Chapter 49. [First Update] Another man appeared...

Lin Baizhou had always known that Wen Xue's family would pick her up and drop her off regardless of the weather.

This information was obtained by him by chance from a conversation between Aunt Zhang and his mother at the dinner table. Aunt Zhang also said that she had seen him once from afar; he was a tall man in his twenties, probably Wen Xue's brother.

At that moment, his mother glanced at him casually, seemingly agreeing with Aunt Zhang, but her words were directed at him, an implication and a reminder, "This is how siblings should treat each other: the brother takes care of the sister, and the sister cares for the brother. You should learn from this."

It seems this is Wen Xue's brother.

Her family has indeed protected her very well.

He admitted that he wasn't a good older brother, at least not to the extent that he would have been so attentive to Weiwei.

Lin Baizhou had no intention of going up to exchange pleasantries; a brief greeting would suffice.

However, he keenly noticed that the other person's gaze seemed unfriendly. Their eyes met in the twilight, and he was taken aback. He had a feeling that the other person knew him, but when he tried to recall and confirmed that he had never seen this man before, his feelings were inevitably complicated.

Why are you here?

Wen Xue had no idea that the two men had briefly exchanged glances.

She jogged up to He Yan, beaming, "Didn't you say your dinner with friends would go on until very late?"

He Yan's body was almost entirely hidden in the dappled shadows of the trees. His hands, hanging at his sides, clenched unconsciously, and even his breathing became slow. He would look at Lin Baizhou for a while, and then look down at Wen Xue, who was smiling at him.

My mind is buzzing.

It was so absurd that he couldn't tell whether he was in his past life or this one.

Wen Xue's words pulled him back to reality. When he looked up at her again, Lin Baizhou had already turned and headed towards the parking lot.

"Have you had too much to drink?" Wen Xue saw that he had a straight face and didn't say anything, so she waved her hand in front of his eyes.

"without……"

He Yan's gaze was fixed on her face. After a moment, he smiled and said, "Let's go, it's getting late."

After taking a few steps, he turned back uncontrollably, but Lin Baizhou was no longer on the winding road.

It was as if everything was his illusion, yet he knew clearly that it wasn't.

Wen Xue was certain he had been drinking. He Yan had once told her stories of other people's embarrassing behavior after drinking to scare her, but he was a very good person when drunk. Usually, he would talk even less when he was sober, and act as if nothing was wrong. He wouldn't talk nonsense or do anything strange.

She sniffed, but couldn't smell any alcohol.

It's unclear whether he drank only a small amount or was already mostly sober.

Upon reaching the white sedan, He Yan instinctively reached for the driver's seat, but a force pulled him back, and he obediently remained still. It was her cool hand pressing on his arm, and she said in a commanding tone, "I'll drive, you go to the passenger seat!"

He Yan looked helpless.

However, the impact today was too great, causing a sharp explosion in his ears. He simply couldn't concentrate on explaining to her, so he could only silently retreat to the passenger seat, open the door, and get in.

Wen Xue opened the trunk, took out a bottle of mineral water, unscrewed it, went back to the car and handed it over, saying, "Drink some water to calm down."

He Yan frowned as he took the bottle, tilted his head back, and gulped down most of it.

He's like a volcano about to erupt; for now, we can only use this little bit of water to quench his anger.

Wen Xue glanced at him for a moment, swallowed her words of advice, sighed inwardly, started the engine and drove out of the parking space. She was very familiar with this community, so she took the north gate which was closer to the main road. After driving for a while, while waiting for the green light, she turned her head to look at him. He was resting with his head propped up and his eyes closed, his fingers pressing his forehead haphazardly.

“I have some mentholatum in my bag.” She tossed the canvas bag from the armrest box onto his lap. “Look for it, it’ll come in handy.”

He Yan's mind was in a mess. She didn't think much about it or whether she needed the cooling balm. She just did whatever she was told. She opened the bag casually. There weren't many things inside. It was all there: a neatly tangled headphone cable, a small handheld fan, a wallet, tissues, sunscreen, and the cooling balm.

And a very out-of-place business card.

He picked up the central control screen, scanning it word by word, his voice tense, "Lin Baizhou, who is that?"

Wen Xue focused on driving, glancing at the card out of the corner of her eye. "Weiwei's brother, he gave me this business card."

Thinking of the button, she said in a light tone, "Did you see the message I sent? The button really is his. It must have fallen off when he was driving for me that day."

He Yan gave a low "hmm" and lowered the car window with his other hand.

The heat wave mixed with car exhaust fumes rushed in, but he seemed oblivious. Wen Xue asked in surprise, "Why are you opening the window in this heat?"

These words jolted He Yan awake from his daze. His expression turned solemn, and his hand, which was holding the business card, almost reached out the window. He quickly withdrew it, crumpling it into a ball and clenching it in his palm. "I accidentally pressed the wrong button."

"Go to sleep, I'll wake you when we get there," Wen Xue said.

He Yan agreed and leaned back in his seat. Wen Xue was extremely focused while driving, paying close attention to the road ahead, and didn't notice the deep gaze that was occasionally fixed on her in the dimly lit car.

late at night.

