One day sooner or later, he would be thrown off the office building by Lu Boyuan—from the eighteenth floor—leaving not even a corpse behind.

Fang Yongnian looked out the window expressionlessly. “Put your clothes on properly!”

She really was disheveled. Her T-shirt was half pulled off by herself, revealing a small section of the gray vest underneath.

Lu Yixin, dizzy and fumbling with her clothes, caught sight halfway through of the fat cat that had been silent all this time.

“Ah!” Lu Yixin exclaimed in surprise. “Why are you here?”

Fang Yongnian: “……”

How could she be so at ease!

Drunk to this extent, she wasn’t the least bit surprised why she was in his car, nor was she surprised by how her own clothes had been pulled into such a mess.

Her first reaction was to ask a cat that couldn’t even talk why it was here.

Didn’t she say she liked him?

What about the difference between man and woman?!

Without a word, Fang Yongnian got out of the car. When he shut the door, it slammed with a loud bang.

Lu Yixin, mouth half open, watched Fang Yongnian’s back as he walked into the convenience store, and stuck out her tongue at the fat cat.

He came. She was so happy.

Also very nervous.

So nervous, she almost didn’t dare to look at him.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧ 

Fang Yongnian bought Lu Yixin a bottle of cold water, and along the way, picked up a pack of tissues.

When he got back in the car, Lu Yixin had already consciously climbed into the passenger seat, fixed her messy clothes, and was twisting her neck, baring her teeth playfully at the fat cat in the back seat.

Fang Yongnian picked up the blanket and tossed it to Lu Yixin. “Cover yourself.”

Even in the scorching heat of midsummer, she could forget about exposing her fair thighs in front of him.

Lu Yixin secretly pouted but didn’t dare act up in front of an obviously angry Fang Yongnian. She obediently wrapped her legs up and hiccupped from the alcohol.

“Drink more water.” He opened the bottle cap and handed it to her.

The water, just taken from the refrigerator, had condensation forming on the outside of the bottle.

Half drunk and half awake, Lu Yixin stared at the bottle.

The things Fang Yongnian gave her always seemed to be prepared properly.

The bottled water he handed her always had the cap opened. The tableware at restaurants was always washed clean. Even back when they studied and did homework, the pencils he gave her were always sharpened to perfection.

Why had she never noticed that before?

She had always thought Fang Yongnian disliked her—that because of her father, he only endured her and indulged her out of obligation.

But if it were only tolerance, he wouldn’t go to such lengths.

Fang Yongnian was someone whose preferences were always obvious. For people and things he didn’t like, he never put in much effort.

She took the bottle of water. It was obviously the most common brand of mineral water, yet because of her mood, when she drank it, it actually tasted a little sweet.

“Thank you.” Lu Yixin suddenly felt like crying again.

So she really did cry—her lips pressed together, realizing that lately, every time she saw Fang Yongnian, she ended up crying.

How could Fang Yongnian have such a face that made people want to cry just by looking at it?

How could he just… be good in every possible way?

Fang Yongnian was speechless.

He hadn’t even started scolding her yet, and the girl had already begun crying on her own.

Her drunkenness probably hadn’t worn off completely. There was still a flush on her face from the alcohol, and the red spot on her forehead was especially noticeable—just like her father. Every time her father drank, the first place that turned red was always his forehead and the space between his brows.

“Enough already.” He handed her a napkin, slightly helpless at his own foresight. “If you keep acting drunk, I’ll throw you out of the car.”

Lu Yixin: “Wuwuwu… uuuuuhhh…”

Fang Yongnian: “……”

“I bought you something to eat.” He shoved the bag of Dingsheng cake from Jinbangtiming into her hands. Gold and red in color, paired with her tear-streaked face, it looked almost festive.

Lu Yixin: “Uuuhhh… wuwuwu…”

Fang Yongnian rubbed his brow and leaned his head against the seatback with a bitter smile.

A girl like a little snot bug, yet somehow, he never found her annoying.

Even when she was crying so hard she could hardly breathe, he actually felt a bit of heartache for her.

Maybe he really was a pervert—driving over two hours on the highway to Hecheng just for a fat cat, staying up in the middle of the night at a pharmacy just to deliver a Dingsheng cake and refusing to leave.

He clearly had important work. He clearly had planned everything properly: pick up the cat, drop off the Dingsheng cake, and then leave.

Yet now, he was stranded on the roadside, resignedly flashing his hazard lights, sitting there with that odd-eyed male cat, both of them watching—helplessly and with mixed feelings—the girl in the passenger seat who was crying for reasons unknown.

Was it because of the alcohol, or because she had finally graduated from high school?

Her sobbing distracted him a little.

As someone who had skipped grades all the way through, he couldn’t even remember whether he had ever felt sentimental when he graduated from high school.

“Going to college is a good thing.” He looked at the crying Lu Yixin, trying to comfort her. “It’s not as simple as high school, but college is nice.”

Even though, for him, it had never really meant much.

But lots of people said, college was nice.

The fat cat in the back seat meowed impatiently, shifting its plump body, stretching lazily inside the pet carrier, and wedging its furry paw pads into the small gap at the side.

Lu Yixin turned around while crying, sniffling and blowing her nose as she tried to tease the cat.

A girl who couldn’t even focus on crying, yet she had managed to get into college.

Fang Yongnian suddenly felt a little sentimental himself. He wanted to smoke, but in the end, could only rub his fingers against the shape of the cigarette pack inside his pocket.

