To thoroughly implement the principle of "letting fewer people see Xia Tingchan," Lu Henqin drove himself this time.
As soon as he opened the passenger door, Xia Tingchan had already very consciously slipped into the back seat.
The door was energetically slammed shut with a "bang" by her. She scooted further inside, sitting upright like a boss waiting for the driver to start the car. Then, through the glass, the two of them stared at each other for a few seconds.
Lu Henqin quietly looked at her.
Xia Tingchan: …?
She rolled down the window. The mask and hat covered her completely, making her voice sound muffled when she spoke.
"Isn't the point to avoid drawing attention? Wouldn't sitting in the front be unsafe?"
Lu Henqin's hand still rested on the edge of the passenger door. He stood there for a moment as if being punished, then silently closed the door, got into the driver's seat, and started the car.
EREWHON supermarket was far away. Unless necessary, Lu Henqin usually couldn't be bothered to make a special trip, but…
The car drove smoothly. He adjusted the rearview mirror as if unintentionally, revealing a small part of Xia Tingchan's face.
She kept her head down, intently fiddling with her new phone.
He glanced at her intermittently several times.
The baseball cap on her head was also his. Even with the adjustable strap tightened to the innermost notch, the hat was still too big for her. Unless she tilted her face upward forcefully, her eyes, hidden under the brim, were completely invisible.
At a red light, Lu Henqin's gaze shifted and finally lingered on her reflection in the rearview mirror… She really knew how to pick. That hat was the one he wore during baseball team training in high school. Back then, she had earnestly promised to come watch the game, so he reserved the best seat for her. That match was also the one where he performed exceptionally well.
But after the entire game ended, she, who didn't understand baseball, recited to him word-for-word the congratulatory phrases she had freshly searched online on "how to professionally praise good baseball plays."
It was too fluent, like a brilliant speech. As she recited, she gradually became enamored with her own impressive memory and learning ability, a genuinely self-appreciative smile appearing on her face.
Halfway through, Lu Henqin's expression grew increasingly odd. He raised a hand, signaling the great orator Xia to pause for a moment.
She reluctantly stopped, hearing him ask, "Did you really like that sacrifice fly?"
Xia Tingchan nodded eagerly, even anticipating the teacher's question in advance, giving a thumbs-up: "Your hit was deep enough, that run was really beautiful!"
"Remember the number?"
She confidently gestured a "6."
Lu Henqin quietly looked at her for two seconds, then pointed to the front of his own shirt.
The huge 【No. 4】.
Xia Tingchan: …I was so focused on reciting that I forgot to check the question.
"But!" she launched an emergency PR move, "When we were behind, you chased down two strong ground balls in a row, instantly relieving the pressure!"
Lu Henqin calmly turned his head: "Zai Haorong, Xiaochan praised you for stabilizing the team's morale."
Xia Tingchan: ? Wrong again?
Zai Haorong's face was flushed red after playing the entire game. Hearing this, he stretched his neck out like a proud, strutting goose, beaming with joy: "Ah… small scene, not that cool, haha, thanks Xiaochan—ah ah ah ah ah Xia Tingchan."
Lu Henqin withdrew his gaze and looked back at the girl in front of him: "Still want to praise?"
Xia Tingchan's eyes looked somewhat dead: "No more, I don't dare to praise anymore."
The whole team of teammates were laughing uproariously beside them, baring their big white teeth.
Lu Henqin wasn’t someone who sweated easily. Among a group of sweaty boys, he alone looked fresh and clean. Still, he first rinsed his arms with water, dried them, and then pressed his forearm against hers before taking her hand:
“My girlfriend isn’t familiar with baseball rules, yet she watched the whole game. You guys laugh and laugh—do you even have girlfriends to laugh like this?”
“? Lu Henqin, did you know you can fight during a baseball game?”
Lu Henqin took off his baseball cap and placed it on Xia Tingchan’s head to shield her from the sun. His tone carried the spirited, carefree confidence of a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old boy as he said lazily, “Go ahead, fight. I won’t fight back. Anyway, Tingchan bandages wounds well and doesn’t hurt me.”
“You bastard! Get him! Send him to his own family’s hospital!”
Xia Tingchan flipped Lu Henqin’s wrist over. His bones were distinct, and faint blue veins spread across his cool, pale skin. She said leisurely, “Don’t hit his hands, though. That last ball went straight to the second-floor stands—a four-run homer that turned the game around. That was pretty cool.”
