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Psst! We're moving!
The motion sensor light outside the apartment corridor was broken. Shen Yihuan fumbled in the dark, inserting the metal key into the lock to close the door. The elevator was out of order, so she had no choice but to take the stairs.
Dressed in a white top and black pants, her footsteps were quick. As she moved, a hint of her slender waist was occasionally revealed, making her resemble a large nocturnal cat.
Her phone rang just as she walked down the stairs.
“Hello,” she answered, her voice sounding listless.
A sudden cacophony erupted from the phone – a multitude of voices, intense rock music. Shen Yihuan expressionlessly moved the phone away from her ear and glanced at the caller ID.
—Gorky.
“...” Shen Yihuan knitted her brows, lowered the volume, and spoke in a soft, gentle voice that conveyed a sweetness completely at odds with her current expression. “Did you need something?”
Her “Gorky” shouted loudly: “Baby, come to Queens now!”
“I won’t...”
Before she could finish, “Gorky” blurted out “life-or-death emergency,” then loudly cursed a few times before being pulled away by someone, and the call abruptly ended.
It was an August night, and the temperature hadn’t dropped at all. The ground continuously released the heat accumulated during the day, as if summer itself was burning summer, with heatwaves surging in succession.
Shen Yihuan let out a soft “tsk,” seemingly pondering the credibility of that “life-or-death emergency.” In the end, she hailed a taxi and told the driver “Queens.”
Gorky, whose real name had no connection to the famous writer, was actually Lin Kaige.
His main occupation was courting disaster, and his side gig was modeling.
Shen Yihuan had recently been in charge of shooting his magazine spread, which was how they met. Lin Kaige was very outgoing and often tried to drag Shen Yihuan out to hang out.
Gorky was the nickname Shen Yihuan had given him.
Queens was a trendy bar, often frequented by internet celebrities, minor stars, and models—handsome men and beautiful women.
Laser spotlights cut through the dense smoke, filling the air with a heavy scent of cigarettes and alcohol.
Shen Yihuan pushed through the crowd, heading directly towards the table where Lin Kaige and his group were gathered.
Along the way, she received numerous scrutinizing glances and flirtatious whistles.
She truly didn’t look like someone who frequented bars; she was fair-skinned and innocent, with pretty, youthful features. Looking into her eyes was like encountering a small deer deep in the forest, clear and misty. But looking deeper, one would feel an emptiness in her eyes, like a black hole, and her entire being exuded a careless blankness.
“Here!” Lin Kaige jumped up the moment he saw her.
Everyone else at the table also looked at her. They were all models, and Shen Yihuan, who often shot for magazines, knew most of them.
“Everyone’s here,” Shen Yihuan said with a hint of a sweet smile, her deceptive eyes narrowing into slits.
One of them chuckled: “Lin Kaige, you’re a monster! Aren’t you intentionally corrupting our photographer sister? Who else would bring a good kid to Queens!”
A chorus of accusations followed.
Seeing this, Shen Yihuan knew that the “life-or-death emergency” was pure nonsense. She was too lazy to get angry and sat down next to Lin Kaige.
“Do you know what kind of drinks these are?” Lin Kaige asked her.
“What?”
“Date-rape drugs!”
“...”
Shen Yihuan expressionlessly turned her head, her gaze slowly settling on his face.
“Hey, it’s not for you to drink, I’m drinking it myself!” Lin Kaige curled his lips. “Just messing around with a live stream. By the way, what do you want to drink?”
Thanks to his good looks, Lin Kaige was a fairly well-known model with a fan base. He even encountered fans at the airport asking for photos and autographs.
“Orange juice, please.”
Someone nearby heard Shen Yihuan’s words and immediately laughed: “Sister, you’re too innocent! This is the first time I’ve met someone who comes to a bar and asks for orange juice.”
“I’m not very good at drinking,” Shen Yihuan said with a slight smile.
Lin Kaige finished setting up his live streaming software. Fans hadn’t entered the room yet, so he casually tossed his phone aside and leaned closer to Shen Yihuan.
He said with a smile: “You can keep up the act.”
“Hm?” Shen Yihuan’s lips were still upturned.
Lin Kaige picked up his phone, tapped a few times, and immediately Shen Yihuan’s phone also lit up, displaying – Gorky.
“...”
Lin Kaige laughed, sprawling lazily on the sofa, leaning slightly towards Shen Yihuan, appearing very intimate.
“I don’t believe it. Someone who secretly gave me this nickname could really be a little kitten? Baby, do you want to explain what this nickname means to me?”
“Gao, Er, Ji.” She pronounced each word distinctly, looking at him with extreme sincerity.
Tall at 190 cm, and, not straight.
Gao Er Ji, Gorky.
Perfect.
“Hey, I’m really straight.” Lin Kaige was practically laughing at her annoyance.
Shen Yihuan nodded, took a sip of orange juice, looking uninterested.
“Alright.”
________________________________________
Hospital.
“Hey, Master Lu, how did you get injured right after coming back?” Yu Jiacheng frowned, looking at the large bloodstains on the man’s back.
