Because Lu Yixin needed to attend her club’s movie night on Wednesday evening, they decided to have dinner that night at a small restaurant near the school.

“Isn’t the movie night held at school?” Fang Yongnian frowned as he sent Lu Yixin to the location she mentioned, frowning as he looked out the window.

It was an ordinary residential building, the old type of half-enclosed community. The surveillance cameras weren’t even lit, clearly just for show.

“The vice president’s sound system is better.” Lu Yixin carried a somewhat worn canvas bag on her back. “We’ve been watching at his place these past few weeks.”

“Until what time will it go on?” Fang Yongnian began to observe the surroundings of the neighborhood. “I’ll come to pick you up.”

The public security in Huating wasn’t bad, but such an old residential area, deserted in the middle of the night, was still somewhat dangerous.

“No need, it’s fine. There are night market stalls all along the way here, it’s lively at night.” Lu Yixin smiled cheerfully and waved at Fang Yongnian outside the car. “Besides, I’ll go back to the dorm with Li Xiao’an.”

She and Li Xiao’an had never become friends, but since they were in the same dorm and the same club, even though they hadn’t grown close, they hadn’t torn faces again either.

She didn’t care about Li Xiao’an’s private life, and Li Xiao’an no longer confronted her either.

“You should go home and rest well.” She gestured toward Fang Yongnian’s dark circles, took two steps, then hopped back again.

“What is it?” Fang Yongnian’s eyes and brows softened.

“This…” Lu Yixin took out a box of chocolates from her canvas bag. “Leave it in your car, you can eat it when your blood sugar gets low.”

“And also…” she hesitated a little, “if my parents firmly disagree, you are not allowed to run either.”

When she said this, she was finally no longer uneasy, no longer phrasing it as a question.

“Alright.” Fang Yongnian nodded.

He responded very quickly, without a trace of hesitation.

Lu Yixin grinned, her round eyes narrowing with her smile.

“Then what if your parents don’t agree?” she began to feel a new kind of fear.

“Then you are not allowed to run either.” Fang Yongnian also smiled, mimicking Lu Yixin’s tone from just now. He didn’t use a question, nor did he sound uncertain.

Lu Yixin took two steps closer and bent down.

“I want to kiss you.” Her eyes were bright and glimmering.

Huating’s deep winter, at dusk, when tHecheng lights were just turning on.

Half of Lu Yixin’s face was wrapped in a red wool scarf. In order to kiss him, she pulled the scarf down a little, revealing her delicate chin.

Under the light, there were fine hairs on her face. Her cheeks were soft and round, still faintly carrying the outline of her childhood.

She bent down, eyes closed, lips puckered.

Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and even her pursed lips curved upward at the corners.

Fang Yongnian unfastened his seat belt, leaned halfway out of the driver’s seat window, held the back of Lu Yixin’s head with his left hand, and pressed their lips together.

Feeling that the kiss was too shallow, Lu Yixin didn’t open her eyes. She stomped her foot and mumbled something unclear in complaint.

Fang Yongnian laughed and flicked Lu Yixin’s forehead with his index finger. “Remember to call me when you get to the dorm.”

He still wasn’t at ease with her walking back to school late at night with only another girl, even though the neighborhood was just a ten-minute walk from her university.

“Oh…” Lu Yixin, whose kiss had only been half successful, replied perfunctorily and opened her eyes. “How long are we going to keep being this restrained?”

At this rate, she felt she was losing face for all independent women of the new era.

“I was originally planning to wait until after you graduate from college before holding hands.” The slow-moving Fang Yongnian fastened his seat belt at the same slow pace.

Lu Yixin: “…”

Fang Yongnian, who rarely managed to leave Lu Yixin speechless, smiled. Before starting the car, he reminded her again, worriedly, “Be careful on your way back to the dorm.”

“Oh…” The modern woman Lu Yixin waved listlessly at him, standing where she was as she watched Fang Yongnian start the car and drive out of the community.

She pulled her scarf back up, half her face hidden inside it, stomped her cold feet, and when she turned around, she saw Li Xiao’an and the film club president standing not far away. Under the dim yellow streetlight, their expressions couldn’t be seen clearly.

Lu Yixin paused for a moment, tightened her coat, and jogged toward them.

“Someone sent you here?” The film club president was a tall Northerner in his third year, speaking with a Northeastern accent.

Perhaps he had been watching too many art films lately—his tone carried a faint, affected ambiguity.

“Yeah.” Lu Yixin made no attempt to hide it. “My boyfriend.”

Li Xiao’an glanced at Lu Yixin in surprise.

“Aren’t you two going in?” Lu Yixin shivered. “It’s freezing out here!”

“Your boyfriend…” The film club president hesitated. “He’s quite a bit older, isn’t he?”

Lu Yixin frowned. “Does he look that old? I actually thought he looks younger than his real age.”

Film club president: “…”

Li Xiao’an stomped her feet. “Let’s go inside, it’s freezing!”

They had just seen Lu Yixin kissing the man in the car.

Originally, if Lu Yixin had been evasive and secretive about it, she might have been curious to know who that man in formal clothes—clearly someone already working—actually was. But now, she lost interest instead.

Lu Yixin was too straightforward, so straightforward that it robbed her of the fun of prying.

“We just saw you two kissing, that’s why we got curious and asked a few questions.” Seeing the club president’s embarrassed face, Li Xiao’an added, not sure who she was trying to help.

