Yunque had never imagined that Lu Rangchen would bring up the bus stop.

She had assumed he’d long since forgotten it.

Or at the very least, that he hadn’t known the person asleep at the bus stop was her.

But reality ran counter to everything she had believed. Not only did he know it was her — after all this time, he still remembered.

Which meant that from the very moment he’d asked for her help, Lu Rangchen had already recognized her.

The realization detonated in her heart like a firework suddenly bursting into the sky, catching her entirely off guard. Her expression crumbled into helpless surprise, and even Deng Zhe and Xu Linda went quiet — both asking at the same time:

“What bus?”

“What’s going on with you two?!”

Lu Rangchen glanced at her with his usual casual air, his tone carrying a trace of amusement. “Ask her.”

“…”

Yunque’s cheeks burned hotter. She had no choice but to forge ahead with an explanation. “A while back I fell asleep at the bus stop. He woke me up.”

As she spoke, she looked at Lu Rangchen.

She didn’t know where the nerve came from, but after a moment’s pause, she met his gaze steadily and lied without blinking. “I didn’t know it was you. By the time I opened my eyes, you’d already gotten on the bus.”

Hearing that, Lu Rangchen raised his brow, his expression unreadable.

Xu Linda joined in enthusiastically. “Wow, you two are really fated.”

Yunque looked away in discomfort.

At just that moment, someone outside called for Lu Rangchen. He casually picked up his guitar, tilted his chin at Deng Zhe, and said, “I’ll head up first. You all continue — whatever you want to drink, it’s on me.”

Deng Zhe called out cheerfully, “Don’t even need you for that, I’ve got it covered.”

Lu Rangchen gave a brief nod and turned to leave, sliding past Xu Linda. His tall frame nearly matched the low, narrow doorway.

Yunque’s eyes followed him without thinking.

But just as the young man reached the door, he stopped.

He glanced at Xu Linda first, and then his gaze settled on Yunque. His voice, when he spoke, was low and a little rough. “Any songs you’d like to hear?”

Xu Linda’s eyes lit up, and she spoke up quickly. “I love Eason Chan!”

Then it was Yunque’s turn.

She parted her lips softly, her voice very quiet. “You Don’t Know.”

Lu Rangchen paused for a moment. “Wang Leehom?”

Yunque nodded, as gentle and obedient as anything.

Lu Rangchen held her gaze a second longer than necessary. “Got it.”

—

That night, Lu Rangchen was as good as his word.

The very first song after he took the stage was Eason Chan’s “Red Rose.”

His cool, low magnetic voice rose and fell with the live accompaniment, liquid and unhurried.

The stage was washed in dim light.

The young man’s profile was sharp and striking, every feature finely drawn. He held the microphone loosely, effortlessly, with that intoxicating ease that was both arresting and a little reckless — warmth seeping right into your bones.

There were already plenty of girls in the audience, but now even more cheered, waving glowsticks enthusiastically, their adoration impossible to miss.

Xu Linda was the most animated of all — filming a video while repeatedly shouting Lu Rangchen’s name, every bit the devoted little fan.

Compared to her, Yunque was almost unnervingly still.

She didn’t have a phone as capable as Xu Linda’s, so she snapped two photos and put her phone away. Then she quietly sipped the “children’s milk beer” Deng Zhe had ordered for her, her eyes fixed on Lu Rangchen glowing onstage with quiet, reverent devotion.

The first song ended quickly.

Deng Zhe came back from the kitchen carrying a fresh fruit platter and sat down beside them.

Onstage, the singer switched to a short, stocky young man. Lu Rangchen moved to the side, settling in to play guitar accompaniment.

His long neck bent slightly. A few strands of hair fell across his narrow, deep-set eyes. His elegant, long fingers swept lightly across the guitar strings. Yunque had to make a genuine effort not to keep her gaze on him every single moment.

Unlike her, Deng Zhe’s arrival immediately pulled Xu Linda’s attention away.

Listening to the two of them talk, Yunque learned that the bar belonged to Deng Zhe’s family, and Deng Zhe helped out whenever he had time. Lu Rangchen had been recruited by him — Deng Zhe said he’d been playing in a band back in Beijing at his international school since middle school, both as a singer and an accompanist.

Originally Lu Rangchen had treated it as a casual hobby, but his residency ended up drawing a bigger and bigger crowd.

Deng Zhe shook his head. “Now the result is, I have to drag him here every week. It’s like begging an ancestor.”

