Evan Carter put her phone on the table to charge and went into the bathroom. As she slowly removed her makeup, she stared at her face in the mirror, her movements suddenly pausing.

Not long ago, that pair of unfamiliar eyes and brows she had seen flashed through her mind.

Evan Carter lowered her gaze, absentmindedly tossing the cotton pad into the trash.

Even back when they were most familiar, Evan Carter couldn’t say she really understood Ryan Grant. So she couldn’t quite tell whether he was pretending not to recognize her, or if he truly didn’t recognize her at all.

Like a coin toss, guessing heads or tails.

No clues to follow, no way to guess—only luck could give her an answer.

After all, in her eyes, both possibilities

were things he was capable of.

-

After blow-drying her hair, Evan Carter habitually turned on her computer and worked on a news draft for a while. Only when she started to feel sleepy did she return to bed, reaching for her phone on the table.

Not long after she’d gone into the bathroom, Samuel Clark had sent a few more messages: [Anything is possible, you know. Even if it’s not, we can just imagine it and make ourselves happy.]

Samuel Clark: [I’m really curious, how do you feel seeing Ryan Grant now?]

She even added a gossipy emoji at the end.

Evan Carter thought for a moment: [He’s definitely pretty handsome.]

Samuel Clark: [……]

Samuel Clark: [That’s it?]

Evan Carter: [Can’t think of anything else right now. I’ll tell you if I do.]

Evan Carter: [I’m going to sleep first, I’m so tired.]

To be honest, saying she felt nothing would be a lie. But she didn’t think there was much to say—if she brought it up, it would turn into a whole conversation, and she’d rather use that time to get more sleep.

She tossed her phone aside and tried to drift off.

As usual, Evan Carter slept terribly.

She hovered between sleep and wakefulness, tangled in bizarre dreams. Just as she felt she was about to finally fall asleep, the idiot next door started banging on her door, waking her up.

Pulling the blanket off her head, Evan Carter felt irritated all over.

Evan Carter was known for her good temper, always able to handle things calmly, rarely showing any big emotional swings.

But everyone needs a way to vent.

So her morning temper was especially bad.

Being woken up made her lose all reason.

Especially in a situation like this, when she felt she was just about to fall asleep.

Evan Carter tried to calm herself down, just hoping the person outside would, as usual, bang a few times and then leave.

But this time, he seemed possessed, knocking nonstop and slurring drunkenly, “Still not awake? Pretty lady, help me out, my bathroom’s broken… let me take a shower at your place…”

Evan Carter closed her eyes, got up, took out her camera, adjusted the angle, and started recording toward the door. Then she picked up her phone and directly dialed 110, clearly reporting her address and the situation.

After all that, any trace of sleepiness was completely gone.

Alone in the middle of the night, with a drunk man harassing her outside her door.

Evan Carter thought she should be scared in this situation. But at that moment, all she felt was anger and exhaustion—she had no energy left for any other emotion.

Because he got no response, by the time the police arrived, the man had already gone back to his apartment.

Evan Carter showed the recorded footage to the police and requested to resolve the matter at the station. Since she’d already called the police, she had no intention of settling—she planned to move out after this was over.

In the video, the door shook from the banging, accompanied by the man’s slurred voice. It was creepy just to watch.

The police knocked on the door across the hall.

After a while, the man finally opened the door, impatiently saying, “Who is it!”

“We received a report,” the officer said. “You’ve been accused of harassing your neighbor in the middle of the night.”

“Harassment? What harassment.” The man paused for a few seconds, pretending to be out of it, his tone much less aggressive than before. “Officer, I just got back from drinking, probably knocked on the wrong door by mistake. Just a misunderstanding.”

The officer’s face was stern: “There’s video evidence. You knocked on the wrong door and shouted about wanting to shower at someone else’s place? Don’t give me that crap. Come on, you’re coming with us to the station.”

In this weather, the man was only wearing a tight T-shirt, showing off a fierce tiger tattoo on his arm. He was very muscular, his muscles bulging like a wall.

The man tried to explain a few more times, but seeing it was useless, he quickly gave up.

He looked up, his gaze deep, staring at Evan Carter standing behind the officers.

Evan Carter stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe, expressionless as she stared back at him. Her eyes were cold, showing not a trace of fear—if anything, she looked like she was staring at something filthy.

……

At the police station.

The man insisted he was just drunk and talking nonsense, while Evan Carter clearly explained what had been happening recently. But since the incident hadn’t caused her any financial loss, only made her mentally sensitive and exhausted,

in the end, the man was fined a few hundred yuan and detained for a few days, and that was it.

Before she left the station, one of the older officers kindly advised her not to live in shared apartments.

Not just because of this kind of problem, but also because of other safety risks.