Downstairs.
Meng Xianwen stood beside his car and looked up at the apartment building, his gaze settling on the twenty-first floor. Ning Zhen lived in one of the middle units, and the lights were on behind the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows. He stared for a moment before getting into the car.
He finally had time to reply to Lu Yuan’s invitation from half an hour ago:
[Sure.]
All their close friends could guess that Meng Xianwen and Ning Zhen had broken up. As longtime friends, Lu Yuan and Chang Yi could only assume that this was their chance to keep him company over drinks and talk through his feelings. That was merely their assumption, however. In reality, Meng Xianwen was still incredibly difficult to get hold of—even more so than when he and Ning Zhen had been dating. Whenever they asked, his answer was always the same: “I’m busy.”
No one knew what he was busy with.
Lu Yuan let out a long breath of relief.
[Okay, let’s meet at the usual place.]
Before starting the engine, Meng Xianwen replied to the last message.
He sent his location.
After Lu Yuan sent back a question mark, he followed up with:
[okk]
The two of them met at a Japanese restaurant. Once they were seated, Lu Yuan casually took off his coat and set it aside, then asked in puzzlement, “Why here? You don’t even like this kind of food.”
“I felt like eating it today.”
“All right, then.”
Lu Yuan didn’t ask any further questions. He figured that people tended to act a little strange after a breakup.
He picked up the sake and poured Meng Xianwen a glass. But instead of drinking, his friend picked up his phone and took a picture of the sashimi platter on the table.
Even after knowing him for more than twenty years, Lu Yuan was so stunned by the inexplicable move that he forgot to drink, the glass frozen near his lips.
Who took pictures of their food?
Meng Xianwen certainly never did.
So what was he doing now?
After his initial shock, Lu Yuan suddenly understood. “Sending it to Zhenzhen?”
Meng Xianwen paused, then hummed in acknowledgment.
It wasn’t a bad idea.
He leaned back and considered it for a moment. A smile surfaced at the corners of his lips. After tapping a few times on his phone, he placed it face down on the table, picked up his glass, and took the initiative to clink it against Lu Yuan’s.
“Thanks.”
Lu Yuan misunderstood, and the words made him laugh. “Don’t be so formal. How many times can a man fall in love in his life? If your buddies don’t keep you company now, when will we get another chance—in our next lives?”
Meng Xianwen’s brows drew together almost imperceptibly.
How many times?
Once was more than enough.
“Hopefully, only once,” he said.
Lu Yuan gave him a knowing smile. “All right. Let’s pray Zhenzhen only dumps you once. Wouldn’t that make it even more special?”
Meng Xianwen neither agreed nor disagreed.
Chang Yi and Lu Yuan both claimed they were there to help their friend get over the breakup. In reality, after finally getting the chance to watch him make a fool of himself, how could they possibly let it pass? Usually, both men were busy from dawn till late at night, but lately, they had somehow become more free than ever.
Every day, they messaged him right on schedule to ask him out for a meal.
Meanwhile, Ning Zhen had eaten her fill and returned to the sofa, lying down as she tried to empty her mind. As she replayed every detail of what had happened in the hallway that evening, the more frustrated she became. There were several moments when she hadn’t performed as well as she could have. She could have responded more coldly, delivered sharper retorts—and yet she had actually gone silent.
She drew a deep breath and tilted her head back against the sofa.
He had thrown her emotions into turmoil all over again.
She really didn’t want to keep puzzling over the meaning behind every word he said. Picking up her phone, she habitually opened her Moments feed to see what the assorted weirdos in her social circle were up to that day. She was lazily scrolling when her finger suddenly stopped. Her eyes widened. She sat upright, closed her eyes, then opened them again.
She wasn’t seeing things, was she?
Then how had she seen a post from Meng Xianwen on Moments?
There was no text.
Only a photo. It didn’t even need to be enlarged—the sashimi platter and sea urchin were clearly visible at a glance.
The post had gone up nearly twenty minutes ago, yet neither the notorious commenter Meng Jiaran nor Chang Yi had liked or commented on it. That could only mean it was visible to her alone.
As if he and she were having dinner together.
