"Sure," Yu Lanchuan said. Then, he indeed took his glasses out of his pocket and put them on. "Now can I continue talking?"

Gan Qing, "..."

"What do you mean by all those things you said just now?" Yu Lanchuan looked down at her from his vantage point, his brows rising above the frame of his glasses. "I thought that people like you didn't come with the ability to disdain yourself."

"Little Master Yu, would it hurt you to speak nicely?" Gan Qing sighed. "I just feel that we... don't match, ermm… You understand, right? You and me, in more than one way."

Yu Lanchuan let out a snort of laughter. "A few years ago, all the fashion writers in the world were united in thinking that sneakers and fashion were two words that did not go hand-in-hand. Whoever dared wear a pair of white sneakers with western-style pants was basically committing a crime as grievous as exposing their red thermal underwear under a white shirt. In the recent two years, the athletic style has become the spokespeople for fashion. If you don't match your formalwear with a pair of informal shoes, you would seem like an insurance agent. Whether or not a match is good, who has the last word on that?"

"I don't know." Gan Qing thought for a while, then spread her hands and answered. "I buy shoes from the supermarket or the market, from whichever shop has the most discounts. My selection criteria is how dirt-proof they are."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Gan Qing smiled, "I haven't even had the time to give an example and you've already given one for me. See, this is a bad match."

It was as though one of them existed in the otherworldly paradise of Peach Blossom Spring while the other lived in the decidedly real paradise of Wulingyuan.

And in the old dreams of jianghu, they met by coincidence.

Upon waking up from the dream, they each had to cross the bridge they came from and walk the road that was theirs.

Yu Lanchuan looked into her eyes and felt that there was a very special kind of tranquility there, like a mirror unaffected by any waves, reflecting everything in the surroundings exactly as they were.

"Just look at how I have no money but I spend like there's no tomorrow. Every month, the most detailed planning I do is to put aside the amount for my rent in advance. Not a single cent is left of the remaining amount. If I have nothing to do, I like to just lie down. When I'm not working, my only pastime is eating skewers. The sensory organs above my neck are in hibernation most of the time. If a manual has more than three lines, I'll find it too long to read. I don't even know how long I can stay in Yanning." Gan Qing paused. "...Maybe I won't stay for more than a few years."

Because Yanning was a bustling and lively big city. In a big city, all the people harboured grand ambitions in their chests, each fighting against the flow to advance upwards. She mingled in the center of the crowd yet wasn't quite part of it. To her, this was just a place of old friends and old memories. When the day came that she could truly let it go, it would be time for her to leave.

After hearing that, Yu Lanchuan said firmly, "A ruffian like you won't have a good life in your final years."

The fingers of Gan Qing's left hand rubbed against each other for a bit. In her heart, she recited the principle of being a hoodlum: One must not beat up a beautiful member of the other sex.

"My parents divorced because their personalities were incompatible." Yu Lanchuan stood up straight and leaned slightly back against the wall. He folded his arms across his chest and said quietly, "My dad doesn't like to be tied down. He's independent and doesn't follow the crowd. He does things on the spur of the moment and is dirt poor. But he doesn't care about that. He drifts everywhere and even his meals are uncertain, but he even feels that it's pretty good. It's been so many years since their divorce but my mum is still secretly paying for his old-age insurance and he can get the benefits after sixty. She's afraid he'll have to be a beggar in the future."

"They have a good relationship."

"Their relationship has always been good. Unfortunately…" Yu Lanchuan said. "To use a tacky internet slang, it would be 'Fell in love with a wild horse, yet I have no grass plain in my home.' With the two of them as an example to learn from, I have always felt that letting hormones affect your personal preferences is a very foolish thing. Life should be well-arranged. Based on my circumstances, it would be best if I get together with a girl who's not too rich, whose job is steady and undemanding, and who likes to stay at home. If she stays at home, she can take care of the household and improve my standard of living. If her job is stable, she can earn money to spend on herself and in the short term, she won't be an additional financial burden to me. If she's not very rich and can't pass the hurdle of a downpayment on a house by herself, by being with me, she can enjoy the benefits of having fixed assets. A relationship is only meaningful if everyone benefits. Other than that, for the sake of making it easier to get along with each other for the long term, I hope that she has the same level of spiritual awareness and desire for self-improvement as me. Later on, I realised that most girls like this aren't the type to stay at home. Hence, to me, staying single is the most economical. There is no risk and I can also maintain my standard of living."

