How sensitive the passenger seat was — any adult understood perfectly.

Not to mention Deng Jiao, whose curiosity was the near-gossip type bordering on nosy.

She immediately scrambled out of the car, and as she came around to the back seat, she couldn’t resist leaning in close to explain to Yunque, saying, “Teacher Zhu, don’t misunderstand — I don’t usually sit there, of course. And generally speaking, no other woman gets to sit there either. My honorary big brother is very virtuous when it comes to women. As for me — I don’t count as the opposite sex—”

Before she could finish, something came down squarely on the top of her head.

Deng Jiao let out a cry and clapped her hands over her head.

Lu Rangchen gave her a disdainful sidelong glance and said with no particular warmth, “You and your big mouth.”

That low, resonant voice filled the air, both real and irresistible — and even the inside of the car carried the same light agarwood fragrance as what lingered on him, giving the feeling of having wandered into his territory.

Yunque, sitting in the passenger seat, felt a quiet and sudden flutter in her chest. She lowered her gaze, pressed her lips together, and fastened her seatbelt.

Deng Jiao whimpered and fell into a sensible silence, behaving herself and playing the role of the lucky ornament.

Though this was a private school, it certainly couldn’t be called elite — so his car at the school gate did look quite flashy, much like the man himself. Even after lingering there only briefly, it had already drawn the curious glances of more than a few young women.

Among those glancing their way were even several colleagues Yunque recognized.

Lu Rangchen remained completely indifferent throughout. He looked straight ahead, started the engine, and said in a fairly casual tone, “School lets out pretty early.”

As the car pulled onto the main road, the view opened up.

Yunque glanced at him upon hearing this.

To be honest, Lu Rangchen’s profile was very striking.

The sharp, steep ridge of his nose divided his face — with its exceptional bone structure — cleanly in two. His jawline was taut and clean. When he had no expression, you might think him as cold and unapproachable as an iceberg. Yet when those deep eyes caught and held you, you’d feel he was nothing less than the sun itself.

Blazing. Dazzling. Capable of melting you without any effort at all.

A man like this — no woman could possibly resist him.

She couldn’t quite name what she felt just then. Yunque breathed in slightly and looked away, saying, “Yes, the second-year students don’t have evening self-study yet.”

On that topic, Deng Jiao grew instantly animated, plastering herself to the back of Yunque’s seat like a piece of sticky candy, saying, “Then Teacher Zhu — is there a chance the second-year students will have evening self-study later on?”

As she spoke.

Lu Rangchen casually glanced over at Yunque.

Still that same calm, serene face, simple and clear as a white camellia.

Yunque said, “Not sure yet. We’re still waiting on the notification from above.”

Deng Jiao drew out a long, lamenting sound, saying that if they really did add evening self-study sessions, she didn’t know what she’d do — the club was so far from school, and her big brother would have no time to come get her.

Her worry wasn’t unwarranted.

Even if evening self-study wasn’t added for the second-year students, it would eventually be added for the third-years. Yuhua High School had always been strict about academics.

Yunque found herself naturally following the thought, and without really thinking it through, her mouth opened and she said, “Can’t your big brother Rangchen pick you up?”

What the speaker said without intention — the listener received with full attention.

Lu Rangchen raised one eyebrow upon hearing this, his gaze falling on her face as naturally as could be.

His eyes were full of interest, slightly teasing. Not even waiting for Deng Jiao to speak, he gave a significant, drawn-out laugh and said, “Teacher Zhu certainly knows how to arrange things for others.”

“……”

Yunque looked up and met his deep, dark eyes.

How could she not understand the sarcasm and playfulness wrapped in those words?

She was just about to say something to clarify.

But Deng Jiao barreled in, whining, “He’d be too lazy to bother with me.”

It was as though having Yunque as backup gave her courage to complain freely. “Every time he comes to school, it takes my big brother calling him three or four times before he shows up. Oh — except this time he came right away when my big brother asked, without any fuss. That’s practically unheard of.”

The girl spoke without any filter, never holding things back.

And that made things all the more intriguing.

Yunque’s fingertips curled in, beyond her control.

She glanced up and saw Lu Rangchen’s lashes sweep down, his gaze carrying a hint of warning as he shot Deng Jiao a look.

He gave a small pull at the corner of his mouth. His voice was on the cool side. “Say that again?”

Deng Jiao pouted miserably and pressed herself toward Yunque’s side.

Yunque was subtly put in an awkward position for a moment.

She thought for a bit and said, “Maybe just take a cab then. See if any classmates want to share one with you.”

Deng Jiao said, “That works too.”

Then she asked, “So how often might the evening self-study sessions be?”

Yunque shook her head and said, “Still not sure, but a week should have at least two sessions.”

