This was the laziest Spring Festival holiday Ning Zhen had ever had.
Her friends were enthusiastically making plans for dinners and holiday movies, but she couldn’t muster up any interest. She turned down every invitation she could. It was the New Year, after all—she was tired of pretending to be cheerful. If she sat there with a stiff face and her mind elsewhere, she would be exhausted, and so would her friends. Nowhere was more comfortable or relaxing than home.
“Zhenzhen, come downstairs!”
She was sprawled lazily across her bed, playing a mobile game, when her parents called up from downstairs. She hurriedly finished the round, shuffled down in her slippers, and was stunned by the sight before her.
“What’s all this?”
“You really don’t worry about a thing, do you?”
Ning Hui smiled helplessly. “Have you discussed it with Xianwen yet? Are you going to his place to pay New Year’s calls on the third day of the lunar new year, or the fourth? Last year was so rushed, but this year your mother and I put a lot of thought into these gifts. What do you think, sweetheart? We haven’t embarrassed you, have we?”
Recently, Ning Zhen had been completely immersed in her own world.
Her moods swung from one extreme to another every day. Sometimes, seeing the balance in her bank account made her especially happy. After all, she had received ten million yuan. In any era, that was no small sum of money. As long as she didn’t get any wild ideas about starting a business, she could live very comfortably for the rest of her life.
But at other times, her spirits would sink for no apparent reason.
Or perhaps she did know the reason. She simply didn’t want to admit it—much less face it.
“Mm-hm, they’re great.”
Ning Zhen came back to herself. Watching her parents bustle around over these little details only made her feel worse. She couldn’t tell anyone how things had begun with Meng Xianwen, and now that things were over between them, she still couldn’t tell anyone. Yet her parents were going to all this trouble for her.
This was all his fault!
Those carefully prepared gifts were never going to be used. He was wasting her family’s money. His sins were grave indeed.
“When is Xianwen coming? His trunk should be big enough to fit all this.”
Ye Junlan thought back. Over the past year, Meng Xianwen had come to their home for dinner several times, always driving that black Rolls-Royce. Its trunk looked spacious enough; fitting the gifts inside shouldn’t be a problem.
“He’s pretty busy this year. He might not have time to come over. I’ll clear out the junk in my trunk later and put everything in my car.”
Ning Zhen lied without batting an eye.
Inside, she had already cursed Meng Xianwen from head to toe. There had been absolutely no word from him. Quite a few people had asked whether they were fighting, but aside from Guo Xia, not a single one had considered the possibility that they might have already “broken up.”
Who was fighting with him?!
Couldn’t these people be a little more imaginative and guess in a more serious direction?
As it turned out, the public imagination really could be quite bold.
After feeding her parents a string of nonsense, Ning Zhen bolted upstairs before she could give herself away. She flopped onto her bed. The phone she had tossed aside lit up. She had received an unusual number of messages these past few days. When she opened it and saw the messages from Shu Wei, she nearly choked.
Shu Wei: [I heard about what happened between you two. Zhenzhen, I’m on your side this time.]
Shu Wei: [You only turned twenty-four not long ago. Getting married now would be insane. I support you enjoying life for a few more years. [pat on the shoulder]]
Ning Zhen blinked in confusion.
What was going on? They were clearly all Chinese characters—so why couldn’t she understand a thing?
Her right eyelid began twitching without warning, and a sense of foreboding rose in her. She quickly typed: 【Wait, sis—tell me first, what exactly did you hear??】
Shu Wei immediately sent her a voice-call request.
After turning to make sure the door was shut, Ning Zhen answered.
“Haha, could what I heard be fake?” Shu Wei skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the point. “I only heard a few things at a dinner party. Wasn’t Lao Meng shopping with you a while ago? Apparently someone saw you two in a store. You were trying on jewelry, and the sales associate recommended a ring. Lao Meng didn’t say anything, but you refused.”
“And lately, haven’t you stopped posting him on your social media? People are guessing you two fought over getting married. Anyway, the version I heard is that he wants to get married, but you don’t.”
