Lin Qing followed Lu Zhou to the Ji Season Hotel. When they were checking in at the front desk, the atmosphere suddenly became awkward.

Early in the morning, two young unmarried adults — a man and a woman — arrived with suitcases to check in.

When the receptionist handed over a single room key card, Lin Qing’s face abruptly flushed crimson.

Whenever Lin Qing and Zeng Rui went to the Four Seasons, she would always stride in with her head held high, completely indifferent to what anyone thought.

Men and women have their appetites, after all.

Lin Qing wasn’t stealing or robbing anyone — both parties were willing — and she had none of those old-fashioned, feudal hang-ups in her head.

Yet now, here she was at the Ji Season with Lu Zhou, where absolutely nothing of that nature was going on, and she felt absurdly guilty.

They went up to the room.

Lu Zhou set down the luggage.

The first thing Lin Qing did was duck into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash up.

She had been looking disheveled and travel-worn the whole way here with Lu Zhou, and every time he had glanced at her, she had looked away, feeling deeply unconfident about herself.

She emerged feeling fresh and clean. Lu Zhou had already changed into a comfortable set of athletic wear, his watch and leather strap set aside.

Curious, Lin Qing picked up the Vacheron Constantin sitting on the table and held it up for a look.

“Lu Zhou, you’ve struck it rich, haven’t you?”

Lu Zhou smiled carelessly. “My agent bought it for me. As an athlete, you’ve got to keep up appearances now and then.”

“That makes sense.” Lin Qing set the watch down and grinned. “You always win the championship — you’re a star athlete! A public figure! So, did you win again yesterday? You owe me a meal this week!”

At the word “championship,” Lu Zhou pressed his lips together, lowered his gaze slightly, and hurried Lin Qing along to go get breakfast.

By the time they finished their pan-fried buns and tofu pudding, Lin Qing had filled Lu Zhou in on everything that had happened to her recently, down to the last detail.

She told it in a somewhat jumbled way, but Lu Zhou listened with clarity.

All his years as an athlete had taught him that no matter how chaotic or complicated the situation, as long as he stayed focused on his goal on any playing field, all other distractions could not touch him.

Lin Qing’s current troubles were primarily career-related. That put him slightly at ease.

“So what you’re saying is, the person staying in your apartment right now is your boss?” Lu Zhou said.

“Exactly. Easy to invite in, hard to send away.” Still deflated from the conversation the previous night, Lin Qing vented to Lu Zhou. “I originally thought she was in a tough spot, so I planned to let her stay for a night or two. But then that whole scene with Jiang Han happened, and now Liang Meng probably can’t go back for a while. She hasn’t suggested moving out, and I can’t very well kick her out to a hotel. Somehow, all of this has ended up with you — the actual tenant — living at the Ji Season.”

“Hey.” Lu Zhou was, in contrast, remarkably magnanimous and unbothered. “There’s nothing wrong with staying at a hotel. I’ve spent years traveling for competitions and gotten used to living in them. Don’t let it bother you.”

“I’d like to not let it bother me…” Lin Qing thought about how a single night at the Ji Season cost several hundred yuan, and felt a pang of distress on Lu Zhou’s behalf.

She wanted to transfer the money to him, but the moment she looked up and met his sincere, gentle gaze, she knew he wouldn’t accept it.

“Hey, Lu Zhou — how many days are you back for this time? You’re not leaving again the day after tomorrow, are you?”

Lin Qing thought about how frequently Lu Zhou competed, and felt a twinge of anxiety.

Every time he came home before, it was like a dragonfly skimming the water — and then he was off again on the next journey.

“Uh.” Lu Zhou paused, his spoon mid-scoop over the tofu pudding. He didn’t look up at Lin Qing, and didn’t tell her the truth. Instead, he spoke to the bowl in front of him: “This time… I should be able to stay for quite a while. My agent gave me time off — said I could take a break.”

“Oh.” Lin Qing nodded, her heart blooming with joy.

