She didn’t expect Du Henian to know about this. But of course, this man had followed her before.

It seemed that the men who had been in a relationship with her all liked to suspect her. The young boy from before was like this, and now the more stable man was the same. The possessive instinct engraved in biological genes turned into jealousy and lack of security in emotional relationships.

Sometimes Tang Man felt that all the jealousy between the opposite sex and the same sex stemmed from that part of the possessive gene that belonged to higher animals in the animal bones.

Perhaps emotion only played a small part in it. Most of the time, the reason people were jealous was because their possessions were out of control and no longer belonged only to themselves. This sense of loss of control was the destruction of possessiveness.

In Tang Man’s eyes, Du Henian was like this.

She could not understand love, but she could understand liking.

She liked Si Jiahe very much. Perhaps that liking was more in the past, a youthful love. To be honest, Si Jiahe was her first boyfriend in the true sense.

Because most of her firsts were spent with this boy.

They gave each other the only innocence of this life.

Countless times of physical closeness, hands slowly clasping together under the covers. In this situation, if one person acted too experienced, then for the other person, it seemed to lose a bit of fun.

Tang Man liked her partner to show a sense of innocence in this aspect. For her, this was a rare sense of control. For her now, she did not rely on this to gain a sense of excitement. She preferred a sense of control. The pleasure brought by this emotion was far greater than the physical comfort.

Physiological pleasure was the lowest level of pleasure.

So Tang Man divided all emotions into liking, general liking, very liking, and extreme liking.

For her, there was no talk of love. She believed others would love her, but she couldn’t understand it. The highest level of emotion for her was just extreme liking, and to what extent this liking could reach, she didn’t know either. It seemed she had never liked a person or an object to the extreme.

So what was the difference between the so-called love and the extreme liking in her heart?

Perhaps the difference was that love drove people crazy, made them lose their minds, made them give up themselves, made them become like Du Henian or Si Jiahe, in an unseemly state.

Tang Man thought this way in her heart. If love became like this, then there was no need for its existence.

Seeing Tang Man’s expression, the smile on Du Henian’s face faded a little. He looked at Si Jiahe, who was almost on the verge of collapse, in a mocking tone, but the next second, he looked like he was about to cry.

“Si Jiahe, you see, it seems she doesn’t like you that much either?”

“So, what were you being smug about before?”

“Smug that you think her heart is with you?”

The things he hadn’t gotten in the past two years, why should this person get them?

Du Henian took off the tie on his collar. For a moment, he felt like he was about to suffocate.

The group of people stood at the door of the police station and started arguing again, a one-sided argument.

Si Jiahe looked like he was about to cry. He didn’t look at Du Henian, only pleading with Tang Man with a pair of shining eyes.

At this time, when Tang Man met that pair of particularly pitiful cat eyes, countless images flashed through her mind. She was not a fool.

Si Jiahe had slipped up many times in front of her.

Strange scars on his wrists, an emaciated body, sudden waking up at three or four in the morning, endless nightmares, surprising early rising, and the medicine Du Henian had just mentioned, those words Si Jiahe said in bed that day…

All of these indicated one thing: Si Jiahe was sick.

A disease she never thought of.

This man, or rather boy, in Tang Man’s memory, Si Jiahe was still that innocent and carefree boy in college, who, even though his family was in difficulty, had a simple nature.

Too clean.

So at a glance, her eyes involuntarily fell on him.

But now, what had happened to such a clean boy in the past two years to make him suffer from such a disease?

Depression, apart from congenital causes, also had acquired ones. Si Jiahe was obviously not congenital, so it could only be triggered by something that happened later.

Countless guesses emerged in Tang Man’s mind, and finally, her memory stopped on a certain day two years ago.

They had an argument over something.

“If you don’t delete him, then let’s break up.” The boy stood in the middle of the living room, still with tears on his face, his eyes red, even though it was he who first looked at her phone and checked her private messages, yet he acted like a victim.

But in fact, it was just an ex-boyfriend. If Si Jiahe hadn’t mentioned it, she might have already forgotten about such a person.

But it was that one person that brought their relationship to the brink.

At that time, when she faced Si Jiahe’s teary and hazy red eyes, she suddenly felt a sense of annoyance and said to the boy in the living room, “Okay, let’s break up then.”

After saying that, she left for school. The house here was rented by the two of them together, considered a love nest outside. The main decoration was of course done by Si Jiahe. It was filled with decorations and daily necessities of all sizes, looking like a small home.

After saying the breakup words, Tang Man actually felt a little lost in her heart, as if something was missing by her side, some voices, suddenly becoming silent.

Before, when they were dating, Si Jiahe would follow her whenever he had no classes, and sometimes even when he had classes, he would follow her. After a few years like this, her classmates all knew Si Jiahe, and even the entire department had heard of him.

One reason was that his appearance was too outstanding, shining brightly. The second was Tang Man. She was too good-looking and had quite a reputation in the grade. When two good-looking people got together, it attracted even more attention.

After the breakup, Tang Man returned to her previous single life. Having been out of the single life for too long, she felt a bit uncomfortable at first, but after staying in the school for a while, it got much better. Then she rented a new apartment near the school.

In between, she never saw Si Jiahe again and never sent any messages. Si Jiahe also seemed to be competing and didn’t contact her. But Tang Man didn’t have this feeling. She just felt that Si Jiahe might have really let go, and her heart gradually settled down.

And it was at this time that Du Henian barged in suddenly. They actually had been in contact in between, but mostly for project work. When they met, there were always other people present. Tang Man had a boyfriend at the time and occasionally paid attention in this regard, not wanting to give rise to gossip and make Si Jiahe jealous.

