Yu Lanchuan's grandparents had passed away before he was born so he didn't know them well. Apart from them, the only person from that older generation of his family was the granduncle who was a wild, unrestrained old man. One generation above Yu Lanchuan himself was his father, an unrestrained middle-aged man. Based on this pattern, this family might be one where "the wild waves at the back pushes forward the waves in front, each wave reaching ever greater heights." As for Yu Lanchuan himself, based on the way he was right now, he still had quite the appearance of a proper person but no one knew what would happen in the future. He might still be in his incubation period.

Yu Lanchuan's mother was the complete opposite. She was a diehard perfectionist. In her whole life, she was strict with herself and even stricter with others. She believed firmly that "If one doesn't worry about the long-term, one would have to worry about the short-term." She spent every minute and every second worrying, and also had very strong self-control.

These two people being together was like a wild horse falling in love with the cement ground. There was nothing wrong with their personalities, they were purely just incompatible.

Yu Lanchun inherited the Yu clan's "unrestrained" genes and had been "obedient with a touch of wildness" since young. Especially during his chuuni period—even though he had largely been able to follow all the preset rules, he had to follow them out of his own volition. The moment someone else interfered, he would definitely rebel in secret while outwardly obeying.

When Liu Zhongqi was born, his mother had a bit of postpartum depression. Her emotions swung wildly and her need for control that she usually could restrain intensified, causing a huge havoc in the family. At that time, school had just started and Yu Lanchuan's heart was still floating restlessly in the summer holiday mood. He hadn't adjusted his state of mind and cut some corners on his homework. When his mother who could not quite control her emotions saw it, she tore it up and made him redo it, and even said that she would call his teacher.

Fifteen years ago, the chuuni Yu Lanchuan hadn't argued with her. Silently, he redid his homework. Then, when everyone was asleep at night, he took the chance to pack his things and ran away from home without even leaving a note.

However, even though they had both ran away from home, he was more self-aware than Liu Zhongqi. Liu Zhongqi had acted completely on impulse and hadn't even thought of where he would stay. On the other hand, back then, Yu Lanchuan had planned everything out clearly—he planned to look for Granduncle and shelter there for a period of time, then find a reason to apply to stay in the school dorms. He would not go back home anymore in the future. Out of sight, out of mind.

Thinking of it, the reason why his mum used the "western-style" education on her younger child after that was likely because she had learned from that incident.

That day, Yu Lanchuan had taken a cab to No. 110 Courtyard in the middle of the night. He knocked on the door for a long while but no one answered. He had always stayed there during festive occasions and had a key to Granduncle's house, so he opened the door to enter. The old man's bedroom door was opened. Little Yu Lanchuan poked his head in to see and realised that the blankets were unfolded. The old man seemed to have gotten into bed, then rushed out again because of some matter.

Little Yu Lanchuan waited for a while. He was so sleepy that he could not keep his eyes open, so he hung his school bag behind the door and went to sleep in the other room. Initially, he thought that once he opened his eyes the next day, he would be able to eat the old man's fried rice but when he woke up in the morning, he realised that the old man had not returned home the whole night. He searched around the house and finally found a scrawled note beside the old landline phone. Someone had written an address in pencil. Little Yu Lanchuan could make out the words "Mudpool Backlane."

That day happened to be a Saturday. There was no one to handle the gremlin child. His curiosity lit ablaze by that single spark, he followed the note to go to the legendary "Mudpool Backlane" to investigate. He even bought a bag of small dumplings from a roadside stall. In the end, before he finished the dumplings, he had gotten lost in the tangled maze of alleys. Just as he wanted to ask for directions, he was knocked unconscious and stuffed into a car.

That girl had left him at a landfill and ran off on her own. Amidst the overwhelmingly smelly piles of trash, he listened fearfully to the jumbled voices carrying over from not far away and then heading off to somewhere else. The people were cursing and the tone of the barking dogs had changed, so bleak that they sounded like the howling of wolves.

