Zhou Wan hesitated for a moment, kicked off her canvas shoes, and stepped into his pair of slippers.

The slippers were very large, an ill fit for her.

She bent down, placed her own shoes neatly to one side of the shoe rack, and at the same time noticed that there were no other slippers on the rack, only the pair on her feet.

Lu Xixiao lived alone; this huge three-story house belonged to him and him alone.

“Can I turn on the lights?” Zhou Wan asked.

“Do whatever.”

This was the first time Lu Xixiao had spoken, his voice so hoarse it sounded as if it had been forcefully ground with sandpaper.

Zhou Wan flipped the switch by the shoe rack, and the chandelier in the living room lit up.

Lu Xixiao, unaccustomed to the sudden light, frowned tightly and raised a hand to block his eyes.

Zhou Wan saw the messy living room.

The floor was littered with wine bottles lying every which way, dozens of cigarette butts were crammed into the ashtray on the coffee table, and the air was thick with a heavy, lingering smell of smoke and alcohol.

Zhou Wan went over to open the windows for ventilation.

Lu Xixiao lay on the sofa, watching the girl's busy back. He tugged at the corner of his mouth, picked up a bottle of wine beside him, and took another sip to wet his throat. "What are you here for?"

“Jiang Fan asked me to come see you. He said he couldn't reach you.”

Zhou Wan looked at his face. It was so pale it looked sickly, and she couldn't tell if it was from an actual injury or from not seeing the light of day.

Lu Xixiao sneered.

Zhou Wan asked, “Are you hurt?”

He turned his head to the side and didn't speak.

“Where?”

“What, you want to bandage it for me?”

Zhou Wan nodded. “Mhm.”

He gave a light chuckle, got up, and walked into the bedroom. A moment later, he came out with a bag, tossed it onto the coffee table, and a roll of gauze tumbled out, fell to the floor, and unraveled into a long strip.

Lu Xixiao sat back down, leaned against the sofa, and pulled up his pant leg.

He was wearing a pair of loose gray lounge pants. His thigh was wrapped in gauze, bandaged very casually as if it had just been wrapped around a few times, with crimson blood seeping through from underneath.

He was lean and toned. His muscles weren't bulging, and there were no signs of consistent, long-term exercise, but their lines were sinuous and winding, full of the marks of untamed growth.

The sight of the blood stung Zhou Wan's eyes. She stared for three seconds, and her face suddenly turned bright red.

Lu Xixiao watched her reaction with leisurely amusement.

“Didn't you say you were going to bandage it for me?”

Zhou Wan fell silent. After a long moment, she took one step forward, but only one, and then stopped.

Having enjoyed her expression enough, Lu Xixiao didn't press her. He gave a sarcastic laugh, sat up straight, clamped a cigarette between his teeth, and unwound the blood-stained gauze, tossing it into the trash can.

Zhou Wan stopped looking at him and lowered her head to clean up the mess on the coffee table.

The floor was covered in wine bottles. Zhou Wan glanced around the room, found the water dispenser, and poured some hot water.

On a shelf next to the water dispenser was a photograph of a very beautiful woman with a gentle smile.

She had the same long, narrow eyes as Lu Xixiao.

Based on those eyes, Zhou Wan quickly deduced who the woman in the photo was.

Lu Xixiao's mother.

She poured a glass of warm water. Lu Xixiao had already finished changing the gauze and was leaning back on the sofa, about to drink again.

Zhou Wan went over and took hold of the bottle. “You're injured, you can't drink.”

He disliked being restrained. He looked up, his eyes cold. “Who are you to tell me what to do?”

Zhou Wan paused, released her hand, and placed the glass of warm water on the coffee table in front of him.

He finished the rest of the wine and tossed the bottle into the trash.

“Lu Xixiao.”

Zhou Wan didn't know his past, but she could see the boundless pain beneath his placid surface. She tried to comfort and encourage him, to stop him from being so dejected.

“If your mother were still alive, she definitely wouldn't want to see you like this,” Zhou Wan said softly.

Lu Xixiao's movements froze, and he suddenly sat up straight.

The movement was so large that it pulled at the wound on his leg, but he didn't even frown.

“Zhou Wan.” He said coldly, enunciating each word. “Who do you think you are?”

Zhou Wan's whole body stiffened.

Right, who did she think she was.

