Hecheng had the typical weather of Jiangnan. In mid-to-late March, several hailstorms fell in the outskirts of Hecheng.

Liu Miqing was the director of the Emergency and Disaster Mitigation Division of the Municipal Meteorological Bureau. During this season, from now until the end of spring and summer, she basically lived at the bureau.

After so many years, Lu Yixin was already used to her parents’ work. When Liu Miqing was packing her luggage, she dawdled into her parents’ bedroom. Liu Miqing liked to educate her at this time, conveniently giving her reminders for when she wouldn’t be home.

“You still haven’t decided on your college entrance examination preferences?” Sure enough, she opened with a headache-inducing question.

“I’m only in my second year of high school,” Lu Yixin pouted.

There were many things she wanted to do—to be a scientist, a celebrity, a doctor, a painter… She had even wildly imagined becoming Superman and maintaining world peace.

But when she really tried to calm down and think about what she truly liked, apart from Fang Yongnian, she couldn’t think of anything else concrete.

“Before I come back, you’d better give me a definite answer.” Liu Miqing understood her daughter well. Since childhood, she had lived too comfortably—interested in everything but never for long; wanting to try everything that looked good, but unwilling to endure hardship.

“Be prudent.” Her greatest wish for her daughter was peace and joy. “Your university choices will determine your future career. Every job that earns a living in this world is hard. If you don’t love it enough, you’ll live a tiring life.”

Lu Yixin tilted her head, watching her mother fold clothes one by one into the suitcase, half understanding, half not.

Her parents both deeply loved their work. Their jobs were exhausting; they often neglected the family for them. But she had never heard them complain.

Lu Yixin suddenly deflated. “Is it that when parents are too outstanding, the children all turn out mediocre?”

Liu Miqing put down the clothes in her hands. Her daughter was already growing graceful and tall—her life full of sunshine, with almost no shadows, blossoming like a flower bud, and now finally about to lift her head and face the winds and rains of the outside world.

“What do you think liking something means?” Liu Miqing looked gently at her daughter, who blinked in confusion. “You see me and your father often stay with our project teams and don’t come home, sleep only three or four hours a day, sometimes even neglect your studies. Do you think that’s what liking means?”

Lu Yixin nodded timidly.

That was exactly why she had handed in a blank list of preferences. In her heart, there was no dream that could make her persevere the way her parents did.

“That’s just the cost of liking,” Liu Miqing smiled.

“Because we like it so much, we’re willing to pay these costs to keep it. That’s the cost of liking, not liking itself.”

“I like working at the Meteorological Bureau because I hope I can predict most natural disasters and reduce their damage as much as possible.”

“Your father likes pharmaceutical research because there are too few original drugs in China. When he was young, a big pharmaceutical company once tried to recruit him, with excellent benefits. The only requirement was that he change his nationality. Your father is a stubborn man—he wanted to hold his ground, and he’s been holding it for over twenty years.”

“You need to find that point.” Liu Miqing rubbed her daughter’s hair. “Those who can find that point will never be mediocre.”

People who have something they’re willing to do without hesitation, even if they crash into a wall, will not live mediocre lives.

“What if I can’t find it?” Lu Yixin’s black-and-white eyes were clear as water.

“You definitely will.” Because you’ll always encounter people and things you want to protect. “Just remember, when you find it, don’t ever back down.”

No matter how difficult it is, don’t retreat.

Lu Yixin nodded, half understanding.

Liu Miqing pinched her daughter’s cheek and smiled.

She couldn’t push too hard. Lu Yixin seemed carefree, but every time they had these heart-to-heart talks, she always remembered her mother’s words.

She would digest them slowly, the road of life was still long.

“While I’m at the bureau this time, it’ll just be you and your dad at home. Get along well, don’t keep provoking him.” Liu Miqing felt that she truly had an endless number of things to worry about.

Just during dinner, those two almost quarreled over the last piece of braised pork.

Other people’s daughters and fathers were like little sweethearts, but why were hers like two fighting roosters…

Lu Yixin grinned and agreed but had no intention of changing.

She didn’t see much of her father, Lu Boyuan. When his projects were busy, it was normal not to meet for half a year. Every time the father and daughter reunited, there was always a faint sense of awkwardness.

Only when she angered him to the point of blowing his beard and glaring did she truly feel that her father had come home.

“Your father will be leaving in two weeks. After that, Auntie Li will be coming to stay.” Liu Miqing was still nagging on. “Make sure to close all the doors and windows before you sleep at night. If anything happens, call me or your dad anytime. If things aren’t busy at the bureau, I’ll come back whenever I can.”

She had repeated these words countless times. Auntie Li had already been working for their family as a housekeeper for two or three years, yet every time she left, Liu Miqing still felt uneasy.

“If you urgently need money, use the yellow bank card. The password is the last six digits of your ID number.”

After putting away the last piece of clothing, Liu Miqing closed the suitcase and reminded her once more: “Don’t always quarrel with your dad.”

Lu Yixin nodded cheerfully, carefree as always.

But once Liu Miqing left, she realized—it was really hard not to argue with her dad.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧

Her father, Lu Boyuan, had a very respected old professor, surnamed Wu. He was seventy years old this year, and every time she saw him, she called him Grandpa Wu.

