Su Jianan was hiding. Lu Boyan could see it now.

She had always been fearful of taking medicines. He had once stayed ad interim in her home, occupying one of the vacant rooms there. During then, there was one time when she, a ten-year-old girl, suddenly came running to him. Nimble and agile like a fish in the ocean, she slipped into the bedroom he was then occupying and hid under his covers. “Brother Boyan, don’t tell my mom I’m here.”

Her mother had come looking for her shortly after. Only then did Lu Boyan find out that she had been trying to avoid taking her medicine. In fact, he learned that she would willingly engage in a battle of strength and wits with her entire family just for that.

Afterwards, it had been him who had coaxed Su Jianan to swallow down the colorful pills of various sizes. He had promised to take her out to play.

In the end, he did not keep his promise.

After so many years, she was still the same. The mere sight of pills would have her cowering in fear like a small rabbit who had encountered a big, grey wolf.

Lu Boyan pressed down on her shoulder. “You think you can avoid taking your meds just by hiding under the covers?”

Su Jianan tried her best to put on a tiny smile. “Actually, it doesn’t hurt as much anymore compared to this morning. Can I… skip the meds?”

“I’ll call you ‘brother’!”

She added quickly when she noticed Lu Boyan’s face, which was expressionless.

This time, Lu Boyan seemed interested. He raised his brows. “Let’s hear it.”

“Brother Boyan…”

Only her head could be seen peeking out whereas the rest of her was wrapped up in the covers. She looked like an obedient white rabbit whose voice was tender, affectionate, and clearly meant for currying favors. It was even more pleasing to hear than those times she had called him ‘brother’ sweetly when she was young.

Satisfied, Lu Boyan ruffled her hair. “Good girl. Now, take your meds.”

Ka-boom!

Su Jianan felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck her head right then and there. She stared at Lu Boyan in a stupor. She could not believe that she had been played. Again.

“You b*stard.” She turned her head away angrily. “You lied to me again.”

When she was ten, a short while after meeting Lu Boyan for the first time, she was diagnosed with several health problems that compelled her to take all kinds of medicine for an extended period of time. She had exhausted all her tricks to avoid taking her medicines back then, so she went to Lu Boyan, thinking that he would help her.

In the end, he and Tang Yulan had joined forces to persuade her to take her medicine. When she still shook her head and pursed her lips in defiance, Lu Boyan made her a promise. “Take your meds. Tomorrow I’ll take you to the theme park.”

She had blinked and forced down the pills. But that same night, her mother had told her that Auntie Tang and Brother Boyan had to leave for the United States the next day.

She had refused to speak to Lu Boyan when they were sending him off at the airport. He had taken out several lollipops as if by magic before giving it to her, but she still refused to speak to him.

He had promised to take her to the theme park that same day, but he was leaving. Worse, he was leaving for a place that she could never reach no matter what kind of lies she told her driver.

She thought that only adults would lie to her. She had not expected Lu Boyan to lie to her too.

She remembered that in the end, Lu Boyan sighed helplessly and told her, “From now on, you need to listen to auntie and take your meds.”

After that, he and Tang Yulan went through the security screenings. As his figure slowly vanished from her sight, her vision turned blurrier and blurrier.

“Jianan, why are you crying?” her mother asked, wiping away Su Jianan’s tears. “You miss Auntie Tang and Brother Boyan, don’t you?”

A sob escaped Su Jianan. “He lied to me. He lied to me…” She accused.

That year, Lu Boyan had lied to her. Now, he lied to her again.

Su Jianan felt pathetic. She had not made any progress. In fact, she actually became worse.

Lu Boyan did not expect Su Jianan to remember those things from that year. He pa.s.sed her a gla.s.s of warm water. “I’ll never lie to you again. Come on, be a good girl and take the meds.”

“…” Su Jianan no longer held any trust for Lu Boyan.

“Drink some water first. Then throw the pills into your mouth and swallow. It won’t taste too bitter.”

