The young man scratched his head.

“Um, I’m not really sure.”

As he spoke, he seemed to remember something else.

“Oh, right! I remember the person who brought me the cake was a young guy. Pretty handsome, too. About this tall, wearing a gray-blue suit.”

Gan Lan’s heart gave a jolt.

That height, that outfit… Could it have been Ye Zhongxi?

Ye Zhongxi had been wearing a gray-blue suit when she saw him today!

At the thought, a chill ran down Gan Lan’s spine.

She couldn’t help connecting it to the string of seemingly accidental mishaps from her previous life.

Everything from something as small as her bicycle being stolen to the accident that killed her.

If Ye Zhongxi had planned all of them, then that man was terrifying!

After a whirlwind of thoughts, Gan Lan quickly calmed down.

Refusing the delivery outright would definitely make Ye Zhongxi suspicious.

She could only accept it quietly and make other plans.

“Leave the cake here. You can go now.”

Gan Lan signed the delivery receipt.

She left the cake behind.

Then she closed the door.

She carried the cake back inside.

Then headed straight for the balcony.

Seeing the heavy look on her face, Ye Yubai teased, “Did you bring back a bomb?”

Gan Lan glared at him. “Don’t say a word!”

It really was a bomb.

…

She put the cake on the balcony and shut the doors and windows.

Ye Yubai leaned against the windowsill, watching her.

He frowned but said nothing.

Gan Lan was silent too.

She carefully began taking apart the cake box.

She even held a metal trash-can lid in front of herself as a shield.

Before long, she’d completely taken the cake box apart.

Inside was a very ordinary-looking cake.

“Tch. I thought it’d be something serious,” Ye Yubai muttered. “It’s just a plain old cake.”

Gan Lan picked up a metal fork and poked the cake.

A dull thud rang out.

Cream splattered everywhere.

The trash-can lid shielded Gan Lan from most of it. Only a little splashed onto her shoes and pants.

Ye Yubai, who hadn’t been prepared at all, had it much worse.

He was covered in cream from head to toe.

He stood frozen for a full minute before he finally processed what had just happened.

“What the…?”

He struggled to swallow.

Then he took a deep breath.

With stiff arms, he pulled a tissue from the nearby tissue box.

And wiped his face.

Gan Lan dropped the lid and fork, stood up, and calmly grabbed a rag to clean up the mess.

“Gan Lan, did you know there was something wrong with the cake?” Ye Yubai came back to his senses. “Who sent it?”

Gan Lan shook her head.

“I don’t know. It was just a hunch—a feeling that something was wrong with it.”

The truth was, even if she’d been sure it was Ye Zhongxi, she couldn’t have told Ye Yubai.

It might even have put him in greater danger.

Knowing too much would only get him hurt.

Ye Yubai walked over to the balcony and grasped her by the shoulders.

“A hunch?”

“I don’t believe in hunches, Gan Lan.”

“You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?”

Gan Lan pressed her lips together.

Her eyes darted away for a moment.

That brief glance was enough to convince Ye Yubai she really was hiding something from him!

Still, Ye Yubai didn’t think it had anything to do with him.

He was still thinking it might be revenge from one of his rabid female fans, targeting Gan Lan—like that packet of utility-knife blades stained red.

Was Gan Lan keeping the truth from him because she didn’t want him to worry?

Or maybe…

Had those people bullied her so badly that she was afraid to speak up?

Either way, Ye Yubai couldn’t help blaming himself.

Being his good buddy really was hard on Gan Lan.

“Gan Lan, don’t worry. And don’t be afraid. I won’t let you keep struggling like this forever.”

As he said it, Ye Yubai let go of her.

Seeing that he wasn’t going to press her, Gan Lan naturally let the subject drop.

“Come on, time to study.” She managed a weak smile. “You’re supposed to memorize stuff with me tonight, so don’t think you can slack off.”

…

Ye Yubai slacking off was the norm.

But today, he was unusually diligent.

He studied for two hours straight without once picking up his phone to mess around.

Gan Lan, on the other hand, was studying until her head spun and her eyelids drooped.

Several times, she slumped onto her desk, only to force herself upright again.

At that point, Ye Yubai tapped her desk and suggested, “Why don’t we quiz each other? We can do the classical poems you know well. How’s that?”

Gan Lan let out a breath, sat up straight, and nodded.

It might help wake her up, too.

Ye Yubai took her book and began asking questions with a solemn air.

There were only a few passages from high school that they had to memorize.

For someone like Gan Lan, who had a solid literary background, most of them still stuck—even though she hadn’t reviewed them in eight years.

“I’ll say one line, and you say the next.”

Ye Yubai flipped to the last page of the Chinese textbook.

“A scholar must be resolute and steadfast. What’s the next line?”

“For his burden is heavy, and his road is long.”

“And then?”

“Isn’t it a heavy burden to take benevolence as one’s duty?”

“Keep going.”

“And isn’t the road long, lasting until death?”

Ye Yubai nodded, his eyes narrowing with a smile. “You’re amazing. I’ve never been able to get that passage straight.”

Gan Lan rested her chin in one hand, twirling a pen in the other.

“When heavy rain falls, and the skies stay dark for months…”

He’d started quizzing her on the Record of Yueyang Tower.

Gan Lan picked up right where he left off.

She recited the whole thing without missing a word. Ye Yubai blinked in surprise.

“Um…”

“What is it?”

Gan Lan turned her face slightly toward him.

The puzzled look on his face made her nervous again.

Could she have made him suspicious again?

“Nothing.”

Ye Yubai sighed.

“It’s just that we weren’t required to memorize the whole passage. How did you manage to learn it all?”

Gan Lan fell silent.

So what if she could recite it?

Could she tell him she’d admired the author’s talent and had memorized it naturally after reading it twice?

That would sound a little like showing off.

“All right, all right. I get it—you’re good at this. Your turn to quiz me.”

Ye Yubai brought the subject to an end himself.

He casually tossed the book in his hand to Gan Lan.

…

They studied for another hour.

Gan Lan had fallen completely asleep.

The book was still standing upright on the desk, but she was fast asleep.

It was already nearly eleven thirty at night.

Ye Yubai carefully reached over and slipped her book away.

She looked so peaceful asleep that he couldn’t quite bring himself to wake her.

But…

Looking at her long, thick eyelashes and her slightly chubby, baby-faced profile, he felt a strange itch in his heart again.

He reached out a finger, pretending to take the book, and slowly moved it toward her sleeve.

He made it all the way to her sleeve, even lightly brushing the tip of her finger.

She didn’t wake up.

He moved his hand farther up.

Soon, he’d be able to touch her face.

Ye Yubai silently broke into a cold sweat.

A thought drifted blankly through his mind.

“If he found out I’d touched his face, would he think I was gay?”