Zong Chi practically shoved He Dongli into the car that night.
He said many harsh things and shattered her phone right in front of her.
He Dongli didn’t pick up the broken phone and didn’t want to.
She calmly said to him, “Zong Chi, let’s break up.”
She accused him, suspecting maybe all he wanted was a naive, carefree He Dongli who would always awkwardly clash with him but never leave.
Unfortunately, she had grown up.
Through their endless fights, He Dongli had painfully realized that love could die, just like people, just like her father—falling ill, beyond cure.
Zong Chi asked, “Then what?”
As if on cue, her childhood friend confessed to her, and she finally found someone in her world.
She finally understood, He Dongli.
Hearing from Zong Chi that they weren’t in the same world was the deepest humiliation for He Dongli.
Zong Chi obsessively pressed her, “He Dongli, do you kind of like Shen Mingchong? Otherwise, why keep agreeing to meet him?”
He Dongli’s eyes nearly welled up.
She caught hold of her own weakness and, even then, Zong Chi wouldn’t let her be free.
His pressing her to admit if she liked Shen Mingchong—well, that Shen guy really had liked her for years, far longer than she knew.
He Dongli simply gave in.
“Yes, I’m in their world. In their eyes, I’m detached and extraordinary. Not like with you, always on call, grateful whenever you fly back from wherever, sacrificing my time, energy, and body.”
“When I spend a few hours at your gatherings, you and your parents’ friends socialize, then only notice me afterwards and ask why I look so listless.”
Guilt flickered in Zong Chi’s eyes, but he avoided facing it.
When people avoid their weaknesses, they cling to what they think they can control. Like now, trying to use his loyalty in rushing home on a red-eye flight, and the fact she was dating someone else, to trap He Dongli, to rebut her.
“Xixi, do you love him?”
He Dongli replied coldly, “At least when I’m with him, I’m purely myself and comfortable.”
Zong Chi heard the ambiguous words and got furious.
“So you admit it. You admit you don’t mind that kind of tender, thoughtful love, don’t you? He Dongli, what is your heart made of? If you don’t like him, why the hell do you keep looking at him?”
“Mm,” He Dongli murmured softly.
After so many years, she could finally speak detachedly—free and irrepressibly petty in revenge.
“People who aren’t bound by worldly etiquette and petty judgments live carefree, lucky lives. In this, I’m on the same wavelength as Liang Jianxing—at least he knows he’s not interested in the blind date, but he’s willing to play along to fulfill his parents’ wishes.”
Zong Chi was silent for a long time after that.
He Dongli knew he hated hearing such hollow logic and probably despised her shallowness in his heart.
Indeed, during their worst fights, He Dongli had admitted she spent twenty-four years living all her shallowness, ignorance, and moral failings on Zong Chi alone.
So now, whatever he blamed her for, she let it be.
“Yes, I tried to make you stay by the pool just to annoy Xu Xilin. Yes, I used you. Are you satisfied now?”
Five years later, nearing thirty, He Dongli had long passed the age of needing to argue for fairness.
More than reasoning, she wanted to tell him one undeniable fact.
“No matter if I like it or not, I never intended to accept it.”
The traffic light turned red.
The driver instinctively slowed, stopping smoothly and precisely before the safety line.
The left-handed driver habitually made the steering gesture with an inward wrist turn.
Now, his relaxed hand loosened and rested on the edge of the wheel.
“I’m talking about flowers. Don’t overthink it and blame me.”
He Dongli willingly accepted the charge.
“Mm.”
“You do like it.”
“If you don’t like something, you wouldn’t look at it.”
“The first bag I gave you was because I knew you secretly liked it but didn’t want to accept gifts from Old Man Xu. I knew you liked the camellia emblem from their family.”
“Xi—”
“I’m sleepy. I’m going to nap. Wake me if we get there.”
He Dongli hastily blocked that gap in the conversation like it was a flood beast.
Over the years, away from home and long in study, He Dongli’s chances to visit her father’s grave were limited.
