That evening, Lu Rangchen got in his car without a word and drove away.

No one knew where he went.

He was always accusing Zhu Yunque of being stubborn, of being hard to coax — yet when his own temper flared, he was just the same. That cold, closed-off air of his kept everyone at arm’s length, and anyone who approached would have to think twice before taking another step.

If there was one thing that made him different from usual, it was perhaps this: that foul mood of his had never once been turned on Zhu Yunque.

So much so that Zhu Yunque had nearly forgotten — Lu Rangchen had once been someone not to be trifled with.

She called several times. Lu Rangchen never answered.

In the end she had to call Li Tie.

The two of them had only connected on messaging the day before, and hadn’t so much as exchanged a single word yet.

When Li Tie picked up he was genuinely puzzled, and once he heard what Zhu Yunque was calling about, he was even more at a loss — he said Lu Rangchen hadn’t mentioned anything about coming to find him.

Zhu Yunque fell silent for a few seconds after that, then said she understood, and thanked him.

She was about to hang up when Li Tie spoke up. “Hold on — did you two have a fight?”

Zhu Yunque said no.

Lu Rangchen had gotten upset on his own.

Or at least, she assumed he was upset.

He’d slammed the car door so loudly.

Li Tie laughed at that. “I mean, what did you do to get him this worked up? Look — you probably haven’t been with him long enough to know this yet, but this guy, right — his temper is rough, sure, but here’s the thing: he’s the type who keeps things contained. He very rarely shows his emotions directly.”

That left Zhu Yunque with even less to say.

Li Tie wasn’t the sort to keep prodding at a wound, and after a moment’s thought said, “Let me ask around for you and see what’s going on with him.”

Zhu Yunque said that would be good.

Li Tie added a few words before they hung up. “And don’t overthink it. This guy probably had a fight with his family — his mood can get rough sometimes. It’s happened before. When it does, he goes quiet and shuts everyone out, but once it passes, he’s fine.”

Zhu Yunque: “……”

That immediately brought the earlier phone call back to her mind.

Lu Rangchen’s mood had indeed been off.

And yet even so, he had spent the whole time keeping her spirits up.

Zhu Yunque suddenly felt deeply unsettled.

It turned out she didn’t really know Lu Rangchen at all.

She asked Li Tie, “Is Lu Rangchen’s relationship with his family not good?”

“More specifically, it’s his relationship with his dad that’s not good.”

Li Tie kept what he said about someone else’s family business brief, and didn’t go any further than that.

The call ended.

Zhu Yunque was left with a heavy heart.

This feeling was different from the bittersweet ache of when she used to secretly love Lu Rangchen. She couldn’t quite describe it — and for some reason, it brought the past flooding back. She thought of the time Lu Rangchen had come to see her when she was sick, and had deliberately pulled off that scarf and tossed it aside.

Later, Xu Linda had told her that Lu Rangchen had known the scarf belonged to Zhao Qijia.

He had always seemed particularly sensitive when it came to Zhao Qijia.

From the very beginning, there had been something particular there.

And that particularity, she now realized, was probably because he liked her.

In all those days when she was secretly carrying feelings for him, he had been quietly keeping her in his thoughts.

The more she thought about it, the more it ached. Before long, Li Tie called back. He’d apparently made a round of calls to people who knew Lu Rangchen — no one knew where he was, and no one could reach him either.

By now, Zhu Yunque was genuinely rattled.

She suddenly felt very afraid.

In the end, all she could do was contact Deng Zhe and ask him to think of something.

Deng Zhe offered what turned out to be exactly the right lead. He asked, “Could Lu Rangchen have taken a flight back to the capital?”

That single question cut through everything.

Deng Zhe seemed to have pieced together the general picture, and let out a weary sigh. He said, “Lu Rangchen is a very possessive person, and his pride runs just as deep. Part of it is that he genuinely thinks nothing of Zhao Qijia — but another part is that he’s probably eaten up with jealousy. And when he gets in a mood, his instinct is to go quiet and sit with it alone. My advice is — really put in the effort to coax him. Though obviously I’m just an outsider; all I can do is suggest. I know you’re not the type to lower your head first. And even if you don’t go to him, once his temper cools, he’ll come find you on his own.”

He paused, then added with the calm certainty of someone who had seen right through her: “Don’t worry. Lu Rangchen is very fond of you. He’d never give you up so easily.”

Those two lines coaxed a reluctant smile out of Zhu Yunque.

She said, “I’ll make it up to him properly.”

Deng Zhe laughed and said Lu Rangchen was a grown man and wouldn’t come to any harm — there was no need to worry.