As a salted fish with nothing in her brain, after listening to someone else's thorough and methodical life plan, Gan Qing was speechless with amazement. All she could do was say in praise, "You are truly an amazing person who's adept at summarising the lessons learned from experience-"

"But even though my heart is so clear on that," Yu Lanchuan cut her off, "I am still walking that same mistaken path."

Gan Qing fell into silence, her eyes quietly fixed on him.

"I want to try," Yu Lanchuan said. "I want to see if I have the ability to shoulder that kind of life… and you."

"If you say that, I feel like I'm one of President Yang's 'baggies' that cost an arm and a leg even though I can't see what's so great about them," Gan Qing said.

"No," Yu Lanchuan said in a low voice. "You are a risky venture."

Through his lenses, his gaze was thick and dense, revealing a little of his tender emotions. They were like the morning dew that appeared for just a short while before the sun was up; when the sun was high and the dust of travels kicked up, they would quietly disappear without a trace.

Because they were so rarely seen, when one occasionally happened to catch the sight, it was enough to shake one's soul.

Back when Gan Qing listened to Zhang Meizhen's story, then turned her head and crashed right into his gaze, she had already been shocked once. Previously, when she and Yang Ping made the bet over the knife's edge and he had taken the blow for her without any hesitation, she was shocked one more time.

And now, this was the third time.

The same thing should not be done more than three times.

Gan Qing sighed and said as though to herself, "Then, what are you?"

In a treacherous and difficult journey… an oasis of pleasure?

Yu Lanchuan thought for a while, then answered seriously, "Probably old-age insurance?"

Gan Qing's shoulders suddenly slumped. Her left hand propped on her knee covered half her face. "Little Master Yu, that's enough."

Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up. "After all, there is a high chance that your life won't be good in your final years."

Gan Qing felt that she was on the verge of doing something she would regret with her arm. Her head was in pain, and she sniffed and said listlessly, "...Go away, I beg you."

The corners of Yu Lanchuan's mouth revealed a hint of a mischievous smile that he didn't hide well. He reached out and tousled her hair, then walked out.

Yu Lanchuan had passed the letter and photos that Gan Qing had received to Yu Yan and told him to find a way to hand it to his higher-ups while keeping the source anonymous. A mere few days later, his lawyer friend that he had called got back to him.

"It can be considered to be going smoothly. Fortunately, it's not convenient for the girl to talk so there's no chance of her saying the wrong things. Knowing that I'm there to help her, she's also cooperating," the lawyer said. "Right now, I'm doing my best to label the incident as a conflict and mutual fight rather than a premeditated murder. After all, the retractable baton Yang Ping had is also quite lethal. When the time comes, I'll see if the issue of controlled weapons can be turned from major to minor. Her young age is also an advantage."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What about Yang Ping?"

"Still hospitalised," the lawyer said. "However, his issue doesn't have much to do with you guys. Your hypothesis was not far off the mark. This man should have been taking some kind of unknown drug for a long time. The police right now are very tense because if this is proven to be a new type of drug, it will be a serious matter. My side is also unable to get any inside news on the situation. I feel that the police also can't be bothered with handling this minor matter of a physical fight now."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What about the external injuries on his body?"

"Ai, speaking of that, it's really amazing," the lawyer said. "It's just five millimeters short of meeting the criteria for light injury, can you believe that? I say, who was it who did that? Can I meet them one day? This person is really both godly and crafty!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

No wonder a certain person had only asked a couple of simple questions after waking up in hospital, and had not been worried at all about the police making trouble for her!

"It's just a coincidence, what are you thinking?" Yu Lanchuan brushed off his friend with no sincerity at all. "You're a profiteering litigator, how do you still have the time to read wuxia stories? Trying to make your liver go bust from overwork?"

"In that case, I want to meet them even more! If their luck is so good, aren't they the same as a human-shaped lucky carp? Which member of society doesn't want to inhale a breath of that prosperous air…"

Yu Lanchuan hung up.

He pushed open the door of his house, ready to go to work, and happened to see Gan Qing coming back after buying breakfast.

Before Gan Qing could finish her "Good morning," Yu Lanchuan took a sudden step forward and drew near her hair, breathing in the smell of off-the-shelf shampoo.

