Fang Yongnian’s head was splitting with pain.
After he and Lu Boyuan got dead drunk, Lu Boyuan suddenly revived the enthusiasm he once had when pursuing Liu Miqing— fussing over every detail, asking after his health and comfort endlessly.
That little traitor Lu Yixin even went and complained to Lu Boyuan, saying he was sick but refused to see a doctor, had been coughing for over two months, that his phantom limb pain was acting up more often, and that he’d been steadily losing weight.
So, when those two Lu-named creatures knocked on his door early Sunday morning, he didn’t even twitch the corner of his mouth.
This past week, he had already been harassed by those two quite a few times…
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“I’m heading back to the institute next week. You should at least open a window and let in some air when you’re home alone,” Lu Boyuan said as he came in, habitually sighing over Fang Yongnian’s bare, empty apartment. “But since you messed up that project, I’ve got plenty of vacation time now.”
Fang Yongnian went into the bathroom without expression and began brushing his teeth.
As for Lu Boyuan’s sudden closeness, he couldn’t really say whether he felt happy or unhappy about it.
After that night of drinking, deep down he already believed that Lu Boyuan probably really had nothing to do with what happened back then. After all, he’d been relentless for over two years, and hadn’t found a single flaw in Lu Boyuan.
His persistence had merely been because he needed someone to vent his anger on.
He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. His hair really had gotten long, and he hadn’t shaved in days. Disheveled, unkempt—he really did look like someone who needed taking care of.
Outside, the two Lu creatures were noisily arguing about which of his bowls and chopsticks were actually clean. He picked up his razor.
Might as well tidy up a bit.
After all, even his sweater was pilling.
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“I’m going to Huating today.” The breakfast Lu Boyuan had brought—soy milk, fried dough sticks, and glutinous rice—was hot and fragrant.
Fang Yongnian, freshly shaved and with his hair trimmed short into a buzz cut, looked several years younger than usual.
He dipped a fried dough stick into the sweet soy milk and responded indifferently, “Mm.”
“In the restarted project’s personnel list, two people were involved in the Muxing Pharmaceutical case—they falsified data. Those same two also participated in the project four years ago.” Lu Boyuan took a sip of soy milk, frowning as he watched Fang Yongnian eat his fried dough sticks in exactly the same posture as his own daughter.
Every time he saw this scene, it made his mood inexplicably sour.
“Even if you don’t give me that list, I can find it out myself.” Because of that irritation, Lu Boyuan’s tone at the end sounded almost sulky.
He had finally decided he needed to learn the truth. The truth he had deliberately, half-consciously ignored and glossed over all this time.
Fang Yongnian glanced at him and took another bite of fried dough.
Lu Boyuan fell silent.
Then, in frustration, he grabbed at Lu Yixin’s overly large sleeve. “Can you eat like a girl for once? Your sleeve’s soaked in soy milk!”
Lu Yixin, stunned by the suddenly well-groomed and handsome Fang Yongnian that morning: “?”
Fang Yongnian, knowing Lu Boyuan was just venting his temper: “……”
“I’ll be leaving town in a couple of days.” Fang Yongnian coughed lightly.
The girl’s face had puffed up like a bun from being scolded by her father. Must’ve hurt her pride, especially in front of him.
He smoothly changed the topic, not even glancing in Lu Yixin’s direction.
“Where to?” As expected, Lu Boyuan immediately shifted his attention away from his daughter.
Fang Yongnian stirred his soy milk and gave a simple explanation: “I found Liu Yufang’s whereabouts.”
Lu Boyuan was taken aback. “Wang Dagang’s wife?”
“The driver who hit you?” Lu Yixin also spoke up.
Fang Yongnian’s brows knitted slightly.
Lu Boyuan frowned too. “How do you know the driver’s name?”
The question was directed at Lu Yixin.
“I can read, you know. I also saw it on the news.” Lu Yixin looked baffled.
For someone who had caused Fang Yongnian to end up like this, it was impossible for her not to know the name. She had even searched for it online, but unfortunately the name was so common that she’d found nothing useful.
“Stay out of adults’ matters.” Fang Yongnian’s expression cooled.
Lu Yixin chewed her fried dough stick silently.
He hadn’t used that universal line for a while now.
Her age always seemed to change according to their moods. When they needed her to be sensible, she was told she’d grown up; when they didn’t want her meddling, she was briskly reminded that “children shouldn’t interfere in adults’ business.”
Bunch of big pig trotters.
Lu Boyuan coughed lightly.
Getting cut off by Fang Yongnian while trying to discipline his own daughter—he had to admit, that was a very peculiar feeling.
“How did you find her?” he could only change the subject.
He felt like he might be overthinking things, but there was always this strange atmosphere between Fang Yongnian and his daughter. Something outsiders couldn’t insert themselves into.
Stranger still, he seemed to be that outsider.
“Money. Through connections.” Fang Yongnian’s reply was short and irritatingly casual.
In truth, by the time he’d had the strength to look for Liu Yufang—the key person—she had already remarried and moved to a new place.
China was vast; to find an ordinary middle-aged woman who had hidden her identity was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
He had spent quite a bit of money and searched for over three years.
Lu Boyuan was momentarily speechless.
Having a wealthy girlfriend really was impressive, especially one with such a thick skin.
“You’re not that young anymore. If the relationship is stable, you should settle down soon.” He spoke in the tone of a senior fellow.
It was the tone he had used most naturally when they’d interacted in the past.
Four years had gone by, and though things had changed, it still felt familiar.
One day, he thought, he would die from being too soft-hearted.
