I'm fine, how about you?

  "I'm not busy, I'll just wait for you here," Zhuo Bufan hastily interrupted her and said: "A class period is only 45 minutes, playing games in your office for a while has become like this."

  Anlan originally wanted to say that this office is not just mine, haven't you seen the three other desks? We are four teachers sharing one office room, okay?

  Ke Zhuo didn't say anything more since she mentioned playing games and all, besides, her job was also obtained through Ke Zhuo's connections in the first place.

  At the end of February, she returned to Bincheng. At that time, she didn't want to stay idle at home all day and came out to find a job. However, since she had no teaching experience in China and no so-called certificates abroad, domestic schools generally didn't believe her.

  That day she came to the art school for an interview with a violin teacher. At that time, the leader in charge of recruitment at the school looked at her resume and asked a few superficial questions before letting her go back and wait for notification.

  She knew that such a situation generally had no chance, so she didn't hold out much hope. She was thinking of waiting to see another training center when, unexpectedly, she ran into Zhuo Bufan, who had come with the principal, as soon as she walked out of the interview room.

  Zhuo Bu Fan was clearly stunned when he saw her, then exclaimed in surprise: "Gu An Lan, how did you end up here?"

  She was also stunned at that time, looking at the tall and straight figure in front of her, with a familiar face, especially those thick eyebrows, which were as dense as if painted with ink.

  She finally remembered, it was Zhuo Bufan, who was in the same class as her when they were young and even sat at the same desk, this person with thick eyebrows and big eyes, had a round and chubby face that was very cute when he was young.

  Zhuo didn't say a word when he saw her, and quickly introduced himself: "An Lan, I'm your childhood friend, the one who sat at the same desk as you in elementary school? You don't remember?"

  She nodded hastily: "Of course, of course, how could I forget? It's just that I've been abroad for ten years, and you suddenly grew so tall, handsome and dashing, I was taken aback."

  Zhuo Bu Fan smiled and turned to the middle-aged man beside him, saying: "Principal Chen, this is my childhood friend Gu An Lan. She played the violin very well when she was a kid and even won an award in a violin competition."

  "Is Miss Gu here for an interview today?" Principal Chen asked, looking at the recruitment room and then at An Lan.

  An Lan nodded, "Yes, just finished the interview, let him go back and wait for notification."

  Principal Chen nodded with a smile: "That's right, we can't make a decision on the spot because we don't know the level of the candidates who will come later. Generally, we will compare them after the interview and then formally notify them."

  An Lan nodded in understanding, then said a few words of reunion to Zhuo Bu Fan before leaving the art school. But she didn't expect that the next day, she received a notice from the art school saying that she had been hired.

  An Lan returned to the office after class, and Zhuo Bu Fan was indeed still waiting for her. However, he wasn't playing games, but instead having a serious conversation with Du Xi about piano.

  Zhuo Bu Fan saw her return and quickly ended his conversation with Du Xi. He turned around to look at her and asked, "Are you done with your busy work?"

  "Is it that urgent?" An Lan asked lightly while tidying up her desk.

  "Hurry up, of course I'm in a hurry," Zhuo Bu Fan quickly walked to her office desk, helping her gather things while jokingly saying: "If I weren't in a hurry, would I have made a special trip to your office to wait for you?"

  An Lan glared at him fiercely, "What do you want me to write?"

  "Your private collection isn't working?" Zhuo Bu Fan retorted back at her.

  "Then I won't write it," An Lan said, sitting back down in her office chair: "You can go."

  "Hey, don't be like that," Zhuo Bufan hastily said with a flattering smile: "An Lan, we're truly childhood friends, a friendship forged in gold and silver. Have you forgotten? When we were kids, we participated in outdoor military training exercises, and I even carried you on my back..."

  Thanks to Zhuo Bu Fan's reminder, An Lan suddenly remembered that Zhuo Bu Fan had indeed carried her on his back before.