Only after he said that did the tension in Zhu Yunque’s voice ease a little.

But even after hanging up, she still felt restless.

She opened her chat with Lu Rangchen and suddenly wanted to say something to him.

Something like — she and Zhao Qijia were nothing, no matter what Feng Yanlai thought, she had no feelings for Zhao Qijia.

Something like — she cared about him, and if she had known he’d had an unpleasant run-in with his family, she would have gone to be with him without a second thought.

And something like — she genuinely disliked fighting with him, disliked the cold silences between them. It left her feeling unmoored. She got scared too.

Thoughts tangled and scattered through her mind.

The words she typed were written and deleted, written and deleted, and she kept wavering over whether she should send the kind of long, overwrought message that boys always seemed to hate.

At some point Feng Yanlai tried to chat with her — Zhu Yunque barely had the mind to respond.

Eventually she simply closed herself in her bedroom and refused to come out.

From the other side of the door, Feng Yanlai’s voice droned on about all of Zhao Qijia’s virtues — how wonderful he was, how perfectly suited he was to be a boyfriend. Zhu Yunque couldn’t say exactly why, but a sudden swell of frustration rose in her chest and her eyes burned. Throwing caution to the wind, she hit send without any more deliberation.

She wrote: 【Lu Rangchen, I hate this. I hate how you just vanish and go silent on people.】

She also wrote: 【If there’s a problem between us, we can talk it out like adults. What’s the point of this silent treatment?】

By the time she was on her third message, Zhu Yunque had already begun to lose her grip on herself.

She didn’t know why she was coming undone like this.

She had never been in a relationship before. This was her first, and it happened to be with someone she had liked for a very long time. She was as lost as anyone would be.

It seemed completely impossible not to care. Impossible to stay calm and detached.

As she wrote, she started to say something drastic.

She wrote: 【Lu Rangchen, if you don’t want me anymore, just say so. You don’t have to do this.】

Words on a screen lack the warmth of a real voice. In Zhu Yunque’s heart, that last line was said with a pout — a plea in disguise. But once sent, its impact multiplied many times over.

And Lu Rangchen was genuinely at a loss.

He had just arrived at the airport, put his phone on silent, and was met with Zhu Yunque’s three messages — which, as far as things looked, amounted to her threatening to end things.

On that small phone screen —

All sorts of messages from all sorts of people asking what was going on, where he was.

But his eyes could only find her three.

Like needles, lodged in his chest, at once painful and itching and — somehow — on the verge of making him laugh.

People really could be at each other’s mercy like this.

Words like those, from anyone else, he would have ignored without a second thought.

But from Zhu Yunque, that simply wasn’t possible.

Sometimes a single sentence from her, a single glance, was enough to hold him completely captive.

Lu Rangchen stared at his phone with lowered eyes, let out a slow, long breath, and with a quiet laugh, called her back.

Zhu Yunque was sitting on her bed, hugging her knees, staring into nothing.

The moment she saw his name on the screen, her heart leapt to her throat.

When the call connected, she heard Lu Rangchen’s low, slightly hoarse voice — helpless beneath a layer of indulgence, resigned, like a man who had admitted defeat — saying: “Zhu Yunque, who’s being unreasonable here? Between the two of us, who exactly doesn’t want who?”

Hearing his voice.

The cold that had settled around her heart dissolved in an instant.

Zhu Yunque drew a quiet breath, and the prickling behind her eyes receded.

She said, “You actually decided to respond to me.”

Lu Rangchen caught the edge in her voice and frowned slightly.

He couldn’t worry about checking in just then, so he found a quiet corner and called her back properly.

“I wasn’t ignoring you.”

Lu Rangchen softened his tone. “My phone was on silent the whole time. I couldn’t hear anyone’s calls.”

“Why was it on silent?”

“My mom kept calling. It was getting on my nerves.”

Zhu Yunque said nothing, fingers twisted in the edge of her blanket.

After a few seconds, she said quietly, “Lu Rangchen, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kept it from you.”

Lu Rangchen laughed softly. “Kept what from me — your dates with the guy whose last name is Zhao?”

“It wasn’t a date. His mother brought him over to have dinner at my place.”

Lu Rangchen’s tone carried a distinct edge of concern. “And then? Did your mom try to set you two up?”

Zhu Yunque said, “Doesn’t matter if she tried. I’m already your girlfriend.”

Lu Rangchen thought she was actually quite good at coaxing people.

Really, genuinely good.

She just had to want to.