During holidays and festivals, her father would take their whole family to Huating City to pay a New Year visit to Grandpa Wu. Each time, Grandpa Wu would always chat with her father in the study for an entire afternoon. She knew that Grandpa Wu was like a father figure to him.

She also liked Grandpa Wu very much, because Grandpa Wu would occasionally mention Fang Yongnian and often told her father to be more patient with him.

That afternoon after school, she received a message from Lu Boyuan on her phone, sending her the address of a restaurant and telling her to go straight there after school to have dinner in a private room.

It was the most expensive restaurant in Hecheng. Only especially wealthy people held their wedding banquets there.

Lu Yixin thought she had read it wrong and called to confirm, but her father impatiently answered once and then hung up the phone.

Lu Yixin huffed in anger.

Sometimes she really felt her mother had suffered a great loss marrying this big pig’s trotter.

That place took over half an hour to reach by bike. The moment she entered, surrounded by golden splendor, she felt completely ill at ease. The private room was at the very back of the second-floor restaurant, and the cheongsam-clad waitress led her all the way there while she clicked her tongue in amazement.

Had her father become corrupt or something? Eating here must cost him half a year’s salary.

The little girl worried about things she shouldn’t, watching as the professionally smiling waitress opened the door to the private room.

“Grandpa Wu!” Lu Yixin’s eyes lit up.

There were only two people in the room, her father and Grandpa Wu. They had been talking about something, but when they saw her come in, the conversation stopped.

“You’re getting prettier and prettier,” Grandpa Wu said with a kind smile, chatting casually with her. “Second year of high school now, you’re a big girl already.”

Lu Yixin noticed that her father seemed distracted, eyes fixed on his phone.

Was he unable to afford the meal? Her mind was a jumble of wild guesses.

On the round table sat only eight cold dishes—six of them with meat, and four sprinkled with golden gold leaf.

Lu Yixin, who had rarely seen such things, found it all wonderfully novel.

Her father was very stingy. Normally, even when eating pian’er chuan, he told her to eat less meat.

“Hungry, aren’t you?” Grandpa Wu kindly turned the plate of marinated beef slices toward Lu Yixin, signaling for her to eat. “Have some to fill your stomach first. A few more people haven’t arrived yet; we’ll order the hot dishes when everyone’s here.”

Lu Yixin quickly picked up her chopsticks.

Lu Boyuan snorted as he watched his daughter stuff her mouth full of beef.

Gradually, more people came into the private room. Most of them Lu Yixin didn’t know, but that didn’t stop her from being sweet-tongued—calling one “Uncle” and another “Elder Uncle.” With this little ball of sunshine at the table, the atmosphere was cheerful and lively.

Especially that Auntie Zhang, the very same Auntie Zhang whom Lu Yixin had mistaken at Yimin Pharmacy for Fang Yongnian’s blind date.

The moment she arrived, she smiled at Lu Yixin and teased that she looked exactly like her father.

This time, Lu Yixin didn’t dare complain in her heart. She smiled obediently like a well-behaved doll.

“Where’s Yongnian? He hasn’t arrived yet?” After the small talk ended, Auntie Zhang looked around and, noticing that the most important person hadn’t shown up, asked in confusion.

Lu Yixin’s head snapped up.

The table visibly fell silent. Lu Yixin noticed that even Grandpa Wu, who was always smiling, had darkened his face.

She frowned slightly. Why did everyone suddenly become so serious when they mentioned Fang Yongnian?

As if the harmony around this table didn’t include him at all.

“He dares not come!” Lu Boyuan snorted heavily.

The table fell silent again.

Auntie Zhang froze for a moment, then smiled awkwardly and raised her glass. “I was too talkative. I’ll punish myself with a drink.”

Why did she have to punish herself just for mentioning Fang Yongnian?

Lu Yixin frowned even deeper.

Someone quickly changed the topic, and the smile gradually returned to Grandpa Wu’s face. Only Lu Boyuan remained silent, head lowered as he stared at his phone, his expression growing uglier by the minute.

Everyone at the table worked in the pharmaceutical industry; Lu Yixin couldn’t understand a single thing they were talking about. When the hot dishes arrived, she noticed her father’s face had turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.

“I’m going to the restroom.” Lu Yixin took out her phone and stood up.

She didn’t know why, but a sense of unease pricked at her. She wanted to secretly call Fang Yongnian to ask what was going on.

Lu Boyuan impatiently waved her away.

The glittering hotel was like a maze. Following the restroom signs, Lu Yixin circled around and realized she was lost.

Everywhere she looked was covered in golden-red decorations, dazzling to the point of making her eyes ache.

She found a quiet corner and pulled out her phone to call Fang Yongnian. Her instinct as Lu Boyuan’s daughter told her—if Fang Yongnian didn’t show up today, her father might actually hit someone.

The call connected after two rings, but Lu Yixin didn’t speak.

The person she’d been worrying about was, at that very moment, just like her—leaning in the corner of the hotel, hidden within the golden-red shadows, the only light around him coming from his phone.

“Hello.” Fang Yongnian looked toward Lu Yixin.

Lu Yixin licked her lips.

She felt that with just that one word—hello—her heart had stopped beating.

Author’s note:

Disabled persons can obtain a driver’s license. Those with disabilities in the right lower limb or both lower limbs may apply for a C5 driver’s license (vehicle type permitted: small automatic passenger cars specially designed for disabled persons).