My girlfriend is from the future!

"You're not the only... madman!"

He Tianran clutched his abdomen, which was aching from Yu Naoqiu's thrusts, and took a half-step back to create some distance.

The surging violence in his eyes had not completely faded, but the undisguised allure and fervor in the woman's eyes, and the finger marks he had left on her neck, still made He Tianran's Adam's apple bob involuntarily.

"I really didn't see this side of you..."

He Tianran uttered a sentence in a low voice, it was unclear whether he was referring to her or himself.

"Each other...each other...cough cough cough..."

Upon hearing this, Yu Naoqiu's broken smile widened, aggravating her injured throat and triggering a cough, but she didn't care. Her already hoarse voice even carried a hint of pleasure.

“He Tianran, stop acting… You’re simply not the kind of person who can settle down and live a peaceful life…”

She let go of the refrigerator, staggered forward, ignoring the man's momentary wariness, and almost pressed her body against him, tilting her face up with an abnormal flush caused by lack of oxygen and excitement.

"What can Cao Aiqing offer you? A bright and clean home? A hot dinner?"

Her breath brushed against He Tianran's face, carrying a cold, sweet, and fishy smell.

"She's so beautiful, isn't she? But when you look at her... are you really thinking about a peaceful and idyllic life?"

The woman's fingertips gently touched the man's heart, where his heart pounded like a drum...

Yu Naoqiu's gaze, however, went past He Tianran's shoulder and shot straight at the lilies on the balcony.

"Imagine... if that flowerpot... fell from the building... what would it break into?"

He Tianran's pupils contracted sharply, and he abruptly shoved her hand away.

Yu Naoqiu stepped back and leaned against the kitchen counter, laughing softly, his laughter as hoarse as sandpaper.

"You think you're cynical on one hand, but can't let go of your old love on the other? He Tianran, we're the same kind of people... outwardly glamorous, but rotten inside... craving excitement, obsessed with danger, yet forced to accept the constraints of environment, family, and morality, thus suppressing our inner desires. How long have you been playing the role of a lovelorn man? Hmm? How long do you think you can remember Cao Aiqing?"

She raised her hand and carefully touched the scar on her neck with her fingertips, hissing in pain, but her eyes became even more excited.

"You see... this is the best way to make you remember me, isn't it? It lasts longer than any flowers or perfume..."

He Tianran watched her almost self-destructive behavior, and saw the hideous finger marks on her snow-white skin, and felt a wave of nausea wash over him.

He loathed this feeling. Back in the office that day, He Tianran, the "writer" in his persona, knew that Yu Naoqiu was the same kind of person as him. The only difference was that Yu Naoqiu longed for someone like him by his side, while He Tianran, the "writer," hated nothing more than his own kind.

The man looked away, his voice cold and hard:
"Put your clothes on and get out."

Yu Naoqiu seemed not to hear him. Her gaze passed over him again, slowly sweeping over the overly tidy room, which seemed to retain the scent of another woman everywhere.

“He Tianran, sometimes I really think you're schizophrenic because you're such a good actor. From the golf course where we first met, to your class reunion, in the office, in front of the camera today, and... just now.”

Honestly, sometimes I don't even know which one is the real you. You've given me so many... surprises.

"..."

Yu Naoqiu became more and more excited as she spoke, but unfortunately, as time passed, her excited remarks did not receive a corresponding response, and her fervent face gradually turned cold.

She walked to the sofa, her fingers tracing the spot where Cao Aiqing had just sat, as if she could still feel the lingering warmth of her body. Then she bent down, picked up a white lily petal that had fallen on the carpet, and rubbed it between her fingertips.

"What beautiful flowers! It's a pity they're always used to mask the smell of decay..."

Then she gently blew on the petals in her hand, letting them drift into the boundless city night sky outside the window.

"She's not coming back."

Yu Naoqiu spoke softly, her tone as certain as if stating an established fact, and every word she uttered, penetrating He Tianran's eardrums, sounded like a demon whispering in his ear:

Even if you regret it and beg her, she won't want a man who...has a devil inside him.

