When Lu Yixin rode her bike home, she felt as if every step was treading on clouds.

She suddenly understood why Fang Yongnian’s temperament had changed so drastically over the years, it turned out that the car accident hadn’t been an accident.

She didn’t believe that her father would do something like that, and she didn’t dare to believe that someone in the real world could do such a thing.

She had gone to the hospital after the crash. She had even secretly looked at the photos from the traffic accident—those scenes that had haunted her in nightmares—yet now she realized they had been man-made.

Her heartbeat quickened.

She had known Fang Yongnian for eight years, and this was the first time their conversation had taken on an adult tone.

It was also the first time since the car accident that she brought the conflict between him and her father to the surface.

Directly tearing it open, without concealment.

For the first time, their conversation had nothing to do with age or generation.

Her heart beat faster and faster. At eighteen, it was hard to describe such a complex feeling. Pain, shock, and a subtle, inexplicable excitement intertwined.

She pedaled her bicycle swiftly through the night. The damp chill of Jiangnan in March seeped into her red scarf, her face cold to the touch yet burning hot at the same time.

She squeezed the brake, pulled out her phone, sent a WeChat message to Liu Miqing, and then turned her bike around.

Yimin Pharmacy was close to the neighborhood where Fang Yongnian lived, and in the alley behind his community, there was a stall that sold delicious osmanthus syrup lotus root.

The lotus roots made before Qingming Festival were crisp yet glutinous, different from those of other seasons.

In past years, Fang Yongnian would take Lu Yixin there a few times during this season. This year, Lu Yixin wanted to buy it for him instead.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧

After Lu Yixin left, Fang Yongnian sat on the stool for a long time.

The last time he had gone out to get Ge Wenyao’s recording, he had been exposed to the cold wind for too long. His body was frail to begin with, and the cold had turned into a lingering, recurring illness.

He had been spoiled since young—the youngest child in the family, with outstanding grades. Compared to his burly elder brother, his parents loved him more.

He was picky with food, particular about taste; his bedsheets had to be changed every two weeks. When others pulled all-nighters in the lab, he would always find a way to take time off, wrap himself in a blanket, and sleep on schedule every day.

He had thought his life would continue like that—immersed in the laboratory, collecting a few awards that seemed within reach, and when he grew old and his hair turned white, he would have a respectable social standing, a family, and when his death notice was published, his name would carry the title of some academician.

For the first half of his life, everything had gone smoothly. He had harbored idealistic ambitions—wanting to see China’s original research drugs gain a foothold on the international stage, wanting to use pharmaceutical research to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Until that car accident.

After the crash, the project investors announced their withdrawal. Rumors spread like wildfire, and overnight, everyone in the research team was shrouded in suspicion.

That car accident destroyed not only one of his legs but also his life, his beliefs.

It turned a man once so pampered into someone who could live blank-faced in a bare, unfinished apartment. The toilet creaked when used, and the bed in his bedroom was just a few wooden planks nailed together—lying on it made him feel as if he were in a coffin.

Opening a pharmacy in Hecheng had been Zheng Fei’s idea. He had some connections in that field, and Yimin Pharmacy’s rent was cheaper than elsewhere. Fang Yongnian had agreed because he thought he might have to rely on it to make a living for the rest of his days.

After his death, there would be no obituary, no honorary title.

He would simply be that strange-tempered, one-legged pharmacy owner.

Life was unpredictable.

Fang Yongnian smiled, finally standing up. Like an old man, he slowly moved the joints that could still move, coughed twice, and carried the used cups to the sink in the kitchen.

Outside, it was raining again. The sound of the rain almost drowned out the sound of him washing the cups.

Every one of his movements carried that uniquely Fang Yongnian slowness. When he heard the knocking on the door, even the turn of his head was half a beat slower.

Eight o’clock in the evening.

Outside the door stood Lu Yixin, who had come back again.

She had taken off her red scarf and wrapped it around her backpack. Her coat was taken off and used as an umbrella, drooping over her head, dripping wet.

She hopped as she entered the room, and the moment she stepped inside, she turned on the air conditioner, shivering.

“My mom didn’t say it was going to rain today!” she complained, stamping her feet.

Her new shoes were completely ruined. She took them off, along with her socks, stepping barefoot onto the floor, leaving a trail of wet footprints with each step.

“Put on shoes.” Fang Yongnian couldn’t stand it anymore. He kicked her the pair of house slippers she had worn before, then went to the bathroom to fetch her a towel, and after that, hobbled into his room to get a cotton jacket to throw to her.

“My feet are wet.” Lu Yixin didn’t want to use Fang Yongnian’s towel to wipe her feet, so she carefully used it to pat her face instead.

Fang Yongnian threw a pillow from the sofa at her. “Wipe your feet.”

Lu Yixin looked at the pillow for half a second with reluctance before stepping onto it barefoot, feeling a bit distressed.

It seemed like she was the one who had given it to him once, though she couldn’t remember for what occasion.

Fang Yongnian’s cotton jacket was large and warm, carrying a faint smell of tobacco.

As Lu Yixin started to feel warmer, she dried her hair and turned her bright eyes toward Fang Yongnian.

He was taking her cup from the sink, rinsing it, intending to make her a second cup of hot cocoa.

“Don’t you find me annoying?” She had been freezing earlier, but now that she was warm and he looked so calm again, she couldn’t help but ask the question she’d wanted to but hadn’t dared to before.

He distrusted her father so much, so why was he always like this with her? Half scolding, half caring.

Fang Yongnian handed her the hot cocoa.

Her question was sudden and directionless, but somehow, he still understood it.

