Ning Zhen lost all interest in showering and stood under the spray, on the verge of tears.
She truly hadn’t expected Meng Xianwen to notice that the mark behind her ear had disappeared. As she carefully recalled his behavior in the parking lot and the things he’d said, her legs went weak, and she felt an embarrassingly strong urge to come clean and confess everything.
Actually, if she confessed now, it might still be in time. Based on her understanding of him, at most, he would mock her a bit. After that, their agreement would remain unchanged—everything would go on as before, and nine months later, she’d take the money and leave.
But… she angrily turned off the shower, grabbed a towel, and roughly dried off. She felt cheated, terribly cheated. It had nothing to do with money—it was fate itself handing her this opportunity, and she had blown it because of a moment of smugness. That thought was unbearable.
More importantly, this might be the only chance in her life to do whatever she wanted and get away with it, to lord over Meng Xianwen. The regret was too deep, the loss too great. She suspected that even when she turned eighty and recalled this moment, she would still beat her chest and wail. Her epitaph would read: “I regret it so much.”
The frustration was overwhelming—that same familiar, suffocating feeling that had plagued her days ago came surging back.
She changed into her pajamas and walked out, her mind in chaos, wearing a look of utter despair as she lay back down on the big bed, staring blankly at the nightscape outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. No, she had to test the waters!
The thought had barely crossed her mind when she sprang up like a fish leaping, slipped on her slippers, and dashed outside. She reached the study door, took a deep breath, stepped back twice, returned to the living room, and called room service to bring up a glass of hot milk.
The hotel was very efficient. Not long after she hung up, the hot milk arrived. Ning Zhen held the glass with both hands, her expression devout, constantly psyching herself up.
After a long moment, she steeled herself, closed her eyes, and charged toward the study with an air of determination. At the door, she restrained her emotions, gentled her expression, and knocked lightly. “Xianwen, it’s me.”
A minute passed.
Two minutes passed.
Just as her patience was about to run out, the study door opened. Meng Xianwen was still wearing the shirt and trousers from earlier that day. For comfort, he had pulled off his tie and tossed it aside, rolled up his sleeves to his elbows, and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, revealing his Adam’s apple.
He looked down at her. “You’re still awake?”
“How can I sleep when I’m worried about you?” She brushed past him and entered the study, her heart pounding, though she forced herself to appear steady. She set the milk on the desk, turned around, and smiled as she met his gaze. “Let’s stop here for tonight. Rest early, okay?”
Meng Xianwen’s eyes shifted from the milk to her face, and he smiled. “I’m surprised.”
Ning Zhen pursed her lips, as if slightly displeased. “Surprised about what? That I became your girlfriend?”
“Not exactly that.” He stepped closer to her, one slow step at a time. Their shadows fell together on the carpet, as if merging into one. He reached out, picked up the glass of milk, and took a sip. “In the past, you never talked to me like this.”
“You said it yourself—that was in the past.” Ning Zhen looked at him reproachfully. “When will you finally remember?”
His gaze briefly swept past her ear, but he didn’t answer that meaningless question. Instead, he changed the subject. “We have a dinner tomorrow night. Get some rest early.”
“Dinner?” She was stunned. “Is it for the company?”
He hummed in acknowledgment, calmly studying her expression as he slowly finished the milk.
“Alright!” Ning Zhen lifted her face and took the initiative to hold his arm. “Then make sure to wake me up tomorrow morning. I’ll go to work with you, and we can head to the dinner together afterward.”
Meng Xianwen nodded.
They stood very close—so close they could see themselves reflected in each other’s eyes. She was testing him, and he was testing her.
“Let’s go to bed.”
“Okay! Promise you’ll wake me up tomorrow!”
…
The next morning.
Ning Zhen didn’t sleep well, but she still slept until after nine. She quickly washed up, left her room, and wandered around the suite. Meng Xianwen had already slipped away long ago—just as she had expected.
This also gave her the perfect excuse to execute her escape plan. Ning Zhen went down to the restaurant, combined breakfast and lunch into one meal, ate quickly, then returned to her room to pack. Under the manager’s astonished gaze, she dragged her suitcase out and hailed a taxi.
Of course she had to leave. She absolutely had to. A dinner meant drinking. But he had just been discharged from the hospital yesterday—who would dare make him drink? Meng Jingshan would fly over overnight to kill them all. But his subordinates not offering a toast would also be unacceptable. Based on her limited workplace experience, they would end up toasting her instead.
On the surface, she could substitute juice for alcohol, but no matter how well she planned, she couldn’t guard against the ever-unpredictable Meng Xianwen. If he pushed things along, was she supposed to throw the wine in his face and tell him to get lost?
In the end, all this was just speculation. Over the past three months, she had accompanied him to dinners, and he had never let her touch a single drop of alcohol. But now that he had lost his memory, he was suspicious of her. What if he wanted to get her drunk and make her spill the truth? What if he decided to stop playing the gentleman altogether?
In short, Ning Zhen felt that rather than naively relying on Meng Xianwen’s character, she was better off using her own methods to avoid the situation.
On the way to the airport, Ning Zhen sighed repeatedly. The talkative taxi driver, assuming she was facing some difficulty, kept trying to comfort her. “Miss, life is full of hurdles—one after another. But once you get past this one, look back, and it’ll mean nothing!”
Ning Zhen propped her head on her hand. “Can’t there just be no hurdles at all? A smooth road with no setbacks or hardships—wouldn’t that be nice?”
The driver laughed heartily. “Even rich people have their worries!”
