Han Qing was wearing a set of comfortable casual clothes, and standing together with Wen Junhe, they looked like a couple browsing the supermarket after work.

He Ning lowered his eyes, trying his best to ignore the gaze not far away, though his heart could not stop feeling a wave of bitterness.

He did not understand why Wen Junhe still chose Han Qing after all. Was it to intentionally make things difficult for him, or was his so-called ideal type always Han Qing?

The looks those two directed over were really not very friendly. Zhou Ji noticed the tense atmosphere, so he pushed the cart and led He Ning away quickly. It was not until they turned past a shelf and confirmed those two were out of sight that Zhou Ji let go and asked him if he was okay.

Zhou Ji asked He Ning if he was okay?

He Ning pulled his hand out of Zhou Ji’s grasp and nodded.

Zhou Ji stared at He Ning for a few seconds, then suddenly reached out to wrap an arm around his shoulder, leading him toward the checkout counters. That hand was very firm, as if it wanted to drag someone forcefully out of a quagmire: “Stop looking back, just keep moving forward.”

Han Qing glanced at Wen Junhe beside him. The man’s face was terrifyingly dark, and his fingers were gripping the supermarket cart handle deathly tight.

He remembered a few years ago when he flew to the United Kingdom, Wen Junhe was drunk out of his mind in a bar booth. His hair, which was usually combed meticulously, was scattered messily across his forehead, and those perfect light gray eyes looked lost and sorrowful for the first time.

“On what grounds… on what grounds did he break up with me first?”

On the way back, He Ning remained silent the entire time. The neon lights outside the car window cast flickering lights and shadows across his face.

Zhou Ji took the items out of the shopping bags one by one to put them away. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed He Ning staring blankly at a cabbage in his hand, so he sent him back to his room to rest.

They had met three years ago. Zhou Ji had to admit that when he first saw He Ning, his appearance was truly stunning. His skin was fair and his features were very expressive. Even though he was somewhat down-and-out and emaciated, it was not hard to tell that he used to live a good life.

At that time, He Ning had a sudden asthma attack and fainted on the street. If he had been sent to the hospital any later, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

While the doctor was doing the examination, Zhou Ji heard him mention that the condition was so severe now because it had been neglected and dragged out, and that it had started out as just a seasonal allergy cough.

Looking at He Ning, who was lying on the hospital bed with his eyes closed in a coma and a slight flush on his face, Zhou Ji could not help but feel conflicted.

It was also that day, while looking for his ID card in He Ning’s wallet, that he saw a photo of He Ning and a man exchanging rings tucked in the inner slot. The background looked like a wedding, very beautiful. He Ning was smiling, while the other main character was handsome and sharp, with an aloof aura about him, maintaining a very faint expression even on such an occasion.

When He Ning woke up, he was still a bit dazed. After regaining his bearings, the very first thing he did was pull out his phone to call his supervisor to ask for leave. His voice was incredibly hoarse, and he started coughing after saying just a couple of sentences.

After hanging up, he turned to thank Zhou Ji.

Zhou Ji told him that it would be best to stay in the hospital for a few days for observation, and that he needed to take good care of his own body. He Ning seemed to get very nervous upon hearing this and quickly opened his mouth to explain.

“I do take good care of myself. It is just that I have been busy looking for an apartment lately… so I have not been sleeping very well…”

Later, Zhou Ji ran into He Ning walking slowly out of the company once after work. He greeted him, and He Ning was a bit surprised to see him. Zhou Ji asked: “Did you find an apartment?”

He Ning shook his head somewhat dejectedly, so Zhou Ji mentioned that he happened to be looking for a roommate recently to share the rent.

Soon, He Ning moved into the apartment where Zhou Ji lived. He tidied up his own room, which was a bit smaller than Zhou Ji’s.

Zhou Ji never told He Ning that before proposing the shared rental, he had spotted him sitting alone on a bench by the riverside road several times on his way home from work. He Ning always wrapped himself in a thin coat, hands stuffed in his pockets, staring motionlessly at the swaying lights on the river surface. The night wind messed up his hair, but he seemed unable to feel the cold, just sitting there with his chin tucked into his collar, his silhouette melting into the night, looking as quiet as a paper cutout.

