Chapter One: Old Classmate

As soon as she got off the high-speed train, the cold wind of early spring rushed into Lin Yu's collar, and she shivered as she shrank her neck. April in Linjiang still carried a chilly feel.

Her phone vibrated in her palm, and a WeChat message from her boyfriend Jiang Chuan popped up on the screen, asking if she had successfully exited the station.

Lin Yu replied hastily, stuffed his phone back into his bag, and followed the slowly moving crowd to wait to exit the station, imagining him sitting at a conference table, holding his phone, looking down at the text message.

His eyes behind the glasses held a hint of detachment, like a lake surface covered with a thin layer of ice in winter. Yet, a faint smile always appeared when he replied to her messages.

Jiang Chuan is a lawyer, a partner in a small law firm, with a prestigious career and a high income. The two have only known each other for a few months, but their relationship has progressed rapidly.

Looking back on everything that has happened in these past few months, he seems to have always been like this, always able to achieve his goals easily in the most direct way.

After a long while, the other party finally replied.

The scoundrel said, "Drink less, and remember to call me when you get to the hotel." He then added, "It doesn't matter how late."

At the same time, Yao Fangfang's call came in, and Lin Yu hurriedly replied, "Attorney Jiang is a bit clingy today!" He then picked up the phone and held it to his ear.

Yao Fangfang's voice was warm and sweet, flowing eagerly into my ears from the other end.

"Banban, the people of Linjiang City welcome you!"

Lin Yu swiped her ID and walked out of the gate. She pulled off the trench coat draped over her suitcase and used both hands to put it on. The suitcase next to her feet was knocked over by the coat, so she put on one sleeve and bent down to retrieve it. Her shoulder-length black hair slipped out from behind her ears, obscuring her vision.

The calfskin high heels on her feet had only been worn twice, originally intended to make her look more mature during project coordination, but now they were gnawing at her toes in a vengeful manner.

Lin Yu held the phone in one hand and dragged his luggage in the other, tossing his hair back and stomping his feet, looking somewhat disheveled.

The high-speed rail station in Linjiang City wasn't very big. Lin Yu spotted Yao Fangfang in the crowd at the exit. Her tall, slender figure was wrapped in a dark red trench coat, and her newly dyed reddish-brown short hair was neatly tucked behind her ears.

A small, unadorned face peeked out from a large bunch of creamy yellow tulips, making her complexion appear even whiter and brighter. Her large eyes, misty with tears, searched through the crowd, carrying a touch of childlike bewilderment and a delicate, charming beauty.

Who would have thought that she was already a mother of a three-year-old child?

Five years ago, during graduation season, Yao Fangfang's wedding invitation arrived in Lin Yu's hands before her degree certificate. At that time, she didn't understand that this thin piece of paper would become a watershed moment in their lives, freezing Yao Fangfang's life into a heartwarming scene on social media.

What awaited Lin Yu was Lujiazui at 2 a.m., a subway packed like sardines, and a PPT on his computer screen that could never be finished being revised.

Two thousand kilometers apart and five years have shaped their lives into completely different forms. Across the bustling crowd, Lin Yu suddenly realized that it had been so long since they had last seen each other.

"Fangfang!"

Ignoring the pain in his toes, Lin Yu dragged his luggage over in a few quick steps, grabbed the person from behind, and hugged him tightly, his voice choked with emotion.

Yao Fangfang was startled by the sudden hug. After turning around and seeing Lin Yu's face, she immediately screamed excitedly. The two then hugged each other tightly, like two magnets, and giggled.

A cold draft from the underground parking garage, mixed with the smell of gasoline, hit them. A silver-gray Audi in the distance suddenly turned on its headlights. Lin Yu squinted, turning to Yao Fangfang in confusion to confirm several times.

"Your husband went bankrupt?"

"Chen Guang's car, he'll be there in a bit."

Yao Fangfang grabbed her arm and pulled her forward, casually teasing, "What? Are you allergic to cars under 300,000?"

A cold wind blew by, and Lin Yu felt the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stand on end, like a conditioned reflex etched into his muscle memory. Remembering that he had just informed Jiang Chuan that only Yao Fangfang and her husband would be there that night, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

She forced herself to relax her shoulders and deliberately dragged out her tone to lightly brush it off.

"Yes! It's hard to breathe when you sit inside, and your vanity kicks in."

Yao Fangfang neither confirmed nor denied Lin Yu's words. She took her arm and pushed her into the car.

Lin Yu, sitting in the passenger seat, paused while fastening his seatbelt, still asking with concern, "Who else is coming? Tell me all at once."

She didn't want to be a subservient servant to her clients during the day and then have to entertain her "former lovers" with their families at night.

"My husband."

Yao Fangfang brushed her wind-blown short hair against the sunshade. "He and Chen Guang haven't seen each other in a long time either. They both got promoted recently and don't have much free time. We owe this get-together to you."

The phone screen lit up at her fingertips. She briefly sent Zhang Yunzhou a message saying she had received the message, then turned the steering wheel with one hand and drove out of the parking space. The shadows under the dim yellow lights of the underground parking garage flowed silently into the dimples on her cheeks.

"How have you been lately?" Yao Fangfang asked, turning her head while waiting at a red light.

"Four words: follow the steps!" Lin Yu replied with a smile.

“No…” Yao Fangfang shook her head and raised an eyebrow, “Judging from your complexion, I think you’re having a happy occasion. How’s it going with your lawyer boyfriend?”