Deng Jiao nodded, then sighed. The thought of third year having only one day of rest and still having evening self-study was deeply discouraging.

But after a while, Lu Rangchen suddenly spoke up.

His slender, straight fingers tapped lightly on the steering wheel. His tone was languid and casual. “I can alternate with your big brother picking you up.”

The timing was perfect — a red light. The car stopped amid the flow of traffic.

Deng Jiao stared at him with wide, incredulous eyes and said, “Big brother Rangchen, are you having a moment of extraordinary generosity?”

Yunque’s lips pressed together gently, and she too couldn’t help but look at Lu Rangchen.

Only to find Lu Rangchen’s gaze already resting on her own face.

He held that direct, unwavering look for just a moment, then withdrew it. He leaned lazily back, gave a faint, unhurried smile with a roguish confidence, and said, “Call it extraordinary generosity if you like.”

“……”

Yunque turned her head and looked at the stream of cars and the city scenery outside the window. She suddenly felt that, as it happened, this traffic jam was quite timely.

It was just that the distance between the school and Xinyue Xiangfu was genuinely short.

After this red light, one more turn, and they’d be at the entrance to the residential complex.

Yunque only found out, as she was getting out of the car, that Deng Jiao wasn’t heading to Lu Rangchen’s place — their group had a dinner gathering that evening.

Deng Jiao, being a girl who always told things exactly as they were, immediately coaxed Yunque, saying, “Teacher, you’ll be home alone anyway — why not come along with us?”

Yunque had to admit that she genuinely felt a flutter of temptation in that instant.

Only — Lu Rangchen seemed to have no intention of it at all. Hearing this, his brow furrowed impatiently, and he glanced at Deng Jiao with a look that said she’d gone far enough.

Having been scolded countless times already on this drive, Deng Jiao was completely exasperated. She rolled her eyes dramatically at him and muttered, “Big wooden plank.”

Lu Rangchen was entirely unmoved, and simply glanced at Yunque.

As though there was something he wanted to say — and yet didn’t.

Yunque said nothing either.

Her eyes quietly, calmly withdrew. She left behind a clear and uncomplicated “thank you for the ride,” then pushed open the car door and stepped out.

Once she was truly out of the car.

The gaze of the person still inside became singular and intense.

Like watching something coveted and claimed by the heart — Lu Rangchen’s gaze followed Yunque’s figure until she slipped into the residential complex. Only then did he pull it back, start the engine again.

Deng Jiao had watched the entire scene unfold, and couldn’t resist saying, “Serves you right for playing it cool. Now you regret it, don’t you? What a perfect opportunity just now, honestly.”

The opportunity had been perfect, yes.

But the people present hadn’t been right.

Thinking of Li Tie and Zhou Jin, Lu Rangchen furrowed his brow with considerable helplessness, gave a short laugh, and said, “What do you know?”

With those two around, Yunque going there would only mean catching flak from them.

He’d have to be out of his mind to willingly shove her into a pit of fire.

—

It was still early when she got home. That evening, Yunque met up with Xu Linda.

The two of them arranged to eat at a small food street nearby.

Yunque then naturally brought up her recent interactions with Lu Rangchen.

When Xu Linda heard she’d been ill, she let out a startled exclamation, her tone full of reproach. “Why didn’t you tell me something as big as being sick? You just endured it alone — how foolish.”

Yunque just smiled and said, “I thought I could manage it on my own at the time.”

Xu Linda gave her a blank stare and said, “Oh please. I think you just wanted an excuse to reel Lu Rangchen in. Not that it didn’t pay off in the end.”

Yunque smiled and didn’t respond.

Actually, she genuinely hadn’t planned anything that day.

She hadn’t expected Lu Rangchen to know she was sick. She hadn’t expected that he would cook her a meal. And she certainly hadn’t expected that today, of all days, they would run into each other again.

Xu Linda said, “I can tell he did it deliberately — deliberately came to pick up that Deng Jiao girl, just to get another look at you.”

“Though I also don’t understand: with such a good opportunity today, why didn’t he bring you along? It’s just Deng Zhe’s birthday, that’s all.”

This was something Xu Linda had seen on social media.

Speaking of which — Xu Linda and Deng Zhe were quite an interesting pair. Even though they hadn’t been in contact for all these years, both of them were still following each other on their social media accounts.

It was only after Xu Linda learned that Deng Jiao was Deng Zhe’s younger sister that she logged back into that old account — and then saw the post Deng Zhe had just put up that evening, a group of people celebrating his birthday.

He’d posted quite a few photos. In one of them, a hand that was clearly Lu Rangchen’s was visible.

She’d even shown it to Yunque.

But when Yunque took the phone and looked for a few moments, the only thing she noticed was the hand of the woman beside Lu Rangchen — a woman wearing a ring.

The motion of chewing her skewer of meat stalled for a moment.