Lu Zhou said calmly: “Old injury.”
“Looks a bit terrifying.”
“Are you a police officer?” the nurse bandaging him asked.
Lu Zhou pressed a hand to his temple, not answering for the moment.
So Yu Jiacheng answered for him: “No, he’s a soldier.” Then, strangely, he nudged him with his elbow. “What are you staring at so intently?”
“Nothing.”
He withdrew his gaze, looking down.
Yu Jiacheng had known him since childhood, so he immediately turned his head, following the direction of Lu Zhou’s previous gaze. He saw a girl with long, flowing hair, her back to them – a “back-killer.”
???
Was he changing his ways?
Aside from that person, he had never seen Lu Zhou stare at a girl like this.
His gaze paused slightly. The girl was looking at a live stream on a tablet. The screen quickly scanned, and Yu Jiacheng caught a glimpse of a familiar face.
Familiar, yet not entirely. She had changed a lot, losing her former unruly aura. Even though the shot only lingered on her for a few seconds, he could tell she was well-behaved, and her demeanor had an indescribable composure.
Yu Jiacheng was slightly stunned, glancing at Lu Zhou, who remained very calm.
“...Was that Shen Yihuan just now?” he asked softly.
“Mm,” he said lightly, not denying that he had just been looking at her.
“She seems different from before.”
Lu Zhou didn’t answer.
Yu Jiacheng didn’t mind. He recalled Shen Yihuan’s appearance from moments ago; she was still strikingly beautiful, with glowing white skin, two curved willow-leaf eyebrows, deep black eyes, and a clean white T-shirt. Her eyelids drooped slightly, looking a bit tired.
He suspected he had misjudged earlier to see “goodness” in Shen Yihuan.
“Does she know you’re back?” Yu Jiacheng asked.
Lu Zhou looked at him indifferently. Yu Jiacheng understood his meaning: why should Shen Yihuan know.
Yu Jiacheng hadn’t seen it, but Lu Zhou had seen and heard –
There was a man sitting next to Shen Yihuan, holding a wine glass with a flirtatious smile, very much like the old Shen Yihuan. Occasionally, words like “date-rape drug” and “one-drink wonder” popped into his ears.
He also remembered the girl’s slender, fair neck and its smooth lines.
Lu Zhou lowered his eyes, feeling extremely annoyed.
________________________________________
Courting disaster by drinking “date-rape drugs” would inevitably incur divine retribution.
Late at night, an ambulance wailed into arrival, and amid laughter and teasing, a large, strong man, suffering from alcohol poisoning, was carried away.
The one with alcohol poisoning wasn’t Lin Kaige, but another man they were hanging out with. Shen Yihuan didn’t know him, but everyone else went to the hospital, so she inexplicably followed.
Only upon arriving at the hospital did she realize that these people weren’t there to care for the patient, but were a group of curious onlookers eager for gossip.
Lin Kaige, with his mouth going, chattered away, mocking how pathetic it was that the guy passed out after just one drink. Another person held up their phone, filming a video and sending it to the work group for everyone’s amusement.
Shen Yihuan, being somewhat conscientious, bought a bag of fruit along the way. Unfortunately, the patient couldn’t eat it, so she had to share it with everyone. Thus, in front of their pale, bedridden friend, everyone munched on the fruit with gusto, finishing it all.
This angered the patient, who cursed them as heartless with his raised index finger, then cried out in pain and convulsed.
The group, chattering noisily, thus completed a pleasant hospital outing and soon left in twos and threes.
“I’ll take you back,” Lin Kaige patted her shoulder.
“Oh.”
Shen Yihuan nodded, lifted her foot, and followed him.
“Hey, wait a minute.” Lin Kaige laughed, pointing downwards with his finger. “I’m going to sing a song.”
“...”
Shen Yihuan stopped, too lazy to bother with him.
She was wearing small leather shoes with a slight heel, and standing for too long made her tired, so she simply squatted against the wall.
The hospital corridor was filled with various low-decibel murmurs that stung one’s eardrums.
The hushed voices of doctors and nurses, the sound of fans, the crisp clinking of IV bottles, and the faint metallic sound of trolleys being pushed across the floor.
All of it reminded Shen Yihuan of that very unpleasant evening, also during summer.
Suddenly, a sound entirely different from these entered her ears—
The click of a lighter.
Shen Yihuan’s brows furrowed slightly as she looked over.
A man.
Tall and slender, dressed in black pants and a black top, with neat, short black hair. His long, well-defined fingers held a lighter. He wasn’t lighting a cigarette, but idly flicking the switch, revealing a section of his cool, pale, yet clearly muscular arm.
Shen Yihuan’s hands unconsciously tightened.
The man’s expression was indifferent. He was looking down and hadn’t noticed her. His brow bone was sharp, and his calm eyes held a hint of ferocity. Below that was a long neck, a prominent Adam’s apple, and a casual curve.
The light cast his shadow long, extending it to Shen Yihuan’s feet.
She unconsciously pursed her lips, surprisingly hesitant to look further.
Three years had passed so quickly.
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