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In the old district of Hecheng, there was a very famous noodle shop. The storefront was small and only opened for six months each year, from seven in the evening until three in the morning. Their specialty was stir-fried shrimp and eel. Spring and summer were when the eels and marsh shrimp were at their freshest—the rich broth combined with the flavorful river delicacies, and the noodles were firm and coated in savory soup, leaving an endless aftertaste.
So even though the shop had odd operating hours, a shabby environment, and a boss who constantly shouted orders, it was still packed every day, with crowds of people lining up outside.
Fang Yongnian and Lu Yixin stood in the waiting crowd, neither speaking.
Lu Yixin hid both hands in her coat pockets, her head lowered; Fang Yongnian, meanwhile, looked down at his phone. The screen showed a language and chemical equations she couldn’t understand.
Her hands were still trembling.
When Fang Yongnian had taken her to get a taxi earlier, she had been clutching his sleeve the whole time. Before they got in, he reached out with his other hand and gently pried her fingers away.
It wasn’t rejection.
The motion was even somewhat gentle.
The warmth of his palm brushing the back of her hand had made her skin burn, and it was still hot now.
He brought her here to eat noodles. Because this place opened at such strange hours and was a bit far from her home, she had never been here before.
But she had mentioned it several times in front of him, and he remembered.
Lu Yixin took a careful half-step forward, her coat almost brushing against Fang Yongnian’s.
He turned his head to glance at her, then took a step back, motioning for her to stand in front of him.
He stood behind her, head lowered, continuing to look at his phone.
They exchanged no words, but their positions changed. Now, when he looked down, he could see the back of her head; like this, he could clearly see her lowered head and her uneasy, helpless posture.
In a protective stance.
Lu Yixin found it incredible.
She, who was usually so slow on the uptake, could suddenly understand the meaning behind every one of Fang Yongnian’s small gestures.
He was comforting her. He was saying goodbye in the gentlest way he could. He was helping her guard the fluttering heartbeat and joy in her chest.
He didn’t turn around and walk away.
The person she liked—even after all the hardships he had endured—was still gentle.
So her tears wouldn’t stop falling.
୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧
The bowl of noodles lived up to its reputation, served in a wide sea bowl, steaming hot and fragrant.
Lu Yixin first sipped a mouthful of broth; steam rose in curls as her tears mixed with it, scalding and bitter.
Fang Yongnian looked at the top of her head, and for a moment, his mind drifted back to six years ago—when the little girl had turned into a wounded cub after her grandmother’s death. She had looked exactly the same then, crying while drinking soup.
He really had known her for a long time, spanning even his past and present life.
Even now, his wrist still bore the faint mark of her bite from six years ago, small white teeth marks among the many scars on his body, all of which had become symbols of his survival.
She had indeed given him many things. She was the thread that tied him to his memories of the past. She was also the reminder, each time he doubted humanity, that there was still goodness in this world.
He pulled two napkins from the noodle shop’s dispenser and handed them to her.
The coarse napkin rubbed against her face, still shedding bits of paper, and as Lu Yixin wiped and wiped, tears clinging to her lashes, she suddenly began to laugh.
Fang Yongnian stood with his arms crossed, amusement flickering in his eyes.
Six years had passed, and these cheap napkins were still the standard in shabby eateries.
No matter how fast the world changed, there would always be some unexpected places that kept these oddly endearing traditions, making people smile in recognition.
“All right, stop crying already,” Fang Yongnian said helplessly, looking at Lu Yixin’s messy face—crying and laughing all at once.
Lu Yixin sniffled, making vague, muffled sounds as she struggled to steady her breathing. After catching one full breath, she hurried to make her stance clear. “I… still need to cry a little longer…”
The simple noodle shop was crowded even at midnight. Most faces were marked by weariness and indifference. Few noticed the girl in the corner, crying so hard she could barely speak. Across from her sat a lean man, expression serious—but patient.
Lu Yixin took a deep breath and finally calmed down. She sipped some of the noodle broth, sniffled—and wanted to cry again.
Fang Yongnian was leaving tomorrow.
What he said earlier made it sound as though they would never see each other again.
He would never again take her wandering through alleys in search of food, hand her a cheap napkin to comfort her, or quietly, patiently wait for her to finish crying.
Lu Yixin started to sob again. But the noodles were about to go soggy, this was the bowl Fang Yongnian had bought for her…
She tried to eat between gasps and tears, slurping noodles as Fang Yongnian watched in alarm.
“You’re going to choke,” he said, taking the chopsticks from her hand. “Eat after you’re done crying.”
Lu Yixin looked at him through her tears.
Fang Yongnian: “…”
This girl, her grief was so exaggerated it almost seemed absurd to him.
Could an eighteen-year-old’s feelings really cut so deep? Could she truly like someone like him—ill-tempered, older, and physically damaged—with such complete sincerity?
He almost wanted to ask her what exactly she saw in him. What was so good about him that she could sit there, crying herself out of shape.
“I’m only going to Huating,” he said at last, unable to describe what he was feeling.
It was a tangle of emotions so complex that even someone who had lived through the rise and fall of many things could not make sense of it.
“I’m going to Huating because I have something to do.” Caught between being her elder and the man she liked, every word he spoke felt unbearably awkward. “You’re about to enter your third year of high school, you can’t keep running over to me whenever you feel like it.”
