The dishes arrived quickly, every single one drenched in spicy red chili oil.

Looking at the table overflowing with fiery dishes, Zhou Yang silently thought to himself, What kind of stomach can survive this?

Gu Nansheng filled the two glasses in front of her to the brim.

Then she handed one to Zhou Yang.

“Senior Nansheng, can we even drink? We drove here ourselves.”

“It’s fine, we’ll call a designated driver later.”

“Come on, Zhou Yang, cheers! I’m really happy I ran into you today!”

Gu Nansheng lifted her glass and drained it in one go.

“Eh? Senior Nansheng, slow down! No rush, let’s eat something first!”

Zhou Yang hurriedly stood up and started putting food into her bowl, thinking inwardly, At this rate, she’s definitely going to get drunk later.

After tasting a few dishes himself, Zhou Yang had to admit they were seriously spicy, but incredibly delicious.

Meanwhile, Lu Shijing had brought Su Li to a nearby hospital.

After taking X-rays, the doctor confirmed there was no major bone injury, she had simply twisted her ankle.

The doctor adjusted it back into place, while the nurse applied ointment and bandaged the scrapes on her arm.

While Lu Shijing went to pay the bill and pick up the medicine, the young nurse beside Su Li sighed enviously.

“Your boyfriend is really handsome!”

Su Li did not deny it.

She simply smiled softly.

Just this once, let her indulge herself a little.

The doctor said hospitalization was unnecessary. As long as she applied the medicine on time and rested for a few days, she would recover soon.

Lu Shijing hailed a taxi and brought her back to the dormitory building.

The dorm supervisor auntie on the first floor saw Su Li limping back and asked worriedly,

“Su Li, what happened?”

Su Li had lived there for four years during her undergraduate studies, so the dorm auntie knew her very well.

“It’s nothing serious, Auntie, I just accidentally twisted my ankle.”

“Auntie, could you help her upstairs? Her foot’s injured, so it’s inconvenient for her.”

“Oh, of course, of course!”

The auntie quickly moved forward to support Su Li.

“Be careful,” Lu Shijing reminded her.

“Don’t worry, Senior Lu. Sorry for troubling you today.”

Su Li removed the jacket draped over her shoulders and handed it back to him.

“I’ll transfer you the medical fees later.”

“No need. Don’t think too much about it. Go back and rest properly.”

“Okay.”

Only after watching the two women head upstairs did Lu Shijing turn around and leave.

By the time he returned home, he suddenly remembered he had arranged to have dinner with Zhou Yang at six o’clock tonight.

He checked the time.

It was already close to eight.

And Zhou Yang had not contacted him again.

Lu Shijing pulled out his phone and called Zhou Yang.

The call rang for a long time.

No answer.

What was going on?

At that very moment, Zhou Yang was staring at the incoming call notification on his phone…

“Senior Nansheng, it’s Ah Jing calling. Um… should I answer it?”

“Hang up.”

Gu Nansheng refilled Zhou Yang’s glass.

“Let’s keep drinking. Ignore him.”

Zhou Yang did not dare hang up.

The phone rang for a while before finally stopping on its own.

In his heart, Zhou Yang silently mourned:

Ah Jing, I can’t even save myself right now. You’re on your own.

Lu Shijing called again.

The phone continued ringing endlessly without any response.

The ringing gave Gu Nansheng a headache. She directly grabbed Zhou Yang’s vibrating phone and hung up the call.

“The number you dialed is currently powered off.”

It was the first time Zhou Yang had ever hung up on him.

Lu Shijing assumed Zhou Yang probably had something more important going on and simply could not answer at the moment.

After running back and forth through the hospital multiple times, he was a little exhausted. He sat down on the sofa to rest briefly.

Someone had tagged him in the high school classmates’ group chat.

His phone had been buzzing nonstop since he was at the hospital, but he had not had time to check it.

Opening the group chat, he saw there were already over a hundred unread messages.

Usually, only a few people talked there occasionally, and he mostly stayed silent.

He scrolled to the top to see what everyone had been discussing.

There was a screenshot of a Moments post.

