Lu Yixin was just like Zheng Ranran had said—when it came down to the critical moment, she was both reckless and rash.

After Fang Yongnian discovered her little thoughts, she had made a scene, tried to pretend nothing had happened, even begged him. Crying, fussing, threatening—none of it worked. When every method failed, Lu Yixin’s mind went blank.

After Fang Yongnian said what he needed to say, he no longer paid her any attention. His car was a special vehicle for the disabled, so he couldn’t call a designated driver. He could only continue on the road once his strength recovered.

He told Lu Yixin to go downstairs and buy some noodles with soup, then went into the bathroom to take a quick hot shower. To avoid catching a cold, he set the temperature very high. While washing, there was a moment he felt like he might pass out from lack of oxygen.

Inside the steam-filled bathroom, he wiped the hot water from his face.

Ever since the car accident, he had actually forgotten what it meant to live. Investigating the truth, seeking revenge for his dead colleagues and for himself—had become his only motivation to open his eyes every morning.

Sometimes, he even thought, how good it would’ve been if everyone in that car had died together. Instead, they had to leave behind this incomplete version of himself—a man in his thirties with the body of someone in his sixties or seventies.

Lu Yixin’s movements were faster than he had expected.

Less than half a minute after entering the room, she knocked on the bathroom door without hesitation.

“Uncle Fang, the noodles are going to get soggy.”

Her voice was clear and natural.

Fang Yongnian sighed.

Apparently, “avoid suspicion” was not something Lu Yixin intended to listen to.

He had already said everything that needed saying. The rest, she’d have to digest on her own. After all, they were about to say goodbye. Once he completely unraveled the network of connections behind that account list, he could finally sever every tie from the first half of his life.

He would find a place where no one knew him, open a fruit shop, and never have anything to do with pharmaceuticals again.

All those gifts people had once praised him for, all those dreams he once held—he could put an end to them all. Including the one person who had never changed from beginning to end—Lu Yixin.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧

“I asked the waiter to add a few extra slices of ginger.”

Lu Yixin had already opened the take-out noodles.

“They were fresh noodles, so I asked them to cook them a little longer. They should be soft now.”

She was afraid he might catch a cold, and also worried about his digestion—these were things she’d learned from taking care of her grandmother.

Fang Yongnian looked at the girl who seemed so unreliable, the same girl who had skipped class and hidden in his trunk for reasons he still didn’t understand and his heart softened again.

He did like her.

If she were truly his niece, he might have spoiled her even more outrageously than now.

What a pity.

His life was filled with too many what a pitys.

“Thank you.”

He pulled out a chair himself, moved the noodle bowl a bit farther away, and sat down to drink a few sips of the broth.

Avoid suspicion.

Lu Yixin bit her lip.

She was the one he wanted to avoid!

While waiting for the noodles earlier, she had still been dazed. Her first-ever crush had been caught red-handed by the person involved, and he had rejected her flatly, without leaving her any room to turn around.

The blow had left her thoughts in chaos. The things Fang Yongnian said when he rejected her, and the things he’d said the night before, kept flashing through her mind like a carousel of lights.

And then—she saw Fang Yongnian come out from the shower.

His hair was still wet, and he was wearing the same clothes as before. He had only gone in to rinse off the cold sweat, nothing more.

“When you leave, what’s going to happen to my dad?”

She asked an inexplicable question.

Her tone was so abrupt that Fang Yongnian almost scalded himself with the mouthful of soup he was drinking.

“Aren’t you investigating my dad?”

“In two months… you won’t be investigating anymore?”

“You don’t want the pharmacy, you don’t want me, and now you don’t want my dad either?”

Fang Yongnian: “……”

The noodles at the rest stop tasted very average.

After being asked such a complicated and hard-to-answer question, Fang Yongnian completely lost his appetite.

“The investigation is almost finished,” Fang Yongnian set down his chopsticks.

“No matter whether this matter is related to your father or not, the clue I’ve obtained now is the last one I can get.”

As always, he didn’t hide anything from Lu Yixin.

Since he had already decided not to treat her as a child anymore, his attitude toward her had become much more equal.

Two months later—whether he could avenge his colleagues and himself or not—that would already be the limit of what he could do.

Lu Yixin fiddled with the paper wrapper of the disposable chopsticks and softly made an “oh.”

For a bowl of noodle soup, he had thanked her twice.

She had asked him about his investigation’s progress, normally the most sensitive topic between the two of them and instead of brushing her off with the usual “grown-up matters, children shouldn’t interfere,” he had told her everything without concealment.

He finally no longer treated her as the kid from next door.

Yet she didn’t feel even a little happy about it.

“When the investigation is over, why can’t you stay in Hecheng?”

Lu Yixin came up with a new question.

Fang Yongnian looked at the greasy noodle soup, frowned, picked out a few slices of ginger, chewed them twice, and swallowed.

His body was beginning to feel cold—not a good sign.

“I came to Hecheng because the key evidence in my investigation was related to Hecheng.”

He gave a brief explanation. The ginger was pungent; he pinched his nose and drank two more mouthfuls of soup.

