Ning Zhen froze.
Her first reaction upon seeing the message was to glance at Meng Xianwen, who was focused on driving. Perhaps finding the car too stuffy—and the window open even stuffier—he casually unbuttoned his collar, leaving it slightly open.
The car slowed and came to a stop at an intersection.
He noticed her gaze and turned his head to meet her eyes, his expression calm and unreadable. "What's wrong?"
Ning Zhen shook her head, her eyes returning to her phone screen.
Song Yuqing only knew she had been unhappy that day, but didn't know the real reason was that she hadn't wanted to see Meng Xianwen at all—she had lied to her. And now? Should she ask Song Yuqing for help, have Meng Jiaran switch the restaurant at the last minute, or find an excuse to break away from Meng Xianwen and end this double date? None of the options seemed particularly good.
She asked casually, "I'm not familiar with this stretch of road. Do you know where Jiaran is taking us?"
The red light at this intersection was agonizingly long.
Meng Xianwen gripped the steering wheel, seeming to ponder the question. When the light began its countdown, he spoke in a measured tone: "Should be Xingyun Restaurant. Have you been there before?"
"I think I've heard of it."
Ning Zhen unconsciously tightened her grip on her phone.
Fine, she confirmed it—neither plan was viable right now. With his sharp instincts, he'd pick up on something wrong in a split second.
She absently pressed her phone screen on and off a few times before replying to Song Yuqing: 【At least he has taste, this place is really good】
It's fine, it's fine. She could improvise!
Song Yuqing replied: 【Okay】
Ning Zhen wasn't nearly as composed as she pretended to be. She tucked her phone into her bag, pulled down the sun visor to check her reflection in the mirror, then glanced out the window, all while mentally cursing Meng Jiaran to high heaven.
How did he have the nerve to accuse her of treating him like part of some game?
Wasn't he doing exactly that right now?
And he said he'd "happened" to book a table—happened my ass. Xingyun was Song Yuqing's favorite restaurant, and after all the effort to treat her to a meal, he had to drag her and his own brother along as background extras. He was treating people like fools.
Ning Zhen vented her anger internally, and when she snapped back to reality, she realized Meng Xianwen had somehow fallen out of formation.
He wasn't following Meng Jiaran's car straight ahead—he turned left instead.
She blinked in confusion. He drove for a stretch, then pulled over to the side of the road.
At that moment, the phone in the center console rang. It was Meng Jiaran calling. Meng Xianwen picked it up and answered, and an anxious voice came through: "Bro, you took the wrong turn. Want me to wait for you up ahead—"
"No need."
The car's AC was blowing full blast, yet the air still felt inexplicably oppressive. He rolled down his window on the driver's side, and a warm breeze drifted in. "You and Yuqing go eat. Something came up at the company that I need to handle. Zhenzhen will come with me."
Meng Jiaran: "Oh, okay then. Sure."
The call ended.
Ning Zhen had no idea what was happening, but she caught the key detail: Meng Xianwen was taking her to Hengxing to work overtime. Naturally, she was baffled: "Didn't you say you were off today? Why go to the office this late?"
Meng Xianwen was silent, staring out the window without a word.
He was acting strange.
Ning Zhen eyed his profile suspiciously, genuinely confused by his sudden silence, and by how he'd told Jiaran on the phone they were going to the company, yet wasn't driving anywhere, letting the time slip away.
She opened her mouth to press further, but her gaze swept over the center console screen, and her mind suddenly flashed back to the question he'd asked at the supermarket that morning.
Over the past few days, his various out-of-character behaviors resurfaced in her mind.
Ning Zhen's eyes widened sharply.
He knew?
He knew she'd been with Song Yuqing that night?
But how?
For a moment, it felt like she'd been punched, seeing stars. It took her a while to gather her thoughts, and she asked in disbelief, "Meng Xianwen, what do you mean by this? Did you have someone following me?"
Meng Xianwen turned to face her, his eyes dark and shadowed: "Why didn't you tell me you went out with Song Yuqing?"
"Answer me."
Ning Zhen suddenly grew calm. "Did you have me followed? Answer yes or no."
"No."
The answer caught her off guard.
Ning Zhen paused, her mind a jumble. She clenched her palms. Don't let him lead you around—trust your own judgment. If he hadn't hired someone to follow her, how could he know she'd gone to Xingyun Restaurant with Song Yuqing that day?