“I’m a pervert.” He said it with complete sincerity—so much that Lu Yixin immediately choked on her cocoa, spraying it out through her nose.

“Why did you come back again?” Fang Yongnian asked with obvious disgust, tossing her the tissue box so she could clean up the splattered chocolate herself.

“I went to buy spray for you.” Lu Yixin wiped her mouth and, like she was presenting a treasure, unwrapped her backpack that had been covered with her scarf.

Inside were two bottles of freezing spray for relieving muscle strain—the brand Fang Yongnian often used for his leg pain—bought from Yimin Pharmacy.

“Buy one, get one free. Uncle Zheng said when he heard it was for you, he just gave me another bottle,” Lu Yixin said, frowning in concern. “Can your pharmacy even make money like that?”

Her mom often bought medicine from that pharmacy too, and it was always like that—buy one, get one free, no sense of restraint.

“And this!” She pulled out a plastic bag from the bottom, still warm to the touch. “Osmanthus syrup lotus root. Bought it from Uncle Chen, the last piece.”

If it hadn’t been for that, she wouldn’t have been caught in the rain.

On the way, she had even gotten a call from her mom and got scolded.

“I’m going back now.”

She finished taking everything out of her bag, patted the now-flat backpack, handed Fang Yongnian his cotton jacket back, and put on her own soaked coat again along with that red wool scarf that had darkened to a dull maroon from the rain.

Her socks were wet, so she balled them up and stuffed them into the pocket of her school uniform, carrying her once-new shoes—now colorless from the water—by hand. She waved at him cheerfully while smiling. “Got any trash you want me to take down?”

Fang Yongnian found it hard to describe the feeling clogging his chest.

Just earlier, he had been sitting on the stool rubbing his leg, and she had noticed that the freezing spray he often used was running out.

He had spoiled her for years. After the car accident, he no longer had the leisure or patience to care as much and had neglected her in many ways.

Since coming to Hecheng, it was mostly this girl who brought him food from home. His refrigerator was always filled with their family’s plastic containers.

And yet, he was investigating her father.

When his illness acted up, he would fantasize about her father finally getting what he deserved—and in those fantasies, there was never the bright, smiling girl standing before him now.

Just half an hour ago, he had told her and others that he didn’t believe her father was innocent.

She had gotten angry, but all she did was say a few words, still smiling afterward, her lips purple from the cold. Just to buy him a small bag of osmanthus syrup lotus root.

He stepped closer, took off her dripping coat, and put his own jacket over her shoulders.

“Wait here for me.” He suppressed the unfamiliar emotion rising inside him, his tone calm. “I’ll drive you home.”

“You can just wear those shoes.” He saw Lu Yixin trying to change back into her wet pair as he grabbed his car keys. “I’ll drive you back.”

Lu Yixin blinked and grinned. “Oh.”

She smiled like a fox that had gotten its way.

She had really worried that once Fang Yongnian found out about what happened between him and her father, he would stop treating her the same.

Because when Fang Yongnian turned back after talking with Zheng Fei, she had seen the expression on his face.

In that instant, she knew he had intended to distance himself from her.

So—when dealing with one’s male god, one must be shameless.

After all, her father wasn’t afraid of being investigated.

The girl quickly and firmly pulled herself back onto her pink, girlish track, hopping in place in Fang Yongnian’s house slippers.

“If you’re sending me home, you might as well come up for a cup of tea,” she said, shamelessly pushing her luck.

Fang Yongnian paused halfway through putting on his coat.

“I was supposed to go home right after dropping off the purple sweet potato buns, but now it’s an hour late. My mom’s gonna kill me.”

“Come upstairs and help me explain, okay? You ate my osmanthus syrup lotus root, and a person should have a sense of loyalty.”

Fang Yongnian finished putting on his coat.

“She won’t kill you.” He glanced at Lu Yixin and took the damp scarf from her hands.

He hadn’t even eaten that osmanthus lotus root yet, and she was already overstepping.

Lu Yixin pouted and trailed behind him.

“You really won’t come up for tea?” she asked again, unwilling to give up. “My dad’s there too. Isn’t it easier to just ask him directly instead of investigating like this?”

Fang Yongnian was so infuriated by her that he wanted to throw her off the building.

“You can go back by yourself. I’m not sending you,” he said, turning around to walk away.

“Ehh!” Lu Yixin shamelessly howled in the stairwell. “Heartless!”

Fang Yongnian: “…”

Of course, he couldn’t actually leave her to go home alone in the rain. He could only pretend he neither saw nor heard anything and hurried down the stairs.

Outside, the spring rain was still drizzling. A few tiny yellow wildflowers had grown beside his parking spot.

Lu Yixin sat in the passenger seat, fastened her seatbelt, and watched as Fang Yongnian operated the hand control to drive the car out of the space. Suddenly, she slapped her thigh and cried out, “Ah!”

Fang Yongnian instinctively slammed on the brakes.

“I forgot to put the lotus root in a container! If you leave it wrapped in a plastic bag till you get home, it won’t taste good anymore,” she said, panicking as if it were a huge disaster.

Fang Yongnian clenched his molars, silently cursing himself again for asking for trouble.

And the person beside him just kept chattering away.

“I waited in line for so long to buy it.”

“But Uncle Chen’s lotus roots this year aren’t the same as last year’s, they’re much plumper.”

“Uncle Fang!” When he stayed silent, she started calling out loudly.

“Shut up,” Fang Yongnian said expressionlessly.

Just like that, all his earlier emotions vanished.

The melancholy from washing cups alone, the warmth he’d felt when she had touched his heart—all gone.

Now, he just wanted to find a rag and stuff it into this girl’s mouth.

So noisy.