Volume One, Chapter 18 In his dream, he saw Xu Zhi's face.

Last night, Xu Zhi had indeed been with Liang Jinmo at the hotel, but she had no intention of telling Liang Muzhi that. Since her memory was a complete blank, she had no idea what she had said to him on the phone that led him to this line of thought. One thing was certain, though: there was no need for friends of the opposite sex to discuss such private matters so openly.

Feeling uncomfortable and wanting to steer away from the topic, she tried to brush it off. “No… I didn’t share a room with him.”

Liang Muzhi fixed his gaze on her, scrutinizing.

Xu Zhi glanced at him. “When you called this morning, he had just come to find me, he…”

Thinking of Liang Jinmo’s character, she added, “He’s not the kind of person who crosses boundaries.”

Liang Muzhi’s expression grew complex. “Don’t trust men so easily. You really are making yourself an easy target.”

“What do I have that’s worth deceiving?” Xu Zhi managed a small smile. “I’m just a student.”

He looked at her for a long time, then sighed in resignation. “Xiao Zhi, don’t you know there are men out there who prey on women?”

She froze, belatedly feeling her cheeks grow warm.

Liang Muzhi didn’t press her further on the matter, instead changing the subject. “This man you like—do I know him?”

It’s you, she thought, but she still shook her head.

“Introduce him to me sometime,” he said, playing the big brother. “Let me check him out for you, so you don’t get hurt by some jerk.”

Bitterness welled up inside Xu Zhi. Never before had she imagined that one day Liang Muzhi would be offering to vet her boyfriend.

His openness made her feel as though her own thoughts were somehow sordid. Her fingers curled tightly and she nodded.

She supposed she would date someone in the future—maybe even bring him to meet Liang Muzhi—and then they would truly go their separate ways.

At last, the uncomfortable conversation was behind them. They shared a simple meal at the café, after which Xu Zhi prepared to return to campus for her study session.

Liang Muzhi walked with her all the way to the side gate of the school.

In a hurry to make it to the study room, Xu Zhi walked briskly into the campus.

Behind her, Liang Muzhi did not immediately leave.

He watched her retreating figure and suddenly realized that he had seen her off many times before—so many he couldn’t count. Most of the time, she would stop midway and look back at him from a distance. Then he would wave, and she would wave back, a smile lighting up her face.

Xu Zhi’s smile was infectious; whenever he saw her smile like that, he wanted to smile too.

But this time was different. She walked quickly, as if fleeing something.

Only when she had disappeared from view did Liang Muzhi turn away. Back in his car, as he shifted gears, his mind replayed the moment in the café when Xu Zhi, too warm from the air conditioning, had taken off her down jacket. Underneath, she wore a man’s dress shirt—plain white, far too large on her, the shoulder seams sagging halfway down her upper arms. The man it belonged to must have been tall.

He didn’t fully believe her explanation, nor did he entirely reject it. If something had happened between her and that man, with her temperament, she would surely have blushed when he asked such personal questions. But she hadn’t.

Still, as a man himself, he knew there were few saints in the world. She had clearly been drunk last night—could she and that man really have booked two separate rooms and kept entirely to themselves?

He had thought of probing further, but their relationship had already deteriorated compared to before. She had inexplicably started distancing herself from him. He had come to reconcile, not to make things worse. He decided he needed to find out what had happened to Xu Zhi lately from another angle.

At this point, it seemed most likely that some unsavory man had led her astray. He resolved to uncover the identity of this mysterious man.

Xu Zhi was too naïve, too trusting. It was up to him to protect her.

He drove toward the eastern suburbs, where, after graduation, he had bought a large apartment—now occupied by Chen Jing.

Chen Jing’s situation was a little delicate. He hadn’t let Xu Zhi tell their families about his relationship with Chen Jing, and this was why—

Chen Jing’s father had been a high-ranking official in North City who was dismissed two years ago. Raised as a pampered heiress, Chen Jing’s world had fallen apart after her father’s downfall. She lost her privileged lifestyle and was frequently bullied.

Meeting Liang Muzhi had been a turning point. Now she lived comfortably in his upscale apartment in the eastern suburbs, with a housekeeper to clean and a life of ease.

When Liang Muzhi entered the living room, Chen Jing was opening packages. “My friend went shopping in Hong Kong,” she said. “I asked her to buy me a bag. Muzhi, why don’t we go shopping in Hong Kong too? There’s nothing good here in terms of clothes or bags.”

Liang Muzhi listened distractedly, sitting at the other end of the sofa, still preoccupied with Xu Zhi.

Chen Jing was immersed in the joy of her new bag for a while before realizing he hadn’t spoken. She set the bag aside, moved closer, and slipped her arms around his neck. “What’s wrong? Are you upset? Oh, right—did you find Xu Zhi?”

“I found her,” Liang Muzhi replied, taking her hand and smiling. “She’s fine. She’s back at school.”

He sidestepped her earlier question, and Chen Jing, noticing it, didn’t press further. Instead, she leaned in and kissed him. He cupped the back of her head, deepening the kiss.

But then, bizarrely, flashes of chaotic images flooded his mind—

All fantasies: a man kissing Xu Zhi, pressing her beneath him, hands tracing the curves of her body…

These wild imaginings had plagued him all night, and now they returned.

He released Chen Jing, his breathing ragged.

Chen Jing, always bold and forward, reached lower, but he caught her wrist.

His voice was hoarse. “No need.”

It might be hard for others to believe, but he and Chen Jing had not yet gone all the way.

He was, at heart, a romantic, convinced that love should unfold naturally, with ceremony, rather than being a mere release of instinct. He believed the first time should be special, and he had already begun making plans for it.

Still, as a couple in love, he and Chen Jing had helped each other find release many times.

Chen Jing hugged him, pressing her cheek to his chest. “What are you thinking about?” she asked.

He opened his mouth but finally said, “Nothing.”

He wasn’t an especially attentive man, but he certainly wasn’t so blunt as to tell Chen Jing that he’d thought of Xu Zhi while kissing her.

Those lascivious fantasies had tormented him for so long—when he was searching for Xu Zhi in bar after bar last night, he’d even had a wild, irrational urge: to find that man and kill him.

It was madness…

He knew it was ridiculous—yes, Xu Zhi was an important friend, but not to that extent.

Having been awake all night, Liang Muzhi went to bed early that evening.

Yet in the middle of the night, he suddenly woke with a start.

Chen Jing was sleeping in the guest room. Alone in the master bedroom’s large bed, he gasped for breath. In his dream, he had pinned a woman beneath him, her back to him, moving within her at the most intense moment, and she had turned her head, crying out.

He’d had dreams like this before.

But this was the first time

In the dream, he saw Xu Zhi’s face.