Words can kill.

When Lu Yixin’s grandmother was still alive, the old neighbors in the community used to say similar things. Whispering together in private, saying that the old woman from Room 103 was senile, that she couldn’t remember people anymore, was incontinent, and even hit others.

Everyone spoke with a tone of pity while pointing fingers.

At eleven or twelve years old, every time Lu Yixin heard them, she would bare her teeth and charge at them, demanding what business it was of theirs.

If they said anything unpleasant, she would go mad and push them—a tiny girl with disheveled hair, fierce as a little beast.

Now, at eighteen, Lu Yixin was hearing even more malicious, even harder-to-refute gossip.

All she could do was stand there, learning from Fang Yongnian—standing straight, motionless.

Those words she could not refute were like dull knives dipped in poison, cutting her until she didn’t know what to do.

So when Fang Yongnian said he couldn’t bear it, when he said he was tired—

The aunties were gossipy, yes, but what they said reflected the stance of most bystanders.

As long as it didn’t concern them, such things were nothing more than small talk, a bit of idle chatter.

Later, when they passed that pharmacy, they might say:

“Ah, that’s the shop run by the limping man, isn’t it? Wasn’t he fooling around with some young girl?”

That would become the label people attached to Yimin Pharmacy.

After being said often enough, it might even turn into a neutral phrase.

No matter whether it was true or not, no matter how the people involved felt, this story would, among many strangers, become real.

Because her grandmother had suffered because of Fang Yongnian, Lu Yixin understood better than her peers the lethal power of gossip.

And she also understood better why Fang Yongnian had let her chase after him and listen to those words.

She was nothing but a chestful of reckless courage.

Her affection was something only she herself found beautiful.

“Let’s go eat.”

Fang Yongnian closed the shop door and stood behind Lu Yixin for a while.

His expression was calm, as though he hadn’t heard those aunties’ words at all—

even though their voices were loud enough to be heard clearly from across the street.

He never brought it up again.

He no longer wrestled with the question of whether to avoid suspicion or not.

He acted like a proper elder. After dealing her a fatal blow, he gave her space to breathe and think, no longer embarrassing her or forcing her to face reality.

Watching the once-cheerful girl now sitting with her head lowered, counting her grains of rice one by one as she ate, he slowly lost his own appetite.

Growth demands a price. Something he hadn’t truly realized until the car accident when he was twenty-eight.

Lu Yixin’s growth wouldn’t be as brutal, but it couldn’t possibly stay as simple and unchanged as he wished, either.

In the end, he hardened his heart and taught her a lesson.

He didn’t think he had done anything wrong, yet still, like a worried old father, he ladled her a bowl of fish soup.

He would always be her Uncle Fang.

And he would always gladly feed her all sorts of delicious food, as long as she was willing.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧ 

Time seemed to return to four years ago, before Fang Yongnian’s car accident.

After Lu Boyuan came back from Huating City, he became very quiet, often staying up all night smoking in his small study.

He started mentioning Fang Yongnian again, appearing frequently at his pharmacy. No matter Zheng Fei’s mocking remarks, he would pull Fang Yongnian into the study and chat with him for half a day.

He behaved as if the near-hostile estrangement of the past four years had vanished. In front of Fang Yongnian, it was all “Brother Yongnian” this and “Brother Yongnian” that. Lu Yixin even saw him looking up the dos and don’ts and maintenance of prosthetic limbs.

Four years after the car accident, he had finally gone back to being the kind of senior brother he once was.

After striking Lu Yixin with that blow, Fang Yongnian went on a long trip.

He was gone for half a month. If not for Lu Boyuan insisting on calling him every day, Lu Yixin would have lost all news of him completely.

After that day, she no longer dared to message him on WeChat.

Even that Five-Star Chemistry Problem Set with Detailed Solutions, she never opened it again.

She turned in her college preference form. The major she filled in was still meteorology, but the reason she wrote sounded lofty. She said she wanted to become someone as capable as her mother.

Liu Miqing was so moved she teared up several times during their video call.

Lu Yixin herself, however, was calm.

She suddenly became like a diligent high school junior focused only on studying. She never told Zheng Ranran anything about that day’s humiliation.

Fang Yongnian knew her too well.

If those gossipy words had been directed only at her—saying she was immature, improper, even shameless—she could have straightened her back and retorted. She could even have used her fluent, nonstop dialect to shout those idle, gossiping aunties into silence.

But that day, the words weren’t aimed at her.

Most of their criticism was aimed at Fang Yongnian.

Because they thought she was too young to understand, all the blame was shifted onto the one who should have known better.

Because he was older, because he had a crippled leg, he became, under the shadow of her one-sided affection, someone people would spit at in contempt.

She couldn’t tolerate it.

She was still too young. Too young to have any control over her own fate, too young to have any standing to argue against the condemnation directed at Fang Yongnian.

So she fell silent.

Of course she still liked him.

But this time, she began to question whether her liking was truly something beautiful.

Unable to find an answer, she began to study earnestly.

She even lectured the notorious troublemaker from the next class: “What else should a student do besides study?”

Zheng Ranran had recently taken to patting her on the head, feeling that she was like a small, well-behaved animal. Wounded, retreating to its den to lick its wounds, grieving within its nest, occasionally letting out a low whimper or growl of unwillingness.

Lu Yixin had finally begun to grow up.

Because she could not stand the expression and gaze of that plump auntie when she spat toward the pharmacy.

For the rest of her life, she would never allow anyone to look at Fang Yongnian that way.

