At 7 PM, the silver moon hung like a blade.
Guangnian Club.
Guangnian was the name of Xie Zhen’s family motorcycle shop. However, the shop wasn’t famous for selling high-end motorcycles; instead, it was known for running a heavy motorcycle club, also called Guangnian.
The Guangnian Club was right next door to the shop.
The second-floor hall of the club, decorated in a heavy metal style, featured red sofas that contrasted sharply with the surroundings.
Lin Ran sat lazily on one of the sofas, absentmindedly playing with a lighter. Occasionally, he lifted his eyes slightly to glance at the lounge across from him.
From where he sat, he could see the interior of the lounge through the glass window.
Inside, Lin Yanyan was working on her homework.
He Mo came downstairs after his shower and noticed that Lin Ran still hadn’t changed his clothes. He paused, kicked Xie Zhen’s sofa, and bent down to ask quietly, “Why hasn’t Brother Ran changed yet? Isn’t the race about to start?”
Xie Zhen, who was wearing headphones and listening to a remix, was headbanging furiously, completely unaware that He Mo had come downstairs. Even when He Mo kicked the chair, he didn’t budge his large frame.
Unable to hold back, He Mo snatched Xie Zhen’s headphones off. “I’m talking to you! You really should lose some weight, Zhen. You’re built like a mountain.”
Xie Zhen glared at him and snatched back his headphones. “You know what they say, ‘A father’s love is as immovable as a mountain.’ You wouldn’t understand.”
He Mo rolled his eyes. “Does that mean a father’s love just stands still? I don’t have a father like you!”
After messing around for a while, the two started seriously discussing whether Lin Ran would compete. After all, tonight the leader of the “Addiction” motorcycle team from Chucheng had come to watch the race.
This team was very interested in Lin Ran. Rumor had it that they were here specifically to see him tonight.
Xie Zhen glanced toward Lin Ran and muttered, “He’s been sitting there for an hour and hasn’t moved. Normally, he’d already be in the garage with his precious bike by now. But it’s still parked there.”
He Mo’s expression grew serious. “Brother Ran has been acting really strange lately. There must be something going on that we don’t know about.”
Xie Zhen scratched his head. “If you’ve got the guts to ask, go ask him.”
He Mo responded, “Fine, I will!”
Who did he think he was dealing with?
He Mo straightened up, took a quick glance at Lin Ran, his eyes darting nervously, unable to meet Lin Ran’s gaze, and then loudly cleared his throat. “Brother Ran, what’s the plan for tonight?”
Lin Ran paused in his fiddling with the lighter and, without looking up, asked, “Have you finished your homework?”
He Mo: “Huh?”
Xie Zhen: “…”
Neither He Mo nor Xie Zhen ever brought anything school-related home after class. There was even a time when they couldn’t find their backpacks, let alone knew what homework was.
Before He Mo and Xie Zhen could press him further, Lin Ran casually shoved the lighter into his pocket, stood up, and headed out of the club towards Guangnian’s garage. He was still wearing his school uniform from No. 1 High School.
Seeing that Lin Ran had no intention of changing his clothes, He Mo knew that he wasn’t planning to race tonight.
Xie Zhen gazed at Lin Ran’s back in frustration. At the beginning of the year, Lin Ran had shown interest in joining the heavy motorcycle team, but somewhere along the line, he had changed and started to feel distant.
This change wasn’t gradual; it came suddenly.
.
In the back seat of a private car…
Song Shiman frowned and secretly glanced at Sheng Qingxi beside her.
The flickering light and shadows outside the car window enveloped most of Sheng Qingxi’s figure in darkness, but her beautiful eyes were still visible. She turned her face slightly, silently gazing out the window.
Calm and beautiful.
Song Shiman thought that Sheng Qingxi was like fine porcelain—delicate and fragile.
She cursed herself inwardly, regretting her moment of weakness that led her to bring Sheng Qingxi along. Song Shiman vaguely realized she was getting carried away.
She felt like she was being ridiculous, befriending her rival in love and even getting addicted to it.
