“Clearly, I’m just one of the fish in your pond. I guess I shouldn’t be thinking too much about it.”
“Why are you starting to get snarky?” Even in that moment, Lin Cheng’s expression held only a touch of helplessness. Lu Xiaoxiao turned her head to look at him. “I’m really bummed out.”
“Bummed out about what?”
“It turns out there really are people in this world who get bitten by a dog once and then voluntarily go back for a second bite.” Lu Xiaoxiao’s voice sounded remarkably calm.
Lin Cheng’s mouth twitched involuntarily.
She was really harsh on herself.
“Scumbag.”
“Yep!”
Lu Xiaoxiao looked at him with a mix of exasperation and amusement, her emotions a tangled mess. It took her a good while before she asked flatly, “That routine you mentioned earlier about sleeping with the same girl a second time—does it have a third-stage upgrade?”
“It does.” Lin Cheng nodded.
“Tell me about it?”
“After the second time, it’s completely different from the first. At that point, you just drop off the face of the earth abruptly—not really vanishing for good, but during that sudden absence, the girl will keep second-guessing her own appeal. She’ll secretly convince herself it’s for the best that you’re gone. Then, one day, when the guy who disappeared shows up again, anger floods her brain. But the clever girl tells herself that anger is exactly the reaction he wants from her. This time, she’ll try to prove she feels nothing for you, trying to make you frustrated. But picking a fight like that is just her taking the bait.”
“So that ‘absolutely no second time’ thing you said before was just bullshit? You’ve even got a third time planned out?”
“Nah, the method might not even work. It’s just a psychological suggestion.” Lin Cheng winked at her.
Lu Xiaoxiao froze for three or four seconds, took a deep breath, and raised the wine glass from the table. Lin Cheng covered his face. “No, no, no—psychological suggestions lose their power once you say them out loud.”
In the end, Lu Xiaoxiao didn’t splash the wine in Lin Cheng’s face. Instead, she huffed angrily and took a big gulp from the glass herself before setting it down. “There absolutely, absolutely won’t be a third time.”
“Huh…?”
“If there is, I’ll walk out and get hit by a car!”
“Sigh, promises and oaths like that are usually just lies you tell yourself. No need for that.” Lin Cheng quietly picked up his glass and took a sip. “So, what are we now?”
“Nothing.”
“What? Not even regular friends?”
“Barely.”
“Heh, slag girl.”
Lu Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened, but Lin Cheng’s gaze was innocently earnest. “You tricked me into staying with you last night… After sleeping with me, you won’t even call me a regular friend. What’s that if not a slag girl?”
Finally losing her temper, Lu Xiaoxiao reached out, grabbed his face, and started tugging at it.
The two of them fooled around like that in their seats for quite a while, not even noticing when Jiang Lingxue had left the bar.
That night, Lu Xiaoxiao only had a little beer and wasn’t drunk. After Jiang Lingxue left, many other patrons departed too, but Lin Cheng still had performances at ten-thirty and eleven-thirty.
“Come downstairs with me to get some air.” Lu Xiaoxiao looked into his eyes.
“I can in an hour and a half.”
“How much do you make from these resident gigs?”
“Two hundred per show, plus extra for song requests.”
“I’ll transfer you three hundred. Walk with me.”
“No can do. Gotta respect the contract. If I bail suddenly this time, the bar won’t call me back next time.”
Lu Xiaoxiao thought about it and realized he had a point. Meanwhile, Lin Cheng across from her started venting. “Making money’s not easy.”
“You just took a thousand from me yesterday, and I still owe you two thousand.”
The thousand was for the photoshoot, and the two thousand was for pretending to be her boyfriend.
“No way.” Lin Cheng tilted his head back. “I’m not taking those two thousand.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t sell my body. That’s my bottom line!” Lin Cheng’s pride seemed entirely serious. “Some rich lady once offered me a hundred thousand to spend the night with her, but I held firm. Once you cross that line once, there’s bound to be a second time. Bottom lines get chipped away step by step. Pretending to be your boyfriend? That was just a friendly cameo.”
“Should I praise your professional integrity?”
“I usually define my job as a psychological therapist.”
“…” Lu Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes at him.
At midnight, Lin Cheng finished his last resident performance. He grabbed the umbrella he’d brought and headed downstairs with Lu Xiaoxiao. But outside, rain was falling. Lu Xiaoxiao shot him a wistful look. “This is all your fault… If we’d left earlier, it wouldn’t be raining.”
“So what if it’s raining?” Lin Cheng naturally took her hand. “Getting a little wet never hurt anyone.”
The rain wasn’t heavy. Lu Xiaoxiao let him lead her out into it, though she seemed a bit awkward. The streets were mostly empty now, deserted, with rain threads linking under the streetlights, occasionally snapped by the wind.
“This is… so embarrassing.”
“Didn’t you love getting caught in the rain as a kid?” Lin Cheng turned to look at her.
But mentioning childhood made Lu Xiaoxiao fall silent for a long moment. Lin Cheng keenly noticed something off in her expression and frowned slightly. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Lu Xiaoxiao shook her head. “My childhood memories aren’t great.”
