Monday morning.

Ye Yubai had set his alarm for five thirty.

In reality, by the time he got up, it was already a quarter past six.

Yawning and stretching, he walked out of his room.

Out of habit, he turned to look. Gan Lan’s door was still closed.

“Huh?”

Could she still be asleep?

Ye Yubai walked over to her door, raised a hand, and knocked.

“Gan Lan, are you up?”

There was no response from inside.

Ye Yubai knocked again.

“You’re going to be late! Get up!”

This time, he heard something.

And it wasn’t quiet.

A dull thud came from inside, followed by the sound of Gan Lan sucking in a sharp breath.

“I’m not going to school today. Can you call in sick for me…?”

Her voice was terribly hoarse.

Ye Yubai furrowed his brow even more.

Her cold still hadn’t gotten better.

No, it wasn’t just that she hadn’t recovered.

She seemed even worse!

“Gan Lan, open the door. I’m taking you to the hospital for an IV. Don’t let that fever fry your brain!”

“I’m fine…”

“How are you fine? You sound like you’re half dead!”

“I really am fine…”

Gan Lan had slumped down beside the bed, rubbing her sore head while answering Ye Yubai’s booming voice.

Her head felt heavy, her feet unsteady, and she was a little nauseous.

She took a deep breath and said seriously, “I don’t need an IV. I just need you to call in sick for me. I’ll be fine after I sleep for a while.”

An IV would cost at least two hundred yuan.

Money was so tight for her right now. How could she afford to waste it on an IV?

She could take a couple more doses of fever medicine, burrow under the covers, and sleep all day. She’d definitely be better tomorrow.

That was what Gan Lan thought, and that was what she planned to do.

But then…

When Gan Lan still didn’t come to open the door, Ye Yubai raised his leg, aimed at the lock, and kicked hard.

A tremendous crash rang out.

The door flew open.

The lock hung crookedly from the door for a moment, then fell to the floor.

Gan Lan stared at him, dumbfounded.

Ye Yubai walked in with a grim expression.

“Hey, wait. What are you doing?”

Gan Lan struggled to sit up, trying to pull a blanket over herself.

Ye Yubai came up to her and reached out to feel her forehead.

His hand was ice-cold, so of course all he could feel was how hot she was.

He had no choice but to pull his hand away and press his own forehead against hers.

Their warm breaths met, mingled, then slowly drifted apart.

Gan Lan instinctively raised a hand to his shoulder and tried to push him away.

“Don’t move.”

Ye Yubai caught her wrist and gently pushed her hand back down.

Gan Lan lowered her eyes, not daring to look at him.

Ye Yubai stayed there for a moment, confirming that she really did have a fever.

“You can’t go on like this. You need an IV right away.”

“But…”

Gan Lan squeezed the fifty yuan in her pocket, torn.

“Stop worrying about the money!” Ye Yubai poked her forehead with one finger. “What matters more, your life or money?”

…

What mattered more, life or money?

Ye Yubai had asked her that once before.

But that was in her previous life.

And it was just before the two of them were about to become business rivals.

Back then, Gan Lan had just been promoted. To prove herself, she stayed up night after night working on a design, pushing herself for three days straight until she landed in the hospital.

And yet, after working herself to the bone, her design still couldn’t match something Ye Yubai had casually put together.

The gulf between an ordinary person and a genius was plain to see.

Ye Yubai came to the hospital to see her, bringing fruit and milk. He asked her what mattered more, life or money.

She answered with one word: “Money.”

Without money, even the apartments you could afford faced away from the sun. Any sunlight you got was secondhand.

…

“Life matters more.”

She dragged herself out of the memory.

Gan Lan gazed at Ye Yubai, dazed, then reached out and gave his shoulder a solemn pat.

“Life really is important.”

Dying had felt awful.

She never wanted to feel that regret and fear again.

She was still so young, with so much left to do. There was no need to push herself so hard or take everything so seriously!

What mattered most was living in the moment and being happy.

Hearing her say that,

Ye Yubai let out a long breath of relief.

He supported her by the waist and helped her stand.

As a girl, she was naturally light on her feet.

“Want me to carry you downstairs?”

“No need.”

Gan Lan forced herself to perk up, braced a hand against the wall, and slowly made her way out, one step at a time.

Ye Yubai glanced around, grabbed a jacket at random, and draped it over her.

“It’s still a little cold outside. Put on another layer.”

“Mm.”

Gan Lan wrapped her arms tightly around herself.

When she reached the doorway, she turned back and went into the bedroom.

She unpicked the quilt cover her grandmother had sewn for her when she started high school and took out a red envelope hidden inside.

Ye Yubai stood in the doorway, frowning as he watched her.

After opening up the quilt cover, Gan Lan started picking apart the lining of her suitcase and took something out from inside.

It was a tiny gold lock pendant, the sort of thing a baby might wear.

After searching the suitcase lining, she started rummaging through the pockets of her down jacket.

Little by little, she dug out a pile of loose change.

Ye Yubai was stunned.

“What are you doing?”

Gathering up your valuables to run away—or are you planning to jump into the river?

Gan Lan didn’t answer. She stuffed everything into a black plastic bag instead.

“Let’s go.”

She shoved the plastic bag into her jacket pocket and clutched it tightly.

This really was everything she owned.

She was going to turn everything she could sell into cash, and trade her small bills and coins for larger ones.

With money, she could afford medical care. With money, she could have more freedom.

She had something big to do: buy lottery tickets!

If she remembered correctly, the lottery shop near the school would sell a third-prize winning ticket sometime soon.

Third prize was worth twenty thousand yuan.

It wasn’t much, but it would let her live comfortably for a while.

Too bad she hadn’t paid much attention to the national lottery results in her previous life. Otherwise, she could’ve landed a much bigger windfall.

Watching her series of baffling actions, Ye Yubai couldn’t help saying, “Gan Lan, please don’t do anything rash.”

Gan Lan glanced at him. “I’m not doing anything rash.”

Ye Yubai said, “I know your parents are stingy with you, but I have money. If you’re really short, why not just tell me? I’d definitely lend you some!”

Gan Lan sighed.

What on earth went through this guy’s head all day?

With his worried gaze fixed on her, Gan Lan had no choice but to swear to heaven that she absolutely wasn’t thinking of killing herself and that she was in a perfectly healthy state of mind.

Once she’d promised him, Ye Yubai finally seemed a little more at ease.

He quietly reached into his pocket and pulled out three hundred-yuan bills. Looking a little pained, he handed them to Gan Lan.

“Here. This is my spending money for the week. Just remember, someday…”

As he spoke, he pressed his lips together.

Then he managed a smile.

“Never mind. If it’s you, you don’t have to pay me back.”