Lu Rangchen wasn’t wrong — there really wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about.

They were both adults. Back in those days when they had loved each other deeply, what hadn’t they tried? To feel awkward about it now would be somewhat affected.

Yunque was not a coy person by nature, and she had no desire to be misread by Lu Rangchen. So she simply pulled her face into a composed expression and brushed past him to go inside.

Her soft, long hair carried a faint, delicate fragrance, drifting lightly across the man’s shoulder and arm as she passed.

A strangely subtle sensation.

Even his throat, inexplicably, stirred with a faint itch.

His gaze trailed after her as she walked in. A leisurely smile surfaced in Lu Rangchen’s eyes. He closed the door and followed her inside.

This was the first time Yunque had come to where he lived.

The layouts of their two apartments were different — Lu Rangchen’s was clearly much larger than hers.

Even the entryway alone had significantly more space.

The furniture had been carefully selected. When the cabinet door swung open, the shoes inside were arranged with neat, clean precision.

Yunque caught a glimpse of it without meaning to — inside the cabinet were a few pairs of women’s shoes and slippers.

Before her eyes could shift away, Lu Rangchen noticed. He came to stand behind her, his tone casual and unhurried as he offered in passing: “Lin Zhi was over a while ago.”

He gave Yunque no time to react.

He simply reached into the cabinet and placed a brand-new pair of men’s slippers on the floor at her feet.

The slippers were clearly far too large for her feet.

But Yunque still stepped into them, her feet in their white socks settling in gently.

Her feet were the same as always — narrow and slender. Held up against Lu Rangchen’s slippers, there was always the illusion that she was being enclosed and claimed by him.

That illusion was one Lu Rangchen had suppressed for many years, not daring to let himself dwell on it. And now here it was, playing out right before his eyes, as vivid and real as anything.

His throat worked. Lu Rangchen drew his gaze back, turned, and walked deeper into the apartment. “I’m going to change,” he said. “Make yourself at home.”

With that, he disappeared into the dressing room, leaving the entire expansive space to Yunque.

Not that it bothered her particularly.

She had been to his most private dormitory before.

There was nothing here to make her feel out of place.

So Yunque went to the kitchen. She had brought noodles, scallions, and eggs. She had half-expected Lu Rangchen’s refrigerator to be exactly as he’d described — completely empty — but when she looked up, she found the counter of the kitchen island covered in a heap of food.

Half of it was instant foods; half was meat, eggs, and fresh vegetables.

It all looked like it had been bought not too long ago, none of the packaging opened yet. Against that, the few ingredients she’d brought felt more than a little sparse by comparison.

Lu Rangchen had just walked into the kitchen when he found Yunque standing there staring at the pile with a slight frown.

Yunque raised her eyes to look at him, her expression quietly bewildered.

Lu Rangchen, for his part, was unapologetically shameless in his candor. He shrugged and said, “How was I supposed to know she’d gone and put everything she bought here.”

“……”

Yunque lowered her eyes. This was the first time, in all the time they had been speaking again, that she addressed him with any real emotion in her voice.

She said, “In that case, you could have had her make something before she left.”

Then she turned around, poured water, and started the stove to boil the noodles.

Lu Rangchen couldn’t see the expression on her face in this moment, but he could sense that she probably wasn’t in a great mood — though it was hard to say precisely why.

Almost imperceptibly, the corners of his mouth tugged upward. Lu Rangchen probed, “Lin Zhi doesn’t stay here.”

Holding a bottle of water he’d drunk halfway through, he leaned languidly against the kitchen island and watched Yunque make scallion oil noodles for him. He said, “I don’t like eating things she makes, either.”

The words fell.

Something flashed through Yunque’s eyes — too quick for Lu Rangchen to catch with any certainty.

By the time that moment passed, Yunque had already returned to her usual composed self. Before long, she had prepared two generous, appetizing bowls of scallion oil noodles. “This is to thank you,” she said.

Lu Rangchen let out an amused huff. “Thank me for what?”

Yunque looked up at him. “For helping handle the situation with my little brother last night.”

Lu Rangchen gave a knowing sound of acknowledgment. “That’s all?”

Yunque said nothing.

