She seemed to have heard only the word “Lingling.”

The beauty couch was carved with entwining lotus branches; the wood had soaked up the dampness of the morning mist, and the rising sun seemed to arrive half a beat late as it seeped in.

After a long while, Jin Zhao finally remembered the first half of the sentence.

“No, I wouldn’t.” She quickly averted her gaze.

A dragonfly skimmed the surface of the lake, then, as if startled by the chill of the water, beat its wings and hurried away.

“Is that so?” Meng Yanxi looked at Jin Zhao. “But I’d guess you definitely wouldn’t do that. You’re kinder than I am—much kinder.”

Jin Zhao wasn’t sure whether Meng Yanxi was praising her. After all, the first time he had ever spoken a long sentence to her, what he’d said was that kindness was a noble virtue—but she didn’t deserve to possess it.

“That might be because,” Jin Zhao said honestly, “even if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to borrow 2.5 million. And even if I managed to borrow it, I probably wouldn’t be able to make 5 million. There’s a bigger chance I’d lose 5 million—no, if I added leverage, losing 10 million is also possible, right? The probability of me losing 10 million is even higher.”

Something she said must have hit his funny bone, because Meng Yanxi suddenly let out a low laugh.

The youth on the beauty couch was more beautiful than the couch itself. His smile spilled over his cool, detached brows and eyes, making one think of the first lotus magnolias blooming on branches in early spring—unfurling in startling beauty, yet still holding back its force.

Jin Zhao stared a little too long.

But Meng Yanxi immediately followed up with another blow: “It might be more than 10 million. Losing even more is also possible.”

Jin Zhao: “……”

What kind of illusion had she been harboring about this man’s mouth, anyway?

Si Tian and Luo Heng had gone to pick wintersweet blossoms, and from the neighboring courtyard came the distant sound of the two bickering back and forth. She had already handed in the class notes, and Jin Zhao planned to go find them.

“That woman’s surname is Xu. She’s a small-time celebrity,” Meng Yanxi suddenly said. Meeting Jin Zhao’s stunned gaze, he explained, “My dad’s girlfriend.”

Jin Zhao had no intention of listening to his family matters, yet her legs seemed to refuse to move. There was an emotion in Meng Yanxi’s eyes that she couldn’t describe—something she had never seen before.

Meng Yanxi said, “You should’ve heard of her. Two years ago she made a big show of pursuing my dad, chased him for almost a year, and even made the hot searches several times.”

With that, Jin Zhao vaguely recalled something: “She’s very young.”

“Mm. Twenty years younger than my dad.” Meng Yanxi’s peach-blossom eyes were pitch-black. “In the prime of her youth, but at the same time unable to keep her composure, unable to hide her greed and ambition. Ever heard of ‘killing with praise’?”

How could Jin Zhao not have heard of it?

She was the most direct victim.

When Lin Yao had just married Jin Wenhui, Jin Zhao was only in sixth grade, knowing nothing about anything. Lin Yao had a sweet mouth and smiled whenever she spoke, sparing no effort to coax her and indulge her. Jin Zhao had once truly liked her. It was only after being stabbed in the back again and again, suffering losses, seeing blood, that she learned how to protect herself.

“She killed you with praise?” Jin Zhao asked.

“No, I killed her with praise,” Meng Yanxi said objectively. “I like to strike first. I don’t like being passive.”

Jin Zhao: “……”

“Honestly, her pursuit of my dad was quite sincere. Sincerity is the easiest thing to exchange for sincerity, so I wasn’t surprised by my dad’s fall. At the beginning, she was also fairly cautious toward me and my sister. Every time I had my sister call my dad and summon him away from her place, she never complained. But people are always greedy—when you endure and yield too much, you’ll eventually want to take it back with interest. That process just takes time, so I gave her a little help.”

“Later on, when my sister called again, I would stop her at my side, and my dad wouldn’t leave immediately anymore; later still, I took the initiative to retreat, telling my dad not to delay her affairs because of me.” Meng Yanxi smiled faintly. “I let her gain benefits little by little. Over time, she really did start pushing her luck. As if to prove in advance that she was more important than me, she chose my birthday to ask my dad to go to a neighboring city.”

“Your birthday?” Jin Zhao murmured.

“Mm. The day before yesterday, Friday. Supposedly there was an awards ceremony in the neighboring city that day. My dad had already booked the diamond ring and the hotel.”

Jin Zhao lightly bit down on her lower lip, her teeth grinding it pale.

