Is he really the one to blame?

“All men are the same; men understand men,” Zhao Yayuan said. “I can see it, you don’t stand a chance anymore.”

Lu Nian blinked.

He squinted, stretched his long legs bonelessly. “Well then, why don’t you make do with me?”

Lu Nian sighed. “I feel like I’ve spent too much time with you. I don’t even find these absurd jokes amusing anymore.”

She gave up trying to reason with him. “Fine, fine, he doesn’t want me, so I’ll make do with you.”

“Really?” Zhao Yayuan grinned. “Then let’s try it now. I don’t mind.”

Lu Nian shook her head. “I’m going home, goodbye.”

However, on Saturday, she was still restless at home.

She still wanted to go and find Qin Si to celebrate his eighteenth birthday.

After all, for a person, the most important and meaningful milestones are usually birth and coming of age.

Qin Si was an orphan, so no one had ever celebrated his birthday for him.

Lu Nian thought that she should at least celebrate his eighteenth birthday properly.

Although it had already been a week, she had no choice.

She only had the opportunity to sneak out today and create a gap in Lu Zhihong’s blockade.

It was raining that day.

Following her original plan, with Lu Zhihong at the company, she managed to deceive the Lu family’s surveillance and sneak out alone.

She took a taxi to the bar where Qin Si usually stayed.

She tried calling Qin Si, but his phone was off. However, she knew he usually turned off his phone when he went to the bar to sleep, and today was no different.

She could wait for him later.

Even if he wasn’t there when she arrived, he would come back to sleep at night.

As she ran through the deserted Lu family mansion alone in the late night, her heart was in her throat.

She was afraid of being discovered, and she was afraid of the dark. She hadn’t walked alone like this in a long time.

But she was also thinking.

Would Qin Si be surprised to see her? Would there be a hint of joy?

She had prepared a gift for him, but it wasn’t convenient to take it now. She could give it to him later.

Today, she just wanted to bless him in person.

It had been too long since they had seen each other and talked properly.

When Lu Nian finally ran out of the Lu family’s mansion, it suddenly started raining heavily, with thunder rumbling.

She hadn’t expected this, but she braved the rain and hailed a cab by the roadside. Luckily, she managed to flag one down.

However, when Lu Nian arrived at the bar, she was already drenched in a thin layer of rain.

She didn’t pay much attention to it and entered the bar with a slight smile.

As soon as she stepped inside, she was dazzled by the deafening music and colorful lights.

Her student appearance was too conspicuous here.

The bartender glanced at her strangely and whispered something to a woman nearby. The woman smiled, lifted her glass, and approached Lu Nian.

“Little sister, what are you here for?” she asked. “To drink? Or something else?”

Lu Nian felt a bit uncomfortable in this unfamiliar environment. “Hello… I’m, I’m looking for Ming Ge.”

She thought, at least she could find someone familiar to ask.

Ming Ge knew her, and he might be willing to find a place for her to wait.

The lights brightened a bit, and Lu Nian finally saw clearly.

Before her stood a young lady dressed very elegantly, with curly hair and red lips.

She casually said, “The boss isn’t here.”

“Well…” Lu Nian plucked up her courage. “Do you know if Qin Si is here? If he’s not, when will he be back?”

“Qin Si?” Bai Xi raised an eyebrow and scrutinized her carefully. “What’s your relationship with him?”

Lu Nian hesitated. “…Friends.”

She continued to push forward, feeling shameless as she upgraded herself.

Bai Xi observed her up and down. “Is your last name Lu?”

Lu Nian blinked. “Do you know me?”

The girl’s big eyes were clear and deep, shimmering like waves, with a kind of purity that exuded charm.

A playful smile tugged at the corner of the woman’s lips.

After all, it was hard not to notice a pure and ethereal little white flower like her in a place like a bar, especially when she was here to find Qin Si.

It was hard not to associate her with someone.

“Qin Si is out.” Bai Xi didn’t answer her question directly. “He’ll be back very late. You’d better not wait, just go back.”

“He’s been very tired lately,” Bai Xi added.

Lu Nian blinked. Who was she? Was she very familiar with Qin Si?

“Little sister, you’re still a student, right?” She asked, with a hint of a smile on her lips. “Let me tell you, you’d better not come looking for him in the future. You and him are not at the same level at all.”

Spoiled and pampered, born into wealth, Miss Canary, and people like them were from completely different worlds.

Lu Nian bit her lip. “But Qin Si is still a student too.”

Bai Xi didn’t answer, just raised an eyebrow and smiled.

Lu Nian felt inexplicably uncomfortable. “Are you very close to him?”

“Little sister,” Bai Xi smiled ambiguously, “sometimes, doing certain things doesn’t require being very familiar.”

Lu Nian was confused, but she clearly understood that this wasn’t a good remark.

She wore a loose off-the-shoulder sweater, and Bai Xi casually used her fingers to adjust her hairstyle.

In doing so, her left shoulder accidentally slipped down, revealing a snow-white and round shoulder, covered with ambiguous fingerprints and bite marks.

It was evident… they were left behind.

Lu Nian, who had remained innocent in matters of love until now, was stunned by the sight.

She had never seen such a real scene before, and she was instantly petrified.

“He’s been very tired lately,” Bai Xi repeated, with a subtle difference in tone from before, laden with deeper implications. “Little sister, if you’re okay, don’t bother him anymore.”

