Chapter 25

At the party, Jiang Caifu eventually left early due to feeling too tired.

In such a bustling environment, her absence didn’t draw any attention at all.

However, what she didn’t expect was that shortly after leaving, Qiao Yumin appeared, casually carrying a black tote bag.

Before Jiang Caifu could react, she heard him ask, “Are you heading back to school?”

She swallowed the polite small talk she had prepared and nodded in response, “Mm.”

Then, she didn’t know what else to say.

Any topic she tried seemed awkward.

Qiao Yumin, on the other hand, appeared quite at ease, basking in the cool moonlight, his soft satin shirt shimmering as if it had been coated with a subtle bluish liquid. As he walked toward Jiang Caifu, the ripples on his shirt collar and sleeves flowed gently with each step.

Jiang Caifu lowered her gaze, unsure why she suddenly felt embarrassed to look at him, nor could she figure out why she felt guilty.

But he soon reached her side and, without any preamble, asked directly, “Were you taking pictures of me just now?”

Jiang Caifu could never admit to that!

She shook her head vigorously, her expression extremely serious, as though afraid he might see through her lie. “I was taking pictures of that fondant cake… I’ve never seen such a complicated fondant cake in real life, so I just took a few pictures.”

For this birthday, Lin Youyu had specially ordered a fondant cake featuring his favorite anime character, which looked incredibly delicate and lifelike. Before the main birthday cake arrived, the fondant cake had been displayed in the hall for everyone to admire.

Before Jiang Caifu had teamed up with others to play cards, she had taken several pictures of the fondant cake.

So, if Qiao Yumin doubted the truth of her words, she could always show him the photos.

Thinking this, she raised her phone, smiling as she invited him, “Do you want to see the pictures of the fondant cake I took?”

Qiao Yumin’s gaze followed her words, landing on her phone for a few seconds, then he looked up and met her eyes.

Jiang Caifu stared back at him without dodging.

After a couple of seconds, he lowered his gaze, calmly saying, “No need.”

He turned and started walking toward the gate of the estate. After a few steps, he noticed she hadn’t followed and turned back to look at her.

Jiang Caifu snapped out of her thoughts and quickly caught up.

“How… how are you getting back to school?”

“Taking a taxi.”

“This location is a bit hard to get a taxi, you’ll have to wait a while.” Qiao Yumin frowned slightly, looking thoughtful, as if facing a dilemma. After a brief pause, he turned to her, “I’ll drive you back.”

Jiang Caifu was a bit taken aback. “Huh? But aren’t you supposed to be going to practice the oboe?”

“I’ll take you to school first, then I’ll go. It’s on the way.” He glanced at the time. “It’s still early.”

Jiang Caifu pressed her lips together, trying to suppress the smile that kept creeping up, and said, “Okay, thank you.”

Then…

She got into Qiao Yumin’s car, and before they parted, it was only natural that they exchanged contact details.

“At that time, I felt like he treated me differently from others. When he talked to others, he always seemed impatient, almost ignoring them, but when he was with me, he was much calmer and more patient, more understanding.”

As she recalled this, Jiang Caifu’s expression suddenly became a little strange, mixed with a touch of subtle embarrassment and annoyance. Her tone became more animated as she spoke:

“Later, I found out that he actually has mild depression, and when he’s around a lot of people, he can’t control his anxiety and irritation! But when he’s with me, there’s no one else around, so of course, he’s in a better mood…”

She crossed her arms and let out a heavy sigh. “So, during that time, I was just being delusional!”

“Pfft.” Lu Jianlan couldn’t help but interrupt, clearly enjoying the story more than a novel, “So, you thought he liked you back then?”

“Well, not exactly. I just thought he treated me differently. I wouldn’t go as far as to say he liked me.” She licked her lips, organized her thoughts, and then said, “The real moment when I thought ‘does he like me?’ was a little later, when I realized he was specifically waiting for me after class…”

She still remembered that afternoon, filled with the fragrance of osmanthus flowers.

Golden osmanthus petals were blown by a gentle breeze, their sweet scent enveloping the entire building.

