When Cheng Xia was wheeled out, his face was deathly pale, with only a trembling thread of life left in him.

The doctor said he was still in danger and needed to stay in the hospital for observation.

By all rights, I should have stayed by his side, caring for him day and night without rest.

Isn’t that how romance novels write it? You carefully attend to a man in his most vulnerable moment, and he’ll fall hopelessly in love with you.

But the blueprints had finally been rushed out. We needed to catch up on the construction schedule. Ever since I turned my phone on, it hadn’t stopped ringing.

I said to Cheng Xia: “I’ve brought you a change of clothes. I’ve also hired a caregiver. I need to go to the site.”

His speech was slow now: “It’s fine. I’m okay now. Go ahead and take care of your work.”

“Then I’m leaving.”

I looked back at Cheng Xia one last time. He wore hospital clothes, staring at me blankly, a lock of hair falling on his forehead, like a small dog with disheveled fur.

…I don’t know why, but I kept feeling like in this scene, I should kiss him before leaving.

Just as I was in a daze, Yu Shixuan’s loud voice came through: “Cheng Xia, why are you getting up! Lie down quickly!”

She was carrying a bucket of chicken soup, wearing light makeup that still couldn’t hide her dark circles—she must have stayed up all night.

“Yu Gong and I took two days off. I’ll take care of Cheng Xia these two days. Big sister doesn’t need to come.”

After she set down the chicken soup, she insisted on seeing me out, but I knew saying these words was the real point.

I said: “Then I’ll leave him in your care.”

Romance novels are all written about Cinderella, but ultimately only people who don’t lack money can afford to play this game.

After returning to the construction site, I spun around like a top. By the time I finally caught my breath, four days had already passed.

Yan Lei sent me a WeChat message—a picture. At the entrance of the red building, Cheng Xia was opening the car door for Yu Shixuan. Yu Shixuan looked up at him, her smile brilliant like a little sun.

Yan Lei: A perfect match.

I let out a long breath. Looked like he’d been discharged from the hospital, and I still hadn’t managed to pick him up.

I thought of when Cheng Xia had just woken up. I sat by his side looking at the test results, searching on Baidu one by one to understand what each abnormal item meant.

How could he have so many problems? None fatal individually, but each one dangerous.

“How could a working person not have problems?” He said self-deprecatingly. His skin was still pale, making his eyebrows and hair appear especially black.

“Not every working person suddenly has a heart attack, okay?” I closed the test results and said: “I know you might blame me. Just now I sent A’Yi a WeChat message.”

I’d always had his mother’s WeChat. Apart from holiday greetings, we normally didn’t contact each other.

But he’d gone into the operating room—I had to notify his mother. After all, we couldn’t even sign any forms.

He didn’t speak, just looked at me quietly.

“She hasn’t replied yet.” I said: “When she sees it, she’ll definitely scold you.”

“She won’t reply.” He said: “She passed away three years ago.”

My hand loosened. The half-peeled apple in my hand fell with a clang to the floor, rolling far away.

“Was it illness?”

“She was murdered.”

The northeastern small city where we grew up was called Jinbo City.

Cheng Xia’s mother was the manager of the Jinbo Grand Hotel.

When I was very young, I thought that place was like a palace—resplendent and magnificent. The uniformed waitress ladies were like they’d walked out of foreign movies. I could only look longingly through the glass window at their Christmas tree.

No one expected that such a grand, such a beautiful hotel would one day cease to exist.

And in such an inexplicable way.

Cheng Xia’s mother was laid off because of it, though it didn’t affect her much. She opened a beauty salon and spent most of her life taking care of Cheng Xia.

But for others, it was a devastating blow.

Back then, the waitresses at Jinbo were beautiful and noble like peacocks. When Jinbo collapsed, these peacocks scattered in all directions, becoming nannies, cleaners, salespeople…

The murderer was a woman named Zhao Lijuan. She was thirty-six the year she was laid off. She went to work as a cleaner at a private hotel, but her personality was proud and she was prone to obsessing over details. She was fired every few days.

What could she do after being fired? Her husband was bedridden and paralyzed. She still had to raise a son in his rebellious teenage years. So she began walking into street hair salons…

She muddled through like this for over a decade. Her husband died. Her son went to live in another city and refused to acknowledge her. She was old and sick, and there were problems with her pension and years of service.

Who could she turn to? She didn’t know anyone. She only knew the former Manager Song.

For Manager Song, everything about Jinbo was already an old dream. Suddenly a fierce madwoman came demanding an explanation from her. She explained gently, politely and properly.

What she got in return was a steel knife thrust into her chest.

She stabbed her six times.

Cheng Xia said: “When I went back, I didn’t even recognize my mother. She was someone who loved beauty so much.”

“Was the murderer caught?”

“She committed suicide.”

Another silence.

I reached out and held Cheng Xia in my arms, saying softly: “I’m sorry.”

His voice came out muffled: “What are you sorry for?”

“I should have been with you then.”

I didn’t know how he had faced all of this.

He’d been protected so well by his parents his whole life. He only needed to study and take exams, and his studies went so smoothly. He’d never suffered any hardship from fate.

Yet he had to suddenly face a murder, an excruciating pain where the enemy was already dead.

“Yes, at that time I kept thinking, how nice it would be if you were there.” He said softly in my arms. Tears slowly soaked my clothes.

What was I doing at that time?

I might have been shouting frantically at the construction site, or perhaps calculating data with my head spinning—in any case, I must have been rushing about to make a living.