  That was when they were in fifth grade of primary school, the school organized an exercise for students to conduct a field simulation battle at Qīniáng Shān.

  That time, she and Zhuo Bufan were in the same group. She had been weak since childhood, her mother only had her as a child, and their family conditions were good, so compared to ordinary children, she was inevitably spoiled.

  She was hit by the other side while running, actually the other side didn't mean to do it either, after all they were just kids. The person swung a branch over and tried to sweep her away, meaning to knock her down.

  But she was running very fast at the time, and just as the branch swept over, her foot stepped on a stone, and then she slipped under the branch and rolled down the slope sideways.

  That time she not only fell, but also injured her legs and twisted her ankle, unable to walk at all. Zhuo Bufan, who was one year older than her, ran over and carried her down the mountain on his back.

  Because Zhuo Bu Fan was a bit fat, the boys couldn't help but tease him, laughing that Zhuo Bu Fan was like Zhu Bajie carrying his wife on his back. At that time, 11-year-old her face turned red with shame, while 12-year-old Zhuo Bu Fan smiled and retorted to those teasing kids: "You're just jealous! Look at you all, thin as monkeys, this life may not even have a wife to carry!"

  An Lan came back to her senses from her memories, saw Zhuo Bu Fan still standing there and couldn't help but say: "Since it's the character you wanted, why can't you just write it for me anytime? Must you wait here?"

  Zhuo Bufan hastily said, "Alright, I'll be honest with you. A friend's elder is having a birthday and the friend I know is worried about what gift to give。 Apparently, his elder particularly likes calligraphy and paintings, especially those in the style of '闺阁体小楷' (a type of small regular script)。 As you know, there are very few people who can write this kind of calligraphy nowadays。 And I have a favor to ask of that friend, so who else would I look for but you?"

  An Lan heard him say that, and became even more afraid to write. So she said straightforwardly: "You take it away to give to others, I'll be even more afraid to write. What if I don't write well and others won't appreciate it......I really haven't written for many years and have become rusty."

  Zhuo Bufan immediately scrunched up his face: "An Lan, we've had a 20-year friendship, you usually just give an order and I'll run around for you like a cow or horse, can't you...

  "Come on, I've written it for you," An Lan couldn't take his nagging anymore. "Let's go, can't write without going home to get pen, ink, paper and inkstone? Are these things still available in this art school?"

  Zhuo Bu Fan drove to the Quan Garden himself, An Lan had the car stopped outside the door and didn't invite Zhuo Bu Fan in. He just pushed open the car door and got out of the car, asking: "Is the elder who is going to celebrate their birthday male or female?"

  "What's the difference?" Zhuo Bu Fan looked at her in confusion.

  "If it's a man, I'd write about pines and bamboos; if it's a woman, naturally it would be about flowers and grasses."

  Zhuo Bu Fan suddenly enlightened, looking at her outside the window said: "It's a woman."

  An Lan nodded and turned to walk towards the garden, then turned back to say: "It'll probably take an hour or two, you go somewhere else for a stroll, it won't be that quick."

  "I know, it's okay, I'll just take a nap in the car, anyway we played mahjong very late last night, so I can catch up on sleep."

  An Lan suddenly returned home, which gave Qin Xiang a fright. Looking at her walking in, he asked nervously: "An Lan, what's wrong? Is something... happened?"

  "No," An Lan couldn't help but laugh at her mother's tense expression: "Mom, you're so nervous just because I'm coming home?"

  Qin Xuan saw that everything was fine and laughed, saying: "Are you coming home? Why did you suddenly appear out of nowhere? Isn't it working hours now? How do you have time to come back?"

  "Afternoon I had a class, can leave early, just a friend found me something, so came back early," An Lan said here only thought of the matter, hurriedly looking at Qin Xin asked: "Right, mom, our family that old ink still have? Just Cao Su Gong's five-stone lacquer smoke ink?"