“Not him.” Ning Zhen was certain there were no worries in Meng Xianwen’s life. Just mentioning it made her angry. She leaned forward, gripping the passenger seat back, and leaned closer to rant at the driver. “Really, none. In school, he had perfect grades. The moment he graduated, he joined his family’s company—they said he started from the bottom, yeah right, I don’t even want to talk about it…”
Everyone within the company knew he was the future crown prince.
She rambled on and on, in a jumbled mess. The driver found her hilarious, and the two of them got more worked up as they chatted—united in thoroughly badmouthing today’s rich people, and agreeing that there were so many of them, why couldn’t they have one more poor person like them?
It wasn’t until the taxi reached the airport terminal and the driver helped her take her suitcase out of the trunk that he cheerfully said as they parted, “Maybe his troubles are coming soon.”
Ning Zhen liked hearing that.
She waved goodbye to the driver, dragged her suitcase into the airport, and seeing that she still had time, she didn’t rush to check in. On a whim, she took a picture and posted it with a location tag at Nancheng Airport.
At three in the afternoon.
Meng Xianwen sat in the conference room, listening in turn to the work reports from the vice presidents. Assistant Wang knocked on the door and led a secretary in with afternoon tea—something unprecedented. Anyone who had worked with Mr. Meng knew he disliked having meetings interrupted by trivial matters.
But even this precedent was broken by Miss Ning, which was only to be expected—after all, special circumstances called for special treatment. Although Miss Ning hadn’t come today and hadn’t brought afternoon tea either, as his assistant, he still had to consider Mr. Meng’s health.
“Mr. Meng, this is yours.” Assistant Wang, just like yesterday, placed a hot drink and a plate of pastries at his elbow.
Meng Xianwen responded with a sound, picked up the paper cup, and glanced at it. Without yesterday’s little heart mark, he paused for half a second, looked up at Assistant Wang, then quickly averted his gaze.
As Assistant Wang withdrew from the meeting room, he recalled that slightly puzzled look and suddenly understood—so Mr. Meng was also wondering why it wasn’t Miss Ning who had prepared the afternoon tea.
Noticing that what he was drinking was his usual black tea, not the walnut milk, Meng Xianwen, for a rare moment, let his thoughts wander for a few seconds. But as the meeting continued, he once again focused entirely on business.
The meeting ended.
Meng Xianwen took his phone and went back to his office for a brief rest. He instinctively felt something was off. Ning Zhen had been far too quiet all day—so quiet, it was strange. He opened WeChat and clicked into their chat.
After a moment’s thought, he tapped on her Moments. As soon as he saw the latest post, his brow twitched sharply.
—— [A journey where I’m not needed should have ended long ago ✈️]
?
???
Assistant Wang, who had just entered and closed the door behind him, heard a scoff. Confused, he cautiously stepped forward and said in a low voice, “Mr. Meng, the dinner is arranged. Manager Sun asked when you and Miss Ning would be heading over.”
“She’s been too exhausted taking care of me these past few days, so she’s resting at the hotel.” Meng Xianwen calmly put his phone away. “I’ll go now.”
“Got it,” Assistant Wang replied.
Tonight’s dinner was much the same as usual. The vice presidents at the branch, mindful of Meng Xianwen’s health, offered toasts but dared not urge him to drink. And they themselves kept it moderate, not drinking too much.
This had to do with one of Meng Xianwen’s habits. In front of his subordinates, he wasn’t the type to put on airs. As long as it was an internal dinner for Hengxing, he would never leave right after eating—even if he wasn’t drinking, he would wait until the meal was over to leave with everyone else.
The vice presidents knew he was flying back to Beicheng early the next morning and also knew he was concerned about his girlfriend at the hotel, so the dinner wrapped up before eight o’clock.
The driver took Meng Xianwen back to the hotel. As the car came to a stop at the porte-cochère, the driver quickly got out to open the door for him, then stood to the side, hesitating before finally calling out, “Mr. Meng, could you wait a moment?”
Meng Xianwen turned around.
The driver walked around the front of the car, opened the passenger door, and pulled out a bulging paper bag. He paused, then reluctantly handed it to Meng Xianwen. “Mr. Meng, my partner prepared some local specialties for Miss Ning. She said thank you for the necklace Miss Ning gave her.”
Meng Xianwen had no interest in probing into any necklace at the moment. He didn’t ask further, just nodded and took the bag. “Alright, I’ll thank her on your behalf.”
The driver let out a relieved breath and grinned.
He had been waiting from morning until now but hadn’t seen Miss Ning. The next chance to see her might be at the airport, so he figured today was the best time to hand it over. He had mentally prepared himself the whole drive and finally managed to say it.
Meng Xianwen, carrying the bag of local treats, walked through the hotel lobby. As he did, the warmth on his face vanished entirely.
He despised the act of leaving without a word, and he hated deception even more. She had left today, disappeared without a sound. Either she was being willful, assuming she could get away with it as his girlfriend, or she had fled out of guilt.
Either way, he was fed up.
The elevator reached the top floor. Meng Xianwen stepped out steadily and entered the suite. He set the bag aside, loosened his tie, took off his watch, and sat down on the circular sofa.
These past few days of working nonstop had exhausted him. He leaned his head back against the sofa and shut his eyes to rest.
After who knows how long, Meng Xianwen sensed a gaze fixed on him. He opened his eyes and shot a sharp look in that direction. When he saw who was standing there, pathetically leaning against the door, his usually composed face struggled to hide his astonishment.
“Meng Xianwen, it’s me! I’ve been waiting for you forever!”
