His breath was warm as it brushed against her ear, making it itch and tingle. His tone carried a teasing edge, deliberately playful and exceptionally improper, leaving her feeling breathless.

Sang Zhi’s bad mood dissipated more than half, and she looked up, silently staring at him.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” Duan Jiaxu straightened up, chuckled softly, and admitted, “Alright, I know what I said was corny.”

“……”

Hearing that, the corners of Sang Zhi’s mouth straightened, but after a few seconds, she couldn’t hold back her smile. “Weren’t you denying it before?”

Duan Jiaxu raised his eyebrows slightly. “Was it really that corny?”

Sang Zhi sniffed and didn’t discourage him. “It was alright.”

She lowered her eyes, looked at the black wallet in her hand, and handed it back to him. “Here, it’s yours.”

Duan Jiaxu didn’t take it. Instead, he tucked the card in his hand into his pocket and casually said, “I’m not returning this one.”

Sang Zhi whispered, “I’m not asking you to return it.”

Only then did Duan Jiaxu take the card out again. He stared at it for a long time before suddenly laughing and muttering under his breath, “At my age, I can still live off someone else.”

“……I didn’t tell you to spend it recklessly either.” Sang Zhi said.

“Are you giving it to me and not letting me spend it?”

“You need to save it.” Sang Zhi said as she looked at him.

Duan Jiaxu leisurely replied, “Saving it for your dowry?”

Sang Zhi was very serious. “Saving it to buy a house.”

“……”

“I checked online,” Sang Zhi continued, “In the city center, a 100 square meters house has a down payment of about 500,000.….. With this rate, I should be able to save up in about 20 years.”

Duan Jiaxu was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter. He was unable to suppress his amusement, laughing so hard his shoulders trembled. “Alright, I’ll wait for you to save up.”

“……”

20 years did sound a bit humbling.

Sang Zhi thought about it and then added, “It shouldn’t take that long.”

“Mm, I’ll wait for you to build a golden house to settle your beloved.”

“……”

With his interruption, Sang Zhi almost forgot why she had been in a bad mood. She nudged his arm with the wallet, reminding him, “This is yours.”

Duan Jiaxu took it, pulled out two cards from inside, and handed them to her. “Boss, your cards.”

Sang Zhi didn’t take them. “Why are you giving them to me?”

“I can’t keep money on me.” Duan Jiaxu laughed. “Otherwise, how can I live off someone else?”

Sang Zhi couldn’t help but say, “I spend money quite lavishly.”

“Then I’m really lucky,” Duan Jiaxu drawled, “to have found a generous benefactor.”

“……” Sang Zhi only took one of the cards, carefully placing it in her bag. “I don’t need it but I’ll keep this for you. If you ever need it, I’ll give it back to you.”

Seeing her mood finally improve, Duan Jiaxu asked, “Weren’t you having a company dinner today? Why are you unhappy?”

Jiang Ying had come looking for her for the second time, and over the past week, Sang Zhi had been targeted because of Jiang Ying. But she didn’t plan to quit. She still wanted to irritate Shi Xiaoyu for another month before taking her salary and leaving.

Not wanting to affect Duan Jiaxu’s mood, Sang Zhi didn’t tell him the truth. “It’s just that my mentor was a bit annoying.”

———pr


After dropping Sang Zhi off at school, Duan Jiaxu headed home. As he drove into the neighborhood and slowed down, before reaching the turn, someone suddenly collided with his car.

Duan Jiaxu’s eyes narrowed and he instinctively braked. A cold sweat broke out on his back and his mind went blank for a moment. Then, he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.

The person who had just collided with his car leaned against the hood, clearly drunk. The other party was mumbling incoherently but didn’t seem to be injured.

Duan Jiaxu took a deep breath and called out, “Sir?”

The man stood up straight, suddenly pointed at the tire, and started cursing, “Your car ran over my dog!”

Upon hearing his words, Duan Jiaxu glanced around but didn’t see the ‘dog’ the man mentioned. He closed his eyes, still feeling on edge, and calmly said, “You’re drunk. Why don’t you sit down over there for a while?”

“I’m not drunk!” The man, still unsteady on his feet, drunkenly pointed at Duan Jiaxu. “I said! Your car! Ran over my dog! You have to pay for it!”

Hearing the commotion, people around began to gather and watch.

It wasn’t long before the security guard arrived and tried to mediate the situation, but the man was completely unreasonable. When the guard suggested pulling out the ‘dog’, the man angrily retorted, “Is a dog’s life not worth anything?”

In the end, there was no other option but to call the police.

Duan Jiaxu got back in his car, absentmindedly watching the man make a scene outside.

It wasn’t until the police arrived that the situation was resolved.

