The unexpected sound startled everyone at the dinner table. Yu Jiaze coldly said sorry, his hand slipped.

A servant immediately stepped forward to pick up the chopsticks, giving Yu Jiaze a new pair.

However, Yu Jiaze said: “I want the original pair, help me wash them.”

Tang Yingxue was still immersed in Wu Man’s words “boyfriend,” visibly happy on her face.

Now she seemed to completely relax, no longer suspicious about the lovers’ knot Wu Man had given, finding it much more pleasing to the eye.

Tang Jiarong furrowed his brow, then relaxed it, saying: “That’s good. If you think it’s working out well, bring him to meet us next time. Dad will help you evaluate him.”

Wu Man deflected effortlessly: “No rush. We just started.”

Yu Jiaze’s hand gripping the chopsticks showed a thin layer of protruding veins. He put the chili peppers from the dish into his mouth, chewing slowly with an expressionless face.

This dinner dragged on painfully. When they nearly finished eating, Tang Jiarong wanted to keep them for after-dinner desserts, but Wu Man declined.

Tang Yingxue chimed in from the side: “Dad, she probably needs to rush back to see her boyfriend. Better to destroy ten temples than ruin one marriage—don’t hold her back.”

Tang Jiarong had originally wanted to press them to stay a bit longer, but after Tang Yingxue spoke, he could only nod: “Alright then, Manman, be careful on the road.”

She really had to thank Tang Yingxue. The more she resented her, the less Wu Man needed to be bound too deeply to the Tang family.

Wu Man curved her lips, putting on her coat and nodding: “You all take your time eating.”

She turned and walked toward the entrance in her high heels. Passing by Yu Jiaze’s side, her raised coat hem brushed past his arm as he sat. Just like when they first met, except their positions had now switched.

*

Wu Man hurriedly got in her car, finally having time to pull out her phone and reply to Zhui Ye’s message.

“Did you leave?”

Zhui Ye sent another photo, still a selfie at her door, only this time in a different pose.

Wu Man laughed out loud looking at it.

“I’m coming back now.”

After hesitating a moment, she sent over the numeric door lock code.

Zhui Ye instantly replied with three exclamation marks.

The car slowly drove out of the oppressive mansion, heading toward the city center. Wu Man’s mood gradually brightened along with the increasing number of lights along the road.

From cold shrubbery to street vendors selling grilled cold noodles, the night filled with more and more things carrying the flavor of human life. Countless car taillights dragged streams of light across the elevated highway, all seemingly rushing home—and she was one of them.

This feeling of having something to look forward to made even the winter night feel steaming hot.

*

When Wu Man entered, it was quiet, as if no one was there.

But traces of Zhui Ye were left everywhere.

The living room’s main light wasn’t on, only a small night light on the coffee table, but because the space wasn’t large, this light was enough to illuminate the small world. On the coffee table was also a radio he’d brought, the tape spinning round and round, playing a blues jazz song. Wu Man found it pleasant, so she opened her phone to identify it—”I Am the Changer” popped up.

“Wildfire cannot burn it all away

The spring breeze blows and it grows again

Let time pass

Must seize spring to grow again

Must catch up to the next spring”

Wu Man unconsciously hummed along with the music, walking toward the second-floor loft. Without turning on the lights, in the moonlight the boy was nestled in the beanbag chair, absorbed in looking at his phone.

“What are you watching?”

She spoke suddenly. Zhui Ye’s hand shook and his phone nearly slipped. She glanced and saw her own face and Zhui Ye’s.

“This is the ‘Spring Night’ trailer…?!”

Zhui Ye smiled and nodded vigorously: “Director Wang just sent it to me, the international trailer version to be screened at Cannes.”

Though delayed by a year, “Spring Night” would soon arrive together with the next spring.

Downstairs, the song continued its leisurely humming.

“The train passes by me

I’m drenched like a drowned rat in the rain

A dollar fell into the sewer

Everything is getting better

I’m waiting for change

It finally came”

Wu Man wrinkled her nose cheerfully: “That’s good news.”

