The afternoon meeting proceeded very smoothly. Lu Henqin listened to the quarterly operational report of the general hospital, followed by the distribution and circulation status of medical equipment, without offering much input. It was only during the report on the pharmaceutical research and production line that his attention drifted due to the lengthy duration of the meeting.
"…exhibits stronger central inhibitory effects, stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, and at high doses can excite the medulla oblongata and brain, leading to irritability and hallucinations. We are still conducting further testing and optimization in this area…"
Lu Henqin casually propped his arm, his gaze slightly unfocused as it fell on the screen displaying the PPT in front of him. Images flashed one after another, the colors momentarily dazzling him. He then tightened his jaw and glanced at the documents before him, tapping his phone screen aimlessly.
The screen lit up—it was already 16:11.
His mind remained sluggish, all actions performed unconsciously. After unlocking his phone with facial recognition, he routinely checked his emails and VX. As he scrolled down, his finger seemed to know exactly where the boundary lay, stopping just before the contact "Zhile" appeared on the screen—out of sight, out of mind.
But…
Would she really dare to speak up?
Was she the type to lower her head?
Lu Henqin absentmindedly scrolled up and down the screen a few times… Perhaps she truly was in a difficult situation. The current circumstances were indeed quite tense, and if she wanted to play tricks to seek reconciliation, she would at least remove him from her various blocklists first.
He tapped into the chat, where the text in the message box was deleted, edited, and revised repeatedly. In the end, he hypocritically typed a message that appeared to be "sent by mistake":
【Received】
The message was sent but was blocked by the recipient.
With a sharp "snap," Lu Henqin coldly flipped his phone over and placed it facedown on the table.
Min Fengyu, who was in the middle of his report, immediately fell silent.
Everyone at the table looked over.
Lu Henqin raised his eyes and shook his head slightly. "My apologies, a personal matter. Please continue."
…
18:47.
Lu Henqin returned home. Originally, he had a social engagement tonight, but he had declined it with the excuse of "needing a light diet recently."
While entering the door code, he made two consecutive mistakes before remembering he had changed the password that morning.
Lu Henqin stood before the open door for a few extra seconds, then entered expressionlessly and changed his shoes.
The slippers placed in the entryway seemed a bit sparse…
Having lived alone for years, he disliked inviting outsiders over for casual gatherings. Most of the items displayed were single-person essentials—just enough to get by. The rest were stuffed in the storage room, still in their unopened packaging.
Lu Henqin opened the shoe cabinet, took out two or three pairs of slippers, and placed them by the door. Unconsciously, he crumpled the plastic packaging in his palm, producing a faint, crisp rustling sound.
He frowned, suddenly finding the noise of the packaging irritating. After haphazardly crumpling it into a ball and tossing it into the trash, he returned to the entryway, bent down, and stuffed the new slippers back into the cabinet.
Aunt Qiu had cooked the meal and left. These past few days, the meals had consisted of soft porridge and easily digestible vegetables, but today during the meeting, Lu Henqin had messaged her to add two fish and shrimp dishes. Now, the spread looked quite abundant.
It wasn't a portion meant for one person.
He ate slowly, cleaning up only when he truly couldn't eat any more. Then, he took his medication according to the prescribed dosage.
Having stayed up all night yesterday, he should have rested early today. Lu Henqin went to bed an hour earlier than his usual bedtime, turning off the lights early and closing his eyes to induce sleepiness.
He was a light sleeper, feeling as if he had already slept through one cycle, yet also as if he had only just closed his eyes for a brief nap of over ten minutes. By the time he heard the sound, he was already sitting fully upright.
The lights in the living room downstairs were on.
He stared at the warm yellow light seeping through the crack under the bedroom door, remaining motionless for a long while.
From the bedroom to the hallway was only a little over ten meters, yet Lu Henqin took an eternity to slowly amble to the glass railing, as if he had spent too long mentally preparing himself before unwrapping a gift box.