He tried his best to extend his ears, wanting to hear even just a word from the girl, but there was none.

He wanted to climb out from somewhere and look for her, but those people came too quickly and also ran off too quickly. Before he realised what was happening, he could no longer tell where they had chased the girl to. Little Yu Lanchuan hid alone in the darkness, unable to see or hear anything. His mind was flooded with all kinds of terrifying scenes—those people catching her, or the dogs pouncing on her and tearing her to shreds...

It was only in the morning of the next day that there were rubbish trucks coming in and he was rescued. Granduncle had spent an entire day and night looking for him, his hair nearly turning white from panic.

Because of that one incident, Yu Lanchuan finally knew that Granduncle was not an ordinary person. A corner of that mysterious world hidden beside him was revealed. Later on, that band of evil kidnappers were caught and Yu Lanchuan finally knew that he had actually been dragged into a jianghu dispute. Someone was keeping an eye on No. 110 and he had been followed the moment he left the place. No. 110 was near the city center so the other party had not dared to do anything at first. Who knew he would go to Mudpool Backlane on his own, walking right into the trap.

But no one ever saw the girl who saved him again. After hearing what Little Yu Lanchuan said, Yu Huaide tried to find out about her but his efforts were fruitless. Everyone suspected that she was something he imagined when in a state of extreme fear.

Only Yu Lanchuan knew that was not the case. He was already past the age where he couldn't differentiate between fiction and reality. Furthermore, even if it was really his imagination, he could have picked Sun Wukong or the Transformers, why would he come up with a scrawny girl?

The young girl that couldn't be found tormented him for close to half a year, playing the lead role in his every nightmare.

From then on, Yu Lanchuan never again dared to step out of line. He never again caused trouble that he could not handle and even pestered Granduncle to teach him the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang.

That's right. Yu Lanchuan suddenly remembered—when he first started practising the sword, he was still young. He hadn't been thinking of preventing sudden death from overwork. The original purpose that enabled him to persevere was so that he would be able to protect himself and others if he encountered any danger in the future. He wouldn't lose his head out of fear and wouldn't have any regrets when it was over…

It could be said that it was because of her.

That day, where did those people chase her to? What happened after that?

Has she been staying at Mudpool Backlane all these years? Or did she go elsewhere… And what happened to her hand?

Yu Lanchuan had always slept well; now, he spent the entire night tossing and turning.

Based on a few rounds of interactions, Gan Qing seemed to be a very easy-going person but still waters ran deep. She was definitely not the type to share matters close to her heart with people she did not know well. All these things that he was dying to know, he would definitely not get an answer if he asked her directly, especially when so many years had passed and she seemed to no longer remember him.

It's okay, Yu Lanchuan thought. Just you wait.

Gan Qing had always been early to bed and early to rise. In the morning, she fumbled for her phone and looked at the time, and realised that she had fallen asleep right after sending the message and hadn't even closed the app. As she clambered out of bed to wash up, she scrolled through Yu Lanchuan's WeChat Moments out of boredom.

Little Master Yu's WeChat name was just "Yu Lanchuan" and his profile pic was his own handwritten signature, extremely simple and plain. The posts he made to his WeChat Moments were never deleted. Gan Qing skimmed through them and saw that they were all long articles on things like Trends in Monetary Policy, Interpretation of New Regulations on XX, Global XXX. It made her head spin and she felt that she had clicked into the official account for some financial news site.

Right at that moment, there was a notification saying that the WeChat Moments had been updated. Gan Qing pulled down to refresh and realised that the alliance leader next door had reblogged a long informative article early in the morning. This time, the topic was "If you do not watch your diet, are you enjoying life or are you letting go of yourself?"

The image accompanying the article was cookies and "fat happy water^[1]."

Gan Qing spluttered with laughter and coughed.

She nearly choked on the toothpaste. Thinking of Yu Lanchuan's expression yesterday when they were in front of McDonald's, Gan Qing suspected that he had been suppressing these words for the entire night, and might even not have slept well.