Just like now.

I liked him very, very much. I’d liked him for many years. When his life was in danger, I wished I could die with him. But once he was out of danger, I had to run around to earn my living.

Perhaps a girl like Yu Shixuan who could always wait was more suitable for him. At least the love she could offer was purely fearless.

Coming back to my senses, Yan Lei had sent another WeChat: “Do you still remember you owe me a meal, Manager Ren?”

I replied: “Lunch then. My treat.”

This time I chose a very atmospheric Western restaurant. How atmospheric? It averaged 1000 yuan per person.

Old Feng had taught me: how important your words are determines how expensive a restaurant you should go to.

Yan Lei said very exaggeratedly: “Big sister, going this big—are you proposing?”

“Proposing to whom? You?”

“That’s really not necessary,” he joked: “For you, McDonald’s would be fine.”

I didn’t banter back. Instead I lowered my head to order, then said: “Come to think of it, the first time I ate Western food in my life was when Cheng Xia’s parents brought me. Back then I didn’t know how to use a knife and fork. His mother cut the steak for me and taught me.”

Yan Lei was a bit awkward: “You two were so close as kids!”

“I guess so. His parents were the type who had so much love they didn’t mind sharing it with others.” I smiled self-deprecatingly: “Including their son’s pursuer.”

“Huh?” Yan Lei was genuinely surprised: “I thought he was pursuing you!”

I smiled: “Why would you think that?”

He answered hesitantly: “Nothing really, it’s just that you’re quite good-looking and generous. Saying you pursued that stuffy Cheng Xia seems pretty unbelievable.”

“It’s probably because you saw him work especially hard for my sake, right? After all, doing three people’s work alone and still finishing early—that’s really not ordinary hard work.”

Yan Lei’s smile froze. He asked: “Dongxue, what do you mean by that?”

“I mean, you didn’t touch a single stroke of those blueprints.”

I’d been thinking about why Cheng Xia had exhausted himself like this. Later, looking carefully at the blueprints, I figured it out. All the modifications were completed by him alone in just three days.

Yu Gong was about to retire and didn’t want to deal with our mess. Yu Shixuan was playful and just an assistant. As for Yan Lei, at every meeting he would only repackage Cheng Xia’s viewpoints. He was just putting on a show of diligence while passively refusing to work.

Cheng Xia was truly anxious and stayed up all night to finish Yan Lei’s portion too.

“And you don’t actually have any interest in me. You just thought getting his goddess in front of him would give you major face.” I said: “Bullying people like this isn’t right.”

Especially bullying my white moonlight.

I had ten thousand ways to get revenge on him. I chose the most refined one.

Yan Lei’s perpetually smiling face completely turned cold: “What are you talking about? I don’t understand a single word!”

I said: “Actually, we’re the same type of people. Not enough ability, inadequate family background—we have to kiss up to leadership, pulling all sorts of little tricks. But when Yu Gong retires, it won’t be you. Know why?”

Yan Lei looked at me coldly, saying nothing.

I used my phone to select a photo and showed it to him. It was a group photo of their Architecture Institute director with a bunch of middle-aged men, captioned “Classmates in the prime of youth.” Then the next one was Cheng Xia’s family photo.

I pointed to one of the people and said: “This man is Cheng Xia’s father. He and your director were college classmates.”

Yan Lei looked at that photo in shock, then looked at me in disbelief.

“After he joined the institute, you’ve been unscrupulously bullying him. What’s so great about S University, what’s so great about strong professional ability—aren’t you still stepping on him? ” I looked into his eyes and curved into a smile: “Now you know? He was just letting you.”

The subtext of this sentence was: You’re just a clown.

Yan Lei’s face turned red then white. He forced himself to stay calm: “He’s too noble, he disdains to compete, so you’ve come to fight for justice on his behalf?”

I smiled: “Actually, I’m doing this for your own good, Yan Lei.”

“I said we’re the same type of people. When it comes to flattery and reading superiors’ intentions, I’m an expert among experts. But I quickly understood that these are just scenes of poor people tearing at each other. Those born in Rome will always receive the fairest treatment.”

“So you shouldn’t roll on this path. It’s useless.” I smiled: “Trust me. You hate Cheng Xia, see him as an enemy—in the end, only you will suffer.”

After saying this, I got up to get my coat. Clearly we were no longer in a relationship where we could share lunch. Fortunately, I’d only ordered for him.

Save what I can. I still had a mortgage to pay.

Finally, I turned back to look at Yan Lei, completing the final round of manipulation: “To beat these people, you don’t rely on little tricks. It’s about doing things he’s unwilling to do, daring to do things he doesn’t dare do. This is the only path this society gives us. Words from the heart—you can listen or not.”

Yan Lei sat in place, his face pale. Clearly he’d taken it to heart.

Very good.

It wasn’t in vain that I so carefully deceived him.

Though it wasn’t really deception.

Yu Shixuan had indeed said that Yu Gong originally favored Cheng Xia—suck-ups are certainly lovable, but to hold up a group, you still need some real ability.

Cheng Xia’s father and the director were indeed both Tsinghua graduates, except one studied law and one studied architecture. They didn’t know each other.

That group photo? I photoshopped it.

Middle-aged men all look pretty much the same anyway. Yan Lei only glanced at it once—he wouldn’t remember.

Who told him I had access to the director’s social media and he didn’t?

Like I said, on the path of flattery, he was only fit to be my grand-disciple.