This whole ordeal took half an hour.

Back at home, Duan Jiaxu opened the fridge, grabbed a bottle of ice water, and gulped it down, the cold numbing his tongue. His mind felt like a tightly wound string, ready to snap at any moment.

He glanced at the various snacks inside, pursed his lips, and randomly grabbed a chocolate bar.

Then he sat down on the sofa and unwrapped the chocolate before taking a bite.

The taste was overwhelmingly sweet.

Duan Jiaxu absentmindedly pulled out the card from his pocket again. He stared at it for a while, his eyebrows relaxing as the corners of his peach-blossom eyes curved downward. The tension in his heart seemed to gradually ease.

After finishing the chocolate, Duan Jiaxu grabbed his clothes and went to take a shower. When he came out, it was nearly 11 o’clock. By this time, Sang Zhi had already fallen asleep.

Duan Jiaxu didn’t feel sleepy, so he took out his phone and played games for a while. It wasn’t until 1:00 in the morning that he finally lay down to sleep.

Then, he had a dream.

He dreamed that that night, he had drunk at a dinner party but felt sober enough to drive home. Then, on the road, he hit that same man.

He heard his own voice, heard himself trying to stop it.

A voice full of despair, hysterical, like it was about to pierce through his eardrums.

But in the dream, he still ran away.

In Duan Jiaxu’s dream, he had become someone like Duan Zhicheng.

……

That was probably the most chaotic night Duan Jiaxu had ever experienced.

He was in his room doing homework, thinking that after he finished, he would have time to read some comic books. Xu Ruoshu was watching TV in the living room and he could faintly hear her laughing every now and then.

It was supposed to be an extremely peaceful evening.

Until Duan Zhicheng came back.

He was extremely reckless, reeking of a strong and unpleasant smell of alcohol, his whole body trembling. He pushed away Xu Ruoshu’s concerned questions and attempts to comfort him in a panic-stricken state.

The fear was palpable.

The commotion was so great that Duan Jiaxu couldn’t concentrate on his homework anymore. He put down his pen, got up, and walked into the living room, asking, “Mom, what’s going on?”

Xu Ruoshu pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders and tried to reassure him, “It’s okay, go back and finish your homework.”

“I’m done for.” But Duan Zhicheng wasn’t ‘okay’ as she said. His eyes were bloodshot and he kept repeating the same three words, “I’m done for……”

Xu Ruoshu frowned, frightened by his state. “What happened? How did you get home in this condition? Didn’t I ask Xiao Chen to take you home?”

“I……” Duan Zhicheng’s voice came out in a choked sob, “I…… I hit someone……”

“……”

The room immediately fell silent, with only Duan Zhicheng’s heavy breathing breaking the stillness.

After a while, Xu Ruoshu regained her composure and turned to Duan Jiaxu. “Ah Xu, go to your room.” She quickly grabbed Duan Zhicheng’s arm, forcing herself to stay calm. “Tell me clearly, what happened?”

Duan Zhicheng shouted hoarsely, “I don’t know!”

“Where did it happen? Did you call an ambulance?” Xu Ruoshu’s eyes turned red and her voice trembled uncontrollably, “Did you get out of the car to check?”

“On Renmin Road, next to that convenience store……” Duan Zhicheng suddenly lifted his head, tears streaming down his face. “What do I do……? What do I do……?”

At that moment, Duan Jiaxu spoke up, “Dad, did you call an ambulance?”

Duan Zhicheng shook his head repeatedly, refusing to listen to anything. “I can’t call. No one saw that I hit the person. No one knows…… Just leave it alone! Just leave it—”

Xu Ruoshu also shouted, “Duan Zhicheng! Are you out of your mind?!”

“……”

Duan Jiaxu’s temples throbbed and his palms turned cold. He listened to his parents argue, silently walked over to the sofa, picked up the phone, and started dialing 120^[1]ambulance.

Noticing his action, Duan Zhicheng looked over. “What are you doing?!”

The call connected, and Duan Jiaxu, with reddened eyes, turned to stare at Duan Zhicheng. “Is this the hospital? There’s been an accident near a convenience store on Renmin Road, someone is injured, please send help quickly……”

Duan Zhicheng, like a madman, tried to grab the phone from him, but Xu Ruoshu held him back.

“Please send someone as soon as possible, thank you.” After finishing his words, Duan Jiaxu hung up the phone and said firmly, “We have to save the person.”

“……”

“That person might not even be dead yet, why didn’t you try to save them?” His father’s image shattered in an instant and Duan Jiaxu’s face tightened as he gritted his teeth. “Why did you run away?”

Xu Ruoshu shielded Duan Jiaxu behind her and said seriously, “You need to turn yourself in.”

