◎ “Please” ◎

“…”

It had to be said — there were moments when Yunque genuinely admired Lu Rangchen’s selective memory.

Whoever or whatever he wanted to remember, he’d remember even if they turned to ash. Whatever he didn’t care to remember, he could hear it a hundred times and still draw a blank.

Zhang Leyao was a perfect example.

The girl had already met him twice before, and Yunque had even mentioned her once — yet Lu Rangchen still couldn’t place her.

This had Yunque wondering whether he was doing it on purpose to feign ignorance and keep himself looking innocent.

Yunque said quietly: “She’s the one who used to come to your club trying to get close to you.”

Lu Rangchen’s expression paused slightly. He lifted an eyebrow. “Her?”

“…”

“There were too many. I genuinely can’t keep track.”

The phrase “there were too many” had a certain inspired quality to it.

Yunque nearly burst out laughing despite herself.

How to put it.

There was a little jealousy, sure.

But in this moment, she mostly just found him exasperating.

Yunque clutched her chopsticks, shot him an expressionless glance, and her face might as well have had the words “I can’t be bothered with you” written on it.

Lu Rangchen looked at her and smothered a laugh.

He rather liked watching her like this.

Clearly simmering inside, yet on the surface maintaining an air of breezy detachment and dignified composure.

Without caring whether she was in the middle of eating, Lu Rangchen nudged the toe of her shoe under the table and murmured: “What, jealous?”

“…”

Yunque’s lips twitched as she looked up at him. “Are you going to let me eat in peace or not?”

Lu Rangchen hooked the corner of his mouth into a mischievous curve — gave no answer one way or the other — and lowered his gaze, pulling out his phone and fiddling with something in an unhurried way, whatever it was unclear.

By the time Yunque tilted her head to look over as if by accident, Lu Rangchen had already taken hold of her hand.

Yunque blinked, mildly startled. “What are you doing?”

Lu Rangchen said nothing, just played with her fingers. It wasn’t until he had fully registered her fingerprint that he glanced up with an easy expression and said: “Got a new phone.”

He curled his lips. “Naturally I have to give Teacher Zhu access privileges.”

Hearing that, Yunque’s brow smoothed, and her heart beat a little faster.

Though back when they had first registered their marriage, Lu Rangchen had already given her his passcode — the fact that he still did this with a new phone was somewhat unexpected.

After all, men seemed to be especially protective of their privacy.

Xu Linda’s then-boyfriend was like that. Xie Han was too.

It had caused no shortage of arguments for Xu Linda and Lin Zhi with their respective partners.

Someone like Lu Rangchen — who had barely gotten a new phone before rushing to let his wife register her fingerprint — was practically unheard of.

Not only that, but he set the phone down openly in front of her, lifted an eyebrow with an idle air — his expression as much as saying: “Aren’t you unhappy about something? Then go ahead and look. See for yourself exactly how many people don’t know their place and are trying to pursue me.”

If it had been before.

Yunque wouldn’t have deigned to look.

But for some reason, that day, she had a bit of a stubborn streak, and she picked up the phone and looked.

Lu Rangchen’s old phone had cracked in a fall not long ago.

This one was actually the new release Yunque had bought him.

The reason she was the one to buy it was that the household finances were in her hands, naturally making her the one who called the shots on such things.

Lu Rangchen hadn’t particularly wanted the latest flagship model, but Yunque had felt that only the best was good enough for him.

And truly, good things were simply different.

Even holding his new phone felt substantial in her hands — to say nothing of the fact that the moment Yunque lit up the screen, she saw her own photo set as his wallpaper, dominating her entire field of vision.

And it wasn’t even a selfie of the two of them together.

It was a photo from one day not long ago when Lu Rangchen had accompanied her to the market to buy groceries. While she was busy picking out vegetables, he had quietly taken a photo of her on the sly.

In the photo, Yunque was holding a plump, ripe tomato, bringing it close to the tip of her nose to smell it gently.