Ning Zhen: “??”
She was dumbfounded.
How could anyone make up stories even better than she could?
The sales associate really had brought out a pink diamond ring that day and enthusiastically invited her to try it on. The reason she had declined was that the ring was worth tens of millions. Even if she shoved Meng Xianwen into a lake and waterlogged his brain, there was no way he would buy it for her.
After ending the call, Ning Zhen realized with dismay that Meng Xianwen had set her up.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant!
If she weren’t the one being played, she would have applauded him.
What kind of brain did he have? And how long had he been plotting to come up with a breakup reason that not only left his image completely unscathed, but actually made him look better?
Sure, “I’m too busy with work to spend time with my girlfriend, so she couldn’t take it anymore and broke up with me” sounded plausible at first. But think about it closely—didn’t that just make him a scumbag? If he knew he was too busy, why go after a sweet, gentle girl in the first place?
And “our life goals are different, so we’ve decided to go back to being friends”—everyone knew that line was practically the standard breakup template by now.
But here was the problem: what different life goals could a couple who did nothing all day but flaunt their affection possibly have?
Marriage.
“What a scheming man!”
Having finally figured it out, Ning Zhen gritted her teeth and cursed.
Now he had somehow become a devoted, responsible man who loved his girlfriend deeply. Had he been a bricklayer in a past life? He was so good at plastering gold over himself.
She had been far too careless that day.
Even when she was sitting in the car, she had felt that something was off. He had thrown away one of her earrings, yes, but with his character, how could he possibly compensate her with a new pair? Well, it wasn’t that he never would—but the thing that jerk said most often was, “My card’s with you. Buy whatever you want yourself.”
The fact that he had offered to compensate her on his own was suspicious.
The fact that he had put the annual party aside and accompanied her shopping for jewelry was even more suspicious.
And there she had been, happily thinking she’d gotten a great deal. Scheming—far too scheming. He had baited her with diamonds. How could she possibly not fall into the trap?
…
Knock, knock, knock. Someone rapped on the door.
Meng Xianwen, who was still working at full intensity even during the holiday, opened it. Seeing that it was his mother, his tense expression eased slightly.
“Mom, what is it?”
Ning Zhen and Meng Xianwen’s fight—their cold war, their sulking and awkwardness—was no longer a secret within the Meng family.
Thanks to Meng Jiaran, the family loudmouth, who took advantage of his brother’s absence to vividly recount his observations at the dinner table: Ning Zhen, who apparently would die if she didn’t show off her affection, hadn’t posted anything about her boyfriend for seven or eight days.
And the two of them had both become increasingly irritable, treating him like a punching bag. Whenever he called, they either didn’t answer, or, if they did, one would curse at him and threaten to block him, while the other gave him the cold shoulder.
And it was indeed true. From Lunar New Year’s Eve until today, Meng Xianwen had remained as still as a mountain at home, as though he had gone back to the busy yet monotonous life he’d led when he was single.
The only time anyone saw him was at meals. At all other times, he was in the study.
Even Meng Jingshan, his own father, could no longer sit still. At lunch, he asked him when he planned to visit the Ning family to pay New Year’s respects.
Meng Xianwen didn’t even lift his eyes. “There’s no rush.”
The answer nearly sent Meng Jingshan through the roof. If it hadn’t been the New Year holiday, he would have slammed down his chopsticks already.
“The New Year’s gifts for Zhenzhen’s parents are ready. I know you’re busy with work, but no matter how busy you are, you need to set aside a day to pay them a visit.”
Xiao Xuezhen didn’t enter the study. She simply stood in the doorway, looking at her son with a complicated expression. “The gifts are all in your car. When you have time, go check whether there’s anything else you need to add.”
Meng Xianwen said nothing.
His silence irritated his mother as well. Xiao Xuezhen’s tone grew firmer. “Stop dragging your feet. Go today. Zhenzhen is your girlfriend—no matter how busy you are, you can skip visiting anyone else’s family, but not hers. Whatever big thing you have going on, can’t it wait until after the holiday?”