Stay calm. Stay calm.
She remembered the jar of truffle mushroom sauce she'd brought home.
She stared at him without blinking, and laughed. "So that's how it is."
Just like him.
She'd gotten too cocky, let her guard down—she'd completely forgotten how incredibly observant Meng Xianwen could be.
And what else had he observed?
Had he noticed her wistfulness? Did he also think she was pathetic?
Cars passed one after another, the sound of wind rushing by fading into the background. Meng Xianwen gazed at her. "Zhenzhen, you never actually needed to use the overtime excuse to lie to me." He paused for a few seconds, as if reminding her—or emphasizing—"There was no need."
A sharp, needle-like pain pierced Ning Zhen's chest.
The excitement she'd felt, the disappointment, the urge to briefly escape—all of it, in his words, had been "unnecessary."
"So what is necessary?" she asked softly, her tone carrying a rebuke. "You lying and saying you got your memories back... making me happy for nothing—was that necessary?"
He looked at her, his expression shifting unpredictably. After a moment of silence, he said, "I didn't expect you to come back early that day."
"Ha, of course you didn't!"
Ning Zhen was furious—both at how calmly he brought up that day, and at herself for losing composure now, for bringing it up at all, making it seem like it mattered to her more than it should. "I thought you missed me. I thought you wanted to see me sooner. I secretly changed my flight, rushed to the airport at dawn, just to get back to Beicheng six hours earlier—"
She took a deep breath.
This didn't feel good. This didn't feel right.
What was she doing? She should have told him in a teasing tone that she'd once foolishly wanted to surprise him, and that he'd better remember that for the rest of his life—no, the next life too, and the one after that. That's how she should have said it.
Why was she angry?
Why did she care?
She could barely control herself. Who knew what else would come out of her mouth!
If she lost her grip any further and told him how happy she'd been when she landed and he'd gotten in touch by using her card.
If she lost her mind completely and told him how proud she'd felt that night at the music bar before returning to Beicheng...
She would absolutely drag him down with her the moment his face showed shock, confusion, or mockery.
Using what little rationality she had left, Ning Zhen unbuckled her seatbelt and pushed open the door, stepping out. She wasn't wearing heels today, so she strode swiftly to the side of the road.
Maybe even heaven couldn't bear to watch her be treated so badly. An empty taxi drove past, and she waved it down, got in, and left.
Even though Meng Xianwen had known Ning Zhen for a while and was well aware of her impulsive personality, he still found himself falling silent after that torrent of reproach that had come crashing down on him.
...
Even Meng Xianwen hadn't expected that this conversation would fall apart before it even began. He was in a foul mood, but initially he assumed she had taken a cab home. He suppressed the urge and the impulse to call her, restarted the engine, and merged back into traffic.
Destination: home.
However, when he drove to the neighborhood at top speed, rushed to the front door, unlocked it with his fingerprint, and faced a pitch-dark house, he stood like a statue in front of the master bedroom door, slowly exhaling.
The soundproofing in this house was mediocre at best, and the heavy footsteps from the hallway came through dully.
Meng Xianwen turned around, his gaze fixed darkly on the front door.
The footsteps didn't stop at his door. They went next door.
In the dim light, he gripped his phone, the screen flickering on for a few seconds before going dark. Suddenly, he realized something absurd and ridiculous—he was feeling something akin to regret.
Truly absurd.
Truly ridiculous.
In Meng Xianwen's life, how could he regret something so trivial?
Emotions really were contagious. He had caught the anger Ning Zhen had left behind in the car. Unlocking his phone, he dialed her number without hesitation. She rejected the call and sent two provocative messages, still riding high on her anger—
[Don't worry, I'm perfectly safe, no need to ask where I am]
[You're so good at tracking people down, aren't you]
Ning Zhen stared at the two messages she had sent and frowned. The first one was already cold enough. She shouldn't have added the second one—that was gilding the lily. But deleting it now would be too pathetic.
She gritted her teeth and endured it, tossing her phone onto the table and picking up her chopsticks to shove a piece of sushi into her mouth. The sushi place had a good reputation for a reason.
It was so good she wanted to cry.