The all-too-familiar experience let pain surface in her eyes.

Meng Yanxi said, “She has a younger brother, the same age as me, studying at No. 1 High. He’s considered a good person—unlike me.”

Jin Zhao looked into his eyes. When he said he wasn’t a good person, she finally found an accurate word to describe the emotion in his gaze—there was a faint trace of madness.

Meng Yanxi said, “On Sunday night, I asked him out to play basketball. He knocked me down.”

“He was the one who hit you?” Jin Zhao instinctively looked toward his ankle.

Meng Yanxi laughed, a laugh that was infuriatingly smug. “Who knows whether he hit me or not? Anyway, I fell, and I ended up in the hospital.”

“……”

“My dad is a good father—this, no matter what, I have to admit. He was in a meeting at the time; when he got the news, he rushed over immediately. I could see in his eyes that he wished he could take my place and suffer for me. He sat by my bed and asked if I was in pain. I said no. She also rushed to the hospital soon after. At first, she was actually holding it in, but maybe my dad’s anger toward her brother made her feel wronged—even though my dad is actually very good at disguising his emotions. What poured oil on the fire was that I secretly gave her a provocative look. She finally couldn’t stand my green tea, lost her head, and accused me in the ward of doing it on purpose, of directing and acting it all myself to deliberately frame her brother.”

“Green tea?” It was the first time Jin Zhao had heard a boy use “green tea” to describe himself.

“I don’t think it really counts.” Meng Yanxi seemed to think about it seriously for a moment, then said fairly, “I have a distant little uncle called Meng Shiyan. He’s senior to me by generation, but only a year older in age. Compared to him, I’m still far behind. That’s the real top-tier green tea. In this area, I still have a lot to learn from him.”

Jin Zhao felt a bit disoriented.

Was this really a quality worth competing over?

“I’ve said it before—my dad loves me very much. At least for now, my sister and I still rank first in his heart. Of course he couldn’t tolerate someone hurting me and then ‘slandering’ me as having staged everything myself.”

At this point, Meng Yanxi lifted his eyelids and summed it up succinctly: “They broke up right there in the ward.”

Jin Zhao didn’t know what to say.

After a while, she asked, “Then… will they get back together?”

“Not sure. It’s not impossible that my dad was momentarily heated from wanting to protect his child. Once he calms down, it should be easy enough for him to figure out what kind of scum his son is,” Meng Yanxi said candidly. “So while he was heated, I took the money for the diamond ring from him, so that even if he calms down later, at least he can figure out one thing—his son may be a bastard, but he’s really smart.”

Jin Zhao’s feelings were a little complicated.

Although Meng Yanxi kept saying he wasn’t a good person, and there was such unmistakable self-loathing in his eyes, at this moment, she found herself yearning for him.

From next door, Si Tian and Luo Heng’s cheerful laughter drifted over the courtyard wall, mixed with Lu Jingyue’s voice full of disdain.

Others might be unable to truly empathize with him, but she could.

She understood his struggle, and she also understood his sharpness.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Jin Zhao asked softly.

Meng Yanxi leaned back against the beauty couch, lifting his chin slightly as he met her gaze.

The morning mist by the lake dispersed slowly, pooling into a chill within his eyes.

“Who knows?” He curved his lips. “Maybe I hope you can learn from me and stop being weak from now on. Or maybe I hope there’s someone who can deliver me.”

“Deliver you?”

Jin Zhao hadn’t expected him to use such a weighty word.

“Mhm. After all, having done too many bad things, I’m afraid of retribution too.”

“Why me?”

Meng Yanxi looked up at her. “Someone who can dance atop ruins, who can still pity others’ hardships even when trapped in her own—you’re the only person I’ve seen who is truly compassionate.”

Jin Zhao’s lashes trembled lightly.

The wind passed through the corridor; the bronze bells hanging from the eaves swayed, ding-ling, ding-ling. The cold fragrance of wintersweet was wrapped within that clear, lucid sound.

Jin Zhao lowered her gaze to him and said slowly, “But Meng Yanxi, I think I can also understand your compassion.”

Compassion was never weakness, nor was it an evasion of responsibility for the sake of one’s own spotless purity. Compassion was the readiness to take up the sharp sword in one’s hand at any moment to protect and to shoulder responsibility—even if one’s own body was smeared with mud.

-♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི

On Monday, Meng Yanxi finally came back to school for classes.