He just stared blankly by himself at the shimmering water lit by the nearby lights.

Looking at his back, Zhou Ji felt as if this person was completely broken inside.

Zhou Ji remembered that when He Ning first moved in, he often forgot things. He would leave his keys in the door overnight, and he once let the electric kettle boil dry until it deformed. He Ning said this was a post-surgery side effect, as an anesthesia mishap had affected his brain.

Zhou Ji asked him if he had suffered a very major illness. He Ning gave a hesitant nod but did not go into detail.

It was much better now. Gradually, as they shared more about themselves, Zhou Ji found out that the “He” in He Ning’s name was the same “He” from He Hongxing, who had been all over the news.

He Hongxing was very famous, but He Hongxing’s son was just an ordinary person. The relatives from the early days had gone into hiding and vanished long ago after the He family fell into ruin, and He Ning was unwilling to contact anyone anymore either.

He Ning was an only child. His mother passed away right after giving birth to him. He was originally named He Han, but it was later changed to He Ning by He Hongxing, like a futile hope.

The character “Ning” had just one meaning, which was peace and smoothness. When He Hongxing gave his son this name, he probably only hoped he could grow up healthy. He Ning had indeed been raised in luxury. He got whatever he wanted since childhood, possessed quite a spoiled temper, and could not tolerate the slightest grievance.

He Ning packed tomorrow’s lunch into the fridge, arranging everything neatly. Since he hitched a ride with Zhou Ji every day, he was responsible for preparing a two-person lunch as a return favor.

After cleaning up the kitchen, he sat at his desk and flipped open his work notebook, smoothly pulling out a worn-edged diary from a drawer slot.

He wrote a few lines in the notebook about what happened during the day, and then after a turn of thought, wrote another sentence.

“I won’t bless them either, because I really hate Han Qing.”

He Ning stared at this line of words for a moment, then snapped the notebook shut and stuffed it back into its original place, as if he was afraid someone might see it.

After Wen Junhe was dropped into the company, the entire office area tightened its nerves. A new boss brings new rules, and every department was busy adapting to the new leader’s style.

He Ning deliberately avoided him, making it almost certain that he would not run into Wen Junhe.

While he was eating with Zhou Ji, he suddenly scrolled to a picture update on Wen Junhe’s social media platform. It was a very sumptuous lunch box, paired with the sunlight shining in from the window, looking very appetizing.

He Ning muttered in his heart, wondering if Han Qing had made it for him.

The year Wen Junhe first went abroad, He Ning registered an alternate account to secretly follow him. The first time he gathered the courage to leave a comment was when he saw Wen Junhe post a photo of foreign sunlight. He replied with a sun emoji and then refreshed the page every five minutes, terrified that his comment would look too intrusive. Later, he discovered the comment section was crowded with Wen Junhe’s classmates and friends, and his own comment had long been buried in the crowd, drawing no notice at all.

The first time Wen Junhe replied to him was when Wen Junhe uploaded a picture of his palm resting on the head of a small brown dog.

He Ning had posted a comment asking if he bought a dog, and then he left it alone.

As it turned out, not long afterward, he suddenly received a reply from Wen Junhe.

“No, just met it on the street.”

He Ning stared at his phone screen in a daze, his fingers hovering over the keyboard for a long time, before finally locking the screen. He never commented on Wen Junhe’s updates again. It was not because he had any inappropriate thoughts, but rather he felt that looking at that person’s life across a screen felt like holding onto a tiny connection with this world.

As for what exactly he was looking for, he could not explain it clearly himself. Perhaps he just needed to draw a bit of strength to keep living from Wen Junhe.

After working overtime until eight o’clock in the evening, He Ning rubbed his aching eyes and stared at the rejected design draft to revise it again. The entire department was lit up, and the sound of keyboards clicking rose and fell. Suddenly, Lin Ke shouted from the other side of the office: “Everyone hold on a moment, Mr. Wen is buying drinks.”

Just as He Ning was about to grab a cup of coffee and leave, Lin Ke suddenly called out to him: “He Ning, wait, this cup is yours. Secretary Xun specifically gave instructions just now.”

