The central mall in Area A of Whale Harbor City was warm from the heating.
Jiang Nuan followed Shen Wu up to the fourth floor and stopped in front of a small formalwear boutique. Only one sample gown hung in the display window.
The store’s name was just a two-letter abbreviation, and its logo was simple but exceptionally tasteful.
Had Shen Wu actually done his homework in advance?
A sales assistant came over, her gaze sweeping back and forth between the two of them.
Her smile instantly upgraded to the enthusiastic mode reserved for couples shopping for formalwear.
“Good afternoon, sir and miss. May I ask what occasion you’ll be attending—”
“A banquet’s opening dance. We need a ready-made gown,” Shen Wu cut her off before she could launch into the likely guesses about anniversaries or marriage proposals. “It has to hold up to wide turns, and the skirt shouldn’t be too heavy. No red or black.”
Jiang Nuan crossed her arms and looked at him. “Is there anything left for me to say besides ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’?”
Shen Wu gave her a cool glance. “If you want to stand here for half an hour listening to the sales assistant explain everything from the beginning, I won’t stop you.”
…Fine. What an efficiency freak.
The sales assistant tactfully turned around to fetch some dresses.
Jiang Nuan leaned closer to a row of sample gowns, examining them. Her fingers brushed over a swath of gauzy fabric.
“By the way, why can’t I wear red or black?”
Shen Wu casually flipped through a few dresses on another rack. “Red would steal too much attention during the opening dance. You’re a dance partner, not a member of the Lighthouse Squad. Black is too formal. You’re not going there to sign military orders.”
Shen Wu really had done his research beforehand.
That certainly made things easier.
The sales assistant returned carrying four or five evening gowns. “These styles are all suitable for a banquet. They’re fitted, but they allow enough room for movement.”
Shen Wu glanced over them and pointed to the pale moon-white mermaid gown on the far left. “The waistline is too low. It’ll make her look shorter.”
Then he looked at the pale-gold strapless gown in the middle. “Not safe for dancing.”
Before the sales assistant could even make a recommendation, he had already eliminated two dresses.
Jiang Nuan took the remaining three into the fitting room, feeling a little conflicted.
This was far too convenient—and all three remaining gowns were beautiful.
The first was a mist-blue full-length gown with a slightly gathered neckline and a layered organza skirt.
Shen Wu sat on the sofa nearby, his long legs crossed.
He raised his eyes, his gaze traveling slowly from her collarbones down to the hem.
“Nice color,” he said. “But the neckline is too conservative. It doesn’t suit a banquet.”
The second was a smoky-purple one-shoulder gown. The fabric followed the line of her waist, with a high slit at the side that was daring without being excessive.
When she stepped out, Shen Wu’s gaze lingered noticeably.
“How about this one?” Jiang Nuan asked.
“Fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Fine means there’s no need to try on the third one.” His expression returned to its usual indifference, but his eyes still hadn’t left her. “You have the presence to carry off the opening dance in this.”
Jiang Nuan turned toward the full-length mirror.
The one-shoulder cut accentuated her clean shoulder and neck lines, while the smoky purple gave her a cool, elegant air.
The waist fell precisely at its narrowest point. The skirt draped beautifully without feeling heavy, and when she moved, it flowed like water.
It really was gorgeous.
Shen Wu certainly had good taste. He was a suitable shopping companion.
“All right, I’ll take—”
“Jiang Nuan?”
A girl’s voice came from the direction of the store entrance.
Jiang Nuan and Shen Wu turned at the same time.
Zhou Mengmeng stood frozen in the glass doorway, still holding a cup of milk tea.
Her gaze took in the scene before her: Jiang Nuan in a smoky-purple evening gown, standing before the mirror, and Shen Wu sitting on a sofa less than half a meter away, his eyes not yet pulled from her.
The angle. The distance.
The focused look in a man’s eyes when he was watching a woman in an evening gown.
It all looked incredibly suggestive.
Zhou Mengmeng’s expression changed several times. First she looked blank, then her eyes widened, and finally her entire face filled with the tragic outrage of someone who had just discovered that her idol’s girlfriend had cheated on him.
“You—you two!”
She rushed in two steps, pointed at Shen Wu first, and shouted, “You! Why, you—you Agent Shen!”
Then she turned to Jiang Nuan, grabbed her by the arm, and said with reddened eyes, “Qi’s sister-in-law, you have to come to your senses!”
Jiang Nuan: “…”
Shen Wu’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.
“You two! Behind Qinian’s back, you’re here—” Zhou Mengmeng’s voice carried a sobbing edge. “Shopping for matching formalwear!?”
The sales assistant’s grin was nearly splitting her face in two, her eyes darting between the three of them.
“No, listen, let me explain—”
“You don’t need to explain!” Zhou Mengmeng declared righteously, stepping in front of Jiang Nuan and glaring furiously at Shen Wu. She looked one step away from pulling out her terminal and calling the fan-protection hotline. “You used your position to get close to Qinian’s girlfriend! Don’t you have any professional ethics?”
