Dusk flowed like water, the crimson sunset glow falling on the front windshield. Yu Hao felt a little hot. She recalled a conversation between Song Xiaotao and Yuan Jing that she had accidentally overheard in the restroom a few days before the wedding banquet.

At the time, Yuan Jing's voice was a bit shocked. Due to her surprise, she couldn't help but raise her voice, yet she had to lower it. Every word was filled with tension: "So you're not pregnant?"

Song Xiaotao shushed her, signaling for her to be quiet. A moment later, her tone became nonchalant, "Lin Chang has had so many girlfriends, did you know he has no intention of getting married at all? Like his few childhood friends, they're all the same. One is petty, one is cold, and then there's the other one, the soldier. He seems okay, nice to everyone on the surface, but he's not serious about anyone. I was forced into this too."

Yuan Jing couldn't believe it. "Do you really have to marry him?"

Song Xiaotao: "Yeah. Don't doubt what I'm saying. Forget his childhood friends, just look at Lin Chang's qualifications. It's hard to find someone like him even if you searched with a lantern. I can't miss this chance, you know? Besides, I heard that a woman he used to like is coming back to the country soon. I was afraid she'd turn the tables on me, so I resorted to this desperate measure."

Yuan Jing was stunned. "So he still likes that woman now?"

Song Xiaotao sneered, "Of course he does."

Yuan Jing couldn't understand. "Then why are you still marrying him?"

Song Xiaotao laughed mockingly, "Missy, do you really think men like the ones in novels still exist? So what if he likes her? I like our senior brother too, but I chose to marry Lin Chang. Besides liking him, it's more because he can give me the life I want, and our senior brother can't. Do you understand?"

Yuan Jing lowered her voice, "What if the person he likes comes back, and the two of them...?"

Song Xiaotao: "There's a saying: 'Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half-closed after.' Besides, what's done is done. What kind of trouble can she stir up? If he really wants a divorce, I have my ways to deal with him."

Yuan Jing asked what ways.

Song Xiaotao was coy and wouldn't say, glossing over it vaguely, "You don't need to worry about that. I'm just telling you, when that soldier comes back in a few days, I'll introduce him to you. Don't underestimate him, his qualifications are really good. His father was a martyr, and the people he associates with are not ordinary. You know the Boya Group, right? That's his uncle's company. Isn't he a prime catch on the matchmaking market? Parents deceased, has a car and a house, a respectable job, and a rich relative."

Yuan Jing found this jarring to hear, but she knew Song Xiaotao's personality and didn't say more. As the conversation was ending, Song Xiaotao finished touching up her makeup and added, "You'll definitely like him. I'll definitely help you then. This method works every time."

...

Song Xiaotao felt a headache coming on. She knew Lu Huaizheng liked to joke around, but he rarely made this kind of joke between men and women. If he didn't mean anything by it, she figured he wouldn't have said it. Now that he had, it meant he at least had a good impression of Yu Hao.

She glanced at Yuan Jing and smiled, then said to the man in the car, "You love to joke. Sister Yu Hao's boyfriend would be worried if he heard that. I just ran into Professor Shen next door yesterday." The latter part was said while looking at Yu Hao.

Lu Huaizheng shook his head and smiled. 'No wonder she's so cold to me, so she has a boyfriend.' His expression didn't change much. He leaned back in his seat and replied nonchalantly, "Is that so?" Then he smiled again, looked out the window, and narrowed his eyes slightly. "With such a beautiful girlfriend, he should feel a sense of crisis." At this point, he turned to look at Song Xiaotao and jerked his chin towards Yu Hao. "Is that guy good to her?"

"He is, exceptionally good. If anything happens to Sister Yu Hao, he gets more anxious than if it were his own problem. And he's already a distinguished professor at our school at just thirty-two. Every time, his classes are full, he's extremely popular. I heard they've known each other since they were little, childhood sweethearts—"

At first, Lu Huaizheng still had a smile on his lips, but the more Song Xiaotao spoke, the more his face stiffened. The smile vanished, and the hand resting on the window sill gradually tightened, his knuckles turning white without him even noticing.

