After two or three, she heard Liang Jingchuan emerge from his room. He paused but said nothing, heading to the door.
He opened it, stepped out, and shut it behind him—not too hard, not too soft.
The house fell quiet again.
/
At six in the afternoon, Lan Junwen and Liang Xiaoxia returned together. Liang Xiaoxia carried a bouquet of red roses, while Lan Junwen held a case of sugar-free tea—the flavor Lan Yan liked.
The joy of her birthday and the flowers’ color flushed Liang Xiaoxia’s cheeks rosy, her eyes and brows curved in smiles. Upon entering, she saw the dining area decked in pink-and-white balloons and a vase of pink roses on the table. She was over the moon.
Lan Junwen changed and dove into the kitchen to cook. Lan Yan gave Liang Xiaoxia her birthday gift and sat with her briefly. Then the door opened.
Liang Xiaoxia called out a greeting: “Back from work?”
Liang Jingchuan grunted an acknowledgment, changed shoes, washed his hands in the bathroom, and came to the living room to sit beside Liang Xiaoxia.
Liang Xiaoxia rummaged through the bags on the coffee table. “The chocolate Yanyan bought is delicious. A bit sweet, but I think it pairs perfectly with this tea.”
She pushed several bottles of tea that she had taken out from the box toward Liang Jingchuan. “The supermarket across the street was having a sale. I saw that both you and Yanyan like to drink it, so I brought back a whole box.”
“I don’t like it.” Liang Jingchuan neither took the chocolate nor touched the tea bottles. His tone was exceptionally flat. “I’ve always thought this flavor tastes awful.”
Lan Yan looked at Liang Jingchuan in astonishment.
Liang Xiaoxia was also slightly surprised. “Really? Then I got it wrong. I saw you always buying it, so I thought you liked it… Oh, you’ve always been buying it for Yanyan, haven’t you?”
The takeout Lan Yan had ordered for lunch was spicy chicken ding rice topped with peanuts stir-fried together. Those peanuts hadn’t been carefully sifted, and a few were moldy.
At that moment, it was as if she had bitten into one of those moldy peanuts. An indescribable rotten bitterness spread from the tip of her tongue.
Liang Jingchuan didn’t say anything. He reached out to rummage through the bag, then suddenly stood up and headed to the kitchen. “I’ll go see if Uncle needs any help.”
Liang Xiaoxia’s gaze followed him, then turned back to Lan Yan. She lowered her voice. “Yanyan, did Jingchuan have a fight with you?”
Lan Yan forced a smile. “No, Auntie.”
After Liang Jingchuan entered the kitchen, he didn’t come out again. He helped Lan Junwen out, washing vegetables and preparing ingredients, staying busy until dinner started.
After dinner, they rested for a bit and brought out the cake.
Lan Junwen suggested taking a photo, so he went to the study to fetch the camera and tripod, adjusted the settings, and set the timer.
Liang Xiaoxia held the exquisitely frosted cake. She and Lan Junwen stood in the middle, with Liang Jingchuan and Lan Yan on either side of them.
After taking one shot, Lan Junwen checked it and found that Liang Jingchuan wasn’t smiling, so he suggested taking another.
After the photos, they inserted candles into the cake, turned off the lights to make a wish, and shared the cake.
Liang Xiaoxia took a bite and smiled at Lan Junwen. “This cake definitely wasn’t ordered by you, right?”
“Yanyan ordered it.”
“That’s what I thought. Every time you order one, it’s cloyingly sweet. The first year we knew each other, the cake you brought was even… I didn’t even know you could still buy such a retro cake these days.”
Lan Junwen smiled sheepishly.
The two of them stood by the dining table, each eating cake. Their voices weren’t loud, more like whispers.
Lan Yan sat across from the coffee table, watching them before lowering her gaze. She unconsciously fed the cake into her mouth. Her sense of taste seemed to have failed; she couldn’t taste the sweetness.
At that moment, Liang Jingchuan received a phone call. He set down his paper plate and went back to his room to answer it.
It was about work matters, and they chatted for quite a while. When he came out, Lan Yan was no longer in the living room.
All the room doors were open. He looked around but didn’t see her.
“…Where’s Lan Yan?”
Liang Xiaoxia responded. “Yanyan said she was going downstairs to buy something.”
Liang Jingchuan said “oh” and headed toward the sofa, but his steps halted. Uncontrollably, he turned toward the door.
“What did she go to buy?”
“She didn’t say.”
“I’ll go take a look. I need to buy something too.”
Liang Xiaoxia nodded indifferently.
Liang Jingchuan put on his jacket and went out. The cold wind at night was even more biting.
He had originally headed toward the complex gate but then changed direction after thinking about it.
Near the side gate of the complex stood a parasol tree said to be over sixty years old. It had already been standing there before the complex was built.
Perhaps because of the cold weather, there weren’t many people in the complex. The sand pit and swings where children usually played were also empty.
As he passed the sand pit, Liang Jingchuan spotted the person standing under the parasol tree at a glance.
Her hands were tucked into the pockets of her jacket, her back against the trunk. She was looking down, seemingly kicking at the weeds sprouting from the cracks in the stone bricks under the tree one by one.
She wore a gray cotton-padded jacket, blending completely into the tree’s shadow at that moment.
In Liang Jingchuan’s memory, Lan Yan hadn’t targeted him from the first day he and Liang Xiaoxia moved in.
At first, she had only treated him with the same politeness as she did Liang Xiaoxia.
The turning point came during the Mid-Autumn Festival in his senior year of high school. That dinner had been a bit awkward but still harmonious.
