By the time he logged out, night had fallen outside. Ye Tianxie threw together some dinner as carelessly as ever, then, under Guoguo’s pitiful gaze and chirping chatter, finally pulled on a jacket and headed out… It seemed the lollipops in Guoguo’s possession were nearly gone again.

By his count, this made the third time he’d gone out to buy lollipops for Guoguo. The first two times… the first, he’d happened to rescue a young beauty he’d molested earlier that same day; the second had passed quietly, without incident. What was the same, though, was that this time it was likewise night, and he likewise felt that death might be preferable.

Under the cover of darkness, he still walked with hurried steps toward that vending machine. If he could have, he’d have dearly liked to cover his own face.

Two streets later, Ye Tianxie stood before that all-too-familiar vending machine. Almost out of habit, he cast a few “furtive” glances around, and only once he was certain no one was there did he pull out his money, feed it into the slot, and tap ten times on each and every flavor of lollipop.

Clatter-clatter… A burst of mechanical rattling, and lollipops of every color began tumbling out one after another. Ye Tianxie waited with what patience he could muster, wishing the whole lot would come pouring out at once so he could stuff them in his pockets and go — and this brief stretch of time that made him wish for death could be gotten over with for now.

But heaven doesn’t grant what men wish. Before the lollipops had all finished coming out, hurried footsteps sounded in his ears. And clearly, they belonged to a woman in high heels — the click-click-click reached him from a good distance off, and the owner of those footsteps promptly came into view, running in precisely the direction where Ye Tianxie stood.

Leaving wasn’t an option; staying wasn’t either… And just as he was wrestling with this, the person had already drawn near. Ye Tianxie didn’t turn to look at her, but quietly lowered his head, feigning ignorance of anyone’s approach. Had he been wearing a hat, he’d have yanked the brim down below his nose that very instant.

To be seen by a woman — a grown man, in the dead of night, furtively buying lollipops… What would happen? What would happen? What would happen?!

Just as Ye Tianxie was muttering inwardly for a tornado to come at once and blow this woman clear into the Pacific, the footsteps suddenly stopped right beside him, and a gaze fixed on him, staring openly, without the least concealment…

“Lei Feng! You’re Lei Feng… I’ve finally found you! I’m the person you saved that night — do you remember me?”

The girl’s voice at his ear was clear and pleasant, brimming with delight and excitement. Ye Tianxie, still muttering to himself, was first taken aback, then instantly recalled who the girl behind him was. He couldn’t help lowering his head further and said in a deep voice, “Sorry. You’ve got the wrong person.”

Lei Feng… Lei Feng my foot! You actually believed that name? Don’t tell me this woman doesn’t even know who the famous Lei Feng is?!

Hm? She really doesn’t, does she?

“Hey! Hmph! You’re lying. The clothes you’re wearing are exactly the same as last time — I recognize them! Besides, that night I had someone show me all the surveillance footage from this street, and sure enough, I found you’d passed by here and bought a whole lot of lollipops and chocolates… And four nights ago, you were here again buying even more lollipops. So I knew you must really love eating lollipops, and because you’re embarrassed about it, you only come at night when no one’s around… So I’ve been waiting here this whole time, because I knew you’d definitely come. And today, sure enough, my waiting paid off! Hey! Turn around and look at me!”

Right now, only two thoughts occupied Ye Tianxie’s mind… one was to dig a hole in the ground at once and crawl into it; the other was to go straight home, take a flyswatter, and swat the root of all this evil — Guoguo — dead.

Clatter-clatter…

The last lollipop dropped. A full fifty lollipops were piled up before Ye Tianxie… Looking at that heap, Ye Tianxie nearly had tears in his eyes, standing there in a blank daze… To take them, or not to take them.

“Wah! You bought so many again! Do you really love lollipops that much…? Hee hee hee hee, don’t be embarrassed — everyone has their own little secret, it’s really nothing…” Her mouth said “nothing,” but even a fool could hear the tone of someone barely holding back laughter. She walked up in front of him, opened the bag slung over her shoulder, and beat him to it, packing every last lollipop into her own bag. “Mm! I’ll carry them for you for now! Hey, hey, hey! You’re not allowed to play the block of wood — look at me!”

A very faint lily fragrance drifted into Ye Tianxie’s nose, making it twitch almost imperceptibly. Women who favored that sort of perfume mostly esteemed nature and freedom, and often carried an innate elegance and nobility in their bones… But the handful of limited “encounters” he’d had with this girl, along with her voice and manner right now, seemed to contradict that entirely.

A pale blue figure entered the corner of his eye, a gaze fixed on him, straining all the while to shift around and see his face straight on. Ye Tianxie helplessly turned his head to look at this girl, and in the instant their eyes met, a flicker of dazzled admiration passed through the depths of his gaze. And women who could stir a sense of dazzled admiration in him were very, very few in this world.

She was a very beautiful girl; Ye Tianxie had known that the first time he saw her. She wore a pale blue knit top and, below it, a pair of very short hot pants… and below those, a pair of long, slender, snow-white legs, near-perfect in both line and proportion. What dazzled him, though, was this girl’s skin… No matter the girl, there would always be at least some flaw on her skin, whether inborn or acquired. Though there was only dim light here, he could still clearly see that on the arms, the neck, the long legs she’d left bare, not a single blemish could be found — that flawless skin seemed to shimmer faintly even in the dim glow. Her two long legs in particular were true beauties: slender, snow-white, and smoothly rounded, as if polished from white jade, congealed from cream.

Those legs made Ye Tianxie’s gaze linger a moment when it touched them, his heartbeat quickening slightly.

The girl was studying him in earnest — his eyes, his nose, his mouth, his chin… She was very tall, standing before Ye Tianxie at nearly his own height… assuming, of course, the pale blue high-heeled sandals she wore. The first time they’d met, she hadn’t even gotten a clear look at his face, seeing only a back hurrying away. That time, she’d hated him to the bone, and because of him she’d sat on her bed clutching her chest and cried in secret a whole afternoon, while her father flew into a rage and mobilized everyone to find him and hack him to pieces. The second time, though, he’d saved her — and it was then that she finally saw his face clearly, and his shadow was engraved deep in her heart… Only, at the time she didn’t yet know he was the same man who’d molested her. And by the time she did know, she found she could no longer bring herself to hate him at all.

That night she was utterly unable to sleep, tossing and turning in bed. And it was from that time on that she’d felt a powerful longing to find him.

(End of Chapter 64)