Downstairs, in the car.
Ning Zhen took a vigorous gulp of her cold drink to cool down.
With lightning speed, she recalled the word “hubby” just sent, silently grateful that it had been withdrawn in under twenty seconds. Given Meng Xianwen’s workaholic persona, he definitely wouldn’t check his phone during a meeting.
She could only blame her joyful mood from today’s shopping spree—she’d gotten carried away and momentarily lost control.
Luckily, there was still room for damage control. After retracting the message, she quickly sent another: [A cute emoji of a kitten]
After sending it, she reminded herself again: Ning Zhen, you can let loose, but you can’t let loose too much.
In acting, you must avoid both poor performance and overacting.
She stared at the chat window for a while, and as expected, there was no reply. Over the past three months, Meng Xianwen had gone from occasionally replying with a question mark to her random messages, to now being able to accurately distinguish which ones to respond to and which to ignore.
But during work hours, he usually didn’t bother with her.
Today would be no exception.
Ning Zhen casually picked up the cashmere scarf with the tags still on, draped it over herself, and lounged lazily in the back seat. With a sigh, she switched to her friend Guo Xia’s chat: [Keep an eye out for the courier these next few days—I bought you a bag]
Today had been fruitful.
Besides buying things for herself, she’d also gotten gifts for family and friends. Some she packed into her suitcase to take back to Beicheng, while others she asked the brands to ship directly.
Ning Zhen believed that when she enjoyed herself, those around her should also get a taste; otherwise, the joy of spending money was halved.
Guo Xia, who was slacking off at work on a weekday, replied instantly: [I have nothing to offer in return but to kowtow three times in the direction of Nancheng for you]
Ning Zhen burst into laughter and typed: [You clueless navigator who can’t tell left from right—don’t bow in the wrong direction]
After a few exchanges, Guo Xia got down to business and asked: [Is your hubby okay?]
Ning Zhen stared at the message for a moment, feeling she’d found the culprit for her earlier lack of restraint.
When they’d made the agreement, she and Meng Xianwen had both promised that under no circumstances would a third person know the truth. She had no idea whether he’d kept it secret, but she was a woman of her word and hadn’t breathed a single syllable.
Not even Guo Xia, her friend of over a decade, knew the real situation.
On top of that, with her constant posts showing off a happy marriage, Guo Xia believed she was truly in love with Meng Xianwen. Their chats were often frank and unfiltered, and Ning Zhen didn’t mind—after all, Meng Xianwen wasn’t ugly, so calling him her hubby was fine.
At twenty-three, she’d had plenty of “hubbies.”
Before she and Meng Xianwen had confirmed their relationship, her WeChat nickname had even been “Dead Four Hubbies.”
Of course, one day Chang Yi had stumbled upon her nickname, laughed for days, then screenshotted it and sent it to Meng Xianwen, teasing: [Are you supposed to be hubby number five?]
Meng Xianwen had ordered her to change it.
She had no choice but to grudgingly change it to the current “Ning Zhen Is Rich.”
So, she figured it was Guo Xia’s influence that had made her uncontrollably send “hubby” to Meng Xianwen. Thinking of this, she swiftly changed her tone: [Transfer me 200 yuan, or I’ll have the courier send the bag back!]
Guo Xia: [？]
Guo Xia: [What’s wrong again, my lady]
Before Ning Zhen could reply, she sent a transfer: [Transfer of 520 yuan]
Ning Zhen immediately accepted it, satisfied, and completely dismissed the little episode. She yawned, ended the chat with Guo Xia, put in her earphones, and closed her eyes to rest.
…
Twenty-third floor.
Through the large floor-to-ceiling windows, the evening glow filled the sky. The branch deputy general manager subtly glanced at his watch—it was past six-thirty. Mr. Meng had been at the company for nearly nine hours. Normally, that wouldn’t matter, but this time was different. Everyone knew he had only been discharged from the hospital this morning.
“Mr. Meng,” the deputy general manager said, rising from the reception sofa and taking the initiative, “Shall I have the staff arrange a dinner? Maybe you’d like the driver to take Miss Ning over first?”
“No need,” Meng Xianwen replied, capping his pen as he politely declined. “You’ve all been busy today, so you should head back and rest early.”
The deputy wasn’t surprised. “What about tomorrow evening?”
“That works,” Meng Xianwen agreed. He knew that after this recent incident in Nancheng, the senior management at the branch must be uneasy. After a few seconds of thought, he confirmed, “Tomorrow night, then.”
The deputy let out a long sigh of relief. “Alright, I’ll make the arrangements.”
After wrapping up the day’s work, Assistant Wang followed Meng Xianwen out of the office. They took the private elevator down to the underground garage. As soon as they stepped out of the elevator, they saw the black sedan parked not far away.
The driver, standing beside the car, quickly approached. “Mr. Meng, Miss Ning is resting in the car.”
“Hard day. Thank you,” Meng Xianwen said, then asked, “Is she asleep?”
The driver scratched his head awkwardly. It wasn’t easy to answer. Miss Ning had sent someone to get coffee, then shut the car door, put in her earphones, found a comfortable position, and fallen asleep.
As a man, staying in the car with her wasn’t appropriate, so he’d spent the time scrolling through short videos not too far away.
“Alright, I understand,” Meng Xianwen said. He walked over, unconcerned about whether Ning Zhen was napping, and directly opened the car door. But once he saw inside, he paused.