“Then shouldn’t we celebrate?”

Young people could always come up with ceremonial ways to make things special.

Wu Man raised an eyebrow: “How should we celebrate?”

Zhui Ye leaned over halfway, kissing her cheek with a “chu” sound.

He said innocently: “Chen Nan missed Sister.”

Thinking this would leave Wu Man speechless, he didn’t expect Wu Man to still grab his collar with an air of demanding accountability—and kiss his forehead.

She said quickly and vaguely: “Not my fault, Deng Lizhi is also missing Chen Nan.”

After speaking, she turned and ran downstairs. How could Zhui Ye let her go? He covered his forehead in a daze for a moment, then sprang up to chase after her, laughing as he called out: “You’re done for when I catch you.”

The two childishly chased each other around the room. Wu Man was soon caught by Zhui Ye. He braced both hands, trapping her between the door panels, lowering his head to whisper in her ear: “Where else can you escape to?”

Wu Man’s ear felt the airflow. She pleaded: “Alright, stop fooling around.”

Zhui Ye’s single hand touched her waistline, lingering at the side.

The light was dim, the music slow—everything ambiguous just right.

Wu Man slowly closed her eyes, her eyelids still trembling slightly.

At this moment, the door behind her suddenly made a sound. A loud doorbell obliterated the room’s romantic atmosphere.

“Damn…” Zhui Ye immediately couldn’t help cursing.

Wu Man was also somewhat speechless: “Did you order something?”

He frowned and shook his head: “No.”

“…Then who is it?” Wu Man turned around, looking through the peephole at the door.

At this look, her heart suddenly accelerated.

Black coat, eyes soaked with cold frost. It was Yu Jiaze.

Wu Man paused, saying to Zhui Ye: “You go up to the loft first.”

“Who came?” Zhui Ye sensitively realized her emotions weren’t right, “Could it be him?”

“You go up first.”

“I won’t.”

Wu Man said very calmly: “This is the grievance between him and me. I can resolve it with him.”

Zhui Ye said very firmly: “At least this once, let me protect you.”

The doorbell persistently kept ringing. Wu Man sighed and said, then do as you wish.

She silently counted one, two, three at the door, then decisively pressed down the door handle.

The two people inside the door directly faced Yu Jiaze outside. Separated by the thin door frame, it was like heaven and hell pulled onto the same plane.

Yu Jiaze’s gaze swept over Zhui Ye, finally landing on Wu Man. Not saying a word.

So she spoke first coldly: “How did you know I live here?”

Yu Jiaze maintained that condescending tone: “What, not welcoming me?”

Zhui Ye openly put his arm around Wu Man’s waist, sneering: “You have self-awareness—indeed not welcome.”

Yu Jiaze glanced at where Zhui Ye’s hand landed. A vein on his smooth forehead bulged especially prominently.

“There shouldn’t be anything left to say between us. Coming to my place so late at night, aren’t you afraid Tang Yingxue will misunderstand?”

“You’re going to use Tang Yingxue to pressure me again?” He laughed coldly, “You really are a good sister.”

“…Sister?” Zhui Ye murmured questioningly.

A mocking expression appeared on Yu Jiaze’s face: “You don’t even know Wu Man became part of the Tang family? She’s accomplished now, acknowledged Tang Jiarong. Leapt to a higher branch, crow becomes phoenix.”

Wu Man felt Zhui Ye’s hand at her waist unconsciously tighten.

“Sister has her own privacy. When she wants to tell me, she’ll naturally tell me.”

Yu Jiaze raised the corners of his lips: “Say all the pretty words you want, you’re still just an outsider who knows nothing.”

Wu Man interrupted him: “Then I’m naturally closer to you, after all we’re in-laws, right, brother-in-law?”

Yu Jiaze immediately stepped forward to close in on her. Zhui Ye pulled Wu Man over. The three people’s positions shifted, swords drawn and bows bent.

Zhui Ye’s brow was heavy: “If you want to fight, I’ll accompany you. But my person, don’t even think about touching.”

Yu Jiaze’s eagle-like eyes attacked Zhui Ye.