Yunque’s gaze went blank for a few seconds. She said, “Maybe it wasn’t convenient.”

The two of them weren’t at that stage yet in their relationship.

Or maybe there were other women at that dinner gathering, and he didn’t want to add unnecessary complications…

It had been a very long time since Yunque had allowed herself to spiral over trivial little things like this.

She couldn’t quite explain why, but that night, after parting from Xu Linda and returning home, she found herself unable to stop thinking.

She thought about what Zhang Leyao had said to her that afternoon, and what Zhang Leyao had then said to the others in the office.

She thought about whether Zhang Leyao and Lu Rangchen had added each other on social media.

She thought about whether they’d been chatting privately about all sorts of things.

She even found herself wondering whether Zhang Leyao had attended that gathering tonight, and whether the woman sitting beside Lu Rangchen had been her.

It was as though, all of a sudden.

She had become the Yunque of years past — the Yunque who would exhaust herself with obsessive thoughts about Lu Rangchen.

The feeling was quite absurd.

But she found she had no way of escaping it.

She forced herself to let her thoughts go blank for a while, and decided to go shower and try to clear her head. But to her misfortune, that evening had other plans — she’d barely started washing when the entire residential complex went pitch dark with a sudden power outage.

At the same moment.

The group that had just moved from a hotpot restaurant to a bar had only just arrived.

Lu Rangchen had arranged it. The treatment was generous — a VIP booth on the upper floor, a whole table of drinks, snacks, and fruit ordered. Looking down, there was the live performance stage, with an excellent vantage point.

Deng Zhe, having had his fill of the excitement, came back and looked around — and immediately spotted Lu Rangchen sitting there, eyes lowered, scrolling through messages with an expression of weary irritation. Probably some annoying business partner.

Though he’d been like that all evening.

Distracted. Even drinking as if he were feeding fish.

Deng Zhe had vaguely heard from Deng Jiao that Lu Rangchen had run into Yunque when he came to pick her up. He’d actually been wanting to ask about the two of them — but with Zhou Jin and Li Tie around, he’d held his tongue.

He’d been thinking he’d ask now — but looking at the sour expression written all over Lu Rangchen’s face, he honestly didn’t quite dare.

So he sat down, didn’t get involved, and simply pulled out his phone to scroll through social media.

Then Lu Rangchen heard Deng Zhe curse under his breath.

The man lazily raised his eyes, gave him a look of pure contempt, and said in exasperated amusement, “Can you stop being so dramatic all the time?”

Deng Zhe said, “How can I not be dramatic — your ex-girlfriend just liked one of your posts. How are you not being dramatic?”

“……”

Lu Rangchen’s eyes deepened. Yunque’s face immediately sprang to mind.

That was hard to quite relate to.

Because he didn’t follow Yunque’s social media account at all.

Whether Yunque even used social media was an open question.

But before he could say anything.

Deng Zhe said in bewilderment, “You’d think this Xu Linda accidentally hit like, or did it on purpose?”

Hearing Xu Linda’s name, Lu Rangchen’s eyelid twitched.

Deng Zhe immediately followed up with another soft curse. “Damn, isn’t that Yunque right there?”

Yunque. Those three syllables — like a wound branded on the heart.

Just hearing them made his brow instinctively tighten.

Deng Zhe was even more perceptive than Deng Jiao.

He immediately handed his phone to Lu Rangchen and said, “Look — is it her? She’s even interacting with Xu Linda.”

His throat moved. Lu Rangchen took it with a furrowed brow, and then saw the account named “skylark-“, and its most recently posted update:

skylark-: 【……Running into the power going out mid-shower again — is this some kind of curse? [laughing and crying emoji]】

Opening the comments, below was a reply from the account “linda-xu”: 【Oh my god, are you serious — do you need me to come pick you up?】

Whether she’d seen Xu Linda’s reply or not was unclear — the exchange ended there.

And right at that moment, a notification chimed on his phone.

He reflexively glanced at it and found it was a group notification from the residential complex community chat. The group admin was the building manager, tagging all residents, reporting that the complex had experienced a temporary electrical fault, and that the power company was sending someone to investigate and repair it — residents should be prepared.

As expected, every resident was responding with streams of complaints.

Lu Rangchen’s thick brows drew together abruptly. In an instant, something crystallized with certainty.

With almost no hesitation at all, he tossed his phone back to Deng Zhe.

He tipped back the remaining half of his cocktail in one long swallow, set the glass down, and stood.

His tall, lean silhouette was decisive and unyielding.

That sharp bearing made Deng Zhe blink. He said, “Where are you going?”

“Home.”

A clear, cool, magnetic voice.

His striking face was indistinct in the moody neon light. Leaving those words behind him, Lu Rangchen grabbed his car keys and walked out without looking back.