Lu Henqin suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned his face to look at her.
Both his parents were busy and had never attended any of his games. When needed, financial support was enough.
Xia Tingchan had been the one to offer to accompany him to the game.
Lu Henqin’s Adam’s apple bobbed. With the cap given to her, the sunlight made it hard for him to keep his eyes open… Suddenly, at eighteen, he experienced the joy of being seen by the person who mattered most.
After a brief pause, he managed to ask, “You saw me?”
Xia Tingchan fanned herself with her hand. His cap was a bit too big on her head, forcing her to lift her chin to look at people.
She used her index finger to push up the brim of the cap and gave him a slightly smug smile. “Baseball is too hard. It made my head spin, but luckily, I’m Xia Tingchan.”
“What can’t Xia Tingchan do?”
…
“Why are you looking at me?” Xia Tingchan used her index finger again to push up the brim of the cap, revealing her clear, bright eyes.
Lu Henqin withdrew his gaze from the rearview mirror.
She adjusted the cap left and right. “I’ll wear it for a bit and give it back to you.”
Lu Henqin kept his eyes on the road ahead and said flatly, “I don’t want it anymore. I don’t use things others have used.”
When Bai Haoying’s frantic calls came through, the two had already bought quite a few things at the supermarket.
“Where are you??”
Lu Henqin wedged the phone between his shoulder and ear, holding a plastic bag open with both hands so Xia Tingchan could choose a cabbage.
“What’s up?”
“What else could it be? Did you forget you have a follow-up appointment today?”
Xia Tingchan cupped the bag in her palm, estimated the weight was enough, and patted Lu Henqin’s hand to signal it was okay. He then packed it neatly into the shopping cart, freeing one hand to hold the phone and reply:
“I’m a bit busy today. Let’s skip it.”
“No.”
Xia Tingchan walked ahead, while Lu Henqin pushed the cart behind her. She didn’t turn back to wait for him, only occasionally reached her left hand back to hook the front of the shopping cart and pull it toward her, making sure both he and the cart stayed close.
Lu Henqin listened to Dr. Bai’s loud, frantic voice on the phone, but his gaze fell on her long hair. A strand had slipped through the hole of the cap’s adjustable strap, sticking out triumphantly and occasionally bouncing up and down as she walked.
Lu Henqin said, “I’m out. It’ll take about three hours to get home. If you’re willing to wait—watch the road!”
Xia Tingchan was slowing her pace as she walked, carefully selecting fresh milk, when another customer came charging down the middle aisle with a shopping cart, heading straight toward her unaware. Lu Henqin urgently leaned over the cart and grabbed her arm just in time. The customer, whose eyes seemed to be on the back of their head, walked past as if no one was there.
Lu Henqin frowned at the person, tightening his grip as he pulled Xia Tingchan closer to him. "Be careful, don't wander too far from me."
As she was pulled over, Xia Tingchan still held onto the two large bottles of fresh milk she had picked out. She hummed in acknowledgment, placed the items in the shopping cart, and then stood side by side with him, pushing the cart forward together.
Lu Henqin gently nudged his left foot forward, using his shoe to block the cart's wheel as he stopped in front of the refrigerator case.
Xia Tingchan tried to push but couldn't move the cart. Confused, she turned to look at him.
He tilted his chin slightly to the left. "Isn't this the brand you like to drink?"
She pulled the cart back a bit and followed his gaze. Before she could speak, he added coolly from across the aisle, "Ah, right. It's been years—people's preferences change. I guess I really don't know you anymore."
Bai Haoying's voice came through the phone: "Hey? Who are you talking to?"
Xia Tingchan glanced at the refrigerator case, then pointed expressionlessly at the two bottles of milk she had placed in the cart. "But I chose the family size—enough for both of us to drink. I'll be staying for a long time."
I'll be staying for a long time.
Lu Henqin's mood lifted strangely for a second, like a helium balloon drifting upward. He chewed over those words a few times before finally looking away and letting out a quiet "Oh."
Bai Haoying's voice persisted annoyingly from the phone: "Lu Henqin, are you listening? Is someone with you?"
The voice was loud and grating. Lu Henqin switched the phone to his other ear, holding it farther away from Xia Tingchan.
