Back Then, I Adored You

It was 11:00 p.m. by the time Lu Bancheng drove into the apartment building’s underground parking lot. As he opened the car door and was getting out, his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Thinking that it was a message from Xu Wennuan, he was not in a rush to look at it. Instead, he locked his car and walked over to the elevator.

Lifting his hand, he pressed the up button for the elevator before digging out his phone and biometrically unlocking it. Looking at his phone screen while walking into the elevator, he then looked up to press his floor number and back down at his phone screen. It was not a message from Xu Wennuan but from Wu Hao.

“Bancheng, do you have some time to spare? I want to have a chat with you.”

After Lu Bancheng finished reading the message, a new notification popped up on the screen. It appeared Wu Hao had sent more than one message over the last hour.

“Bancheng, have you heard about the incident with Nuannuan’s father? Could you consider helping her?”

Did she go to Wu Hao to be the one to persuade me after her own pleading attempts failed?

Lu Bancheng’s lips curled into a deriding smile. Just when he was about to pretend that he hadn’t seen the message, his phone vibrated again with a new message from Wu Hao.

“Bancheng, weren’t you always keen about that project I successfully bought recently? If you agree to help Nuannuan’s father, I will hand over the project to you—give it to you… For free. How does that sound?”

Give it to me for free? How generous… However, I do not need Wu Hao to play the good guy regarding whether or not I help Xu Wennuan out.

Fuming with rage, Lu Bancheng switched his phone off. When the elevator door opened, before he could take a step out, he caught sight of Xu Wennuan. She was squatting by the staircase just like how he had seen her on the night that he had returned from a business trip.

Triggered by the messages that he’d received from Wu Hao, the anger in his heart began to burn stronger upon seeing Xu Wennuan. Ignoring her completely, he quickly paced over to the door and keyed in his password. Paying no attention to Xu Wennuan, who had stood up and was hurriedly rushing to him, he stepped into the apartment and slammed the door shut.

Lu Bancheng, who had not slept the entire night before, ignored the buzzing of the doorbell and headed straight to the master bedroom. After taking a shower, he got in bed to sleep.

Pulling the covers over his head, he paid no attention to the faint knocking he could hear from the entrance from time to time. He closed his eyes and began to fall asleep. The doorbell continued to buzz countless times—until finally it stopped.

Lu Bancheng, who was initially calm and resting with his eyes closed, began to toss and turn in bed. He waited for a long time, but there was still no sound to be heard. Finally, he sprang up abruptly in his bed.

Lowering his eyes, he stared at the bedsheets for a moment before he threw his duvet to the side and got out of bed. With his slippers on, he dragged his feet toward the entrance of his apartment.

He looked out through the peephole; Xu Wennuan was nowhere in sight.

Has she left?

Lu Bancheng frowned and, after a moment of hesitation, he pulled the door open but, before he could look outside, a heavy mass fell against his shins and feet. He froze completely except for his neck, as he subconsciously looked down at the floor. There, he saw the pale-faced Xu Wennuan sitting limply with her eyes shut, resting motionlessly against him where the door had been.

“Nuannuan!” Lu Bancheng’s expression changed instantaneously as he called out her name. When she had shown no response, he hurriedly squatted down and lightly tapped her face, which was so hot he subconsciously withdrew his hand the first time he touched her.

Lu Bancheng’s heart skipped a beat. In the next instant, he stood up, grabbed his car keys on the top of the shoe rack, and then bent down to pick her up. Without even bothering to change out of his pajamas, he dashed out to the elevator in his slippers and rushed straight to his car. Once he was at the exit of the parking garage, he slammed down on the accelerator and sped to the hospital.