“Your person?” He enunciated each word, “I haven’t agreed.”

Zhui Ye clenched his fist, taking deep breaths repeatedly to suppress the desire to punch that face. He didn’t want to embarrass Wu Man.

“Listen carefully. She’s a person, not property. Therefore her leaving you doesn’t need your agreement.”

Wu Man stepped out from behind Zhui Ye: “You should say that to Tang Yingxue instead? Or Tang Jiarong.”

“You’re so certain they’ll help you…” Yu Jiaze said meaningfully, “What did you trade with them?”

Wu Man’s temple throbbed.

“Someone like Tang Yingxue actually didn’t mock or ridicule you much tonight. Including Tang Jiarong—he’s not the kind of great philanthropist who’d have extra emotions for an illegitimate daughter lost outside for decades. That deep father-daughter affection you two performed tonight really made me sick.”

Yu Jiaze looked as if he wanted to see through her, the corners of his mouth carrying a smile—an extremely crazy, vicious yet sorrowful smile.

“Let me guess… the condition you offered them is a kidney, right?”

At these words, all three fell silent.

Wu Man’s feet stumbled slightly. She steadied herself, saying as if nothing happened: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Little bird, don’t pretend with me. Interests bind people far more than emotions—I taught you that, didn’t I?”

Zhui Ye looked at Wu Man, his expression full of incredible shock and confusion.

Yu Jiaze savored Zhui Ye’s loss of composure, continuing to stab with the sharp knife of words: “She betrayed me to be with you illicitly, needing to pay such a great price—did you not even know? You’re like a malignant tumor, growing wildly inside someone else’s body, still thinking you’re bringing vitality, when actually you’re spreading cancer cells that will destroy a person.”

His voice was like it was quenched in poison, making people cold all over.

Wu Man couldn’t bear it and interrupted him: “Yu Jiaze! Your ability to distort the truth is really impressive. Who exactly is the tumor—are you still not clear even now?! You think the fundamental reason I’m leaving you is because of him? Then you’re ridiculously wrong!”

“If not for him, are you sure you’d be willing to harm yourself to leave me?”

“Every single day I was with you was self-harm.”

Finally, she dared say her true feelings in front of him. So many years of compromise, trying to please and showing weakness. All shattered in these few words.

Yu Jiaze’s pupils violently shook.

“Wu Man, do you have a heart? Haven’t I been good enough to you?! All these years, whatever you wanted I gave you, what you didn’t want I also gave you. Harm? Aren’t you ashamed saying those two words?”

Wu Man laughed silently.

“So I said self-harm, self. It’s me who never had the courage to leave you, it’s me who brought it upon myself! I was greedy for the conveniences you gave me, and those ambiguous illusions resembling love. So no matter how much harm, I deserved to endure it. I’ve received my retribution, haven’t I? Because of you, I can never have children in this lifetime! What does throwing away one more kidney matter?!”

The word “children” came out like God extending a hand, pressing down on the agitated Yu Jiaze. It also shocked Zhui Ye on the side.

*

Wu Man had been pregnant once. She remembered very clearly—it was her third year with him.

It was an accident. The condom broke, but they didn’t notice. She also didn’t take emergency contraception in time.

Facing this suddenly arriving child, Wu Man’s first reaction was deep fear.

From it she saw another version of herself. A child not anticipated, arriving because of an accident.

Unknowingly, she was actually repeating her mother’s mistakes. Like a cycle, desire evolved into a kind of fate, rushing blood about to take her down this same old road.

Touching her stomach, though everything was still flat, she seemed to sense there was already a heart beating inside. It was so alive, desperately clamoring with desire to come see the mortal world.

In her early twenties, she still couldn’t bear it, holding onto a thread of innocence to test Yu Jiaze’s attitude.

He unhurriedly looked at a document, finished handling matters at hand, then raised his head, not particularly surprised: “I’ve seen this kind of trick many times. Little bird, how did even you fall into cliché?”

Her voice trembled: “…What do you mean?”

