Cheng Wanyue had been scalded once before, but hot oil was different from hot water.

That day, she had accidentally scalded Chi Yue. Out of courtesy, she felt she should check on him, especially since she still owed him a favor.

Cheng Wanyue found time to ask Chi Yue how he was doing. He replied quickly, sending only a photo without saying anything. She could tell he hadn’t gone to the hospital and probably hadn’t applied any medication either.

This might well leave a scar.

Cheng Wanyue called him directly. Chi Yue’s breathing was heavy over the phone, and she almost thought he was in the middle of something intimate. Just before hanging up, she heard him speak and realized she had been overthinking.

Although Chi Yue came across as a carefree young master, he wouldn’t be the type to answer calls from women while in bed with someone else.

“Just woke up?” It was still early; Cheng Wanyue hadn’t even finished work yet. “You’re not sick, are you? Chi Yue, don’t think you can use this to extort me. I won’t fall for it.”

He laughed, deliberately dragging out his tone, “Beautiful girl, you’re so heartless.”

Cheng Wanyue replied absent-mindedly, “This is called prevention, so you won’t even dare to try anything funny.”

“I wish I could,” Chi Yue mumbled softly. He lifted his blanket to get up for water, but there wasn’t even a drop left in his cup. He had to go to the kitchen to check the refrigerator, grabbing a can of beer instead.

Changing the subject, he asked, “Don’t you want to know what I’ve been doing these past two days?”

“Not particularly interested.”

“I took care of something for you.”

Cheng Wanyue paused mid-step. “…For me?”

“I’ll tell you the details when we meet.” Chi Yue had planned to contact her yesterday, but got delayed. “You need to sign something anyway.”

The police had found the person who had harassed Cheng Wanyue near her studio through surveillance footage. After investigating his online activities, they discovered he wasn’t just a “fan” – he had stalked Cheng Wanyue many times without being detected.

This kind of potential risk around her would eventually lead to trouble.

Chi Yue had asked someone to keep an eye out, and after careful investigation, the police confirmed this person was a fugitive from another province. They successfully apprehended him yesterday morning. The subsequent trial would take a long time, but Chi Yue trusted in the fairness of the law.

After signing the paperwork and leaving the police station, Cheng Wanyue still felt strange about the whole situation.

She seemed to encounter all sorts of bizarre incidents.

A segment of surveillance footage from when she filed the police report had led the police to catch a suspect who had been on the run for several years.

“I had completely forgotten about it. Thanks for staying on top of this.”

“You’re fearless and carefree, not worrying about things or caring much. Since I encountered this situation, I couldn’t just stand by. Officer Li told me you once bought a steamed bun for that person, which is why he fixated on you.”

Cheng Wanyue thought for several minutes before the memory came back faintly.

When she first arrived in Beijing, she saw a homeless man sleeping by the roadside, digging through garbage bins. The weather was hot, and the discarded food had spoiled, giving off a foul smell. The homeless man was still picking through it to eat. She went to a nearby snack shop and bought steamed buns, leaving them on the steps where the homeless man was sleeping.

For every cause, there is an effect. She hadn’t suffered any harm, which she considered a blessing in itself.

Passing by a pharmacy, Cheng Wanyue went in and bought a tube of burn ointment, along with medicine for fever and cough.

“Thank you,” she hung the plastic bag of medicine on Chi Yue’s arm. “Go home and rest. Remember to take your medicine.”

Chi Yue smiled faintly. “We’ve only met a few times, and the word you say most often is ‘thank you.'”

Cheng Wanyue said, “If your parents don’t care about you, then you need to care for yourself. Nothing is more important than health. The more you pretend not to care, the more you’ll crave their attention. You’re only in your early twenties; your life is just beginning. Don’t trap yourself in a cage. With a free spirit and broad vision, nothing can hold you back.”

A cold breeze blew past, and Chi Yue felt somewhat dazed. “Is there anything you particularly want?”

She replied candidly, “No. Everything I have right now is the best.”

Chi Yue suddenly realized that perhaps he wanted too much, which was why he wasn’t happy.

“Beautiful girl, I have a practice room with all kinds of instruments. We could play until three in the morning without anyone complaining about the noise. Want to check it out?”

“No.”

Chi Yue sighed. “Forget I asked, then.”

Cheng Wanyue stopped him. “You’re almost delirious with fever. Why aren’t you going home?”

“Home is too empty. I’d just be alone there. Might as well find some friends to drink with.”

“What do you mean, drink? Cold medicine with alcohol? Do you have a death wish? Chi Yue, I bought you medicine out of kindness, don’t make me regret it.”

Chi Yue laughed while coughing. “I’m just joking. Repaying kindness with malice would bring bad karma for lifetimes.”

Cheng Wanyue thought to herself that he was just a rebellious child starved for love.

“Is it far from here?” she relented. “If it’s within two kilometers, I might consider taking a look.”

Chi Yue opened the passenger door. “We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

Cheng Wanyue took the car keys. “I’ll drive.”

Chi Yue leaned against the car door, watching her walk around from the front to the other side. “My driving skills are decent.”

“But I value my life and fear death.” Cheng Wanyue sensed that Chi Yue was quite sick, and she preferred to drive herself.

Qing Hang had been working overtime for four days already, returning home after eleven each night. She generally didn’t go to the hospital to disturb his work, but eating alone wasn’t much fun.

Yesterday, they’d had a small disagreement over something trivial.

Chi Yue’s practice room wasn’t just for his use; his classmates occasionally came too. The sofa was piled with random things, including a half-eaten bag of chips.

Messy, but not dirty.

Cheng Wanyue picked up the drumsticks and played around for a while, but quickly found it boring.