"Song Xiaotao, you're pregnant. Aren't you going home early? Is that belly of yours fake?"

Yu Hao's words were pointed, her gaze quite cold. She sat coolly in the car, her eyes filled with a chill, and when she looked at Song Xiaotao, her stare was extremely sharp.

Song Xiaotao had only intended to say a few casual words and was feeling very guilty. The moment she heard Yu Hao mention the fake belly, her heart clenched. But the warning in Yu Hao's eyes clearly told her that she seemed to know something, which made her panic.

But Lu Huaizheng's smile was particularly jarring. "We've already talked this much, a few more minutes won't hurt. Keep talking."

Song Xiaotao looked at Yu Hao again. Her arms were crossed over her chest, her gaze even colder. She pouted and said, "I won't say any more. I have to go home, my stomach doesn't feel well."

'Anyway, it's enough to let Lu Huaizheng know there's a male friend with an ambiguous relationship around Yu Hao.'

"Wait."

This time, it was Yu Hao who stopped her.

Song Xiaotao turned back, feeling a bit impatient. 'First you tell me to leave, then you don't, what exactly do you want?' But she didn't dare show it on her face. "What's wrong?"

The sky was growing dark. Yu Hao's voice was like soft water wearing away stone—forceful and cold.

"'Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half-closed after.' Does that phrase sound familiar?"

At first, Song Xiaotao was puzzled. Then, thinking about it carefully, she felt like she had just said it somewhere not long ago. After that, she connected it to the relevant conversation, and her expression completely froze. She glanced at Yu Hao uneasily a few times, but the latter ignored her, only saying, "I'm done. You can go."

Song Xiaotao was stunned for a few seconds, looking at Yu Hao as if she wanted to say something but held back. Yu Hao didn't even look at her. Knowing that it wasn't appropriate to ask more in front of Lu Huaizheng, she dazedly pulled Yuan Jing away.

'She had only said those words that day. Yu Hao's remark was clearly a reminder not to get any ideas about Lu Huaizheng, or else who knows what trouble might stir up. This big sister seemed plain and harmless on a daily basis, but she was actually wickedly shrewd.'

On one side, Song Xiaotao left with Yuan Jing.

On the other, Lu Huaizheng rolled up the car window. He lowered his head, searching for something in the armrest compartment. Unable to find it, he angrily threw the car keys in his hand back into the compartment. After a moment, he explained irritably, "Song Xiaotao wanted to introduce that young girl to me. I found it annoying, so I just used you as a shield just now. I was just talking casually, don't mind it."

He said it without a hint of sincerity.

But Yu Hao finally understood. "You saw through it?"

After his father's sacrifice, he had lived with his aunt for a period, depending on her charity. His former uncle was a scumbag, involved in eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling. Life was hard. To avoid beatings, he learned to read people's expressions better than other children from a young age. His aunt divorced after giving birth, lived alone with the child for two years, and then met his current uncle.

He learned most of his temperament and disposition from his current uncle. Some people, you could tell what was on their minds with just a single glance.

Let alone a twenty-four or twenty-five-year-old student like Song Xiaotao, whose schemes and cunning were written all over her face.

Lu Huaizheng let out a chuckle. "Doesn't she have the word 'matchmaker' written on her forehead?" After saying that, he felt the atmosphere was too lighthearted. He wiped the smile off his face, his gaze never once landing on Yu Hao from beginning to end, and laughed self-deprecatingly, "I only just learned today that you like older men."

"Did you forget what Professor Han said at noon?" Yu Hao said.

Only then did Lu Huaizheng turn to look at her suspiciously, his hand still resting on the steering wheel.

"Professor Han just introduced me to you at noon. Do you think a person of his status and position would lie to your superiors? If he knew I had a boyfriend, would he have said those things?"

Lu Huaizheng felt his brain short-circuit for a moment and asked the stupidest question in his entire life.

"So Professor Han doesn't know you have a boyfriend?"

"..."

