Strictly speaking, Lu Yixin could not be considered a child who was raised under the careful protection of her parents.

Because of Lu Boyuan and Liu Miqing’s work, Lu Yixin had been brought up by her maternal grandmother since childhood. After her grandmother fell ill, she was like a little burden being taken along by her parents in turn to their workplaces. Later, there appeared another person — Fang Yongnian.

As a child who lacked parental discipline, Lu Yixin’s entire growth process was unexpectedly smooth. Even her rebellious phase around the age of twelve or thirteen merely amounted to minor mischief, partly because of Fang Yongnian’s presence.

She had always lived a very positive and optimistic life, got along well with her parents, had good friends, achieved above-average grades, and even had an idol she could turn to whenever she missed him.

In her eighteen years of life, she had never been as dispirited as she was now. Uninterested in everything, unwilling to do anything.

At home, she had grown increasingly silent. So silent that Lu Boyuan, who had always been somewhat eager to take on the role of educator to his daughter, began to doubt his own life.

“Could it really just be because of Fang Yongnian?” He thought for a long time. That night’s heart-to-heart talk with his daughter seemed to have revolved entirely around Fang Yongnian.

Liu Miqing sighed as she folded the laundry, clearly unwilling to answer her husband’s question.

She had, after all, overestimated her husband’s emotional intelligence. She should have been there that night. At least then, she would know what exactly her husband had said to make their daughter turn out like this.

“Why does she admire Fang Yongnian so much?” Lu Boyuan felt very wronged. “He and I do the same kind of work. In our field, my reputation is far better than his, and my achievements are much greater!”

Liu Miqing: “……”

Fang Yongnian truly held an extraordinary place in their family.

Their daughter was wholly devoted in her admiration of him, while her husband had, in truth, always viewed Fang Yongnian as a rival — Fang Yongnian was simply too smart. If not for that car accident back then, his accomplishments today might not have been inferior to her husband’s.

And yet, in their only daughter’s heart, Fang Yongnian clearly outweighed Lu Boyuan.

No wonder he had been so unsettled all this time.

“When my mother was gravely ill, you were in the critical final stage of your project’s third phase, while I, in order to care for my mother, didn’t have much energy left for Yixin.” Liu Miqing folded the last piece of clothing and handed her husband a glass of water. “At that time, the one who looked after Yixin was Fang Yongnian.”

The first time Lu Yixin met Fang Yongnian, she had clung to him right away, pestering Lu Boyuan every day to take her to the lab. Over time, Fang Yongnian naturally became her babysitter.

“After my mother passed away, I fell ill. You had to take care of me while just taking on a new project. Back then too, it was Fang Yongnian who helped take care of Yixin.”

“Yixin was only eleven or twelve. Losing her grandmother must have been no less painful for her than it was for me. Yet she never once came to trouble me.”

“She even comforted me. She said Grandma had already forgotten everything, so she must have also forgotten the pain. That when she left, it surely didn’t hurt too much.” Liu Miqing was a gentle woman. As she spoke of these memories, her voice was soft and slow.

“A twelve-year-old child couldn’t have said something like that on her own. The one who taught her to say it was Fang Yongnian.” Liu Miqing looked at her husband. “During that time, the one who took care of her, comforted her, and helped her grow up well was Fang Yongnian.”

Lu Boyuan looked back at his wife.

There were tears in her eyes, though her tone remained gentle.

The process of developing a medicine could take as short as a few years or as long as more than a decade. It destined him to have little time for his family, destined him to miss most of his daughter’s growing-up years.

His wife had never complained about his work. This was the first time she had spoken of that period, those extraordinarily difficult days for them both as husband and wife.

“Yixin isn’t a child with an easy temperament. She’s stubborn, tends to get stuck in her own thoughts, and the sadder she is, the more she resists communication. My mother’s passing hit her very hard. If it hadn’t been for Fang Yongnian, we might not have the well-behaved, lively daughter we have today.”

“Our family owes Fang Yongnian a great debt.”

“You can’t blame our daughter for admiring him so much, because when she truly needed her parents, the only one by her side was Fang Yongnian.”

Liu Miqing cried.

The guilt of having neglected her daughter for years due to work, the grievance of being separated from her husband because of their jobs. All of it poured out with those few sentences, and her tears flowed like spring water.

Lu Boyuan hurriedly wrapped his arms around his wife in a fluster.

He didn’t know how to comfort her. After so many years of marriage, he had devoted himself entirely to his work, while Liu Miqing had balanced both career and family, always appearing calm and steadfast. She had always been the strongest person in the household.

His guilt left him speechless. All he could do was clumsily wipe away her tears.

“I’ll repay this debt we owe him,” he said at last, almost like a vow. “For that project, I’ll make sure to bring him in. I’ll help him get his life back to how it used to be.”

“I was just… too disappointed,” he began muttering to himself. “You know how much I once expected from that kid.”

Fang Yongnian was different from the rest of the project team. He had an almost instinctive touch for pharmaceutical work. Discussing academic problems with him had been some of the most satisfying moments of Lu Boyuan’s entire life.

But a person like that, in the end, betrayed the project team.

