Lu Yixin felt that something was a little off.

Ever since she went to the pharmacy and told Fang Yongnian that her father was coming back, she hadn’t seen him for four whole days. Every time she wanted to go to the pharmacy to look for him, her mother would always change the topic with various reasonable and natural excuses.

Like today.

Early in the morning, Liu Miqing made a lot of pickled vegetable pancakes. Lu Yixin stuffed one into her mouth, cheeks puffed up, and ran to the kitchen to take out a lunch box, starting to pack them inside.

“What are you doing?” Liu Miqing only spoke when she saw Lu Yixin trying to stuff the lunch box into her schoolbag.

“I’ll bring some for Uncle Fang and Uncle Zheng when I pass by the pharmacy.” Lu Yixin stuffed another pancake into her mouth, gulped down a mouthful of salty soy milk with a huff, and wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her school uniform.

When her mother wasn’t too busy with work, she would make pastries. She always made a lot and would tell her to pack some in a lunch box to bring to Fang Yongnian and the others.

She had already developed a conditioned reflex—whenever she saw pastries, she would automatically start looking for a lunch box.

“I’ll bring them over. You just go straight to school.” Liu Miqing reached out, took the lunch box from her hands, and stuffed it into her own work bag.

Lu Yixin puffed her cheeks. “…You’re not even going that way.”

Liu Miqing ignored her, took a bite of the pancake, and sipped the soy milk.

Lu Yixin sat across from her, biting her pancake, her eyes wide open.

“Your eyeballs are about to pop out,” Liu Miqing teased her daughter.

Lu Yixin put down the pancake. “Why?”

It had already been four days. If she still couldn’t tell that her mother was deliberately keeping her from going to see Fang Yongnian, she might as well go get her brain checked.

Liu Miqing sighed. “Your Uncle Fang is already thirty-two this year, and his health isn’t very good. He really needs someone by his side to take care of him.”

“A few days ago, your father introduced him to a girl from work. She’s a clinical researcher. They met once and seemed to get along quite well.”

“It’s not easy for your Uncle Fang to find someone. You’re still a little girl, don’t go getting in the middle of things.”

Her tone was casual. She finished the last sip of soy milk, patted Lu Yixin’s head, picked up her work bag, and left.

But Lu Yixin couldn’t shake the feeling that her mother was fleeing the scene.

“You guys are unbelievable!!” She didn’t react until her mother had gone downstairs, and then she howled so loud that her voice echoed through the house.

Fang Yongnian… in a relationship?!

And her father introduced the girl?!

Weren’t those two on bad terms? Didn’t they have a falling-out and become distant ever since?!

How could this be!!

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧

It was Wednesday. Fang Yongnian was on night duty at the pharmacy.

That morning, over breakfast, Liu Miqing had mentioned that Fang Yongnian’s blind date would be on duty with him tonight—and that they seemed to get along quite well.

Before the last evening self-study class even began, Lu Yixin was already sneaking something out from the lining of her schoolbag, tiptoeing her way into the restroom.

On their floor, several of the locks on the girls’ restroom stalls didn’t work well. Lu Yixin tried a few until she finally found one that could be firmly locked. Just as she was closing the door, she saw Zheng Ranran standing there with her arms crossed, watching her.

“…” Lu Yixin quickly stuffed what was in her hands under her uniform, eyes wide. “Why are you following me to the restroom? You scared me to death!”

Her acting was extremely poor.

Zheng Ranran was half a head taller than Lu Yixin. She easily reached into Lu Yixin’s uniform pocket, took out that thing, and waved it in front of her face.

“…” Lu Yixin was so angry she wanted to bite her.

“We just studied this method last month.” Zheng Ranran twirled the lip tint in her hand. “Apply this stuff on your eye bags and blend it evenly, it’ll look like your eyes are swollen and inflamed.”

It was something they’d found online. A so-called miracle trick for faking conjunctivitis to get a day off.

Lu Yixin gnashed her teeth at Zheng Ranran.

“This color was even the one we picked together,” Zheng Ranran said, putting the lip tint back into Lu Yixin’s uniform pocket and patting her hands clean. “But too bad, it doesn’t work.”

“Ah?” Lu Yixin opened her mouth, not quite keeping up with the turn of events.

“I taught this method to that little tyrant from the next class. He tried it yesterday with your lip tint. I was the one who helped him apply it, too.”

She had used a cotton swab to blend it perfectly along his eye bags.

Lu Yixin: “…”

“Didn’t work,” Zheng Ranran said regretfully. “The teacher caught him right away and made him copy five texts as punishment.”

Lu Yixin: “…”

“How many times have I told you. You have to test things first before doing something bad,” Zheng Ranran scolded her, full of exasperation. “Besides, is skipping class even going to solve your problem?”

Lu Yixin slumped out of the stall, dragging her feet, hiding the lip tint deep into the innermost part of her pocket.

She was truly disappointed. That lip tint had cost her two weeks of allowance, and now she couldn’t even test it.

Maybe next time she should try applying it around her eyes to scare Fang Yongnian.

“Why do you always use that little tyrant from the next class for your experiments?” Lu Yixin almost felt sorry for the guy. Tall, strong, and seemingly clever, yet he had been tricked by Zheng Ranran so many times. Even dumber than her.

