She truly thought that Fang Yongnian didn’t want her anymore.

In WeChat, other than questions about study exercises, he would never reply to anything else. She told him goodnight every single day, for a whole year, and he never replied even once.

Her father said that Fang Yongnian was saving money, looking at real estate in a small southern city.

She almost came to believe that Fang Yongnian would leave Huating before she got into university—that he would go to some place where nobody knew him, open a fruit shop, and cut off all ties with his past, including her.

When she finally understood that she might not be able to live without Fang Yongnian, she also had to accept the fact that she might never see him again in this lifetime.

Just like when she had just confessed and was immediately rejected.

Simply because she was born a few years later, everything that came after for her was late as well.

She cried uncontrollably in Fang Yongnian’s car, until she was sobbing out loud, howling like a little beast.

Fang Yongnian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

One moment he had been lamenting that the little girl had grown up, and in the next, she had gone back to being ten years old again—back to her snot-nosed state.

“Stop crying. I don’t have tissues in the car.”

He hadn’t even noticed that his tone lightened quite a bit when he said that.

Lu Yixin kept wailing, and in between sobs she managed to ask her question of curiosity, “Why… would there be no tissue?”

Fang Yongnian loved cleanliness…

Before eating outside, he would always use his own tissues to wipe and clean everything.

But he didn’t take the little girl out to eat anymore, so why would he still carry tissues with him?

“Haven’t driven the car in a while.” He brushed it off, opening the glove compartment on the passenger side and instructing Lu Yixin, “There should be an unopened glasses cloth inside. Use that to wipe your face.”

Still crying, Lu Yixin began rummaging around.

There were napkins in her schoolbag, but she insisted on using Fang Yongnian’s glasses cloth!

She almost wanted to be like a female animal in a wildlife documentary, covering his car with her tears and snot as if declaring ownership.

Inside Fang Yongnian’s glove compartment, there wasn’t a single trace of anything feminine.

After crying until her throat hurt, Lu Yixin finally felt comforted and started sniffling while wiping her face.

When they stopped at a red light, Fang Yongnian glanced at her—her face all twisted from crying again. Honestly…

He shook his head inwardly, but the corners of his lips lifted slightly.

“You…” Once she calmed down, Lu Yixin began rustling through her bag again. “I didn’t know you’d come pick me up…”

She hadn’t brought any candy.

That very sweet chocolate had only a three-month shelf life, and she hadn’t bought any for a long time.

He’d rushed to eat earlier, could it be because of low blood sugar?

Sniffling, she grew anxious. “How about you stop the car first? I’ll go buy some candy from a small shop.”

Even though it wasn’t as tasty as that chocolate, it could at least help for a while.

“I’m not hungry.” Fang Yongnian, once again without needing any hint, immediately understood what Lu Yixin meant. “I have candy on me.”

“Oh.” Lu Yixin mumbled, blowing her nose into the glasses cloth.

“So what are we eating?” She had finally calmed down.

“Noodles?” Fang Yongnian, for some reason, suddenly wanted to tease her.

As expected, Lu Yixin’s face scrunched up instantly, and the tears she had just managed to stop started threatening to fall again.

“I don’t want noodles!” She never wanted to eat noodles again in her life!

Because of a bowl of shrimp and eel noodles, she hadn’t seen Fang Yongnian for a whole year. The last bowl he packed was still sitting in her family’s refrigerator.

She had threatened her mother with death not to throw it away…

This time, Fang Yongnian couldn’t hold back and finally laughed out loud.

Fine lines had already appeared at the corners of his eyes, and when he smiled, the ends of his eyes lifted slightly. Those eyes, which had lost some of their boyishness over the years, brightened once again.

When he smiled, he actually looked exactly the same as before the car accident.

It was just that now, he smiled far too rarely.

Lu Yixin stared blankly, then asked blankly, “Are you in a good mood today?”

After she cried, he looked particularly relaxed. The way he teased her was exactly the same as before she confessed to him.

Was he no longer avoiding her?

Or did he think that since it had been a year, she must not like him anymore, so there was no need to avoid it?

Fang Yongnian coughed once.

He couldn’t really say he was in a good mood today. For any sane person, working overtime at the company until there was no private life left—there was no way one could feel particularly happy.

Then why did he tease her?

Fang Yongnian coughed again and glanced out the window. “Do you want crab roe buns?”

Changing the subject.

“This season’s crab roe doesn’t taste good.” Lu Yixin hadn’t fully stopped sniffling yet and blew her nose again.

Picky eater.

Fang Yongnian shot her a sideways glance, and the car slid back into the fast lane.

“Will Ranran refuse to see me?” After a year apart, the distance between them seemed to have vanished completely. Lu Yixin sat in the passenger seat, took off her shoes, drew up her legs, and curled herself up on the seat.

She loved sitting like this the most. In her own family’s car, her father, Lu Boyuan, would’ve beaten her for it. But Fang Yongnian would, at most, click his tongue and grumble a few words then let her be.

After their separation, she realized that all those little details, when remembered, were sweet.

“Her mother remarried?” Fang Yongnian responded, opening the glove compartment again. “Open another one.”

That glasses cloth was about to turn into a rag.

“Oh.” Delighted to use Fang Yongnian’s things, Lu Yixin happily tore open another packet, her expression like she was unwrapping a gift.

“Her mother remarried, and the other party has a child too.” When mentioning this, Lu Yixin looked genuinely gloomy. “Ranran is too pitiful.”

Her parents both had new families, and both had other children calling them mom and dad.

She could hardly imagine what she would do if this happened to her.