Leaning his elbows on the railing, he bent slightly forward and gazed down from above. Xia Tingchan sat properly on the sofa, seemingly having waited for him for a long time.
The night was far too quiet. It was not yet the peak of summer with its chorus of cicadas—she had arrived before summer did.
Xia Tingchan was looking at the photograph placed on the coffee table, taken during Lu Henqin’s coming-of-age ceremony—a family of three.
She was absorbed in it, lost in thought, unaware of what she was pondering. It was only when Lu Henqin, radiating a chill, walked up to her that she suddenly snapped back to reality.
Lu Henqin: "Why are you here?"
"Can’t I come…?" Xia Tingchan was somewhat bewildered, hesitating as she spoke, "Didn’t you even give me the passcode?"
Lu Henqin seemed to take a short, sharp breath. His brows curved, and the corners of his lips lifted, yet there was not a trace of warmth in his eyes.
"Hmm," he nodded. "You’re right. I am welcoming you here."
Lu Henqin leaned over the coffee table and flipped the photo in front of her facedown, quite amiably telling her to ask for anything she needed.
Xia Tingchan had brought nothing with her, arriving with only herself. She was not one to cause trouble, and now, seeing Lu Henqin putting on the full airs of a host, she merely thanked him and mentioned a few essential toiletries.
Her original intention was to cause as little inconvenience as possible. In normal social interactions, Lu Henqin should have politely prepared more daily necessities for her, but he deliberately did not.
Apart from those few items, he added nothing else, as if repaying in kind, defeating a machine with machine-like precision: "Alright, the north-facing room on the third floor is yours. It’s far from my bedroom, and I don’t sleep well at night—I’m afraid I might disturb you."
Xia Tingchan followed behind him, nodding and saying thank you. When she walked, she was exceptionally quiet, with not a single footstep audible. Lu Henqin glanced back, and his temple twitched.
"Why aren’t you wearing shoes?"
Xia Tingchan paused, answering honestly, "Sorry, because I saw there weren’t any extra at the entrance—only a pair of men’s slippers, but they seemed to be for outdoor use."
She remembered some things quite clearly: "Didn’t you tell me last time not to touch your things?"
Lu Henqin fell silent, his brows furrowed as if the heavens themselves owed him eight million, and without a word, he walked to the entrance, opened the cabinet, took out the slippers he had just unpacked that evening, and placed them in front of her feet.
Xia Tingchan didn’t move, finally showing a hint of the demeanor one should have when relying on others for shelter. She demurred, "These seem to be new."
"Old ones, someone’s worn them," Lu Henqin straightened up, avoiding her gaze. "Put them on."
There was no further conversation between them. After Xia Tingchan entered the room, she did not come out again. The north-facing guest room was relatively small and lacked an ensuite bathroom. Lu Henqin lingered downstairs, sitting in the living room until the early hours of the morning before finally standing the photo he had flipped over back up.
He sat in the spot where she had been sitting earlier, studying the photo over and over:
["Don’t keep bringing that little girlfriend of yours home. It’s inconvenient when I want to meet a few friends."]
【Who installed the listening device in the secret room?】
【Everything is arranged. We leave tonight. Don’t waste time—how can you still think of taking her with you at a time like this?】
【Do you know the orphanage she grew up in is part of the Social Democratic Party’s welfare system? She probably knew Zhong Liqun and Zhong Yi from a very young age, and she knew you and me too! She wasn’t dating you—she was deliberately getting close to you from the very beginning!】
【Such a massive corporate system, such excellent medical services, yet in the end, they couldn’t save the person they wanted to save, nor keep the person they wanted to keep.】
Lu Henqin extended his index finger and gently slid it up and down the center of the photo frame, tracing the faces of his parents standing beside him in the picture one by one. Then, he neatly repositioned the frame in the middle of the coffee table, turned off the light, and headed upstairs.
Ever since she barged in abruptly like a musical rest two nights ago, it had been too sudden. He hadn’t managed to sort out his chaotic emotions and conflicting thoughts until now, when he finally remembered that over the past three or four years, he had imagined countless times how he would mercilessly take revenge if they ever met again.