He forced himself to swallow half the bowl of noodles as if it were medicine.

So, once the investigation ended, he would leave. Lu Yixin filled in the rest of the sentence for him herself.

There was nothing in Hecheng worth making him stay. So when it ended, he would go.

How… heartless.

It was as if all the pastries her mother had made over the years had been fed to the dogs for nothing.

He was too resolute, so resolute that her anger began to boil.

Even if they were only neighbors who had known each other for eight years, he didn’t have to be this cold.

He was ready to leave behind the place he’d lived in for two years just like that.

Although his pharmacy business hadn’t been particularly good, it had a great reputation among the neighborhood aunties. They all said that the tall, thin young man was generous— the medicines he recommended were never expensive, and most of them were quite effective.

He had clearly put his heart into that pharmacy.

He had clearly been good to her too.

Every time he went on a business trip, he would bring back local specialties for Liu Miqing and her.

And yet, he could still say he was leaving, still think there was nothing in Hecheng worth staying for.

“When the investigation’s over, are you going to marry that woman?”

She asked, her expression all nose and no eyes—completely out of shape.

There it was again.

Fang Yongnian set down the bowl and frowned.

Lu Yixin, acting entirely on her own, dragged her chair to the farthest corner from him, sitting diagonally across.

She even explained, “Avoid suspicion, avoid suspicion.”

Fang Yongnian: “……”

“I’m just asking,” Lu Yixin said, pouting and wrinkling her nose.

“We’ve known each other for eight years, and I’ve called you ‘Uncle’ for eight years. Can’t I even ask?”

The guilt she’d felt after being caught in the trunk, and the worry over Fang Yongnian’s old injury acting up. All of it was burned away by anger.

After being rejected, Lu Yixin finally felt the sting of that rejection—the grievance that came after being turned down.

Liking someone isn’t a bad thing.

Why did he make it sound so serious, as if it were something shameful?

They weren’t even real uncle and niece, and it’s not like she planned to push him onto the bed!

Fang Yongnian opened his mouth, intending to repeat what he had just said.

Lu Yixin reacted quickly and cut him off.

“All that reasoning you said, I understand it. If I didn’t, then when I first realized I liked you, I would’ve come straight to you. Why would I have kept it from you?”

She actually had the nerve to justify herself.

“I also know that it’s impossible for us right now. I’m only a second-year in high school, my grades are unstable. If I mess up in the college entrance exam and don’t get into a good university, if I never make anything of myself in this life, then I wouldn’t dare pursue you.”

She began to ramble and the more she talked, the more reasonable she thought she sounded.

Fang Yongnian silently pushed the bowl of noodles a little farther away, afraid he might lose control and dump it all over her head.

“But people always need something to hold on to, don’t they?”

Lu Yixin said at last, almost heartbroken.

This time, not only did his phantom limb ache—even his head started to throb faintly.

“What kind of ridiculous logic is that?”

He felt he had run out of words.

“How is that ridiculous?” Lu Yixin said, dull and defiant now, completely throwing caution to the wind.

“I just like you, that’s all. When I first realized it, I was miserable for a while. Felt like I’d defiled the admiration I used to have for you.”

“I even secretly felt really inferior, because I knew how unreliable I am right now, that I’m not good enough for you yet!”

Fang Yongnian: “……”

“When I liked you, I didn’t even know you had such a beautiful girlfriend.”

She went around in circles and somehow ended up right back where she started.

“I like you, but it’s not like I said I had to do anything with you.”

“How would I even dare do anything with you!”

Lu Yixin sniffled. She knew something in her head had snapped the moment Fang Yongnian mentioned his reason for coming to Hecheng. Now she couldn’t control herself anymore.

“I just like you, that’s all! I didn’t strip your clothes off, I didn’t sneak a kiss from you, and I never said I wanted to date you!”

Silence.

The hourly motel room wasn’t large.

Fang Yongnian had even opened the door earlier—to avoid suspicion. But with that one shouted line, the once-noisy hallway outside fell completely silent.

Lu Yixin could feel the words “date you” still echoing down the corridor.

Fang Yongnian’s face turned visibly, from dark blue to bright red.

Why had he softened toward her just now?

Why had he ever thought this girl was endearing?

He must have lost his mind to even imagine making her his niece!

He had never been this humiliated in his entire life. In an hourly motel room at a highway rest stop, door wide open, a girl in a school uniform shouting at a man in his thirties about wanting to strip his clothes off, steal a kiss, and date him.

“Get up!”

Fang Yongnian’s face was alternating between red and blue.

Realizing she had made a terrible mistake after her outburst, Lu Yixin instantly returned to obedient mode. One command, one action, like a well-trained child.

“I’ll take you home.”

He no longer felt cold, nor did he feel the weakness in his body anymore.

If he didn’t send her home right now, he felt like he might actually have a brain hemorrhage.

The worst part was—all those messy, ridiculous things she had just said, there wasn’t a single one he could refute.

Utterly embarrassed.

When he started the car, his face was still red.

“Sit in the back seat!” he barked at her, venting his frustration.

God damn it…