The light in He Yan's room was still on in the early hours of the morning. He tried to calm himself down and sat at the table copying scriptures. However, all the things he had found out in his previous life came to mind as he wrote them down. Since his rebirth, he had been constantly on guard against the person he really needed to be wary of, but he had forgotten that there was another man who had appeared in Wen Xue's life for four whole years.

This man spent more than three years, a process akin to water dripping on a stone, before finally winning her approval.

Lin Baizhou treated her very well, no less so than He Heng, and was willing to risk his life for her.

Without a doubt, if those things hadn't happened, when he and Wen Xue reunited one day, she would have been living the life he had once thought she would live—peaceful, stable, and happy.

She has a stable income, a warm and comfortable place to live, and a boyfriend who cherishes, respects, and loves her.

Bang--

He Yan threw the pen in his hand with an inscrutable expression. The ink spread across the slightly messy paper, starting from a dot and distorting the characters.

Early in the morning, Wu Yuejiang was awakened by the urge to urinate. He held it in for a while, but still slipped on his slippers and went to the bathroom. It was still early, and the sky was just beginning to lighten. He sleepily pulled up his pants, flushed, and prepared to go back to sleep.

Before he even reached the door, he bumped into He Yan. Looking closely, he saw that his friend was dressed neatly, holding car keys, looking ready to leave. He yawned and said, "So early, where are you going?"

"Never mind that."

He Yan left hastily after uttering those words without any expression.

Wu Yuejiang muttered "sick," then lazily kicked open the door and sauntered inside.

Wen Xue didn't need to go to the Fang family for tutoring, so she leisurely went to buy breakfast before the temperature rose. Carrying freshly fried dough sticks and soy milk, she knocked on He Yan's door. Usually, he would open the door quickly, but today it was strange; she knocked for several minutes without any response.

Wu Yuejiang, who lives next door, leaned out, holding a razor in his hand. "He went out early this morning."

"Huh?" Wen Xue exclaimed in surprise, "I didn't hear him say that."

She came to buy breakfast, a tacit understanding between her and He Yan. If he was going out in the morning, he would either tell her a day in advance or leave her a message. Thinking she hadn't seen it, she took out her phone, unlocked it, and saw that he hadn't sent her any messages.

"Who knows?" Wu Yuejiang shrugged, glanced at the soy milk and fried dough sticks in her hand, and gestured with his chin, "Don't waste it, give it to me."

"oh……"

Wen Xue gave him breakfast, took a few steps, then turned back, looked around, and seeing no one nearby, asked in a low voice, "Did something happen at the company?"

"No way," Wu Yuejiang said, chewing on a fried dough stick. "It's perfectly fine, don't worry unnecessarily."

“He wasn’t like this before.”

"What?"

"If he's not online, he'll send a message."

Wu Yuejiang chuckled, "I guarantee he's always been like this, never telling anyone where he goes. You'll get used to it."

"Yeah?"

Wen Xue was still worried, so after going upstairs to her room, she sent He Yan a message: 【Where did you go? I gave the fried dough sticks to Yuejiang-ge^^】

…

"Please."

A can of cold cola was placed next to He Yan. He came to his senses, opened the can with one hand, took a few sips, and felt extremely tired.

The young monk sat opposite He Yan, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan. "What brings you here today?"

There's a certain fate between people, and he and He Yan were very destined to be together. He knew He Yan didn't believe in these things, and the reason he came over so often was because he really had nothing to rely on. A while ago, he thought He Yan had found something to rely on, because his whole demeanor was different from a few months ago, showing signs of a withered tree coming back to life.

He Yan shook his head. He knew very well why he had been reborn: to take Wen Xue down a different path. Until yesterday, he thought everything was going in the direction he hoped for, but Lin Baizhou's appearance dealt him a heavy blow.

In the original timeline, Wen Xue should have met Lin Baizhou more than a year later.

She went to Lin Baizhou's company for an internship. After the internship ended, he started pursuing her and appeared in her life.

But they met in this lifetime.

He Yan had a splitting headache.

Even more absurdly, he clearly wanted to change Wen Xue's life, but now, because she wanted to buy him a birthday present, she went to tutor Lin Baizhou's sister, which led to them meeting two years earlier.

He laughed mockingly. What's so special about this?

The young monk was also quite uneasy when he saw him laughing in anger. What serious matter had happened?

Tell me about it.

“I wanted to change someone’s life.” After a long pause, He Yan spoke in a hoarse voice, “I wanted to keep her away from bad people and things, but I found that she still encountered them. Why is that?”

The monk pondered, "This is her/his destiny."

He Yan stared at him indifferently. Just when the monk thought he was about to turn hostile, the phone vibrated. He took out his phone, lowered his eyes to look at the screen, and in just a few seconds, he calmed down, his cold demeanor vanished, and he began typing patiently. The speed at which he changed his expression was astonishing.

After replying to the message, he flipped his phone over to cover it and said, slowly and deliberately, "I don't believe in fate, and neither does she."