The class monitor had tagged him:

“Lu Shijing! Get in here! What’s going on with Zhou Yang?! Aren’t you two usually close? Why hasn’t he replied at all?!”

Lu Shijing tapped open the image.

His fingers suddenly froze.

His pupils stilled instantly.

He hurriedly opened Moments and found Zhou Yang’s latest post.

“Goddess Gu treated me to dinner! So happy!”

Attached was the exact same photo.

And sitting beside Zhou Yang…

If that was not Gu Nansheng, then who was?

Zhou Yang had left location sharing enabled for the post.

The location showed a private Sichuan restaurant in Yancheng.

You came back and didn’t tell me?

Lu Shijing immediately called Gu Nansheng.

But every single call was rejected by her.

He had no idea what was happening.

Grabbing the jacket from the sofa, he hurried out the door.

While sitting in the taxi, he sent her message after message.

“Why didn’t you tell me you came back?”

“Sister?”

“What’s wrong?”

…

Gu Nansheng did not reply to a single one.

When Lu Shijing arrived at the restaurant, he showed Zhou Yang’s photo to the manager and explained that he was meeting his friend there.

The manager led him to the private room.

Stopping outside the door, the manager said,

“It’s this room.”

From inside, Lu Shijing could hear Zhou Yang laughing loudly.

“Hahaha, Senior Nansheng, you have no idea how funny that was!”

“It really was pretty funny!” Her voice sounded slightly hoarse.

Lu Shijing pushed the door open.

Inside, the two sat facing each other.

At least eight empty beer bottles were scattered across the table.

“Ah Jing! You’re here!”

Zhou Yang finally saw salvation.

The true culprit had finally arrived.

Gu Nansheng merely lifted her head and glanced at Lu Shijing without speaking.

Lu Shijing walked over and sat beside her.

His brows furrowed slightly as he stopped her from reaching for another drink.

“Why are you drinking?” His tone was a little stiff.

Gu Nansheng caught a faint whiff of jasmine fragrance drifting past her nose.

It did not belong to him.

Oh.

He was still wearing that jacket.

The jacket he had draped over another girl earlier.

The scent belonged to that girl…

Instantly, a nameless fire surged inside her chest.

She had already tried very hard to suppress it.

“Because I’m happy,” she answered coldly.

If she was happy, why did she look like that?

“What’s wrong?”

He tried to hold her hand.

She deliberately avoided him.

Zhou Yang finally had no choice but to speak.

“Ah Jing… um… earlier, we went to the school to look for you, and we saw you carrying a…”

“Shut up!”

Gu Nansheng interrupted him immediately.

Zhou Yang frantically shot Lu Shijing a look that clearly said: You get it, right? We saw everything. Explain yourself.

“When? I didn’t see you guys.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. Zhou Yang, let’s keep drinking!”

Gu Nansheng did not want to deal with him at all.

The faint lingering scent on his jacket only made her headache worse and worse.

“You’re not drinking anymore.”

Lu Shijing pressed down on her glass.

“S, Senior Nansheng, you two should talk properly, okay? I’ll head out first!”

“Didn’t we agree we wouldn’t stop until we were drunk?” she glared at him angrily.

“Another day! Another day, Senior Nansheng!”

Zhou Yang practically fled for his life.

Now that Lu Shijing understood why she was upset, he patiently explained,

“Su Li twisted her ankle. I took her to the hospital.”

“Mm.”

She clearly did not want to hear it.

“There’s really nothing going on.”

“Mm.”

Her head hurt so much.

“Can we go home?”

“No. I’m flying back to Nancheng later.”

Lu Shijing fell silent for a moment.

He knew she was still angry.

“It’s already very late. Can you leave tomorrow instead?”

“…”

“Sister?”

“…”

Gu Nansheng had never even booked a plane ticket.

She simply felt awful inside.

In truth, she had cleared her schedule for the next two days entirely for him…

“Okay?”

Lu Shijing looked steadily into her eyes, waiting for her answer.

“We haven’t seen each other in a long time.”

Gu Nansheng suddenly felt a sting of soreness in her heart.

As though all the grievance she had been holding in finally found somewhere to spill out.

Her eyes reddened slightly.

And in the end…

She nodded.