What was handed over was a cup of hot milk.

Lin Ke said this was specifically instructed by Secretary Xun, which made He Ning freeze for a moment. He was allergic to coffee, but it was not too severe. Drinking too much would just cause rashes on his arms, which would disappear on their own in two or three days.

No one knew about this except Wen Junhe. Holding the milk in his hands felt a bit scalding, and the steam fogged up his glasses lenses, turning everything into a blur of white.

He Ning suddenly remembered how Wen Junhe used to always say he was high-maintenance, being allergic to coffee, allergic to seafood, and sometimes even breaking out in rashes all over just from eating a mango.

Just as he was lost in thought, Wen Junhe walked over from the office side, his sharp figure in a tailored suit looking exceptionally striking under the lights. He Ning looked up unconsciously, happening to meet the gaze that Wen Junhe swept over.

Wen Junhe had a tall stature, and when his brow pressed downward, it gave off a sense of pressure. He merely gave He Ning a single look before indifferently averting his gaze.

The sounds of people thanking Wen Junhe rang out one after another by his ears.

“Compared to everyone’s hard work, it’s nothing. After all, this is the first project since I took office, so I am counting on everyone. Once the project is finished, the vacation time will definitely be made up.”

For a moment, the whole room became lively. Wen Junhe had always been very popular and knew how to handle social relations well. He Ning had never met anyone who disliked him, unlike He Ning himself, for whom being alienated and excluded was a regular occurrence.

There was a time when many people hated He Ning. After the He family collapsed, this kind of situation became very commonplace.

He Ning used to really want this kind of capability at one point. He stared at that cup of hot milk at his workstation for a full ten minutes before he resumed working on his design layout.

By the time he finally finished, he was the only person left in the company. He glanced inside, packed his things to prepare to leave, and still brought along that cup of milk which he had barely sipped.

“Hold on…”

He Ning and Wen Junhe stood in the same elevator. He stood almost at the very back. He watched the descending floor numbers, feeling for the first time that time was incredibly agonizing.

It was not until he saw the numbers count down to the tenth floor that Wen Junhe suddenly spoke up and asked: “Was your relationship with that boyfriend of yours something that happened after I went abroad?”

He Ning suddenly remembered the day he called Wen Junhe to break up. He had been leaning against the hospital window. He was hospitalized and felt awful. The nurse originally would not let him get out of bed. He looked far down at the pedestrians coming and going below, gathering the courage to propose a breakup to Wen Junhe on the other end.

It was not until he heard Wen Junhe remain silent for a long time before saying okay that he suddenly felt genuinely happy for him, slumping onto the floor as if a weight had been lifted. He pulled out the phone card and wiped the corners of his eyes, staring blankly at the ceiling, as if that call just now had drained all his strength.

“…Yes.”

Wen Junhe found another opportunity to mock him, letting out a cold snort: “You really can’t endure loneliness at all.”

He Ning naturally would not be so unlikable as to refute his words, pretending not to understand the underlying meaning in Wen Junhe’s speech.

He was also afraid that Wen Junhe might out of some misplaced charity offer to drive him home, so the moment they stepped out of the elevator, he made the first move: “Mr. Wen, my boyfriend will arrive shortly. I’ll wait for him outside. Goodbye.”

After watching Wen Junhe’s car drive away, He Ning planned to walk a short distance and then take the bus back.

Sitting in his car, Wen Junhe watched He Ning sitting at the nearby bus stop. He was propping his arms by his side, wearing headphones, and looking down at his sneakers. The old He Ning would boast to him about absolutely anything, rattling on in his ear a thousand times before preparing to do a single thing, acting as flamboyant as an unbridled little porcupine.

He used to have a striking personality and did not care in the slightest about other people’s opinions.

Now, He Ning was perfectly polite, maintained his distance, spoke courteously, and followed every rule.

But why was Wen Junhe so annoyed watching this?

Wen Junhe did not know how long he had been staring at He Ning. His arm rested on the car window until the bus pulled into the station, and He Ning stood up, scanned his card to board, his back quickly swallowed by the crowd.