Zhan and Yibo talked for a moment longer about Zhan's parents. Yibo said that he had never thought of them that way and was truly surprised.

Then the two looked at the pictures and mementos Zhan had kept from back then. They had to laugh at some pictures, others made them think. But in all those pictures, which were a proof of the 1 year lucky relationship, both of them always looked very happy.

Zhan himself had not looked at the pictures for years, because at that time it hurt him way too much when he saw the pictures. So he put them all in a box and stowed them away in his closet. Just in case he ever got the urge to reminisce about those memories again.

When Yibo's stomach growled loudly, Zhan laughed and asked him to wait a moment. Zhan had made rice balls the night before and a sweet and sour chicken curry sauce. He had also prepared side dishes. He heated the meal and then handed Yibo a plateful. "You can cook?" Yibo asked in amazement when he saw the dinner.

"Mhm, even when I lived with my parents, I always had to help my mother cook. Lana always prefers to eat what I cook too."

"It tastes really good."

"Thanks. Enjoy it."

"I'm wondering why there isn't a wedding picture of you and your wife standing or hanging here. Don't you have a picture?"

"Oh yes, we have. But you have to turn around to see it. It's hanging on the wall behind you."

Yibo turned around and said, "Wow, you both looked really absolutely beautiful."

"Mmm, we got professional makeup. I hadn't slept the whole night before and I had a cold too. But thanks to the professional makeup and the good photographer, there's no sign of it."

"Consider yourself lucky. In my wedding picture, I look like a killer. I had bags under my eyes and a grim look. My wife didn't look any better."

"Mhhh, you could have had the pictures edited. Or asked for new pictures."

"Nah, give it a rest. I don't need this crap anyway."

"You Yibo, tell me, do you live close to work?"

"Why?"

"Um, well, because I saw your wife this morning when I was at the bakery."

"We live about two miles from here. So no, not near work."

"Mhhh, well maybe I've got it wrong."

"When is your wife coming back?"

"On Saturday. We're supposed to go to this concert in the evening. I don't really feel like it. But Lana really wants to go, and she's been sitting in front of her laptop for hours trying to get tickets."

"Who's performing?"

"Hua Chenyu. She's a big fan of his. I like him, too. But concerts aren't really my thing."

"You didn't like them in the past. Remember when we went to that one concert and you cheered the loudest when the concert ended?"

"Oh Yibo, just don't remind me of that. That had been so embarrassing. But be honest, that band just sucked. I mean, they said it was going to start with a quiet song and then he was bawling into the mic. What was that still death metal or? I was so scared when he started singing."

"Yeah haha, me too. I don't even remember how we got to go see that concert in the first place."

"I think you had won the tickets somewhere."

"Mhhh, could be. I don't remember that. I just remember how loud you cheered at the end."

"Ah Yibo, you know what I just remembered?"

"What?"

"We were both in the arcade. You had pulled out five stuffed animals at the grab machine. And then there was this naughty little boy who put a coin in your hand, took one of the stuffed animals, and ran away. And you ran after him with the other stuffed animals in your arms."

"Yes, I remember that. This little rascal still stuck his tongue out at me as he stood with his mother."

"Well, but in the end you had let him have it and just pulled another stuffed animal out of the vending machine."

"There had to be five. After all, you and I had been a couple for 5 weeks that day and I was going to give you a stuffed animal for every week we were together."

"Yeah I know. And when I came home with the stuffed animals, my mother thought I had reverted back to my childhood. It's not like I could tell her where I got the stuffed animals. She was totally worried and together with my father, she talked to me for over an hour and kept asking me if anything was bothering me and that's why I was looking for closeness to stuffed animals."

"Yes. Oh Zhan, do you remember our visit to the zoo? The one where you messed with that baboon monkey because he stole your ice cream."

"Mhm, that bastard even tried to bite me."

"That was too funny, though. He sneaks up on you, steals your ice cream and runs away. You ran after him and suddenly you came running and he chased you. This went on until an animal keeper finally noticed that the monkey had broken out of his cage and captured him."

"Yes, and as an apology, the zookeeper bought me two new ice creams."

"And another thing was that day. Because that was the first time I had officially told you that I loved you. Before that, I had always said I liked you. But that day, I confessed my love to you."

"Mmm, I know. We were standing on the bridge over the little small river, looking at the starry sky. And then you confessed your feelings to me."

"And you looked away and very quietly replied that you loved me too. You said it so quietly that I hardly understood."

"Yes, I had just been shy."