Yu Naoqiu turned her gaze away from the city skyline outside the window, then looked back at He Tianran with a cruelty bordering on compassion.

“But I can, I’m more suitable for you than she is.”

The woman walked towards the man again, extending her hand with her palm facing upwards, making an inviting gesture.

“Because here…” she pointed to her heart with another finger, her smile eerie, “it is inhabited by the same one.”

He Tianran stared at her outstretched hand without moving.

The only sound in the room was the dull hum of the refrigerator compressor, and the cold white steam slowly descended, wrapping around their ankles.

Time seemed to freeze.

After a long while, He Tianran suddenly laughed, but the smile did not reach his eyes; instead, it was filled with a chilling aura.

He slowly raised his hand...

He did not accept the woman's invitation...

Instead, he suddenly grabbed Yu Naoqiu's shirt collar and pulled her towards him!
Caught off guard, Yu Naoqiu bumped into his arms, her breath catching in her throat.

"The same one?"

He Tianran lowered his head, his lips almost touching her ear, carrying a deadly threat:
"Yu Naoqiu, don't overestimate yourself!"

The man shoved her away violently, the force of which caused Yu Naoqiu to stumble and crash into the coffee table again, the pain from the impact on her lower back making her groan.

"I am the bookmaker."

He Tianran repeated, his eyes regaining their usual coldness and control, as if the loss of control had never happened, looking down at the woman on the ground:
"I set the rules of the game. You can only come to the table when I want to play, and when I don't want to play anymore..."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over her pale yet stubborn face and the mark that belonged to him on her neck, a cold smile curving his lips.

"...You don't even have the right to stand on the side."

After saying that, he stopped looking at her, turned around and walked straight to the stairwell, his gait returning to its usual steady pace, as if the violent conflict that had almost spiraled out of control was just an insignificant interlude.

Yu Naoqiu leaned against the cold glass coffee table, watching his departing figure...

She showed no anger or frustration; instead, she slowly, slowly began to laugh, silently, with only her shoulders trembling slightly.

The more dangerous it is, the more interesting it becomes. Isn't that right?
She looked up towards the second floor, her eyes burning with intensity.

"qualifications……"

She slowly straightened up, feeling a clear pain in her lower back where she had hit the edge of the coffee table. But the pain only deepened the smile on her lips. Her slender fingers touched her neck again, where the bruise had begun to turn purple. Pressing down with her fingertips brought a sharp sting and a strange pleasure.

Instead of leaving, Yu Naoqiu began pacing around the living room again, her bare feet silently gliding across the cool floor, like a spider weaving its web. She walked over every corner that Cao Aiqing had meticulously cleaned, her fingers tracing the back of the sofa, the television screen, the edges of the bookshelves…

Finally, she turned around, but instead of heading towards the door, she leisurely sat back down on the sofa, even taking a cushion to put behind her back and finding a comfortable position, as if this place was her territory.

The game has just begun.

……

……

The neon lights outside the taxi window streamed by, casting shifting patterns of light on Cao Aiqing's pale face, like an inescapable net.

The phone held in the girl's hand emitted a blue light that seeped through her fingers, and the sliver of the screen displayed the call duration—

30: 21.

This half-hour period means that from the moment she received Wen Liang's call until she left He Tianran's house, she never hung up the phone.

Cao Aiqing's gaze swept across the rapidly receding street scene outside the window. The familiar shops, flashing signs, and embracing pedestrians all seemed shrouded in a layer of gray, becoming unfamiliar and distant.

The phone remained connected, and she remained silent until the taxi drove over a bumpy manhole cover, causing the car to shudder slightly, which snapped her out of her reverie.

She held the phone to her ear:

"Cool and warm".

"Ai...Qing...? Whew...you've finally spoken. Are you...alright?"

"Did you hear everything?"

"I heard...what happened between you and He Tianran?"

