But the way women handle themselves when they fell out of love can be very different from each other.

Xiang Wan stayed in Fang Yuanyuan's bedroom till around 2:00 a.m. when she finally stopped creating a ruckus.

Fang Yuanyuan kept sobbing and sobbing. After she lay on her pillow, she gradually entered dreamland.

Xiang Wan was relieved as it was mentally draining for her as well. She yawned as she covered a blanket over Yuanyuan and closed the window. When she returned to her room, she found Bai Muchuan smoking alone in his pajamas by the window. It was obvious he had gone for a bath and was up for quite a while.

"You're awake?" Xiang Wan walked over slowly.

The window was open, and the lighting in the room was very dim.

Bai Muchuan turned around. A side of his face fell into the dark, ink-colored shadow outside the window which felt cold and thin, as though merged with the night sky.

Xiang Wan's eyebrows creased, puzzled by his behavior. "Why did I feel that a lot is going on in your head?"

Bai Muchuan took a glance at her, snuffed out the cigarette, and fanned the air using a hand. "I'm sorry."

"What?"

"For smoking in your room," explained Bai Muchuan, "you two were talking outside. It's not appropriate of me to come out and disturb."

"Oh, it's alright," Xiang Wan replied with a smile. She realized that he had ignored her words earlier and wondered if he did it consciously or subconsciously.

"Is your cousin asleep?" Bai Muchuan came over and gave her a light hug. He pondered for a moment before he asked another question, "Is she okay?"

Although both of them had known each other for quite a while, Bai Muchuan hardly called Fang Yuanyuan's name directly. Most of the time, he would address Yuanyuan purely and directly as how she was related to Xiang Wan—"cousin".

On that basis, he always kept his distance.

He neither behaved too closely nor too distant with Fang Yuanyuan. His mannerisms were just nice.

Xiang Wan always felt that Bai Muchuan had a way on dealing with people, especially so with young women. He knew very well what was appropriate and what was not.

That night, however, he was actually concerned and asked if Fang Yuanyuan was alright? That was unlike him!

Xiang Wan had a thought in her mind. She chuckled and raised an eyebrow. "She's not okay, but she's fine, too."

Bai Muchuan was confused by her words.

A second later, he laughed as he brushed her nose with a finger. "What do you mean?"

Xiang Wan smacked his hand away as a rejection to the ticklish feeling on her nose. "If you're asking for yourself, then she's fine. This is because you're unable to help even if she's not okay. If you're asking on behalf of Huang He, then it's a big deal. That la.s.s's about to lose her soul. What is he going to do about her?"

"…"

She had hit the nail on the head.

Bai Muchuan furrowed his eyebrows before he laughed and puffed a sigh.

"I realized you're a little bad."

"…" Xiang Wan gave a snort. "Stop trying to be cheeky, say it!"

"You're so bossy…" Bai Muchuan got interrupted by Xiang Wan's stern gaze. With a sigh of helplessness, he pulled her to the sofa and looked seriously into her eyes. "You have sharp eyes."

After that, he unlocked his phone and showed her a message.

The message was from Huang He. It was clear and concise which was consistent with what Bai Muchuan asked earlier:

"Has she reached home?"

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"Yes."

"Is she alright?"

"Other than crying her lungs out like a pig waiting to be slaughtered, she seems to be fine."

"… Go check it out?"

"Not convenient."

"…"

At the end of the chat, it had ended with a sigh from Huang He.

When she was looking at their chat record, Xiang Wan deliberately scrolled up on purpose.

Unfortunately, there was no other chat content than she had seen.

This was, of course, not normal.

Huang He had known Bai Muchuan for a long time. If he was able to send him a message in the middle of the night asking about Fang Yuanyuan, it was evident that both had a good relations.h.i.+p with each other. How could there be no other chat records?

There could only be one explanation: Bai Muchuan had deleted them.

Xiang Wan deduced that there were two kinds of reasons why he did that: fear of being seen by others, or fear of being seen by her.

Xiang Wan adjusted her pajama by the shoulder and pretended that she did not notice there were no other chat records, then returned the mobile phone to Bai Muchuan.

"You must have been awoken by Huang He's message?"

"Hm." Bai Muchuan did not deny that.

Ruffling his own hair, he lied lazily on the sofa. "I'm all good now as I slept for quite long."

The tiny red blood vessels in his eyes was gone. Now that his fatigue was extinguished, he was totally refreshed. Even though he was wearing a languid looking pajamas, that did not deter him from looking as stunning as an idol celebrity…

Xiang Wan then thought about her pale, ashen looking face and could not help pouting.

"So, your desperate attempt to try to move in here with me was actually because of Fang Yuanyuan?"

"…"

The sudden change of topic took Bai Muchuan by surprise.

"Darling, you can't say that…"

"You're fl.u.s.tered, right? You're even calling me 'darling'." Xiang Wan rolled her eyes. "My hair's standing on ends."

"…"

"Just come clean!"

Bai Muchuan's eyebrows were closely knitted together.

"My Little Xiang Wan, don't tell me you're jealous because of your cousin? Have you forgotten that the one who suggested the three of us to live together is not me, but you? I've suggested that you live with me in my house, but you refused…"

"Nonsense!" Xiang Wan narrowed her eyes, looking at him fiercely. "I'm going to get angry if you continue this."

"…"

"You know very well that I can't move to your house. It's as though you've said nothing."

