Oh no! Drunk last night, I accidentally wandered into my ex-boyfriend's room.

Two cars, one after the other, stopped at the entrance of the old and dilapidated residential area.

After paying the fare and getting out of the car, Lin Qian felt a cool night breeze blowing by, and she pulled her arms closer.

As I walked to the door, I happened to run into Song Yu, who was returning to the community after finishing his part-time job.

When Song Yu saw her, his eyes lit up. "Sister, you're back too?"

He walked over quickly and enthusiastically, not forgetting to offer her a cup of bubble tea, his smile clean and bright.

"Have a milk tea. The store has a buy-one-get-one-free promotion today. I remember this is your favorite flavor."

It's Lin Qian's favorite Four Seasons Milk Tea, 30% sugar, no ice. I didn't expect Song Yu to remember it so clearly.

Lin Qian smiled and accepted the milk tea. "Thank you. It must be very tiring working so late."

"No, no, it's not hard at all."

Song Yu is Lin Qian's cousin's classmate. He is the same age as her cousin Lin Yize, both three years younger than Lin Qian. He is currently in college and his family is relatively poor. He usually works part-time to earn money.

The three of them shared the same house.

There are two advantages to sharing an apartment: first, it's cheaper, as rent and utilities are split; second, it provides a sense of security, with two trusted male roommates, so there's no need to worry about being maliciously harassed.

Lin Qian walked alongside him.

Suddenly, Song Yu reached out his hand towards her head, closing the distance abruptly.

"Sister, there was a leaf in your hair, I picked it off for you."

He plucked a ginkgo leaf from his fingertips, his ears turning slightly red. He turned his face away awkwardly and coughed twice to cover something up.

From a distance, the two appear to have a very close relationship.

Lin Qian didn't pay much attention, treating him like a younger brother. "Oh, okay, thank you."

Not far away, behind the tinted car window.

Lu Beiting stared intently at the two's familiar and ambiguous actions, watching the boy naturally hand her milk tea and remove the leaves from her head.

A strange, overwhelming emotion churned in Lu Beiting's eyes, almost freezing cold.

The boy had a fair and handsome face, and his smile was sunny and cheerful. Whenever he looked at Lin Qian, his ears would turn red involuntarily.

The affection in his eyes was almost overflowing.

Is this her new boyfriend?

They're living together?

A strange, sharp emotion, like an out-of-control vine, tightly entwined his heart.

It felt as if a piece of my heart had suddenly shattered into countless shards of glass.

Under the deep, inky darkness of night, the old residential area was illuminated by warm orange lights, which reflected on Lu Beiting's face.

It made his face look a bit green.

When Lin Qian returned home, her cousin Lin Yize had just finished showering and was drying his hair when he came out.

Lin Yize's gaze lingered on her face, noticing something was wrong. "Sis, why are your lips swollen?"

"Ah...really?" Lin Qian's heart skipped a beat, and she subconsciously pursed her lips, trying to cover it up. "Maybe I ate too much spicy food today."

Lin Yize breathed a sigh of relief. "That scared me to death. I almost thought I was being kissed by that jerk."

Lin Qian: "..."

Song Yu sat in the other corner of the sofa, head down, peeling an apple, and asked casually:

"Sister, I heard from Yize that you had a relationship in college?"

Lin Qian lowered her eyelashes. "Yes, we talked about it."

Lu Beiting... was her first love, and also a scar in her heart that has never healed.

After this secret relationship ended, she was heartbroken and had no intention of dating again.

Right now, she'd rather make money than have men.

"Sister, have some," Song Yu handed Lin Qian a perfectly peeled apple, his tone tentative and cautious, "How long did you two date? Why did you break up?"

"We dated for a year and then broke up. As for the reason for the breakup..."

Lin Qian paused for a moment, then didn't continue.

The incident that happened back then still feels like a sharp thorn, deeply rooted in the softest and most vulnerable part of my heart.

The thorn did not disappear over time; instead, it grew sharper and sharper, causing a persistent, throbbing pain with the slightest touch.

She dared not recall it.

Noticing her low spirits, Song Yu quickly and considerately said:

"If you don't want to say, you don't have to. I was just asking casually."

Lin Qian smiled and changed the subject, asking in a tone of concern for her younger brother:

"I'm fine. But you, have you found a girl you like lately?"

Song Yu's gaze fell on Lin Qian's beautiful and gentle face. He paused for a few seconds, his Adam's apple bobbing, and he remained silent for a long time.

Lin Qian leaned closer curiously, a hint of teasing in her voice, "What's going on? Looks like something's up?"

Song Yu's ears visibly turned red. He turned his head slightly and whispered:

"Sister, please don't joke with me..."

Just then, Lin Qian's phone rang.

It's an unfamiliar number.

Lin Qian thought it was a spam call and hung up without thinking.

But the number kept ringing, calling again and again.

Who is it?

Lin Qian got up and went back to her room, closed the door, and pressed the answer button. "Hello, who is this?"

"Lin Qian, get down."

Lu Beiting's deep and magnetic voice penetrated the receiver and entered my ears, like a bonfire burning in the long night.

"I'm downstairs at your place, let's talk."

What?!

Lin Qian froze, almost rushing to the window and pulling back the curtains—a very conspicuous and ostentatious Rolls-Royce was parked downstairs.

She was so shocked she was almost speechless. "What are you doing downstairs at my house?"

"Get down," the man's voice was emotionless, but with an unyielding tone, as he repeated, "Let's talk."

Lin Qian hesitated for a moment, then refused, saying, "I'm not going down. There's nothing for us to talk about."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

Lu Beiting took a deep breath, his voice even deeper:

"Was that the guy you were walking with just now your so-called new boyfriend?"

"..."

Sure enough, once you tell one lie, you need countless more to cover it up.

Lin Qian bit her lip, clenched her fingers, and forced herself to respond in a calm tone:

"Yes, it's my boyfriend. Is there a problem?"

After their breakup, Lu Beiting flew to the United States and was involved in numerous rumors.

I heard from others that he's had several girlfriends and is living a carefree life. A playboy like him will never change his ways.

Logically speaking, Lin Qian has been broken up for three years, so isn't it normal for her to start a new relationship?

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, a deathly stillness, as if time itself had frozen.

Lin Qian even suspected that he might be dead.

After a long silence, the man's indifferent voice slowly came through, "How long have you been talking?"

Lin Qian casually made up a story: "We just started talking about it in the last few days."

Lu Beiting paused for a few seconds, his voice low and hoarse, as if it were struggling to roll out from deep in his throat.

"You and him have a very good relationship?"