No one could figure out this whole act of Xia Zhaoyun’s. If it wasn’t true love, then what was she after?

Sure, the Song Family had found their biological daughter, and perhaps there was no longer a place for her there. But she was beautiful, had a job, and had grown up with many of the second-generation kids from the factory families.

No matter how you looked at it, there was no need for her to get entangled with a man who was gone.

A good reputation was nice, but it wasn’t as practical as finding a caring man to settle down with!

Xia Zhaoyun cupped the mug with both hands and took a small sip of the brown sugar water. A cloying sweetness lingered in her mouth, laced with a faint trace of bitterness.

She curved her lips into a slight smile and shook her head. "You’re still young, miss. You haven’t experienced a love that’s etched into your very soul. Once you find it, you’ll understand. There is only that one person; everyone else is just settling."

Xia Zhaoyun gazed at the lush courtyard ahead, seemingly lost in thought. "Some people enter your life so quietly you don’t even notice. Then, when they suddenly disappear, you realize they’ve become a part of you that you can’t live without..."

She drained the rest of the brown sugar water in one go. GULP. GULP. With a soft chuckle, she said, "Thank you for the brown sugar water. It’s just... ever since he’s been gone, even brown sugar water tastes bitter to me."

"Maybe when I start to like the taste of brown sugar water again, I’ll know I’ve truly let him go. But I don’t think that will happen anytime soon..."

Watching the slender figure ride away on her bicycle, the round-faced young woman held the mug, her eyes welling with tears. "A friend of mine who studies psychology once told me that our senses have memory. If they react incorrectly to something, it must be because the person has developed a fixation."

"I didn’t really get what she meant back then, but now I do. It’s real."

"Can you imagine? How deep must the love between Ms. Xia and Mr. Huo have been for even this precious brown sugar water to taste bitter to her..."

Everyone else looked on with sympathy and sadness. "Why can’t people who are in love ever get their happy ending?"

Xia Zhaoyun felt much better after finishing her popsicle. But after downing the cup of warm, brown sugar water, she felt the heat start to creep back up on her.

She pedaled her bike back to the office building. Too lazy to foolishly climb all seven flights of stairs again, she decided to sit in the reception office and review her documents while waiting for He Qingran to finish her shift so they could go to the cafeteria together.

The old man at the reception desk smiled at her and asked if she wanted some water. He then pulled out a fan, plugged it in, and turned it on for her.

Just as Xia Zhaoyun was thinking to herself how many kind and simple people there were in the world, the old man hit her with a sudden trip down memory lane. "You know, Little Hao used to love sitting here, too."

"He wasn’t much of a talker, either. He’d just sit there quietly with a book or a newspaper..."

"Sometimes he’d even bring an old man like me some snacks. We got along like a grandfather and his grandson. I was even waiting to attend his wedding... Who would’ve thought he’d pass away so young, without even having had a girlfriend."

"I never would have guessed that the one he liked was you, Little Xia. If he were still around, you two would have made such a perfect couple..."

The water in Xia Zhaoyun’s mouth went down the wrong pipe. ’This is more shocking than the blast from a modern air conditioner!’

’Even though I’ve been a Ghost and don’t have the same hang-ups about life and death as most people, I’m still very much alive right now! And I’m a total chicken who just puts on a brave face...’

However, as she listened to the old man recount stories about Huo Tianhao, Xia Zhaoyun’s mood began to settle.

’It’s just as He Qingran said. I don’t actually remember ever meeting him. Or maybe the memories are just too old and have faded away. But I do know the name of the great hero, Huo Tianhao, and I know he was completely used by the Tong family.’

’Now, this one-dimensional figure was slowly being fleshed out, becoming a tall, slender, and quiet young man who was always gentle with others and considerate down to the smallest detail.’

Xia Zhaoyun couldn’t help but have an absurd thought. ’If I had been reborn just two years earlier, could we have become a couple? A man who could be a great hero, who had witnessed his own mother’s suffering... He must have been a good person—upright, kind, and righteous!’

Even though it was still office hours, people were constantly coming and going from the main administration building. With quitting time approaching, the number of people running errands in this direction increased, and the old man had to register each one.

When Xia Zhaoyun heard the loudspeaker sound outside, she packed up her things, smiled goodbye to the old man, and went to stand in the lobby to wait.

He Qingran came clattering down the stairs. The moment she saw her, she grabbed her and looked around furtively, like a thief casing a joint.

"What’s wrong with you?" Xia Zhaoyun asked, amused. "Do you have a crazed admirer waiting to ambush you?"

"There is someone waiting to ambush somebody," He Qingran snapped. "But it’s you they’re after!"

"Me?" Xia Zhaoyun froze.

She had been raised by the Song Family to be a proper, well-bred lady, which had made her aloof and proud. Since she was seven, her social circle had been almost exclusively limited to Tong Yuanbin and a few of his male friends, and the girls she knew were all acquaintances of their group.