That day, after finishing dinner and heading back, Yunque contacted a real estate agency she had dealt with before.
The agent was a young woman — sharp, efficient, and businesslike — who had left Yunque with a good impression.
When she heard that Yunque wanted a unit in Building 12, Unit 1, she didn’t try to steer her toward a different building the way other agents might. She agreed readily and without fuss.
Even so, these things take time. Just because Yunque wanted it today didn’t mean something would be available tomorrow.
So all she could do was wait.
Throughout the whole call, Yunque’s demeanor remained thoroughly calm. Even before hanging up, she didn’t forget to say, “Thank you, sorry for the trouble.”
Xu Linda was right beside her the whole time, driving and listening in.
The moment the call ended, the girl couldn’t help but tease Yunque with cheerful amusement: “I’ve really figured you out — whenever you set your mind on something, there’s nothing you can’t get.”
Take back in the day, for instance. When everyone else could only steal secret glances at Lu Rangchen and sigh over him from afar, Yunque had already added him on WeChat.
And who could’ve predicted what came later — that Lu Rangchen would go to Capital University for her sake, and that she would ultimately be the one to break up with him.
This was Lu Rangchen they were talking about.
The golden child, adored by the stars since childhood, admired and fawned over by so many girls. Even the most beautiful girls who ever made a move on him couldn’t get a reaction — and yet Yunque had quietly, effortlessly claimed him.
How many people had envied her, resented her, or sneered at her for it.
Yet even those people couldn’t deny it: Yunque was exceptional.
Tall and slender, fair-skinned and flawless, her looks fell into that soft, gentle, moon-like category — the kind that doesn’t dazzle at first glance but never fails to appeal. On top of that, she was academically strong, and no one who encountered her ever came away with a bad impression. She kept a low profile and didn’t draw much attention to herself, but the moment you put her side by side with those flashily beautiful girls, she somehow held her ground without the slightest disadvantage.
And once news of her relationship with Lu Rangchen spread, her name became something of a legend at South City No. 3 High School.
Of course, Yunque was entirely unaware of all this — and entirely unconcerned.
She simply looked down to add a note to the agent’s contact, and remarked casually, “It’s not that remarkable.”
If it were truly so remarkable, they wouldn’t have broken up the way they did — and in such an ugly, humiliating fashion at that.
Xu Linda said it all with a laugh, then shifted gears: “Oh right, you still haven’t told me — what was the serious illness you had last year? I didn’t know anything about it.”
“Acute myocarditis.”
Yunque gazed steadily ahead, her expression serene. “It was triggered by a viral infection. I was hospitalized for nearly ten days.”
She was remarkably matter-of-fact about it. “The day it hit, I thought I was going to die.”
Heart palpitations, a collapse, falling directly off the podium — the whole class had been stunned into a daze. It was only because the class president had rushed to get the head teacher that she’d been put into an ambulance in the shortest possible time.
She’d been taken in quickly and treated quickly, and there had been no lasting damage or complications.
Xu Linda’s eyes went wide. She stared at Yunque in disbelief. “Holy crap, it was that serious? And then — that’s when you had your change of heart?”
Close friends have an understanding that goes deeper than words.
Yunque tugged the corner of her mouth in a faint, expressionless smile. “Yeah. I suddenly just… came to my senses.”
It was like something that had been locked away in the dark for so many years — and all at once, a window opened, and light came pouring in.
The very first thing she’d wanted, when she regained consciousness, was to see him.
Yunque rested her head on one hand, watching the streetscape blur past outside the car window, her gaze soft and distant.
After a quiet moment, she said, “I just suddenly felt — if I had died then, it would’ve been a real shame.”
A shame that she hadn’t explained anything to Lu Rangchen.
A shame that she’d never said sorry.
And a shame that she’d never seen him one more time.
Yunque didn’t want to feel that way. So she came back.
Even if Lu Rangchen would never look back at her — she simply didn’t want to carry that regret with her for the rest of her life.
More interested in what was coming next than in the past, Xu Linda turned to her with a genuinely earnest expression and asked, “So what are you planning to do? Just keep engineering chance encounters with him forever — turn it into some dramatic, star-crossed pursuit of an ex?”
But Yunque was completely outside the scope of what Xu Linda had predicted.
She said, “I’m not chasing him.”