Lu Rangchen held her gaze for a long moment — an expression like he was settling a score — then let out a single low laugh, picked up both bowls of scallion oil noodles, and carried them to the dining table in the living room. He set them down and tossed back a remark: “You owe me so much already — can you even finish thanking me for all of it?”

“……”

Yunque had, she had to admit, always admired her own ability to behave as though nothing had happened.

Even hearing Lu Rangchen say something like that, she simply pulled out a chair and sat down across from him.

Lu Rangchen had always loved the scallion oil noodles she made — what she hadn’t expected was that eight years later, things were the same.

Yunque watched him pick up his chopsticks and take a couple of bites without hesitation. She couldn’t help asking, “Is it alright?”

Lu Rangchen gave a single nod. “It’s the flavor from before.”

A flavor he had thought about more times than he could count over all those years — one he had never dared hope he’d taste again eight years later.

Yunque’s heart settled a little. She said quietly, almost murmuring, “My hands have gotten rusty.”

At those words, Lu Rangchen raised his eyes and glanced at her — then suddenly laughed.

Yunque didn’t understand what that laugh meant.

Lu Rangchen observed her at his leisure, unhurried, and asked, “Why — haven’t you made this for anyone else?”

The question was laden with a probing quality. He hadn’t expected any particularly gratifying answer. Yet Yunque said quite readily, “No.”

She picked up a bite of noodles with lowered eyes, her expression composed. “No one else even knows I can make this.”

That response made Lu Rangchen’s fingertips pause. He raised an eyebrow.

Yunque met his gaze, looking not the least bit guilty.

Because it was Lu Rangchen who had specifically asked for this dish that she had learned to make it — so of course no one else would know about it.

Just because she was being straightforward didn’t necessarily mean Lu Rangchen would actually believe her.

As though reading the answer from her eyes, Lu Rangchen narrowed his gaze slightly and let out a low, suppressed laugh. “Yunque,” he said, “don’t try that kind of game with me.”

There were times when one couldn’t help but acknowledge it: the two of them had a chemistry so instinctive it was as if they operated on a private Morse code that only they understood.

Anyone else would have been completely lost watching them interact — yet the two of them had already exchanged several rounds of veiled probing, with neither one gaining the clear upper hand.

Yunque swallowed softly, offered no rebuttal, and quietly lowered her head to eat another bite of noodles.

Lu Rangchen looked at her and, without standing on ceremony, began eating as well.

Men’s appetites naturally ran larger than women’s.

Lu Rangchen finished quickly — his bowl had more in it, yet he was done first.

When he finished, he didn’t move. He just rested one hand loosely on the table, watching Yunque with leisurely indifference.

One had to say — when someone was this beautiful, everything they did looked like a photoshoot, even just eating noodles.

In the bright, unguarded daylight, her skin was as white as milk, her limbs slender and well-proportioned — the curves of her figure perfectly present, with not an ounce of excess flesh. She had grown into herself beautifully.

More and more captivating with time.

Just watching her like that, Lu Rangchen found himself wondering — how many men must have hovered around her over the years? How many men had tasted what she was like?

That jealousy was like a root buried in dark, sunless soil, and now that she had returned to his life, it was breaking through the earth in wild, unruly growth.

Thinking this, Lu Rangchen just went ahead and asked.

He said: “Yunque, where’s your boyfriend?”

Yunque startled slightly, then caught up to what he meant.

“What boyfriend?” she said. “I don’t have one.”

Lu Rangchen raised an eyebrow. “The one in Australia. The rich second-generation guy, ABC, whose Mandarin has that Taiwanese lilt that his tongue can’t quite straighten out.”

The words dripped with hostility from start to finish — dismissive in a way he rarely let show.

He clearly had very little regard for the person.

“……”

Yunque tried to hold back, then gave up. “His name is Xie Han.”

Not wanting to irritate Lu Rangchen further, she added, “He and I have had nothing going on for a long time.”

What she meant by “nothing going on” was the pretend-couple arrangement — she had no way to explain that to Lu Rangchen, so she put it this way.

Lu Rangchen arched an eyebrow slightly, made a sound of acknowledgment, and said, “And after him? How many since?”