-
That night, Ning Zhen didn’t suffer from insomnia.
She credited it all to the bottle of sake. She slept soundly, and what truly put her in such a good mood was the fact that it was an ordinary Wednesday, meaning she didn’t have to get up early for work.
The trip she had impulsively decided on yesterday began today.
After leisurely going out for brunch, Ning Zhen had just stepped out of the elevator when she ran into two strangers in formal attire coming out of Apartment 2101.
Remembering what the neighbor had told her, she craned her neck to take a look, unable to hide her curiosity.
The two men assumed they had disturbed her and said politely, “The client is in a hurry and wants to move in as soon as possible. There may be quite a bit of noise over the next few days. We’re terribly sorry.”
So these two weren’t her new neighbors after all.
Ning Zhen waved her hand and smiled, saying it was no problem. Inwardly, though, she couldn’t help thinking that the new neighbor certainly seemed to have refined tastes.
The little incident was forgotten the moment she entered her apartment. She took her time packing her luggage. Since it was still early, she wandered around the apartment in high spirits, pairing up clothes and shoes in front of the full-length mirror.
“Travel-sized toiletries too…”
She muttered to herself as she rummaged through the drawers of her wardrobe.
Not long ago, she had used them when she stayed overnight at a resort for Shu Wei’s birthday. They were useful for both vacations and business trips. Though the bottles were small, the travel-sized toiletries were surprisingly complete.
Ning Zhen counted the days. Her period was always regular, and this month it would come after she returned from her trip.
That was also why she had hurriedly booked a flight for today.
If it came in another couple of days, it might ruin the whole travel experience.
Her period usually didn’t come early, but she still took a few sanitary pads and prepared to put them in the compartment of her toiletry bag. There was a wad of tissue inside, and she paused.
She opened the tissue, and a glittering diamond bracelet appeared before her eyes.
Ning Zhen sucked in a sharp breath.
What kind of terrifying incident was this? Had she encountered a ghost?
She turned and hurried straight to the second bedroom, which she had converted into a dressing room. Opening her jewelry box, she found an identical diamond bracelet inside. She froze, and a hazy memory surfaced in her mind.
That night, Shu Wei had invited her to soak in the hot springs. After returning to the room, she had changed clothes and removed her makeup. If she remembered correctly, she had taken off the bracelet, wrapped it in a few tissues, and casually tucked it into the toiletry bag’s compartment on the bathroom counter. That was why she had searched the entire room and overlooked only the toiletry bag.
But this was impossible. It was impossible!
If her bracelet had never been lost, then whose was the one the resort manager had found?
Ning Zhen had a vague suspicion in her heart. Holding her breath, she searched online for the resort’s phone number. After being transferred several times, she finally got through to the manager and went straight to the point.
“Manager Wu, do you remember the diamond bracelet I lost that day? I found it—it was in my own bag. But didn’t you say that one of your staff members found it by the hot-spring pool?”
It hadn’t been long since the incident, and the manager still remembered it clearly. Hearing that she had found the bracelet, he let out a sigh of relief.
“Miss Ning, actually, our staff searched along the route several times, but they really couldn’t find it. It was Mr. Meng, who was with you that day, who asked us to return a new bracelet to you and pass it off as the one you’d lost.”
Ning Zhen’s breath caught.
After hanging up, she sat blankly on the edge of the bed, her thoughts in complete disarray.
So the joy she had felt when the bracelet was returned to her that day had been given to her by Meng Xianwen.
A moment later, Ning Zhen dragged her suitcase out the door. Her first stop, however, wasn’t the airport—it was Hengxing Group.
She hadn’t visited many times over the past year, and this was the first time she had driven there. Since her license plate wasn’t registered, she could only park temporarily on B1.
After parking, she sent him a message:
【Are you free?】
If he was, she wanted to ask him about it in person. If he wasn’t, she would still go up to the twenty-third floor and ask Assistant Wang or her senior to return the extra bracelet to him.
She waited patiently for several minutes.
