Suddenly, something exploded in Xie Yu's mind, as if a bomb had gone off.

His blood began to slowly congeal.

He had set a password lock on his phone, and the messages sent by Zhou Dalei took up most of the lock screen, although not all of them were displayed. However, the jumbled messages still conveyed the general idea.

"Dalei, he," Xie Yu's fingers slowly curled into a fist, and he instinctively chose to keep this matter a secret. "He was just joking, there's nothing to it."

Gu Xuelan had not slept all night, sitting still from midnight until noon. In fact, she had lost track of how much time had passed, as if it had been a very long time, but not that long, only seeing the outside world gradually brightening up.

As soon as Xie Yu finished speaking, he was about to add "Don't think too much" with a stiff face, but then Gu Xuelan asked, "What is all that about."

When she spoke, her throat was dry and her momentum was different from the first question. She showed a kind of unnatural calmness after a violent emotional fluctuation, and a sentence was stuck in her mouth. It took a few seconds before she said it.

"You're still planning to deceive me, huh?"

Seeing her reaction, Xie Yu guessed that Zhou Dalei had probably directly sold him out.

His mind was too chaotic just now, and he forgot to consider this aspect. According to Zhou Dalei's personality, if she had really chased after him and asked, he would immediately become flustered and couldn't hide anything.

Faced with Madam Gu's questioning, Xie Yu remained silent for a while and did not answer.

Zhou Dalei had never imagined that his few short messages would accidentally blow everything wide open.

After sending them last night, he was about to put his phone down and go to sleep when Aunt Lan's phone call nearly made him fall out of bed.

Without much prompting from Gu Xuelan, he spilled everything he knew, both what he should and shouldn't have said.

"I only found out about this recently, and Boss Xie didn't want me to say anything, but I couldn't keep it bottled up," Zhou Dalei said as he pushed open the window for some fresh air. "...Aunt Lan, he just wants you to have a better life at the Zhong family, with fewer people causing trouble and heartache."

The Zhong family's business was a well-known family enterprise in City A.

After Gu Xuelan got married, this restructured family became particularly awkward. The position of Mrs. Zhong position was not easy to sit in, let alone with Zhong Jie, who was always causing trouble.

Xie Yu usually kept to himself, appearing as if he couldn't be bothered.

Gu Xuelan always thought he was still young and could handle the pressure herself, but she didn't realize that he could see and understand everything that was going on around him.

As Gu Xuelan thought back to this, her hands couldn't stop trembling. She wanted to lift her coat off her shoulders, but found that she couldn't muster the strength.

For a moment, her mind went blank as a strong feeling of weakness and weightlessness swept over her.

Her last remaining impression was hearing Xie Yu panic and shout "Mom--".

The sound of footsteps coming and going surrounded her.

After Gu Xuelan fainted, the Zhong family became chaotic.

The family doctor came down from the second floor with his medicine box, reminding them as he walked, "It's still the same problem. I've told you to be careful many times. How could you be so careless? Rest more often and don't overwork yourself...Take good care of yourself."

Xie Yu was still in a daze.

As the family doctor was leaving, Ah Fang couldn't help but stand at the entrance of the master bedroom and whisper, "Madam hasn't been feeling well lately. You're always at school and may not know. She even went to the hospital a few months ago...She didn't sleep all night and sat downstairs waiting for you."

Ah Fang sighed, "No matter what happened, you should talk it out properly."

Xie Yu sat by Madam Gu's bedside, the voices downstairs gradually becoming distant. He had no other thoughts in his mind, only feeling like a jerk.

He hesitated for a moment, and finally gently touched her hand.

......

When Gu Xuelan woke up, it was already evening.

Ah Fang was busy packing in the room, and when she saw Gu Xuelan wake up, she quickly said a few kind words: "Second Young Master is in the kitchen stewing soup for you. He was so worried that he wouldn't even go downstairs to eat. If there's anything, just talk to him...He's a very sensible child."

Meanwhile, Xie Yu was busy in the kitchen for a while.

While he was cutting ingredients, Zhou Dalei happened to call. The moment the call connected, Zhou Dalei clearly heard a "bang" from the other end.

Xie Yu raised his knife and brought it down on the cutting board with a dull thud.

Zhou Dalei swallowed nervously and said, "...B-Boss Xie?"

Xie Yu didn't say anything and brought the knife down again.

Zhou Dalei shrank his neck and continued to defend himself before his death, hoping for a reprieve: "I'm sorry, I didn't expect things to turn out this way. Life is full of surprises. Last night, I was playing a game and the opposing team was really weak. Then I thought of you, my good brother--"

"Enough," Xie Yu put down the knife, checked the time, and the steam rose as he poured the cut ingredients into the pot. "This has nothing to do with you."

Zhou Dalei thought that with Xie Yu's bad temper, he could at most live for a couple more days, but he didn't expect to be directly acquitted.

Zhou Dalei felt like he had gotten away with something and even felt a little uncomfortable: "Ah? Are you sure you don't want to settle the score with me?"

"What score is there to settle?" Xie Yu said, "It's my own problem...Do you really want me to settle the score with you? Are you sick?"

He was still able to distinguish right from wrong.

No matter how you looked at it, it wasn't Zhou Dalei's fault.

"How's Aunt Lan doing now?" Zhou Dalei asked. "Is she okay? She needs to take care of herself."