The tone was playful, but the delivery was grating enough that Yunque’s lips pressed tight.

Realizing she might be about to get irritated, Lu Rangchen stretched the corners of his eyes slightly, just about to say he’d been joking — when Yunque gave him the answer directly. “None,” she said.

“……”

“Not a single one.”

Yunque’s gaze as she looked at him was clear and unblemished, without a trace of concealment — it invited scrutiny and held up under it.

Lu Rangchen went quiet. His gaze stayed on her, unwavering, for a long half-moment.

Their eyes met and held. And in that moment, for the first time with such startling clarity, Lu Rangchen felt acutely aware of his own heartbeat — a feeling that seemed to exist only when Yunque was the one producing it.

Several seconds passed, one couldn’t say how many.

Yunque’s lashes gave a light, delicate tremble, and she asked: “What about you?”

That soft, gentle voice pulled Lu Rangchen back to the present. This man, who prided himself on having few virtues, could at least claim one: directness.

He replied almost without pause: “Same as you.”

The voice was deep, low, and unhurried — settling in word by deliberate word, with a gritty texture, unruly yet certain.

The air fell quiet around them, as though they existed inside a vacuum that belonged only to the two of them.

Yunque’s fingers tightened imperceptibly around the tips of her chopsticks. For one brief moment she wanted to ask him — when he said “same as you,” did he mean he had dated one person after her, or not a single person at all?

Unfortunately, the question never made it out of her mouth. A phone call tore through the frequency that existed between them.

It was a call from the capital.

Asking Lu Rangchen when he was setting off for the airport — the old man was already impatient and wanted Lu Rangchen to come see him sooner.

They were sitting close. Yunque could hear everything the caller said.

A string inside her went taut at the words “the old man.”

She said nothing more, lowered her head, and continued eating the noodles in her bowl.

She ate; he watched her. Whatever was being said on the other end of the call hadn’t gotten through to him at all — he gave a few perfunctory responses and said he’d be there soon.

After the call ended, their eyes met.

Yunque looked up at him and said, “So you’re going back?”

Lu Rangchen gave a low sound of confirmation.

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

She paused briefly. “Then I’ll tidy up quickly.”

She moved to rise and clear the bowls — but Lu Rangchen stopped her. “It’s fine,” he said. “Just leave them.”

As he said it, he had already closed his hand around her wrist.

Still the same soft, delicate texture. A texture he had longed for in countless dreams.

Now that he had it, he didn’t want to let go.

Feeling the faint calluses on the man’s fingertips, Yunque’s heart gave a small jolt. She didn’t rush to pull her hand back. Instead she let Lu Rangchen hold it, waiting until he chose to release her.

Lu Rangchen’s gaze darkened, as though deliberately explaining, “My grandfather’s birthday. I’ll be back in two days. If anything comes up in the meantime, you can reach out to me.”

Then, as though remembering something from the past, he fixed his gaze steadily on Yunque and said, “My phone will be on no matter what time it is. This time, you don’t need to worry about not being able to reach me.”

“……”

An emotion that rose without warning very nearly submerged Yunque entirely. She looked away from Lu Rangchen’s scorching gaze, gave a small nod, and said very softly: “Okay.”

That day, before Lu Rangchen left, he walked Yunque back to her apartment first.

Not long after, Yunque stood by the floor-to-ceiling window and watched the silhouette of Lu Rangchen’s car drive out of the complex.

The tips of her ears still held the lingering warmth of a moment before.

She raised her hand and touched them. There was, strangely, a sense of unreality she rarely ever felt.

……

The Cheng family patriarch was celebrating his eightieth birthday this time around.

At his age, the old man had no desire for a grand, elaborate celebration — he simply wanted to see as many of his descendants as possible.

So before his birthday had even arrived, Lu Rangchen was summoned back early by the family’s elders — and once he went, he was gone for several days.

During those few days, Yunque wasn’t having a quiet time of it either.

Zhu Ping’an came back after wrapping up his work and immediately arranged surgery for Zhu Yuxuan. But Deng Jiali was unsatisfied — no matter what, she wanted an appointment with the fully-booked specialist at that hospital.