“He volunteered,” Zheng Ranran shrugged, not wanting to talk about him. “If you sneak out tonight to see Fang Yongnian and your mom finds out, it’ll be even harder for you to see him again.”

Lu Yixin’s shoulders drooped. She held up four fingers toward Zheng Ranran.

“It’s only been four days since I last saw him, and now he’s in love already!” she wailed.

“Even if you saw him every day, he could still fall in love,” Zheng Ranran exposed her bluntly.

Lu Yixin shut her mouth halfway through the howl and glared at her resentfully.

“Your mom isn’t wrong either. He’s that old already, dating and getting married are perfectly normal.”

“The last time he had an attack at home, you were so worried. You even told me you hoped he’d have someone with him, that you were afraid he’d feel lonely.”

“Anyway, you can’t actually marry him,” Zheng Ranran spread her hands. “And he’s not going to stay single forever. That day was bound to come.”

Lu Yixin’s shoulders slumped completely as she took two small steps forward.

A strange feeling—unwilling, restless—boiled in her chest.

“Why can’t I actually marry him?” she asked Zheng Ranran.

“He’s not my real uncle. We’re only fourteen years apart, not forty. I’ve liked him since I was twelve. I know all his preferences, I know everything about him.”

“Why can’t I really marry him?”

At first, Lu Yixin only murmured, her voice so soft it was like she was talking to herself. But as she went on, her voice gradually grew louder.

She had always said that when she grew up, she would marry him.

She was always so careful around him, she would come up with eight hundred reasons before making a phone call.

At an age when she didn’t even understand what “liking” or “getting married” meant, all of her heartbeats, all of her stirrings, were given to him.

Why couldn’t she marry him?

“Because he doesn’t like you,” Zheng Ranran said, looking at her—cruel and direct.

She had only ever regarded Fang Yongnian as an idol, a living, breathing idol she could see every day.

She had simply mistaken her feelings for that of love, because all her pink, girlish dreams were tied to this one man.

This day was bound to come.

No one knew it better than Zheng Ranran.

Lu Yixin said nothing.

Everything everyone said was right. From the perspective of reality, they were all right.

It was a path most people would choose—just like studying hard—it was obviously the right path.

A path she had no way to argue against.

But then, why did doing the right thing feel so painful?

Why, when she knew that the lonely Fang Yongnian had finally found someone he liked, did she feel no joy at all?

Why, when this should’ve been a happy thing for everyone, did she feel so restless she wanted to skip class?

“Ranran.” Lu Yixin stood at the classroom door. “I can’t.”

She and Zheng Ranran were best friends. They had been inseparable since middle school, even moving schools together when their parents’ jobs were relocated.

On the road of growing up together, they had faced many confusions. Most of them from the relatively precocious Zheng Ranran.

Though she looked obedient, Zheng Ranran actually had many doubts. She had questioned whether studying was meaningful, whether being a good child mattered after her parents divorced, and whether the school’s promotion system was fair when her favorite homeroom teacher resigned.

Through all those strange, mature-for-her-age doubts, Lu Yixin had always been there beside her.

This time, it was Lu Yixin’s turn to be confused.

“Give me that thing,” Zheng Ranran said, taking Lu Yixin’s lip tint.

“…Didn’t you say it doesn’t work?” Lu Yixin gaped, watching as Zheng Ranran swiftly and skillfully spread the tint under her eyes until they looked red and swollen.

“Depends on who’s using it.” Zheng Ranran tilted her chin toward the fluorescent light, blinking until tears welled up, then added another layer. “I’m the top student in the school.”

The corner of Lu Yixin’s mouth twitched as she followed behind the top student, watching her naturally ask the homeroom teacher for leave, saying she suddenly had conjunctivitis and that her mother was on night shift, so she wanted Lu Yixin to accompany her to the emergency clinic.

The homeroom teacher agreed right away and even told them to take a taxi to the hospital.

“The little tyrant from the next class is going to cry,” Lu Yixin muttered, though by now she was used to Zheng Ranran doing all sorts of bad things with a perfectly innocent face. Still, she couldn’t help feeling sorry for that poor guy.

Zheng Ranran was the real little tyrant. Compared to her, the one from the next class was child’s play.

“We’re going to take a look at Fang Yongnian’s blind date,” Zheng Ranran said as she put on her jacket and slung her schoolbag over her shoulder.

The two of them always liked to deal with their teenage confusions in the most straightforward way possible.

When Zheng Ranran had been confused before, Lu Yixin had accompanied her just like this. Going with her to see, to listen, to ask.

Even if they didn’t understand, they still looked, still listened, still asked.

Even if, after all that, the questions remained unanswered, at least they had tried.

Eighteen was an age for charging ahead, for not leaving regrets, for not letting the confusions of youth turn into the shadows of growing up.

Lu Yixin tightened the straps of her backpack.

She was just going to take one look, she told herself.

She was just going to see for herself what kind of person Fang Yongnian’s blind date—the one who supposedly got along so well with him—really was.

Was she as gentle and lovely as she imagined?

After seeing it for herself, she would try to learn how to give her blessings.

To take the path that most people would choose.