But a moment later, she said: “Still… you’re an athlete. You only get exposure and income from competing, right? Taking this much time off — you’re losing a lot of money, aren’t you?”

Lu Zhou said nothing. He picked up the last crab roe siu mai from the bamboo steamer and placed it in front of Lin Qing.

“A person’s life isn’t only about making money. Taking a break isn’t so bad — and I can stay and keep you company for a while.”

“Keep me company?” Lin Qing was a little surprised.

“Yes. Your career and personal life are so unstable right now. I’m just an old friend, and I can’t do much to help, but even just being someone you can vent to — something to lighten your mental load a bit — that counts for something.”

Lin Qing was deeply moved. She slapped the table. “Lu Zhou! You are the most loyal person I know!”

She really did have no shortage of things to vent about.

Lu Zhou had a vague, nagging feeling that if things kept going the way they were between him and Lin Qing, they might genuinely end up just being like brothers.

But he was the kind of straightforward, clueless guy who had no moves whatsoever, and he was utterly at a loss.

He didn’t understand romance. To him, the greatest romance in love was simply caring for the other person unconditionally.

Lu Zhou was a true straightforward man. Lin Qing was a deceptively chaotic woman.

She didn’t suspect a thing about what Lu Zhou’s competition results might have been this time, and she started rambling on and on about her work frustrations.

“Lu Zhou, isn’t it infuriating. I’ve done so much for Liang Meng, and I just brought up that one tiny little request yesterday…” Lin Qing pinched her thumb and little finger together, still brooding over Liang Meng’s refusal to let her participate in the live-streaming operation. “She actually refused me?! She refused me.”

Lu Zhou didn’t understand. “Lin Qing, didn’t you help Liang Meng because you think of her as a friend?”

Lu Zhou, uncomplicated in his thinking, had assumed Lin Qing was doing all this because she genuinely got along well with Liang Meng.

But Lin Qing immediately denied it. “Am I out of my mind? Making friends with your boss?”

“Then what do you get out of it?”

In the warm and steamy breakfast shop, Lu Zhou smiled.

Lin Qing, full of suppressed irritation, spoke frankly to Lu Zhou: “At first it was for money. Liang Meng’s salary offer really is high. 1.4 million! A lot of people can’t save up that much in their entire lifetime.”

Lu Zhou was equally candid. “Exactly. So what are you so resentful about? Everything you’ve done for Liang Meng can be fully covered by the salary she’s paying you.”

Lu Zhou advised Lin Qing to stop reminding Liang Meng every day about the 500 yuan rent — it wasn’t appropriate. What Liang Meng was already giving her was more than enough.

Lu Zhou’s words sank in immediately.

Lin Qing knew herself that she had no right to resent Liang Meng.

“People always want more once they have something, I suppose.”

Lin Qing looked down, fidgeting with the hem of her clothes, and opened up to Lu Zhou about her deeper anxieties.

“Lu Zhou, at the beginning, yes, I just wanted to get more money to pay for my mom’s treatment.” She said quietly. “But then I couldn’t stand it anymore — I really couldn’t. I’ve been studying all these years. Is this really how I spend the rest of my life, being someone’s nanny and errand girl…”

“I understand that.” Lu Zhou nodded, his eyes warm and attentive across the table.

Having someone who truly got it felt indescribably good.

Lin Qing opened up entirely, sharing all the inner conflict she’d been wrestling with: “I know that landing such a high-paying job is like falling asleep and finding a pillow right under my head — I should be kneeling three times and bowing nine times to thank the heavens! But I’m greedy. I still want my own career path. A career path, Lu Zhou — do you know what I mean?”

“I know, I know.” Lu Zhou nodded. “You don’t just want to be Liang Meng’s personal assistant — you want a real foothold in the operations at Longquan.”

Athletes may think simply, but that doesn’t make them dull. Lu Zhou was very good at distilling things to their essence.

Faced with Lin Qing’s frustration, Lu Zhou poured her a warm glass of soy milk and helped her analyze the situation: “Lin Qing, have you ever considered… that all the things you’ve done for Liang Meng have no necessary connection to her delegating the live-streaming business to you?”