She wasn’t wearing makeup. She had on a simple, casual knit jacket, her long hair falling softly around her. Her side profile was delicate and striking, and the lingering glow of the setting sun seemed to favor her particularly — casting a faint halo of gold around her.

The scholarly air about her, and that clean, otherworldly quality — entirely unchanged from before.

Seeing that moment, Lu Rangchen had felt something warm rise in him without reason. Without a second thought, he had captured it.

Now, looking at the photo, Yunque drifted into a momentary daze, then looked at Lu Rangchen in disbelief.

The man was insufferably smug, lifting an eyebrow at her with a languid, roguish air, and said softly: “Jealous, my goddess?”

“…”

Yunque’s lips trembled.

This time she truly couldn’t hold back — she lowered her gaze, a sweetness rising in her chest, and smiled without making a sound.

But smiling was one thing.

The inspection couldn’t be skipped.

Since he had given her this access, Yunque had no intention of wasting it. She tapped through several screens and made a thorough patrol through the man’s photo album.

Just as she had expected — nothing interesting whatsoever.

Besides photos of “his goddess,” there were only work-related photos. Not a single selfie of his own could be found — a shame, really, given that face of his, drawn from the lottery of genetics.

After the photo album, she clicked into his WeChat.

Equally unsurprising.

Pinned at the top was herself.

Apart from her, every other conversation was strictly work-related.

She scrolled further: call history, text messages.

Yunque skimmed through them perfunctorily and arrived at one conclusion: a waste of time, a waste of life.

She handed the phone back to Lu Rangchen and resumed eating as if nothing had happened.

She ate in silence.

Lu Rangchen sat beside her in silence, pulling out one of her textbooks to look through, occasionally leaning over to ask quietly: “Do you want some water? Shall I get it?”

The office did have a water dispenser, and it wasn’t far from Yunque’s desk at all.

Yunque was about to say no, she’d get it herself — but before she could get the words out, there came the sharp scraping of a chair against the floor from diagonally across the room. Zhang Leyao, her face dark, stood up and stomped off on her medium heels, looking thoroughly put out.

“…”

Every teacher in the office turned to look at that retreating back in speechless bewilderment.

Including Yunque and Lu Rangchen.

The two of them exchanged a glance for a brief moment.

Lu Rangchen shrugged indifferently, picked up Yunque’s cup, and said: “You eat. I’ll go get you some water.”

For some reason, Yunque suddenly had the feeling — as if they were back in school, secretly dating in class, not caring what anyone else thought.

That feeling was the kind that easily made a person’s heart flutter.

Yunque found herself smiling without realizing it.

Later, after finishing dinner, she walked Lu Rangchen out of the school. Along the way they ran into quite a few students and teachers, all of whom looked at Lu Rangchen with undisguised admiration.

In truth, no one could really be blamed for being this surprised.

After all, nobody had anticipated that Yunque’s partner would be this good-looking.

Yunque was quietly pleased, though she thought to herself that next time it would be better not to let Lu Rangchen come — he was simply far too conspicuous.

But of course, Lu Rangchen never listened to her.

Goodness only knows how this man found the time, but for the next two weeks, every evening Yunque had a class, he showed up precisely on schedule to bring her food.

There was simply no managing him.

Yunque had no choice but to take him up to the activity room on the top floor to eat.

And of course, after dinner, Lu Rangchen never forgot to ask for a “reward kiss.”

But even that “reward” had to be kept brief, because outside the activity room, there was a security camera.

In any case, the month after school started, Lu Rangchen wasn’t particularly busy, so even though Yunque was very busy, the two of them lived like they were “joined at the hip” — not a single quarrel.

Zhou Jin was green with envy.

They were all newlyweds, but she and Li Tie were nowhere near as peaceful.

Li Tie loved her dearly, but neither of them had a gentle temperament. Sometimes in the middle of a conversation they’d be snapping at each other. At its worst, the two of them had given each other the cold shoulder for three whole days.

During those three days, Zhou Jin had kicked Li Tie out.