Ning Zhen was leaning against the backrest sideways. The cashmere scarf with its tags still on was slowly slipping down onto her lap. She was sound asleep, music playing in her earphones, the door opening not even stirring her. Meng Xianwen rested one arm on the car door and leaned into the compartment. He noticed the delicate, fair skin behind her ear. The mark that had looked like a hickey yesterday was now completely gone, as if it had never existed.
A flicker of emotion passed through his eyes.
The doubts briefly suppressed by work resurfaced in his mind. Though, at this stage of his life, Meng Xianwen had neither the energy nor the time to consider marriage and feelings, that didn’t mean he didn’t take it seriously.
At least until yesterday, he had never imagined he would have anything to do with Ning Zhen.
In his eyes, she hadn’t even belonged to the category of “woman.”
When he first met her, she was only six—a lively, chatterbox little girl obsessed with eating and drinking. While he studied and read in the study, she would argue and fight with Meng Jiaran. For a long time, whenever Ning Zhen came to the Meng household, he would just put in his earplugs.
Later, he went abroad to study in the U.S., barely seeing her twice a year.
But his mother often spoke of her with fondness.
He couldn’t deny that her presence had filled the void left when he and Jiaran weren’t around for their mother. And for that reason, he was happy to have her in the house to alleviate his parents’ loneliness. After returning to take over the company, he occasionally looked out for her when they crossed paths.
But for her to wake up one day as his “girlfriend”—that was bizarre.
The mark appearing and then vanishing only confirmed that his instincts were correct.
Meng Xianwen touched his chin thoughtfully, his heart clear. As he looked at Ning Zhen, still lost in sleep, a glimmer of intrigue flickered in his otherwise calm eyes.
Ning Zhen hadn’t rested well during her two nights in Nancheng. On the first night, she’d made do on the sofa. On the second, though she’d slept on the hospital bed, whether due to psychological reasons or not, she always felt the blanket and pillow carried Meng Xianwen’s scent, keeping her awake until she’d counted hundreds of sheep before barely dozing off.
In the cramped back seat of the car, though, she slept soundly.
Half-asleep, she felt a slightly cool hand remove her earphones. She jolted awake instantly and looked up warily, locking eyes with Meng Xianwen’s deep, probing gaze. He seemed curious about what she had been listening to, and leisurely put the earphones into his own ears.
The moment their eyes met, her heart nearly stopped.
How was this any different from being caught dozing off in class during her school days, only to wake up, look out the window, and find the disciplinary director staring back at her with a death glare!
“You...”
Meng Xianwen ignored her startled reaction. He listened for a few seconds, then asked with evident interest, “The Great Compassion Mantra?”
Then, as if teasing her, he added, “What kind of guilty conscience do you have to be listening to this?”
Ning Zhen froze, as if he had struck a nerve. Embarrassment flared into indignation, and she grabbed his arm, trying to snatch the earphones back. “Give it back!”
She had never been particularly brave to begin with. That dream she had three months ago had completely upended her worldview. The fact that she hadn’t burst into tears was already a feat of strength. Who in the world could just calmly accept something like that?
To make matters worse, she had no one to confide in about her horror.
Her only recourse was to visit temples whenever she could. At home, she had over a dozen blessed amulets meant to ward off evil, and the music she listened to every day had been replaced by sutras and mantras.
After all that effort, she felt her soul had been cleansed—purified, even.
Originally, she could have told Meng Xianwen about it. After all, he already held leverage over her, and he knew full well about her schemes against Meng Jiaran. But every time she mustered the courage to confess, he would just smile at her and ask, “Thinking of some new shady scheme to demand an advance on your payment?”
Left speechless, Ning Zhen could only choke on her own words.
She knew Meng Xianwen wouldn’t renege on their deal, but that didn’t mean she had to dance to his tune.
More than once, she had tried to negotiate with him. It was a huge sum of money, she argued—wasn’t she just worried about tiring him out when he had to type out the payment amount? Couldn’t he split it into installments?
He didn’t even lift an eyelid. “Read more books, dream less.”
She was furious.
She silently decided that he didn’t deserve to know the truth of this world.
“What guilty conscience!” Ning Zhen refused to admit anything. Stuck in the car while he stood outside, she was at a disadvantage trying to snatch the earphones. She could only yank at his shirt sleeve while stubbornly protesting, “I was praying for you after that big accident you had, alright?”
Meng Xianwen gave her a meaningful look, then let out a sudden laugh.
The driver and Assistant Wang, standing off to the side, had long since tacitly averted their eyes. To outsiders, the scene looked nothing more than a playful tussle between lovers—just a bit of romantic banter. Both of them silently thought to themselves how affectionate Mr. Meng and Miss Ning were!
“Don’t be difficult.”
Meng Xianwen took in every expression on Ning Zhen’s face, but he soon realized she had more strength than he’d expected. If they kept pulling at each other, his shirt buttons might pop off. He stopped her movements, leaned down, and ignoring her irritated glare, reached his hand to her ear to put the earphones back in for her.
Ning Zhen shot him a resentful glare.
He didn’t get angry. Instead, he casually smoothed down her messy hair. His palm slid to the nape of her neck, and he grazed her earlobe with his fingers, almost imperceptibly. Then he withdrew his hand as if nothing had happened and asked her, “You’ve had a hard day—what would you like for dinner tonight?”