Fang Yongnian sighed inwardly and replied vaguely, “We’ll see.”
The soy milk and fried dough no longer tasted sweet.
He set down his chopsticks, while Lu Yixin, sitting opposite him, was staring fixedly at him with a “go ahead and lie if you dare” expression.
Fang Yongnian picked his chopsticks back up again.
He took a sip of sweet soy milk to cover it up.
He had forgotten about Lu Yixin’s presence…
His complicated thoughts were once again interrupted by her expression of deep resentment. He finished the rest of his breakfast without tasting a thing, feeling uncomfortably full.
“Yixin doesn’t have to go to school today. Take her to the pharmacy later,” Lu Boyuan said after finishing breakfast, giving instructions as if it were perfectly natural. “Otherwise she’ll just go out and eat fast food again.”
In his understanding, Fang Yongnian never refused to look after Lu Yixin.
Even when he’d been irritable and violent in the hospital, having lost a leg, he had never once lost his temper with her.
Their bond was a special one. If not for that accident four years ago, Lu Boyuan truly would have regarded Fang Yongnian as his younger brother.
Now that everything had been laid out between them, it didn’t take him long to slip back into the habit of treating Fang Yongnian like a stand-in caretaker.
“You two should order something nutritious for lunch.” He left with a clear conscience—
hurriedly wiping his mouth, grabbing his bag, and heading out.
That left Fang Yongnian and Lu Yixin quietly facing each other.
A familiar scene—eight years ago in Huating, the same three people.
Lu Yixin held up her soy milk, blinked at Fang Yongnian, and laughed.
Fang Yongnian shook his head, but the corners of his lips still lifted slightly.
“Did you make up with my dad?” Lu Yixin asked, patting her hands in satisfaction after finishing the last bite of glutinous rice.
Fang Yongnian, standing in the kitchen washing dishes—taking care of not just the breakfast dishes but also the ones piled up from the past few days—neither spoke nor nodded.
Lu Yixin craned her neck, watching him for a while. “Your new haircut looks really handsome.”
She sighed—a sigh she had been holding in since the moment he came out of the bathroom earlier. With her father there, she hadn’t dared say it aloud.
Fang Yongnian’s hand slipped mid-wash, nearly throwing the bowl at her head.
Avoid suspicion.
Those two words, he’d been reciting them like a mantra lately.
“You and my dad investigating together should be much faster than doing it alone,” she said, squatting at the kitchen doorway and tilting her head up at him.
The sunlight fell across Fang Yongnian’s face. His lips were pressed together, the corners turned slightly downward.
She remembered how, in the past, when he kept quiet and pressed his lips together, there had been an upward curve at the corners—a hint of youthful brightness.
Now, although his face still carried the same outline, it had grown colder, distant.
Maintaining her squatting posture, she shuffled a little closer.
“Fang Yongnian,” she called his name from her crouched position.
Fang Yongnian, holding up his hands covered in dish soap, wondered whether he should just throw her out.
“Do you really not like me even a little?” The girl ignored his cold expression completely.
In front of others, her cautious restraint made his heart tremble with anxiety; when they were alone, her boldness made his heart tremble all the same.
So small, yet her presence was impossible for him to ignore.
“No.” He didn’t even know how to answer her question, he could only choose the most absolute rejection.
“Oh.” Lu Yixin shrugged.
“It’s fine.” She moved two steps closer, until she was almost pressed against his kitchen cabinet.
Then why the hell did you ask.
Fang Yongnian used every ounce of his thirty-some years of self-restraint to swallow that curse.
“I’ve decided what major I want to choose in college,” she said, resting her head against the cabinet door, completely unfazed by how strange it looked—her squatting, him standing.
Fang Yongnian lowered his gaze to look at her.
“I want to study meteorology,” Lu Yixin said, tilting her head up. “Like my mom.”
Fang Yongnian was slightly surprised. He rinsed the soap off his hands and responded, “That’s good.”
Having a dream was good.
“I only knew because my dad mentioned it. Back then…” Lu Yixin paused for half a second, searching for a better word. “It was during a thunderstorm.”
Fang Yongnian turned off the water, frowned, and looked down at her.
“So that’s why every year, when spring and summer come and there are frequent thunderstorms, you have more attacks, and your health gets worse.” Lu Yixin was still squatting there.
Fang Yongnian began to feel uneasy.
“I want to study meteorology so that when there’s going to be a thunderstorm, I can tell you ahead of time.” Lu Yixin smiled, her round eyes curving into half-moons with satisfaction.
Her mother had told her, find a kind of liking that makes you willing to give everything.
Fang Yongnian was the kind of liking she was willing to give everything for.
So she wanted to do more for him—whatever it was, she could.
Fang Yongnian frowned slightly, slowly drying his hands.
He was thinking of what he should say.
“Stand up first,” he said, leaning back against the cabinet. “You know I can’t squat.”
Eight years ago, when they first met, he had squatted down so he could meet the little girl’s eyes. Eight years later, he could no longer squat—and the little girl had grown to love squatting in front of him.
She liked looking up at him.
Because during those long months when he was bedridden, once he could finally stand again, he realized—she liked to look up at him.
“Your college major shouldn’t have anything to do with me,” he said, looking at the now-standing Lu Yixin. She was a full head shorter than him, small, wearing a loose dark-red sweater.
A beautiful, slender young girl.
The sunlight shone in, catching the fine down on her face.
A yellow-haired little girl.
“I don’t want to bear it, and I can’t bear it,” he said gently. Using the kindest tone to deliver the cruelest refusal.