Fang Yongnian, uncharacteristically, paused.
He opened his mouth, then stopped again.
Lu Yixin, still sobbing miserably, looked at him in surprise.
He had always spoken bluntly to her. In all her life, she had never seen Fang Yongnian hesitate like this.
He hesitated so much it was as if the words he was about to say would cost him his life.
Fang Yongnian tapped his fingers on the slightly greasy table, as if making up his mind—or surrendering at last. “My leaving doesn’t mean we’ll never see each other again.”
So you don’t have to cry like this.
So you don’t have to treat this bowl of noodles as my farewell gift.
He wasn’t that stingy, he wouldn’t take something greasy and worth only a few dozen yuan as a parting gift.
Lu Yixin’s eyes, which had been swollen into slits, suddenly glimmered with light.
“…” Fang Yongnian struggled, choosing his words carefully. “I won’t block you on WeChat. If there are any questions you can’t solve, you can still take a picture and send them to me, just like before.”
He wasn’t a child. He didn’t engage in childish things like blocking people on WeChat.
Lu Yixin sniffled, staring at him blankly.
Fang Yongnian didn’t speak again.
His ties with the Lu family weren’t only through Lu Yixin, but also through that troublesome Lu Boyuan.
With Lu Boyuan resigning at such a sensitive time, the research institute would definitely let him go immediately—just like it had happened to Fang Yongnian back then. Big institutions had well-developed personnel structures; they would never collapse just because one person left.
Right now, no one wanted to be associated with Professor Wu. As a researcher trained under Wu, Lu Boyuan’s voluntary resignation was likely something the institute’s leadership had long hoped for.
Back then, there were definitely more than twenty people involved in the case. A new drug project couldn’t have been approved and funded merely on Professor Wu’s reputation in the industry.
It was just that the investigation could go no further.
In large institutions and corporations, there were too many places where filth could be hidden.
Fang Yongnian’s fingers twitched near his pocket as he resisted the urge to smoke.
Lu Yixin still stared blankly at him, looking a little dazed.
The entanglements of adults were things she couldn’t understand—but between him and her, cutting off contact completely wouldn’t be easy, even though he wanted to.
“Then I…” Lu Yixin hesitated. She had been avoided by Fang Yongnian too many times, rejected too many times. Even the hardest head would start to feel pain.
She thought seriously about whether, at a time like this, asking this question would make him think she was overstepping.
Fang Yongnian looked at her—at her slightly flushed face still dotted with bits of cheap napkin paper.
She had been crying, and her entire face was damp.
Yet she didn’t look ugly.
It seemed that at eighteen, nothing could truly look ugly.
“Then… after I get into university, can I go visit you?” she asked, not daring to say ‘chase you’ again, using a safer phrasing instead.
“Once you’re in university, you probably won’t have time to look for me.” Fang Yongnian smiled, his expression easing slightly.
At least, his efforts these past weeks hadn’t been in vain.
At least, she no longer dared to say that shocking word in front of him.
“Adults don’t like children falling in love early for a reason.” He was leaving tomorrow. Though this girl wasn’t the type to do anything drastic over such matters, since he had already given in once today, he couldn’t allow himself to indulge her again.
“It’s not just about hormones being too strong.”
“Life is full of uncertainty. When you’re still a teenager, you act too impulsively and end up doing things you’ll regret later.”
“The things you’re doing now, you’ll regret them in the future.” Once again, he found his footing as an elder. This time, he intended to stay firmly rooted in that role.
“So let’s leave the future for the future.” He pointed at the bowl of noodles that had already gone soggy, the noodles they had waited half an hour in line for. “Do you want me to get you another bowl?”
“I want to pack it,” Lu Yixin finally stopped crying. “Pack it up and put it in the freezer when I get home.”
Fang Yongnian: “?”
“If I don’t regret it in the future,” Lu Yixin said indignantly, full of defiance, “I’ll throw this bowl of noodles at you!”
Fang Yongnian: “…”
“If my dad hadn’t gotten drunk tonight, were you planning to sneak away without saying goodbye?” Having regained her strength, Lu Yixin finally had the energy to settle accounts after the fact.
He had even prepared the keys. He had gone home early from the hospital to pack his things.
Why had he planned to leave in secret?
“Were you afraid that I’d really grab onto you and cry in the middle of the street, so you wanted to sneak off instead?” Her eyes were so swollen they were barely open, but she forced them wide to show her indignation.
Fang Yongnian: “…”
“I already said I wouldn’t embarrass you,” she said, voice trembling with grievance and childish anger. “I said it so many times, why don’t you ever believe me?”
Fang Yongnian: “…..”
How could he believe a promise from a girl who forgot what she said the moment she turned around?
Lu Yixin put down her chopsticks.
She pulled out a few napkins and wiped her tear-streaked face again, then brushed back the strands of hair sticking to her cheeks.
With great seriousness, she lifted her swollen, puffy face and looked straight at Fang Yongnian.
He instinctively leaned back a little.
“My promise is serious.”
“I won’t make you tired, and I won’t make you embarrassed.”
“If you don’t like me, I won’t cling to you.”
“I’ll grow up. I’ll become strong, the kind of strong that isn’t afraid of gossip anymore.”
“And then, I’ll come to chase you. If by then you already have a girlfriend or a wife, I’ll bless you.”
“When I was little, it was you who took care of me, who protected me.”