After finishing her last mandatory class of the day, Jiang Caifu was walking out of the teaching building with her roommate when she saw Qiao Yumin standing by a flowerbed at the corner.

He was dressed all in black, with black cargo pants and a matching hoodie. The tote bag he was holding looked like the one he had used when driving her back to school.

When Jiang Caifu saw him, he was looking down at his phone.

She didn’t think much of it, assuming he was waiting for someone, so she didn’t greet him. She just glanced at him briefly before chatting with her roommate as they walked toward the dormitory building.

However, as she passed him, he seemed to sense her and looked up, calling her name calmly:

“Jiang Caifu.”

She immediately stopped in her tracks, then stiffly turned around. With an unspoken understanding, her roommate exchanged knowing glances, and she stepped back toward him.

“You… you’re waiting for me here, aren’t you?”

Though it was only a short distance, she felt out of breath, as if she had just run an 800-meter race, her heart racing uncontrollably.

Qiao Yumin scratched his cheek and shifted his gaze to the flowerbed next to him, diverting the conversation, “You didn’t–”

“Didn’t you say you haven’t heard anyone play the oboe in real life?”

Jiang Caifu thought for a moment and nodded. “Yeah, so what?”

He raised the tote bag in his hand slightly, his voice soft. “My teacher said I’ve made a lot of progress in playing the oboe recently… Do you have time? If you don’t have anything else to do, we could find a quiet place, and I can play for you?”

Jiang Caifu looked up at him, staring blankly, her pupils reflecting his face, slightly flushed with embarrassment.

He happened to be standing under the shadow of an osmanthus tree. As the wind blew, the branches rustled, and golden petals floated down like a shower, their sweet fragrance spreading in the air.

The scent was so strong that it filled her chest with each breath, making her dizzy.

She held her breath slightly, trying to clear her mind of irrelevant thoughts, and doing her best not to let the cloying fragrance cloud her judgment.

At that moment, Qiao Yumin raised his hand and gently brushed off the osmanthus flowers that had fallen onto her shoulder. His voice was a little tense, “Shall we go?”

Later, on many nights, Jiang Caifu would dream of endless osmanthus flowers visiting her.

---

Sighing, Jiang Caifu reminisced, “I really miss the him before we started dating—handsome, distant, and didn’t talk much…”

By the time she said this, Jiang Caifu and Lu Jianlan had finished their business and moved to a noodle shop to eat.

“So, did you actually go listen to him play the oboe that day?” Lu Jianlan asked while adding vinegar to her beef noodles. “Did it sound nice? Is that what made you fall for him?”

Jiang Caifu immediately laughed so hard that her eyes nearly squinted shut. “It sounded terrible!”

She had just finished saying this when the chili oil stung her.

After coughing a few times, she quickly drank most of her water, cleared her throat, and continued, “By the time he finished, it felt like he was almost out of breath. After playing, he was so oxygen-deprived that it took him a while to recover. His face and neck were all red, and he looked so funny.”

Lu Jianlan put down the vinegar bottle, shot her a glance, and saw her giggling with her face flushed from the chili oil. She wasn’t even paying attention to her noodles anymore. Lu Jianlan laughed too. “And you’re criticizing him? Your face is just as red.”

Jiang Caifu huffed in irritation. “It’s because the noodles are too spicy, that’s why my face is red!”

“Sure, sure.” Lu Jianlan casually picked up a piece of noodle, blew on it, and then asked, “So, that’s when you thought he liked you?”

“Pretty much.” Jiang Caifu licked her lips, her smile slightly smug. “Also, I noticed that when we were alone, he seemed to speak with a bit of a strained voice…”

Lu Jianlan: “Pfft.”

She almost choked on the chili oil as well. She grabbed her water cup, laughing helplessly. “Well, you’ve got quite a story. This ex-boyfriend of yours is becoming more and more interesting.”

“He’s really funny, right?” Jiang Caifu stirred her noodle soup, speaking cheerfully. “Although sometimes he can be annoying, most of the time, he’s really funny.”

“Then did you two get together?”

“Not immediately.”