The evening breeze stirred lightly through her hair.
Her tone was casual — casual to the point of carrying a faint, proud edge. She said, “I don’t like being the one who chases.”
The words landed.
Xu Linda was immediately struck speechless.
In that moment, she had only one thought: when it comes to relationships, this woman was genuinely, absurdly gifted.
But even a “gifted” person doesn’t have everything go her way.
Take the next few days, for example — Yunque was still living in the school dormitory, going back and forth in her quiet, predictable routine.
Life didn’t change just because she’d run into Lu Rangchen. The two of them remained like parallel lines, moving alongside each other without a single point of intersection.
Until Thursday, when the agent called to say she truly couldn’t find a suitable unit and asked whether Building 13 would work.
Yunque was in the office at the time, grading exam papers.
There was another teacher in the office — a man named Xiao Qingyu — who had always harbored a vague interest in Yunque. The moment her call ended, he came over and asked, “You’re looking for a rental?”
Yunque looked up at him, her tone carrying a slight note of hesitation. “Yeah. Why?”
Xiao Qingyu adjusted his glasses and said, “Which area are you looking at? Why has it taken so long to find somewhere suitable?”
“Xinyue Xiangfu.”
Yunque answered casually. “I want a specific building. Nothing suitable has come up yet.”
Xiao Qingyu raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Xinyue Xiangfu? I live there. Why didn’t you say so earlier? I have two units there — one in Building 14 and one in Building 12. If you don’t mind, you’re welcome to rent one.”
At the word “12,” Yunque’s pen stilled. She looked up at him, faintly startled.
Before Xiao Qingyu could say anything more, she spoke: “Which floor?”
“It’s a bit high,” he said. “The 17th floor.”
“……”
A jolt shot through Yunque’s chest.
Sometimes, you can’t help but believe in fate.
When something is meant to end, no amount of effort will hold it together.
But when something is making its way toward you — even if you can’t find the direction yourself, fate will point the way.
Steadying the surge in her chest, Yunque said, “The unit in Building 12 — could you rent it to me?”
Xiao Qingyu broke into a smile. “Of course, but the Building 12 unit is a two-bedroom, and the Building 14 unit is a one-bedroom. You’re living alone, aren’t you?”
Yunque gave a small nod, then said again, “Even so, I want the two-bedroom.”
Xiao Qingyu’s expression became a little conflicted. “The two-bedroom is a bit pricey, though. It’s not really worth it for one person.”
“That’s alright.”
Yunque looked at him steadily, with quiet certainty. “Please rent it to me. I can pay annually if needed.”
Xiao Qingyu thought it over and could only agree, adding that she should come by after work tonight to take a look.
Not that there was much to see, really.
The units in that development all had more or less the same layout. The only real difference was the furnishings.
But Yunque went along with Xiao Qingyu anyway.
The unit was quite nice — well-oriented, with all the necessary furniture. Yunque only needed to move her own belongings in.
Xiao Qingyu was candid with her, cheerfully explaining that this unit had been bought by his family as a wedding home and was furnished to a good standard — she needn’t worry about anything — and that the rent could be set at a friend’s price.
To thank him, Yunque found a small restaurant downstairs and treated him to dinner.
The meal stretched on for quite a while.
Xiao Qingyu was an easy talker — cheerful, rambling, the kind of person who’d tell you everything about himself right down to when he bought his dog.
Yunque, however, simply responded in mild, noncommittal tones.
Her heart was elsewhere entirely.
Eventually the bill was settled, and there had been no sign of the person she’d been hoping to catch a glimpse of. She was driven back to the school by Xiao Qingyu.
He also said that when she was ready to move, she should give him a call and he’d come help.
In all honesty, Yunque didn’t know him well enough to feel comfortable accepting, and it would have been awkward to impose.
But as it happened, it rained on moving day. Several of the deliveries Yunque had ordered were large items, and there was no way to manage them alone. In the end, she had no choice but to accept Xiao Qingyu’s offer.
So that Saturday, the two of them bustled up and down together for quite a while.
Before long, all of Yunque’s packages had arrived.
Xiao Qingyu accompanied her downstairs to collect them.
They were mostly everyday items — a desk lamp, a full-length mirror, storage boxes and the like: the kind of things that are too bulky to be considered small, yet which courier services often won’t bother taking upstairs.