“It’s the middle of winter and you’re not cold watching?” Lu Yixin rolled her eyes inside her scarf.

When she suddenly turned around and saw the two of them earlier, she had actually been nervous.

But her instinctive bluntness had made her speak without thinking, and once the words were out, she felt relaxed instead.

It was just dating, after all—an unmarried man and an unmarried woman, both in love. What was there to hide?

“My boyfriend said it’s dangerous to go back too late after the movie.” Since it was already out in the open, she naturally started showing off her relationship.

Li Xiao’an: “…”

Film club president: “…”

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧ 

By the time she returned to the dorm after the movie, it was already ten o’clock.

Lu Yixin curled up in bed and called Fang Yongnian to report that she’d gotten back safely. Because her relationship was now public among her roommates, she spoke with no restraint, teasing him for a while—until Fang Yongnian, successfully provoked into silence, expressionlessly hung up the call.

Lu Yixin rolled around twice on her upper bunk, grinning shamelessly.

Then she heard Li Xiao’an cry out in panic.

Lu Yixin stuck her head out from the upper bunk.

“My bracelet is gone!” Li Xiao’an’s face was pale as she held up her empty right hand.

“Could it have fallen off at the vice president’s place?” Lu Yixin frowned. “Try calling to ask?”

Lu Yixin remembered that bracelet. A thin silver chain with a small piece of white jade, delicate and pretty.

Li Xiao’an treasured it dearly; she never took it off even when she slept or showered, wearing it like a protective charm.

“I don’t think so, I saw it when I went out.” The always-proud Li Xiao’an’s voice now carried a trace of tears. “I’ll call to ask.”

Of course, the answer was no.

“I’m going out to look.” After hanging up, Li Xiao’an stood up without a moment’s hesitation and began putting on her coat.

“It’s really late,” Wu Qi said weakly from under her blanket.

It was already past ten — in just an hour, the dorm would lock up.

“That was from my dad,” Li Xiao’an pressed her lips together, her eyes turning red.

Wu Qi and Lu Yixin fell silent at the same time.

“I’ll go with you.” Lu Yixin jumped down from her bunk. “Two people searching will be faster.”

They had come back together, and she still remembered the route they took.

Li Xiao’an was stunned, her eyes growing even redder.

“I’ll go too.” Wu Qi crawled out of bed, shivering as she started putting on her coat.

“You stay. If we don’t make it back in time, help us ask the dorm manager for leniency.” Lu Yixin was already dressed, grabbing her phone. “You get along with her best.”

Wu Qi was the most sociable one in their dorm. Unlike Lu Yixin, who was always out staying overnight, or Li Xiao’an, who wore a perpetual cold face, Wu Qi and the dorm manager were already on gift-exchanging terms during holidays.

Wu Qi paused in the middle of putting on her coat, then nodded.

She was a little surprised. She hadn’t expected the usually carefree and detached Lu Yixin to actually be this dependable when it mattered.

“Alright, we’ll keep in touch by phone,” Wu Qi said briskly.

They’d slept in the same dorm for nearly a semester. They’d quarreled and even fought, but never held real grudges.

In front of Li Xiao’an’s father’s keepsake, all that didn’t matter.

Li Xiao’an didn’t even say thank you. When they went downstairs, she just grabbed the clumsy Lu Yixin’s arm to stop her from tumbling down the stairs while trying to put on her shoes.

Lu Yixin laughed, trembling in the biting winter wind. For once, she understood why her mother had wanted her to live in the dorm. At least, this night, she would remember.

So even the sharp-tongued, beautiful Li Xiao’an, who always clashed with everyone, could cry.

And she could awkwardly, while searching for the bracelet, mutter to herself as a way of making peace: “I didn’t think you’d help me.”

She hadn’t expected Lu Yixin to volunteer to come with her, without even a second of hesitation.

“If you had just lost an ordinary stone, I wouldn’t have helped you,” Lu Yixin replied awkwardly as well.

The two girls, neither of whom were used to being too affectionate with the other, exchanged a smile.

“Let’s hurry up and look!” Lu Yixin had her entire head tucked into her scarf. “It’s freezing!”

“I’ll search this side, you take that side.” Li Xiao’an stopped being polite with her. “You’ve seen it. A silver chain with a white pendant, the pendant has the character An engraved on it.”

Lu Yixin turned on her phone’s flashlight and waved her hand.

From the vice president’s residential complex to the school, they had to pass through a night market street.

In the middle of winter, the night market closed by nine o’clock, leaving behind a mess on the ground. The street that had once been bustling was now completely empty.

Li Xiao’an’s bracelet was so inconspicuous that the two of them were practically crouched down, checking each and every tile one by one.

“We didn’t move around much on our way back,” Lu Yixin muttered as she searched.

When they had left, the night market had already closed, but the street hadn’t been this deserted yet. Their relationship wasn’t close enough to be chatting outdoors in the cold winter night, so they had walked quickly and silently back toward the dorm.

“Could it have gotten caught somewhere?” Concentrating on the search, Lu Yixin started checking the bushes along the roadside.

“Lu… Yixin…” Li Xiao’an’s voice trembled.

Lu Yixin turned her head.

The street that had been empty just moments ago suddenly had four or five big men standing there. Li Xiao’an was already cornered against the wall and shouted at Lu Yixin at the top of her lungs:

“Run!”