The old grandmother at home was the same — even at her age, she kept getting involved, persistently spurring Zhu Ping’an on to go find Yunque.

Yunque was in the middle of teaching when her phone kept lighting up, one notification after another.

Fortunately she had it on silent.

Yunque knew perfectly well what Zhu Ping’an wanted from her. She had considered refusing once more — but he was her father, after all. With Zhu Ping’an pleading in that heartbreaking tone, Yunque couldn’t bring herself to be cruel.

Zhu Ping’an said, “Yunque, I know you’re in a difficult position, your dad is in a difficult position too, but your Auntie is threatening all manner of things — she absolutely insists on getting Xiao Xuan the best specialist, and when she keeps making a scene, the whole family has no peace. Besides, a specialist appointment really does offer more security. Otherwise, tell me — what is Xiao Xuan supposed to do with the rest of his life?”

“Xiao Xuan adores you so much — you can’t bear to see this child’s future affected by this illness, can you?”

“Xie Han is a good kid. I believe that if you’d just say the word, he’ll definitely agree.”

“Consider it your dad begging you. Alright?”

Zhu Ping’an went on persuading her earnestly and patiently. After a long while, the class bell rang.

The next period wasn’t hers.

But she still used it as an excuse to hang up.

Back in the office, she sat in a hollow daze for a moment. Just then, Xu Linda happened to send her some amusing things, and Yunque took the opportunity to tell her about what had been going on lately.

Xu Linda’s first response was: 【Why not ask Lu Rangchen to help? With his connections, getting you a specialist appointment would be a matter of moments.】

Xu Linda: 【Never mind a specialist appointment — with one word from him, a VIP doctor from a private hospital would come to you.】

Yunque: 【……】

Yunque said: 【Even if he has that ability, I couldn’t bring myself to ask him.】

Xu Linda was having none of it: 【But you didn’t even ask, and he didn’t already handle that school bullying situation with your brother? And before he left, didn’t he tell you to reach out if anything came up? You don’t understand a hint this obvious?!?】

She understood the hint, alright.

Whether she was willing to act on it was a different matter.

Yunque couldn’t be this transparent with Xu Linda.

Because some things — outsiders could never truly feel as you did. Just like all those immeasurable gaps between her and Lu Rangchen, between their families. She still remembered the words Cheng Fusen had come to say to her that day: “Everything you have now,” he had said, pressuring her, “what part of it wasn’t obtained by genuinely treading on the interests of the Cheng and Lu families?”

Yunque at the time — proud, headstrong Yunque — had been struck speechless with shame by those words, her face burning.

She had wanted to say that the university she’d tested into on her own merits was an exception — but when she thought it through, Feng Yanlai’s money that had clothed and fed and schooled her had itself been earned through the support of Lu Dingzhong.

And so, from that point on, certain fractures in her heart had been destined never to fully heal.

Just like now — no matter how Xu Linda urged her, Yunque ultimately found she could not be moved to seek Lu Rangchen’s help.

As Lu Rangchen himself had said, she owed him enough already.

She wasn’t shameless enough, after hurting him the way she once did, to come back and need him, and ask of him once more.

Xu Linda knew how stubborn her character was, and in the end gave up persuading her — only saying she’d ask around if anyone had relevant connections.

But judging by that hospital’s situation, it would likely be difficult.

The turning point, when it finally came, was because of a phone call Xie Han made on his own initiative.

It was the following afternoon. Yunque had just finished her last class of the day and returned to the office, only to be told her phone had been ringing for quite a while.

She picked it up and looked — and discovered the caller was Xie Han, someone she hadn’t been in contact with for a long time.

Xie Han had called several times without getting through, and had followed up with a message: 【Auntie has a need on her end — why didn’t you reach out to me sooner?】

Reading that message, Yunque’s heart lurched.

She truly hadn’t imagined Deng Jiali would be this impatient.

But now that things had come to this point, it seemed there was no other way.

Yunque asked him: 【How did she get in touch with you?】

Xie Han said: 【Remember when I took you and your family to that restaurant I own? She went to the restaurant and asked the manager.】

Yunque: “……”

For a moment she genuinely didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Xie Han added: 【You don’t need to feel burdened by this. I’m actually quite glad to be able to help.】

Yunque: 【You’ve already taken care of it?】

Xie Han said yes.