"…"

In normal circ.u.mstances, Xiang Wan was rather docile. She was pretty much an easy-going person without much temper. But even a well-behaved cat could be sharp when she stretched her claws.

Bai Muchuan gazed at her, pursed his lips, held her shoulders and pulled her into his arms as though he had ran out of choices.

"My darling knows me best."

"Stop being mushy."

"Indeed, Huang He did ask me to help look out for her."

This time, Bai Muchuan replied quickly and then he lowered his head to look at Xiang Wan with a rather innocent face.

"But I'm a guy after all, how am I going to look out for her? You know very well I didn't do that, right?"

Did he think that she was really jealous?

Xiang Wan snorted a laugh as she looked into his eyes. "So, is moving here all part of your plan?"

"Yes," Bai Muchuan admitted honestly, "so that I can sleep with you."

"Liar! Still refusing to tell me the truth, huh?" Xiang Wan elbowed him as an attack.

Bai Muchuan was taken by surprise and suffered a hit at the belly. Aiyoh! He bent down in exaggeration and looked up at her piteously. "Nothing is more vicious than a woman's heart…"

Xiang Wan stared at him and showed him her elbow. "Are you telling me the truth or not?"

"I'll tell, I'll tell!" Bai Muchuan conveniently embraced her again, tightly, as well as stole a kiss before telling her the truth. "Alright, I can't hide it from you. It's true that Huang He's worried about her. But this is not the only reason that I moved here, there's also the issue of your safety as well as hers—"

After a pause, he suddenly turned his head and looked toward the window which was open.

"You've forgotten about the shadow that flashed past the window when you and your cousin had a video chat that night?"

Shadow?

Xiang Wan felt her heart clasped.

"I can understand that you're concerned about us." Xiang Wan raised an eyebrow. "But Huang He already has someone new? Why is he still concerned about his ex-girlfriend? Isn't that devious of him?"

"He's just concerned about her. Even though they have gone their separate ways, they can still be friends…"

"Hurhur! Looks like you're also a devious person like him," remarked Xiang Wan bluntly.

In many aspects, men and women held very different views from each other. It was the same for Xiang Wan and Bai Muchuan. Therefore, she would express her views directly, especially those she did not agree with. In a way, both parties in the relations.h.i.+p would understand more about each other's boundaries so as to minimize the possibility about arguing about the same thing in the future.

"In my opinion, there are only two types of intimate relations.h.i.+ps between men and women that can be free from all inhibitions. The first type is parent-child relations.h.i.+p, while the other is spouse or lover. Using friend as a guise to offer concern is too ambiguous. Isn't it obvious that there's something fishy about his concern?"

Bai Muchuan: "…"

Xiang Wan squinted her eyes as if she was trying to hint at something. "Am I wrong?"

"You're right. Totally right, Teacher Xiang…"

"So—" Xiang Wan's gaze was sharp and severe as she spoke in a soft voice, "Huang He is one of us, right?"

Bai Muchuan turned grim at that instant.

He gazed at her without a word.

The two of them looked at each other for a long time before Bai Muchuan took her hand.

"Go to sleep. It's almost three in the morning. You're going to become old if you don't sleep, woman."

He did not answer her directly, nor did he deny her conjecture.

That was enough for her.

Enough for Xiang Wan to figure out the answer…

But this was too important a matter that she could not and did not dare to tell anyone else about it.

After contemplating for a moment, she asked, "What's the time of your flight?"

"Tomorrow morning at half past eleven."

"You should sleep more then."

"Okay!"

"Good…"

Xiang Wan imitated him by patting his face and got up from the sofa like an elegant elder sister. Then she went back to her bed.

Xiang Wan switched off the lights, pulled up her blanket and closed her eyes.

Bai Muchuan: "…"

The room was now dark.

After taking care of Fang Yuanyuan as well as getting her doubt confirmed, Xiang Wan fell asleep in no time.

Bai Muchuan was lying on the sofa, looking at the shape of the slender figure lying on the bed in the dark. His mind was in a whirl as he allowed his imagination to run wildly, totally wide awake…

…

At the end of October in Jin City, the weather was cool as water.

When she woke up in the morning, the leaves of the ginkgo trees in the neighborhood were covered with a light golden yellow hue.

Time felt like a flash, and it was already late autumn.

For the sake of the health of the "whole family", Xiang Wan felt that she was about to become a modern model of virtue.

She got up early and saw that Bai Muchuan was still sleeping. She did not disturb him and went straight to the kitchen to prepare breakfast…

When she was was.h.i.+ng her hands, she noticed something unusual.

The light indicator of the rice cooker was on. There were also traces of the frying pan and stove being used.

She eagerly opened the rice cooker without drying her hands.

Someone had cooked a whole pot of white porridge, and the amount was prodigious…

Who else but Bai Muchuan would do this?

Besides the warm porridge, he had also cooked some hard-boiled eggs and omelettes. The appearance of the omelettes didn't really look good but that was certainly heartwarming.

This fellow!

When did he make all this?

Xiang Wan had a sweet smile on her face, and her heart almost melted.

When they were eating breakfast however, she played dumb and said nothing.

Bai Muchuan would look at her from time to time, his expression was of someone waiting to be complimented.

However, Xiang Wan totally turned a blind eye to all those looks.

"… Little Xiang Wan?"

"Hm?" Xiang Wan looked at him with a bemused expression.

"You don't have anything to say?" Bai Muchuan asked with antic.i.p.ation.

"Oh, do eat faster. You need to catch a plane."

"…"