“…” Lin Yan witnessed for the first time how a man could be so shameless. She pulled her hand back with a cold expression.
“Coach Xing, as a teacher, you should at least watch your words and actions.”
“Just a joke.” Xing Yu stopped at that, furrowing his brows with a scoff. “If you’re not a wolf, then forget it.”
With that, Xing Yu casually picked up the clothes draped over the chair, put them on, and walked toward the window.
When he looked up again, a cigarette was already pinched between his fingers. He leaned against the wall, gazing at her as if nothing had happened.
“Found a place to live yet?”
Lin Yan didn’t answer, cutting straight to the point instead. “Coach Xing, please keep your brothers in check. They keep calling me ‘sister-in-law’ left and right. Isn’t that a bit presumptuous?”
Pale blue-white smoke blurred Xing Yu’s face as his lazy tone drifted over with the smoke rings.
“Yeah, that was indeed a bit presumptuous.”
Lin Yan said stiffly, “And also, whether you’re just teasing me or being serious, I’m not interested in you. You’re not my type.”
The eyes beneath the smoke flickered with a momentary darkness.
Xing Yu bent his back slightly, lowered his head to take another drag of the cigarette, then stubbed it out in the ashtray.
As the smoke dispersed, he squinted at her. “Then how about this—you change your type.”
Talking to him was like talking to a brick wall.
Playing the lute to a cow.
Completely unable to communicate.
Lin Yan turned to leave but was stopped by his voice. “Wait. I’m off work in a minute. I’ll give you a ride back on the way.”
“No need.”
“The buses have already stopped running at this hour.”
“I’ll take a cab.”
“A cab back to town will cost you over eighty.”
“…”
“Don’t worry.” Xing Yu said with an air of righteousness. “I’m perfectly well-behaved. I genuinely consider you a friend.”
“…”
“Give me a few minutes. I’ll take a quick shower and change.”
In the end, Lin Yan conceded because of her tight financial situation.
Eighty yuan—saved properly, that could buy her several bowls of noodles in town.
On the way back, Xing Yu was fairly normal, barely speaking to her the whole ride.
He dropped her off at her door and left.
It was almost eight o’clock by then. Just as she stepped into the stairwell, a warm, familiar male voice sounded from behind her.
“Yanyan.”
Lin Yan froze, her heart skipping a beat.
She took a breath, steadied herself, and turned around.
Under the streetlamp, a man wearing rimless glasses was gazing at her tenderly.
His smile was as bright as ever, his features still clean and handsome.
It was Song Yanzheng—the man she had secretly loved for ten years.
While she stood in a daze, Song Yanzheng had already walked up and tapped her on the forehead, speaking with gentle reproach.
“Yanyan, you snuck back to your hometown without telling me. If Cheng Qing hadn’t told me, I’d have thought you were still in Jingbei.”
Lin Yan snapped back to reality, her voice flat. “I was too busy. I forgot.”
Song Yanzheng was unsettled by her coldness, frowning. “Yanyan, you’ve changed. You used to tell me everything. Why are you now…”
“Brother Yanzheng.” Lin Yan cut him off, her tone deliberately distant. “You’re engaged now. I think it’s necessary for us to keep our distance.”
The moment the words left her mouth, the atmosphere froze solid.
After a long pause, Song Yanzheng pulled a red wedding invitation from his coat pocket and handed it to her.
“Yanyan, I’m getting married on the fifteenth of next month. I hope you can come. You know, I… I’ve always thought of you as a sister.”
Lin Yan’s heart plummeted into an ice cellar.
So Song Yanzheng had traveled all the way across provinces just to hand her an invitation.
“Alright, I’ll be there.” The fingers gripping the invitation grew increasingly pale. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back first.”