Su Jianan had never seen such patience from Lu Boyan before, which would make her feel pretty bad if his efforts were to go to waste. She did as she was told obediently. Indeed, it was not as bitter as it would be if she were to take the pills first before the water. She forced all the pills down and finished her IV drips.

Lu Boyan pressed the call b.u.t.ton. Shortly, a nurse entered to remove the catheter. “Rest for a while. You can leave as soon as you don’t feel tired,” said the nurse.

“Thank you,” Su Jianan said, pus.h.i.+ng the covers aside to get down. Lu Boyan held her in place. “The nurse told you to rest,” Lu Boyan said.

“As if I’m that weak to still need rest.” Su Jianan put on her shoes nimbly. “Let’s go.”

Perhaps the IV treatment and pills had taken effect, since her face and lips were no longer pale. Even the light had returned to her eyes. She was once again the Little Monster who could march into battle anytime.

Lu Boyan led her out of the hospital. When they got into the car, he did not order the driver to drive away immediately. Instead, he asked her, “What would you like to eat?”

Su Jianan suddenly remembered that the reason Lu Boyan had brought her out in the first place was for a meal. None of them had expected this trip to the hospital.

Now, she had regained not only her strength but also her appet.i.te. “Right now, I could eat everything. So, you decide,” she said after giving it some thought.

Lu Boyan told the driver to take them to the old city area.

In the past few decades, G City had been the fastest growing city in the country. With the newly established Financial District making progress every day, it was as if G City was the epitome of a modernized international metropolitan. However, it seemed as if time itself had s.h.i.+elded the old city area from the rhythms of modernization. None of that modernized, fast-paced, and brisk lifestyle had found its way here.

Antiquated buildings with arcades were built along the rivers whose waters were clean and crystal clear. Old-fas.h.i.+oned alleyways ran deep into the area. In these alleys, every building had two red lanterns adorning their facades. Stone lions stood guard beside the entrance like sentinels. If it were not for the street lamps lining the river banks, which would remind tourists that they were in the 21st century, most would think that they had traveled back in time to the old days.

The tourism developmental plans of the old city area had been executed well. Here, the modern and the antiquated had been seamlessly integrated. At the river embankments, modern colored lightings and old-fas.h.i.+oned lanterns illuminated their respective corners, coexisting without a single hint of discord.

The rhythmic clangor of gongs and drums could be heard from a stage nearby. The clear, melodious sounds from the opera performance altogether made up a unique experience.

Lu Boyan led Su Jianan into a restaurant near the river.

The restaurant was renovated from an old arcade. Each brick and s.h.i.+ngle oozed antiquity. In every corner of the restaurant, there were vague signs of age. Wooden tables were set up near the windows. With the shutters raised, the window would provide a view of the river and the surrounding greeneries. A performance stage was set up further away. Opera actors who wore make-up entered the stage to perform the cla.s.sic opera, “Farewell My Concubine”.

Throughout the years, Su Yicheng had brought Su Jianan to visit many places. She had been to all kinds of luxury restaurants or hotels, but yet this was the first time she had seen a restaurant whose windows opened directly to an outdoor performance stage.

She could not deny that she liked it. She enjoyed the tranquility resulting from this kind of hustle and bustle.

She stared at Lu Boyan. “It’s not often that you stay in G City. How did you find this place?”

“It’s run by a friend. This place used to be his home.”

Lu Boyan pulled out a chair for Su Jianan, who sat down. At the same time, a tall, beefy man entered with two young men who looked like errand boys.

The man was very tall. His height seemed comparable to Lu Boyan’s, though he was far more muscular than Lu Boyan. Taut muscles bulged beneath the high-quality fabric of his casual attire. His features were sharp and solid. All in all, he was handsome in a macho sort of way. With his bronze-colored skin, his entire bearing screamed bada.s.sery and defiance.

When the man’s lips tilted into a tiny smile, it was as if his dark eyes held some kind of hidden evil.

He extended a hand towards Su Jianan. “I’m the friend that Boyan had just told you about. I’m Mu Sijue.”

Su Jianan did not expect that a restaurant as novel as this would be run by such a macho man. It took her a while to react. When she did, she extended her own hand. “Nice to meet you, I’m Su…”

“I know you.”

