By midnight, Lu Chengzhou did hear the sound of someone twisting the doorknob outside.

Good. Luckily, he'd had the foresight to lock the door.

After a few tries, when it still wouldn't open, the other person gave up.

Lu Chengzhou sat up again and glanced toward the balcony.

Well, well.

Sure enough, he saw Su Qiaoman sneaking around, trying to climb over from the other side.

“What the hell...”

Lu Chengzhou let out a sigh.

The balcony was enclosed, and it wasn't that high, but this was still way too dangerous.

Did Su Qiaoman really want to see him that badly?

In the middle of the night, couldn't she just behave herself for once?

Lu Chengzhou turned on the light.

The room lit up, and Su Qiaoman jerked her hand back in fright.

The two of them could only stare at each other awkwardly.

Lu Chengzhou said, “Student Su Qiaoman, do you need something?”

Su Qiaoman lowered her head.

Her fingers picked at the button on her clothes.

Lu Chengzhou had figured it out by now. Whenever she felt guilty, she got like this.

Su Qiaoman said haltingly, “I... I just had some things I wanted to say to you...”

Lu Chengzhou said, “Go ahead. Saying it here is the same.”

Su Qiaoman looked up. “Then open the door first.”

Lu Chengzhou said, “It's the middle of the night. We're a man and a woman. It's not appropriate.”

Hearing that, Su Qiaoman lowered her head again.

She could feel it. Lu Chengzhou was dead set on keeping his distance from her.

But...

Why was it that the more he acted like this, the more she wanted to get close to him?

And on top of that, she kept comparing Lu Chengzhou to Lin Chen. She couldn't stop missing how considerate and gentle Brother A'Zhou used to be with her.

As for Lin Chen...

Compared to him, Lin Chen was like some brainless nouveau riche.

To please him, Su Qiaoman had to drink with him and indulge his nonsense.

Didn't she get tired? Of course she did!

Back then, Lu Chengzhou had been the one trying to please her. Now, she was the only one trying to please someone else. Of course she couldn't accept that.

Lu Chengzhou, meanwhile, had no idea what kind of wild stuff she'd been imagining lately.

He simply wanted to keep his distance from this troublesome woman.

Still, Su Qiaoman kept standing there on the balcony without moving, insisting on waiting until he opened the door. Lu Chengzhou found it annoying.

After all, if she wasn't going to sleep, he still wanted to.

So he had no choice but to get up and open the door for her.

Su Qiaoman walked into his room and sat properly at the desk.

“Go on. What did you want to say?”

Seeing how well-behaved she was, Lu Chengzhou felt his disgust toward her ease up a little.

This woman was a completely different type from Meng Wanyu.

If it were Miss Meng, wouldn't she have plopped herself right onto his lap the moment she came in?

Ahem, ahem...

“I just wanted to thank you.”

Su Qiaoman weighed her words for a long time, and in the end, that was all she said.

“You don't have to be so guarded around me. I... I won't do anything to you...”

To be fair, that guilty tone of hers and that pitiful expression really were deadly to most men.

Too bad for her, she was up against Lu Chengzhou.

Lu Chengzhou was a man who'd read the script. Would he really get fooled by a trick this small?

“You're done, right?” Lu Chengzhou pointed toward the door.

The meaning was obvious. You can leave now.

Su Qiaoman choked on her words.

In the end, she still stood up, unwilling and resentful, then hesitated her way toward the door.

By now, she was mostly sober, but she still felt top-heavy and unsteady.

So after only two steps, she braced herself against the wall and crouched down.

Lu Chengzhou: “...”

With her in that position, it was way too easy for people to get the wrong idea.

If this kept up, she'd probably spread rumors tomorrow and say something had happened between them.

And Lin Chen was such a petty guy. He'd believe her nonsense in a heartbeat.

Then things would get troublesome.

Luckily, Lu Chengzhou was always on guard.

From the moment he'd invited her in, he'd secretly been recording everything as backup.

As long as she didn't pull anything, he wouldn't need to use it.

But if she tried to spread rumors, then he'd have evidence. No need to panic.

...

Bang.

The door shut.

Su Qiaoman walked alone through the living room, headed for the sofa, and lay down.

As for how miserable she felt, that went without saying.

Lu Chengzhou's attitude of rejecting her had truly broken her heart.

But absurdly enough, the more he rejected her, the less she could let go.

Thinking about it that way, she really did seem to have something seriously wrong with her.

But she couldn't control herself.

“A'Zhou...”

She murmured Lu Chengzhou's name and hugged her arms tightly.

“You're mine. You can't abandon me.”

Half-conscious, she gradually drifted back to sleep.

...

The next day.

Before dawn had even broken, Lu Chengzhou woke up.

Not because he wanted to. The ringtone dragged him out of sleep.

He picked up his phone and answered the call.

Meng Wanyu's voice came from the other end.

“Hello, Teacher Lu. Is your home at XXX? And the house number is 1032, right?”

Meng Wanyu's sweet voice made Lu Chengzhou's heart itch a little.

But there was something seriously off about what she said.

Knowing his address was one thing, but how did she even know his house number?

Had she been secretly following him?

That was... kind of creepy.

“I'm here to go to school with you today. Touched?”

Miss Meng was standing downstairs outside his building, looking up toward his floor.

Lu Chengzhou shot out of bed and went to the balcony.

He looked downstairs.

He saw Miss Meng's newly bought pink bicycle, and Miss Meng herself, neatly dressed in her school uniform.

Meng Wanyu waved at him.

“Touched, very touched...”

Lu Chengzhou replied vaguely.

She'd come all the way to wait downstairs at his place this early. How could he not be touched?

“Then I'll give you fifteen minutes. Please come down as soon as possible.”

With that, Meng Wanyu hung up.

For someone of her status, what was so hard about investigating an ordinary person's identity?

Especially when that person was Teacher Lu, the one she'd been dying to win over.

Lu Chengzhou opened the bedroom door.

The room was filled with the aroma of coffee.

Su Qiaoman had used the kitchen he'd never once used, made him breakfast, and even cleaned up while she was at it.

“Morning, A'Zhou.”

Su Qiaoman was wearing an apron, her hair loosely tied up.

On her feet were his oversized slippers, and on her body was his shirt.

She really did look just like the original novel described, like a gentle and lovable little wife.

Too bad Lu Chengzhou only gave her one glance before turning around and leaving.

A supporting male character who had ideas about the heroine was just asking to die.

Same as always: survive first, then worry about living well!

“A'Zhou!”

Su Qiaoman called out to stop him.

When Lu Chengzhou turned back, she was leaning against the doorway, looking at him with tender affection.

Her lip was lightly bitten.

Her tone was soft.

“I don't mean anything by it. I just wanted to make you breakfast, to thank you for letting me stay last night.”