Their gazes collided, sparks flying.
Le Ning didn’t avoid Zhou Ran’s eyes at all—she let him look his fill.
Le Ning was born beautiful: upturned eye tails, large round apricot eyes. Even when glaring at someone, they were captivating.
Suddenly, she put on a fake smile and asked, “Officer, isn’t that a bit unfair to say?”
Zhou Ran looked at her with deep, unfathomable eyes. After a long moment, he laughed.
He tilted his head slightly and asked casually, “Do you know me?”
Le Ning: “…”
The smile on her face stiffened. She really wanted to snap at the man in front of her—Stop pretending. Don’t you know who I am?
Her inner drama was intense, but on the surface she stayed calm.
Le Ning lifted her head with a fake smile: “Of course. The famous Officer Zhou. We just saw each other this morning—how could I not know you?”
After saying that, she deliberately changed the subject: “Did Officer Zhou come here specifically to find me?”
Zhou Ran lowered his eyelids slightly, his gaze lingering on her.
“No.”
Le Ning nodded: “Good. I thought I’d done something wrong.”
She flashed her professional fake smile: “Since there’s nothing, I’ll go first. Have fun checking the bar, Officer Zhou.”
Zhou Ran: “…”
At first Le Ning walked at a normal pace, but the farther she got, the faster she moved—as if someone were chasing her from behind.
Zhou Ran watched her for a while. Only after her figure disappeared did he look away.
“Zhou Ran.”
Zhou Ran turned his head toward the person approaching.
Lu Jiaxiu frowned, instinctively following the direction Zhou Ran had been looking: “What were you looking at?”
Zhou Ran’s tone was indifferent: “Nothing.”
Lu Jiaxiu choked for a second, then pointed at his face in disbelief: “Nothing?”
“Yeah.”
Zhou Ran straightened up, hands in his pockets, and said indifferently, “Let’s go.”
As they headed upstairs to the private room, Lu Jiaxiu couldn’t stop muttering.
“Why do I feel like your expression was kinda off just now?”
Zhou Ran ignored him.
Lu Jiaxiu grumbled for a bit, then got bored and shut up.
When they got back to the room, Hu Yi wasn’t there. Only Shen Nan, who was on leave, sat inside with his eyes half-closed.
The four brothers had planned a get-together tonight. Zhou Ran had just left the station after barely sleeping for two days and one night—he’d intended to go straight home and crash—but he couldn’t say no when Shen Nan showed up too.
He and Shen Nan—one in the police, one in the military—rarely got to meet up.
“Where’s Hu Yi?”
Lu Jiaxiu hadn’t seen him the moment they walked in.
Shen Nan lifted his eyelids to glance at him and said calmly, “Ran into a classmate. Went downstairs.”
“What?”
Lu Jiaxiu was extremely surprised. “What classmate?”
Shen Nan was a little older than them and didn’t know Hu Yi or Lu Jiaxiu’s classmates. “No idea.”
Lu Jiaxiu: “…”
He was about to ask more when Zhou Ran, who rarely spoke up from his seat, suddenly did.
“Ask him.”
Lu Jiaxiu didn’t think much of it at the time. He pulled out his phone and messaged Hu Yi.
Lu Jiaxiu: [Where are you?]
Hu Yi: [Ran into Ruan Qiu and them downstairs. You remember them, right? Come down and join?]
Lu Jiaxiu: [Who’s Ruan Qiu?]
Hu Yi: [High school junior girl. You forgot?]
Lu Jiaxiu: […Since when did you manage to charm a high school junior?]
Hu Yi: [You know her too. There’s a surprise—come down and see?]
Reading Hu Yi’s message, Lu Jiaxiu actually got a little curious.
He glanced at the two “mountains” in the room—one cold, one hard—and felt exhausted trying to liven things up alone.
“Hu Yi says it’s some high school juniors. I’m going down to check.” He finished, then politely asked, “You two coming?”
Based on what he knew of them, one would probably go home to his wife, and the other would go home to sleep.
Sure enough, Shen Nan stood up. “Nah, my wife’s waiting at home.”