  "Yes," Qin Xuaner replied very naturally, then looked at An Lan with a strange gaze: "Didn't you say you weren't writing anymore? What are you looking for this ink for now?"

  "A friend asked me to write a character for him, I owed him a favor anyway, and there was no other way to repay it. He happened to want the character, so I agreed," An Lan said as she followed her mother upstairs to her study.

  Qin Xiangye's study is on the second floor of Qin Garden, and it is very large, even larger than her bedroom. The room is filled with old books and classic works from around the world, as well as a number of valuable calligraphic and painting pieces.

  He took Cao Sugong's Wushi lacquer ink, found Chen Xuan's Hongxing special clean ruler, picked up his favorite wolf hair ten years ago, and pushed open the large floor-to-ceiling window to write a "Lan Flower Fu" facing the orchid outside the window.

  An Lan finished writing the calligraphy at around 5 o'clock in the evening. She then called Zhuo Bu Fan from the garden, telling him that if he didn't have time today, she would take it to the school district and he could pick it up there tomorrow.

  "Who knows that Zhuo Bu Fan said lightly over the phone: 'I'm just waiting outside your house, hurry up and come out, you helped me write a letter, I couldn't not even treat you to dinner, could I?'"

  An Lan originally didn't go to dinner with him, but Zhuo Bu Fan insisted on inviting her, shouting: "Gu An Lan, twenty years of revolutionary friendship, you can't forget your childhood friend just because you have a husband."

  An Lan couldn't bear it in the end, let alone return to the cold and empty courtyard of the Yi family home, where she had nothing to do but eat. In the end, she followed him anyway.

  An Lan had thought of just casually finding a restaurant to eat, but unexpectedly Zhuo Bu Fan actually drove out of the city, then headed east all the way, and finally arrived at Qī Niáng Shān.

  "I bet you've never had kiln chicken before," Zhuo Bu Fan said, parking the car at a farmhouse on the mountain. "Kiln chicken is a specialty dish in the eastern part of Bin City, and because it requires a specific geographic location to cook, you can't find it in the city. You have to come up here to try it."

  Nongjiale is located on the half-hill waist of Qiniang Mountain. The entire restaurant is built against the mountain shape, without a large hall, all are private rooms. Due to the terrain, each private room has a different shape and decoration, and the scenery seen is also different.

  The kiln chicken is a recruitment dish of farmhouse music, and apart from the kiln chicken, there are all kinds of small dishes planted by the boss of farmhouse music on this hillside, which are all purely natural. Of course, various freshwater fish are also raised in the fish pond on the hillside.

  Anlan didn't expect that there was such a dining place close to nature in the eastern part of Bincheng. When ordering vegetables and fish, the waiter took them directly to the vegetable field and the fish pond, saying "pick whatever dish you want" and "catch whatever fish you want".

  After ordering dishes and fish, Zhuo Bu Fan smiled and said: "I came here with a friend not long ago, at that time I thought, if I bring you here to eat, you will definitely like this place."

  Anlan indeed likes it, when night falls, the entire farm lights up, and those lanterns hanging from trees illuminate the originally dark forest, pure natural green under the light of the lamp is flowing with a soft glow, quiet and natural.

  The fresh air on the mountain is filled with the fragrance of wildflowers, natural and elegant. Their suite is located in a protruding mountain valley, where you can see not only the night view of Qiniang Mountain but also the dusk of the distant sea.

  The kiln chicken is indeed the signature dish, and the sea bass from the fish pond tastes exceptionally fresh and delicious. The just-picked vegetables from the garden are incredibly fragrant, and Anlan feels like she's having a feast.

  The rice was not yet finished, and Anlan's mobile phone rang. She thought it was Zhang Jie from the Yi family compound who hadn't received her text message and called to ask, so she didn't see clearly who the caller was and directly pressed the answer button.