Mu Sijue gave a crinkly smile. Su Jianan kept feeling that there was some kind of hidden meaning behind that smile. Slowly, her eyes turned suspicious.

Lu Boyan gave Mu Sijue a warning glance. Mu Sijue cleared his throat. “You two are all over the papers and magazines. It’s normal for me to know.”

Mu Sijue’s words were flawless, though only he alone knew that those words were lies fabricated to fool Su Jianan. Someday, he would open a bottle of quality alcohol and tell Su Jianan the whole truth. That way, it would not just be suspicion in her eyes.

Then again, the simple-minded Su Jianan would never be able to fully grasp his convoluted thoughts. She treated him as if he was a friend. “Have you eaten yet? Why don’t you join us?”

“Nah. I don’t want to impose,” Mu Sijue said. “I just came by to greet you. We’ll know each other in the future anyway. Order anything you like. This meal is on me.”

Mu Sijue had some kind of dark, intense, and heroic aura around him. Just like Lu Boyan, he was impossible to read whenever he smiled. But Lu Boyan’s smile was the cold and unreadable type, one that would make anyone secretly break out in a cold sweat. Mu Sijue’s was different. His would make it seem as though there was an entire world of darkness behind his back, and that he was the ruler of that world. n.o.body would be able to glimpse what he was truly capable of whereas he could swallow or skin someone alive with a smile on his face.

“Brother seven. Hei Zi is nagging us to go down to the port,” one of the errand boys told Mu Sijue in a hushed voice.

Smiling, Mu Sijue slipped his hands into his pockets casually. “Enjoy your meal. I have some business to take care of.”

He left with the two young men. As he left, Su Jianan kept watching him. She immediately noticed his resolute and arrogant strides. More and more, Su Jianan thought that Mu Sijue was not a simple man. She looked at Lu Boyan suspiciously. “He’s really your friend?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I just feel like this guy…” Su Jianan seemed like she wanted to say something but had suddenly decided against it. “He doesn’t seem like the type of person you’d be friends with.”

Lu Buoyan’s brows shot up. “Why?”

“Haven’t you heard of the saying, ‘there can’t be two tigers living in the same mountain’? Two alphas can’t coexist peacefully in one place,” Su Jianan said. “He doesn’t seem like a simple character at all.”

But now that she thought about it, this was actually the first time Su Jianan had met one of Lu Boyan’s friends ever since they got married. He never really brought up any of his friends, so she sort of just a.s.sumed that someone like him, who was sitting on top of the world, had no friends at all. However, the interactions between Mu Sijue and Lu Boyan seemed rather casual and informal. It was likely that he and Mu Sijue went way back.

“We’ve known each other for a long time, and there’s no clash of interest,” Lu Boyan said. “The reason I brought you here is for you to get to know him. Remember, if anything happens in the future, you come to him here.”

Su Jianan felt like Lu Boyan was imploring her. She looked at Lu Boyan strangely. “What’s going to happen in the future?”

The restaurant’s staff knew Lu Boyan’s habits, so they had served him high-quality Longjing tea. Steam rose from the teacup containing the pale green tea. Lu Boyan’s hand tightened around the cup.

“I’m letting you know just in case.”

His eyes remained calm and composed, as if nothing had happened.

“Oh,” Su Jianan said. “What shall we eat?”

Perhaps that strange, terrible feeling was just her overthinking things again. How could anything happen when Lu Boyan was making a face like that?

The staff had already brought them the menus, which Lu Boyan handed to Su Jianan. “You order for us.”

When she opened the menu, she realized that this was a hot pot restaurant. Or, in G City lingo, ‘the side of a furnace’.

‘The side of a furnace’ was different from a normal hot pot in that stock was used as the soup whereas seafood was added for taste. It also lacked the spiciness commonly found in hot pots, making it both a mild and flavorful dish. Even a girl whose body was in her ‘special period’ could have a feast with this dish.

Su Jianan had said that she could to eat everything. It seemed like her wish came true after all.