Cao Aiqing looked at the neon lights outside the car window, as if reviewing everything that had just happened. Finally, she said something like a summary:
"It's nothing, I just realized that some of the cards shouldn't have been played the way they were in the first place."

"I...I don't quite understand what you mean. Could you explain it to me in more detail? I'm here today..."

“Wen Liang…” Cao Aiqing interrupted her, her voice flat yet possessing a power to end the conversation, “Regarding the matter you mentioned before, you wanted me to explain it to you, but I’m afraid I’m powerless to do so, because…”

I'm no longer He Tianran's girlfriend.

There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a gentle, tentative voice:

"Ai Qing, where are you now? Should I come find you?"

"Find me?"

A slight fluctuation finally appeared in Cao Aiqing's calm tone:
"What do you want to do after seeing me? Mock me? Ridicule me? Or pity me? I think you already understand what happened between He Tianran and me over the phone. You should be happy right now. I can't share your happiness, so why are you looking for me?"

After saying all this, Cao Aiqing felt a deep-seated weariness wash over her, not from sadness, but from a sense of emptiness as if a part of her body was about to be ripped away.

Cao Aiqing leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. In the darkness, some images played out repeatedly with astonishing clarity: He Tianran's shifty gaze, Yu Naoqiu's aggressive smile, the glaring red on her collar, the abandoned lily in the ashtray, and every surface of her own body, polished to a gleaming shine yet chillingly cold, after her futile efforts to clean it…

"I came to find you because I wanted to slap you and ask you who you're trying to please now!"

Suddenly, Wen Liang on the other end of the phone was clearly angered by Cao Aiqing's teasing tone, but her anger was not just for venting.

"Cao Aiqing, have you ever regretted it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've known He Tianran for a full ten years—three years of high school, four years of college, and three years of studying abroad. He waited for you so long, and you waited for him too. You finally got together, and now you say you've broken up. I ask you, have you ever regretted it?"

"I……"

"At least that day in Shanghai, a girl named Mia gave me a piece of candy. She explained to me why 'waiting' is necessary in love. That day, she looked at the Huangpu River, and the continuous river water was like her endless gentle gaze. At that moment, I asked myself, could I do what she did, wasting my youth to gamble on whether someone will always love me...

But the answer is no, she won. I couldn't do it, I felt ashamed of myself..."

Wen Liang interrupted Cao Aiqing's impending reply, seemingly implying that no matter how she answered, the answer was already clear in her heart to this woman who had once given up after receiving only a piece of candy from Cao Aiqing:

"But now, you say you broke up with He Tianran, saying things like 'some cards shouldn't have been played this way in the first place' and 'you should be happy,' complaining like a wronged woman. What are you doing, Cao Aiqing? This is not like you at all! Do you understand?!"

The initial reason I called you was that He Tianran's current situation is very strange. I don't care who you guys are playing cards with or chess with. I'm the kind of person who always loses when I play mahjong with you, and now you're wallowing in self-pity over a single wrong card. Who are you mocking?

If you're really not happy about it, why don't you just flip the table?

Would He Tianran really hold a grudge against you? I don't believe it.

Sitting in the car, Cao Aiqing listened to Wen Liang's angry words on the phone. This woman clearly knew nothing, but she seemed to have an innate wisdom and courage to take a gamble.

"Wen Liang, if you were born in ancient times, you would definitely be a chivalrous woman, the kind who would rob the rich to help the poor at the slightest disagreement."

"……What did you say?"

"I said……"

Cao Aiqing slowly opened her palm and looked down at it.

My fingertips are slightly red from over-cleaning, and there seems to be a lingering, false freshness of lemon essence, as well as... that gaudy mark belonging to someone else that I can't completely erase no matter how hard I try.

She slowly closed her fingers, clenching them into a firm fist.

Some games of cards, perhaps, should not be played in the first place.

But since the stakes have already been placed, we must gamble until the very end—

Either win it all back, or you flip this gambling table yourself.

"I said, let's meet and talk sometime, but not today. I'm tired, I need to get some sleep first..." (End of Chapter)