“Yanyan… I…” Song Yanzheng hesitated, a look of shame and guilt surfacing on his face. “I’m sorry. I knew how you felt—I’ve known for a long time… I kept accepting your kindness because I couldn’t bear to push you away, but I also refused to break through the barrier between us…”
“Yanyan, our family backgrounds are too similar. You wouldn’t be able to help me in my career… If the two of us got together, life would be very hard. Her family is a prestigious house that ordinary people like us could never reach. For the sake of my future, I have to marry her.”
“I know you’ve been struggling lately. If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask me.”
Cold wind swept past her ears again and again, yet her body was like a machine, feeling not a trace of chill.
So Song Yanzheng had known everything all along.
The ambiguous signals he had sent her had made her mistakenly believe he had feelings for her.
Now it was clear—she was nothing more than a pathetic backup.
Even though her heart was already twisted into a knot, her expression remained perfectly calm.
“No need. I wish you happiness, and I wish you success.”
After watching Song Yanzheng leave, the ice crystals that had formed in her eyes finally betrayed her and rolled out.
She had spent years walking through endless darkness, and it was Song Yanzheng who had accompanied her, bit by bit, toward the light.
But when the harsh winter finally faded, it turned out the stars didn’t always shine on.
Ten years—how could the heart not ache?
Footsteps approached from behind, growing nearer. Just as she was about to turn, Xing Yu’s voice reached her ears.
“Your beloved?”
She turned around to find a dark figure already standing before her.
The next second, Xing Yu raised his hand, his cool fingertips brushing away the tear at the corner of her eye.
“So this is your type? Not all that impressive.”
Lin Yan turned her face away, instinctively keeping her distance from him as always.
She lowered her head to wipe away her tears, doing her best to mask her vulnerability with a steady voice.
“Eavesdropping on other people’s conversations isn’t exactly something to be proud of.”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping.” Xing Yu handed her the phone. “You left it in my car. I came to return it.”
She took the phone. “Sorry for the trouble. I’ll head home then.”
“Lin Yan.”
“Hmm?”
Xing Yu didn’t respond, just quietly watching her eyes, which had yet to lose their redness.
Lin Yan’s gaze brushed past his eyes, but she caught a fierce intensity in the depths of his pupils.
That intensity was like a whirlpool, threatening to drown her.
She felt like he had something to say.
Yet he was holding back with great effort.
Just as she was about to speak, a man and a woman walked down from the stairwell.
The man was impeccably dressed, but very short—barely over 1.6 meters by the look of it.
At that height, he’d probably have his feet dangling if he sat on the curb.
The woman was dripping in jewelry, her mink coat draped over her like she was some nouveau riche who’d just won five million in the lottery.
Though eight years had passed, Lin Yan recognized her at a glance.
It was Zhou Feiyue, the only daughter of Zhou Gang and An Chunfang, three years older than her.
Back in childhood, she’d treated Lin Yan like a dog to order around, bullying her relentlessly.
Zhou Feiyue had always done well in school. She’d gotten into the Normal College in Jingbei, become a teacher after graduating, and married a civil servant with a Jingbei hukou.
She was famous in town for marrying well.
“Lin Yan?” Zhou Feiyue recognized her too. She walked over, looked her up and down, and began to mock her: “Eight years without coming home, and what’s gotten into you this year that you finally decided to come back?”
Lin Yan didn’t respond, her expression unreadable.
Zhou Feiyue shot her a glance and introduced the man beside her with an air of superiority: “This is your brother-in-law, An Cheng. He works for the Jingbei government—section chief, manages dozens of people under him.”
“Mm.” Lin Yan’s tone was flat. “Hello, brother-in-law.”
An Cheng was a man of few words, merely nodding with a smile.
Only then did Zhou Feiyue notice the tall, stern man standing beside Lin Yan.
Very handsome, with sharp features and an imposing presence.
But his clothes—washed to a faded white with no texture to them—were clearly cheap.
He radiated poverty from head to toe.
Definitely not as well-off as her husband.
“And this is?”
Before Lin Yan could speak, Xing Yu introduced himself.
“Xing Yu. Lin Yan’s blind date.”