YUNJINNA, LIBRARY.
—
She had brought him here to remind herself that this was hers.
Her school. Her territory. Her life that she had built carefully over three years.
It wasn't working.
She sat across from Chu Jintan at a library table and watched him and tried to name what she'd seen in his face outside and couldn't.
Wouldn't.
"You're quiet," he said.
"I'm thinking."
"About?"
She looked at him, This face she knew so well.
The way his eyes crinkled slightly when he was amused. The way he tilted his head when he was listening. The way he had looked at that girl on the steps and—"Nothing," she said.
He reached across the table and covered her hand with his.
"Stop worrying," he said. "About all of it. Liang Boshen, that girl, Si Xi—"
"Don't say his name in here," she said automatically.
He raised an eyebrow.
"This is a library, Jinna. Not a—"
"Just—" She pressed her lips together. "Just don't."
He looked at her for a moment.
Something moved in his eyes.
Calculation, maybe.
Gone quickly.
He squeezed her hand.
"Everything is going to be fine," he said.
She looked at their hands.Turned hers over.
Held his back.
"Of course," she said.
They smiled at each other. Both of them performing warmth at each other across a library table. (Yes performing ^^)
Both of them thinking about someone else.
Neither of them saying so.
——
At the corridor, Feng Zichen saw Chu Jintan leaving the campus at one PM.
Knew who he was immediately — Yunjinna's boyfriend, Chu family, the kind of background that opened doors before you knocked on them.
He watched him walk out the main gate.
Thought about what he'd seen from across the courtyard this morning.
Chu Jintan on the steps. Four seconds. The quality of attention that people thought they were hiding but weren't, not to someone who knew what to look for.
Then Yun Jiao. Looking up. Smiling. Looking back down.
As if he wasn't worth three seconds of sustained eye contact.
Feng Zichen put his hands in his pockets.
Walked the other direction.Thought: interesting, this school just got considerably more complicated and this one surprised him slightly, I hope she knows what she's walking into.
He wasn't sure why he thought that last one.
He thought it anyway.
——
4PM At the gate, Butler Ye was there.
He was always there.
Yun Jiao got in the car.
Looked out the window as Jinhao slid away behind them.
"Hawk," she said.
"Here."
"Yun Xiao's field trip was today."
"Yes."
"The nature park in the eastern suburbs."
"Yes."
A pause.She watched the city move past the window.
"Did you—" she started.
"I set up a camera near the park entrance,"
Hawk said quietly.
"At nine forty-two AM a class from Mingde Orphanage arrived."
A pause. "He was third from the front. Blue jacket. He had a sandwich in his hand."
She pressed her lips together.
"Was he—"
"He was laughing at something the boy next to him said." Hawk's voice was gentle. "He looked happy, Master"
She looked at the window.
At the city passing.
At her own reflection floating ghost-like in the glass.
Happy.
Her Xiao Xiao was happy.
She breathed in slowly.
Out slowly.
"Okay," she said.
Just that.
Okay.
But her hand, resting in her lap—Was trembling.
Just slightly.
Just for a moment.Then it stopped.
She straightened.
Looked forward.
Thought about the notebook in her bag.
One word. Underlined.
Patience.
She could do that.
She had done harder things.
—— FORTY-SECOND FLOOR. 5PM. —
Si Xi put his pen down at five PM exactly, Stood up.
Walked to the window.
Looked at the city.
Lin Feng appeared in the doorway.
Said nothing.
Waited.
"Tomorrow," Si Xi said.
"Sir?"
"Jinhao."
Lin Feng blinked.
"Again sir?"
"Is there a problem?"
"No sir." He lowered his head. "No problem at all."
Si Xi looked at the city.
The forty-second floor. The whole of Imperial Capital spread below him like something that belonged to him.
Most of it did.
"There's a student," he said.
Lin Feng went very still.
"A welfare check," Si Xi said.
"After the incident."
"...Of course sir."
"Make sure she hasn't been further bothered."
Lin Feng rolled his eyes and looked at the back of his boss's head.
Six years.
In six years Si Xi had never once performed a welfare check on a student.
On anyone.
"Of course sir," he said.
"That's all."
Lin Feng turned to leave.
"Lin Feng."
He stopped.
"Don't announce it."
"...Sir?"
"The visit." Si Xi looked at the city. "Don't announce it in advance."
Lin Feng stood in the doorway.
Processed this, A surprise visit.
So she wouldn't know he was coming.
He turned back around very carefully. "Understood sir," he said.
He left.
Closed the door behind him. Stood in the hallway outside for approximately four seconds.
Looked at the closed door again and Thought about six years of working for a man who had never once performed a welfare check, never once made an unannounced visit, never once asked him not to announce something in advance.
Until now.
Until a seventeen year old girl with a strawberry lollipop walked into his university and cried with steady hands.
Lin Feng looked at the ceiling.
Straightened his jacket.
Walked away.
Tomorrow, he thought, was going to be very interesting.