“All right. I’ll go right away,” he said slowly.
Only then did Xiao Xuezhen’s expression soften.
She had no wish to linger outside the study on the second floor. After reminding him a few more times, she hurried away.
Meng Xianwen turned and went back into the study. He stood by the desk for a moment, then, without further hesitation, picked up his phone beside the computer and opened his chat with Ning Zhen. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to type anything, and irritation inevitably rose in him. His fingers instinctively tapped into her Moments feed, where he unexpectedly found that she had posted an update twenty minutes earlier.
He opened the photo. It showed the pair of diamond earrings and the bracelet he had bought with her when they went shopping that day.
Caption: [Payment for services rendered 😊]
Two sarcastic words and a smiling emoji.
He frowned. Then he noticed, to his surprise, that the post had neither likes nor comments. After thinking it over, he roughly guessed why, and the gloom that had weighed on him for days seemed to vanish in that instant.
Meng Jiaran had spent two hours gaming in his room. Just then, Cai Zechuan called to invite him out. After getting himself together, he stepped out of his room and ran into Meng Xianwen in the hallway.
Seeing Meng Xianwen raise a hand to fasten his watch, clearly preparing to leave, he asked, “Bro, are you going to see Zhenzhen?”
“Yeah.”
Hearing that answer, Meng Jiaran let out a heartfelt sigh of relief.
So they had made up.
“Let me borrow your phone,” Meng Xianwen said after considering it for a few seconds.
“My phone?” Meng Jiaran quickly ran through everything in his mind. There didn’t seem to be anything incriminating on it, so he slowly unlocked it and handed it over.
But a phone was far too private—he wouldn’t feel at ease even if his own brother looked at it for one extra second. He quickly leaned in, and the two brothers fixed their eyes on the screen together, only to find that his brother had opened Zhenzhen’s Moments. What was so interesting about that?
“Bro, this…”
Before he could finish, he heard a soft chuckle beside him. Still completely baffled, he watched his brother return the phone and stride away. No matter how many times he called after him, he didn’t stop.
—
That afternoon.
Ning Hui and Ye Junlan sat in their room rewatching Spring Festival Gala comedy sketches from past years. The jokes that had once made them roar with laughter now failed to bring even the faintest smile to their faces. It was obvious neither of them was paying attention; both looked distracted and preoccupied.
“Did those two have a fight, or did they break up?” Ning Hui finally couldn’t hold it in any longer and turned to ask his wife.
Ye Junlan was frazzled. “Who knows!”
The couple lowered their voices as they analyzed the situation. Then, suddenly, there came a knock at the courtyard gate. When they went out to look, both of them froze.
Meng Xianwen, whom they had assumed would not be coming this year, was standing tall in the courtyard.
So had they fought, or hadn’t they?
“Auntie, Uncle Ning, Happy New Year.”
Ye Junlan came back to herself. “Happy New Year to you too.”
Ning Hui offered a stiff smile as well, then raised his head and called up toward the second-floor window for Zhenzhen several times. At last, there was some movement. With a sharp swish, the window was pulled open, and a head poked out.
“Dad—”
Before she could ask what he wanted, Ning Zhen’s eyes widened in shock. She thought she was seeing things. Otherwise, why would Meng Xianwen—that scheming bastard—be standing in her family’s courtyard?
Their eyes met.
The words *What are you doing here?* nearly flew out of her mouth.
Then she remembered the post she had made a little over an hour ago, filled with anger, contempt, and mockery—a Moments post visible to dogs only.
Her expression changed at once.
Ha. He actually had the nerve to come to her door and settle the score?!
He seemed to see through every one of her emotions. He also knew she was staring at him without blinking. Unhurried, he glanced at his watch and smiled calmly.
“Taking a nap at four in the afternoon? Will you be able to sleep tonight, Zhenzhen?”