Early in the morning, when Jin Zhao walked into the classroom, she saw several boys gathered around his seat, all talking over one another as they asked how he’d gotten injured and how he was feeling now.

Meng Yanxi sat among them, his voice light and cool, saying it was an accident while playing basketball.

The Meng Yanxi in the classroom no longer had the candor of the Meng Yanxi from the Meng family. At least here, he wouldn’t say, “Who knows whether he hit me or not? Anyway, I fell.”

Jin Zhao felt as though she was carrying a secret in her heart. Strangely, this secret didn’t weigh on her at all; instead, it was like a grain of white sugar hidden at the tip of her heart, melting every now and then.

She walked past him.

A boy was standing in the aisle; sensing her approach, he naturally stepped aside.

Meng Yanxi was responding with “It’s already better,” his gaze passing over the boy blocking the way, following the direction she walked.

Jin Zhao stared at the floor and returned to her seat, Meng Yanxi’s lie drifting into her ears.

When it came to lying, Meng Yanxi’s sense of morality was indeed quite low. His foot hadn’t healed at all, yet he made it sound completely convincing.

She had noticed it yesterday at the Meng residence. Although he put on a very good act and really could endure pain, walking with an upright posture and steady steps, showing no sign of discomfort, the moment he stopped moving, he almost never stood—he would immediately sit down.

Yesterday at noon, Meng Shixu had kept them at the Meng home for lunch. Before they left, she even heard Meng Shixu scold him in a corner where no one was around: “It’s already swollen, and you’re still forcing it? At such a young age, where did you get such deep scheming? Calling out that it hurts—would it cost you a piece of flesh?”

The youth laughed, utterly unconcerned. “It wouldn’t cost me a piece of flesh, but limping would look ugly. Losing a piece of flesh is fine, looking ugly is not.”

So angry that Meng Shixu wanted to hit him, yet unable to do anything about him, he ultimately still had Meng Yanxi personally see them off.

A foot injury needed some time, but fortunately there were no damaged tendons or bones. Meng Yanxi recovered fairly quickly, and by April he was already able to return to the field and play basketball again.

Every Sunday, he would take Meng Zhuxi to Jinghong Dance for class.

Although the little girl was lazy and didn’t like hardship, she was just as smart as her brother, with very high comprehension. Whatever she learned, she picked up quickly and convincingly, and Teacher Yuyu was full of praise for her.

Meng Zhuxi was also very good at coaxing information out of people. She would always open her beautiful big peach-blossom eyes and look at Teacher Yuyu, obediently and sweetly asking, “Why hasn’t Sister Jin Zhao come to class for so long? When will Sister Jin Zhao come?”

At first, Teacher Yuyu brushed it off, but later she really couldn’t withstand the little girl’s offensive and helplessly told the truth: “She probably won’t be coming anymore.”

Meng Yanxi, who was waiting nearby for his sister to finish class, lifted his eyelids slightly.

“The private lesson card she’s using now was originally bought for her by her mom. Her dad actually wasn’t very supportive of her learning dance. All these years, she’s been rationing it little by little. Now there are only two sessions left on the card. She probably…” Teacher Yuyu paused, then said softly, “She probably doesn’t want to use up this card.”

Meng Yanxi put away his phone and got up to go to the front desk.

The dance school’s consultant teachers were different from the class teachers. Class teachers like Yuyu were only responsible for teaching, while consultant teachers like Xiao Feng were more like sales, mainly responsible for developing and maintaining clients.

Teacher Xiao Feng was always especially attentive to big clients. With a face full of smiles, he led Meng Yanxi to sit at a nearby table and poured him tea. Teacher Xiao Feng also happened to be Jin Zhao’s consultant teacher. His flaw was that he talked too much—noisy and incessant.

Meng Yanxi cut straight to the point before the other could start chattering: “Do you have any lottery events going on lately? For example, winning students getting 30 private lessons for free.”

Teacher Xiao Feng was dumbfounded.

What kind of extravagantly funded event was this? He had never heard of it—probably the boss had never heard of it either.

“N-no, I haven’t heard of anything like that.” Teacher Xiao Feng smiled cautiously.

Meng Yanxi didn’t say a word. With his eyes lowered, he tapped open his phone and transferred 20,000 yuan to him on WeChat, right on the spot.

Teacher Xiao Feng: “?”

Meng Yanxi: “Now there is. Remember to notify the client.”

Teacher Xiao Feng: “…Which client?”

Meng Yanxi: “Jin Zhao.”