Yunque found herself with nothing to say.

It was Xie Han who finally broke the silence, suggesting: 【Let’s meet tonight. I’m back in Nancheng.】

“……”

Yunque’s mood suddenly became very complicated.

It was as though some things were simply destined to push you forward whether you were ready or not.

In the end, she could only agree, saying: 【I really can’t thank you enough. Dinner tonight is on me.】

The dinner itself was almost beside the point.

Yunque simply wanted to express her gratitude in some way — and likewise, Xie Han didn’t need her to treat him. He just wanted to see her.

Call it old friends, call it lingering feelings — whatever it was, that evening’s meal was unavoidable.

Yunque didn’t want to make a fuss about it — she didn’t even put on makeup, booked a restaurant before leaving work, and originally told Xie Han they’d meet at the restaurant entrance. But Xie Han, who was always courteous, and for whom this wasn’t any sort of girls’ night out, simply drove his flashy sports car over to pick her up.

A quite attention-grabbing car, parked right at the school gate.

It attracted no small amount of notice. Yunque practically had to force herself to get in.

Fortunately, the restaurant wasn’t too far from the school. Yunque had deliberately chosen a rather expensive French place — her way of conveying her sincerity.

Xie Han didn’t decline.

He ordered what needed to be ordered.

He knew Yunque — she couldn’t stand feeling like she owed anyone. If he didn’t let her pay back the favor, she’d be the uncomfortable one.

Like when they were studying abroad, and he’d helped Yunque pretend to be her boyfriend to meet with Lu Rangchen — Yunque had thanked him by making him breakfast every single day for an entire semester. Even so, Xie Han never managed to win her over.

Remembering those days, Xie Han’s smile held both nostalgia and regret. “Those school days were really the best,” he said. “You could do anything you wanted, and there were so much fewer things to worry about.”

Yunque was cutting her steak. She glanced up at him. “What, are you having a lot of troubles lately? Or did you break up with your girlfriend?”

That last line immediately made Xie Han laugh.

“Do I really look like the kind of person who gets devastated over a relationship?” he said.

Then he knitted his brow slightly and said, “Although — I did break up with her.”

Yunque looked at him in surprise. “Why? Got tired of her again?”

Xie Han let out a sigh. “It’s got nothing to do with getting tired of anyone. The arrangement was never meant to be long-term anyway. Now that I’m getting older, my family has started pressuring me about marriage — they’ve arranged a match for me.”

“……”

Yunque hadn’t expected Xie Han to one day face an arranged marriage.

She couldn’t help asking, “And you agreed?”

Xie Han said, “What else would I do? Agree, of course — what other choice is there? It’s not like I’m your ex, Lu Rangchen.”

Then, unable to help himself, he teased Yunque: “Of course, I could always say no — if you and I got together, I wouldn’t need to go through with the arrangement.”

It was said like a joke, yet with a few threads of genuine feeling woven through.

Yunque paused momentarily, the awkwardness suddenly visible in her eyes. All she could do was pick up her wine glass and take a small, quiet sip.

Xie Han shrugged — accepting that he’d put himself in an awkward position — and changed the subject: “Right, I haven’t even asked — what’s going on with you and Lu Rangchen? Have you two seen each other?”

For some reason she couldn’t explain, every time she heard someone mention Lu Rangchen, Yunque found herself unable to focus. Her thoughts drifted involuntarily to him.

She wondered what he was doing right now in the capital.

Whether the birthday celebration was over.

And once it was over — might he, like Xie Han, be “drafted in at a critical moment” and arranged to marry some prominent family’s daughter?

Her thoughts wandered on their own in that direction. Distracted, Yunque answered: “We’ve seen each other.”

“Back together?”

“Not yet.”

“What’s missing? You’re nearly there — he doesn’t agree?”

“……”

Yunque was thoroughly put off by his interrogation.

His own embarrassment registered, and Xie Han laughed at himself, then said, “That was stupid of me — how could he possibly not agree? You’re Yunque, after all.”

That put Yunque on the spot in a different way.

She pressed her lips together. “Don’t say it like that. I’m not that capable.”