He turned to look at Zhou Ran.
Zhou Ran: “Whatever.”
Lu Jiaxiu: “…?”
Down in the main hall, Le Ning hadn’t expected that just going to the bathroom for a minute would lead to Ruan Qiu and Ji Chuchu running into someone they knew.
But on second thought, it made sense.
“Ning Ning, over here.”
Le Ning walked over and met Hu Yi’s eyes.
Hu Yi’s gaze lit up as he looked her over. “Little junior?”
Le Ning laughed lightly. “Hi, Senior.”
Hu Yi grinned brightly. “It really is you three.”
He joked, “Long time no see.”
Le Ning nodded.
Ruan Qiu was a bit more familiar with Hu Yi. Back in high school, she’d met him first—that was how Le Ning ended up knowing Zhou Ran.
After chatting with Hu Yi for a couple of sentences, she went off to the side to drink.
Ji Chuchu had only just arrived. Seeing Le Ning’s expression, she reached over and poked her cheek, teasing, “What’s wrong? Seeing Senior Hu isn’t making you happy at all?”
Le Ning shot her a look. “Why should I be happy?”
Ji Chuchu curved her lips. “You tell me.”
She added, “I was busy that day, but I still checked the group chat.”
Le Ning: “…”
She paused, picked up the drink on the table, and took a sip. “Oh. And?”
Ji Chuchu smiled with mischief in her eyes and shot her a knowing look. “I’ve noticed Zhou Ran really has… gotten even more handsome.”
Le Ning hadn’t swallowed her drink yet. The spicy burn in her mouth made her choke hard. It took her a while to recover.
Ji Chuchu laughed beside her. “Do you have to react like that? Still getting so worked up?”
Le Ning was just about to snap back when a smiling male voice sounded near her ear.
Lu Jiaxiu and Zhou Ran stood side by side—both tall and straight-backed, good-looking, with distinctive auras.
Even in the noisy bar, quite a few people noticed them.
As soon as they approached, many eyes—men and women alike—turned toward the two of them.
“Hu Yi.”
Hu Yi quickly responded and looked over. “You’re here.”
He pointed at Le Ning and the others. “Remember them?”
Lu Jiaxiu didn’t have much impression of Ruan Qiu, but when he saw Le Ning’s face, some memories surfaced.
He paused, then quickly said, “Yeah—the genius who skipped grades.”
Hearing that, Ruan Qiu couldn’t help laughing. “Senior Lu’s memory is good. But only Le Ning skipped grades.”
Lu Jiaxiu gave a faint smile. “I remember.”
He looked at Le Ning. “Skipped two grades straight into first year of high school. Caused a sensation across the whole school back then.”
Mentioning it made Le Ning a little embarrassed.
She quickly shook her head. “It wasn’t that exaggerated.”
Ji Chuchu, loving the drama, teased, “Oh? Where wasn’t it exaggerated?”
She said, “You were literally on the school’s honor board.”
Le Ning: “…”
In reality, it really wasn’t that big a deal.
Le Ning had skipped one grade in elementary school and one in middle school, but somehow the story got twisted into her skipping two grades in middle school and becoming the school genius.
Lu Jiaxiu nodded repeatedly, sounding half-teasing and half-wistful as he said, “Back then, you were the youngest in the entire school.”
Le Ning: “…”
Ji Chuchu and Ruan Qiu froze for a second, then couldn’t hold back their laughter.
The word “young” was basically Le Ning’s Achilles’ heel.
She felt awkward for a few seconds before helplessly looking at Lu Jiaxiu. “Senior Lu.”
Lu Jiaxiu let out a muffled laugh and was about to keep going when a hand came over from the side and pressed right on his laughing spot.
In an instant, Lu Jiaxiu begged for mercy.
“Fuck, Zhou Ran, what the hell?”
The others all looked over.
By the time Le Ning noticed, she only vaguely caught Zhou Ran withdrawing his hand from Lu Jiaxiu’s shoulder.
She paused. Before she could look away, Zhou Ran lifted his eyes to meet hers. “Sorry.”