That was why he could never calm his anger.

“I’ll help him,” he finally conceded because of his wife’s tears. “I’ll help him find his old footing again.”

Help him break away from those opportunistic businessmen around him, and drive off those friends with messy backgrounds.

“If Yixin really wants to go see him, let her visit the pharmacy during the day.” After all, there were still differences between men and women.

He finally relented.

He had taken part too little in his daughter’s growth. The one time he did, her grades had dropped from the top twenty in her class to the bottom thirty in the entire grade.

Maybe his wife had been right all along.

Maybe his junior—his fellow student whom he had always grieved over and thought had fallen beyond saving—Fang Yongnian, had not yet rotted completely.

After all, he had always been good to his daughter.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧

Lu Yixin knew the restrictions at home had been lifted.

Her father no longer confined her to coming straight home after school, nor did he stop her from calling Fang Yongnian.

He even told her that if she didn’t understand something in her homework, she could ask Fang Yongnian. After all, he wasn’t as good at explaining problems as Fang Yongnian was.

This should have been the result she had long wished for, her father finally seemed less opposed to Fang Yongnian; maybe the two of them would no longer argue. But she couldn’t feel happy about it.

She no longer wanted to go find Fang Yongnian.

The fact that Fang Yongnian treated her like a niece—something she used to take pride in—had now become a sharp knife. Just thinking about it hurt.

She didn’t want to see him as her uncle, or her idol, anymore.

Because she could no longer bear the way he looked at her as though she were just the neighbor’s child, nor the way he told her she’d grown up and needed to learn to make her own decisions.

The possibility that Fang Yongnian might soon have a girlfriend had made her greedy.

Her admiration for her idol had, along with that greed, begun to change in nature.

Because of that change, she despised herself—so much that she didn’t even dare get too close to her best friend. Zheng Ranran was the person in the world who understood her best, and she didn’t dare let Zheng Ranran discover the truth.

But Zheng Ranran still cornered her after class on Saturday noon, in the bike shed at school.

“Come have milk tea.” Zheng Ranran took the keys to Lu Yixin’s bike, using a tone that brooked no refusal.

Beside Zheng Ranran stood that tall, broad-shouldered troublemaker, looking every bit as if he’d drag her to the milk tea shop by force if she didn’t listen to Zheng Ranran.

“You asked if my little brother smokes to forget his worries?” The troublemaker—whose nerves were probably as thick as a meter-long rope—hadn’t noticed the undercurrent between the two girls at all. He asked with great interest.

Lu Yixin: “……”

She regretted it. She shouldn’t have casually asked someone such a question out of curiosity.

“Actually, smoking only makes you feel good for a moment,” the troublemaker went on and on, “drinking works better.”

“When you’re drunk, you can forget everything for an entire night,” he leaned closer to Lu Yixin’s bicycle handle, speaking in a secretive tone.

Zheng Ranran rode her bike right between the two of them, kicking at the troublemaker’s wheel.

“Get lost!” Zheng Ranran’s kick was heavy.

Lu Yixin had been acting strange lately, and this big oaf just had to teach her ridiculous things like that.

Startled by Zheng Ranran’s fierce glare, the troublemaker braked and swerved aside. Watching the two girls ride off and disappear, he scratched his head.

He had been telling the truth though.

Last time, Zheng Ranran had stolen some liquor from her annoying dad and made him drink more than half the bottle. He really didn’t remember anything the whole night after that…

She was so fierce.

The troublemaker pouted and pedaled off in the opposite direction.

A woman like that probably wouldn’t be able to get married in the future.

She’d just keep studying and studying because of her good grades… and then never get married.

Amused by his own imagination, the young man’s face crumpled into a grin full of creases.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧

“No ice, eighty percent sugar, add pudding and milk foam.” Zheng Ranran placed the order without even glancing at Lu Yixin. When she got her drinks, she tossed one toward Lu Yixin. The cold cup brushed Lu Yixin’s hand; she flinched but didn’t dare talk back.

After all, she was the one hiding something.

“You gonna tell me yourself, or should I guess?” Zheng Ranran took a sip of her drink, still fuming.

She had known Lu Yixin had been in a slump lately—distracted when speaking, getting nearly every problem wrong—but she’d waited, hoping Lu Yixin would sort herself out and come to her on her own.

But not only had Lu Yixin failed to figure things out, she’d even gone behind her back to seek out the gang of delinquents that hung around the troublemaker.

She wanted to learn how to smoke.

That was simply asking for death.

Zheng Ranran jabbed viciously at the pearls in her milk tea, shaking the whole cup.

Lu Yixin lowered her head and took a sip.

Even in her anger, Zheng Ranran had still ordered her favorite flavor.

“Ranran.” Her voice was quiet, so quiet it didn’t even sound like her own. “I don’t dare go see Fang Yongnian.”

Zheng Ranran stopped stirring her drink.

“Fang Yongnian came to my house. He and my dad had another argument. When I got home, he only looked at me once.”

“That look, was like he was looking at the kid next door.”

“I… feel terrible.” Lu Yixin lowered her head even more. “I think… I did something bad…”