She called Qing Hang, but he didn’t answer. She was used to that by now.

Chi Yue fell asleep while she was strumming the guitar. His jacket was pinned under his arm; she tugged at it gently, and he woke up.

Cheng Wanyue said, “I need to go home to feed my cat.”

Chi Yue rubbed his hair. “I’ll take you.”

“No, no, no, you should get some good sleep.”

“At least let me see you out.”

Cheng Wanyue wanted to say it wasn’t necessary, but her sense of direction wasn’t great, and she needed Chi Yue to tell her which way to go.

Opening the door, the cold wind rushed into her clothes. Cheng Wanyue pulled her coat tighter. Just as she was about to tell Chi Yue not to accompany her any further, she looked up and saw Qing Hang walking toward them.

Before she could react, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her down the steps. The streetlight made Qing Hang’s face appear pale. Despite the cold weather, there was a layer of sweat on his forehead.

“Qing Hang, why are you here?”

“To pick you up.”

“How did you know I was here?”

“Maybe I told him,” Chi Yue wasn’t fully awake yet and was still yawning. “I received a call earlier. The person asked where we were right away. I thought it was my phone and didn’t recognize who it was. Sorry about that.”

After helping Cheng Wanyue button up her coat, Qing Hang turned to Chi Yue. “She has a boyfriend. Please don’t bring her to your home after dark in the future. You’re young, but you’re also an adult. I shouldn’t have to teach you about maintaining appropriate distance between men and women. She may not be wary, but I’m not that open-minded.”

Cheng Wanyue didn’t have time to speak before being pulled away. She wasn’t wearing high heels today, so she barely managed to keep up with Qing Hang’s pace.

Qing Hang remained silent the whole way, and she still remembered yesterday’s incident, so she didn’t initiate conversation either.

Yesterday, she had just gone to a bar with friends for a little over an hour. She hadn’t drunk anything, but her clothes had absorbed the smell of alcohol, and he had lectured her for a long time.

By the time they got home, there was a visible red mark around her wrist.

He went to the kitchen to boil water while she fed the cat in the living room. She was still upset, and he was angry too.

Qing Hang brought out two bowls of noodles, but he didn’t touch his chopsticks. Cheng Wanyue didn’t have much appetite either and only ate the fried egg.

“Cheng Wanyue, can you not tell that Chi Yue likes you?”

“What do you mean?” She looked at him in confusion, only realizing after a few seconds that he was insinuating something. “You suspect I’m fooling around behind your back? Qing Hang, if you have something to say, just say it directly. Don’t beat around the bush. I don’t have that many twisted thoughts.”

His expression was cold. “Is it still so hard to be sure of your feelings? Is it so difficult to maintain distance from other men?”

“Did I hold hands with someone else? Did I hug someone? Chi Yue did me a huge favor, and his fever is because of me. What’s wrong with seeing him home? Just now at his doorstep, you had that look like you caught me cheating. I didn’t explain to save face, but don’t think that because I love you, I’ll change myself for you.”

Qing Hang had just saved a patient and hadn’t even wiped his sweat before calling her back. She had no idea how he felt when he heard Chi Yue’s hoarse voice the moment the call connected.

“Cheng Wanyue, I don’t need you to love me most; I need you to love only me. If you can’t let go of other men, don’t say you love me.”

“What do you mean by ‘let go of other men’? Dating you means I lose the right to have friends? You might as well find a robot instead. A robot won’t go out with friends and won’t make you angry.”

“Friends? Do you have the proper boundaries that should exist between friends?”

“Qing Hang, stop making problems where there are none. Wasn’t yesterday’s argument enough?”

She was already getting impatient. Qing Hang looked at her, his mind filled with the scene of her coming out of Chi Yue’s house.

“You’re bored of me again, wanting to break up, is that it? Fine, break up then. At least I won’t have to worry about whether I’ve done something wrong. Every time you look unhappy, my first reaction is to apologize. When there’s a problem between us, I only look for issues in myself. If you want to break up, let’s break up. Then I won’t be so insecure, like someone with a mental illness.

“You find me annoying, and you can easily replace me with someone who won’t annoy you. There are plenty out there. They won’t care who you go to bars with, won’t care what time you come home, and certainly won’t be jealous like me when you visit a friend’s house. Cheng Wanyue, I hate this version of myself even more than you do—ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times more. If I could, I wish I didn’t care either.”

The living room fell silent, and Cheng Wanyue took just as long to process what Qing Hang had said.

He looked exhausted, even his gaze when looking at her was like a withered flower.

After a long while, she finally asked softly, “Qing Hang, do I make you miserable?”

They had only been together for half a year since they met.

“Which part of what I said mentioned ‘breaking up’? You’re the one who wants to break up, aren’t you?

“Yes, I admit I failed you during those three years. Are you trying to get revenge now? How many three-year periods would it take to offset your past?

“You don’t know how many tears I’ve shed missing you. If we’re counting like that, shouldn’t you return the tears I’ve cried? Shouldn’t I abandon you once too?”

The teacup rolled off the table corner and crashed to the floor, the breaking sound jarring.

It was the couple’s mug they had bought during their last shopping trip. Qing Hang looked down at the glass fragments, the self-mocking smile at the corner of his eye hidden by the moist air.

“Who abandoned whom that year? Who said they were ‘fed up’? Cheng Wanyue, do you love me? Or is it just that you haven’t met anyone who treats you better than I do in all these years? Or perhaps, after meeting in Beijing and thinking I didn’t like you anymore, you got excited again. You tried, and found that I’m just like the others, not liking you that much…”

Cheng Wanyue slapped him across the face, stopping him from saying more hurtful words.