Li Tie could only come and bunk at Lu Rangchen’s for three days.

He eventually caved and apologized, of course.

But even the most devoted couple couldn’t sustain that kind of back-and-forth indefinitely. So Zhou Jin came to seek out Yunque for the secret to peaceful coexistence.

But Yunque didn’t have any secret.

She and Lu Rangchen simply had the kind of temperaments where they couldn’t work up a real argument even if they tried. Even when there were small frictions, they resolved them quickly — it was either Lu Rangchen who gave in, or Yunque who let it go.

Thinking it over, Yunque could only be honest with Zhou Jin and say there was no secret — perhaps it was just that they hadn’t been together long enough yet.

Zhou Jin thought it over seriously and agreed. “Well, sure — you two were apart for so many years. Lu Rangchen is still in the fresh and precious phase right now. Even if he wanted to argue with you, he’d probably think twice.”

Yunque found that reasonable and laughed. “Then I’ll wait until we actually have a real argument, and tell you about it then.”

Some things are said in jest.

Yet who could have guessed — not long after that conversation, Yunque’s words proved prophetic. Just one week later, she and Lu Rangchen actually did have a falling-out.

Not over any domestic triviality.

But over a phone call.

That day, Lu Rangchen had been at the club all day. He didn’t get home until around eight or nine in the evening. At that point, Yunque was in the bathroom showering, her phone left outside.

And then, by sheer coincidence —

The moment Lu Rangchen sat down on the sofa, he saw Yunque’s phone lighting up.

He didn’t usually touch her phone uninvited, but the problem was that the person calling that day was someone he recognized from a long time ago.

None other than someone he hadn’t thought about in years — Zhao Qijia.

Those three characters glowing plainly on the screen made Lu Rangchen’s brow knot with displeasure, his expression darkening.

He declined the call, but Zhao Qijia called right back, relentlessly.

Every time Lu Rangchen declined it, Zhao Qijia called again.

This went on until Lu Rangchen was half-amused, half-furious.

In the end, he simply turned Yunque’s phone off entirely.

By the time Yunque came out of the shower looking for her phone, Lu Rangchen was sitting on the sofa, watching television with a noticeably unhappy expression, his mind clearly elsewhere.

Yunque was rather surprised he was already home.

She called out to him.

But Lu Rangchen heard her as though he hadn’t. He sat there slouched and listless, and after a good few seconds, he tilted his head and gave her the most glancing of looks.

That strikingly handsome face — cold in a way that made it perfectly obvious.

“…”

This was the first time Yunque had ever seen Lu Rangchen adopt this kind of attitude toward her. She felt genuinely confused.

Normally, Lu Rangchen would smile at her first thing, then stand up and walk over to embrace her.

So what was this now?

He was angry?

Yunque walked over with a puzzled frown, unable to think of a single thing she could have done to upset him.

The atmosphere hung there, strangely tense and suspended.

Yunque stood before him with an air of perplexity and asked again: “When did you get back?”

As she spoke, Yunque lightly tugged at Lu Rangchen’s sleeve.

It was early autumn.

It had rained outside earlier, and the indoor temperature wasn’t particularly warm.

As a result, the tips of Yunque’s fingers carried a faint coolness.

When that coolness made contact with his skin, Lu Rangchen’s throat moved slightly, and he looked up at her almost involuntarily.

Yunque, seeing that he would finally look at her, blinked and said: “What’s wrong?”

Her voice was soft.

All but outright coaxing him — coaxing him so thoroughly that Lu Rangchen suddenly felt quite helpless.

But even so.

It did nothing to put out the small fire that had just been lit inside him.

Lu Rangchen still looked away with a blank expression, saying flatly: “Just got back a little while ago.”

“…”

Yunque was suddenly at a loss for words.

And she found the whole thing rather inexplicable.

But then Deng Jiao had messaged her asking for help with some English questions, and Yunque, thinking studying mattered, wanted to reply quickly — so she didn’t pay too much attention to Lu Rangchen’s current mood. She looked around nearby and finally just asked him: “Did you happen to see my phone just now?”

