Gu Pan hesitated in front of the door, paper bag rustling between his fingers as he stood with hands behind his back.

　　"What do you want to do? What exactly do you want to do?" he questioned himself.

　　With trepidation, he reached for the doorbell as if it were a chess piece, thoughts of retracting his move swirling in his mind while reciting the mantra of no regrets for his actions. Despite the inner turmoil, the sound of footsteps inside approached the door, each step echoing like the incremental moves of a chess piece.

　　Taking two steps back, he pressed himself against the dimly lit wall.

　　The door cracked open, revealing the person inside, her back against the door as she emerged, each hand holding a garbage bag. She spun on the spot until she reached a spot where she could slip off her slippers. Donning a pair of old leather shoes, she used one foot to kick the door shut and hastened toward the elevator.

　　Gu Pan stood against the wall, sweat beading on his forehead. He wasn't afraid; he was nervous.

　　He observed the woman with obviously poor eyesight carefully. Her hair was disheveled, and oversized glasses slid down her nose. Her posture was markedly different from usual, with her chest hunched beneath the loose sleepwear.

　　In his memory, Yu Yan had also been like this before. Sister Yan explained that wearing pajamas without a bra and being briefly outside would cause her to hunch.

　　Gu Pan felt particularly flustered. The edge of the paper bag was crumpled almost as much as wrinkled paper.

　　He pressed it against the wall in an attempt to smooth it out. However, the sweat on his fingertips caused the colored print on the white surface to smear, resembling a flower face. He pounded the wall in frustration.

　　At that moment, the elevator bell rang. As a large section of the wall was illuminated, the woman rushed out of the door. She walked barefoot, clutching her chest to conceal any protrusions, and hurried past her own door.

　　Gu Pan watched her from behind. She didn't become more perceptive despite breathing in some outdoor air while descending the stairs. In this blind spot of surveillance, she passed by an adult male, who stood at six feet tall, for the second time with the same "ignorance" and fearlessness. Disheveled, without a bra.

　　Gu Pan watched as the woman rushed into her apartment and closed the door behind her.

　　At this moment, he regained control of the corridor space. He relaxed his shoulders, cleared his throat, and tried to act as dignified as possible as he returned the lost item by knocking on the door.

　　2

　　"Wait a moment—" Ling Hanlu heard the doorbell, first hesitating for a moment, then responding vaguely.

　　Brushing her teeth in front of the mirror was one of her favorite morning rituals. She enjoyed the fresh and clean scent, using a soft-bristled brush to clean her teeth and lips, which appeared to be smiling in the mirror. But today, she was only halfway through the process.

　　With the toothbrush still in her mouth, she was at a loss. Helplessly, she grinned, exposing her teeth as much as possible.

　　She "vigorously" brushed a large area twice, spitting out the liquid in her mouth. It was like a smoker taking two deep puffs before entering a no-smoking area and then flicking off the cigarette butt.

　　Then, she hurriedly wiped the toothpaste foam from the corners of her mouth with a towel, wiping her eye corners a couple of times as if washing her face. Considering herself not too out of line, she took a deep breath and raised her voice towards the door, "Who is it?"

　　Before there was a chance for a response from outside the door, she had already rushed to it. Through the peephole, she saw a face that seemed distorted. But she recognized it.

　　Ling Hanlu lightly pressed the door lock, halfway releasing it.

　　Her hesitation was not due to fear or concern for safety. To her, this young man she had encountered several times was completely trustworthy.

　　Not long ago, during a chat with Xu Shuping, she couldn't help but question certain unexpected encounters and feelings. As a single woman in her thirties, was it really pure to develop a friendship with a young man like Gu Pan, compared to married women like Xu Shuping? Where did the difference lie? Which one was more genuine and trustworthy? Or were they both playing with fire?

　　Ling Hanlu approached the peephole again. Through the concave lens on the door, she saw nothing but a child with innocent deer-like eyes. "You're overthinking it!" she slapped her forehead and pushed up her glasses. Then she opened the door.

　　She saw Gu Pan standing outside the doormat. His hands were behind his back, and the panic in his round eyes made one think he might pull out a water gun from behind at any moment and squirt you in the face before slipping away.

　　"Come in first!" she said.

　　"Good morning," Gu Pan said, kicking off his sneakers.

　　"Lemon water is in the fridge, help yourself, okay?" Ling Hanlu headed towards the bathroom, "I just woke up not long ago, only halfway through washing my face, sorry. Please wait on the sofa for a moment."