"Such a cheap prosperous air." Yu Lanchuan left this review, then casually took a packet of soy milk from her hands.

"...You're welcome," Gan Qing said.

The speed at which the modern day young men took advantage and became arrogant from being spoiled was so fast!

The phone call from Captain Miao interrupted Yang Yifan's meeting. She raised her hand to cut short the discussion, then went to the next door pantry to pick up the call.

"We've caught Yang Ping," Captain Miao told her. "This man is suspected of using illegal drugs and might be involved in multiple murder cases. We are in the midst of investigating… But I'm afraid it won't be easy. Too much time has passed and the evidence has turned to dust."

After the call, Yang Yifan turned to return to the meeting room. "We'll go with the version we decided on just now. Publish it."

Two minutes later, Yang Yifan's public account and her company's official account published the same public statement. She apologised for the negative impact of her inappropriate words and conduct and also announced that other than the ongoing partnerships, her company was temporarily stopping all other work and preparing to undergo a transformation.

After walking through almost half of her life's journey, she was returning from the long dream. She needed to truly wake up from this sleep, hence she gave herself and her employees a long holiday.

Elder Tian and the other people who appeared in the photographs were also taken away by the police. Right after that, the unlicensed shops and cabs run by Travellers' Sect were investigated en masse. The economic crime division set up a case to investigate Futongda Corporation and that very night, Wang Jiusheng fled overseas to hide from the storm.

Those who had anything to do with Beggars' Sect were also swept away by the tempest. For a while, the beggars and buskers that had been in every street and alley of Yanning seemed to vanish without a trace.

These two great sects that had once summoned wind and rain in the annals of history, that straddled both the good and the evil paths, were like two huge yet ancient and rundown ships. Amidst the wind and the rain, they floated and swayed and collided, then slowly sank together.

The moon of Fuliang was covered by clouds, the snow on the cold river flowed east with the water, the sparrow in front of the fall hid in its nest of mud, the wind piercing through the forest scattered and dissipated.

This lively and exciting midwinter where the beating of the war drums reached the sky came to an end. Spring had barely started when the weather seemed unable to wait any longer to turn warm.

Everyone in his WeChat Moments were grumbling about how Yanning no longer had spring and autumn, and was only left with summer and winter. Teacher Meng-Meng removed her splint and prepared to welcome the next peak sales season.

Zhang Meizhen faced the mirror and applied lipstick. She applied, then wiped it off, then applied again. After changing three or four tubes, she turned to ask Gan Qing. "Which one is better? Is lip gloss better at hiding lip wrinkles than lipstick and makes me look younger?"

Gan Qing rubbed her eyes and suspected that she might be slightly colour blind. She really could not see the difference and could only fawn on her landlord without much emotion. "My Meizhen-jie suits both heavy and light makeup and looks good no matter what she uses."

"Do I need your nonsense? It's no help at all." Zhang Meizhen did not fall for this trick and rolled her eyes. "In the future, your boyfriend really can save so much trouble. He won't have to embarrass himself at the makeup counter during special occasions. He just needs to open a bottle of beer for you and consider it done."

Gan Qing didn't reply and just looked at her with a wide smile. She saw Zhang Meizhen study herself severely in the mirror, making sure that there was no fault to be found, before picking up her bag and preparing to leave the house.

The moment she stepped out of the front door, Zhang Meizhen suddenly paused, then returned inside without a word. She removed her makeup and washed her face and combed out her hair that was styled with gel. In a flash, she transformed from "Meizhen-jie" to "Grandma Zhang." With this simple and unadorned appearance, she left the house.

"Excuse me… Yang Qing has just been transferred to the ordinary ward, hasn't he? Where do I go to visit him?"

"Oh, Grandpa Yang." The young nurse on duty stood up. "The family has informed me. Grandma, you're visiting your friend, aren't you? I'll take you there."

At the door to the ward room, Yang Yifan looked up and nodded at Zhang Meizhen from far to signal to her. "I'll be leaving awhile to buy food."

They walked past each other. Zhang Meizhen slowly raised her eyes and through the white walls and white door of the ward room, she saw a pair of old and murky eyes looking at her from half a century ago.

It seemed like yearning and also like a question—

The dust from the upheavals in our past, have they all settled down?

— END OF BOOK 4 —