He Dongsheng had called her not long ago about the school situation for his child and mentioned their uncle’s tomb, asking if she wanted to move it to the new ancestral cemetery.
He Dongli desperately wanted to dream of her father once more, to hear what he might say, but she couldn’t anymore.
She could no longer remember what her father looked like when he was young.
That vague dream seemed to tell her that no one in this world is truly unforgettable.
The person beside her initially avoided speaking, but closing his eyes was genuine exhaustion of body and mind.
She didn’t know how long she had dozed.
When she woke with a heavy head, the car had stopped.
The heater still hummed, and the windows fogged with a deep blue haze.
He Dongli turned her head groggily, feeling the presence beside her wash over her senses.
She immediately looked away, feeling for the window control.
When she looked out, the car was parked in front of a small convenience store opposite her home.
The store hadn’t closed yet. The lit sign advertising cigarettes was missing a part, so the word for “cigarettes” was incomplete, looking like “因.”
He Dongli unbuckled her seatbelt.
The person beside her occasionally spoke, “Awake?”
He Dongli reached for her phone.
She had set the destination to the Affiliated Hospital No. 1 Headquarters.
There was no reason to take a detour here.
So late at night, she didn’t want to argue.
Still half-dazed, she said to Zong Chi, “Thanks.”
She opened the door and got out.
Before it closed, her phone rang.
It was Jiang Xingyuan.
She had just returned from a business trip and brought a box of particularly delicious Butterfly Pastry for her.
She asked if He Dongli was off work yet and said she had already sent a delivery.
He Dongli took a deep breath of cold air and teased her friend, “It’s so late. Why are you so busy sending this over?”
Jiang Xingyuan begged, “No matter. You eat it quickly. It’s authentic. Don’t forget what I asked of you.”
He Dongli glanced back.
If Jiang Xingyuan knew who she was trying to see with this sugar-coated bribe, she’d be flooring it here already.
Zong Chi followed her out, closed the car door, and looked around.
Walking around to the front of the car just as He Dongli finished her call, she couldn’t open her mouth to say anything.
Immediately, her friend stood up for her against the man in front of her.
She was just thinking of having Jiang Xingyuan contact him directly—after all, they were alumni and work-related.
Whatever happens, happens.
Her place was just across the alley, a two-story small building in a 日-shaped layout with a courtyard.
He Dongli only rented the downstairs.
The landlord’s mother had lived upstairs but had passed away recently.
The landlord needed a female tenant to keep an eye on the property and, with Zou Yan vouching, finally agreed to rent to Doctor He.
The small building was surrounded by a narrow red wall around the courtyard, vines creeping over it.
There was only a small black iron gate.
From outside, it looked like a cramped local residence.
He Dongli took her keys from her bag, ready to go in.
She looked at Zong Chi, who had just gotten out of the car, and finally reminded him, “Drive straight ahead to the end, then turn right and go out. No need to make a U-turn.”
From a not too distant spot, Zong Chi rested one hand on the car’s side mirror.
After a long pause, he replied neutrally, “Okay.”
He Dongli turned and walked across the alley—it was just a few steps.
Just as her hand touched the door handle, someone called out behind her, “Dong—”
Zou Yan had just finished work and drove by, stopping skillfully at the building’s main door.
He was here to fulfill his promise to deliver a gift.
Zou Yan took a heavy box from the trunk and told the person at the door, “They said you left early and didn’t reply to their messages.”
Before Zou Yan could bring the coffee machine box inside, someone stepped out quickly from in front of Zou Yan’s car, holding a brown paper bag out to He Dongli.
Without a word to anyone, he said, “You forgot the flowers. Liang Jianxing gave them to you, not to me.”
He Dongli looked at the suddenly reappearing Zong Chi, her eyes shining with surprise.
That wasn’t all.
He added, “I wasn’t happy driving back without navigation, so contact Chen Xiangyang and have his driver come pick me up.”
“I’ll take the flowers for you. Open the door. I want to use your bathroom, if it’s not inconvenient.”