Xie Han shook his head with a noncommittal smile. The meal that followed passed pleasantly enough.

Only, Xie Han seemed in not quite the best spirits. After dinner, instead of seeing Yunque home right away, he suggested they go to a newly opened bar for a drink.

It was over near the international student street — a semi-underground little venue, a quiet bar, busy and lively.

With all the years of friendship between them, Yunque had no real grounds to refuse. So the two of them agreed on a whim and went.

What neither of them could have anticipated was just how coincidental that night would turn out to be.

Xie Han and Yunque had just found a spot and parked when, on the other side of the lane, Lu Rangchen’s car slowly pulled up to the entrance.

Lu Rangchen had come back that same day. Along with him was Lin Zhi.

The old man had originally asked them both to stay a few more days, but there were things and people in Nancheng that Lu Rangchen couldn’t stop thinking about. Besides, Lin Zhi was in low spirits — her family had just arranged a new match for her, and she was thoroughly annoyed. So she came back to Nancheng with Lu Rangchen.

Once back, naturally, it was time to find some entertainment.

Lin Zhi called up Li Tie and Zhou Jin, the couple who had just gotten off work, and the four of them made plans to meet at a small bar.

Lin Zhi was a regular here — she claimed the bartender was particularly good-looking and that she wanted to sleep with him.

On the way over, she was going on about it, saying she wanted to go absolutely wild before getting married, which had Zhou Jin laughing.

Then Lin Zhi, in her incorrigible way, gave Lu Rangchen — who was driving — a shove and said, “I absolutely do not want to end up like Lu Rangchen — hung up on one person for the rest of my life.”

“……”

Perhaps it was because he had called Yunque earlier and she hadn’t picked up.

Lu Rangchen was in a poor mood at the moment. He caught Lin Zhi’s eye in the rearview mirror and shot her a look: one more word and I’ll kick you out of the car.

The two of them had always been sharp-tongued with each other.

Lin Zhi’s eye-roll was nothing short of a masterpiece.

She then proceeded to dig into the gossip about Lu Rangchen and Yunque.

Li Tie, unlike Zhou Jin and Lin Zhi, didn’t have any particular goodwill toward Yunque. He genuinely couldn’t stand that girl — cold and heartless, in his view. After hearing everything, he snorted and jabbed a pointed remark at Lu Rangchen: “Just wait until she’s used you up and thrown you away.”

Lu Rangchen tensed his jaw. He said nothing in response.

Zhou Jin gave Li Tie a smack and told him to shut up.

He did go quiet — but as it turned out, he had the mouth of an ill omen.

Li Tie had just been brought in line by Zhou Jin when, the very next second, he happened to catch a glimpse through the car window: a sports car that had just come to a stop, and two people getting out of it.

The man looked decent enough — clearly someone with money. As for the woman—

Li Tie swore out loud: “No, wait — am I seeing things? Because the person up ahead looks an awful lot like Yunque?!”

He said it at full volume.

Not only did the others hear it — Lu Rangchen, sitting right beside him, felt something slam into his chest.

His foot instinctively slammed hard on the brake.

The tires scraped against the road with a sharp, grating shriek. A split second later, the black large-frame vehicle came to a stop no more than five meters from that sports car.

At the sudden noise, Yunque turned her head on instinct — and there it was: inside that black vehicle, the silhouette that made her very heart shudder.

At that moment, Lu Rangchen’s knuckles were white around the steering wheel, the tendons on the backs of his hands prominent and raised. His sharp, unruly features held no expression at all as he stared fixedly at her.

The scene froze in this instant.

It was Xie Han who broke the silence with a puzzled sound. “What’s wrong?” he asked Yunque.

Her heartbeat in that moment was like a hammer pounding her chest.

Yunque swallowed, and for a moment, she completely forgot to respond.

It was then that Lu Rangchen got out of the car.

He stepped out with that same tall, commanding presence — even the act of getting out of a car was effortlessly untamed. Getting out alongside him were Li Tie, Zhou Jin, and Lin Zhi.

The three of them saw her and were all visibly startled. Lin Zhi, the least able to contain herself, said instinctively, “What are you doing here?”