Even more so, she would never allow herself to become the reason anyone did.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧ 

The day Fang Yongnian returned to Hecheng happened to be the day of Lu Yixin’s second monthly exam results.

Her grades had soared, ranking among the top thirty in the entire year.

Her homeroom teacher even called Liu Miqing specifically to praise her for a long while,

and Lu Boyuan was in high spirits the whole day.

He even cooked the only four braised dishes he knew.

Before school ended, he called Lu Yixin, asking her to bring home some cold dishes to go with them. But when Fang Yongnian finally arrived, Lu Yixin came home late—empty-handed.

“Didn’t I tell you to bring the dishes?”

Lu Boyuan was dumbfounded. Just four dishes, how were they supposed to eat?

“You’re just going to drink anyway.”

Lu Yixin kicked off her shoes, clearly refusing to join the meal.

“I already ate. I’m going to my room to do homework.”

“If you suddenly get into Peking University or Tsinghua, your mom and I will die of shock,”

Lu Boyuan muttered, still not used to his mischievous little monkey suddenly turning into a meek little lamb.

“And you?”

Lu Yixin stopped at the doorway, looking at Fang Yongnian.

He seemed in good health, hadn’t lost more weight, and his hair was neatly trimmed, clean and fresh.

It seemed that after that day, he was no longer the Fang Yongnian who needed her to fuss over him all the time like some nagging old mother.

“I’d be scared to death too,” Fang Yongnian actually followed up on Lu Boyuan’s words, handing her a bag of snacks. “I brought these for you.”

Everything returned to how it used to be.

Lu Yixin took the snacks, grinning, but the smile never reached her eyes.

She no longer wanted to call him Uncle Fang, so how could everything possibly go back to how it was?

“Then I’ll try and see if I can get in,” she said with a cheerful face, hugging the bag of snacks as she went into her room and closed the door.

“This girl’s been all wind and rain lately,” she heard her father say outside, disgruntled.

“All teenagers are like that,” Fang Yongnian replied, his tone neither light nor heavy.

He seemed to have had a smooth trip. His mood was good enough that he was even willing to chat with Lu Boyuan again.

Lu Yixin stood by the door for a while, holding the bag of snacks in her arms.

Her father was still fretting that four braised dishes were too meager for a guest, rummaging through the refrigerator noisily, calling out, asking where the leftover nuts from before had gone.

“I’ll go buy some,” Lu Yixin said, placing the snacks carefully into her treasured cabinet before opening her door again.

She looked at Lu Boyuan and Fang Yongnian.

Fang Yongnian looked back at her, his expression and gaze exactly the same as always—

not a hint of difference.

“I’ll go buy them then,” she repeated.

She’d go—because only she knew what Fang Yongnian liked to eat.

He’d been away for half a month. He must be tired.

“I’ll go with you,” Fang Yongnian suddenly said.

Lu Yixin, who was crouched at the entryway putting on her sneakers, froze.

“I need to drop something off at the pharmacy,” Fang Yongnian added naturally, lifting his suitcase as he gave his reason.

Lu Boyuan, still rummaging through the fridge, waved a hand.

“Don’t buy too much, and come back quickly.”

He didn’t notice his daughter’s expression at all.

It should have been a night for celebration—whether because Fang Yongnian had returned, or because of Lu Yixin’s exam results.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧ 

Fang Yongnian didn’t drive.

He walked beside Lu Yixin, pushing his suitcase along, his pace unhurried—you could hardly tell he wore a prosthetic limb.

“My exam results were really good,” Lu Yixin said, head lowered, kicking a small stone on the road.

“Mm.” Fang Yongnian nodded. “You can apply for Peking University or Tsinghua now.”

Lu Yixin: “……”

“You… was your trip smooth?” she changed the subject.

Fang Yongnian glanced at her and nodded.

He had come out precisely for this matter.

“The car accident, it probably had nothing to do with your dad.”

That was why his attitude toward Lu Boyuan had softened a lot today.

Lu Yixin turned her head to look at him.

“You were right.” Fang Yongnian looked at her and smiled.

She really was remarkable. Even after finding out that he had been investigating her father, she neither cried nor caused trouble.

If not for her, he and Lu Boyuan wouldn’t have reconciled so quickly.

He knew in his heart that for Lu Boyuan to call him Yongnian again, that meant a great deal.

She had always been so sensible.

Even after he struck her with such a harsh blow, her grades hadn’t dropped at all.

“I brought you some mochi,” he said with a small smile. “The mochi over there was quite good.”

Lu Yixin nodded.

The little pebble by her foot almost rolled toward Fang Yongnian’s side. She used a bit of force and kicked it away, drawing a long arc through the air.

“Fang Yongnian,” she called his name softly, head lowered.

She didn’t look at him, yet she knew—he must have frowned again.

“I’ve decided to study meteorology,” she said, still looking down. “I’m not changing my choice, because my parents are happy about it.”

Not entirely because of you, so you don’t need to feel responsible.

“I’ll study hard,” she said with a smile.

“Once I actually started studying, I realized it’s not that difficult. Zheng Ranran’s a top student, there’s a lot I can ask her.”

“So…”

It was as if she had finally made up her mind. She stopped walking and lifted her head.

Fang Yongnian stopped too.

It was April in Jiangnan. Many nameless flowers were blooming along the roadside, pink and white in soft clusters.

She tilted her face upward, full of youth, her skin still soft with fine down.

“Are you willing to wait for me?”

“I’ll study hard, and I’ll grow up properly.”

“When I’ve grown up—if you still don’t have a girlfriend, will you be willing to wait for me?”

“I wickedly hope that you’ll still be single at forty. I want you to wait for me.”