In the car.
Xiao Ding, in the driver’s seat, was completely baffled, having no idea what had just happened.
From a distance, he’d watched Mr. Meng and Miss Ning walk out together. One second they were chatting and laughing, the next, Ning Zhen waved at Mr. Meng and turned away, heading off in another direction.
Mr. Meng lingered for a moment, then got into the car and sat quietly in the back seat, looking as if he were deep in thought, his expression serious, not saying a word.
Xiao Ding was torn, unsure whether to drive off or wait. Just then, a pink Audi pulled up slowly, stopping right in front of their car, and gave a honk. Startled, Xiao Ding looked past the windshield, recognized Ning Zhen’s car, and let his shoulders relax with a grin.
Ning Zhen rolled down her window.
The temperature in the northern city had risen, and even in the early morning, the sunlight was glaring. Sunglasses covered nearly half her face.
She waved at Meng Xianwen in the back seat once more: “I’m off. See you tonight.”
After he responded with a slight nod, she gently pressed the accelerator, and the car glided past them. Soon, a black sedan fell in line behind the pink car. Once they exited the residential compound, one turned right, the other went straight.
Only when the familiar car disappeared from her rearview mirror did the smile fade from Ning Zhen’s face.
She casually tapped the central display to play some music and focused on driving.
When she ran into a colleague in the parking garage under Shengdu Tower, the colleague was surprised: “What’s gotten into you today, driving yourself? Didn’t your boyfriend give you a ride?”
Ning Zhen, carrying the local specialties she’d bought, walked alongside her colleague and said with a giggle: “I don’t want him to drive me every single day.”
The first day back after a holiday was pure torture.
Ning Zhen barely had a moment to think about anything else. All day, she spun around like a top, and time flew by. Before she knew it, it was five o’clock.
She slumped over her desk, half-dead with exhaustion, when her phone buzzed with a message from Meng Xianwen: [You can get off early today. Want me to have Xiao Ding pick you up?]
She scrolled through their chat history and realized, a little belatedly, that today she hadn’t been spamming him with messages.
Probably suffering from post-holiday blues, she took a sip of water and typed back with a deliberately sarcastic tone: [Sorry, I’m a busy person today. I’ll probably be working late into the night 😒 And I drove, so no need to pick me up!]
A few minutes later.
He replied: [Okay]
Ning Zhen stared at that single word, rolled her eyes, and put her phone away. At six o’clock sharp, she didn’t wait a second longer. She rushed to clock out along with the other eager beavers—there was no way she was working overtime—and honestly, she was annoyed at Meng Xianwen anyway, so she didn’t feel like eating dinner with him.
She took the elevator down, walked out of Shengdu Tower. The sky was still bright, and the breeze was warm.
She got into her car, opened the navigation, and felt a sudden surge of aimlessness. Where should she go?
When she typed in a destination, the recent searches automatically popped up: home, her parents’ house, Guo Xia’s rented apartment. Her fingertips glided past each one, then paused unconsciously on Hongxin Group, accidentally tapping it.
A mechanical female voice filled the car: “Now departing for Hongxin Group. Please fasten your seat belt.”
Ning Zhen couldn’t help the smile that curved her lips.
She tilted her head, recalling that the tiramisu at the café on the first floor of Hongxin Tower was pretty decent. After such a tiring day of work, she deserved something sweet. She made a snap decision—since nothing else was calling to her, why not just go with the random choice?
No sooner said than done. Ning Zhen pressed the accelerator lightly, pulled out of the parking garage, and merged into the traffic.
Night fell.
Song Yuqing was tidying up documents in her office when a knock came at the door. She called out for them to come in. Her assistant stepped in carrying packed business dinner, hesitating before speaking: “President Song, I might be mistaken, but I thought I saw Miss Ning at the café on the first floor.”
“What?”
Song Yuqing looked up. “Are you sure?”
The exclusive interview with Shengdu had already finished, and the weekly issue would be hitting shelves in a day or two. Honestly, the collaboration was more or less wrapped up. Besides, even if Ning Zhen had come over, it was already past business hours. Her first thought was that her assistant had seen wrong.
The assistant thought for a moment: “She’s sitting by the window. Should be her, I think.”
She was quite certain it was Miss Ning, but she was careful not to sound too definite.
“Why would she come here?” Song Yuqing muttered to herself, setting down her pen with a contemplative look. After a brief pause, she stood up. “I’ll go down and check. You can head home for the day.”
…
Inside the café, a soothing piano piece was playing.
Ning Zhen listened, absorbed, one hand propping up her chin and the other tracing the beads of condensation on her cup, gathering them at her fingertip until they dripped off.
