When Qian Dailan first met Ye Xiyan, he was her boyfriend’s older brother.
Dressed impeccably, refined and courteous, he handed her a tissue, signaling for her to wipe the tears off her cheek.
Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that their second official meeting would be in his bed.
Their first encounter—a moment significant enough to be recorded in The Chronicles of Qian Dailan’s Insomnia Torment—took place in June 2008.
At the break of dawn in early summer, the entire city of Beijing was immersed in the vibrant excitement of welcoming the Olympics.
Freshly eighteen, Qian Dailan arrived in the capital after an eight-hour solo ride in a sleeper train.
As she opened her sleepy eyes upon arrival, everything looked fresh and new to her.
The car that came to pick her up was a brand-new convertible Mercedes—a striking yellow, bold and ostentatious.
Qian Dailan got in carefully.
After fastening her seatbelt, she curiously asked, “Is this your brother’s car?”
“No,” Ye Xijing smiled.
“The old man bought it for me.”
Qian Dailan was puzzled. “Old man?”
“Yeah,” Ye Xijing said.
“My dad.”
“Oh.”
Qian Dailan sat properly, placing her backpack on her lap and clasping her hands together.
“I thought all Beijingers called their dads ‘Ama.’”
Ye Xijing fell silent.
After a brief pause, he lowered his gaze, scanning Qian Dailan from the colorful hair clips in her brown curls, down to her gray hoodie with pom-poms, pastel yellow mini skirt, sheer black stockings, and knee-high boots—like an X-ray.
His eyes finally stopped at the set of multicolored plastic and alloy bangles on her wrist.
One of the bangles had lost its gold plating, now resembling the worn-out desolation of a widower left alone for eighteen years.
If not for her beautiful face, this outfit would have made Ye Xijing toss a few hundred yuan at her if he saw her crouching by the roadside.
But even that beautiful face had now been dulled by heavy makeup.
At that moment, Qian Dailan was struggling to keep her spider-leg-like mascaraed lashes wide open, staring at a patch of mud on the car’s red interior—a stain she had accidentally left when getting in with her boots.
“This outfit isn’t really suitable for meeting my brother,” Ye Xijing raised his wrist to check his watch.
“There’s still time. I’ll take you to buy something new.”
Qian Dailan looked confused. “It’s not suitable?”
She thought for a moment and slowly added, “Sister Mai just brought this in from Shenzhen. It’s very trendy now.”
“Trendy?” Ye Xijing almost laughed.
“You don’t need to be this fashionable to meet my brother. He’s the kind of old-fashioned guy who never keeps up with trends. Otherwise, he wouldn’t still be—”
He stopped mid-sentence and glanced at Qian Dailan.
“No,” Ye Xijing decided.
“I’ll call my childhood friend and have her pick something for you. She has good taste.”
Qian Dailan obediently nodded.
“Okay.”
She came here today for Ye Xijing because he said his brother wanted to meet her.
In an unfamiliar city, she took an overnight train just to see him—to see his slightly wavy brown hair, his fresh and clean white T-shirt with blue jeans, and the navy blue Converse sneakers on his feet.
Qian Dailan recognized that logo.
Sister Mai’s clothing store had stocked a few pairs before—the originals sold for 299 yuan, Sister Mai’s wholesale price was 49, and they retailed at 159 per pair.
There was another type with little hearts and eyes printed on them, also a best-seller.
Right now, though, Qian Dailan didn’t really want to buy clothes.
She had spent the night in a sleeper car where the man across from her kept trying to chat her up, so she had no choice but to punch him.
Now, after a sleepless night, all she wanted was to rest properly before meeting “the big brother”—or just do nothing at all and simply chat with Ye Xijing.
That alone would make her happy.
They hadn’t seen each other for two months, and Qian Dailan missed him.
Ye Xijing, however, clearly didn’t feel the same way.
The “childhood friend” he had called over was a tall and slender beauty, her hair sleekly pulled back, her forehead full and beautifully shaped.
Her light, delicate makeup looked so natural, as if it were simply a part of her.
Upon arriving at their destination, Qian Dailan widened her eyes at the sight of the stunning architecture, while the tall, slender beauty gave her a quick glance and remarked, “Her eyes do look a bit like Keke’s.”
Qian Dailan knew who “Keke” was.
When Ye Xijing had confessed to her, he had mentioned that he once had a crush on an older girl—but unfortunately, that girl only had eyes for his brother.
He hadn’t mentioned much else about that “crush,” just like Qian Dailan had never told him about the eighteen guys she had once liked.
But during their first drunken kiss, Ye Xijing had cupped her cheek and, in a dazed mumble, whispered the name “Keke.”