When she had the driver come, she also asked for two casual outfits. She didn’t want to show up at the club in her school uniform—that would be way too embarrassing.
Song Shiman longed to grow up quickly. Once she was older, she would have more freedom.
The luxury car stopped at the entrance of the Guangnian Motorcycle Club. After getting out, Song Shiman, familiar with the place, grabbed the bags and led Sheng Qingxi straight to the women’s changing room.
Song Shiman was a club member and a regular face here, so most of the staff knew her. They had no trouble making their way inside.
Inside the bag were two sets of JK uniforms, which were part of Song Shiman’s treasured collection. She had never let anyone else wear them before.
One was blue, and the other was pink.
Song Shiman blinked thoughtfully for a moment, then slyly handed the pink one to Sheng Qingxi. Last year, a girl had given Lin Ran a pink love letter, and Lin Ran had rejected her with the reason that he didn’t like the color pink.
Sheng Qingxi quietly took the clothes that Song Shiman handed over. “Actually, I don’t need to change. I don’t mind wearing my school uniform.”
Song Shiman responded, “No way. If you wear your uniform, I’m not walking with you.”
Sheng Qingxi: “…”
It was Sheng Qingxi’s first time wearing this type of outfit. After she changed, she found the uniform didn’t fit quite right. The top was particularly tight in some areas, while the waistband of the skirt was loose and the skirt itself was very short.
She tugged at the skirt, trying to pull it down a bit.
She wasn’t used to this length.
When she was younger, she occasionally wore dresses. Sheng Lan used to enjoy dressing her up like a doll. But once she started school, she mostly wore uniforms, which were appropriate for every occasion. After she began working, she rarely bought skirts due to her professional lifestyle.
Sitting on the sofa, Song Shiman perked up at the sound of Sheng Qingxi moving around. She instinctively glanced up.
That glance made her freeze for a moment.
Song Shiman, bewildered, glanced at Sheng Qingxi’s chest and then lowered her gaze to look at her own.
Song Shiman: “…”
She was fuming!
.
Although it was nighttime, the motorcycle club’s grounds were lit up as bright as day.
Lin Ran stood casually on the stands in his No. 1 High School uniform, as if he wanted to make sure everyone knew he was still a student.
Down below on the race track, a group of people gathered, and the heavy motorcycles around them lay dormant like beasts in hiding, ready to roar out at any moment to tear apart their prey.
Lin Ran lowered his gaze, watching the crowd below.
The man at the center of the crowd had a tall and slender figure, with short, tousled chestnut hair that shimmered faintly under the light. He wore thin-rimmed glasses, and when he smiled, his amber eyes would slightly narrow, the curve of his lips gentle and soft.
But this seemingly refined and graceful man was none other than Song Xingyu, the captain of the “Addiction” team.
Lin Ran knew that this was just the facade Song Xingyu wore.
On this very day in his previous life, Lin Ran had joined “Addiction” at Song Xingyu’s invitation. A month later, “Addiction” had a race against another heavy motorcycle group from Chucheng called “Poison.” Lin Ran had competed in that race and crushed the competition, leaving them far behind.
Back then, in his youthful arrogance, Lin Ran hadn’t noticed the venomous gaze of his opponent—cold and serpentine. Or maybe he had seen it but didn’t care, thinking of them as nothing more than defeated rivals.
That day, Lin Yanyan had also been there. Unable to harm Lin Ran directly, they had despicably targeted Lin Yanyan instead.
Everything Lin Yanyan suffered was because of him.
Lin Ran’s hand, hanging by his side, unconsciously clenched into a tight fist, his knuckles turning white from the pressure.
The events of his past life clung to him like a nightmare. Sometimes he wondered if it had all just been a dream, a figment of his imagination, and that none of those things would actually happen.
But Lin Ran didn’t dare take that gamble. He was terrified that the same tragedy would repeat itself. So this time, he would not join “Addiction.”
For the Lin Ran of today, the most important person was Lin Yanyan.