“Fang… Yongnian.” Lu Yixin, having cried enough, sniffled as she called his name.

“Hm?” Fang Yongnian was still distracted, not reacting much to her once again calling his full name so casually.

“Am I… really annoying?” Lu Yixin tilted her head up, face full of self-reproach.

Fang Yongnian treated her so well, yet not only did she fail to appreciate it—she even went and liked him.

Her feelings were reckless and heedless, leaving him both embarrassed and flustered, forced to keep his distance from her.

He had already done his best.

It was all her fault. Her skin was too thick, her fighting spirit too strong, and she never understood the meaning behind his words.

The alcohol had fully taken effect now; Lu Yixin, overwhelmed with regret, wanted nothing more than to bite herself to death.

Fang Yongnian looked at her, unexpectedly taken aback.

“I’ll restrain myself from now on.” Lu Yixin pressed down her guilt. “I won’t be like this again.”

Fang Yongnian: “?”

“Why did you come to Hecheng?” After making her vow, Lu Yixin didn’t want to dwell on that topic anymore.

If he really disliked her that much, then so be it.

A secret love could last a lifetime too.

When he didn’t have a girlfriend, she could secretly like him a bit more openly. If one day he had a girlfriend or got married, she would leave for somewhere far away.

She wouldn’t see him again for the rest of her life. Just think about him, and that would be enough.

Drunk and unusually pessimistic, Lu Yixin played out an entire one-sided love story in her head all by herself, then sighed deeply.

She felt that her heart was now calm as still water.

Being able to see Fang Yongnian at all was already the luckiest thing in her life.

Fang Yongnian watched her face go through a whole range of expressions—from self-pity to despair—and that final sigh of hers even carried a sense of worldly weariness.

“Your alcohol hasn’t worn off yet?” he asked, astonished. She was like a completely different person.

He wasn’t used to this version of Lu Yixin—too sentimental, too melancholy.

“I’m sober.” The drunk Lu Yixin kept her sorrowful expression, feeling that she had never been so clear-headed in her life.

“…Then I’ll take you home.” Fang Yongnian started the engine, suppressing the lecture he had just prepared in his mind.

This girl’s behavior after drinking was not at all what he had imagined.

He had thought she would make a fuss about chasing him again, cling to him without restraint. He had even prepared himself in case she tried to touch him.

Honestly, when he went into the convenience store to buy water earlier, he had actually considered calling Liu Miqing and hiding for a while himself.

But he was afraid the girl might say something she shouldn’t if she was too drunk.

The fact that she liked him—that she had confessed to him—was a secret that no third person could ever know.

Yet she had somehow managed to think things through all on her own, and even self-reflected.

After starting the car, Fang Yongnian glanced at Lu Yixin again.

She had her head lowered, both hands resting neatly on her knees, and both feet placed properly together—sitting like a model student.

Fang Yongnian: “……”

Many people, after drinking, would have their temperaments completely change.

But after drinking… she seemed to have regained her conscience.

“Why did you come to Hecheng?” After sitting quietly for a while, she tilted her head and stubbornly asked again, repeating the question he hadn’t answered earlier.

Her upright sitting posture didn’t move, and even the way she tilted her head was perfectly standard—particularly like a well-behaved child.

“…I came to pick up the cat.” Fang Yongnian had to admit, he actually preferred the usual her. Sitting in the passenger seat with her knees hugged up, carefree and unruly.

Feeling slightly awkward, he cleared his throat. “I adopted this cat.”

Lu Yixin nodded solemnly, as though the topic was of utmost importance. “…That’s good.”

She sighed once, then sighed again.

Fang Yongnian: “……”

“So late, and you’re still going to drive back to Huating?” she asked again, in an especially formal, almost written tone.

Fang Yongnian: “……”

Zheng Ranan was right, this girl really couldn’t handle alcohol.

“Are you really going back?” she asked again.

Her tone was so serious, it was as if the moment he nodded, she’d immediately assume the air of a disciplinary director ready to lecture him.

“I booked a hotel.” Fang Yongnian could only respond to her one question at a time.

When Lu Yixin was drunk, she simply wouldn’t allow him to ignore her questions.

How did she, after drinking, suddenly turn into Lu Boyuan?

With a throbbing headache, Fang Yongnian rubbed at his brow.

“Are you bringing the cat?” Lu Yixin frowned slightly, her tone rising at the end, sounding exactly like a parent catching a child in a lie. “You’re bringing a cat and still planning to stay at a hotel?”

Fang Yongnian: “…………”

Her intelligence while drunk was actually higher than Zheng Fei’s when sober. Zheng Fei hadn’t even noticed that he couldn’t stay at a hotel with a cat.

“Don’t drive on the highway in the middle of the night.” Lu Yixin still maintained her serious expression. “My mom isn’t home. You can sleep at my house tonight.”

Fang Yongnian swore—if his right foot were still intact at that moment, the car would’ve probably already shot forward in a disaster.

Living this long, he never thought he’d one day be grateful that he didn’t have a right foot.

“Don’t worry,” Lu Yixin said, completely unaware of the cold sweat forming on his forehead. “You can sleep in my room. I’ll sleep in the living room.”

“My room can be locked from the inside,” she added, as if afraid he wouldn’t understand, carefully explaining it again.

Fang Yongnian clenched his teeth.

“I won’t do anything to you,” she finally said the line that should have been said.

Then she turned her head toward the window and let out a long, melancholy sigh.