He let out a low, suppressed laugh. “Good. And don’t go saying things like that again.”

A short inhale. “You scared me.”

“……”

Zhu Yunque genuinely hadn’t anticipated his last words to go in that direction. Something tugged at the corner of her mouth without warning.

“So — you’re not angry anymore?”

Lu Rangchen let out a scoff. “I already got it all out. What’s the point of still being angry?”

The whole drive, he’d been steering with one hand and smoking with the other, coughing through it all, until that storm of frustration finally burned itself out.

After that, he’d thought it over and decided — this wasn’t Zhu Yunque’s fault.

If there had really been something between her and that guy with the surname Zhao, the two of them wouldn’t be together at all.

Lu Rangchen could let it go, but Zhu Yunque couldn’t, and she said, “I thought you were going to be upset for a long time.”

Lu Rangchen laughed. “What — you actually wanted me to suffer?”

Zhu Yunque said no. “I just thought I should try to make it up to you.”

She couldn’t help adding, “And I had so much I wanted to say to you.”

Like how much she liked him. Like how afraid she was of not getting to see him.

As though something had suddenly emptied out in her chest, and only Lu Rangchen could fill that hollow place.

The words settled.

On the other end of the line, an unexplained silence fell for a moment.

When he spoke again, Lu Rangchen’s voice had shifted — something moved through it, low and slightly rough, and there was warmth beneath the laugh as he said, “You can say it all to me right now.”

“……”

Zhu Yunque’s fingers curled tight.

Lu Rangchen looked up to check the departures board. “I’m at the airport. Flight’s soon. Can you leave tonight?”

Zhu Yunque felt her pulse quicken — she was willing to admit that much.

She said, “What’s the earliest I could get a ticket?”

“Not sure.”

Lu Rangchen’s voice was unhurried, though something unspoken moved beneath it. “But there should be something from midnight onward.”

He left the rest hanging, as if waiting deliberately for Zhu Yunque to take the initiative.

It turned out he’d made the right bet.

Zhu Yunque gathered her nerve and said, “Then keep an eye out and book it for me — I’ll sort myself out and transfer the money to you later.”

She delivered it like a primary school student handing over lunch money.

Lu Rangchen nearly choked on a laugh. “Seriously?”

Zhu Yunque swallowed. The corners of her lips pressed into something quietly sweet.

Lu Rangchen’s voice dropped into something noticeably softer. He said, “I’m booking it for you right now. I’ll arrange a car too. Once my flight lands, I’ll wait for you to arrive.”

Lu Rangchen was as good as his word.

The moment the call ended, he had everything arranged for Zhu Yunque.

Time stretched on until nearly midnight, when Feng Yanlai finally went to wash up and to bed.

Zhu Yunque didn’t have much to pack. She slipped out without making much noise, and the rest of the journey went smoothly — the driver she’d been sent was already waiting downstairs, she made it to the airport, checked in without a hitch, and by the time she was about to board, Lu Rangchen’s flight had already landed in the capital.

Lu Rangchen had wanted to wait for her, but Zhu Yunque wouldn’t let him.

She knew it had been a difficult day for him, so she insisted he go home and rest and wait for her there.

Lu Rangchen clicked his tongue, stretching out his words in mock complaint. “Look at that — my girlfriend actually turns out to be quite thoughtful.”

Zhu Yunque told him off. “Stop being silly. Go home and sleep.”

For a moment, she sounded just like a fussy little manager.

Lu Rangchen let a rather pleased smile settle on his lips and replied, completely without shame, “Fine. I’ll sleep for a few hours first — got to have the energy to kiss you when you get here.”

His voice wasn’t exactly quiet.

By then, there was already a passenger seated next to Zhu Yunque.

The passenger was a middle-aged woman. When she heard that remark, she glanced over at Zhu Yunque, and that single look was enough to set Zhu Yunque’s cheeks ablaze. She tossed out a hasty “about to take off” and cut the call.

She barely slept on the flight after that.

Something tugged at her nerves the whole way — a sensation she couldn’t rein in, bright and restless and quietly eager.

She kept imagining what it would be like when she reached Lu Rangchen’s place. What he would do.

Just kissing?

And then there was Feng Yanlai — when she woke up in the morning to find Zhu Yunque gone, would she completely lose her mind?

Even if she did, Zhu Yunque found she didn’t care anymore.

She had gone astray, and she’d done it hand in hand with Lu Rangchen.

Lu Rangchen, for his part, genuinely did sleep for a few solid hours.

Not many — he’d set an alarm.

