It wasn’t until the driver got in, started the engine, and smoothly pulled out of the underground garage that Ning Zhen’s expression finally eased a little.
She hadn’t taken Meng Xianwen’s seemingly intimate gesture to heart—after three months together, she was used to his proximity and hadn’t noticed anything unusual about him.
Still, there were things that needed to be said. “I was sleeping so soundly just now, and you scared me like that. Aren’t you afraid you’ll give me a heart attack? Don’t do it again, got it?”
Meng Xianwen glanced at her but didn’t respond.
“Did you hear me?”
If it had been before, Ning Zhen would have just gotten mad for a moment and let it go. But today, she had to make sure he understood the seriousness of it.
Meng Xianwen’s head ached from her nagging.
But since she looked like she wouldn’t let it go until he agreed, he finally nodded.
Having achieved her goal, Ning Zhen’s lips curved up. She pulled out her wallet like it was a treasure and handed it to him with both hands, her eyes sparkling in satisfaction with his cooperation. “I already decided—if you didn’t nod, I wasn’t giving your wallet back.”
Seeing she was getting carried away, Meng Xianwen leaned forward to lower the partition, blocking the driver’s view. He was about to take the wallet when she pulled it back and pouted. “Remember to open it and look. There’s a surprise.”
“...”
He really did need to keep a closer eye on her.
Meng Xianwen still remembered how Ning Zhen used to act around him—completely different from now.
Back then, whenever she saw him, she was always proper and soft-spoken, calling him “Brother Xianwen” in the quietest, most demure way possible.
But from last night until now, she’d been loud, bossy, whiny, and shameless.
It seemed her past obedience had mostly been an act.
He watched her for a moment, then opened the wallet under her expectant gaze. He froze. Inside was a photo—specifically, a picture of him and Ning Zhen together.
The background was inside the car.
He was leaning back in his seat with his eyes closed, resting, while she smirked at the camera and made a finger-gun gesture at him.
“What do you think? I took it secretly half a month ago while you were napping. Isn’t it great?” Ning Zhen struggled to hold back her laughter. “Anyway, from now on, you have to have a picture of me in your wallet.”
Meng Xianwen lowered his eyes, thought for a few seconds, then looked at her calmly. “You weren’t in it before?”
Ning Zhen: “...”
What kind of person was he? Even now, he couldn’t stop testing her!
Her eyes crinkled with a smile. “Back then, you hadn’t lost your memory. You always kept me in your heart. Now that you’ve forgotten me, of course I have to find a way to make you remember.”
Meng Xianwen gave a faint smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll remember as soon as I can.”
With that, he calmly closed the wallet and put it away, then leaned back and closed his eyes to rest—a clear sign he didn’t want to talk anymore.
The sight irritated Ning Zhen. That was how he used to be—even though their agreement made them a business pair, she’d never met such an annoying client. Back when she was sulking and didn’t want to talk to him, he would just say, “Looks like my money’s too easy to earn.”
But when he didn’t want to talk to her, he’d just close his eyes and not let her make a single sound.
The past three months had completely shattered Ning Zhen’s impression of Meng Xianwen. It seemed all his worst traits were saved just for her.
Thinking that, she scooted closer to him, rudely tugged at his shirt sleeve, and even bumped him with her knee.
Meng Xianwen opened his eyes. “What now?”
Couldn’t she just be quiet for a moment?
“Didn’t you check WeChat?” Ning Zhen said as if it were obvious. “Join the group now.”
“What group?”
“The family group, of course.” Seeing him not moving at all, she simply unlocked her phone, opened the WeChat family group chat, and showed it to him. As the distance between them narrowed, she chattered on. “There’s Uncle and Aunt Xiao, Jiaran, and me in it right now. Only you’re missing.”
She had even renamed the group “Loving Family.”
Meng Xianwen didn’t take her phone, just turned his head to look at the screen.
Ning Zhen rolled her eyes internally. That lazy piece of work. She grumbled to herself but still scrolled to the first message and slowly showed him the chat history.
“No thanks.”
After a quick glance at the chat history, Meng Xianwen looked away and closed his eyes again to rest.
Ning Zhen thought she’d misheard. “What?”
Before Meng Xianwen could answer, her phone screen lit up. She looked down and saw that Meng Jiaran had exited the group.
?????
Blinking in confusion, she didn’t bother pressing Meng Xianwen further and privately messaged Meng Jiaran: [? Typo?]
Meng Jiaran: [Grand Exit.jpg]
Meng Jiaran: [You’re on your own now]
Meng Jiaran: [You’ll find that the most annoying thing in the world isn’t me sending emojis]
Meng Jiaran: [Grabbing my stuff and running away.jpg]
A bad feeling crept over Ning Zhen.
At this point, only three people were left in the “Loving Family” group. How was she supposed to salvage this? Flustered, she didn’t bother typing but just held down the voice button and said, “Meng Jiaran, I’m re-adding you now. Get back in the group immediately!”
She kept her voice deliberately low.
Meng Xianwen, sitting quietly beside her, smiled faintly.
Meanwhile, in Beicheng.
Meng Jiaran sat in his car, opened the voice message, listened, and laughed for a while. Just as he was about to reply, he glanced up at the windshield and caught sight of a figure slowly approaching. The carefree smirk on his face instantly disappeared as he put away his phone. Before getting out, he leaned toward the rearview mirror to check if his hair was a mess.
“Yuqing!”
He got out of the car, and the door slammed shut with a noticeable bang.