“……”

“Admit your mistake, atone for it.” Faced with such a grave situation for the first time, Xu Ruoshu’s voice was thick with sobs, “You did something wrong so you have to make amends, that’s what you should do. You can’t run away from it.”

“……” Looking at their expressions, Duan Zhicheng kept shaking his head. His entire face was flushed and sweat poured down his forehead. “I don’t want to go to jail…… I don’t want to……”

Xu Ruoshu wanted to say something more.

But Duan Zhicheng, seemingly out of his mind, mumbled, “Will it be enough if I pay with my life? Would it be enough if I died?”

Then, Duan Jiaxu witnessed a scene that would be etched in his memory forever.

His father, desperate to escape his sin, suddenly bolted towards the balcony and, in a single leap, jumped off the sixth floor.

……

Duan Zhicheng didn’t die, but he ended up bedridden, in a vegetative state.

The enormous medical bills, the massive compensation fee, and the relentless blame— all the burdens that should have been Duan Zhicheng’s to bear, shifted direction and came crashing down heavily on his family.

Duan Jiaxu and Xu Ruoshu endured it, along with the unrelenting harassment from Jiang Ying’s family and all their relatives.

The young kid and the gentle, timid woman became easy targets for bullying. The endless extortion and vicious curses only began to fade away after they moved to a new home.

But they left behind a shadow that would never disperse.

——”You should die too.”

——”Who knows what you’ll become when you grow up.”

Afraid that he might turn out the way everyone said he would and become someone like Duan Zhicheng, Duan Jiaxu never drank alcohol.

He did everything according to the rules.

Duan Jiaxu lived cautiously, carrying the weight of self-doubt, yet striving with all his might. He didn’t believe in fate and he refused to let others’ words drive him to despair and drag him into the mud.

He believed that it would be just as Xu Ruoshu had said and just as he himself had imagined.

He would live better than anyone else.

……

———pr


Sang Zhi’s phone was usually on silent mode, mainly because of classes and to avoid disturbing her roommates. But recently, since she was alone in the dorm and often missed messages, she decided to turn the sound on.

In the middle of the night, she was jolted awake by a WeChat call.

Annoyed and groggy, Sang Zhi initially thought it was her alarm going off. She fumbled for her phone, sleepily hung up the call, and pulled the covers over her head to continue sleeping.

Not long after, the phone rang again.

Sang Zhi woke up some more and squinted at the screen.

She saw it was Duan Jiaxu calling.

Seeing the time in the screen, Sang Zhi instantly exploded. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her irritation, and answered the call, putting it on speaker right away.

In the small room, Duan Jiaxu’s voice immediately filled the space, “Were you sleeping?”

Sang Zhi was about to lose it. “It’s 3:00 in the morning, Big Bro.”

Duan Jiaxu paused for a moment, then chuckled quietly. “Sorry, I couldn’t sleep.”

All Sang Zhi wanted was to go back to sleep. She responded perfunctorily, “What do you want?”

“Just wanted to talk.”

“I want to sleep!” Sang Zhi fought the urge to hang up the phone and said, “Go find my brother, I think he’s probably still awake, he usually stays up all night on weekends—”

Duan Jiaxu replied, “I only want to talk to you.”

“……”

Sang Zhi’s eyelids twitched. She felt that his late-night call to bother her wasn’t right, so she turned on the camera. “What are you doing?”

It was pitch dark on her side, so turning on the camera didn’t show anything.

Seeing this, Duan Jiaxu turned on his camera as well, revealing his face. The light on his side was dim, making the image look a bit grainy. “Nothing. You can go back to sleep.”

“……” Sang Zhi asked, “Did you have a nightmare?”

Duan Jiaxu chuckled. “How did you know?”

Still groggy from sleep, Sang Zhi’s voice had a hint of nasal tone, making it sound soft and slow, “At this hour, what else could it be besides a nightmare?”

“……”

“Did you dream of a ghost? Sleep paralysis? Why are you so timid?” Sang Zhi said disdainfully, “Lie down properly, I’ll sing you a lullaby.”

Duan Jiaxu responded with a light hum.

Sang Zhi lay on her pillow and started singing, “Sleep, sleep, my dear baby……”

“……”

Soon, Sang Zhi stopped and sat up. “I feel like I’ll fall asleep first if I keep singing like this.”

Duan Jiaxu laughed again, his breath faintly audible.

Sang Zhi sat against the wall, wrapped in a blanket. Holding the phone in her hand, she said whatever came to mind, “It’s just a nightmare, it’s all fake. Look around you, look at me on the screen—”

“……”

“Oh.” Sang Zhi’s mind was a bit foggy. “It’s dark on my side and I’m too lazy to get up and turn on the light.”