"That's right. First you always ran away from me. Then I had to chase you for almost a year, begging for a date, and finally, when you and I got together, very slowly your shyness dissolved."

"I also had no reason to be shy anymore, after you yelled that you loved me, on the school grounds, during a drill when all the students were out."

"Ahem, yes, I just wanted everyone to know about us."

"Yes Yibo and afterwards we sat in the teachers' lounge for two hours and were allowed to hear that we should be putting our energy into learning and not into a relationship."

"But that still hadn't stopped us from being together."

"True. I think the teachers knew we continued to be together. But they didn't say anything more because they knew we didn't care."

"God I miss those days. That one year we experienced so much together and we were just happy."

"It's been a long time."

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Do you think we would have stayed together for a long time if we hadn't been caught?"

"I'm convinced of it Zhan. I don't think we would have ever broken up."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Absolutely. I'm firmly convinced of that." Replied Yibo. Looking at his wristwatch, he sighed and said, "I'm afraid I have to go now. After all, it's almost 9 pm. The time flew by like nothing. It was nice that we could talk. And nice to remember the past together and see the pictures. Thank you, also for dinner."

"You're welcome. And thank you for explaining it to me. I'll ask Cheng to investigate where Hai Kuan got the pictures from. Because as you can see, my pictures are all still here."

"That would be great if he could find out. You know, what I'd really like to do is to tell our mother about him. If only because of us back then. But I'm not a bastard like him."

"I know you're not like that. But yes, he deserved it." Zhan replied. Then he walked Yibo to the front door. They shook hands and said goodbye.

When Zhan was alone again and put the pictures away, he wondered if Yibo was right and if they were really still together. He couldn't really believe it, because sooner or later, they would probably have been caught by their parents.

After Zhan cleaned up and did the dishes, he went upstairs to shower and soon went to bed. He had to think about the conversation with Yibo for quite a while and had to admit that it was probably really his fault that they got caught.

And not only that. It was also his fault that Yibo had been sent to the U.S. and had to live with his mother, with whom, at least in the past, he had not gotten along so well.

Because she met another man at that time, Yibo's parents divorced. They fought in court over everything. Over the house, over the money, over the business, and finally over Yibo and his brother. And everything was spread out in the public. Every little thing, Yibo's mother had immediately told all around.

Yibo had hated his mother at that time because she had destroyed the family. And then she had the nerve to make Yibo's father the culprit for everything. Yibo suffered a lot from all this, which is why he couldn't keep up in school and his grades became worse and worse. Well, at least there was one good thing. Zhan and Yibo could get closer to each other.

In the morning when Zhan came into the office, all his colleagues were quiet. Zhan wondered what was going on until he heard shouting from Yibo's office. "What's wrong?" He asked Yu Bin.

"His wife is here and she's terrorizing. She came stomping in here and immediately started screaming. 'Where's my husband? I think she's drunk. Yibo came in the door and grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into his office with him. They've been arguing there for about 10 minutes now." Yu Bin explained.

When something rumbled in the office, He Peng ran to the office and opened the door. Shortly after, He Peng, dragged Yibo's wife outside and called to Zhan, "Can you please go in to see him? I think he's hurt."

Zhan immediately ran to the office. The door from the office was open. When Zhan looked inside, there was chaos. The chairs had been knocked over, the desk was crooked, the shelf had been cleared out, and there was broken glass on the floor.

Yibo was sitting in a corner in the office, holding his forearm. He was bleeding. "Oh my God, what happened here?" Zhan asked in shock, running to Yibo to look at his wound.

"She's drunk, again. And because I refused to give her my car keys, she freaked out." Explained Yibo.

"Did she do that to you? Did she hurt you?"

"Mhhh? Oh no. First she went on a rampage and then she lost her balance. I didn't want her to hurt herself so I caught her. In the process we fell to the floor and I slammed my arm on one of the glass pieces."

"You need to let a doctor take a look at that. Come on, I'll take you to the hospital."

"No, it's okay."

"Don't argue with me Yibo. Get up and come with me. I'll drive you."

"All right. But don't tell anyone else."

"That might be hard, everyone in the office heard you two. And He Peng certainly won't keep his mouth shut. He likes to report things too much, you know."

"Damn."

"Come on. We'll sort everything else out later." Replied Zhan. He pulled Yibo up and wrapped his tie around his forearm to cover the wound, then led Yibo to the elevator and to his car. Ten minutes later, they arrived at the hospital, where Yibo's wound was immediately tended to. Fortunately, it did not need stitches.