Yunque’s expression was perfectly clear and unsuspecting — the look of someone who genuinely hadn’t registered the severity of the situation.

Lu Rangchen met her gaze, and for the space of one second, even the line of his jaw went taut.

So he was angry, and she couldn’t even tell?

And not only couldn’t she tell — she was just going about it perfectly calmly, looking for her phone, eager to talk to Zhao Qijia.

Lu Rangchen let out a humorless smile — just the lips, not the eyes.

That smile left Yunque more at a loss than ever, and even a bit irritated.

She furrowed her fine brows, her tone carrying a slight edge: “What on earth is wrong with you.”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

Lu Rangchen gave a cold laugh and snapped to his feet.

He reached into his pocket, pulled out the light-cased phone, and tossed it onto the coffee table, saying with pointed sarcasm: “Going upstairs. Wouldn’t want to interrupt you catching up with old classmates.”

And with those words, he turned and walked away, clean and sharp.

Yunque stared at that tall, proud, smoldering figure retreating from her, and felt a throb at her temple.

She lowered her gaze to the phone on the coffee table.

…It was hers, wasn’t it?

Looking back on it later, that was probably the first real disagreement the two of them had had since getting married.

Even back when they were dating, there had been friction, but never anything quite like this — Lu Rangchen this visibly upset, and most importantly, Yunque having absolutely no idea why.

Because it came out of nowhere, and because it was their first after marriage, the impression that evening left on her was unusually deep.

She was someone who looked gentle and easygoing on the surface.

But in reality, she had a stubborn, independent streak — especially when it came to matters of the heart.

Perhaps Lu Rangchen had spoiled her so thoroughly that she had been spoiled by it. In any case, that night, Yunque really did hold a breath of indignation and refused to acknowledge him.

She watched Lu Rangchen go upstairs to the bedroom.

Then she powered her phone back on and went to the study to find Deng Jiao.

The young girl was stuck on some newly learned grammar, so Yunque switched to a video call and patiently walked her through it again.

The bedroom and the study were close together.

The door wasn’t fully shut.

So Lu Rangchen heard nearly every word of Yunque’s clear, gentle explanations.

And he wasn’t the only one who heard clearly — so did Li Tie on the other end of the phone.

Li Tie listened, then laughed and scolded him, saying: “What do I even say about you, Lu Rangchen? You got upset without even asking about it, and now you’re mad that she’s not coming to you? Aren’t you just creating problems out of nothing?”

Lu Rangchen was already irritable.

And since he wasn’t getting a single word of comfort from Li Tie’s direction either, he snapped back at him to get lost.

He sat on the sofa and reflexively reached for a cigarette.

But then he remembered Yunque’s ground rules — no smoking inside the house. His hand stopped mid-reach.

Right. Mouth full of complaints about her not even looking at him.

Yet in his heart, he was holding her rules firm as stone.

The more he thought about it, the more he found himself exasperated at his own behavior.

Lu Rangchen made a self-deprecating sound and withdrew his hand, slumping back against the sofa in a low mood.

Li Tie continued: “But who called her just now anyway? Why did you react this big?”

It really was a big reaction.

Big enough that he had nearly lost control of himself just a short while ago.

Come to think of it, no one had ever gotten this kind of reaction out of him in his entire life.

He suddenly found that Zhao Qijia was quite a remarkable person.

From high school onward, this guy had hovered around Yunque’s world, always somehow managing to stir up waves of jealousy in him.

High school ended, and he had followed to university. Then, when Lu Rangchen himself had been trying to get close to Yunque, Zhao Qijia had been lurking nearby as well.

And now, after he’d finally shaken him off — here he was still in contact with her.

Seriously, how was this man so persistently inescapable?

Lu Rangchen, thinking about this, found himself almost laughing at his own frustration.