“If my parents did that…” She imagined for a moment, sneaking a glance at Fang Yongnian and shrinking her neck.

She might pack her things and run to live at Fang Yongnian’s house.

After all, no one loved her anymore, so she would come to love herself.

Luckily her parents got along well, otherwise Fang Yongnian would probably be driven gray-haired by her pestering.

“Did you come to persuade her to go back to Hecheng?” Fang Yongnian didn’t know what Lu Yixin had been daydreaming about, but seeing the sly look on her face he knew she meant mischief.

“I don’t know…” Lu Yixin promptly forgot her own imaginings, “Will she go back?”

Neither place was her home anymore.

“If only we could grow up faster.” She hugged her knees and sighed.

If she grew up sooner, she could have started chasing Fang Yongnian long ago.

If they grew up sooner, Zheng Ranran wouldn’t have to choose to live with a family because she had no source of income.

Being not grown up left them really passive.

“Actually we’re already adults.” Lu Yixin tilted her head to look at Fang Yongnian, “If Ranran refuses to take the college entrance exam, I’ll accompany her.”

“No matter what she wants to do, I’ll be with her.”

They had always been like that.

“In that case I’ll beat you up.” Fang Yongnian said ominously.

Luckily he was the one who came; if Lu Boyuan had heard her say those things, he would probably have flown into a rage.

This girl was nineteen and still hadn’t figured things out.

“Go talk to her, ask her what she wants to do when she grows up.”

“With her grades she can get recommended admission or a scholarship and get by. If she’s willing to work hard, she can do some part-time jobs at university to support herself. There’s absolutely no need to think about those messy other things.”

“With your personality, besides getting into trouble, you won’t be able to do much good accompanying her.”

He unusually talked a lot, as if afraid she would really accompany Zheng Ranran to give up the college entrance exam.

Lu Yixin tilted her head.

“Are you very afraid I won’t get into university?” Her voice was hoarse from just having cried.

Fang Yongnian: “…Why would your grades make you fail to get into university?”

The little girl’s current thoughts were very dangerous.

He found a parking space in front of a Cantonese restaurant, deciding he would properly educate her while they ate.

They had only been apart for a year, why did she suddenly not want to take the college entrance exam?

Lu Yixin watched Fang Yongnian steer, watched him steadily park the car in a rather narrow parking spot, and the whole time, she could not feel a single bump.

She hadn’t ridden in his car for a long time. Just like she hadn’t seen his side profile from so close in a long, long time.

He didn’t want her to fail the college entrance exam.

That was a thought any elder would have, yet somehow, Lu Yixin felt that Fang Yongnian’s not wanting was different from everyone else’s.

“Are you afraid that if I don’t get into university, I won’t be able to chase you?” She waited until Fang Yongnian had parked, turned off the engine, and unfastened his seat belt before she spoke—softly, almost wistfully.

Fang Yongnian froze mid-motion.

“Well…” The girl was used to talking to herself, asking and answering on her own. “If I can’t even get into university, what right do I have to chase you.”

“But if Ranran really…” She sank into unprecedented worry.

These past few days, when she couldn’t find Zheng Ranran, she had discussed it with Mischief King.

Friends were for life. She and Zheng Ranran would never be separated in this lifetime.

So if top-of-the-class Zheng Ranran really decided not to take the college entrance exam and to explore the world instead, then on her way here, Lu Yixin had been thinking—she wanted to go together.

Zheng Ranran had accompanied her through many things; she would accompany Zheng Ranran through many things, too.

Then what about Fang Yongnian?

Would he accept her?

“Actually, if you want to open a fruit shop…” she began to think seriously, “I don’t have to go to university, I could help you at the register.”

His future dream didn’t seem to have much to do with education, after all.

Then maybe… she could still pursue him, right?

She thought it through all on her own and decided, all on her own, to get out of the car.

Fang Yongnian had chosen a Cantonese restaurant—just right, since she had been craving rice rolls lately.

He locked the car door without expression.

Seeing Lu Yixin looking at him in puzzlement, he clenched his molars hard.

“A year without seeing you,” he said in the closed space of the car, his temple throbbing with anger, “and your brain’s full of shit?”

It was crude—especially crude—and entirely unfit for an elder to say.

Lu Yixin sat stunned, locked inside the car.

“Your damn life goal is to be a cashier in a fruit shop?” He was so furious the veins on his forehead were bulging.

Then what was the point of all those lessons he’d tutored her through, all those times he’d gone over and over the same concepts—things as simple as one plus one equals two—just so she could understand?

Did he have nothing better to do?

Lu Yixin swallowed hard. “But… weren’t you the one who said you wanted to open a fruit shop?”

“What the hell does my opening a fruit shop have to do with you?” Fang Yongnian practically roared.

“I… didn’t I say I was going to chase you…” Nineteen-year-old Lu Yixin shrank her neck under his scolding.

But she was still reckless.

What she had decided to persist in, she wouldn’t give up.

“Then how about…” She tried to negotiate with the furious Fang Yongnian, “I open a cake shop beside your fruit shop?”

They’d match pretty well…

Zheng Ranran would probably like running a cake shop too. They both loved sweets.

Fang Yongnian: “…”

“Lu Yixin, listen carefully.” He spoke each word clearly, “If you fucking dare to give up the college entrance exam, I’ll beat your two legs until you can’t walk.”

At worst, he’d take care of her himself afterward!

What a mess!

Just one year, and how did she turn out like this?!

Author’s Note:

The emotional arc of Volume 2 is basically the process of Fang Yongnian going from not completely deranged to completely deranged…

The sad parts are over—what comes next is how to face a world already scarred and broken.