Her appetite was fine, her mood completely unaffected. She was perfectly calm, even angling her phone to take a selfie in the best lighting.
When her phone rang, her heartbeat skipped a beat. It turned out to be Guo Xia calling.
She hesitated for a moment, then answered, still swallowing her sushi, which got stuck in her throat: "Hey, babe!"
Guo Xia asked nervously, "Zhenzhen, are you okay? Where are you now? I'll come find you?"
Ning Zhen quickly took a sip of water. "What's wrong?"
"Meng Xianwen texted Ye Chuyang asking if you were at our place," Guo Xia said, taking Ning Zhen's side as a loyal friend. She didn't call him "Mr. Meng" this time, nor did she teasingly refer to him as "your husband." "Forget about him for now—just tell me where you are!"
Ning Zhen's nose tingled, but she didn't want to cry. She didn't want to cry at all. She just said in a muffled voice, "I'm fine. I went home."
It was strange. Too strange.
In the past, when she was upset or wronged, she would run straight into the arms of Guo Xia, her parents, or someone else. But today, she just wanted to be alone.
Too pathetic.
She didn't want the world to know what she was upset about. Not even her parents, not even her friends—she didn't want to tell them a single word.
But damn it, damn it, damn it!
She had let Meng Xianwen find out!
On the other end of the line, Guo Xia let out a long sigh of relief, not suspecting Ning Zhen's words at all. "Do you want to talk about it? I've kicked Ye Chuyang out."
Ning Zhen forced herself to sound upbeat, not wanting to seem too down: "Another day. I'm so tired today."
Guo Xia was still worried.
But when it came to matters of the heart, she had been through it herself. She knew that sometimes a person just needed to be alone.
"Okay, I'm here for you anytime!"
After hanging up, Ning Zhen slumped onto the table, furious, wanting to text Meng Xianwen and warn him not to bother her friends. But in the chat window, her messages remained unanswered.
Of course, she wouldn't send another one.
Wouldn't want him to think she was waiting for his reply.
Meanwhile.
After receiving Ye Chuyang's "Ning Zhen isn't here—did something happen?" reply, Meng Xianwen sat in the car with a gloomy expression. He sat still for a moment, then stepped on the gas and drove toward the old part of town.
If she wasn't at Guo Xia's place, she had probably gone home—her other home.
The night served as cover, and the occasional passersby in the alley didn't notice anyone sitting in the car.
Meng Xianwen's gaze cut through the windshield toward the small building of the Ning residence. Light spilled from the first floor, while the window of her second-floor room was pitch black.
He tiredly looked away, not wanting to stir up more trouble, and drove out of the alley. When he was almost out of the old district, he finally reached his limit and pulled into a roadside parking spot.
The car was saturated with her scent—too heavy, too suffocating.
Meng Xianwen got out to get some air, his emotions teetering on the edge of control. He went to the trunk and opened it, looking for a bottle of water.
But the moment the trunk opened, he froze. The wind whistling through the crack of the window turned into a roar in his ears.
In the slightly messy trunk were two cases of water.
One case, already opened, held only a few bottles of mineral water left.
The other was his sparkling water, still sealed in its packaging.
He stood by the car, breathing slow and heavy, as if trying to calm some surging emotion inside him, when his phone rang at the most inopportune moment.
It was Chang Yi calling.
Before, when he was downstairs at the Ning residence, his patience had run out and he had dialed Chang Yi's number. In North City, finding a person was easy—it was usually just a phone call away.
"Just got out of the shower. What do you need?" Chang Yi said.
Meng Xianwen said flatly, "Nothing. Wrong number."
"Ha! Don't give me that with your own brother." Chang Yi gloated on the other end. "What, did you piss off our Miss Zhenzhen?"
When Meng Xianwen stayed silent, Chang Yi burst out laughing: "Wondering how I know? Wait, let me send you something!"
Meng Xianwen frowned and moved the phone away from his ear.
With the call still ongoing, Chang Yi sent him a screenshot on WeChat.
It was a screenshot of Ning Zhen's WeChat profile page.
Her profile picture was still the same, but her nickname was eye-catching: [Five Dead Husbands]
Chang Yi's laughter came through the phone: "I remember her nickname used to be Four Dead Husbands. What did you do to deserve this, man? Ha ha ha ha!"