He hated her so much.
In the bottom drawer of his bedside table lay a gun, meticulously maintained. He personally cleaned, lubricated, unloaded, and cleared it frequently. It was loaded with two bullets.
Lu Henqin leaned back against the headboard and sent another message to “Cicada.” As expected, he was blocked again. Unfazed, he took out the pistol, unloaded it to inspect the bullets, then reloaded it.
The house was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Lu Henqin tucked the gun behind his waist and went upstairs. Turning down the hallway, he approached the room and gently placed his left hand on the doorknob. Slowing his movements, he silently twisted it downward—the latch slid open smoothly.
He frowned unconsciously. Xia Tingchan hadn’t locked the door, allowing him to walk into her room with the gun so easily.
The bedroom wasn’t completely dark. She hadn’t fully closed the curtains, and the gentle, lingering moonlight spilled through the gap, stretching all the way to the bed.
She lay on her side facing him, sound asleep. A strand of long hair curled around her ear and rested crookedly on her upper lip, moving softly with each breath like rabbit-tail grass swaying in the wind, fluffy and delicate.
Lu Henqin stared at her from a distance for a long, long time, never moving closer, while she remained completely defenseless.
His mind was clear, alert, every nerve taut and heightened. His arm lifted and then lowered slightly, the trembling crosshairs of the sight bringing her image into sharper focus. Her enlarged face seemed so real that it stirred a faint, chaotic doubt in him… He felt she might be an illusion.
The gun barrel hovered in the air, then pressed downward. Her face appeared and slipped away within the crosshairs. He meticulously considered how a person committing suicide would press the gun against their temple, but then, in a daze, he remembered those shoes that vanished like a mirage at the slightest touch.
If he touched her, would she disappear…?
A strange distraction.
He remained frozen for a long time, aiming the gun for what felt like an eternity. Finally, gritting his teeth, he took two steps closer to the bed, bent down, spread the fingers of his left hand to brace himself against the mattress, and tightened his grip on the pistol with his other hand, pressing the barrel firmly against her temple.
The mattress dipped into a shallow curve. He felt blood surging chaotically through his body, his breathing uncontrollably beginning to falter. A thin layer of sweat broke out on his back, yet in this moment of extreme tension, his mind still wandered—noticing that the place where she slept showed almost no trace of mattress indentation or creasing. So she had lost so much weight.
His fingertip rested on the trigger. Lu Henqin forced himself to focus, lowering his neck even closer to her. Suddenly, a faint scent of sea salt drifted into his nostrils—dry woody notes mixed with a subtle hint of citrus, like warm mineral grains dried by sunlight on seaside rocks.
Could hallucinations carry scents too?
Lu Henqin was momentarily bewildered. This was clearly his own bath product. She had just used the third-floor bathroom—how could she be emitting the same fragrance?
The scent awakened certain memories.
It seemed he had only started using this sea salt-scented body wash after they got together.
It was a confession, but even that confession had been led by her.
Before that, he had done extensive research on where to confess, but Xia Tingchan either had work shifts that clashed or study group commitments. One plan after another fell through, leaving him deeply frustrated. In the end, it was she who casually mentioned wanting to feel the sea breeze—because she had unusually lost first place in that mock exam. Afraid she might feel down, he abandoned all elaborate ideas, skipped the last self-study class of the afternoon, and took her to the seaside on his motorcycle.
The school was quite a distance from the sea. They even switched to a train midway, and by the time they finally reached the shore, it was already evening.
Since it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, the weather that day wasn’t great. The clouds were too thick, almost obscuring any so-called brilliant sunset glow. There weren’t many people by the sea; occasional bursts of noise would drift over but were quickly swallowed by the sound of the rising tide.
Xia Tingchan faced the sea with her arms spread wide. The sea breeze blew her school uniform backward, billowing like a taut drum. She untied her hair, and those long strands cascaded like waves, brushing against her cheeks in layers.