"We plan to get married on New Year's Day!" In just a few months of getting to know each other, Lin Yu had already mastered Jiang Chuan's way of speaking perfectly, getting straight to the point without any preamble.

"So fast? We've only known each other for a few months!" Yao Fangfang was clearly shocked, her eyes wide as she stared at the road ahead.

"This kind of thing is best dealt with quickly and decisively, and he's pretty good in every way."

"Which aspects? Which aspects?" Yao Fangfang joked.

"I don't know, since there's no comparison." Lin Yu became serious. "Thinking back now, I was so much more naive in college."

Yao Fangfang laughed and said, "What? Regret not tackling Chen Guang back then?"

"No, no!"

"What's there to be afraid of? If he's all bark and no bite, then none of this mess will have happened."

Hearing Yao Fangfang say this, Lin Yu seemed to be drawn into the story as well, and joked, "Why didn't his mother suggest giving me 2 million to leave her son?"

"Forget about two million. You two were never even together. You're probably not worth that much in his eyes. But you can try to seduce him now. Chen Guang would be more than happy to."

"Hey, you can't say things like that. He's not good enough for me to be a mistress for love."

Lin Yu leaned back in her chair and waved her hands repeatedly. Then she sighed, letting the warm breeze, carrying the fresh scent of the car's air freshener and the earthy aroma of the rain, pull her into her memories and help her sort out her chaotic thoughts.

She knew it was just an industrially replicated smell, but it inexplicably reminded her of Chen Guang from her memories, though the two might have no connection whatsoever.

As time passed, feelings for Chen Guang, like damp film, slowly blurred and distorted with time. Chen Guang gradually became the image Lin Yu wanted to create, while the real him seemed less important.

Just as Lin Yu was trying to figure out the boundary between reality and illusion, Yao Fangfang suddenly spoke up.

"Banban, do you know?"

"What?"

"Chen Guang is divorced."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yu turned to look at his friend in astonishment. After a long while, he calmly replied, "Is that so? It's just a pity that this blue-chip stock has fallen below its issue price; it's no longer what it used to be."

......

When the car pulled up in front of a hot pot restaurant, Yao Fangfang parked it on the side of the road.

Perhaps due to the exhaustion from the business trip over the past few days, or perhaps because the smell in the car was so comforting, Lin Yu slept all the way to his destination.

The dimmed phone screen reflected her somewhat haggard face from working overtime for days. Lin Yu hurriedly rummaged through her bag for lipstick and applied it in front of the sun visor mirror on the passenger side, trying her best to salvage what little image she had left.

The passenger door was suddenly pulled open, and a blast of cold air rushed into the car. Caught off guard, Lin Yu was startled by the chill and couldn't help but sneeze loudly. His hand trembled, and his lipstick left a red mark on the corner of his mouth.

She hurriedly wiped it with her fingertips, but when she looked up, she met a familiar gaze. Chen Guang was standing in the shadows of the hot pot restaurant entrance, staring at her intently.

This reunion was not what Lin Yu had expected. At this moment, she was exhausted from her journey and looked weary. Chen Guang, on the other hand, was handsome and refined.

He was dressed in a long black woolen overcoat, looking every bit the public servant. He was still as tall, thin, and strong as he had been in school, his back ramrod straight. He stood with his arms crossed under the eaves by the door, having waited for who knows how long.

He held half a cigarette between his fingers, the lit butt cooled, a ember clinging to it as if it might fall at any moment. But he was oblivious, his gaze fixed on Lin Yu's direction.

Lin Yu couldn't discern his expression at that moment—was it mockery of her disheveled and dawdling state, indifference as if it were none of his business, or perhaps a suppressed longing for someone he hadn't seen for many years?

The steam from the hot pot restaurant escaped through the cracks in the door, obscuring Chen Guang's face in an ambiguous way.

Yao Fangfang stood by the car door, stamping her feet in the cold as she looked at Lin Yu. "Banban, get out of the car quickly, this awful weather is really unbearable, it looks like the snow is about to melt."

Chen Guang extinguished his cigarette, straightened himself up, and walked over. Three years had passed, and it seemed that apart from his clothes and demeanor, nothing had changed.

"When did you start smoking?" Lin Yu got out of the car and looked at Chen Guang standing in front of him. There was no joy of a long-awaited reunion, but rather a familiar reproach.

Chen Guang lowered his head and smiled helplessly, revealing a sharp canine tooth on one side. The shadow of his thick eyelashes concealed the dark circles under his eyes. "It's just occasional business, I don't smoke much." The two followed Yao Fangfang, walking side by side into the store.

"I heard you got promoted to section chief. Congratulations! How's it going? Working in the energy department must be tough, right? Are you incredibly busy lately, even dreaming about approving documents?"

Lin Yu carefully considered his words, but some words remained stuck in his throat like a fishbone, neither coming up nor going down, causing a sharp pain in his throat.

"Too many chores, I can't sleep well." Chen Guang slowed Lin Yu by half a step, turning his head to look at her expression. "You..."

"So I've made you miss your nap. Don't make a special trip here next time. You'll lose two hours of sleep coming and going. You could probably spend that time approving two more documents in your dreams."

Lin Yu interrupted Chen Guang with an inappropriate joke, nervously clenched his hands, took a few steps, and followed behind Yao Fangfang to block the door that was about to close.

She stood under the porch, turned around to look at Chen Guang who was behind her, and saw him open his mouth, but the words he said were drowned out by the lively atmosphere of the hot pot restaurant.