Chapter 10

The "trial" relationship with Jiang Yu was like a sugar-coated pill: sweet care on the surface, yet a confusing bitterness within. Xia Wan struggled between this sweetness and the medicine. Jiang Yu's "compensatory care" was steady and continuous: therapy appointments, nutritious meals, occasional rides, and even when she caught a cold, Li Mo would promptly deliver the right medicine and light porridge. He was like a precisely programmed program, meticulously attentive yet maintaining just the right distance. This left Xia Wan feeling torn between enjoying it with peace of mind and finding no reason to completely reject it.

This state of being neither up nor down lasted for two weeks until a call from Lin Wei came like a bomb.

"Xia Wanwan! You're done! You're done!" Lin Wei's voice exploded into the phone, filled with gossip radar-on excitement and a hint of incredible anger. "I just saw you and Jiang Yu at the mall! Right in front of that damn expensive Japanese restaurant! He opened the car door for you! Tell me! What's going on between you two?! You've been so secretive since the last class reunion, and you won't say anything when I ask you! And now it has come to this?! Tell the truth!"

Xia Wan stood in her deserted apartment, phone in hand, feeling a surge of anxiety. She should have expected that in this relatively small city, she and Jiang Yu would be spotted together sooner or later by someone they knew, especially Lin Wei, the "nosy one."

"Weiwei, please listen to my explanation..." Xia Wan's voice was filled with fatigue and helplessness.

"What explanation do you need?! Explain when you two started having an affair?!" Lin Wei pressed on. "Come on, Xia Wan, you've been secretly in love with someone like a sullen person for over a decade, and now you're just going all out? You're even hiding it from your bestie? That's so mean!"

"It's not what you think..." Xia Wan tried to defend herself, but her voice gradually faded. What was it not? She couldn't even explain it herself.

"It's not like that?" Lin Wei keenly caught the hesitation and confusion in her tone, and her voice suddenly became serious. "Wanwan, your voice is wrong. What's going on? Did Jiang Yu... bully you? Or did he force you?" As a close friend of more than ten years, Lin Wei knew Xia Wan all too well. Xia Wan's silence and confusion were definitely not the state of being in love.

Xia Wan fell silent. The immense pressure and frustration she felt, unable to vent, completely collapsed under Lin Wei's concerned question. She took a deep breath, her voice hoarse, and poured out everything, from that chaotic night after the class reunion to Jiang Yu's words, "Let's give it a try"... everything, pouring out everything, like pouring out beans, to Lin Wei on the other end of the phone without reservation. Including his distant, compensatory care, and the immense confusion and uneasiness in her heart - was he driven by guilt? Responsibility? Or... something else?

On the other end of the line, Lin Wei was unusually silent for a long time. Xia Wan could even imagine her best friend's face, her brow furrowed, her fingers unconsciously tapping the table.

"Xia Wanwan," Lin Wei's voice finally rang out, with unprecedented seriousness and a hint of heartache, "You are such a fool! A huge fool!"

"I……"

"Don't say anything!" Lin Wei interrupted her. "Let me ask you, after that night, besides saying 'I owe you', did he ever explicitly say that it was because of you... um... that it was the first time he felt guilty?"

Xia Wan was stunned for a moment, thinking back carefully. Jiang Yu had never mentioned the specific details of that night, including the bloodstains on the sheets. "No...no. He just said 'he owed me.'"

"Okay." Lin Wei's voice was firm. "Secondly, he suggested 'giving it a try,' and then all the things he did afterwards—picking you up, delivering meals, arranging physical therapy, even taking you to social events—on the surface, it looked like caring, but do you think this resembled a man pursuing a woman? Or was it more like... a boss fulfilling his responsibilities to his subordinates or partners?"

Xia Wan's heart sank. Lin Wei's words were like a sharp knife, precisely slicing through the ambiguity she had been reluctant to dwell on. Jiang Yu's actions, while considerate and thoughtful, lacked the warmth, tentativeness, and cautious throbbing that should exist between lovers. It was more like a formulaic "dutiful" act.

"He...he seems to be just completing the task of 'trying it out'..." Xia Wan's voice was bitter.