Just as Lan Junwen and Liang Xiaoxia were slicing the mooncakes together, Lan Yan had run off with the exact same excuse as today—saying she was going downstairs to buy something.
His toothpaste had run out that day, so he followed her downstairs, only to find she wasn’t heading to the supermarket at the gate.
At that time, she had come to this very tree and stood in the same spot as now.
The difference was that on that day, he hadn’t hidden himself like he was doing now. Instead, he had meddlesomely approached and asked what was wrong.
Naturally, he only got a fierce “None of your damn business” in return.
Liang Jingchuan stood behind the slide, gazing at Lan Yan’s figure from afar.
Over all these years, her way of doing things had clearly never changed, so why hadn’t he figured it out right away—
What she truly couldn’t accept was never that others had gained happiness, but that she herself had become part of that worldly happiness.
As the orphan of the deceased, she had always harbored a certain shame of “not deserving happiness.”
What her father hadn’t accomplished, she believed she had to take his place and achieve, becoming a martyr long remembered.
Liang Jingchuan didn’t rashly approach. He simply watched her through the night.
There was no regret in his heart for his principles being so easily broken—only a willing acceptance of his fate.
How could she surrender?
It had always been him, hopelessly wanting to become her captive.
Even without just cause.
Lan Yan didn’t stay long. She went around to the supermarket, bought a bottle of facial cleanser, and returned home.
Liang Xiaoxia and Lan Junwen were just about to head out, saying they had an appointment with friends.
“Go to bed late if you want. We’ll bring back some late-night snacks when we get back—especially delicious wontons,” Liang Xiaoxia said with a smile.
Lan Yan smiled and said “okay.”
With the two elders gone, there was no need for Lan Yan to be alone in a room with Liang Jingchuan.
She got up straightaway and returned to her own room.
She propped up her tablet, watching a drama while playing a mobile game that Xue Mengqiu had recommended—a strategy game with anthropomorphic cultural relics.
Her phone was three years old. As soon as she opened a large app, it drained battery quickly. Soon, the charge dropped below 20%.
Her charger was in the living room, so she had to go out.
As soon as she opened the door, she heard Liang Jingchuan on the phone outside.
“…It’s nothing, Sister Shan. I went to the hospital for a checkup; I’m completely fine. The car is the company’s, still being assessed for damage. Insurance will cover it… Don’t be so polite; just treat me to a meal when you get back… Yeah, they all say that—He who survives a great calamity is destined for good fortune… Okay, go ahead with your stuff.”
After hanging up, Liang Jingchuan stood and was about to head to the bathroom when he was startled by the person standing at the door.
Lan Yan looked at him. “…What was that about surviving a great calamity and being destined for good fortune?”
“…It’s nothing.”
“I’m asking you.”
“…What does the life or death of a stranger have to do with you?”
Lan Yan bit her lip hard. “…How many times? Do you have to casually throw around words like ‘death’?”
Liang Jingchuan was stunned.
“…I’ll ask you again. What did you mean on the phone?”
Her expression and tone left Liang Jingchuan no choice but to tell the truth. “Last week, during that heavy rain, I was driving a colleague to the airport and nearly had an accident. It was the company’s car, and I wasn’t familiar with driving it. It skidded on the highway and hit the guardrail…”
The blood drained from Lan Yan’s face. “You…”
“The airbag deployed in time. Very luckily, I was completely unharmed.”
“…Does Auntie know?”
“I didn’t tell her.”
“Something this big, and you…”
“Really, nothing happened.”
If something had happened, it would have been a different story. A surge of emotions choked her throat; Lan Yan couldn’t speak.
She took a deep breath but still couldn’t hold back. Abruptly, she turned and fled back into her room.
As soon as the door closed, there was a knock.
She didn’t open it.
After two more knocks, the door handle turned down.
It was too late for her to lock it.
The door was pushed open. To avoid being hit, she had to step aside.
Liang Jingchuan stepped in and closed the door behind him.
She immediately moved further inside, but he followed step by step.
“…Who let you into my room!” She couldn’t stop her voice from trembling.
There was a desk by the window. She had backed up to it with nowhere to go, Liang Jingchuan right behind her.
She reached out, her palms pressing hard on the edge of the desk, her head hanging low.
A hand appeared in her vision, spread open on the desk in front of her.
She blinked in surprise. A tear fell, caught precisely by his palm.
She slowly turned, looking at Liang Jingchuan.
He raised his hand, his fingers extending toward her.
She froze, forgetting to blink, feeling the warm pad of his finger brush under her eye—a very gentle motion, as if afraid to shatter the moonlight on water.
His finger withdrew. Liang Jingchuan glanced at it, then lowered his head and licked the tear from his fingertip.
As if merely out of curiosity, yet unable to help himself.
Lan Yan froze completely, her face flushing bright red. “…Are you a pervert?”
“A little, yeah.”
“You…”
Before she could speak, Liang Jingchuan suddenly closed the distance, the hand that had caught her tear cupping her face.
She could feel the dampness of his palm branding a vivid sensation onto her cheek.
Liang Jingchuan lowered his gaze, staring at her.
Their eye contact lasted less than a second, yet felt long enough to stop her heart.
His breath quickened, falling on her nose tip like scalding mist.
His eyes dropped further, and without hesitation, he leaned down.
In her panic, the hand she reached out was anticipated and gripped by him, pressed tightly against his chest.
The kiss followed.
Her eyelashes fluttered wildly, her mind blank, frozen without any reaction.
Only her heartbeat raged like a tsunami. She couldn’t tell if her fingertips felt his heart or her own.