Not far away, Song Shiman was hiding behind one of the pillars of the stands, secretly watching Lin Ran. After staring at him for a while, she turned to Sheng Qingxi, hesitating as she nervously asked, “Xiao Xi, you… you know I like Lin Ran, right?”
Sheng Qingxi, her expression unchanged, nodded. “I know.”
Song Shiman: “…”
Why was that her only reaction? How was she supposed to continue the conversation now?
All the words Song Shiman had prepared for so long were swallowed back down. She had been rehearsing their conversation in her mind, but it had been derailed before it even began.
Sheng Qingxi’s gaze drifted past Song Shiman and the pillar, landing on Lin Ran.
This Lin Ran was different from the one she remembered. In her mind, Lin Ran had always been like a sharp sword—dangerous and striking, never hiding his brilliance.
But the Lin Ran standing there now seemed to have, in a way, returned to his scabbard.
Sheng Qingxi wanted to know what he was thinking about.
Song Shiman had plenty of friends nearby, so after a brief word to her, Sheng Qingxi walked alone toward the front of the stands. She didn’t notice that most of the eyes in the stands were on her.
As she scanned the race track, her gaze quickly locked onto Song Xingyu, and her eyes froze for a moment.
A memory suddenly came back to her.
In her previous life, after falling for Lin Ran, Sheng Qingxi had once searched through the forum for No. 1 High, looking for posts about him. Most of the discussions were about Lin Ran’s looks and family background, or who had confessed to him recently.
But there was one vague post that mentioned Lin Ran almost being expelled in the second half of his second year. The post claimed that Lin Ran had beaten several people so badly they ended up in the hospital, with blood being shed.
At that time, Sheng Qingxi hadn’t understood what had happened in Lin Ran’s life. It wasn’t until much later, when Lin Yanyan told her, that she learned the truth—back in March of that year, Lin Yanyan had nearly been assaulted by a group of thugs.
The cause of that incident had been the motorcycle team, and Lin Ran had lost control, blaming himself ever since.
Even though Lin Yanyan had spoken about it gently, Sheng Qingxi understood the full weight behind the word “assault.”
Sheng Qingxi pursed her lips. She wouldn’t let something like that happen again.
At this moment, the race had yet to start. The members of “Addiction” knew that their boss had come to Guangnian today specifically to see Lin Ran, but they had been waiting for a long time and still hadn’t seen him come down.
One of them suddenly noticed the young man in the stands wearing a school uniform. He smirked and let out a loud whistle.
Everyone below turned their eyes to Lin Ran.
Lin Ran’s expression darkened. The events that had happened to Lin Yanyan in his previous life repeatedly tormented his heart like a blade slicing into him. A surge of anger suddenly flared within him, and he turned to leave.
The people below thought Lin Ran was getting ready to join the race, and they began whistling in excitement.
Just as the crowd was on the verge of erupting into celebration, the brightly lit club was suddenly plunged into darkness. Sounds of confusion and unrest arose, abruptly putting an end to the revelry.
The power had gone out.
A staff member quickly came out with a megaphone and shouted, “Please remain calm, everyone. It’s just a circuit breaker issue. The lights will be back on in two minutes. We ask all guests to stay seated.”
Lin Ran moved easily through the darkness. The power outage had also happened in his previous life.
He suddenly let out a soft laugh.
Sheng Qingxi, who had excellent night vision, had already noticed earlier that something seemed off about Lin Ran’s mood tonight. After hesitating for a moment, she decided to follow him.
After Lin Ran walked down from the stands, he didn’t go far. He didn’t even make it back to the motorcycle shop before he abruptly stopped and slammed his fist against a hard wall. He put a lot of force into that punch, but as if numb to the pain, he seemed ready to hit the wall again.
From behind, the sound of someone running approached, but Lin Ran paid no attention.
Then, in the next second, someone hugged him from behind.
A soft sensation pressed against his back, and a sweet fragrance wafted into his nose, pulling him out of his chaotic thoughts. In a voice as gentle as it had been that day, the girl called his name, “Lin Ran.”
“Lin Ran, don’t be afraid.”