on one side, and with Zhu Wenshu and Zhong Ya added, that left four connected seats facing the window empty.

They chatted for a while, and then Xu Guangliang checked his phone and said, “They’re almost here.”

Everyone at the table knew exactly who Xu Guangliang meant. Except for Xiang Gefei, everyone else had seen Ling Chen not long ago at the wedding, but they still felt a bit nervous now.

Add to that the fact that another old classmate present was Zhu Wenshu’s ex-boyfriend, and today’s gathering had a bit too much going on — everyone fell silent by unspoken agreement.

It was Xiang Gefei who suddenly stood up and said to everyone, “It’s a bit cramped, let me switch seats, so everyone has more room.”

She calmly sat down in the middle of the four connected seats, leaving one empty seat between her and Zhong Ya, and two between her and Xu Guangliang at the other end.

Just as she sat down, the private room door opened.

As everyone’s eyes turned toward the entrance, Zhu Wenshu lagged a beat behind, and in the moment before she turned, found herself inexplicably hoping it would be Ling Chen who appeared first rather than Yin Yueze.

But when she turned, her gaze froze.

The two of them had come in together.

“You two came together?”

Xu Guangliang was surprised.

“Yeah.” Yin Yueze glanced around the room, his gaze lingering on Zhu Wenshu for a moment as he smiled at her. “We ran into each other at the entrance.”

Ling Chen beside him said nothing, stepping forward first.

As he approached the table, Xiang Gefei stood and pulled out the chair beside her.

“Oh my, Classmate Ling Chen, it really has been a long time.”

Ling Chen turned his head toward her, a faint bewilderment in his eyes.

But he didn’t ask “who are you” out loud, only nodded politely. “Long time no see.”

Then he kept walking, passing Zhong Ya.

His path clearly led toward the empty seat beside Zhu Wenshu.

At that moment, Xiang Gefei suddenly pointed at that seat and said, “Yin Yueze, why haven’t you come over yet? I saved this seat especially for you!”

Just as she finished speaking, Ling Chen happened to be pulling out the chair, and the scrape of the chair legs against the floor rang out unusually harsh in the private room.

Xu Guangliang had never imagined a gathering of eight people could fall this silent.

The room seemed to hit pause, as if even the air had stopped moving.

Except for Xiang Gefei, who had no idea what was going on, everyone else’s expressions turned stiff; they wanted to say something but didn’t know what.

Ling Chen had indeed stopped moving because of Xiang Gefei’s remark.

His hand still resting on the chair, he glanced at Yin Yueze, then looked at Zhu Wenshu.

“Saved for him?”

Because of that question, everyone’s eyes turned to Zhu Wenshu.

In the awkward atmosphere, Zhu Wenshu finally understood why she’d hoped Ling Chen would come in first a moment ago.

She’d instinctively guessed Ling Chen would sit beside her, taking that seat, which would also rule out any possibility of Yin Yueze sitting there.

She hadn’t expected this awkward scene to happen anyway.

“No…”

Under everyone’s stares, Zhu Wenshu glanced up at Ling Chen, and the moment their eyes met, she said almost without thinking, “It was saved for you.”