After hanging up the phone, Xie Yu stared at the steam rising from the pot and for some reason, he suddenly remembered what He Chao had said to him in the classroom: "Treating her well in your own way doesn't necessarily mean it's what she wants."

With this thought in mind, he lowered his head and found the name "He Chao" in his contact list.

He typed out many messages, but in the end, he deleted them all and left only one word.

-Brother.

The soup had been stewing for a long time.

By the time Xie Yu brought the soup upstairs, Gu Xuelan had already sat on the bed with a pillow behind her for a while.

Rather than being angry at Xie Yu, she was more angry at herself.

In recent years, her communication with Xie Yu became less and less frequent.

She could feel that this child was gradually learning to be independent, and many things didn't need her help anymore...he was also getting further and further away from her.

"Mom." Xie Yu wanted to say "I'm sorry," but those words, just like "I love you," were harder to say to someone you were close to.

Gu Xuelan looked at him, neither continuing to question nor blaming him.

She took the bowl of soup and silently drank it sip by sip.

"I also hope you live well," after a few sips, Gu Xuelan lowered her head and looked at the few red dates in the bowl. Her eyes quietly became moist, and she whispered, "As long as you live well.

"When I was in Blackwater Street, I always thought about giving you a better living environment. It didn't need to be a more luxurious life, but at least one where we're not worrying about food and clothing.

"I never thought that..." Gu Xuelan paused, then continued, "If that's the case, I'd rather not be Mrs. Zhong."

Xie Yu remained calm, but his eyes were noticeably red.

He had always been stubborn since he was a child, never shedding a tear no matter what happened. Now, he couldn't control the moisture in his eyes and felt a bit embarrassed. He tilted his head back to hold back the tears and called out to her, "Mom."

Gu Xuelan looked up at him.

Xie Yu asked again, "Do you prefer Tsinghua or Beijing University?"

Gu Xuelan remembered the time when Xie Yu had teased her with the phrase, "Watch me get into to Tsinghua or Beijing University." She put down her bowl and wiped her eyes, then laughed at his question, "Either one is fine, as long as you like it."

During his holidays, He Chao would occasionally go to the library to spend some time. He would set his phone to silent mode and only check it to see the time after closing his book. It was then that he saw the message from Xie Yu that simply said "Brother."

To avoid disturbing others in the library, He Chao returned the book and walked outside while dialing Xie Yu's number. "What happened?" he asked.

Xie Yu replied, "Brother, let's compete for first place next time."

He Chao was about to ask if he meant "first from the last?", but Xie Yu quickly added, "I mean first place."

As He Chao walked out the side door, he heard those words and stopped in his tracks. He knew what it meant for the little friend to want to compete for first place after pretending for so long. There was only one possibility left.

The sky had already darkened outside, and He Chao leaned against the wall and asked, "Are you serious?"

Xie Yu was sitting on the balcony railing, enjoying the breeze. He leaned against the railing with his hands and his feet dangling in the air. From the second floor, he could only see a few rows of streetlights in the distance.

"Serious," Xie Yu said, facing the wind and slowly closing his eyes. "I understand what you meant back then."

The one-month vacation passed in the blink of an eye.

During the Chinese New Year, it snowed again in City A, leaving a thick layer of snow on the ground.

The class group chat was filled with "Happy New Year" messages. Apart from exchanging greetings, the most active activity in the group chat was to snatch red envelopes.

In order to snatch red envelopes, the administrator even kicked Xie Yu out of the group.

[Xu Qingqing]: Brother Yu, we'll add you back after we finish snatching.

[Xu Qingqing]: It's Chinese New Year, with your luck, I don't think we're suitable for competing for red envelopes in the same group. Please spare us.

[Wan Da]: Don't ever question our friendship! We're still friends!

[Liu Cunhao]: Although that's what you say, in front of red envelopes, friendship doesn't mean anything!

[Luo Wenqiang]: Hao-zi, your words are so insightful.

He Chao's luck was quite good that evening, he managed to grab the biggest share of the few hundred yuan that Old Tang sent in the group.

[Liu Cunhao]: The king of luck! Fifty yuan! Impressive, Brother Chao!

[Luo Wenqiang]: Why do I only have fifty cents? This is not fair...Why do you have to hurt me, a commoner from the slums?

[Wan Da]: Hahahaha, fifty cents? I only have five yuan, suddenly I feel like five yuan is pretty good. I'm content.

......

Gu Xuelan bid farewell to the last guest and felt relieved as she sat down next to Xie Yu. She hadn't eaten much at the dinner table and complained while eating dessert, "I didn't even get to watch the Spring Festival Gala. I only saw half of that act. What happened in the end? How did it turn out?"

Xie Yu had no idea, he hadn't paid attention at all. "Was there an act?"

Gu Xuelan: "..."

Xie Yu watched a few more programs with her, but he couldn't seem to find the punchline.

His phone vibrated twice, and he secretly glanced down to see that it was a red envelope from He Chao. Even though Xu Qingqing and the others had taken every precaution, even resorting to sneaky tactics like kicking him out, they never expected that the biggest red envelope would end up in Xie Yu's hands.

[He Chao]: Giving you everything I got.

Outside the window, fireworks were lighting up the sky.

Accompanied by a few loud bangs, a shower of sparkling and colorful stars burst forth, flashing across the night sky.