Meng Xianwen replied:
【What’s wrong?】
Ning Zhen sent him her location:
【If you’re free, come down to B1. There’s something I need to ask you.】
Less than ten minutes later, Meng Xianwen stepped out of the elevator. His expression was solemn, his brows tightly furrowed, as if he were about to attend an important meeting. He wasn’t so confident that he thought a few words would be enough to move her.
At a time like this, she had come to see him without warning. It probably wasn’t anything good.
Even though he had guessed as much, the moment he saw her pink car, a subtle, almost imperceptible lightness and pleasure still appeared between his brows.
Before he had even reached the car, Ning Zhen had already rolled down the window and was staring at him with a complicated look in her eyes. Almost in a commanding tone, she said, “Get in! I have something to ask you!”
Meng Xianwen opened the door and got into the passenger seat.
Once the doors and windows were closed, Ning Zhen didn’t give him a chance to speak first. She opened her bag and took out the two diamond bracelets, holding them out in front of him.
A flicker of astonishment passed through his eyes, but he quickly returned to his usual composure. He remained silent, as though struggling to figure out how to explain himself to her.
“I only have ten-odd minutes. Keep it brief.” She stared intently at him, not missing the slightest change in his expression. “Why did you do this?”
After a moment of silence, Meng Xianwen answered honestly, “It was lost. The chances of finding it again weren’t very high.”
When the front desk had told him that she had lost her bracelet and was terribly worried, he had prepared for both possibilities. Naturally, it would have been best if they found it. But finding it depended on luck, and if they couldn’t, he couldn’t bear to watch her remain so unhappy.
Ning Zhen glared at him. “Is that so? I found it!”
Meng Xianwen did want to ask her how many days had passed between losing it and finding it. Although she might not have been in a very good mood during that time, there was no need to burden her with yet another matter.
After weighing his words, he replied, “That’s good.”
“……”
Ning Zhen caught the implication in his words and turned to look out the car window. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“If I gave you a new one, you’d still be upset about losing the old one.” His tone was calm, as though he were merely stating a fact.
She had no way to argue with that.
If she hadn’t found the bracelet that day, even if Meng Xianwen had given her a new one, she still would have regretted losing it. She would have kept replaying it in her mind and grown restless. “If I’d never found it—”
“Then this one would be the one you lost.”
Ning Zhen pressed her lips together, handed him the bracelet, and said sullenly, “Take it back!”
He really was impossible.
So was she. They had known each other for so long that she could guess the answer to every question, yet she still insisted on asking.
And now look at her. Did he think he was acting out some kind of romance drama?
Meng Xianwen’s expression froze. Naturally, he had no intention of taking it. The words were already on the tip of his tongue when, perhaps remembering something, he relaxed his brows and said, “All right.”
Ning Zhen knew his stubborn ways all too well. She had been ready for him to frown and say, “If I give it to you, just take it. What am I supposed to do with it?” Then she would have fired back, “You can sell it as salted fish.”
But instead, he acted completely out of character.
A moment later, she belatedly remembered the photo Meng Jiaran had sent her.
What normal person would do something like that—snatch her earring, lie that he had thrown it away, and then turn around and place it on the bedside table?
For a moment, she was filled with conflicting emotions, and there was an extra measure of scrutiny in the way she looked at him.
Meng Xianwen noticed her strange gaze. She was studying him as if she were seeing him for the first time. “What is it?”
Ning Zhen tugged at the corner of her mouth. She suspected that he hadn’t merely acted out of character—he might actually be a little deranged.
“I’ve asked everything I needed to ask.” She cleared her throat. “I’m in a hurry to get to the airport. You should get out.”
“Business trip?” he asked.
“You’re the one on a business trip!”
It wasn’t a business trip, then. She was going on vacation. Meng Xianwen understood at once. He raised his wrist to glance at his watch. “I’ll take you there.”
“Look carefully. I drove here, didn’t I? Why would I need you to take me?” Ning Zhen restarted the navigation to the airport and urged him on. “Get out. Go do whatever it is you need to do.”
Meng Xianwen considered this, watching her profile for several seconds. Her scent filled the car, leaving him relaxed and at ease. Before he knew it, he had become absorbed in it.
Perhaps he needed to phrase it differently.
He asked, “Would it be convenient for you to drop me off at the airport on your way?”
