The entrance to the lake was by the side of the road. Yan An slipped in but didn’t step into the water right away.

After all, she had two little companions with her. She could easily enter the water. As Copper Coin Grass thrived in both soil and water, being resilient and low-maintenance.

But the two children? They wouldn’t last long before drowning.

Yan An looked around, circling half the lake until she found a relatively flat patch of ground.

She cleared away some weeds and made a small dirt bed for her children before gently placing Yan Mengmeng and Yan Kuku inside.

Plants were meant to grow in soil, and lemons and bitter gourds were no exception. The two boys immediately burrowed in and lay down obediently.

Though there was no one else around, Yan An still kept her voice low.

“Mommy is going to sleep. You two stay here for the night. I’ll take you back in the morning, okay?”

The children wiggled slightly and whispered, “Okay.”

Yan An patted her little lemon and bitter gourd, then placed her phone beside them.

Of course, after oversleeping this morning, she wasn’t taking any chances. She set five alarms this time.

‘This should definitely wake me up,’ she thought.

With everything set, Yan An left her clothes by the lakeside, covering them with branches and leaves to keep them hidden, then slipped into the water.

The lake’s surface was once again blanketed by her Copper Coin Grass leaves.

Stretching out comfortably, she floated on the water, forming a perfect circle, taking up the entire lake, ready to close her eyes and drift off.

Just then, footsteps echoed at the lake’s entrance.

Yan An’s eyes snapped open in shock.

Who could be coming here this late at night?!

Quickly, she withdrew her leaves, curling herself into the small section of the lake where Yan Mengmeng and Yan Kuku were hiding.

The two children tensed as well, lying completely still in the soil.

On the other side of the lake, Qi Yan stepped in.

Since entering, Yan An hadn’t made a sound.

He gazed at the quiet lake, puzzled. She wouldn’t have jumped in to drown herself, would she?

That seemed unlikely.

Yan An valued her life too much for that.

Then where had she gone? And why sneak out at midnight?

Could she have something to do with the strange occurrences he had experienced these past two nights?

Hands in his pockets, Qi Yan casually strolled around the lake’s edge.

His pace was unhurried, and the crisp crunch of his sneakers stepping on fallen branches and leaves echoed through the night.

But to Yan An and her children, it sounded like the footsteps of ‘death’ itself.

She felt like crying.

‘Why isn’t Qi Yan sleeping in his room? What is he even doing out here?!

And why did he have to come to the lake?!’, she shouted internally. 

Yan An sincerely prayed in her heart, hoping Qi Yan would finish his walk and leave soon.

Perhaps her prayer had some effect, as Qi Yan stopped about five or six steps away.

He stood by the lake, one leg slightly bent, casually sweeping his gaze over the surroundings.

His eyes paused slightly when they landed on a dense patch of Copper Coin Grass nearby.

Under the moonlight, that particular patch looked unusually lush, with thick layers of leaves crowding together.

The leaves were large, and even from this distance, he could make out their nearly perfect round shape in the dim light.

Compared to the Copper Coin Grass he kept at home, this patch was far superior.

Qi Yan’s eyes darkened slightly. Outside of work, his personal life was dull, with almost no hobbies, except for one: he is fond of round things.

The corners of his lips curled faintly as he walked toward the Copper Coin Grass.

On the other side, Yan An tensed her leaves, not daring to make a sound.

It felt just like three years ago, the night they first met. He had approached her the same way, crouching down in front of her.

Moonlight illuminated his face, his features still breathtakingly beautiful. An ethereal beauty that transcended gender, as if he were a masterpiece carefully sculpted by the heavens.

Yan An was momentarily dazed until she felt another leaf being plucked from her body.

Snapping back to reality, she felt a surge of grievance.

Why does this ex-husband of mine keep plucking my leaves?

It doesn’t hurt that much, but it still stings a little!

Qi Yan examined the leaf in his hand. It should have been a perfectly round shape, yet for some reason, the leaf was riddled with small holes. Qi Yan’s brows furrowed in mild displeasure. 

“Pests?” he murmured, his voice soft but cold as frost. At the sound of his words, the surrounding insects scattered immediately, as if sensing danger.

But Yan An couldn’t run. As a plant, not an animal, if she suddenly fled, her true identity would be exposed!

She carefully peeked up and caught a glimpse of the leaf in Qi Yan’s hand.

Oh.

It wasn’t pest damage, just peck marks from that rooster who always wandered home at night.

Qi Yan frowned, brushing his fingers over the leaf before glancing down at the patch of Copper Coin Grass again. His gaze happened to land on a leaf tilted slightly upward, staring directly at him.

Yan An panicked.

Crap, he noticed my eyes!

What if he plucks them off? I won’t be able to see anymore!

In a split second, Yan An’s “eyes” quickly relocated to the farthest leaf, while the one that had been looking up gradually drooped downward.

Qi Yan turned the leaf over in his fingers, pondering, Good, it’s only this one that’s damaged. The pest issue hasn’t spread.