Lu Xiaoxiao’s memories of her life before age six were of white walls, cold rooms, intricate machinery, and daily blood draws.
…She was a girl without a father.
“So you’ve never gotten caught in the rain?”
“Nope.”
“Then consider this making up for it.”
Lin Cheng didn’t open the umbrella. Instead, he gently pried her fingers apart and held her hand as they strolled through the light rain. The breeze felt refreshingly cool—it was late spring, and fallen petals dotted the puddles.
Suddenly, Lu Xiaoxiao thought that getting caught in the rain wasn’t so bad after all.
The world felt gentler somehow. Lin Cheng led her down a slightly secluded path, where the lights grew dimmer. Lu Xiaoxiao had always been a little afraid of the dark, but for some reason, she wasn’t scared now.
The rain pattered softly on the leaves. They arrived at the entrance of a flower shop.
The shop was still open, its lights dim. They paused under the eaves. Lu Xiaoxiao’s hair was slightly damp. She suddenly looked up at Lin Cheng. “Why are you like this?”
Lin Cheng seemed to grasp what she meant. He pulled a tissue from his pocket and gently wiped her hair. “Because I’m lonely.”
“So you toy with other people’s feelings when you’re lonely?”
“Honestly… I don’t think so.” Lin Cheng dabbed lightly at her forehead. “That first day we met, I really just wanted to make sure you got home safe since you were drunk. I had no intention of doing anything to you.”
“Yeah, right.”
“But that’s the truth…”
“So, did you or didn’t you?”
Lin Cheng looked at her innocently. “You pounced on me.”
“Did you or didn’t you?”
“Any guy in that situation couldn’t have said no…”
“Did you or didn’t you?”
Lu Xiaoxiao had turned into a broken record.
Lin Cheng sighed helplessly and lowered his head. “I did, I did. I actually regretted it a lot—who’d have thought we’d run into each other so many more times after that…”
“I regret it even more.”
“No, I regret it more.”
They looped back and forth like that until Lin Cheng had wiped the rain from her hair and cheeks. He gazed tenderly into Lu Xiaoxiao’s eyes. “But aside from you, I’ve only ever chatted or joked with other girls at most. I hardly ever even exchange contacts.”
“Calling me in the middle of the night? ‘I’m a responsible man’?”
“That was just a joke with a friend I’d just met.”
“Oh, sure, I believe you.”
“Your face says otherwise.”
“So should I believe you?”
Lin Cheng met her eyes and smiled helplessly. “Fine, believe what you want.”
He led Lu Xiaoxiao by the hand into the flower shop and bought her a bouquet of perfume lilies. She cradled the flowers as they stepped back out. The lilies had a subtle fragrance—some loved it, some didn’t.
“How did you do that rose magic trick, anyway?”
“Sigh, that’s my one trick. Can’t tell you.”
“I want to know.”
“Magic’s not for figuring out. Same goes for people—staying mysterious keeps things fresh.” Lin Cheng leaned in close, staring into Lu Xiaoxiao’s eyes. “The most fun thing in life is never knowing what’ll happen next second.”
In that electric instant of darkness, breaths and heartbeats sharpened into crystal clarity. The world hushed, the inky night wrapping them tight.
Lu Xiaoxiao turned her face away in that moment, denying Lin Cheng the kiss that would have come after three seconds of eye contact.
Lin Cheng lowered his head, a touch of dejection flickering through him.
Failure.
Lu Xiaoxiao caught that hint of disappointment in his eyes. A twinge of unease stirred in her heart, but by the time she turned back, it was gone.
“I’m going home.” Lu Xiaoxiao said.
“Okay, I’ll walk you to the car.” Lin Cheng opened the umbrella, sheltering Lu Xiaoxiao and her lilies as they headed toward the distant intersection. The road looked long, but they reached it in what felt like an instant.
“Your life seems so vibrant. Do you really feel lonely?” Lu Xiaoxiao stopped and looked up at him.
“I’ve been living alone since I was seven. That’s thirteen years now.”
“What about your friends?”
“I used to be super introverted—got nervous just talking to girls. Didn’t have many friends. Around seventeen or eighteen, I made a bunch, but they all drifted away eventually.”
They’d all died.
Perished in the Catastrophe.
Lin Cheng didn’t want to tell Lu Xiaoxiao the story of Si Ming anymore. Maybe it was better for her to cling to her perfect image of him and pursue her own justice that way. After all, he had no plans to resurrect the Si Ming identity.
“Oh…” Lu Xiaoxiao nodded lightly. She looked up at Lin Cheng. “So, am I your friend now?”
“Why wouldn’t you be?”
“I feel like you’re even prouder than me, deep down.” Lu Xiaoxiao’s voice was soft. “Are you hiding a lot of secrets from me?”
“Pretty much.”
“Someday I’ll drag them all out of you.” Lu Xiaoxiao huffed lightly.
“Sure, sure. But the car’s almost here—can I have a hug?”
“I’m holding flowers.”
Even as she said it, Lu Xiaoxiao bounced forward a step. She held the bouquet with one hand and wrapped the other arm lightly around Lin Cheng for two or three seconds before letting go.
“See you next time, then?”
“Yeah.”
This time, it wasn’t “fate will bring us together again.”