Jiang Caifu propped her chin up with one hand, using chopsticks to lift some noodles and let them cool. “Later, I don’t know if he figured out I liked him too, but soon enough, he confessed… but I rejected him.”

“What? Why? Didn’t you both like each other?”

“Exactly because we liked each other. When he confessed, his words felt like he was already sure I’d say yes, like I had no other choice but to agree. That really annoyed me.”

She slurped some noodles, swallowed, and wiped her mouth with a napkin before speaking slowly, “So I rejected him.”

Lu Jianlan understood her prideful nature and quickly grasped the situation. “So you didn’t want him to think you were easy to control by accepting his confession too easily?”

“Yeah. At that time, I was thinking, even if I didn’t get into a relationship, I couldn’t lose to him.”

“But you two eventually got together.”

“Because he confessed several more times.”

The gifts he prepared got more and more expensive, his attitude became more sincere, and the way he looked at her grew hotter… and… fearful?

Jiang Caifu didn’t understand what he was afraid of, but every time he confessed, her mood was always indescribably delightful.

Lu Jianlan gave her a sidelong glance, half exasperated, half advising, shaking her head. “Stop talking about it. I feel like you’re about to fall for him again.”

Jiang Caifu’s smile froze, and she seemed a little disheartened. “Yeah, it’s been more than two years since we broke up. Why am I still talking about all this?”

“You could still get back together if you wanted.”

“No… I’ve changed a lot. He probably wouldn’t like the current me.”

She chewed on her chopsticks, her gaze dropping to the table as she sighed. “Back then, I was so energetic and optimistic. I was full of enthusiasm for everything. I was so likable that I almost fell in love with the old me.”

“…Now, every day, I wake up only to curse the company, the boss, the coworkers, and this world.”

“He probably just doesn’t want to accept that I dumped him, which is why he wants to get back together. But what good would it do? Even if we got back together, it would probably be just like before…”

---

“Two days were happy,” she took a sip of the noodle soup and suddenly found it tasteless.

“As long as we spend some time together, he will realize that what he can’t forget is the carefree Jiang Caifu from a few years ago, not the one full of negative energy who just wants to sleep and doesn’t care about anything else like me now.”

Lu Jianlan opened her mouth, about to comfort her by saying that she was still cute and likable, but then Jiang Caifu suddenly slammed her fist on the table with an excited expression.

“If, after a while, he dumps me, that would be so embarrassing!”

Lu Jianlan: “…”

Lu Jianlan: “So that’s the real reason you don’t want to get back together, huh?”

“What do you mean by ‘don’t want’? It’s purely that I don’t feel like it. Even a rabbit doesn’t eat the grass by its burrow.”

“…A rabbit doesn’t eat grass near its burrow.”

“Same thing.”

Jiang Caifu slowly finished her noodles, her face and mouth red from the spice. She went to the drink cabinet, bought two bottles of soy milk, and handed one to Lu Jianlan. “Ugh, that was too spicy for me.”

After saying this, she lowered her head and swiped her phone. After exiting the payment success screen, she noticed a few new messages on WeChat.

“Hmm? Huang Siyu resigned? She was asking if we’re free to hang out and drink sometime.”

Huang Siyu had been in the same class as Jiang Caifu and Lu Jianlan in high school, but they weren’t very close back then, just occasionally chatting. It wasn’t until after they started working that they ran into each other one night when Jiang Caifu and Lu Jianlan went out for a late-night snack, and Huang Siyu happened to be buying beer downstairs. They ended up eating together and occasionally met up for late-night snacks or drinks at a bar.

“Really?” Lu Jianlan picked up her phone to check and saw that Huang Siyu had also sent her a message. “Just the other day, I wanted to ask her out for drinks, and she was saying she was too busy with work to go out. Now she’s resigning so soon?”

Jiang Caifu replied to the message, and soon received a response. “Oh, I just handed in my resignation letter, but I haven’t actually left yet… Still got a lot of work to do, probably have to work overtime.”

“You too, huh? Haha, you should just quit like her.”

“I quit, and what do I eat? Are you going to feed me with pancakes?”