He deliberately kept a bit of distance, letting her walk ahead first. After glancing at her a few times to make sure she wasn't paying attention to the conversation, he gave an ambiguous "Hmm."
"Whoa, who are you with? Why are you talking like that?"
"I'll be home in three hours. That's it." Lu Henqin hung up the call.
When he looked up again, Xia Tingchan had disappeared, leaving only the shopping cart parked alone not far away.
Lu Henqin's heart skipped a beat. He immediately scanned the area—she wasn't at any of the nearby weighing stations, and among the crowds moving through the other aisles, there was no sign of her.
He took a few seconds to rein in his anxiety, slowly unclenching the fingers that had dug into his palm. Rubbing his fingertips over the crescent-shaped marks, he gradually steadied his breathing, as if pushing the churning restlessness back down deep.
When he lowered his head again, his expression was calm and composed. He calmly took out his phone:
On the screen, every app was neatly organized into fixed folders, except for one obscure, unnamed app placed alone in a transparent widget frame.
Lu Henqin opened it. On the all-black screen, a geographical location and direction slowly loaded, with a bright red dot flashing steadily at the center.
Seeing the blinking red dot, his expression relaxed completely, and a faint, satisfied smile of control even appeared at the corners of his eyes.
He let out a sigh of relief, placed his phone on the child seat board of the shopping cart, and pushed it forward while adjusting his direction, heading straight for the shortest route with clear intent.
The tracking app showed Xia Tingchan running swiftly. She had gone to the largest promotional display in the center of the supermarket, stacked into a geometric tower. Snack gift boxes were piled high and densely, resembling a small mountain.
He remembered now—when they first entered the supermarket and passed that promotional display, she had glanced at it several times. It was her favorite crab-flavored egg yolk rice crackers.
Lu Henqin lowered his head again to confirm the tracking app. He had specifically asked someone for this app—not only was it highly discreet after installation, but its accuracy was also exceptional, with an error margin of no more than 30 cm.
The tracking showed Xia Tingchan was behind this "small mountain."
Lu Henqin pushed the cart calmly and confidently, heading straight around to the back—
Empty.
A sharp sense of panic instantly surged into his mind. That relaxed breath he had been holding was abruptly cut off in his chest, even spreading into a suffocating ache.
How could she not be there??
He glanced at his phone in disbelief—the red dot overlapped. When he looked up, he discovered Xia Tingchan’s phone was wedged into a gap on the third layer of the stacked goods.
At this height, it had clearly been deliberately pushed in by someone standing on tiptoe.
He raised his arm to retrieve the phone, but the angle at which it was stuck was too tricky. Pulling one part would disturb the entire structure, so he had no choice but to take down the snack gift box that was pinning the phone as well.
A section of the product "tower" was now hollowed out. As he lowered his head to inspect the phone, he didn’t notice a slender arm slowly rising on the other side, snapping its fingers with a crisp "snap."
Lu Henqin paused, and in that instant, a flash of realization struck his mind—he almost had the answer at the same time.
He slowly raised his head. With his height, he could easily see through the hollowed-out snack gift box tower to Xia Tingchan, who was leaning against a shelf about five meters away, legs crossed, with a pile of biscuits in her arms.
Their gazes met through the hollowed-out product tower, feeling as if an entire century had passed.
Her position was somewhere he could have seen with just a turn of his head when he pushed the cart over.
But he hadn’t paid any attention because he already had the "correct answer," so he had only focused on heading straight to the location marked by the red dot.
Under her silent gaze, he felt like a foolish bird stepping into a trap, eagerly pecking at the grain.
The exact same thing had happened before.
When he heard she was returning to her hometown during summer vacation and would have to "cross mountains and valleys," he worried about her safety and drove behind her the entire way. Little did he know she would mistake him for a stalker and lead him in circles instead.
He and Bai Haoying got lost from afternoon until evening. After the first hour, Bai Haoying forced a compliment: "Xia Tingchan’s hometown scenery is pretty nice, huh?"
After the second hour, Lu Henqin feigned calm: "We should be almost there, right?"
By the third hour, Bai Haoying was uneasy: "Xia Tingchan couldn’t be a human trafficker, could she?"
By the fourth hour, Bai Haoying clung desperately to Lu Henqin, his face pale as he tried to appeal to his conscience: "Buddy, we’re good friends, right…?"