"Or you don't have a boyfriend at all?"

Yu Hao asked in return, "Does what you just said still count?"

"What?"

"Saturday."

"I guess it does."

Why add an 'I guess'? Lu Huaizheng felt it made him seem a bit more suave, less desperate.

"I'll check my schedule when I get back and reply to you. There's a project that needs Professor Han's confirmation before I can change the time."

Lu Huaizheng had always thought she was like a machine. Everything was planned perfectly, without the slightest room for error. She had to lock herself into a certain frame. People like that were under a lot of stress; no wonder she liked to smoke.

He hummed in acknowledgment, his voice softening a bit.

"Do you still smoke now?"

"Not much."

Then the conversation died down. A silence fell over the car for a long while.

"I'll get going then," Yu Hao said.

Lu Huaizheng gave her a casual glance and said, "Leave your number."

The car was quiet. Yu Hao seemed to be waiting for him to take out his phone. Only then did he remember, "My phone is at the base. Just tell me."

Yu Hao thought for a moment and said, "Why don't you give me yours? I'll call you when I've confirmed."

"138xxxxxxxx."

Lu Huaizheng recited a string of numbers very quickly. After he finished, he added, "I don't check it often usually. Just send a message. I'll reply when I see it and have time."

Yu Hao returned to the Research Institute and took out her schedule.

On Saturday evening, she had to conduct a psychological evaluation for a distant relative of Professor Han. It could have been moved to Saturday afternoon, but on Saturday afternoon, there was a psychology lecture at the Second Institute that ran until six.

Yu Hao gave Professor Han a call.

When Han Zhichen received Yu Hao's call, he was having dinner with Li Hongwen. Lu Huaizheng was accompanying them.

"What's up?"

"Saturday night, you have something on?"

"That can be rescheduled, it's not urgent. But why the sudden plans?"

"Alright, I won't ask. You should have some time for yourself. The dean was right last time, I can't always keep you scheduled around me. I should give you more time to go out and find a boyfriend."

At this point, Han Zhichen, holding his phone, looked up at Lu Huaizheng across from him and continued, "Old Li's suggestion isn't reliable. I think Little Shen is quite reliable."

Li Hongwen protested indignantly, "What are you talking about? If the Chinese Air Force isn't reliable, what is?" After speaking, he patted Lu Huaizheng's shoulder. "Do you know how many people he's saved!? When you people encounter danger, it's them who charge to the front lines for you. I don't like hearing you say that. During the Wenchuan Earthquake..."

Han Zhichen interrupted, "Then out of three hundred and sixty-five days, how many are you at home?" He looked at Li Hongwen. "I treat Yu Hao like my own daughter. I don't want her to suffer with you guys. Old Li, you care for your soldier and want to find him a good wife, but I care for my student too. Stop playing matchmaker blindly. What I said at noon was just a joke, don't take it seriously."

"I am taking it seriously!"

"You...!"

"A gentleman's word is his bond!"

"Childish!"

Han Zhichen hung up the phone and began to argue earnestly and seriously with Li Hongwen.

Lu Huaizheng kept his head down, shoveling rice into his mouth without a word, completely pretending not to hear. He quickly finished the remaining rice in his bowl in a few bites, then leaned back in his chair in a good mood, a smile on his lips, watching the two old men argue.

'Let's go see a movie on Saturday. I'll wear that white shirt she likes best.'

'She'll like it.'

He thought.

The last time he wore this shirt, she seemed very enthusiastic.

Author's Note:

Yesterday, I saw someone say the two of them were awkward.

They haven't seen each other in over a decade, so of course, there's some awkwardness. It has to slowly get better. The reason I'm editing is because I thought about it later, and it really is a bit inappropriate for two people who haven't seen each other in so long to be like dry wood and a blazing fire right from the start. The early stage will be a bit of a slow burn.

You'll understand Yu Hao's personality later on.

Also, some people said Lu Lu flirts around everywhere. He's really been wronged. His character design isn't the aloof type, but he doesn't go around flirting with everyone.