And for her, at that time, Du Henian mostly wore shirts and jackets every day, with gold-rimmed glasses. If it weren’t for his different temperament, she almost thought she had met another Xie Li. In this situation, she didn’t have any improper thoughts at all.

So to speak, most of her thoughts at that time were spent on Si Jiahe. She could be said to have witnessed a boy’s clingy skills.

She really started to have thoughts about Du Henian because of a dinner gathering after a meeting ended. The project team had made a major breakthrough and agreed to go out for dinner in the evening. At that time, her mood was not good, mainly because of the Si Jiahe matter. After all, she had really liked that boy before. After breaking up, it was impossible to have no emotional fluctuations at all.

Moreover, when people were unhappy, they particularly liked to transfer their emotions. Tang Man couldn’t avoid drinking a few more glasses at that time. Under the urging of her project team colleagues, she downed a few more glasses. Her alcohol tolerance was not good to begin with, so in this situation, she became a little drunk.

Later, the drunk people were all sent back to the school dormitory or home by their colleagues. In the end, only Tang Man was left, lying on the table to sober up.

Just as one of the male colleagues in the project team brought up the topic of sending Tang Man back to her apartment, Du Henian, who was sitting on the side, spoke up. He took off his glasses, wiped the foggy lenses slowly with a tissue, and said to the male colleague:

“I happen to be going home tonight, just going out from the north gate, on the way to her apartment. I’ll drive her back later.”

The male colleague looked at Du Henian strangely, and finally his gaze fell on the man’s calm face. Although he felt a little disappointed in his heart, he didn’t think too much.

He was just a bit regretful. Originally, he wanted to take this opportunity to show his sincerity, and who knew, he might have made some progress and won the beauty’s heart. Unexpectedly, Du Henian suddenly spoke up, directly interrupting his thoughts.

But it was just a thought to begin with, without any ill intent. The male colleague thought that since Du Henian was going the same way, it was convenient. So he stood up with a slightly drunk body, said a sentence to Du Henian, and then left first.

In the end, only the two of them were left at the dining table.

Tang Man was originally half-lying on the table to sober up. After a long time, she felt the surroundings had quieted down. Frowning, she raised her head and found that everyone had left. Just as she was lamenting their lack of public ethics, she turned her head and saw Du Henian, who had been sitting beside her, lowering his head and fiddling with his phone screen.

With her vision, she could vaguely see that he was processing a document. He really didn’t rest even after getting off work, like an iron man.

She was stunned for a moment. Du Henian then looked up and met her gaze. He seemed to be stunned for a moment before putting away his phone.

With a calm expression, he said, “They all left first. I happen to be going the same way and can give you a ride back.”

Tang Man was dazed for a while. Her dizzy brain really didn’t support her thinking about this behavior at the moment. She reacted for a good while before saying a sentence of trouble.

Du Henian stood up and walked a few steps. As if suddenly remembering something, he turned his head to look at Tang Man, who was standing up while holding the dining table behind him. He politely asked, “Can you stand up? Do you need me to support you?”

At that time, Tang Man actually didn’t think too much. She just tried hard to hold the table and walked a few steps, feeling a little dizzy.

She was not the kind of person who would force herself. After trying once and finding it not very effective, she nodded at Du Henian, looking a bit apologetic. “Sorry for the trouble.”

When Du Henian touched her arm, Tang Man thought of his usual habits and deliberately kept a distance between them, not getting too close to him.

However, this distance was maintained only until they reached the parking lot. Perhaps it was because the underground parking lot had no lights on and it was too dim inside, which could easily breed a hint of ambiguity, or perhaps it was because people were slightly intoxicated and easily tempted by a certain physical attraction.

To this day, Tang Man still didn’t quite understand that feeling. At that time, she just followed her own thoughts and did what she wanted. When it came to pursuing what made her comfortable and happy, Tang Man had always been good at it.

When getting into the car, the two inevitably came into contact. Du Henian assisted Tang Man into the passenger seat. He leaned half of his body into the car, intending to fasten her seat belt.

This distance was too close, and it was also very dangerous for men and women of the opposite sex. At that time, Tang Man felt a moist breath on her neck, like a temptation, reminding her of how Si Jiahe used to love nuzzling her ears in the past, constantly rubbing his nose against her ear, with teasing and intimacy.

She didn’t like that kind of intimacy very much, but Si Jiahe seemed to like it a lot, as if it was a specific mark or a unique intimate behavior, seemingly carrying some unspeakable symbolic meaning.

Tang Man leaned back in the seat and suddenly opened her eyes. Her gaze fell on that fair patch of skin on the side of Du Henian’s ear. The yellowish light in the car shone on his neck, adding a hint of ambiguous allure.

Getting closer, she realized that his skin was really fair, the kind of cold fairness that would easily leave marks with a little force.

She wanted to push the person in front of her away, but her hand unexpectedly landed on his thigh. With the suit pants in between, it felt like she had touched something. Tang Man’s movement paused for a moment.

Using her muddled brain to think for a few seconds, facing Du Henian’s slightly stiff body and a pair of dark eyes without any light, she suddenly spoke, her tone rising, as if a bit uncertain, “Shirt stays?”

Du Henian’s body instantly stiffened.

There were two hurried breaths in the car, one shallow and the other severely rapid, and getting more and more intense, as if suppressing something.

Finally, Du Henian met Tang Man’s bright eyes and spoke in a hoarse voice, as if nodding slightly in the dim car, “Yes, shirt stays.”