Lu Henqin drove back to the fork in the road and had no choice but to call Xia Tingchan. The ringtone actually rang right above their heads.
He raised his phone and looked up—Xia Tingchan was standing on the sloping embankment above the road.
The vertical distance was about fifteen or sixteen meters.
She had already changed into a different outfit—black tapered pants and a grayish-white top with the "Yangguang Welfare Home" emblem on the right chest. Smiling, she waved at the two boys and asked amiably, "Where are you headed?"
Lu Henqin rattled off the destination like a menu item: "Yangguang Welfare Home."
Xia Tingchan held up two fingers. "Two ways to get there. First, at every fork in the road, go right, right, left, left, right, then drive for another three-plus hours, and you’ll arrive."
Bai Haoying wore an expression of sheer agony at the thought of the winding mountain roads. "What’s the second way?"
Xia Tingchan crouched down and tapped the yellow dirt beneath her feet. "Park the car in the clearing two kilometers away, walk back here first, and then climb up from here."
The two pampered young masters froze for a few seconds.
"It’s so steep!" Bai Haoying wailed. "You can scale walls, but I can’t! My pants can take the wear and tear, but I can’t! If my legs get scraped raw, I’ll cry!"
"Then goodbye," she said, standing up. "This is the shortest route. I’m heading back for dinner."
By the time Lu Henqin reached the welfare home, even his picky eating habits had been cured. Grandma He Xunyan from the welfare home served them warmed-up meals. After they finished eating, Xia Tingchan used the excuse that "it’s too late" to make them stay, turning them into four days of free labor as able-bodied young men.
Bai Haoying weakly complained that he had been tricked by "Xia the Slave Driver" into joining a reality show transformation program.
On the day they were leaving, Grandma He was surprised to see them up so early to "hit the road." Puzzled, she said, "You don’t have to climb! When you came into the mountains, taking the main road was right, right, left, left, right—it’s indeed a long way. But there’s a shortcut here. At that fork, go straight ahead, then right, left, right, right, right, and you’ll be there in just over half an hour."
That scoundrel Xia Tingchan!
…
The scoundrel Xia Tingchan smiled brightly at him.
It was the same smile she had worn when she tricked his germaphobe self into climbing that dirt slope back then.
Lu Henqin straightened up, his hand resting lightly against his pant seam as he subtly swiped to completely exit the tracking app he had opened on his phone.
Xia Tingchan’s face still wore an innocent, harmless smile. Her features were exquisitely beautiful, the kind of delicate, non-threatening loveliness that seemed utterly guileless. Because she had excelled academically in school, demonstrated strong capabilities at work, and spoke bluntly in social settings, people were often deceived by this misleading appearance and her seemingly innate clarity of character into thinking she was inept at interpersonal dealings and incapable of hiding her thoughts or scheming.
Yes, before she filled his father’s secret meeting room with listening devices, before she transformed herself after succeeding—from an orphan raised in a welfare home into the adopted daughter of Zhong Liqun, the rising star of the Social Democratic Party, and before her damn ex-boyfriend became her brother—he, Lu Henqin, had thought the same.
How could she possibly be a delicate little white flower?
She was so clever. Within less than two hours of him giving her the phone, she had already tested and discovered the tracking app inside.
Xia Tingchan walked over from the opposite side, her smile sweet and seemingly oblivious. "I really want this snack gift pack! I’ve been picking for a while, and I wanted the one in your hand, but I couldn’t reach it. I tried poking at it with my phone for ages, and now my phone is stuck up there too."
Lu Henqin stared at her intently.
Liar, deceiver, hypocrite.
But she was staying at his home. Even though she had discovered he was monitoring her movements, she still needed to use this clumsy excuse—one they both saw through—to gently let it pass.
How wonderful… How wonderful, Xia Tingchan. If you could just stay by my side like this forever, whether by your own will or forced by circumstances, it doesn't matter if you harbor ulterior motives, it doesn't matter if you pretend to comply while secretly defying—after all…
After all, I don't trust you either.
I won't be deceived by you a second time.
Lu Henqin kept his expression neutral, as if he wasn't thinking about anything at all. He simply handed her the snack gift pack and her phone, saying succinctly:
"Alright, if you like it, then buy it."