The moment they stepped out of the jewelry store, a cold wind rushed toward them. October nights already carried a bite of chill.
Tang Zhen followed Ren Yanjing toward his sports car.
Maybe she was distracted, or maybe the lighting was just bad—but just as they were about to reach the car, her foot twisted.
It happened so suddenly that when Tang Zhen fell to the ground, her mind went completely blank.
【Xiao Zhenzhen, are you okay?!】
She didn’t feel okay at all. Pain flooded her senses, leaving her dazed for several seconds. By the time she came to, she had already been carried into the passenger seat. Ren Yanjing was crouched in front of her, checking her ankle. His hand rested against her wrist, warmth seeping through his palm.
Perhaps from years of working in labs, his fingers were slightly rough. When they brushed against her ankle, the sensation was unmistakably vivid.
“It’s swollen. Probably a sprain,” Ren Yanjing said, judging from experience.
Tang Zhen hummed softly. “It’s fine. It’ll be better in a few days.”
He stood up, closed the car door for her, then walked around to the driver’s seat. “It’s safer to go to the hospital and have it checked. If it’s a hairline fracture, that would be troublesome.”
Her face instantly went pale. “Th-that serious?”
He started the engine. “Let’s check first.”
On the way to the hospital, his phone kept ringing. He answered through Bluetooth.
The voice on the other end sounded young and energetic. “Boss, are you coming or not?”
Ren Yanjing’s tone was calm. “Something came up. I’ll be late.”
“What happened, boss? We really need you here.”
Tang Zhen spoke up in an almost inaudible voice, her watery eyes full of unease. “I’m fine. You should go do your work.”
The person on the phone froze for a second. “Huh? Was that a girl just now? Boss, are you with a girl?”
Ren Yanjing said, “We’ll talk later,” and hung up directly.
Tang Zhen bit her lower lip. “I can go to the hospital by myself.”
His gaze brushed past her lips, and he replied curtly, “It’s fine.”
She wanted to say something several times but swallowed it back. Her ankle hurt badly—she didn’t have the energy to talk.
Fortunately, after the examination, the doctor said it wasn’t serious. He prescribed a spray for sprains and bruises and advised her to rest more and avoid strenuous activity.
By the time they left the hospital with the spray, it was already 11 p.m. Mission Three—Prevent the male lead from returning to the lab—had been marked Completed.
When she saw those words, Tang Zhen was stunned.
“000, how did it get completed?”
【A professor specializing in robotics happened to pass by and helped them resolve the issue. The male lead didn’t need to go anymore.】
“So he doesn’t need to go to the lab?”
【Nope.】
Doesn’t need to go anymore.
Those words looped endlessly in her mind. In the end, she really had held him back.
She always felt that people with dreams were incredibly admirable—but she had undeniably affected him. She didn’t want that. Chasing dreams was never easy; it required immense effort.
Tang Zhen suddenly squatted down and hugged herself.
When Ren Yanjing noticed she hadn’t followed, he paused, then walked over. “Doesn’t your foot hurt in that position?”
She nodded, then shook her head.
He sensed something was wrong.
Her eyes were misty, the corners tinged red. The tip of her nose was flushed, and she looked pitiful beyond measure. That pure, innocent face was far too suited to crying—so much so that it stirred an urge to bully her mercilessly.
Ren Yanjing suppressed those wildly inappropriate thoughts, crouched down, and leaned closer. His voice softened. “Why are you crying?”
She whispered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
Ah. So that was it. She thought she’d affected him.
Ren Yanjing didn’t mind at all. “It’s okay. You’re my girlfriend.”
Under the dim streetlights, the young man’s features looked deep and composed. She was his girlfriend—so taking her to the hospital the moment she got hurt was only natural.
His lips looked… really kissable. Tang Zhen quickly looked away.
“And besides,” he added, “my teammates aren’t useless either.”
She lifted her head. Her fair little face seemed to glow under the night lights, those damp eyes blinking softly. “Then… are you still going to the lab now?”
He didn’t answer directly. Instead, he asked, “Do you want to come with me?”
Together?
Before she could respond, he continued, “Never mind. Your foot isn’t convenient. I’ll take you back to your dorm first.”
Tang Zhen’s university was a second-tier school, not too far from his. But before his sports car even reached the gate, she asked to get out.
Even at this hour, the entrance wasn’t completely deserted. If someone saw her getting out of his car, there’d be no way to explain it.
It wasn’t that she minded being seen—she minded that in three months, they’d break up, and afterward, they’d have nothing to do with each other. Rather than becoming gossip later, it was better to keep things discreet from the start.
After getting out of the car, she endured the pain in her ankle and hurried into campus. Only after her figure disappeared completely did Ren Yanjing pinch the bridge of his nose, unable to understand why she insisted on getting out so early.
As her boyfriend, was he really that embarrassing to be seen with?
Unable to figure it out, he gave up thinking about it for now. While calling his teammates, he drove toward the campus lab.
When Tang Zhen returned to the dorm, she was immediately subjected to a “harsh interrogation.” Her roommates had stayed up late just to lie in wait for her.
“Well, well, Zhenzhen,” one of them said. “You secretly got yourself a boyfriend without a word! Spill—who is he? Which department? What’s his name? Height? Weight?”
Tang Zhen burst out laughing. “Tiantian, are you checking household registration? That’s way too detailed.”
Tiantian dragged her chair closer. “I’m just being curious, okay?”
The other two roommates stared at her with sparkling eyes.
“We’re just helping you check if his character is decent.”
The male lead’s character was definitely not an issue.
“Come on, tell us his name. Maybe we even know him.”
She shook her head. “He’s not from our school.”
“Not from Media and Arts? Then he—”
Tang Zhen was about to make up an excuse when her roommate Yezi suddenly spotted the bracelet on her wrist. “Hey, you didn’t have that bracelet when you went out today. Your boyfriend gave it to you?”
Tiantian let out a dramatic gasp and grabbed her wrist to inspect it closely. “I know this bracelet! It costs several thousand. I wanted it too, but I couldn’t bear to buy it.”
Yezi added, “Zhenzhen, your boyfriend is really generous.”
Tang Zhen was getting overwhelmed. “It’s… it’s okay, I guess.”
Her roommates were all very respectful of boundaries. Seeing that she didn’t want to talk much about her boyfriend, they smoothly changed the subject, and she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But the moment she took out her phone, that sigh caught in her throat again.
A message had come from the original owner’s mother—the woman who’d married three times before finally marrying into money—telling her to go back to the Zhou family this weekend. The Zhou family was her current husband’s household.
To the original Tang Zhen, the Zhou family was nothing short of a dragon’s den or tiger’s lair. After transmigrating, she was just as resistant to dealing with that family.
After all, the Zhou family’s second daughter had been secretly in love with Ren Yanjing for years.
If she found out that Tang Zhen was dating him… wouldn’t that be absolute chaos?