Xu Linda burst out laughing, her eyes bright and shining as she watched him.

Yunque suddenly understood why she had insisted on bringing her here tonight.

The secret feelings of young girls always have a way of resonating.

Yunque felt the echo of her joy, and the corner of her mouth curved up without her realizing.

Xu Linda caught that small smile instantly and latched onto Yunque, peppering her with nosy questions about exactly what was going on between her and Lu Rangchen, and why she’d never said they knew each other.

The low lights flickered across their faces.

Yunque hesitated, then said, “I didn’t think he remembered me.”

That was her honest, unfiltered thought.

For her, even the fact that Lu Rangchen remembered could be counted as a gift.

But in others’ eyes, her attitude came across as entirely too offhand.

Deng Zhe ribbed her. “I’ll tell you, little sister Zhu, that’s pretty ungrateful. After you two added each other on WeChat that day, he actually asked me your name.”

Yunque thought she’d heard wrong. She stared at him with a flash of genuine surprise.

Xu Linda puffed up, glaring. “Okay, Zhu Yunque — you added Lu Rangchen on WeChat and didn’t even tell me?”

Xu Linda knew Yunque had helped deliver something for Lu Rangchen, and she could understand Yunque not mentioning the encounter at the bus stop, but the two of them exchanging WeChat contacts without telling her — that was truly too much.

Yunque was so caught off guard by the interrogation that she was speechless.

Deng Zhe decided to play peacemaker at this point, laughing. “It’s just a WeChat add — it’s not like they’re dating. Why would she tell you? Unless you’re jealous? Do you have a thing for my brother Rangchen?”

That remark backfired immediately. Xu Linda flew into a fury. “Deng Zhe!! You horrible person!!”

The two of them erupted into chaos. The boy laughed and ducked, while the girl nearly stomped her feet in outrage, insisting she had absolutely no feelings for him.

In the murky, shifting light, Yunque’s face went red, then pale.

Like someone accidentally peeling back the most hidden layer of her heart, she lowered her gaze and silently stirred the ice in her milk beer. It took a long while before the restless heat inside her finally faded.

And it was exactly then.

Lu Rangchen stepped onstage again.

This time he wasn’t holding a guitar. He stood before a digital upright piano.

The audience gradually quieted. Xu Linda and Deng Zhe also looked toward the front.

His long fingers played the opening bars of a song — it seemed slightly unfamiliar. Lu Rangchen tried it against the sheet music a few times, then it flowed smoothly and surely.

Xu Linda gasped at that moment. “Oh — it’s the song Yunque requested!”

Yunque’s whole being went taut. She stared at the stage, unable to look away.

The introduction passed. Then Lu Rangchen’s clear, beautiful voice finally unfolded with the music, drifting through the bar in soft waves.

“How many times must a butterfly blink its eyes before it learns to fly? The night sky is full of stars, but how many will fall to the ground? I’m flying, but the moment you fall, I am so close, I can still hear you breathing. I’m sorry, yet I couldn’t hold on to you… …“

The clean, clear notes of the piano rendered this tender ballad delicate and gentle.

And because this song was being sung by Lu Rangchen himself, no matter how many times she had heard it before, Yunque felt something completely different stirring inside her now.

As if countless butterflies had taken wing from her chest and scattered in all directions, restless with a joy she could barely contain.

Her heart burned and would not stop.

Yunque finally pulled out her old Android phone and recorded this moment of Lu Rangchen.

As if only then — only like this — could this song truly, fully belong to her.

……

Because it was Xu Linda’s birthday.

Lu Rangchen later joined the band in singing a birthday song for her. Add in the birthday cake Deng Zhe had prepared, and the mood in the bar soared to its absolute peak.

Even Xu Linda was a little shy and moved when she blew out the candles.

Yunque very thoughtfully helped her take plenty of beautiful photos.

By this point, Lu Rangchen had also finished singing his five songs and was called over by Deng Zhe to share the cake.

The cake hadn’t been prepared in advance for Xu Linda — Deng Zhe had only bought it last-minute from the neighboring bakery when he heard it was her birthday.

But even so, Xu Linda was overjoyed, and kept insisting on treating everyone to grilled skewers.

Yunque, nibbling a small bite of cake, paused slightly and looked up at Lu Rangchen, who had just sat down to her left.

His long legs stretched out loosely, his posture an unhurried lean, and the faint scent of dark sandalwood drifted through the air around him — quietly arresting, reaching you without your consent.