Jiang Caifu mentally organized her work for the next few days, then realized that her period was coming and she couldn’t drink, so she messaged Huang Siyu to say they’d drink together next time when she had free time.

As for when that would be, she wasn’t sure.

“Ugh, really feel sorry for us working people…”

Lu Jianlan shook her head, feeling a bit sentimental as she scrolled on her phone, suddenly finding something funny. She told Jiang Caifu to check Huang Siyu’s latest post on her Moments. “Huang Siyu is slamming her boss, oh man, it’s full of witty remarks. I have to learn from her and do the same next time.”

“She hates him that much?” Jiang Caifu had already closed WeChat, but when she heard this, she immediately opened it again, instinctively tapped into her Moments tab, scrolled down, and didn’t find Huang Siyu’s post. Instead, she saw one from Shen Jiangli.

For the first time ever, this guy wasn’t looking for someone to drink with on Moments, but had posted a picture from the hospital, visiting someone—

Jiang Caifu opened the image, looked at it repeatedly, her eyes gradually widening in disbelief.

Qiao Yumian! How did he end up in the hospital again?

Wasn’t he just hospitalized a few days ago because of an allergy?

What happened this time?!

She really wanted to comment on the post asking him, but felt a little embarrassed, not wanting Qiao Yumian to find out.

But if she didn’t ask, she would remain very curious.

It was such a tricky situation…

Lu Jianlan, who was observing her, noticed that just moments ago, Jiang Caifu had looked extremely surprised, but now she was nervous and conflicted, completely lost in her thoughts. She was a bit confused.

Wasn’t she supposed to be looking at Huang Siyu slamming her boss?

Did she really need all this inner turmoil?

---

When they left the noodle shop, it was already getting dark outside, and Lu Jianlan was eager to visit the nearby mall to buy blind boxes.

“Where do you find a kid crying every day? Where do you find a gambler losing all the time?!” She clenched her fist, determined to redeem herself, “This time, I’m definitely going to get the one I want!”

Jiang Caifu: “…Alright, let’s go and shop.”

She stuffed her phone back into her pocket, walking silently for a while, her brow unconsciously furrowing, a conflicted expression on her face.

“What’s wrong? You want to buy a blind box too?”

Lu Jianlan, seeing her expression, thought she might be hesitant about buying a blind box due to bad luck, so she patted her back firmly and encouraged, “Buy it! Don’t hesitate when the thought ‘Should I do this?’ comes up, the answer is always YES! Just do it! Buy it!”

Jiang Caifu suddenly got a boost of confidence, took a deep breath, “Alright! I’ll buy it!”

She quickly pulled out her phone and sent a message to Shen Jiangli.

[Jiang Caifu: Why did Qiao Yumian end up in the hospital again? What’s going on with him?]

[Shen Jiangli: …Jiang Caifu?]

[Jiang Caifu: Hmm, you didn’t save my contact’s name?]

---

Meanwhile, in a hospital room at the city center hospital, Shen Jiangli suddenly exclaimed, slamming his fist on the uninjured leg of Qiao Yumian, his expression intense, “Jiang Caifu messaged me!”

“What?” Qiao Yumian didn’t have time to mourn his injured leg. He immediately became alert, his eyes unintentionally filled with a bit of hostility as he looked at Shen Jiangli. “What did she message you for?”

“She asked why you’re in the hospital again.”

Shen Jiangli, oblivious to the strange look from Qiao Yumian, waved his phone in front of Qiao Yumian, proudly declaring, “See? I told you I was smart. You didn’t want me to take a picture and post it, but now you see how clever I am!”

Jiang Caifu’s message was stared at by Qiao Yumian for a long time.

He crossed his arms, snorted coldly, “Well, at least she’s still.

---

“At least you have a conscience, knowing to care about me…”

Shen Jiangli stared at his phone in confusion.

Wasn’t she asking why he was in the hospital?

Does this count as concern?

Shen Jiangli: “Uh, okay, so how should I reply to her?”

Qiao Yumian thought for a moment, then said, “Just tell her… tell her I had a serious car accident, and I’m hanging on by a thread, wanting to see her one last time before I die. Ask her when she has time to come see me.”