In that case, when he leaves Nanmu Village tomorrow, he might as well take this entire patch of Copper Coin Grass home with him.

With a flick of his finger, he tapped the leaf that had once been her “eyes”, which was now just “hair”. Then he stood up.

At that moment, a soft chime suddenly rang out from a small mound of soil nearby, and a screen lit up, standing out starkly in the dim night.

Yan An cursed in her heart.

That was her text message alert!

It was either an ad from an online store notification or a message from the telecom provider!

Great. Now her phone was exposed. And worse, her children were right next to it.

If the phone got discovered, the kids would too.

She had gone through so much trouble last night to rescue them from Qi Yan, was she really going to lose them to him again?

Who sends text messages in the middle of the night?! Yan An thought in despair.

But no matter how desperate she was, she couldn’t stop Qi Yan from walking over.

He bent down, picked up the phone, and without hesitation picked up the lemon and bitter gourd lying in the dirt as well.

If they could make a sound, Yan Kuku and Yan Mengmeng would have been wailing by now.

They had been so well-hidden. In the dark of night, Yan Mengmeng’s bright orange-yellow color wasn’t too noticeable.

But now, they were completely exposed.

‘Waaaahhh!’

‘Mom’s already struggling to protect herself, what’s going to happen to us?!’

Qi Yan frowned at the familiar lemon and bitter gourd in his hand, brushing off the dirt as he glanced around. Then, without much thought, he casually stuffed them into his pocket.

He acted as though he cared, yet he always ended up leaving them scattered everywhere.

Then, his gaze shifted to the phone.

The lock screen displayed a photo, one of a lemon and a bitter gourd, along with four small dirt mounds.

It was unclear what was planted in those mounds, but for now, they were bare.

What a strange photo.

Qi Yan swiped at the screen, triggering the password prompt.

He tried a few guesses, but none were correct, so he gave up and pocketed the phone as well.

Walking over to the lakeside, his sharp eyes scanned the still surface of the water.

The moonlight reflected off the lake’s calm surface.

A living person had vanished, yet the two items she cherished most, her phone and the two little plants were left by the shore.

That meant there were only two possibilities: either she had drowned and sunk to the lakebed, or she was deliberately hiding.

Qi Yan lowered his gaze, pulled out the phone, and turned on the flashlight, sweeping it across the lakeside.

Not far away, he spotted a thick pile of weeds stacked unusually high, obviously a crude attempt to hide something underneath.

He walked over, crouched down, and casually flipped through the pile.

Sure enough, he found the clothes Yan An had been wearing earlier.

Her clothes were here, but she was nowhere to be seen.

The answer was clear, someone was hiding underwater, afraid to be seen.

Qi Yan placed the clothes back where they were, straightened up, and called out in a calm voice, “Yan An.”

The leaves of the Copper Coin Grass trembled slightly, but aside from that, there was no response.

Yan An could speak in her current state, but she didn’t dare to.

Maybe playing dead is the best option right now? QAQ

After three seconds of silence, Qi Yan spoke again.

“If you don’t answer, I’m coming in.”

The lake’s surface was eerily still. Since Qi Yan’s arrival, a considerable amount of time has passed.

Could someone really stay hidden underwater for so long without making a single sound? What if she had gotten tangled in the lake’s aquatic plants?

If that were the case…

Qi Yan’s gaze darkened. A fleeting trace of his usually concealed ruthlessness flickered through his eyes.

Without hesitation, he pulled a phone, a lemon, and a bitter gourd from his pocket and tossed them aside before striding toward the lake, clearly preparing to wade in.

Yan An’s heart skipped a beat, her mind racing for a way to respond.

She could, of course, continue playing dead. Qi Yan wouldn’t be able to find her even if he searched the lake.

But what about afterward? He had already found her phone and clothes, yet she was nowhere in sight. That alone could expose her true identity.

Instead of risking that, it was better to let him think she was hiding underwater, too embarrassed to come out without any clothes.

Unseen by Qi Yan, a cluster of Copper Coin Grass suddenly plunged into the water, sinking deeper and deeper.

Once she felt she was at a sufficient depth, Yan An spoke from beneath the lake. Her muffled voice carried a hint of grievance, like someone rudely awakened from a deep sleep.

“Mr. Qi… Please don’t come down…”^[1]Translator’s Note: Hello, dear readers! Moving forward, I’ll be replacing “Teacher” with Mr./Ms./Mrs. in my translation, as I feel it sounds more natural in English. But if … Continue reading

Qi Yan’s gaze immediately locked onto the Copper Coin Grass.

The voice had come from beneath, indicating she was hiding below the surface. The thick foliage covered the water, making it impossible to see what was underneath. Yet, the sound was unmistakable.

He bent down, retrieved the items he had discarded earlier, and said, “Ten minutes. I’ll wait for you outside.”

With that, he turned and left, carrying two phones and two metaphorically weeping children.

Behind him, Yan An let out a soft whimper, feeling wronged.

Was all this really necessary? All she wanted was a peaceful night’s sleep on the lake!