Even Lu Nian, who was slow to understand, finally grasped the meaning. Her face flushed red in an instant.

She had said in anger before that he was flirting with pretty girls outside.

Seeing Bai Xi’s appearance now confirmed it, but she couldn’t utter a word.

Bai Xi raised her lips. “Leaving already?”

Feeling extremely irritated, Lu Nian surprisingly remained calm.

“Why should I leave?” Lu Nian sat down gracefully on a high stool, her delicate chin slightly raised as she looked down at Bai Xi. “Isn’t this a bar? Bring out the most expensive and the most abundant.”

After all, she had been a young lady for so many years, and she could maintain her composure.

A flicker of resentment flashed in Bai Xi’s eyes.

However, Lu Nian’s presence in the bar and her order of expensive drinks had already changed her status.

She was now a guest they couldn’t afford to offend.

After she finished three cocktails, Qin Si finally appeared.

His expression was very unpleasant. As he approached, seeing Lu Nian still holding a bottle of alcohol and smelling the strong scent of alcohol on her body, his face turned extremely ugly.

She was still damp from the rain, having come here in the downpour, and still emanating a strong smell of alcohol.

“She wanted to drink herself,” Lan Yin whispered. “We couldn’t stop her.”

“Yeah.”

“We tried our best, but we couldn’t stop her, so we had to call you.”

Qin Si didn’t say much to them.

He settled the bill and turned back.

All his attention was now focused on one person.

He picked her up, hailed a taxi on the road, and gave the driver an address not far from here.

It only took a few minutes for the taxi to arrive.

The location of the house was excellent, a two-bedroom apartment, but it was simple and lacked any traces of previous occupancy.

The furnishings were simple.

Lu Nian curled up on the sofa and fell asleep, still clutching the bottle of alcohol tightly.

He tried to take the bottle from her arms.

Lu Nian was in a daze, but when she saw that familiar face, she suddenly became clear-headed.

Furious, she pointed her delicate fingers at him. “I came to celebrate your birthday for you, and what do you do? You’re out here fooling around with people of ill repute. You’ve really fallen low.”

She used to send him messages, but he never replied. So, this was how he spent his time?

She thought he was busy with his senior year, so she stopped bothering him, but what was Qin Si up to?

Engaging in unhealthy activities with these shady people.

The teenager was puzzled, still not understanding what this tirade was about.

“Don’t touch me,” Lu Nian said sternly.

Her eyes were filled with real and palpable disdain.

His hand, upon touching that deep-rooted string hidden in her heart, instantly froze in place.

After a while, he sneered, “I want to touch you?”

His icy tone made her grievances well up even more.

After not seeing each other for so long, Qin Si had created such a situation for her.

All she wanted was to come and celebrate his birthday, see him, and have a good conversation.

The girl, feeling aggrieved, couldn’t control the tears that flowed down her cheeks silently but more violently than before.

Seeing her tears, he froze, feeling defeated instantly.

Lowering his voice, he said, “Get up.”

Knowing that she wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t afford to get cold, especially after getting wet in the rain, he was afraid she might catch a cold if she didn’t clean up.

Still fierce.

The tears of the girl couldn’t be stopped, flowing down silently but even more fiercely.

He had no way to deal with her, so he softened his voice. “Get up first and wipe your tears.”

“Okay,” Lu Nian whimpered.

As he used the warm towel to wipe her hot cheeks and the tears on her face, his long and cold fingers felt strangely comforting.

She stopped crying.

“Happy eighteenth birthday,” the girl choked out softly and indistinctly. “I know it’s late. I wanted to make it up to you. I couldn’t come out the other day… so I had to make it up today.”

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have risked going out in the rain to see him.

She just wanted to give him a blessing.

Qin Si hadn’t expected this.

His actions paused for a moment before he continued, his eyelashes lowered, and he said nothing.

After cleaning her cheeks, he changed the towel and helped her wipe her hair.

His movements were very gentle.

Tonight, his tolerance seemed unusually high.

Lu Nian was drunk, but she still keenly noticed this.

She leaned into him like a whimpering little cat, “Qin Si, don’t become bad. Don’t associate with these disreputable people…”

He smelled clean, without any other scent. She liked him this way.

It would be even better if he could be a little gentler to her. She had always hoped for this since she was young.

Her heart felt a twinge.

Being relied upon and being close to her like this…

He whispered softly, “I won’t.”

Whatever she said, he would do. It had always been like this.

His eyelashes cast a shadow as he worked, his high nose, and the sharp lines of his jaw were obviously extremely cold.

But as he gently dried her hair, he was gentle and sincere.

He deliberately avoided touching her skin.

He had always been like this in front of her. As long as she was slightly tempted, it could develop into an intense fire.

He dared not go any further.

He couldn’t go any further.

Lu Nian relied heavily on him.

With her eyes closed and her pink cheeks, the girl’s innocence and charm were mysteriously combined, making it impossible for him to look away.

“Don’t become bad… and then, find a good girl in the future,” Lu Nian was so tired, she yawned softly, her voice still sticky, “Treat her well and live happily together.”

The joints of the boy’s fingers stiffened as he left her hair because of the force, turning white.

Many years later, Qin Si would always remember his eighteenth birthday.

That year, he got the keys and finally had his first home. It was also the year he began to enter the mixed period of pain and sweetness.