Song Yuqing, who had been looking down at her phone, looked up in surprise. Recognizing Meng Jiaran, a smile spread across her lips, and she quickened her step toward him. “Why are you back in Beicheng?”
“You know my brother’s temperament.”
Meng Jiaran glanced at her car not far away and suggested, “I was passing by and thought you’d probably still be at work. How about I take you home? Let your driver have a break today.”
“Oh, okay.”
Song Yuqing had been working all day and was feeling dizzy and slow to react.
“Get in.” Meng Jiaran guided her to the passenger side, opened the door, and after she was seated, barely resisted the urge to fasten her seatbelt for her.
Caught off guard but unable to do anything about it, Song Yuqing leaned over, pulled the seatbelt, and clicked it into place. “You haven’t eaten yet, right? If you’re not in a hurry, you can come over to my place for a simple meal. I’ll have the cook make some of your favorite dishes. How about that?”
“Sounds great! I’m free anyway!” Meng Jiaran adeptly set the navigation to the Song family estate.
Unlike second-generation rich kids like Meng Jiaran, Song Yuqing did own several nice properties, but after returning from abroad, she still lived in the family old house with her parents. Among the circle of elders, her reputation was the best—she had an impeccable resume from childhood to adulthood, was gentle and restrained, and never did anything out of line.
It wasn’t just the Meng family interested in a marriage alliance; several other high-profile families had been frequently visiting the Song family lately.
“Is Brother Xianwen okay?” Song Yuqing asked with concern.
Meng Jiaran rarely kept anything from her, but the words about his brother losing his memory were on the tip of his tongue before he swallowed them back. He had promised not to leak it. “He just had some minor injuries, don’t worry. See, even my parents and I got sent home. My brother only wanted Zhenzhen to stay with him.”
As he said these things, his intention wasn’t to make Yuqing feel bad.
He just hoped she could let go of her feelings for his brother sooner. He could see his brother’s heart belonged to Zhenzhen, and he could see Zhenzhen’s heart belonged to his brother too.
Letting go early wasn’t a bad thing. Zhenzhen was right—his brother wasn’t getting any younger. He might get engaged or married soon, and given the relationship between the Meng and Song families, Yuqing would definitely have to attend. If she still hadn’t moved on by then, wouldn’t it hurt even more?
“Oh…” Song Yuqing nodded slowly, looking out the window. It was rush hour, traffic flowing thickly. She whispered, barely audible, “That’s good.”
Silence filled the car for a while.
Mentioning Ning Zhen reminded Song Yuqing of something serious. She asked, “Oh, by the way, I heard Ning Zhen works at some financial media outlet. Do you remember the name?”
“Sound Finance. Why?”
“Nothing much…” Song Yuqing pulled out her phone and scrolled through her work messages. “The editor-in-chief at Sound Finance contacted me about doing a feature interview with my dad.”
“And what did your dad say?” Meng Jiaran asked curiously.
Song Yuqing smiled. “He said to handle it however I want. We can take it or leave it…” She paused for a few seconds. “Since Ning Zhen works there, why don’t you ask her if she wants to work on this story? If she’s interested, I’ll talk to her editor-in-chief.”
Meng Jiaran caught on immediately.
Given Zhenzhen’s experience, she was still a nobody at Sound Finance. The Song family didn’t really need to accept the interview, but Yuqing wanted to do a favor for Zhenzhen’s sake.
He raised an eyebrow. “Sure deal. Here, ask her on my phone.”
“Huh?” Song Yuqing was taken aback.
“Good things can’t wait.” Meng Jiaran had his own little plan. He casually recited his phone password, acting like it was nothing. Song Yuqing was about to suggest they wait until the car was parked, but seeing his eagerness, she smiled helplessly and picked up his phone from the center console.
After unlocking, the screen showed his chat with Ning Zhen.
Song Yuqing carefully chose her words and typed: 【Zhenzhen, is Sound Finance planning to interview Uncle Song? Yuqing asked me to check if you want to be part of this interview. If you do, she’ll get back to the editor. [Smile]】
“Sent.”
After sending the message, Song Yuqing immediately locked the phone and put it back where it was.
Buzz buzz buzz.
Seeing that Meng Jiaran was ghosting her, Ning Zhen fumed. She changed tactics and started bombarding Meng Xianwen, using every trick in the book—threats, sweet talk—but he remained unmoved.
Ha!
With an attitude like that, if he weren’t throwing money around with a fake contractual relationship, he’d never get a girlfriend in his life.
As the noise and fuss continued, the car came to a smooth stop in front of the hotel’s porte-cochère.
Meng Xianwen felt like there were five hundred bees buzzing around him in the car. The moment it stopped, he shoved the door open and jumped out, completely abandoning any pretense of gentlemanly manners. All he wanted was some peace and quiet.
Ning Zhen shook her fist at his back in anger.
She clutched her phone as she stormed into the hotel lobby. Before she could take two more steps, her palm tingled; looking down, she saw a message pop up on the screen. She stopped in her tracks, reading it word by word, and a surge of joy welled up inside her. Without a second thought, she replied: "Great! I'm in!"
From the information in that message, arranging an exclusive interview with a big shot like Chairman Song would definitely require the editor-in-chief to personally extend the invitation. What this meant was: if she agreed, the interview would happen; if she didn’t, the interview would most likely fall through. She had to admit—after three months of a contractual romance with Meng Xianwen, where she’d never experienced that whole “the CEO falls for me” treatment, today it finally seemed to be her turn?
After sending the message, she cleared her throat, pressed and held the voice message button, and said: “Miss Song, thank you so, so much! Love you!”