But then again — so what if the man was remarkable? Yunque had still come to him, and the two of them were now married. Zhao Qijia could run himself ragged and it wouldn’t change a thing.

Thinking it through like that… Lu Rangchen rubbed his nose and had to admit that Li Tie had been right to call him out.

Hadn’t he just been making a mountain out of a molehill?

Even if those two had some kind of lingering connection he didn’t know about, he should at least ask first before making scenes.

Talking himself through it, with Li Tie’s help nudging him along —

Lu Rangchen finally came around.

But while it was easy enough to cool his own head, cooling Yunque’s head was another matter entirely — something considerably harder than climbing the heavens.

Even after Lu Rangchen hung up and voluntarily went downstairs to slice some fruit, knocked on the study door, and brought it in — Yunque still didn’t spare him a single glance.

“…”

Lu Rangchen was genuinely helpless now.

And finally beginning to understand just how serious things were.

He even stood there in bewilderment for a few seconds, cleared his throat, and said: “I just cut these.”

He nudged the fruit plate a little closer. “There’s dragon fruit. Your favorite.”

With that, he fixed his long, narrow eyes directly on Yunque, his gaze unblinking, almost imploring.

But this young woman — when she turned stubborn, she was really something else.

She acted as if she hadn’t heard a word, continuing to explain grammar to Deng Jiao on the video call.

Lu Rangchen stood there in mute, unofficially imposed exile for a few seconds, realized she truly had no intention of acknowledging him, rubbed the back of his neck, and left with no particular dignity.

A moment later.

There were footsteps on the stairs again.

Lu Rangchen pushed the door open and came back in.

This time it wasn’t fruit — it was a glass of warm milk he had just poured for Yunque.

Perhaps feeling a little stung from the embarrassment just now, he didn’t look at her directly. Instead he set the milk on her desk with a somewhat imperious air, shoved his hands into his pockets, and said: “Don’t forget to drink this later.”

And without pausing, he pulled the door open and left again.

The air was still laced with the pleasant, subtly intoxicating scent of him.

At this point, Yunque’s voice genuinely did pause.

She looked at the fruit and milk on her desk, fighting the twitch at the corner of her lips. She was just about to murmur something like “what is wrong with him” —

When her gaze caught something under the glass of milk.

A small slip of paper.

Her heart gave a sudden lurch.

Yunque instinctively slipped the pale cream-colored note out from underneath.

Just as she’d suspected — Lu Rangchen had written three lines in his sweeping, confident, and handsome script:

“I was wrong.”

“You can be angry at me — but don’t let it carry into tomorrow. Okay?”

“Please.”

Staring at those three lines, Yunque finally lost her composure. She let out a soft laugh.

Deng Jiao, who had been deeply engaged in studying, heard her and looked up. “What happened?”

“…”

Yunque came back to herself, smoothed away the smile at her lips, and shook her head. “Nothing.”

She pulled out her phone, took a photo of the note, then turned to Deng Jiao. “That’s it for today’s one-on-one tutoring session. I have something to attend to.”

She ended the video call, picked up the fruit plate and the milk, and went back to the bedroom.

Lu Rangchen had just changed into his loungewear and was half-reclining on the bedroom sofa, reading.

It was the loungewear Yunque had picked out for him a few days earlier. Lu Rangchen had complained the color was too pale and been reluctant to wear it — yet tonight he had obediently put it on.

And as always, Yunque’s taste proved itself without question.

Lu Rangchen in that loungewear was simply stunning — handsome beyond measure, the kind of sight that made you want to curl into his arms in about one second.

Of course Yunque was only thinking that.

She was not the sort to give in easily. Even having stepped into the bedroom, she kept her expression flat.

Meanwhile, Lu Rangchen’s eyes, as soon as she walked in, were trained on her in a way that was impossible to miss — they hadn’t left her for a moment.

He watched her, meeting her gaze in the mirror.

Yunque glanced at him with a slightly haughty look, then deliberately looked away — the expression of someone being intentionally contrary.

Lu Rangchen stared for two seconds, then burst out laughing.

