Sleeping this early? What are you, a little turtle?

Xu Qianqian left without so much as saying goodbye.

Jiang Nian wouldn't call it disappointment; he just wasn't used to it. They'd gone to and from school together pretty much all week, so walking alone all of a sudden felt strange.

Classic. Absolutely classic. She got mad, didn't she?

She had a phone. She could've messaged me, or even borrowed a classmate's phone. But nope, she left without a word. Hilarious. I can't.

A loving father and his dutiful daughter. Bravo, bravo, bravo!

With that thought, Jiang Nian walked out of the classroom building.

It was early October.

The evening air was still muggy, and having his clothes stick to his skin was deeply uncomfortable. After evening study hall, the students split off outside the classroom building, with the boarders heading toward the dormitories.

Jiang Nian followed the day students toward the school gates. As he passed the administration building, Zhou Yuting happened to be walking beside him and spotted him too.

Amid the noisy, bustling crowd, she shot Jiang Nian a cold glance and quickened her pace.

"Tch." Jiang Nian didn't look any friendlier.

Some people shortened your lifespan just by crossing your path. If he weren't trying to stay civil, he would've unleashed Dust Release on her. If Zhou Yuting couldn't hear him clearly, he could always have his words engraved on her gravestone someday.

But remembering that they wouldn't have anything to do with each other anymore, he couldn't be bothered.

Hide your mom well. Don't let me find her.

He went home.

After washing up, Jiang Nian opened the WeChat profile of Xu Qianqian, who lived across the hall. Her avatar was a cat sprawled on top of a wall, with blue skies and white clouds behind it and a green branch hanging down through the middle.

He opened their chat. Their last conversation had been during the National Day holiday.

After a little thought, he sent a question mark. The comical punctuation mark abruptly filled an entire message bubble, seemingly saying nothing and everything at once.

"Asleep?"

"Why didn't you wait for me after evening study hall?"

"Used me and dumped me, huh?"

"You're not invited to the next orgy."

"Woman (his swordlike eyebrows snapped in half), your name is greed. Give you an inch and you take a mile. Do you like CEOs? Hmm? I just came out of a tailor's shop, so I'm a cut above the rest."

"Do you love me or not? Speak!"

Ten minutes passed without a response. He checked the time. Eleven.

Sleeping this early? What are you, a little turtle?

Heh. Woman, you're testing my limits. His aloof brows unconsciously twisted into steel cables, carrying thirty percent coldness, thirty percent disdain, and thirty percent indifference.

Lying on his stomach in bed, Jiang Nian opened Xu Qianqian's profile like an emperor reviewing memorials. There wasn't much information, only her gender and nickname.

"Tumble Garden's Young Mom of Zhuangzhuang."

What the hell? That name is so brain-dead. When did she change it?

Her Moments were only visible for three days. As far as Jiang Nian remembered, Xu Qianqian had never really posted anything there. She occasionally posted on her QQ feed, but those were all shared giveaways.

"Comment 1 for free gold."

He couldn't be bothered to wait anymore and was about to roll over and go to sleep, but accidentally tapped Xu Qianqian's avatar. This was the downside of setting his screen to stay on for ten minutes.

His phone buzzed. [You patted Xu Qianqian's cyber wooden fish. Merit +1.]

Xu Qianqian: "?"

The woman herself had finally appeared. With a cyber wooden fish pat sandwiched between two question marks, it looked rather like two snipers facing off down the middle lane. Neither intended to back down.

Jiang Nian tapped a few keys, then suddenly lost the urge to ask.

"Nothing. Going to sleep."

A line appeared at the top of Xu Qianqian's chat: "The other person is typing..."

He glanced at his phone screen. Having known her for years, Jiang Nian figured her reply would probably just be "Mm." He might as well not read it and go straight to sleep.

Buzz. Jiang Nian rolled over, ready to enter that night's dirty dreamland.

Buzz! Jiang Nian opened his eyes, speechless.

Did she need to send her half-assed reply twice?

Buzz!!

Annoyed, Jiang Nian snatched up the phone lying on the bed beside his legs. He unlocked the screen and checked. Xu Qianqian hadn't sent "Mm." Instead, she'd written, "I think there's a mouse in my apartment."

Then, two minutes later: "?"

Five minutes later: "Are you asleep?"

Jiang Nian scrolled back through the messages, reading every word with growing impatience. Even a pushover could get angry. Wasn't she going to explain why she'd ditched him? And why hadn't she replied earlier?

Still, out of basic courtesy, and considering their relationship, he sent her a heartwarming reply.

"I know you have a mouse. Thanks, but I'm not hungry right now."

Xu Qianqian: "????"

"What an obscure choice of words. I meant, do you have any constructive solutions?"

Jiang Nian: "I do, actually. Listen carefully. Kneel on the floor and beg Grandpa Mouse not to scare you anymore. Then, in daylight, get a rope and hang yourself outside its hole."

Xu Qianqian: "(Eye roll) What kind of loser support-group advice is that? Say something human."

He replied, "Kill it."

"I can't catch it. I don't know where it's hiding." Xu Qianqian typed quickly. "I should've gotten a cat. It could help catch mice."

He was just about to bad-mouth cats, but worried the TikTok princesses would dump a plate of food over his head.

"Old Xu likes things clean and has mild germophobia. She wouldn't stand for that sort of thing. Besides, if it caught the mouse, it would swallow the little guy whole right in front of you."

"Stop. Don't gross me out." Xu Qianqian sent a shuddering sticker. "Hurry up and think of something. I'm going crazy. Old Xu isn't home."

Jiang Nian slowly read the last few words of her message and hesitated for a moment.

"All right, all right. Daddy's coming."

Xu Qianqian: "(Middle-finger sticker)."

Jiang Nian rolled out of bed, crept out of his room, opened the front door, and gently closed it behind him. The old door had long been in need of repairs, but as long as he moved slowly, it wouldn't moan like a slut.

Otherwise, in the dead of night: "Ahh~ Mmm~"

Anyone who didn't know better would think someone had connected their porn to a speaker.

After closing his own door, Jiang Nian didn't knock on the one across the hall. He took out his phone and messaged Xu Qianqian. The sound-activated light hadn't come on, leaving the corridor pitch-black.

"I'm here."

A moment later, he saw a sliver of light spill through the gap beneath her door. There was a faint sound of slippers brushing against the floor, then a little of the light was blocked, and everything went quiet.

Buzz! His phone lit up with a nervous message.

"Are you really outside? Why can't I hear anything?"

Speechless, Jiang Nian typed back.

"Want me to perform some bleached-haired punk rap for you?"

With a click, the lock turned, the sound exceptionally crisp in the stillness of the night.

Then the door eased open, light from the living room streaming out in thin threads.

Xu Qianqian met Jiang Nian's eyes and visibly relaxed. Without speaking, she tilted her head, motioning for him to get inside and stop dawdling.

Jiang Nian walked in and turned to see her carefully closing the door. Only after she'd shut it completely without making a sound did she turn around.

She wore a thin white nightdress dotted with pink peach blossoms. A few strands of hair had come loose from her casual bun, and her lips were pink and glossy.

"What are you looking at?"

"Seriously? I come over in the middle of the night to catch a mouse for you, and that's the attitude I get?" Jiang Nian went over to the fridge and helped himself to a bottle of Coke, switching to self-service mode.

He was long used to Xu Qianqian's attitude, since he usually acted like the same kind of asshole. They were a case of bad company rubbing off on each other.

(End of chapter)