  The result had not even come to the point of 'feeding' that one sound, and the mobile phone came with Yi Shuihan's very displeased voice: "Gu Anlan, it's already past 8 o'clock at night, why haven't you returned home yet?"

  An Lan immediately fell silent. She hadn't expected him to return today. Didn't he say that he wouldn't be back until who-knows-when? Who would have thought it was today?

  "Gu Anlan?" Yi Shuihan couldn't wait for her response and shouted again.

  "I'm working overtime tonight," An Lan casually told a small lie, she didn't want Yi Shuihan to know that she was having dinner with Zhuo Bufan.

  "When are you off work?" Yi Shuihan asked with a hint of dissatisfaction from the other side.

  "It's probably about half an hour," An Lan estimated the time it would take to drive back and said, "You don't have to wait for me to eat, I had lunch with my colleagues in the cafeteria this afternoon."

  "Then, shall I drive over and pick you up?" Yi Shuihan's tentative voice came through.

  "No need, you just got back from a business trip and must be very tired. I'll leave right away. The traffic is congested now, taking the subway is even faster than driving."

  She had just finished speaking when Yi Shuihan directly hung up the phone on that end, apparently too lazy to listen to her nonsense.

  "Let's hurry up and eat, after we finish eating, let's drive back. It should take about an hour to get back to the city district, right?"

  Zhuo Bu Fan couldn't help but laugh at her expression: "Not being able to get on the bus for an hour is enough, but what's key is, what are you so afraid he'll do? Could it be that if you go back late, he'll eat you up?"

  An Lan lightly bit her lip and didn't answer Zhuo Bu Fan's question. She mainly didn't want to provoke Yi Shui Han's anger, after all he had just returned from a business trip, and it wouldn't be good for anyone if they fell out over such a small matter.

  Fortunately, on the way back, the coastal highway was smooth and unobstructed. Entering the urban area of Binhai also passed the peak hour of traffic congestion, so in just an hour, Zhuo Bufan sent An Lan to the door of Yi Jia's pure villa community in Xinghai Mingcheng.

  "Thank you!" An Lan got off the car and waved at Zhuo Bu Fan, then hurriedly ran into the courtyard, not even bothering to notice the security guard's gaze at Zhuo Bu Fan's car.

  However, when she ran into the Yi family's courtyard, she did not find Yi Shuihan's car. Neither the Range Rover nor the new Audi Q7 they had just bought for their wedding were in the yard.

  Fine, she rushed back in a hurry, but he just left again like a big shot. If she had known that, she wouldn't have bothered to rush back so quickly. That delicious and harmless mountain vegetable dish was wasted, what a pity!

  Anlan slowly walked into the hall, Zhang Shu was sitting on the sofa watching TV, seeing her return and hurriedly asked: "Young Madam, do you want to have a midnight snack?"

  "No need."

  Upstairs came, the third floor was still her appearance when she went out in the morning, I suppose Yi Shuihan returned to see that she was not there, and didn't even go upstairs?

  She didn't have the mood to care about these things, he had been on a business trip for a week and hadn't contacted her except for sending a text message in the middle of the night last Friday. As soon as he left home, he forgot about his wife at home, why should she miss him?

  It was already past 9 pm, An Lan didn't bother to think about where Yi Shui Han had gone, she directly took a bath and went to bed. She also had work tomorrow and didn't have the time or energy to care about him.

  Moreover, she can't control him anyway, and he doesn't want her to interfere with him either. This point has been clearly stated in their agreement a long time ago.

  The phone rang again at 11 o'clock in the evening, An Lan was woken up from her drowsy sleep and felt very annoyed, she picked up the phone without even looking at it and hung up the call irritably.

  Just as she was about to shut down, the phone rang again. She picked it up and saw that it was Yi Shuihan calling. She pressed the answer button with a bit of annoyance and asked, "What's going on? It's the middle of the night, do you want people to sleep?"