“Hmm?” Lin Qing hit a blind spot she hadn’t considered before. The small dumpling she’d just picked up with her chopsticks fell back into the bowl.

“Everything you’ve done for Liang Meng is simply within the scope of your duties as her personal assistant. And nothing you’ve done in those tasks has demonstrated that you have the ability to execute a live-streaming project. So when Liang Meng refused you, I think she was being rational.”

Lu Zhou’s words struck like a bolt of lightning, waking the dreamer.

These past days, Lin Qing really had been too hasty, too impatient.

She had been so consumed by her own career ambitions — wanting everything at once — that she had never stopped to think about what she could actually bring to the live-streaming operation, what she could offer Longquan.

“Thank you, Lu Zhou.”

Lin Qing spoke from the heart.

She suddenly realized that all these years later, her childhood friend Lu Zhou — the familiar boy she’d always known — was no longer that white-clad youth of the past. His eyes now held something more: a quiet steadiness, a calm resolve.

Elegant in appearance, substantive within.

A Lu Zhou this exceptional, still without a girlfriend — it truly was baffling.

“Lu Zhou, how is it that you still don’t have a girlfriend?”

Lin Qing smiled as she asked — she genuinely wanted him to be happy.

“Who says I don’t?” Lu Zhou gave a dry cough to cover his awkwardness, then stubbornly bragged, “One per country.”

“What about domestically?”

“Domestically, isn’t that you?”

Lu Zhou blurted it out before thinking.

Their pleasant conversation was suddenly thrown into a charged, ambiguous atmosphere by those two throwaway lines.

Lin Qing naturally didn’t take it seriously, but hearing it still left a sweet warmth spreading through her chest.

“By the way, when is your mom coming back?” Lu Zhou asked.

Lin Qing said, “She went back to handle the paperwork for the apartment. She should be back in the next day or two.”

“Mmm.” Lu Zhou said. “I happen to be on break these few days. When your aunt gets back, how about I go with her to a few of the bigger hospitals in Suijing and Songshan? The medical care in this city is among the best in the country. A lot of cancers have effective targeted treatments now — who knows, we might just find something that works for her.”

“What would I even owe you at that point? I could never repay you in this lifetime.”

Lin Qing said it knowing full well she couldn’t, yet she named it anyway.

“Can’t repay it in this life? Then be a horse or an ox for me in the next one!” Lu Zhou took a sip of water and got up to pay.

“Oh? So you want to ride me?”

It was early in the morning, and Lin Qing’s brain was still not fully firing — every sentence that came out looked like it had come from her mind, when in reality it had completely bypassed it.

“Pfft —”

Lu Zhou couldn’t hold it in. Water sprayed out of his mouth; he choked, and then broke into a fit of violent coughing.

“Lu Zhou, are you okay?” Lin Qing quickly went over and patted him on the back.

Lu Zhou awkwardly yet gracefully dabbed at his mouth with a napkin, and the two of them, laughing and chatting, made their way back to the hotel.

……

Liang Meng woke from sleep, and thinking of Jiang Han from the night before, she wanted to send him a message — but found she didn’t know what to say.

After much deliberation, she sent her elder sister Liang Xing a WeChat message: Sis, Liang Meng and Wang Zaiwu aren’t right for each other. Maybe we should call off the blind date.

After quite a while, Liang Xing sent back a thumbs-up “OK” gesture.

Liang Meng then opened her Alipay and looked at the repayment dates for her credit and loan accounts, letting out a faint sigh.

She had originally planned to sulk for a while at Liang Xing’s and Jiang Han’s expense before going back, but after last night’s scene, she might genuinely be in exile out here for the foreseeable future.

Lin Qing’s sudden demand from the night before also made Liang Meng acutely aware: this young woman’s help was not unconditional.

Kept in check by her sister at home. Kept in check by Lin Qing outside.

Liang Meng, who had grown up pampered and well-provided for, felt for the first time — with sharp, deep clarity — just how important it was to have a place of her own.