Hearing Xu Linda’s suggestion, he glanced up from his phone. “You two go ahead. I have something to do later.”

His tone was easygoing, a bit tired, leaving no real opening for discussion.

Xu Linda blinked, caught off guard. “Don’t be like that.”

Deng Zhe’s smile flickered at the corner of his mouth. “Clingy again, huh? Did she call you back again?”

Lu Rangchen curved the corner of his mouth and picked up the milk beer from the table — the same kind as Yunque’s — and took a sip.

Yunque, without thinking, watched his long, slender fingers wrap around the cup — her thoughts going briefly, completely blank.

Deng Zhe shrugged. “Fine, then I won’t go either.”

Xu Linda let out a long, drawn-out groan. “What’s wrong with you two — what kind of men are you? Look what time it is.”

Lu Rangchen tapped his finger lightly against the side of the cup, then used his chin to point at Deng Zhe. “Him — not a man. Me — senior high male.”

It was a remark that really ought to have been insufferable, but coming from him, it wasn’t irritating at all — just delightfully reckless and disarming.

Xu Linda had already been putting on a sulky face, but she burst out laughing at that, loud and sudden.

Deng Zhe laughed too, exasperated. “Alright, that’s enough — you’ve already turned 18. You still have the nerve to call yourself a senior-high male?”

Lu Rangchen curved his lips in that shameless way of his, saying nothing.

Xu Linda blinked in surprise. “You’re already an adult? I only turned 17 today.”

Then she looked over at Yunque. “Yunque’s 17 too.”

Lu Rangchen glanced over at Yunque at that.

The girl held her cup in one hand, pinched her straw in the other, and drank like she was having a children’s juice box.

Feeling his eyes on her, Yunque’s gaze flickered.

Lu Rangchen gave an almost imperceptible curve of his lips.

Whatever he was smiling about, no one could say.

By then, the stage had started playing a Mayday song — the fast-paced “Happy Birthday,” perfectly timed.

Xu Linda immediately dragged Deng Zhe into waving glowsticks with her.

Deng Zhe struggled and failed, crying out helplessly, “You’re insane.”

Compared to the two of them, Lu Rangchen and Yunque were impossibly quiet.

Lu Rangchen answered messages in silence.

Perhaps it is a young man’s unusual maturity that creates such a powerful pull. In the middle of the background noise, Yunque couldn’t help stealing two more seconds of looking at him.

Then Lu Rangchen suddenly turned and caught her looking.

Their gazes collided without warning.

Lu Rangchen rested his head in one hand. His deep, narrow eyes lowered slowly, and he narrowed them with an unreadable expression. “Something on my face?”

“…”

It was as if his gaze had seared a hole right through her chest. Yunque froze like someone caught cheating, startled for just a beat.

Her ears burned. She shook her head and said, in a volume only the two of them could hear, that there wasn’t.

It might have been her imagination, but Lu Rangchen seemed to barely suppress a smile — though it vanished almost immediately, pulled away by another message.

The young man frowned, looking as if something was giving him a headache.

Yunque thought of the red packet he hadn’t collected, for no clear reason.

Almost against her will, she spoke up. “That hundred yuan…”

Lu Rangchen looked up. “What about it.”

Yunque pressed her lips together and said, “Why didn’t you collect it.”

Maybe the music was too loud, or maybe her voice really was too small — either way, Lu Rangchen hadn’t quite caught it.

And just then the wave of sound grew stronger than ever.

He had to lean toward her, raising his voice. “What did you say?”

The suddenly narrowed distance was like a hand giving Yunque a hard shove. The clean, cool scent of dark wood that clung to him was the net catching her as she fell.

Yunque had never imagined she would one day be this close to him.

Her heart clenched. She stumbled over the word, then spoke loudly, “I said — that hundred yuan — why didn’t you collect it?”

That time, Lu Rangchen heard.

He paused for two seconds, then leaned back, and rubbed the back of his neck with a laugh. “Forgot.”

Yunque: “…”

She picked up her phone, intending to send it again. Lu Rangchen glanced over and said, “Don’t bother. Keep it for yourself.”

Yunque froze for a moment.

Even at her most composed and self-possessed, her expression in that unguarded moment betrayed how young she really was.

Lu Rangchen let out a soft, sudden laugh. “You were pretty sharp when Gaoge was giving you trouble.”

“…”

He turned to look at her, studying her with what seemed like genuine curiosity. “How come you’re this easy to read when it comes to me?”