She was so lost in thought that she didn’t even notice when Song Yuqing pushed open the café door and walked toward her table. A gentle female voice floated down to her: “Zhenzhen, what are you doing here?”
Ning Zhen snapped back to reality. Seeing it was Song Yuqing, she said with delight: “Yuqing, it’s you! Have a seat, have a seat—what a coincidence!”
Song Yuqing’s eyes held a trace of helplessness.
Coincidence, probably not. This was right downstairs at Hongxin Tower.
“Have you had dinner yet?” Ning Zhen, who had ordered a tableful of food but taken only a bite of each item—she felt too embarrassed to offer anyone else her leftovers—scanned the QR code excitedly, handed her phone to Song Yuqing, and said warmly: “See what you want to order. It’s my treat.”
Song Yuqing took the phone with a smile but didn’t place an order. She asked softly: “Why are you here alone?”
Meeting her concerned gaze, for some reason Ning Zhen didn’t want to brush her off with an excuse. After a few seconds of silence, she chose honesty and said openly: “I’m not in a very good mood. I was just driving around aimlessly and ended up here.”
She paused, her voice dropping a bit: “Would it be okay if I didn’t tell you why I’m feeling down? I kind of don’t want to talk about it.”
Actually, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to say—it was just that she couldn’t quite explain why she was upset.
Yesterday, she hadn’t fallen for Meng Xianwen’s trap. She’d foiled his probing once again. She should have been popping champagne for her own cleverness.
Song Yuqing was taken aback for a moment, then gently nodded. “Okay. I won’t ask.”
She looked down at the menu on the phone, an idea sparking, and turned to Ning Zhen. “How about I take you somewhere else?”
-
At 7:20.
A Rolls-Royce passed through the security barrier and pulled up outside Shengdu Tower. Xiao Ding stopped the car smoothly, turned around to speak, his tone hesitant: “Mr. Meng, we’re here.”
Meng Xianwen in the back seat lowered his window and glanced upward. The middle floors of Shengdu Tower where the offices were were pitch black, everyone already off for the day.
He withdrew his gaze, got out of the car, and was about to dial Ning Zhen’s number when a car pulled up from the right behind him and stopped in front of him. A not entirely unfamiliar face poked out of the window, beaming, greeted him politely: “Mr. Meng.”
As if worried he might not remember her, Fang Li took the initiative to introduce herself: “I’m Fang Li, editor of the finance department at Shengdu. Last time, Zhenzhen and I were together at Hongxin—we met once before.”
Meng Xianwen put away his phone, smiled, and nodded: “Hello.”
Fang Li hesitated for a moment, then asked: “Mr. Meng, are you here to see Zhenzhen? She left right after work.”
“No.”
Meng Xianwen said, his expression unchanged, his voice warm: “I happened to be passing by. I’m meeting a friend here to discuss some business.”
Fang Li understood and said no more.
Of course, Shengsheng couldn't occupy the entire building alone—there were several other sizable companies housed there as well. The conversation had reached a point where, given their current level of acquaintance, it wasn't appropriate to delve any deeper. With that thought, she took the initiative to say goodbye. "Alright then, Mr. Meng, I won't keep you any longer. Let's catch up another time."
Meng Xianwen nodded. "Goodbye."
After watching her car drive out of the parking lot, the polite smile on his face vanished completely. A low, oppressive aura radiated from him as he stood silently in the night for a moment. Then he turned, opened the car door, and settled into the back seat. His gaze dropped to the wooden lunchbox at his side, and suddenly he let out a quiet laugh. In the front seat, Xiao Ding gripped the steering wheel tightly, not daring to even breathe loudly.
Having worked beside Mr. Meng for years, if he couldn't tell that his boss was suppressing his emotions right now, then all those years would have been for nothing.
The car cabin was dimly lit, engulfed in a suffocating silence.
A long moment passed.
Meng Xianwen's voice came out low: "Xiao Ding, don't mention what happened today to anyone."
Xiao Ding nodded hastily. "Got it, Mr. Meng."
He'd been wondering about it all along—it had been ages since he'd seen Mr. Meng leave on time. Today, promptly at six, Mr. Meng took the private elevator down, and even from a distance, you could feel he was in a good mood.
After getting into the car, Mr. Meng had said in a fairly cheerful tone that they were going to Jingyuan, specifically instructing the restaurant to prepare a few of Miss Ning's favorite dishes. And Mr. Meng hadn't even stayed to have dinner himself—he'd clearly planned to eat with Miss Ning.
Who would have thought, after all that rushing, when they arrived at the Shengsheng building, Miss Ning had already left work earlier.
"Let's head back."
Having lost the last shred of patience, Meng Xianwen leaned back expressionlessly, closed his eyes, and rested.