All for the sake of being awake the moment Zhu Yunque’s flight landed, so he could reach her right away.

Not that Zhu Yunque had held out much hope for him. In her experience, men weren’t particularly reliable about these things. She assumed he’d sleep through his alarm, and she didn’t want to disturb him anyway.

But as it turned out —

She’d barely been off the plane when Lu Rangchen’s call came through.

He’d only just woken up moments ago. His voice still carried a drowsy huskiness to it as he asked her where she was and told her he’d arranged a car.

The airport was large, and Zhu Yunque was thoroughly disoriented.

Fortunately, the car was parked somewhere conspicuous and the driver was reliable. Lu Rangchen guided her along for a short while, and before long Zhu Yunque had found the car and settled in.

She didn’t want to be overly affectionate with a stranger in the car, so she kept the conversation with him minimal.

It was only afterward that she found out — the driver was from the Cheng Family.

Lu Rangchen had specifically sent him to collect her.

The man had an amusing manner about him too. Every sentence was “Miss Zhu this” and “Miss Zhu that,” which left Zhu Yunque feeling deeply awkward for the entire journey.

Thankfully, the drive wasn’t long.

Before much time had passed, Zhu Yunque was brought to the entrance of Lu Rangchen’s apartment building.

Five o’clock in the morning. The sky had barely begun to lighten.

The streets held few cars, and the surrounding area was relatively quiet.

Zhu Yunque turned to glance out the car window — and saw Lu Rangchen.

He was wearing a long coat, standing on the roadside at the base of the building, waiting in the early autumn morning.

A tall, slender silhouette — poised and composed, with a clean, refined face and a crispness to him, like something sharpened by the cold.

Someone untamed by nature.

Just standing there, unmoving — and yet the pull coming off him was almost overwhelming.

Lu Rangchen squinted in the low light and caught sight of her. A slow, unhurried smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

Zhu Yunque’s heart missed half a beat.

The car eased to a stop in front of him, the window rolled down, and the driver addressed Lu Rangchen with a deferential nod. “Good morning, young Master Lu.”

It was a rather grandiose form of address.

And yet somehow — inexplicably — it seemed to suit Lu Rangchen perfectly.

He was born to carry that kind of ease. No explanation could account for it.

Lu Rangchen gave the driver a nod and a brief smile, then came around to help Zhu Yunque out. Turning back toward the driver, he added, “Thank you for the trouble.”

A brief exchange, and the car pulled away. The world, at last, belonged only to the two of them.

For reasons she couldn’t quite explain, Zhu Yunque felt a flicker of awkwardness and glanced at Lu Rangchen sidelong.

She wasn’t wearing any makeup. Her eyes were slightly puffy — but she was still pale and lovely, still undeniably her.

Lu Rangchen leaned down deliberately to get a better look at her, then laughed. “Did you cry?”

“……”

Zhu Yunque kept her expression neutral. “No.”

With that, she took hold of her suitcase and started walking. Lu Rangchen reached over with an easy, unhurried motion and took it from her, then caught her other hand in his.

The season had a bite to it. Even speaking left a trace of cold mist in the air.

But his hand was warm — solidly, steadily warm.

Something hollow inside Zhu Yunque’s chest was filled by that warmth, quietly and completely.

And then a sense of unreality washed over her.

Had last night really happened? Had they actually argued?

Her heart was suddenly racing.

Lu Rangchen said little. She said little either. They walked with fingers laced together, hand in hand, all the way up to Lu Rangchen’s floor.

At the door.

Lu Rangchen looked at her. “Let’s add your fingerprint.”

Zhu Yunque blinked, then nodded and held out her hand.

Lu Rangchen took it in his — his hands really were large, with long, clean fingers — and holding her hand in his, guided her through the registration one slow step at a time. The two of them stood close enough for his breath to brush faintly against the side of her neck, like an embrace from behind.

The process finally completed. One press of the pad and the door clicked open.

The same round, plump cat came bounding out to greet them, meowing.

For some reason, the tension Zhu Yunque had been holding in her shoulders dissolved all at once. It was as though arriving at Lu Rangchen’s place was arriving at a safe harbor.

But that sense of ease lasted no more than two seconds.

Before Zhu Yunque could settle into it, a sudden pressure wrapped around her waist from behind, pulling her firmly back.

Her heart lurched into her throat.

Lu Rangchen’s jaw came to rest in the hollow at the nape of her neck.

As if finally able to peel away every layer of composure he’d been holding, his breath came out scorching, like heat rolling over sand, low and hushed against her ear as he said—

“Zhu Yunque — did you miss me?”