He propped up his chin, looking at her coldly: “The condom—did it really break by itself?”

His undisguised suspicion was that she’d staged this scene.

And he clearly already knew her background.

He didn’t understand empathy, so he assumed an illegitimate daughter would copy that same playbook.

In that instant, Wu Man was pressed into the deep sea with no visible end, unable to breathe, cold all over. Salty seawater flowed in through her uterus, surrounding that child layer upon layer, forcibly drowning it.

The year she aborted the child, she often had nightmares related to it. The most terrifying dream was on an awards stage—she held a trophy giving a speech, when all the celebrities sitting below suddenly turned into faceless babies. They clapped while shouting “Mama, mama, congratulations.” That sound was extremely venomous, deafening.

Even though she didn’t believe in deities, she desperately sought help at temples, seeking peace.

But it was useless. The nightmares still entangled her.

There truly were no deities in this world, but countless souls unable to find peace. Just as this world had no heaven, but had purgatory.

Finally, at her wits’ end, she made an extremely extreme decision.

—Permanent sterilization.

On one hand, she wanted to atone this way. In this life, besides that child, no other person would be able to arrive. On one hand, she could no longer endure a second accident and murder.

On another hand, she impetuously wanted to prove to Yu Jiaze that she’d never wanted to use a child to scheme against him. Never before, and never again from then on.

Yu Jiaze was indeed shocked when he found out.

He wordlessly looked at that sterilization report, seeming for the first time to look at her properly.

*

Yu Jiaze briefly froze because Wu Man mentioned the child.

He came to his senses, furrowing his brow with an inscrutable tone: “That was your own choice. How are you making it sound like I forced you to get sterilized?”

Hearing this, Wu Man only felt desolate.

If this person had felt even the slightest bit of guilt toward her, she wouldn’t think these ten years were complete bullshit.

Zhui Ye gently shook Wu Man’s waist, indicating he was by her side at this moment.

So there was no need to be sad.

He accepted this enormous amount of information, yet miraculously remained very calm—so calm Wu Man even found it strange.

After comforting her, he withdrew his hand. With one long stride he came before Yu Jiaze. Without a second’s extra pause, he kicked toward his lower body.

The speed was like a planet colliding with Earth. The force was like an active volcano spewing lava across mountains and fields.

Wu Man on the side was stunned watching.

Yu Jiaze’s reaction was quick. He narrowly dodged, barely avoiding being kicked disabled. But the dodge was barely managed—he was still kicked at the top of his thigh.

The force from combat training was no joke, directly forcing Yu Jiaze to half-kneel down.

Zhui Ye looked down at him from above, squinting, as if struggling to see the ant on the ground clearly.

“When she got sterilized, it was her choice alone, and you felt fine saying it had nothing to do with you. Then now that Wu Man is leaving you, it’s also her choice alone—what the fuck does it have to do with you?” Zhui Ye’s fist creaked, “If you think she can’t make this decision alone, then take responsibility for what happened back then too—like first chopping off your own thing to show determination? If you can’t do it yourself, no problem—I’ll help!”

A vein jumped at Yu Jiaze’s temple. He recovered his strength and immediately straightened up, his fist following the rising posture to viciously hook toward Zhui Ye’s chin, teeth gritted as he forced out word by word: “Stole and snatched someone else’s possession, then turned around to provoke the owner?”

Zhui Ye dodged more nimbly. The fist barely grazed his jaw angle.

He laughed angrily with a roguish air: “One, I don’t want to emphasize again that Wu Man cannot be owned by anyone. Two, if there weren’t problems between you two, even if I moved mountains I couldn’t snatch her away. Three, you’d better not talk to save some strength, otherwise I’m afraid you’ll have to be carried out of here horizontally.”

As Zhui Ye spoke, he rolled up his sleeves, saying lightly to Wu Man: “Sister, go inside now. This is a conversation between men.”

Yu Jiaze began removing his coat, silently indicating he was going to get serious with him.

Wu Man was shocked dumb by their mutual fighting scene. Zhui Ye’s words brought her back to her senses. She quickly tugged Zhui Ye’s sleeve, shaking her head disapprovingly.