Shen Jiangli slowly typed a “?” in response.

“Wait, bro, you only got hit by an e-bike. Do you really need to make it sound this serious?”

A car accident, hanging by a thread, wanting to see someone one last time… Is this a drama?

“Why do you care so much?” Qiao Yumian frowned, clearly annoyed. “Just say it and see how she responds.”

“Fine, fine,” Shen Jiangli reluctantly dropped his head, but as he typed, he completely forgot the exact words Qiao Yumian had said.

He looked up to see Qiao Yumian staring at him with a solemn expression, so he quickly dropped his head again and paraphrased what he remembered.

Thus, on the other side of the city, Jiang Caifu soon received Shen Jiangli’s reply.

[Shen Jiangli: He said he got in a car accident and is dying, asking when you have time to come see him for the last time.]

[Jiang Caifu: ……]

[Jiang Caifu: Is he crazy?]

The photo Shen Jiangli posted on his Moments, although not clear enough to show Qiao Yumian’s face, showed a condition that didn’t look like someone who’d been in a serious car accident, let alone on the brink of death.

Shen Jiangli looked up, honestly relaying Jiang Caifu’s message, “She said you’re crazy.”

Qiao Yumian: “?”

Qiao Yumian: “Isn’t that obvious? If I weren’t sick, why would I be in the hospital?”

He froze for a second and then suddenly realized something was wrong. He rubbed his temples in frustration.

“Wait, she’s scolding me again… Being around you is making my brain foggy.”

Shen Jiangli was shocked and felt quite wronged, “What does this have to do with me? Don’t just throw all the blame on me!”

Qiao Yumian completely ignored his protests, still immersed in the sorrow of being scolded by Jiang Caifu, with a palpable aura of resentment and low pressure around him.

“I’m this miserable, and she doesn’t even come to see me. Instead, she’s scolding me? She’s not afraid I’ll die without seeing her, filled with regret?”

Shen Jiangli nodded and lowered his head to continue typing.

[Shen Jiangli: He said that if he dies without seeing you, he’ll die with regret.]

“If I really die, do you think she’ll feel guilty for not coming to see me today because she scolded me? She definitely will, because she’s essentially a kind person.”

[Shen Jiangli: If he dies today, do you really feel any guilt? He wants to know.]

“Sigh, they say that those who die wronged easily turn into ghosts. If I die like this, I’ll definitely become a ghost because of my unfulfilled wishes… No, I’ll become Jiang Caifu’s behind-the-scenes spirit, so I can follow her forever, for a lifetime.”

[Shen Jiangli: He said he’ll turn into a vengeful ghost and follow you forever, never letting you go.]

[Jiang Caifu: ……]

[Jiang Caifu: He really hates me that much?]

[Jiang Caifu: I’ve never done anything wrong in my life, I’m not afraid of ghosts knocking on my door at night. Even if he turns into a ghost, he’ll be punished by the laws of heaven. Who knows, maybe one day he’ll be struck by divine lightning and his soul will scatter.]

At this point, the corner of Shen Jiangli’s mouth twitched, and he looked at Qiao Yumian with a sympathetic glance.

Qiao Yumian’s alarm bells immediately went off, “What did she say now?”

Shen Jiangli moved his mouth, wanting to be a little more tactful, but as an outstanding student of journalism, it was his duty to report the truth of every story.

So, he sighed and candidly replied, “She said you’ll be struck by lightning.”

Qiao Yumian: “???”

What had he done wrong to deserve this kind of scolding?

He was just hit on the leg by an e-bike, yet his head, chest, and entire body ached. He felt miserable all over.

He hurriedly grabbed his phone from beside the pillow, forced back his grievances, and angrily typed on the screen.

[Qiao Yumian: Not coming to see me is fine, but why curse me to be struck by lightning?]

[Qiao Yumian: Do you really hate me that much?]

[Qiao Yumian: I hate you!]

[Qiao Yumian: [Hospital location]]

[Qiao Yumian: Unless you come to the hospital now with flowers, I’ll never forgive you in this lifetime!]