Late at night, the entire apartment building fell into silence.
After finishing the barbecue, Jiang Li’s every strand of hair was steeped in the scent of cumin, and she soaked in the bathtub for a long time before emerging.
Wearing a lace camisole nightgown, she dried her hair with one hand while playing with her phone in the other.
Several messages she had sent to Shen Muran went unanswered.
It was already past eleven—surely the barbecue restaurant couldn’t still be open.
Unable to figure it out, she didn’t dwell on it further. Just as she was about to get up to blow-dry her hair, her phone vibrated on the vanity. The screen showed Ji Guanyu calling.
“Hello, Guanyu…”
“Hey, sis, did your brother come back tonight?” His anxious voice immediately came through, unable to hide his urgency.
“Yes.”
“You’re not backing out, are you? We agreed that star player would be my substitute!”
Ji Guanyu sounded on the verge of tears. “I searched through the official system and couldn’t find his application record. Registration closes in two days. If your brother signs him, I won’t have time to find another substitute.”
Jiang Li suddenly straightened up, tossing her hair towel aside. “How could that be? I gave him the application form last week.”
She knew very well how much Shen Muran wanted to participate in the competition.
Could it be that he was too busy and hadn’t had time to apply?
Surely he wouldn’t have thrown away the application form just to avoid accepting her goodwill.
Jiang Li had already found an excuse for Shen Muran in her mind.
The girl gently reassured him, “No regrets. My brother wouldn’t come back and immediately snatch someone from you. My friend has just been busy lately and forgot. I’ll call him later and have him apply.”
Hearing this, Ji Guanyu on the other end of the line instantly breathed a sigh of relief. “By the way, I asked the competition zone this morning. There’s an internal channel not open to the public. The review process is faster, and there’s no need to mail a paper application form. Why don’t you just send him the link to fill it out online?”
Ji Guanyu was genuinely afraid something might go wrong.
The injured player on the team, eager to recover, had secretly trained against the rehabilitation therapist’s advice, worsening his injury. This time, they really needed a substitute to step in.
“Alright, send me the registration link.”
After hanging up, the cold glow of the screen illuminated her face. She immediately called Shen Muran, but over a dozen attempts only resulted in busy signals.
A faint unease settled in Jiang Li’s heart. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Shen Muran was hiding something big from her.
[Has he applied yet? I’m waiting in the backend to review it!]
Ji Guanyu sent another message urging her.
Jiang Li: [Right away.]
The application form was just filling in details like name and ID number. In her past life, Jiang Li had handled everything for Shen Muran’s participation in competitions, and his ID number was already etched in her memory.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard. After clicking [Confirm], Jiang Li leaned back in her chair and picked up the hair towel again.
She was truly considerate, even handling the registration herself.
Shen Muran had a cold demeanor, and getting into his heart was no easy task.
Jiang Li had been pondering these past few days: when exactly had her husband fallen in love with her?
But it certainly wasn’t during their university years.
At this time, Shen Muran spoke coldly, as if saying an extra word to her was a matter of life and death.
She’d heard that people who lacked everything growing up could become obsessive and possessive as adults.
Jiang Li guessed it was only after she became his “caged bird” that Shen Muran gradually developed feelings for her over time.
With this thought, her mind drifted back to the breakfast issue.
Before clearing Shen Muran’s name, she couldn’t let her brother find out she had her sights set on him.
Otherwise, love would be strangled in its cradle before it even began.
[Starting tomorrow, no need to bring breakfast to my house. Deliver it directly to the music room. My personal practice room is 505.]
[Room password: 280214]
Jiang Li valued absolute quiet while practicing piano, so she had rented a practice room long-term at the university. On the first day she returned to class after her rebirth, she changed the password.
Changed it to their wedding anniversary.
Her hair half-dried, Jiang Li was already drowsy. Her phone still hadn’t received a reply, and she couldn’t hold out any longer, closing her eyes and falling asleep.
On the other side.
Shen Muran was completely immersed in darkness, no lights on in his home.
Line by line of messages on the screen reflected in his pupils.
She said she had registered him for the tournament.
The man lowered his eyes, his chest rising and falling slightly.
Jiang Li probably didn’t even know which competition category he played in, his past results, or his ID number—how could she register him?
She also said not to deliver breakfast to her house tomorrow.
Shen Muran closed his eyes, recalling those long, drawn-out years where he had pieced together a fragmented image of Jiang Li through countless stolen glances.
The girl possessed many things, but her interest in everything always faded in an instant.
Except for what she loved most and hated most, it seemed nothing could leave a deep impression on her heart.
He was just an ordinary, casual follower.
Being rejected from her home—this was a sign he had been played with and grown tiresome.
Sometimes, Shen Muran felt he was sick.
Compared to being a stranger to her, he actually enjoyed the disdain and disgust Jiang Li directed at him.
At least he could be remembered.
So he both soberly immersed himself in the girl’s proximity and allowed an indescribable resentment to mix into his interactions with her.
The two forces in his mind were tearing him apart.
“Ali, can you please stop playing with me?” Shen Muran let go of his strength, his body slamming heavily onto the bed.
A hint of self-inflicted comfort spread through his chest.
Early the next morning, Shen Muran rode his bicycle and, before anyone arrived at the music building, placed the breakfast outside the practice room first.
Four lunch boxes lay quietly in the insulated bag, awaiting their owner’s favor.
When leaving, he noticed the door hinge had an issue when pushed open. After applying some lubricant, he also took the opportunity to clean up the room.
It wasn’t even seven yet, but the ball machine on the tennis court had been whirring for over half an hour.
The man’s wrist snapped sharply, his racket slicing through the air toward the oncoming white tennis ball, then thudding precisely into the marker bucket on the other side of the court.
The constant squeak of shoe soles against the rubber floor caught the attention of Xu Jiarang, who was passing by.
Every movement Shen Muran made was sharp and explosive, with almost no deviation in the placement of each shot.
The man was practicing cross-court rallies, his reaction speed so fast it almost left afterimages. Even after ten minutes, his pace showed no sign of slowing, making Xu Jiarang’s eyes darken slightly.
Setting aside technique, just the precision of his strikes was something Xu Jiarang couldn’t hope to match.
Lu Zheng, wiping sweat, also curiously came over.
“What’s so interesting about tennis? No matter how well he plays, it’s hard for him to stand out.”
Xu Jiarang retracted his sharp gaze, turning with a calm smile. “Don’t say that. His accuracy is impressive—he’s a skilled player.”
“You’re praising him?”
Lu Zheng suddenly recalled the incident in the cafeteria. “Don’t blame me for not warning you, Jiang Li has been getting pretty close to him lately. That sports assistant coach—she went looking for him.”
Even if there isn’t much love in a relationship, no man can stand the thought of his publicly acknowledged fiancée having an affair with someone else.
Xu Jiarang’s hand, holding the water bottle, paused. His brow didn’t furrow, but the scrutiny in his eyes was unmistakable.
Lu Zheng knew his friend had a gentle, non-confrontational nature.
“Your engagement to Jiang Li is set in stone, but you can’t just let some scoundrel interfere. If certain people overestimate themselves and you don’t teach them a lesson, that little girl Jiang Li might just give you plenty of green hats to wear in the future.”