Zhui Ye showed her a comforting smile: “Don’t worry, I won’t go overboard. Be good, go inside.”

From beginning to end, Wu Man didn’t give Yu Jiaze a single concerned look. She furrowed her brow, watching Zhui Ye with worry.

Watching this scene, Yu Jiaze found the pain in his body was nothing compared to the wrenching pain from his heart.

This war—he seemed to have already lost without fighting.

*

Wu Man ultimately couldn’t stop them. The two went up to the rooftop full of momentum.

About half an hour later, just as Wu Man was hesitating whether to call 110, Zhui Ye returned, his face covered in injuries.

He hissed and cursed: “That old bastard is too vicious, specifically targeting my face.”

Wu Man quickly took out the medical kit she’d prepared early, pulling Zhui Ye to the sofa to treat his wounds.

“Aren’t you supposed to be very capable? How did you still get beaten up like this?”

Zhui Ye pillowed his head on her knee, closing his eyes: “He’s way worse off than me. You think I filmed ‘Loser Becomes King’ for nothing? He’s not on the same level as that gym-trained show. During training I was the man who could even KO Declan.”

Wu Man used a cotton swab dipped in iodine, gently applying it around his eyes.

“He just left like that?”

“We made a bet.” Zhui Ye simultaneously frowned from pain’s invasion while his expression opened from pride in his tone, making his face display a strange distortion, “Whoever won the fight came down to see you. Whoever lost had to get lost as far away as possible.”

Wu Man sighed: “Why can men in their twenties and thirties still fight over a woman like teenagers? How childish?”

Zhui Ye said seriously: “Because men’s nature is beast.”

“I see you’re truly wild.” Wu Man pressed the cotton swab down hard on his face, earning a low groan from Zhui Ye, “I don’t want you getting injured repeatedly, understand? Yes, you had fun fighting this time, he didn’t gain any advantage. But what about next time? Will he hold a grudge against you? I don’t want you getting hurt anymore.”

She still had lingering fears about the sulfuric acid.

After hearing what she said, Zhui Ye suddenly fell silent.

His brow trembled slightly as he tried to make his tone sound steady.

“The injuries I’ve received are nothing compared to Sister’s.”

Wu Man’s hand holding the cotton swab paused. She said with forced lightness: “Don’t let Yu Jiaze’s words affect you. The decisions I made are all my own business. And I believe this is the wisest decision I’ve made to date.”

“Sister, consider changing apartments. I’m afraid when I’m not here someday, he’ll come harass you again.”

Wu Man shook her head decisively: “He won’t. Yu Jiaze has his pride. Coming to the door so rashly tonight was probably because I made him so angry he lost his head.”

“So you two were together tonight?”

“I went back to the Tang family for dinner. He was there too. Then at the dinner table, I received your message.”

Zhui Ye said speechlessly: “That made him go crazy? He really is a mad dog!”

Wu Man smiled and shook her head again.

She finished applying medicine to Zhui Ye’s wounds, methodically putting the kit away. When preparing to stand up, she slowly said: “It’s because Tang Jiarong asked me what I was looking at.”

“At that time, someone was sending me selfies of him crouching at my door. So I answered Tang Jiarong saying, looking at messages my boyfriend sent.”

Zhui Ye maintained his position lying on the sofa, staring blankly at the ceiling for over a minute.

When people are struck by enormous happiness, they’re often at a loss.

Wu Man thought he’d excitedly jump up to hug her, or chatter and jump around venting his excitement.

Even Zhui Ye himself thought so.

But in fact, his body betrayed him. Very pathetically, he raised his arm to bury deeply over his eyes, his shoulders trembling uncontrollably.

He said hoarsely, Sister, turn around, don’t look at me.

Hard to imagine this incredibly fragile big boy had just fiercely fought moments ago.

Wu Man crouched down both heartbroken and amused, poking his arm.

“Fool, why are you crying?”

He sniffed and said, I’m not shedding tears—it’s spring’s frozen river thawing.