Peninsula: These female celebrities are all so neurotic.

When Park Jung-soo parked his van downstairs at Liu Zimu's new home, the Seoul night had already frozen solid.

Choi Sulli opened the car door and immediately wrapped her coat tighter around herself.

She ran into the elevator, where she was the only one. The dark circles under her eyes were barely concealed, but she was filled with excitement.

She looked at herself in the bright metal wall and reached out to tuck her hair behind her ears.

The combination lock clicked, and the door opened.

The motion-sensor light in the entryway turned on, and the lighting in the living room was warm.

Choi Sulli changed her shoes and threw her bag on the entryway cabinet.

Liu Zimu lay on the sofa, covered with a blanket, holding a remote control in his hand, his head tilted against the pillow, his breathing heavy.

The television was broadcasting late-night news, the volume was very low, and the anchor was still reporting on the relevant news of this incident.

She tiptoed over, not wanting to wake him.

He was fast asleep; the blanket had slipped down to his waist, revealing his gray loungewear sweatshirt, the collar of which had been slightly distorted by her pulling it one night.

Oh dear! My man, I should buy you some clothes.

She crouched down and looked closely at his face.

She had seen that face countless times.

The face of the Chinese cow and horse I remember eating instant noodles overlaps with the face in front of me, and they look alike yet not quite the same.

Her fingers hovered beside his face, not touching him, not waking him up, but she just wanted to touch him.

She had only been at Goo Hara's house for less than twenty minutes when Park Jung-soo, who was in a hurry, called her away.

Goo Hara was in better shape than she had expected, full of excitement and joy.

"I only have those pieces of evidence," Goo Hara said. "They asked me many times if there was anything else, and I said no, that's all. I even gave them the copied USB drive."

She said this with great pride.

Lee Ji-eun sat next to her, holding a glass of lukewarm water that she hadn't drunk much from. She didn't say a word the whole time, only occasionally glancing at Choi Sulli.

The three women were both excited and puzzled.

Who has such power? Goo Hara and Lee Ji-eun both had guesses, but they didn't ask.

Sulli knew they were guessing, but she just looked at Goo Hara and said, "You acted very well."

Goo Hara smiled and said, "I didn't have any other evidence to begin with."

Lee Ji-eun spoke up from the side: "From now on, don't discuss these things over the phone or via text message. Thank you for your hard work, Hara unnie!"

Goo Hara looked at her two friends and smiled happily: "This time they can't escape, and I will continue to fight them. This has nothing to do with you two."

Sulli and IU didn't ask too many questions. After making an appointment with Goo Hara, the two of them left.

She's still the brave Goo Hara!

Sulli was changing her shoes at her doorstep when Goo Hara hugged her from behind, resting her chin on her shoulder and wrapping her arms around her waist.

"Sulli," Goo Hara's voice muffled in the crook of her shoulder, "thank you."

Choi Sulli patted the back of her hand without turning around, afraid that she would cry if she did.

The three of them hugged again in the entryway, and then separated.

Goo Hara stood at the door to see them off, her hand on the door frame, smiling gently, a different person altogether.

Coming to her senses, Cui Xueli reached out and poked Liu Zimu's face. He was still asleep, his breathing was still heavy, and his mouth was slightly open, sleeping like a pig.

Even someone who could cause a major upheaval would sleep like this, no different from the office worker she remembered who ate instant noodles.

She stood up, went to the bathroom to remove her makeup, changed into her pajamas, and turned the automatic sofa into a bed.

I picked up the blanket, covered him with it, and then crawled in myself.

Liu Zimu murmured something, didn't wake up, turned over, and faced the back of the sofa, showing her the back of his head.

Choi Sulli stared at the back of that head for two seconds, then smiled.

......

The days just slipped by like that.

Winter comes quickly in Seoul; the first snow fell suddenly, and the whole city turned white.

The Blue House is really in a tough spot this time, so they are taking very decisive action.

Those who needed to be arrested were arrested, and those who needed to be investigated were investigated, all faster than anyone expected.

The case went through the summary procedure, and with irrefutable evidence, no one could escape.

The tycoons and high-ranking officials all fell silent, many began to protect themselves, and even outsiders became much more restrained.