His shoulders shook gently.

What has this even come to, he thought.

All over one stupid phone call.

The more he thought about it, the more impatient he felt.

So Lu Rangchen simply set his book aside, abandoned any pretense of dignity, and acted entirely on his unruly instincts. With no patience for pretense, he walked right up to the vanity table, completely disregarding whether Yunque was willing or not, and scooped her up into his arms in a single brisk motion.

Yunque let out a startled sound.

She reflexively threw her arms around him.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the world spun — and she landed with a soft thud on the plush bedding, Lu Rangchen’s arms trapping her beneath him.

Her heart pounded furiously.

Half-laughing and half-annoyed, Yunque struck his shoulder and scolded him. “What are you doing now, you lunatic?”

Her tone was exasperated, but the flicker of emotion in her eyes betrayed her.

Lu Rangchen, heedless of her willingness or lack thereof, captured both her slender wrists with one hand and pinned them above her head, then pressed his lips directly to hers.

The warmth of him was unrelenting, coaxing open her resistance without a word.

Her protests were smothered before they could form. All that was left was a soft sound of surrender, and an entirely involuntary yielding.

They say a good night resolves even old grudges.

But sometimes, a single kiss can have the same effect.

And on top of that, this particular man had absolutely no shame, taking shameless liberties — within moments, Yunque felt as if she were dissolving like snowmelt in spring.

Only — somewhat unfortunately —

Her period had arrived that very day. The first day, at that, and the aching cramp in her lower abdomen was quite severe. She was in no mood for anything at all.

So when Lu Rangchen moved to continue further, she cut him off flatly, her eyes shimmering with a slightly aggrieved look. “Don’t — my ‘relative’ is visiting.”

He hadn’t anticipated the timing being quite so inconvenient.

Lu Rangchen raised an eyebrow, and muffled a laugh.

But even so, he was still not entirely willing to let it go. He cupped the back of her head and leaned down to kiss her again.

The tension having dissolved, Yunque didn’t make a fuss this time. She simply wrapped her arms around him and let him carry them both through a thoroughly satisfying, deep kiss.

When they finally pulled apart, both of them were breathing unevenly.

Lu Rangchen’s ears were, unusually, flushed pink. He took her hand and pressed it over his heart, his voice coming out low and unsteady: “Still angry at me?”

That deep, magnetic voice — carrying an edge of desire.

Every word that came out sounded like a note designed to pull at something.

Yunque looked at him without blinking, her heartbeat wild. She bit the inside of her lip and said: “Now you know regret?”

Lu Rangchen let out a soft laugh and nodded. “Of course I regret it — I regretted it the moment I finished being angry. Is that answer acceptable?”

Then he leaned down and pressed a smacking, uninhibited kiss to her cheek.

Thoroughly shameless — as if he had finally let himself be exactly who he was.

Yunque couldn’t hold back a laugh. She laughed until her eyes curved with warmth, carrying a softness that looked almost tender.

But after a few seconds, reason reasserted itself. She grabbed his collar, looking at him with a questioning gaze. “So what on earth were you in a state about just now?”

“Oh.”

Lu Rangchen gave a lazy hum of acknowledgment, and in the moment he sat up, his arm swept cleanly around Yunque’s waist and pulled her right up to sit in his lap — just like that, easy as breathing.

He looked at her with an expression somewhere between amusement and something more serious, and without any effort at all, he had her settled there in his arms.

Disheveled from what had just happened — even her hair was out of sorts.

Lu Rangchen patiently smoothed her hair into place, took his time about it, and only then met her eyes directly. With great ceremony, he said: “Wasn’t it because of a certain phone call of yours.”

“…”

Yunque was briefly confused. “Who? What call?”

He hadn’t expected her to genuinely not know about it.

Something in Lu Rangchen’s chest eased down a few notches.

He raised an eyebrow, his expression deliberately appraising. “Your most devoted high school admirer — my arch-nemesis — Zhao Qijia. You don’t know?”