And in that moment, as he experienced his very first kiss, he also got his very first slap across the face.
Now, as if nothing had happened, Ye Xijing stood between the two of them and made introductions.
“Qian Dailan, my girlfriend. Liang Wanyin, my childhood friend.”
Liang Wanyin asked, “Dailan? Which ‘Dai’? Which ‘Lan’?”
“‘Dai’ as in ‘Dai Zong Fu Ru He’ (a line referring to Mount Tai),” Qian Dailan answered, “and ‘Lan’ as in ‘orchid.’”
She could sense Liang Wanyin’s hostility, though she wasn’t sure where it was coming from.
“Oh?”
Liang Wanyin raised a brow.
“Your name is much grander than your height.”
“Yes,” Qian Dailan said with a smile.
“And your name is much more delicate than you are.”
At this, she turned to Ye Xijing.
“I don’t want to buy clothes anymore, Xijing.”
Ye Xijing, who had been preoccupied texting Wu Ke, only looked up when he heard her voice, seeing Qian Dailan’s face filled with grievance.
“Who’s made our little Lan upset this time?”
Ye Xijing chuckled and walked over, placing a large hand on her shoulder.
“Why don’t you want to buy clothes anymore?”
Liang Wanyin let out a snicker.
“Little Lan? Ye Xijing, since when did you get such tacky taste?”
Ye Xijing shot her a glare.
“Give it a rest, will you, Ancestor?”
Then, lowering his voice, he smiled at Qian Dailan.
“Not even inside the store yet, and you’re already unhappy? You don’t like the clothes here?”
“The clothes are nice, sure,” Qian Dailan said bluntly, “but it just feels kind of rude.”
Ye Xijing sighed and squeezed her shoulder.
“Just two days, Lan. For me… okay?”
Qian Dailan said nothing.
She walked straight into the nearest boutique and pointed at an outfit displayed by the store clerk.
“Please get me a size S,” Qian Dailan told the store assistant.
“The handsome guy behind me will pay. I’m going to the fitting room to change, so please bring me an identical set.
I’ll take everything except the mannequin. I don’t need the mannequin.”
While Qian Dailan was changing in the fitting room, Liang Wanyin was outside, fuming at Ye Xijing.
“Last year, you ran off to Shenzhen without a word, making your whole family worry about you,” Liang Wanyin scolded him, furious.
“Then you came back and said you got yourself a little girlfriend over there. Uncle Ye didn’t say anything—he was even happy for you.
And this is the result? You found yourself a factory girl who dropped out after middle school?”
“Liang Wanyin,” Ye Xijing’s expression darkened.
“Do you have to be so harsh? Dailan didn’t go to high school because of financial difficulties.”
“Being poor is one thing, that’s just fate. But having no manners, no upbringing—that’s something else entirely,” Liang Wanyin scoffed.
“Just look at her, all flashy and gaudy. Ye Xijing, even if your confession to my cousin failed, you didn’t have to degrade yourself like this, did you? Are you really planning to take her home to meet your family?”
“No manners?” Ye Xijing chuckled.
“And who started being rude first? After all these years, do you really think I don’t know you, Miss Liang?”
Liang Wanyin shot him a sideways glance.
“If you know me so well, why did you call me here?”
“Because I know you, that’s why I called you,” Ye Xijing replied.
“Tonight, I’m introducing Dailan to my brother. You know my brother—he specifically asked to meet her. I just want her to make a good impression on my family.
Among my childhood friends, you’re the most stylish, the most fashionable—who else would I turn to if not the famous model Miss Liang?”
His flattery smoothed out Liang Wanyin’s mood, and when he mentioned his older brother, Ye Xiyan, she finally softened her tone.
“That’s more like it.”
She took a few steps, then turned back. “Ye Xijing.”
“What?”
“What you’re doing isn’t right. I can cover for you, lie about her education and job, and stick to the story you made up, but what about later?
Do you really think your family won’t figure it out? You’ll be lucky if your brother doesn’t see through it tonight!”
Liang Wanyin warned.
“You know full well that Uncle Ye will never approve of her. The gap between you two is too big. And in a few months, you’ll be preparing for your master’s applications.
What kind of future can you two even have together? She’s just a girl from some small town—”
Ye Xijing cut her off, “Her hometown isn’t that small.”
“Oh? Where is she from?”
“Tieling,” Ye Xijing said.
Liang Wanyin paused for a moment. “…Okay, not that small.”
At that very moment, Qian Dailan, the girl from Tieling, had already changed into the dress.
She admired herself in the mirror, turning left and right, completely satisfied.
Ye Xijing was also pleased.