At half past six, Gan Qing left the house on time in search of breakfast. Yu Lanchuan had long since been keeping an ear out for any noise and immediately followed suit, and even made a note in his phone: Leaves the house at 6.30.

The two of them "bumped" into each other at the elevator lobby. Gan Qing asked in surprise, "Little Master Yu goes to work so early?"

Yu Lanchuan answered reservedly, "Yeah, I'm going to work earlier to take care of some matters."

Gan Qing said, "Ai, that's how it is. It isn't easy to earn a bit of money."

Director "not easy" Yu reached his office before 6.45 a.m. The office building was pitch dark, even the janitors hadn't yet arrived at their post. His sudden diligence made his colleagues suspect that he was planning to usurp the head of department's position.

After a week's effort, Yu Lanchuan figured out Gan Qing's work and rest hours. Regardless of whether it was a work day or a rest day, she left the house at around 6.30 in the morning every day and came back around 8.15. She tidied up for a while, then went to work at around 9.30. At night, if there weren't any special circumstances, she would be back by a little past 9. She would not reply messages after 10.30.

Every Sunday afternoon, she posted the coming week's horoscope for the twelve astrological signs along with tips on what to wear for good luck, subtly reminding those people who believed in her nefarious teachings that it was time to give her money. Every now and then, she would go to the wholesale market for small merchandise and close the shop for half a day. She would even shamelessly post in her WeChat Moments a day earlier, stating that she needed to "go into seclusion" to experience the trajectory of the stars.

As long as she was not sleeping, she replied messages very quickly. She had an amazingly large amount of memes and she liked everything she saw in her WeChat Moments. It was obvious that her daily work consisted of two things—hoodwinking people and playing with her phone.

On Gan Qing's side, she realised that recently, Little Master Yu turned into someone she bumped into at all times of the day. In the past, even though they were neighbours, they had barely met once a week. Now, they bumped into each other at least once a day. Every three or five days, there would even be an incident—for example, the next door's delivery packages being sent by mistake to her place, or something was spoiled next door so he came over to borrow a spanner… Yu Lanchuan probably didn't like owing people a debt. When thanking others, he never used words. If he troubled someone today, the very next day he would send something over. It was usually little things like a few bags of nuts or two pounds of cherries.

When Gan Qing came to stay at No. 110 Courtyard, she wanted to quietly find a place to burrow into. She hadn't planned on interacting with anyone. Unexpectedly, due to a bunch of petty and minor incidents, she somehow became close to her cold and aloof neighbour.

More than ten days later, Gan Qing was lectured by Boss Meng while having dinner and because of that, accidentally ate an extra half a pound of grilled chicken wings. Her stomach was a little stuffed and she purposely took the long way home, planning to walk a bit more to help digest the food. When she passed by the nearby shopping center, she happened to see Nie Ke carrying two bags of daily necessities walking out of the supermarket.

This man was right in the middle of a morass of rumours and gossip. Whenever he got his hands on someone, he would put on a show of how pitiful he was for them. He was completely like a modern day Mr. Rochester. Xiang Xiaoman would likely have to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital in the future if she was freed, and it was said that there were already kind-hearted matchmakers introducing potential partners to Nie Ke now.

Gan Qing didn't have the mood to see his face of "deep emotions and strong honour, deserving of pity and respect." She purposely dawdled for a while, waiting for Nie Ke to walk further away until there was a distance of a few hundred meters between them so that they wouldn't be walking together.

Right as Nie Ke turned at the last intersection, out of the corner of her eye, Gan Qing, who had her head lowered looking at her phone, suddenly saw a shadow running in Nie Ke's direction. It was so fast it was like the car lights sweeping past a large tree…

But there were no cars at the intersection right now.

Gan Qing frowned.

T/N:

[1] "Fat happy water" 肥仔快乐水 is another name for Coca-Cola in China.