Duan Jiaxu responded with a smile, “Mm.”

“It’s all fake.” Even sitting, Sang Zhi felt like she was about to fall asleep. She rambled on, “I’m the only real thing, everything else is fake.”

Duan Jiaxu’s voice was low, sounding affectionate, “I know.”

The two of them continued chatting aimlessly and Sang Zhi gradually lay back down on the bed before slowly drifting off to sleep.

The phone in her hand remained connected.

On the other end, the person listening to her steady breathing chuckled softly, then gradually fell asleep as well.

Until dawn.

———pr


The new week began and Sang Zhi went to work as usual.

And also, as usual, she was targeted and nitpicked by Shi Xiaoyu, but she responded swiftly. After it happened enough times, seeing Shi Xiaoyu fuming each time, Sang Zhi started to find it rather enjoyable.

At the end of the workday, Shi Xiaoyu packed up and left on time. Before leaving, she glanced coldly at Sang Zhi and said with a blank expression, “Finish organizing the reports before you leave.”

Sang Zhi nodded. “Oh.”

After she left, Sang Zhi also began packing up, preparing to leave.

Noticing what she was doing, He Pengxing’s eyes widened. “You’re leaving? Aren’t you supposed to organize the reports?”

“I’ll organize them tomorrow.”

Wan Zhe admired her. “Sang Zhi, you’re so cool.”

He Pengxing added, “If you come in tomorrow, you’ll be scolded to death by Sister Xiaoyu.”

“Whether I organize them or not, I’ll get scolded.” Sang Zhi said, “So I might as well leave early, rest up, and be ready for her to scold me tomorrow.”

“……”

Wan Zhe sighed, “If I were your age, I’d be this cool too.”

He Pengxing added, “If I didn’t plan on going full-time, I’d be this cool too.”

Sang Zhi: “……”

Working like this was actually kind of fun.

After leaving the office, Sang Zhi didn’t feel tired. She took the subway and waited for Duan Jiaxu to finish work downstairs at his office. She found a sushi restaurant and casually ordered a set meal.

She took out a comic to read.

Before long, Sang Zhi received a call from Li Ping.

She picked up.

Li Ping asked, “Zhizhi, where are you now? Still working overtime?”

Sang Zhi ate a sushi and said, “No, I just got off work. I’m having dinner now.”

“Finish up and head back to the dorm, okay?” Li Ping sighed. “You’re there alone so I’m really worried. Can you look for an internship in Nanwu next time?”

“It’s fine.” Sang Zhi glanced at the time. “I should be back by 8:00, it won’t be too late.”

“Okay, video call Mom later.”

“Alright.”

Sang Zhi hung up the phone, not thinking much of it, and continued eating her sushi.

Soon, Duan Jiaxu arrived.

Sang Zhi ordered him a meal as well and said, “I need to go back early today, my mom wants to have a video call with me.”

“Mm.”

After they finished eating, Duan Jiaxu walked Sang Zhi back to her school.

He didn’t drive, and after they got off the subway, they held hands as they walked toward Yihe University. “Today, Shi Xiaoyu asked me to get her a cup of warm water, so I did.”

“And then?”

“After I got it, she scolded me, saying she wanted cold water.” As she mentioned this, Sang Zhi perked up, “So I told her the water dispenser doesn’t have cold water anymore.”

Duan Jiaxu found it amusing. “And then?”

“She got really mad and said that it was impossible. I told her to try it herself, so she did. Then she said it was working fine. I told her, maybe it just breaks whenever I use it—”

Before Sang Zhi could finish, her phone suddenly rang.

Still talking, she fumbled for her phone and saw that the caller ID was Sang Yan. She blinked and, without much resistance, answered, “What?”

There was a brief pause on the other end, and then a cold voice asked, “Are you back at the dorm?”

“Why do you and Mom both need to ask me that today?” Sang Zhi asked, baffled. “I’m almost at school, why?”

“So,” Sang Yan’s voice came out, word by word, “the person at the school gate, holding hands with a man, is you, right?”

“……”

The sudden question left Sang Zhi momentarily stunned and she didn’t immediately grasp what he meant. Instinctively, she looked around, “Huh? Brother, are you at Yihe?”

The line went dead.

At the same moment, Sang Zhi spotted Sang Yan.

He was standing by the roadside, staring expressionlessly at their intertwined hands. A taxi started up next to him and disappeared into the traffic as if taking away all the sounds of the world.

Sang Yan said flatly, “Am I blind?”

“……”

“Why do I feel like your graduate student boyfriend,” Sang Yan sneered, “looks exactly like that dog Duan Jiaxu?”