  This sentence thoroughly enraged Yi Shuihan on the other end of the phone, and all that could be heard was his gnashing teeth: "Sleeping? Where exactly are you sleeping?"

  "Sleeping in bed?" An Lan also got a bit angry: "I'm not going to sleep on the street, am I?"

  The person on the other end of the phone, Yi Shuihan, was taken aback by An Lan's sudden question, and a puzzled voice came through: "You're going back home?"

  "What's with going back home?" An Lan was exasperated: "I have work tomorrow and didn't go back to my parents' house."

  "Then where did you sleep?" Yi Shuihan's voice came again with suppressed anger.

  "Since I didn't go back to my parents' home, then naturally I'm at your place," An Lan was exasperated with him: "Where else can I go? I don't have a nest in Bin City either."

  "Gu Anlan, where are you right now? Come out from wherever you're hiding!" Yi Shuihan's voice came through, laced with a tone of exasperation: "Could it be that I've walked around for a whole week and you've learned how to turn invisible?"

  An Lan only then remembered that she hadn't told him the news about moving back to the Yi family's large courtyard, and estimated that Yi Yu Yan and Yi Xu Shan also didn't tell him, so Yi Shui Han still didn't know.

  "Gu Anlan?" Yi Shuihan waited for half a day without getting her response and shouted in frustration over the phone: "Whose home are you sleeping at? Can't you tell the truth now? Don't tell me you really know how to turn invisible..."

  "I'm at the Yi family compound," An Lan finally spoke up calmly: "Last Friday, your father came back from Hong Kong and was extremely angry when he found out we had moved out to live elsewhere... then he ordered me to move back..."

  With that, Yi Shuihan on the other end completely lost his temper and silently hung up the phone.

  An Lan was woken up by this phone call, and her original drowsiness was completely gone. She had to get out of bed, open her laptop, find a sleep-inducing song, and then lie back down on the bed, hoping that the lullaby would help her fall asleep quickly.

  Half an hour later, the sleep-inducing melody still hadn't succeeded in putting her to sleep when the sound of a car came from downstairs. A few minutes later, footsteps were heard coming up the stairs outside the door.

  She had to get out of bed and just walked into the living room when she heard the sound of knocking on the door. She went over to open it, and the person who came in was indeed Yi Shuihan, whose body still had a strong smell of alcohol and perfume.

  She walked up and took his coat off, furrowing her brow and asking: "Have you been drinking?"

  He didn't answer her question, but instead walked directly to the bedroom. An Lan held his jacket with a strong smell of wine and cheap perfume, hesitated for a moment, then silently hung it on the balcony outside the living room before turning around and walking into the bedroom.

  She walked into the bedroom when the bathroom had already transmitted a gurgling sound of water, and her laptop was still playing lullaby music. She turned off the lullaby music and silently got onto the bed, lying on her side.

  The sound of rushing water in the bathroom stopped, followed by the sound of the bathroom door being pushed open. Unaware if he was afraid of startling her, his footsteps were extremely light, almost inaudible.

  The bedside lamp went out, and the room was pitch black. She only felt that the bed behind her had obviously sunk down a bit, knowing that he had gotten into bed and lay down beside her.

  She had fallen asleep, her breathing was even and steady, while he didn't come to disturb her, just quietly lying beside her, gradually bringing heavy breathing sounds.

  At one o'clock in the morning, Yi Shuihan turned on the bedside lamp beside him when the woman really fell asleep. He leaned over and gazed at the sleeping woman beside him with the help of the dim and soft light.

  A pure and clean complexion, skin that has never been made up is white and delicate, under the soft light, you can almost see the fine down.

  His fingertips wandered lightly on her delicate cheek, yet he dared not use the slightest force for fear of startling her. Thinking about her lies tonight, his heart felt inexplicably stung like a needle prick.

