Coming out of the administration building, Xu Ye didn't go back to the dorm. He went over to the trading company instead.

The office was almost all new faces now. Xia Minghui had graduated and left before the summer, and Ruan Xiaolu was gone from the company too. Even so, the staff inside recognized him the moment he walked in.

Xu Ye said a quick hello to them all, then went over to Yang Fei's desk. "How's it going? Can you keep up with it?"

Yang Fei nodded. "It's fine."

Xu Ye didn't say anything more. He clapped Yang Fei on the shoulder and left the office.

In fact Li Lulu had come to find Yang Fei once more over the weekend, saying something along the lines of it was all a misunderstanding, it wasn't the way you think it was.

She seemed to believe that if she just explained herself properly, she and Yang Fei could go back to how things were. But Li Lulu appeared to have underestimated how cold a man turns once he's been hurt. Yang Fei didn't acknowledge her. He didn't say a word — he just walked quietly away, with a look on his face so distant that Li Lulu barely recognized him.

… By early November a cold front had come through and Shanghai's temperature had dropped into single digits.

That morning Xu Ye got out of bed and made a video call to Chen Qingqing.

Chen Qingqing was a little surprised, because Xu Ye almost never video-called her at that hour.

She picked up, curious. "Why are you calling me this early?"

Xu Ye came straight to the point. "Let me see how many layers you've got on today."

"Two."

Chen Qingqing adjusted the angle of the phone and showed him the down jacket she was wearing. With a decent down jacket, though, the less you have on underneath the warmer it is. So Xu Ye asked immediately, "What about your legs?"

Chen Qingqing's nerve went. "Just… jeans."

"Long johns."

Chen Qingqing mumbled, "I'm not cold."

Xu Ye issued the order like…