"Mission?" Lin Wei sneered on the other end of the phone. "Xia Wan, wake up! Who is Jiang Yu? If he really feels he owes you, with his financial resources and means, wouldn't it be more straightforward to just arrange the best job for your brother, or transfer enough money into your account to provide you with food and clothing for the rest of your life? Why would he bother going to all this trouble, taking care of your meals, physical therapy, and even picking you up and dropping you off personally like a nanny? And even bringing you into his social circle?"

Xia Wan was stunned by the question. Yes, Jiang Yu could have used a more "efficient" method to "repay his debt." Why did he choose the method that consumed the most of his time and energy?

"Weiwei...you mean..."

"What I mean is, this bastard has more in mind than that!" Lin Wei said firmly, "He might feel guilty, and he might feel responsible, but it's definitely more than that! If he had no feelings for you at all, or if he simply saw you as someone he needed to 'compensate' for, he wouldn't even suggest 'trying'! And certainly not in this way!"

Lin Wei's words were like a thunderclap, splitting the fog in Xia Wan's mind. She had stubbornly interpreted Jiang Yu's actions as simply "paying a debt," subconsciously ignoring the potential implications, which even Jiang Yu himself hadn't clearly grasped... other possibilities?

"But...he treated me..." Xia Wan thought of his calm eyes and distant behavior, and her heart was still confused.

"Can't you feel how he treats you?" Lin Wei's voice softened, with a hint of helplessness, "Wanwan, a bystander sees more clearly. The way he looks at you may not be sickeningly sweet, but it's definitely not the look of someone looking at a 'burden'! How out of control did he get at that time in the factory? Can pure guilt explain it? And why did he take you with him when he hates socializing so much? And why did he confront that gossipy Su Qian for you? Su Qian was in cahoots with that 'campus belle' back then! He's drawing a line in the sand! He's telling everyone with his actions that the person he's with is you, Xia Wan!"

Lin Wei's analysis was like a revelation, sending Xia Wan's heart racing uncontrollably. Those details she'd overlooked—his arm blocking her way, the warmth of his palm as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, his undisguised indifference and protectiveness towards Su Qian—all flashed before her eyes, taking on new meaning.

"So... Weiwei, you're saying..."

"I mean, Jiang Yu, that taciturn guy, might not even understand how he feels about you! Guilt, responsibility, and the budding... something else, all mixed together! So he can only use the method he's best at—'doing things'—to get close to you, to 'test' you!" Lin Wei's voice was tinged with excitement. "Wanwan, your chance has come! Don't be fooled by his 'compensation' card! What you have to do is not to passively accept his arrangements, but to let him see clearly that he's not facing a creditor he needs to 'repay', but a living woman who is worth his understanding and love, Xia Wan!"

"But... what should I do?" Xia Wan's voice was filled with a hint of helplessness and anticipation. Lin Wei's words ignited the almost extinguished flame of hope in her heart.

"How?" Lin Wei smirked on the other end of the phone. "Of course, break his 'program'! Make him lose control! Make him realize that you're not one of those 'problems' he can solve with money and resources! You, Xia Wan, are a woman who makes his heart beat faster and makes him lose his mind!"

"Break the program?" Xia Wan murmured again.

"Right! For example, reject his arrangements! For example, take the initiative to ask him out! For example, show him the real you, not that 'project' that he's 'taking care of' so perfectly!" Lin Wei became more and more excited as she spoke. "Don't wait for him to make arrangements for the weekend! Take the initiative to ask him out! Ask him out somewhere... um... not so 'Jiangyu'! Let him experience the feeling of having his plans disrupted!"

After hanging up the phone, Xia Wan stood by the window, gazing at the countless lights of the city outside, her heart pounding. Lin Wei's words were like a shot in the arm, dispelling the confusion and passivity she had felt for so many days. She couldn't continue living within the walls Jiang Yu had constructed with "compensation." She needed to get out, and she also needed to pull him out of his fixed "creditor" mindset.

She pulled out her phone, took a deep breath, and clicked on Jiang Yu's chat box. Her fingertips hovered over the screen for a moment, then, with a kind of desperate courage, she quickly typed a line of words:

"Jiang Yu, are you free this weekend? I know a very special private restaurant and I want to take you there to try it. Not for a social event, just the two of us."