“Ge Fei, what are you doing?”

Zhang Yiqi hurriedly hid behind Qi Jinlin when he saw Lin Yufei’s bulging muscles.

Qi Jinlin protected his wife and stood in front of Lin Yufei.

“You’re back and already looking for a fight?”

Lin Yufei stood up, brushing off the dust from his hands.

“You two are all lovey-dovey; what’s with pushing my wife away?”

My face flushed, and I quickly curled up in the blanket.

Zhang Yiqi peeked out from behind Qi Jinlin and looked over at me.

“Young Master, say something! We’ve never kicked you out. Besides, didn’t you say at noon that you’d tire him out first? Why are you going back on your word?”

Hearing him call me out, I made a dramatic gesture of playing dead under the blanket.

The one who needed to be tired out was me, but how could I say that?

“Don’t call my wife! She’s sleeping soundly. Which one of you is going to fight me first?”

Zhang Yiqi clung tightly to Qi Jinlin.

“Husband, I’m scared.”

Even though he was half a head taller than Lin Yufei, his aura was noticeably weaker.

“Or just forget it.”

I felt I couldn’t keep pretending to be dead, so I poked my head out from the blanket.

“Apologize to my wife!”

Lin Yufei shot daggers at the couple, and Zhang Yiqi quickly scampered to my bedside, gripping the edge of the bed with both hands and gazing at me with puppy-dog eyes.

“Young Master, please forgive me!”

Lin Yufei still wanted to say something, but his phone rang.

He took it out to look, hung up, but the phone persisted and rang again.

This back-and-forth happened three or four times before I couldn’t help but break the awkward silence.

“Go ahead and answer it.”

He looked at me, hesitating.

“It’s fine; if you don’t want me to hear, just take it to the balcony.”

Everyone has their secrets, and based on the information I gathered before, I knew who was calling.

But I still wanted to wait for Lin Yufei to tell me himself.

He looked at me, then pressed the speakerphone button.

“Ah Fei.”

A male voice came from the receiver.

“Do you really not want me anymore?”

His voice was desolate, carried by the wind, dripping with despair.

Lin Yufei glanced at me.

“Li Liran, I never liked you.”

He spoke calmly, sitting beside me and taking my hand.

“You’re lying!”

The voice on the other end suddenly grew agitated, with other voices urging him not to lose hope.

I felt a little scared and instinctively tightened my grip on Lin Yufei’s hand.

“When school started, you said you had a skin hunger syndrome, and only I could alleviate it. I softened my heart and helped you. But after you dropped out, I realized that my actions only harmed you. You should see a psychologist instead of harassing me with thoughts of suicide.”

He directed his gaze at me and kissed my forehead.

“I have someone I love now, and I hope you can find someone who loves you too.”

Li Liran’s voice became hoarse.

“Impossible! You love me! I know you have a pretty boy living in your dorm; he must be forcing you with money. That guy named Yu Yuanzhe said their family only uses money to force people into doing things against their will!”

Hearing Yu Yuanzhe’s name made me clench my fists unconsciously.

Our family funded him for ten years, yet in his eyes, it was coercion.

As expected, a good education can filter out bad students but not bad people.

“You’re wrong.”

Lin Yufei held me close.

“Since the day I met him, I already liked him.

“On the day of freshman registration, the wind was strong, and an old man’s tricycle tipped over. No one helped him, except Jiang Yun, who got out of the shuttle bus and shouted for the driver to help pick up the oranges that had fallen on the ground. He even asked the driver to safely take him home and walked to school himself.

“That old man is my grandfather; I could only afford school because of the money he made selling oranges.

“I didn’t dare pursue Jiang Yun because he was like the brightest star in the sky. I never hoped to possess him; just seeing him was already enough for me. But his mother told me that Jiang Yun liked me and wanted to move in with me, and that’s when I realized how lucky I was.

“You all only see his money, but I see his golden heart.”

It was the first time I saw Lin Yufei shed tears.

Perhaps he was reminded of his younger self.

Perhaps he felt pity for his grandfather, who raised him with great difficulty.

Perhaps he saw our future together.

I straightened up and kissed away the tears on his face.

It turned out that in this secret crush, I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t brave.

And in the future years, the brave ones became two.

I heard the silence from the other end of the line.

Then there was a cheer from the crowd.

“He was saved! Great job, firefighters!”

19

Summer vacation arrived.

Zhang Yiqi bounced along, following Qi Jinlin home. He said with a tall, handsome, obedient wife like him, Qi Jinlin’s coming out journey would be smooth sailing.

The two even went to the temple to pray for a couple’s lock before leaving.

As for me, I didn’t need such complexities.

After all, my mom was the biggest support in our relationship.

“What do you want to do about Yu Yuanzhe?”

My mom was peeling oranges.

“Should I cut them into pieces or squeeze them into juice?”

I spat out a mouthful of water.

“Mom? When did our family start this kind of business? Isn’t that illegal?”

I leaned closer and whispered to her.

“What nonsense! I’m talking about oranges.”

She peeled a segment and stuffed it in my mouth.

“Oh, okay.”

What Yu Yuanzhe did had nothing to do with me, as he was just an outsider.

And my “inside person” was now standing at my doorstep in a suit, looking serious.

He held something in his hand and awkwardly hesitated to ring the bell.

“When is my son-in-law arriving?”

My mom asked me.

“I haven’t personally cooked in over twenty years.”

She said while stir-frying under the chef’s guidance.

“I’ll go greet him.”

I turned off the phone monitor and ran to the door.

When the door opened, Lin Yufei was sweating profusely.

“What happened? Why are you sweating so much?”

I reached out to help him wipe his forehead.

“Will it be bad if your mom sees me like this?”

He asked cautiously.

After handing the fruits and gifts to the housekeeper, his hands were left empty, unsure of where to put them.