...

"You saved me today, and I'm grateful, and I'll ask Daddy to give you more money as a reward. But that doesn't mean I've accepted you. When Daddy comes back I'll tell him to fire you." Gu Mengyao pressed her lips together and only spoke after hesitating again and again.

Wei Zhao shrugged and smiled a helpless smile. "Don't worry. If Mr. Gu fires me, I won't hang about here." He felt he really had failed at something—was this young lady simply too hard to wait on, or was he just not doing a good enough job? Not that it mattered. He was a little attached to this comfortable life—school every day, home again after, sharing a roof with two young beauties, a good brother at school—but in the end, this life was never meant to be his.

Watching Wei Zhao's somewhat forlorn back, Gu Mengyao felt the tightness in her chest grow worse. Was she wrong? Should she not have driven him away? For the first time, her resolve loosened, and she began to sway on the scale that held Wei Zhao.

Back in his room, Wei Zhao stripped off his shirt and trousers. A great smear of blood soaked the trousers; they were plainly unwearable now. What a waste of such a fine pair of pants. With a pang of regret he tossed them into the trash bin in the corner, then took out a spare set of school uniform.

Changed, he came out of the room. Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were on the sofa watching television. Wei Zhao did not disturb them; he quietly sat down on the sofa farthest from them and watched the cartoon along with them.

Shen Yushu flicked a glance at Wei Zhao and went back to the cartoon, while Gu Mengyao did not even look in his direction.

Because of the bank robbery business, it was already past nine by the time they got home. Uncle Qing had gone straight to the hotel to fetch the meal, and by the time it reached the villa it was half past ten at night.

As always, Uncle Qing left the food and went on his way. The only difference was that today, on leaving, he specially instructed Wei Zhao: "Don't forget to check tonight whether the front gate is properly locked. Keep those two girls safe."

"Don't worry, Uncle Qing." Wei Zhao gave him a reassuring look.

When Wei Zhao cultivated at night, it could already take the place of sleep, and those hours were also when his mind and senses were at their sharpest—not the slightest stir could escape his ears. So as for the villa's safety at night, he was full of confidence.

"Ohh!" Shen Yushu cheered at the smell of the food. "I'm starving! Food at last. Sister Yaoyao, let's go eat."

Gu Mengyao rose and walked with Shen Yushu toward the dining room beside the kitchen. She was hungry too, but something unnameable was weighing on her heart, so she was nowhere near as lively as Shen Yushu.

Seated at the table, Shen Yushu could not wait to pry the lid off the sealed box, and her mouth watered. "Sister Yaoyao, braised chicken chunks! And stir-fried tofu, hot-and-sour shredded potato, and pig trotter soup—that pig trotter soup must be a special order for your bust..."

Gu Mengyao shot her a glare, signaling her to stop talking nonsense—there was a grown man in the house, and this was no longer the two-girl world it had once been.

"Ohh." Shen Yushu shut her mouth. "It smells so good. Stir-fried tofu is my favorite. They say eat enough tofu and your skin turns white—just like the Tofu Beauty in our textbook."

Gu Mengyao picked up her chopsticks, then set them down again, and stole a glance from the corner of her eye at Wei Zhao on the sofa. He was still watching television. Somehow that lonely figure made her deeply uncomfortable. Yesterday he had fought to eat with her, and today he had not come over—it must be because of that business yesterday, when she had eaten his saliva...

"Call your Shield over to eat," Gu Mengyao said to Shen Yushu after a moment's hesitation.

"He's your Shield, not mine. I don't need a shield." Shen Yushu pursed her lips in a half-smile, watching Gu Mengyao as if trying to spot something. "Why are you calling him over to eat all of a sudden?"

"Then never mind him." Under Shen Yushu's interrogation, Gu Mengyao felt an inexplicable fluster and spoke coldly.

"Oh, then I'll go call him." Shen Yushu smiled, stood up, and called toward the living room: "Shield, come eat!"

"You two go ahead. I'll eat after you're done. Mengyao doesn't like me." Wei Zhao gave Shen Yushu a grateful look—this girl really had been good to him; the noodles he had cooked her that morning were not wasted after all.

At his words, Gu Mengyao's hand, midway to a dish, gave a sudden tremor, and a piece of braised chicken dropped onto the table... She wanted so badly to cry. She had clearly been the one trying to call Wei Zhao over to eat, and now this fellow had taken Shen Yushu for the kind soul, and even said she did not like him—truly, fine intentions repaid with a donkey's liver and lungs.

"Sister Yaoyao said..." Shen Yushu had barely begun when Gu Mengyao yanked her back.

"Ignore him. Let him starve." Gu Mengyao spoke with venom. She hated him—hated him to death.

"Huh? But Sister Yaoyao, didn't you say to have him come eat with us? Why are you ignoring him again?" Shen Yushu looked at Gu Mengyao, whose expression had turned grim, with some puzzlement.

"I changed my mind again." Gu Mengyao gave a little huff. She hesitated for a moment, then said, "Xiaoshu, if you like him, then go call him over."

"Me? But he said you don't like him," Shen Yushu said innocently.

"I..." Gu Mengyao wanted to say, I never said I didn't like him. But if she said that out loud, wouldn't it amount to admitting she liked him? Gu Mengyao's lips moved, but in the end she said nothing, only: "Let's eat..."

Some time later—if time could be rewound, Gu Mengyao thought, then after Wei Zhao finished saying those words, she would certainly have stood up and shouted at him without the slightest hesitation: "I like you, I like you, come eat with us!"

But time cannot be rewound. It was fated that all of this had already happened, and fated that in the many moonlit nights to come, Gu Mengyao would clutch the corner of a quilt soaked with tears and pass those sleepless nights...

In the instant a shooting star streaked across the night sky, Gu Mengyao made her wish. But do wishes really come true? Gazing at that resplendent starry sky, Gu Mengyao found that, from some unknown moment, the distance between herself and him had grown farther and farther...

Though it seemed within reach, between the two of them lay an insurmountable gulf—and that gulf had been dug by her own hands...

Yet at this moment, Gu Mengyao clearly had not yet realized this...