Fortunately, the parcel pickup station was directly across from Building 12.
They reached it in just a few steps.
The station was on the second floor, with a dedicated pickup counter. Inside the counter area, the space was packed with shelving units, stacked high with parcel boxes, and a few other residents coming and going to collect their orders.
Yunque walked in without giving it much thought, without looking around too carefully. She simply pulled out her phone, called out to the window that she was here to pick up a parcel, and recited her pickup code.
Soft and clear — her voice, unhurried and gentle, exactly as it had always been.
Familiar enough that Lu Rangchen — who had been waiting for his own parcel, leaning against the low dividing wall on the other side of the counter — felt the tips of his fingers give an involuntary pause.
On the other end of WeChat, Deng Zhe was firing off messages in rapid succession, saying that Deng Jiao’s homeroom teacher, Old Liu, had her birthday tonight, and that she’d invited him over to her place for dinner.
Old Liu seemed to be quite fond of Lu Rangchen — she’d specifically said he didn’t need to do anything, just show up and join the gathering for the occasion.
Deng Zhe was in a bind and didn’t know what to do.
He wasn’t stupid — he knew perfectly well it was Lu Rangchen that Old Liu actually wanted to see.
So he had no choice but to ask Lu Rangchen to go in his place.
Lu Rangchen glanced at the messages, let out a low, suppressed laugh, and couldn’t be bothered to type. He sent a voice message instead: “Deng Zhe, do I look like your dad? Do you want me to go court your future wife for you too?”
A lazy, cavalier tone, teasing in the most insufferable way possible.
And it was at exactly that moment.
Yunque’s heart gave a sharp thud. She turned her head slightly — and her gaze collided directly with Lu Rangchen’s.
He was watching her like that, perfectly at ease, as if he’d been lying in wait for a long time.
His eyes were deep and darkly clear, carrying the kind of restrained, deliberate composure that comes after a person has left their reckless youth behind — looking straight into her gaze without flinching or looking away.
Her heartbeat seemed to short-circuit and skip a beat.
She had lost count of how many days it had been since they’d last seen each other. All Yunque felt was that the image of him, in her memory, had grown a little more vivid.
Even now he was the same — arrogant and detached, languid and unhurried, looking at her without any trace of surprise.
As they held each other’s gaze, the counter staff suddenly called out to him and handed over his package.
Lu Rangchen slowly withdrew his eyes, accepting it at his own unhurried pace, and glanced down at it.
The staff member verified the information with him, and he answered with lazy ease, “Lu — Building 12, Unit 1606.”
His voice was deep and resonant, carrying a note of effortless authority — just hearing it made something tingle along the nerve endings. Even the two younger girls working behind the counter couldn’t stop themselves from stealing glances at him.
On Yunque’s side, the staff member had also located all her packages and was going through the verification with her.
Yunque drew her gaze back as well, and said calmly, “Chen. Building 12, Unit 1707.”
The information checked out. The staff member placed her packages on the scanner one by one.
A moment passed — and then a faint trace of warm woody fragrance drifted past behind her.
The lightest brush of fabric. A fraction of a second.
Yunque’s breath caught. She turned her head and saw that Lu Rangchen had, at some point, passed right by her, his long stride unhurried and effortlessly graceful as he headed down the stairs.
At that same moment, Xiao Qingyu came up.
In the instant he crossed paths with Lu Rangchen, he called over to Yunque: “Have you collected everything? Are they heavy?”
Yunque’s gaze was fixed hard on that retreating figure.
But the figure moved too fast — a single turn of the corner, and he was gone.
From where she stood, she couldn’t see anything at all. She could only draw in a quiet breath and raise her voice slightly: “Not all of them yet. Almost done.”
In the moment those words fell.
Lu Rangchen, who had already reached the bottom of the stairs, finally let his footsteps falter for just a beat.
His thoughts drifted somewhere unknown.
He could just faintly hear the two voices above — fragments of conversation.
She said something was heavy and she worried he couldn’t carry it all. He said it was fine, they could make a few trips, he wasn’t going to let her strain herself.
He didn’t know exactly how many seconds he stood there listening.
Then Lu Rangchen let out a sudden, self-deprecating scoff.
As though jolted back to his senses, he pushed open the door of the pickup station. The cold, damp wind from after the rain came rushing in with force.