Shen Wu stared at the girl in front of him and remained silent for several seconds.
Then he turned to Jiang Nuan. “Qi’s sister-in-law, are you explaining, or should I?”
He deliberately enunciated “Qi’s sister-in-law” with extra clarity.
Jiang Nuan ground her back teeth together.
He was enjoying the show.
In the end, it took a long explanation—and a whole string of nonsense about how Qinian had asked his management team to help choose a formal dress, how this gown was for a banquet at another event, and so on—before Zhou Mengmeng finally withdrew her accusation, though she still looked only half-convinced.
“You’re really just helping her choose clothes?”
“Really.”
“Then why did you put on the gown and let him look at you?”
“…Because trying on clothes means coming out to look in the mirror.”
“Oh,” Zhou Mengmeng said. She cast Shen Wu another suspicious glance, then muttered under her breath, “The way he looks at you doesn’t seem very professional.”
Shen Wu stood beside them with an expressionless face, flipping through something on his terminal. He didn’t respond, but his finger slowed by half a beat as he changed pages.
After paying for the gown and leaving the boutique, Zhou Mengmeng insisted on treating them to something to eat.
“I know a place nearby with amazing red-bean shaved ice! Eating shaved ice in winter is the only proper way to do it!”
Jiang Nuan glanced at the snow drifting over the streets outside the mall’s floor-to-ceiling windows. “…Shaved ice in December?”
“There’s heating in the mall!” Zhou Mengmeng said, pulling her along. Even as she walked, she didn’t forget to use her body to keep Jiang Nuan and Shen Wu separated.
Shen Wu followed behind at an unhurried pace.
By the time the red-bean shaved ice arrived, Zhou Mengmeng had already opened the floodgates.
“You came to Area A too! I thought I wouldn’t get to see you until the exhibition in another two months!”
“I’m here on business,” Jiang Nuan said vaguely. “What about you? You came all the way here from Area E?”
Zhou Mengmeng’s eyes lit up. “For the New Year countdown! Did you know there are fireworks over the ice lake in Area A every New Year’s Eve? They’re spectacular! I watched the livestream online last year and fell in love with them, so this year I came to see them in person!”
She opened her phone and showed Jiang Nuan photos of last year’s fireworks. The sky had been filled with brilliant bursts of color, all reflected in the frozen surface of the lake.
Jiang Nuan scooped up a spoonful of red beans and shaved ice and thought for a moment. The ice lake really was beautiful.
The Lighthouse Squad’s base was not far from the lake. The Lighthouse’s official banquet the day after tomorrow was scheduled for New Year’s Eve, and from the base, they might even be able to see the fireworks.
“Oh, right!” Zhou Mengmeng said excitedly. “There’s something especially important I have to tell you!”
“What is it?”
“I submitted my work!” Zhou Mengmeng’s cheeks flushed pink with excitement. “The thing you told me about before—sending my paintings out there. I actually did it! I submitted to the open call for the Federation Young Artists’ Exhibition. I mailed everything out last week, and the results should come out in a few weeks!”
She clasped her hands together in prayer. “I have to get through this time—ahhh! Qinian, please bless me!”
When Jiang Nuan mailed back the replica inking pen she’d had custom-made, she had indeed written some words of encouragement and a blessing for Zhou Mengmeng’s submission.
But as she looked into Zhou Mengmeng’s sparkling eyes, the smile on Jiang Nuan’s face stiffened for a moment.
She didn’t know if this world had even a few weeks left.
Zhou Mengmeng had no idea that she was living in an old shadow that might vanish at any moment.
She was drawing in earnest, chasing celebrities in earnest.
If someone suddenly told her that her world was fake, that everyone she knew was a projection, and that all her passions and efforts were built on a foundation that didn’t exist—
Would she believe it?
She wouldn’t.
If it were Jiang Nuan herself, she wouldn’t believe it either.
Those native residents who drove away outsiders as heretics were only behaving according to normal logic.
“Jiang Nuan?” Zhou Mengmeng tilted her head at her. “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Nuan came back to herself and smiled, her eyes curving. “Nothing. I was just wondering when the good news about your submission will arrive.”
“I’ll tell you the moment it does!”
Zhou Mengmeng giggled twice, then leaned close to Jiang Nuan’s ear with a mischievous look.
“Tell me the truth.”
She nodded toward the direction Agent Shen had gone to take a call. “You and that Agent Shen really are just colleagues?”
The corner of Jiang Nuan’s mouth twitched. She stuffed a spoonful of red bean into Zhou Mengmeng’s mouth. “Eat.”
With her mouth full of red beans, Zhou Mengmeng mumbled, “You didn’t deny it, though…”
Shen Wu hung up the phone not far away, his peripheral vision falling on them.
He hadn’t denied it either.
He merely curled his lips into a smile.