Then she looked at Xie Han, her expression caught between shock and disbelief.

Those words seemed to cut a breach through the suffocating stillness.

And in that split second, Lu Rangchen brushed straight past Lin Zhi and walked forward.

Yunque looked up to meet him, moving her lips, about to say something — but Lu Rangchen only looked at her with cold detachment, said nothing at all, and turned on his heel, walking into the bar without looking back.

It was the first time Lu Rangchen had ever looked at her like that.

Like a blow to the soul — and not a single word needed.

It was a summer night, humid and warm.

Yet her heart went cold in an instant.

What Xie Han said behind her she didn’t hear. She only knew that the three people at her back were staring at her — their expressions all different.

Speechless. Incensed. Contemptuous. Disgusted.

Not a single word had been said.

And yet everything had been said.

Involuntarily her fingertips clenched tight. Yunque bit her lip. The inside of her nose burned, suddenly.

Xie Han, seeing her stay silent, pressed again: “What’s going on? Why is Lu Rangchen here? And that look on his face when he saw you — what exactly is going on between you two?”

She could have done without him saying that.

The moment he did, Yunque pressed her lips so hard the color faded.

Whether it was impulse or a brief loss of reason, it was impossible to say. Yunque exhaled softly. The rims of her eyes reddened.

Xie Han noticed she wasn’t right and moved to take her by the arm. Yunque shook him off directly.

Xie Han froze and called out her name.

Yunque heard nothing. Eight years of compressed feeling erupted like a flood. She walked straight into the bar.

The evening crowd had just arrived in full force.

The bar was packed — laughter steeped in music everywhere, the smell of cigarettes and alcohol mingling, unfamiliar faces crowding her vision on all sides.

She had never felt this way, not once before.

This desperately wanting to find Lu Rangchen. Wanting to see him. Wanting to talk to him.

Never, either, had she felt this afraid — afraid of losing him.

Her eyes were beginning to blur. She stood disoriented in place, her vision hazy and unclear, unable to find him anywhere.

Someone nearby noticed her and, drawn in by how beautiful and helpless she looked, leaned over and asked if she was alright — whether she’d like to have a drink with them.

But before Yunque could even refuse, the hand that reached toward her was seized by another — and wrenched back, hard.

The man yelped in pain and was about to start cursing, but he looked up and met Lu Rangchen’s eyes — a gaze gone utterly void — and heard him grind out a single word from the back of his throat: “Get out.”

Yunque startled back to herself, looked up — and found Lu Rangchen towering at her side.

But before she could say anything, Lu Rangchen had already seized her by the wrist and pulled her sharply out of there.

Looking back on it afterward, Yunque still felt that that night had been the most deeply branded in all her memory.

The force of Lu Rangchen’s fury — burning like fire.

She heard the clamor of the crowd behind her, heard Li Tie shout Lu Rangchen’s name, and then there was only the wind past her ears, and the sound of Lu Rangchen’s footsteps.

Deeper into the alley, the wall was faintly damp with the moisture of a summer night, slightly cool.

Her slight back hit the wall.

A brief, sharp pain jolted a muffled sound from Yunque, and in the next second she was pinned hard against the wall by Lu Rangchen — who then seized her by the jaw.

Lu Rangchen reeked of alcohol, holding back a body full of rage, his smile mocking and desolate. He said, “Yunque — I damn well shouldn’t have believed you, time and time again.”

The force of his grip was painful.

Yet she offered no resistance whatsoever. Like a doll completely at another’s mercy, tears the size of beans tracked down her eyes and fell onto his hand. She said, “Lu Rangchen, it’s not what you think. He and I have never been together—”

Lu Rangchen’s jaw clenched tight. The fury in his eyes, straining to be contained, flickered and wavered in this instant.

But before he could truly register what her words meant, burning lips descended — out of control, unrestrainable.

That kiss was torrential — Yunque could barely breathe.

Lu Rangchen held her pinned and immovable.

As though pouring out every last emotion at once, he bit and crushed her lips with force. His deep voice, shaking with something between fury and desperation, scraped from his throat in a low, hoarse rasp.

He said, “You don’t love me at all.”

“You don’t love me — so why did you have to come and draw me in?”