　　"Okay," Gu Pan thought to himself, "Actually, I've seen you without washing your face. And that awkward kick earlier, almost kicking off your shoe, and then your leg buckling, almost falling to the ground. Clearly not very agile."

　　Just five minutes later.

　　"I'm back!" Ling Hanlu appeared again. The big glasses were gone, her eyelids blinked frequently, and her eyeballs rolled frequently, helping to quickly adjust to the contact lenses that had just been hurriedly put in. Her face looked much cleaner, obviously washed with facial cleanser. Passing by the young man, she carried a faint scent of skincare products.

　　Gu Pan could smell the fragrance created by this soul and flesh together, but he didn't dare to breathe freely. He twirled the bottle of ice lemon water in his hand.

　　"What's going on with you today..." Ling Hanlu looked at Gu Pan with a slightly stern face, a hint of redness still lingering on her cheeks. She felt that this boy might have some difficulty expressing himself, so she took the initiative to speak up.

　　"This!" Gu Pan held up the paper bag with two fingers and handed it over. He felt childish holding it with both hands.

　　"What's this?" Ling Hanlu took it, opened it, and was surprised to find a blue-dyed cashew flower shawl! A large piece of floral fabric made her feel a sense of deja vu. "Did you buy this?" Like all women faced with beautiful large floral fabrics, she couldn't help but unfold and shake it a couple of times.

　　"No. This was originally yours."

　　Gu Pan's recounting "forced" Ling Hanlu to recall a scene from a certain day at the train station. The pitiful girl lying on the ground, the crowd watching more than acting, the varied reactions of the world. And there she was, running under the urging of the loudspeaker, oblivious to everything.

　　"You... at that time..." Ling Hanlu repeatedly inspected the recovered old item, her eyes filled with both joy and confusion.

　　"Yeah, I saw you were in a hurry, so I helped you put it away first," Gu Pan shifted his hands from his side to his knees as he spoke, returning to his side in no time. He also gripped his palms with sweat.

　　"Why didn't you just give it to me later? On the train, at my house, when... you had the chance?" Ling Hanlu squeezed the soft fabric, lifted it, hung it on her arm, then lifted it again, almost placing it near her heart.

　　"I wanted to give it to you along with this!" Gu Pan pointed to the paper bag in Ling Hanlu's hand.

　　"Is there something else inside?" Ling Hanlu turned her back and placed the previously overlooked paper bag back in front of her. "What is it?"

　　"You can open it and see for yourself," Gu Pan's lemon water was almost warm by now. He felt nervous and curious about Ling Hanlu's reaction upon seeing the "medal."

　　As Ling Hanlu hesitantly explored the "medal," it finally made its appearance.

　　The bracelet rested on Ling Hanlu's delicate fingers, undergoing scrutiny from a female perspective. Under scrutiny were not only the craftsmanship but also the thoughts of the giver.

　　"Why did you give me this gift?"

　　"A reward," Gu Pan said the words plainly. Despite countless rehearsals of award ceremonies in his mind, he couldn't make it sound convincing when the recipient was right in front of him. He questioned whether someone constantly shrouded in the shadow of "potentially causing harm" was qualified to establish awards. "It's a reward for you," he added, even more softly.

　　"A reward for what?"

　　"You are actually very kind, different from what I originally imagined... um, just for that."

　　"Kindness?" Ling Hanlu naturally understood the implication of "kindness." But to her, that was simply an act of assistance she deemed natural. From her personal value judgment, it even had a clear opposition to the act of "seeing someone in distress and not helping."

　　"You are certainly kind."

　　"But, am I that famous? And what do you mean by 'originally imagined'..." Ling Hanlu caught another point in Gu Pan's words. Her kindness was actually enough to overturn stereotypes in the eyes of children? Where did that stereotype come from? Was her fame enough to radiate throughout the Foreign Language Institute? Moreover, how "evil" was she originally?

　　"... " Seeing Ling Hanlu lost in thought, Gu Pan realized that saying too much would be a mistake. So, he fell silent, staring blankly at the "medal."

　　"Child, how did you find this thing? I didn't even think about pairing it with an accessory!" Ling Hanlu couldn't bear to see the boy's grievance, so she tried to get the stagnant air flowing. Placing the two items together, with matching colors and complementary styles, the bracelet seemed to melt into the shawl. And the two copper pendants looked like a pair of alert eyes. So, she exclaimed excitedly, "Hehe, it looks great!"

