"You—"
Ning Zhen tilted her face up, staring at Meng Xianwen with her mouth hanging open.
She felt utterly unsettled—especially around her ankle, as if his warmth still lingered there. But it all came and went so quickly, and when she looked at the calm, unruffled expression on his face, she almost thought those few seconds under the table had been nothing but her imagination.
Arghhh!
It wasn't her imagination!!
For Ning Zhen, hand-holding, linking arms, and hugging were all familiar territory. Over the past three months, she'd gone from feeling awkward about it to being as used to it as her left hand holding her right.
But...
Apart from that, they'd never had any more physical contact than that.
She froze instantly.
Meng Xianwen merely gave her a dismissive glance, held her gaze for a moment, and slowly guided her line of sight downward to the trousers she'd kicked. He said, "Don't be so childish."
He paused for half a second. "Both of you."
The anger in Ning Zhen's chest flared up again, wave after wave.
But she couldn't speak. She was afraid that if she opened her mouth, all that would come out was "You shameless pervert!" So she could only glare at Meng Xianwen in frustration.
If looks could kill, Meng Xianwen would have already been reincarnated eight hundred times over.
Meng Jiaran, being an outsider to the situation, naturally couldn't catch the subtext in his brother's words. He protested, "Who's being childish? She's the childish one, alright—these past few months she's been like a keg of gunpowder, blowing up at me every time she sees me. I don't even know what I did to offend her!"
Ning Zhen's attention was reluctantly pulled back. "You've offended me way too many times to count!"
Just the fact that he was the male lead of the original novel while she was an overlooked scheming side character was enough for her to hold a grudge against him single-handedly.
"Name one!" Meng Jiaran made a motion of picking his ear.
Ning Zhen grimaced and stepped back. "Get away from me."
Meng Xianwen gave her a long, deep look, then turned to Meng Jiaran, his words seemingly directed only at his hapless younger brother. "This is a place for eating. If you two keep arguing, both of you can get out."
"..."
"..."
Meng Jiaran was silenced by sheer brotherly authority and didn't utter a word.
Ning Zhen accidentally glanced at his trousers again and was left speechless.
After saying that, Meng Xianwen got up and left the private room without another word. Ning Zhen quietly turned her head, watching until his figure disappeared, then reluctantly looked back, frowning and pursing her lips uncomfortably.
In truth, Meng Xianwen's mood wasn't much better than hers.
The moment he turned his back and stepped out of the room, the calm and composed expression on his face began to crack. His brows were furrowed tightly. When he passed a smiling, enthusiastic waiter in the corridor, he didn't even lift his eyelids—unlike his usual habit of nodding with a smile.
He entered the restroom.
Warm water from the tap rushed over the hand that had grabbed her ankle, as if washing away the sensation along with it.
By the time Meng Xianwen returned, three bowls of pre-meal soup had been placed on the table. Ning Zhen and Meng Jiaran seemed to have made up. The two were drinking their soup and chatting as if nothing had happened—this was their routine as friends of over a decade: fighting furiously as if they were about to sever ties any second, then getting back to normal like nothing happened the very next moment.
"So should I treat them to some afternoon tea or something this afternoon?" Meng Jiaran asked casually.
He'd received three cups of coffee from those colleagues that morning, so he figured he should return the favor.
"Better save it!" Ning Zhen glanced secretly at Meng Xianwen, who'd just returned. "Don't go causing trouble for people. They just wanted to buy you one cup today to go through the motions. If you buy them one back, they'll have to buy you another tomorrow. It's annoying enough at work without all that. Don't put them through it!"
Meng Jiaran thought about it and figured she had a point.
He nodded without much care. "Alright, fine."
"Oh, right." Ning Zhen remembered something else. "Didn't you invest in a gym once? It hasn't gone bankrupt, has it?"
Meng Jiaran let out a scoffing laugh. "Can you watch your mouth? Do I always have to fail at every investment?"
"Has he ever succeeded?" Ning Zhen finally looked openly at Meng Xianwen, tossing the topic to him.
Meng Xianwen lifted his eyes. "You should be asking: has he ever succeeded at anything?"
Ning Zhen froze for a second, then burst out laughing.
She decided—for the fact that he was siding with her this time, she wouldn't hold what happened earlier against him.
"...?" Meng Jiaran let go of his spoon, and it clattered against the bowl with a crisp sound. "Come on, you two don't have to gang up on me like that!"
He was a simple-minded person. At nearly twenty-four, he could probably count the number of times he'd truly lost his temper on one hand. He was incredibly tolerant of the family and friends he cared about. So even as he complained, there was laughter in his eyes. "Fine, fine. Some people are my sister-in-law now, and they like teaming up with my big brother to lecture me."
The moment those words came out, both Ning Zhen and Meng Xianwen turned to look at him at the same time.
That look wasn't one of approval—it was one of restrained endurance.
Meng Jiaran shrugged. "Anyway, why'd you ask about the gym?"
"Give me a yearly membership. Two if you can—couple's pass." Ning Zhen noticed Meng Jiaran's gaze turning curious, so she immediately explained, "It's for Guo Xia."
"You scared me there." Meng Jiaran chuckled. "I thought—"
"Don't think. Just go ahead and ask."
Meng Jiaran nodded and picked up his phone. "I'll send you the contact info. You can just have Guo Xia reach out directly."
Ning Zhen's mood instantly went from cloudy to sunny, and she broke into a smile. "Great."
She quickly forwarded the contact Meng Jiaran had sent to Guo Xia: [Mention Meng Jiaran's name. Have that guy go to the gym.]
Guo Xia replied instantly during her lunch break: [?]
Guo Xia: [Does he deserve to go to such a fancy gym?]
Ning Zhen: [He's really mooching off this one!]