  He rushed home from a business trip, without even stopping by the company, his heart full of excitement to surprise her. But what greeted him was an empty room and cold furniture, with almost no human presence in the air.

  He called her and found out she was working overtime. Although she said there was no need for him to pick her up, he still hurried over in his car, eager to see her a second sooner.

  Luckily, he didn't run into a traffic jam and arrived at the art school in just 15 minutes, half an hour earlier than she had said.

  But in the end, the art school was pitch black, and the security guard told him a heartless fact that no teacher was working overtime tonight. He also told him an even more heartless fact: Gu Anlan had been picked up by a man driving a BMW X5 before he even finished school this afternoon.

  Who else is driving a BMW X5? He almost didn't use his brain for one second and thought of Zhuo Bufan, and she was originally very close to Zhuo Bufan.

  At that moment, his heart was really broken. He drove aimlessly on the streets, wanting to find her but didn't know where to look for her. Moreover, he didn't even have Zhuo Bu Fan's phone number.

  Besides, even if he had an extraordinary phone, it's impossible for him to call Zhuo Bu Fan at this time, right? Wouldn't he be calling Zhuo Bu Fan and asking, "Is my wife with you?"

  He was driving around the streets, not knowing where to go, when he received a call from Shaw Yifu, and then they agreed to go to a bar together for a drink. He could tell that Shaw Yifu was annoyed, and so was he.

  When drinking, the woman in the bar came to drink with him and sat beside them. If it were usual, he would have driven the woman away at the first time, but tonight, for some reason, perhaps because of his heart, he actually allowed the woman to sit beside him.

  He didn't notice what the woman looked like, but caught a whiff of pungent perfume. Fortunately, the woman was tactful and knew when to hold back, quietly accompanying him as he drank, without making him feel annoyed.

  After drinking, the woman followed him out and obviously wanted to follow them. Shaw Yifu asked in a low voice if he wanted to take her to the hotel opposite to open a room. He glared at Shaw Yifu fiercely, then got into the car and left.

  He had a drink, but he wasn't drunk, nor was he dizzy. He still remembered the woman saying she would be back home soon, and by now it was already past the time she said she would return home. He thought she should have arrived home long ago.

  But who would have known, he drove back to Yipin Jiangnan in a hurry, the doorbell was broken and no one opened the door. After much difficulty finding the key to open the door and enter, inside it was still empty, without any signs of anyone returning.

  His anger was ignited in an instant, and then he made that call to her, but the result was...

  He let out a barely audible sigh, people say that newlyweds are better after a brief separation, but what about him and her?

  She returned from a date with another man, while he came back with the scent of strange women's makeup on him. How can they still be considered newlyweds?

  An Lan felt that she and Yi Shuihan's truly "married but not in love" life began after he returned from his business trip. Now, the two of them were indeed following that agreement completely.

  He returned home after a business trip and also moved back to the Yi family's large courtyard, but he was always out early and returned late, every night An Lan had already fallen asleep before he came back.

  Because of their different work schedules, they didn't even have breakfast together. She started work at 8 o'clock, and the Yi family's large courtyard was quite far from the art school, so she usually had breakfast at 7:10 and left on time at 7:20.

  Yi Shui Han doesn't go to work until 9 am, so when she wakes up in the morning, he is still asleep. When she leaves for work, he hasn't even gotten out of bed yet. For a whole week, they haven't exchanged a single word.

  Tomorrow is Saturday, no need to go to work, can sleep in, An Lan got online for a while, then logged into MSN which she hadn't logged into since returning to the country.

  At noon, her mother called to tell her that she had received a postcard from Canada. The postcard didn't have much content, just one sentence in English: "I'm ok, how about you?"

  The postcard shows a winter scene in Toronto with snow, probably taken at a ski resort as there are skiers on the thick snowy ground.

  An Lan didn't need to ask her mother, the signature on the postcard told her who it was - Jason, the only person in Toronto who knew her address in China.