　　"Are you happy?"

　　"Finding something lost is already a pleasant surprise, and being praised and rewarded for doing something right, of course, makes me happy."

　　"Can you reward me?" Gu Pan's chest tightened as he clenched his fist, exerting all his effort to resist being overwhelmed by nervousness. "Can you?"

　　"Are you asking to be rewarded for helping me retrieve my lost item?"

　　"Yeah."

　　"Haha, you child... alright! What do you want?" Ling Hanlu immediately began searching her mind for a suitable gift.

　　But the boy's eyes reddened, his voice trembling as he said, "You."

　　"What? I didn't catch that."

　　"You!" Gu Pan didn't wait for Ling Hanlu to fully open her eyes before lunging towards the other end of the couch. His body, trained with a month of dumbbell exercises and abdominal workouts, clumsily pinned the woman down, feeling her struggle between his knees. Ineffectively struggling. He couldn't see the woman's face, compensated by the scenes flickering like frames of a movie in his mind. He remembered the Caucasian man, the man's lower body pressed against the woman's lower body.

　　Gu Pan's auditory senses seemed to fly to the sky in an instant. The voices in his head came from memory.

　　Yanyan once said, the resistance of an old woman does not necessarily mean rejection. Of course, there were differences among old women. Older women who read more books, reason told them "no," but their bodies honestly responded, as for the subsequent development, it depended on individual self-control and moral bottom line. And older women who read fewer books would not bother to talk to reason, always listening only to their bodies.

　　Gu Pan remembered when Yanyan said this last sentence, she gave him a meaningful glance. And that sarcastic yet painful look, he didn't understand it at the time.

　　At this moment, the older woman under Gu Pan's body stopped struggling. He stroked Ling Hanlu's hair as he had learned from Lu Yitong that day in the oleander bushes. Her hair was messy, not tied into a ponytail. He couldn't grab her nape from behind like that day, let alone she was lying down.

　　Gu Pan's fingers trembled as they slid from the woman's ear to her cheek, chin. All the way down, stopping between two not-so-tall peaks. He remembered how the Caucasian man teased the Caucasian woman. How the hairy hands manipulated the woman until she couldn't hold back. But he just wanted to find out if Ling Hanlu really wasn't wearing a bra? Like Yanyan said.

　　But he didn't have time to unravel the mystery. He smelled the salty smell from Ling Hanlu's nostrils and verified it with his lips and tongue. Yanyan once said, if it's tears of joy, the taste must be salty with a hint of sweetness.

　　But Ling Hanlu's lips trembled, and after recovering from the shock, tears surged. Along with it came a bigger resistance from her body.

　　Gu Pan's heart raced. He held Ling Hanlu's wrists tightly, afraid she would scream, and he kissed her fiercely. She struggled to shake her head, trying to slip from under Gu Pan. "Madman! Madman!" she gritted her teeth, but always controlled her volume.

　　"Do you hate me?"

　　"Madman!"

　　"Do you like me?"

　　"Madman!"

　　"I'm sorry! The summer vacation is almost over... there's not enough time... Please don't move, okay? I beg you!" Gu Pan imagined that he had grown the big hairy hands of the Caucasian man, sweeping over the rounded and slender parts of the Caucasian woman one by one. He stripped away the woman's bottom line and discarded it. Just as he was about to unleash the beast within him, his vision suddenly cleared.

　　He saw the doubt and worry in Ling Hanlu's pupils. The exhaustion dissolved the anger. He suddenly felt at a loss, unable to make a move on a woman under such a tolerant gaze. Ling Hanlu's calmness scared him.

　　"Get out! You don't even know what you're doing!" Ling Hanlu withdrew her legs. The dress she had hastily changed into was wrinkled from being pressed, and she stood up to brush it off. "Remember to close the door when you leave!" She walked back to the bedroom.

　　In the afternoon, Gu Pan didn't go to work at the patisserie. He asked for leave. When the manager asked what was wrong, he said he was sick.

　　The emerald green lawn still smelled of sweat when carefully sniffed. Gu Pan wiped it with detergent the next day and let it dry. But the unpleasant smell lingered more stubbornly than imagined, like the embarrassing scene.

　　Gu Pan tore off the countdown paper in the living room. This way, the wall he was facing returned to pure white. After two sets of supine leg lifts, he did two sets of push-ups. Until the wall, devoid of any objects, revealed two circles of sacred light... he finally collapsed on the lawn.