She and Lu Xixiao couldn't even be called friends. What right did she have to stand on the ground of someone else's pain and give advice?

“Or are you trying to say you like me,” Lu Xixiao stared at her, “and don't want to see me like this?”

He let out a soft laugh, but it was filled more with sarcasm than any warmth.

“Fine, then let's date.”

He grabbed Zhou Wan's wrist and pulled her forcefully towards him.

His hand was scorching, his eyes were cold, and his voice was cold too.

Zhou Wan fell onto the sofa, landing on top of him.

Lu Xixiao wrapped an arm around her waist, forcefully pulling her closer to him.

Zhou Wan was completely stiff, unable to move from the transgressive action.

The Lu Xixiao of this moment was too dangerous. His extreme calm was the kind of unhinged state on the verge of losing all reason. The smell of alcohol on him was so sharp that Zhou Wan could barely breathe.

Lu Xixiao pinched her chin, lifted it, and approached with a cold expression.

Zhou Wan forcefully turned her head aside, a whimper escaping from the bottom of her throat. “...Lu Xixiao!”

He suddenly let go. Zhou Wan fell back onto the sofa, propping herself up with her hands, panting with lingering fear.

But it was clear Lu Xixiao had no intention of actually doing anything to her; he just wanted to force out her true reaction.

“Playing with me, are you, Zhou Wan.”

He looked coldly at the girl before him, her face flushed red, and said with no trace of emotion, with extreme calm, “Zhou Wan, you don't like me.”

He raised his hand, grabbed her slender neck, and roughly pulled her up, pinning her against the back of the sofa.

Coldly, he asked, word by word, “Why did you deliberately get close to me.”

He was too clear-sighted, too perceptive.

Her little tricks had never escaped his eyes.

From that night at the Arcade, when she said "the 'Wan' from 'To draw a carved bow like a full moon'," he had already seen through her.

It was just that when he was in a good mood, he couldn't be bothered to call her out on it. Now, he couldn't be bothered to play dumb anymore, nor would he give her any more face.

Zhou Wan didn't speak.

She didn't know how to explain.

This matter, no matter how you looked at it, was her attempt, her use of him, from the very beginning.

It was all her fault.

The hand Lu Xixiao had on her neck tightened unconsciously.

It wasn't enough force to suffocate her, but it pressed hard against her jawbone, causing a sharp pain.

She choked out a cough. “Lu Xixiao.”

She frowned and said, unable to bear it, “It hurts…”

Lu Xixiao released his hand, but his sharp gaze remained fixed on her.

“Lu Xixiao.” Zhou Wan stood up, picked up her schoolbag from the floor, and said softly, “I'm sorry for bothering you. I won't appear before you again.”

No matter how much she hated Guo Xiangling, she shouldn't have done this.

It was immoral, and it was also unfair to Lu Xixiao.

Zhou Wan gave him a slight bow and turned to leave.

Lu Xixiao watched her departing back.

Her figure was thin and frail, as if a gust of wind could knock her over, as if a little force could break her.

And as she pressed down on the doorknob and pulled the door open bit by bit, the dense light from the streetlamp outside spilled into the living room. The light and shadows illuminated her, as if framing her with a fuzzy golden edge.

Lu Xixiao suddenly thought of that day outside the hospital.

He had had a huge fight with Lu Zhongyue and stormed off. Zhou Wan had chased after him, running out breathlessly, her fingers tightly clutching the hem of his clothes.

Behind her was the sinking sunset.

The halo of light also ignited her form, gentle and romantic.

Her breathing was uneven. She looked up, her eyes clear, and asked him, do you want to eat noodles.

“Zhou Wan.” Lu Xixiao suddenly said.

Even he himself didn't know why.

He just felt that as soon as Zhou Wan walked out that door, they would truly have nothing to do with each other ever again.

Lu Xixiao thought, he didn't like Zhou Wan. She was uninteresting and plain. It was just that, to a certain extent, Zhou Wan was very similar to him. She was often quiet, never asking anything, as if she had no curiosity. But it also seemed that he didn't have to say anything, and she would understand.

When she was by his side, Lu Xixiao would feel a rare sense of peace.

Like a tranquilizer that was exclusively his.

Zhou Wan stopped in her tracks but didn't turn back.

Lu Xixiao leaned back into the sofa, sinking into it. He closed his eyes, not looking at her, and said in a hoarse voice, “Zhou Wan, I'm hungry.”