At the table, Ning Zhen was multitasking—replying to messages, eating, and occasionally responding to Meng Jiaran. Meng Xianwen, as usual, stayed silent, though today he seemed even more quiet than normal. That was until Ning Zhen asked in confusion, "Hey, what kind of video did Uncle send?"
She tapped on one of them, growing more and more puzzled as she watched.
From the video, it appeared to be a small patch of land. You had to zoom in many times over to barely make out tiny green sprouts popping up from the soil.
She didn't understand. She slid her phone over to Meng Xianwen.
Meng Xianwen gave her a detached look, then put down his chopsticks and took the phone, giving it a casual glance. The video wasn't particularly interesting, but when he turned to meet her eyes, something seemed to cross his mind, and he suddenly laughed.
That laugh gave Ning Zhen a bad feeling.
Before she could press him for an answer, Meng Xianwen pressed down on the phone and slid it over to his brother.
Meng Jiaran had already guessed what the video was, but when he opened it, he burst out laughing anyway. "Sister Zhen, good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?"
"Just tell me already!"
Ning Zhen stood up and snatched the phone back from his hand.
"Dad has officially treated you as one of the family now." Meng Jiaran grinned with mischief. "From now on, you'll get these videos every single day. If you ignore them, he'll be very unhappy. And if you reply, you'll have to keep replying every day from then on."
Ning Zhen was stunned. "What am I supposed to reply?!"
A sudden memory flashed through her mind—when she used to shop and have afternoon tea with Aunt Xiao, she'd heard Aunt Xiao complain that after Uncle Meng retired, he had too much free time on his hands. He'd wander around the old house, and on a whim, he'd cleared a patch of wasteland to grow vegetables.
So every video that lasted several minutes was Uncle Meng subtly showing off the fruits of his labor.
Meng Jiaran suppressed a laugh.
Meng Xianwen's furrowed brow also relaxed.
Ning Zhen finally realized she had been set up again.
At the time, she had only thought about how rare an opportunity this was—she needed to score major points with Aunt Xiao and Uncle Meng. But she hadn't considered that the Meng family of four all got along so well. How could they not even have a family group chat? Maybe there had been one at the start, but it had shrunk from four members to two, and then to one, and then it just disbanded on its own.
She asked in shock, "Would Aunt Xiao leave too?"
Meng Jiaran shook his head. "As long as you keep posting photos and videos of my brother every day, she won't bear to leave."
Ning Zhen: "??"
What, was she supposed to become Meng Xianwen's fan-club admin from now on?
...
This lunch ended amidst Ning Zhen's grumbling about her twisted fate. She now understood—dragging Uncle Meng's two useless sons into the family group chat was pointless. They'd join one second and leave the next.
But she couldn't leave. Not unless the group ended up with only her left in it.
Yet having to shower praise on several videos that lasted minutes on end, with no idea what they even showed—that was workplace harassment with no avenue for appeal.
"Jiaran, I'll ride with you."
Meng Xianwen stood up, draping his suit jacket over his arm, and spoke.
"Ah?" Meng Jiaran was briefly stunned. "Brother, you're still going to the office this afternoon?"
Ning Zhen snapped back to attention: "You're going to work—what about me?"
She was still on leave.
She wasn't due back at work until tomorrow.
"Didn't you not sleep well last night?" Meng Xianwen wore a look of considerate amusement. "If you'd like, have the driver take you to Yuyuan to rest. While you're at it, you can help me check what luggage still needs packing. How's that? If you're too tired, don't worry about it. I'll move in first and pack the rest later."
Ning Zhen's eyes went wide. "Wait, you're moving today?"
Had she heard that right?
Meng Xianwen nodded, as if her startled reaction had been mistaken for delight. He tilted his head, his gentle voice brushing past her ear. "Isn't it that you can't sleep at night without me?"
Ning Zhen: "..."
A well-fed and contented Meng Jiaran got up as well. He'd arrived at an unfortunate moment—he'd caught that low murmur perfectly. His head filled with question marks, he stepped back half a pace, almost blurting out: There's still another person in this private room!
"That's great!"
Ning Zhen reacted instantly. Under Meng Jiaran's utterly baffled gaze, she happily and eagerly hooked her arm through Meng Xianwen's. "Then can you get off work early today? I don't want to wait too long for you."
"I'll try."
Meng Xianwen rarely admired anyone, but in the short time he'd spent with her, the name Ning Zhen was likely going on that list.
He paused for a moment, then said that.
"Not 'try.'"
Ning Zhen's lips curled up. Oh, she knew him. Fine, so he was trying to set a trap for her, huh? Just wait and see—we'll find out who ends up fallen in a pit, crying out to heaven and earth with no one to hear. "You have to clock out by five-thirty at the latest. Don't worry, I'll remind you. I won't let you get so busy you forget what time it is."
The moment those words came out.
Meng Xianwen almost instantly recalled a rather unpleasant memory.
It was as if he could hear her voice counting down in his ear again, an ear-piercing refrain.
"Okay? Okay?" She urged.
Meng Xianwen lowered his gaze to her. "Five-forty."
"You want me to wait an extra ten minutes for you?"
Ten minutes more or ten minutes less didn't really make a difference, but Ning Zhen refused to budge. Why should she give in? "No. Either you get off at five-thirty, or I'll come to your company. I can rest in your office and keep you company." She paused, then blinked at him, her smile growing sweeter. "And I can keep an eye on you, making sure you don't overwork yourself."
The two of them stood very close.
Close enough that Ning Zhen could catch the brief clench of his jaw.
If she got any closer, she might even hear the grinding of his teeth.
Meng Xianwen knew all too well the principle of choosing the lesser of two evils. He stared at her quietly, then gave a gentle smile. "Fine. Five-thirty."