After being summoned twice to cooperate with the investigation, Goo Hara was not summoned again.

Her lawyer said the case had entered the judicial process and she wouldn't need to be involved much more in the aftermath.

When she said this to Choi Sulli, she sounded relaxed as if nothing was wrong, and even asked when they would go out for barbecue together.

She was genuinely happy; none of those who deserved punishment escaped.

On the dark web, even top hackers could only trace the source of the post to the peninsula, but they didn't even know where it was located.

The Korean Peninsula government has given a satisfactory answer this time, and is also preparing new legislation, with some even suggesting it be called the Goo Hara Act.

It was bitterly cold outside, and pedestrians on the street were wrapped in thick coats, hunching their shoulders and walking quickly.

Shiguang Coffee's business was neither good nor bad, but Liu Zimu didn't care and just lived like that.

Now that the hype has died down, fewer customers are staring blankly at the TV while holding their coffee, and no one is eavesdropping on conversations about Lee Seung-ri and others at the next table.

Liu Zimu was very satisfied with this.

No one came looking for him, and he was happy to have some peace and quiet.

He started playing his favorite songs again.

Choi Sulli also visited the store from time to time. When the three new employees learned that she was Liu Zimu's girlfriend, they were all stunned.

This woman really doesn't hide anything at all, as if she's not afraid of being photographed.

Bae Joo-hyun and the other four were busy promoting their songs, so they messaged him much less frequently and had no time to contact him.

Since the incident was exposed, entertainment companies have become more stringent in managing their artists.

Among acquaintances, BLACKPINK is the most unfortunate.

Their concert in Japan, originally scheduled for the end of December, has also been cancelled.

The reason given is that they are artists under YG Entertainment.

YG Entertainment is heavily involved in the Lee Seung-ri scandal, and even CEO Yang is in serious trouble.

BLACKPINK members are confined to their dorm to rest, and it's unclear when things will return to normal.

Park Chae-young, of course, had not yet received permission to go out, and every day she would try to please him and seek comfort.

Liu Zimu cursed the system for a long time because if it didn't hand over the USB drive to her, she wouldn't be involved, causing her all sorts of inner turmoil.

There's not much I can do right now; I need to lay low for a while longer.

Get rid of those thoughts and keep grinding your beans.

The frustrating thing is that the system hasn't made a sound during this time.

These past few days have been as quiet as a stagnant pool. Liu Zimu's daily life consists of going back and forth between the coffee shop and home.

In the morning, he grinds coffee beans, makes coffee, and greets guests. In the evening, he closes the shop, goes home, and cooks for Choi Sulli.

Sometimes she would come home early, and the two of them would snuggle on the sofa watching variety shows. She had a low threshold for laughter and could laugh out loud at anything, laughing so hard she would fall onto him.

He pushed her away in disgust, but she turned back to him. After a few times, he stopped pushing her away.

That afternoon, there weren't many people in the shop.

Jin Qiutian sat in the corner of the bar doing her homework, leaning on the table, the pen tip scratching against the paper.

She didn't go to practice today because she had a bit of a cold, and the teacher sent her back home to rest for a day.

"Oppa, look at this question, I don't know how to do it."

Liu Zimu was adjusting the grinder's settings without even looking up: "I run a coffee shop, not a tutoring center."

"You are Chinese, and Chinese people are very good at math."

"Who told you that?"

"That's what our math teacher said."

Liu Zimu put down what he was doing, wiped his hands clean, and went over to look at the question she was pointing to. It was a quadratic inequality in one variable, not difficult.

"You can't even do this? You want to debut? You'll get scammed without even realizing it."

Jin Qiutian raised her head, her lips pursed: "Oppa!"

"Alright, alright, let me see. I told you to study properly, but you didn't listen. Now you can't do it?" He pulled up a chair, sat down, picked up her pen, and started scribbling on the draft paper. "Look, combining the graph of the quadratic function, first determine this..."

Jin Qiutian leaned closer, her hair brushing against his arm, making him feel itchy.

She listened attentively, nodding occasionally and frowning sometimes. When he finished speaking, she seemed to suddenly understand, took the draft paper, and calculated it again by herself.

Liu Zimu smiled; this kind of life made him feel very at peace.

everything is fine.