It seemed like rain was coming. Flocks of terns swooped and circled overhead, while palm and sea hibiscus trees swayed violently. Leaves torn loose by the sea wind tumbled forward, and the parallel cables strung between distant utility poles trembled as they stretched to the horizon, as if they might burst into sparks at any moment under the suddenly darkening gray-black sky.
Everything foretold the arrival of extreme weather—a violent storm.
Lu Henqin kept glancing at the sky. Xia Tingchan had been walking ahead with her head down, like a small boat navigating turbulent seas. The already sparse tourists along the shore had now vanished entirely. With no reference points around, an inexplicable sense of vast freedom enveloped them.
The spot where they stood was already submerged up to their calves by seawater. The daytime warmth had faded, and each wave that washed over their skin felt cold.
Worried, he reached out to tug at her wind-filled sleeve. "Tingchan, a heavy storm is coming."
Xia Tingchan didn’t turn around. Instead, she suddenly said, "This is such a perfect moment for a confession."
Those abrupt words instantly scattered all his thoughts. Lu Henqin’s mind went blank, as if swept empty by the sea breeze.
He had originally envisioned a much grander and more elaborate confession scene—perhaps on his family's private vacation island, with a fleet of supercars parading by and holographic projections on the white sand; or maybe on a vast, emerald-green golf course, where after booking the entire venue, he could hire designers to meticulously arrange the setting according to his finicky demands, and they'd sit in a glass-domed cottage watching a drone show in the sky; at the very least, it should have been a Michelin-starred high-end restaurant, with melodious piano music, vibrant roses, candelabras, candles, and a ring hidden in the dessert…
Xia Tingchan mused to herself, "Anyway, if it were me, I'd definitely agree if someone confessed to me in a setting like that."
His hand, which had been tugging at her sleeve, trembled, and in his haste, it slid unconsciously down her arm. Without a second thought, he gripped her hand tightly.
This was the first time he had held her hand, and it happened in this dizzying moment.
He had never been so nervous before.
But these words had been on his mind for far too long, like a chocolate coated in sugar, rolling around in his throat day after day.
His heart pounded like a drum as he struggled to control his voice, trying to sound as normal as possible. He asked solemnly, word by word, "Xia Tingchan, I've liked you for a very long time. Could I be your boyfriend?"
The downpour finally began. Before he could hear her reply, his arm still trembling uncontrollably, the rain drenched her completely. Of course, he refused to let go of the hand he had finally managed to hold. With one hand, he took off his jacket and draped it over her head.
Xia Tingchan turned her face toward him, offering a faint, closed-mouth smile. Together, they held up the jacket, huddling close to shelter him under it as well. The faint scent of citrus on her skin mingled with the salty, briny aroma of the sea breeze, slowly enveloping him like a net.
The scent of rain and sea etched itself permanently into his memory.
Her wet bangs dripped water onto her face. He wanted to brush the strands clinging to her cheeks aside, but she paid no mind, simply pressing herself against him with a smile. The raindrops trickled down onto his neck, warm to the touch.
There was no glass cottage for watching drones, only this makeshift tent formed by a thin school jacket. He heard her light, cheerful voice, clear and resonant like jade, as she said, "Sure, I like you too."
…
Lu Henqin had been in her room for who knows how long. The twisted scar on his wrist burned, itching so intensely it left him restless and unsettled.
He believed he was perfectly lucid in that moment.
Standing like a ghost by his long-lost ex-girlfriend's bedside in the middle of the night for nearly two hours, unable to steady his trembling arm—this state was not suitable for acting rashly.
There were only two bullets in the gun. If both missed, it would only alert her and make the situation difficult to resolve.
More importantly, tonight was far too rushed.
He had already missed the opportunity to shoot her the moment she entered the house under the justifiable pretext of trespassing. If he were to act now, disguising it as a suicide, it would need to be done more thoroughly. Today…
He forcibly tore his gaze away from her sleeping face, expression cold and silent as he put away the gun.
Better to let it go for now.
One more night wouldn't make a difference.