Le Ning froze, unsure what exactly he was apologizing for.
She gave an “oh,” her face still flushed red. “It’s fine.”
After that, the conversation suddenly opened up.
Lu Jiaxiu and Hu Yi were both good talkers, Ruan Qiu too, and while Ji Chuchu didn’t say as much, she could still jump in.
In no time, the only two people not really interested in the topic were Le Ning and Zhou Ran.
Le Ning got bored. She glanced at the lively group beside her and was just about to stand up and leave when someone sat down right next to her.
She froze and looked at the man who had taken the seat.
“What are you doing?”
For some inexplicable reason, Zhou Ran had switched places.
The others didn’t seem to notice the change at all and kept chatting among themselves.
Zhou Ran sat beside Le Ning, looking completely at ease. “Nothing.”
Le Ning stared at him in total confusion.
Zhou Ran said calmly, “Lu Jiaxiu is a bit loud.”
Le Ning: “…”
So you just squeeze in next to me?!
She instinctively pressed her lips together and sat up straight. The moment she tried to shift, her outer leg accidentally brushed against the man’s leg.
Compared to Le Ning’s slightly cool skin, Zhou Ran felt like a human furnace—hard and scorching hot.
Her body tensed for a few seconds. She was about to quietly pull her leg back when his low, deep voice came.
“What are you trying to do?”
Le Ning choked, then snapped in frustration, “You’re sitting too close.”
Zhou Ran paused slightly, then lifted his eyelids to look at her. “You sure?”
Le Ning kept a straight face. “What do you think?”
Zhou Ran’s eye tails curved upward slightly as he said in a low voice, “You can just move over a bit.”
Le Ning: “…”
After scooting over a tiny distance, Le Ning used anger to cover her real emotions.
“Why should I be the one to move?”
Zhou Ran was silent for a few seconds before looking at her. “You can refuse.”
“I—”
Great. The usually sharp-tongued Le Ning had finally met her match.
She felt like Zhou Ran was born to be her natural enemy. After years apart… the moment they met again, nothing good happened, and he could still leave her completely speechless.
Le Ning bit her lip. Today she was wearing YSL round-tube lipstick in shade 80—a tomato maple color, perfect for autumn and especially perfect with her makeup look today.
The color payoff wasn’t super high; she’d layered it several times, making her lips look like freshly boiled syrup from a street candy vendor—tempting, glossy, and begging to be tasted.
Zhou Ran’s gaze lingered on her lips for a moment before slowly moving away.
He casually picked up the drink in front of him and took a sip.
Le Ning’s heart pounded like a drum from that look, but she also felt utterly pathetic for reacting this way.
She was just about to ignore him when his next action stunned her.
“Zhou Ran!”
This was the first time she’d called him by his full name since they met again.
He looked a little surprised and didn’t have time to react before Le Ning gritted her teeth and hissed, “That’s my drink!”
Zhou Ran: “…”
The others, who had been secretly watching the drama: “…”
Even after leaving the bar, Le Ning’s entire face was burning.
No—from head to toe, she was on fire.
She didn’t even know if it was from anger or something else.
Ruan Qiu and Ji Chuchu wanted to laugh, but seeing how furious Le Ning was, they held back.
“Don’t be mad anymore.”
Ji Chuchu patted her head comfortingly. “Zhou Ran said it wasn’t on purpose, right?”
Ruan Qiu nodded. “Yeah, and he even bought you a replacement drink afterward.”
Hearing that only made Le Ning angrier.
She glared at them with wide eyes. “Who asked him to buy me a drink?!”
The moment she thought about… the spot on the glass where Zhou Ran’s mouth had touched being the exact place she’d just sipped from—
Her whole body felt unbearably hot and restless.
Damn it.
Her first kiss, preserved for so many years, lost through the air like that!?
Author’s Note:
Captain Zhou: The drink tastes good 🙂
Ning Ning: Be honest—is it the drink that’s good, or is it the drink I already sipped from that’s good? 😀
Captain Zhou: The one you sipped from.
Author: I have strong suspicions—Captain Zhou, you did that on purpose.