When Meng Xianwen returned to Yuyuan, where he had lived for several years, he did not feel out of place at first. Auntie Qian, who looked after his daily needs, had already come back as well and prepared a tableful of delicious home-cooked dishes. Just as he had on so many evenings after work over the past few years, he buried himself in the study after dinner to deal with the two days’ worth of accumulated business.
He even felt a long-lost sense of peace and quiet.
That was until the night grew deeper and the room became increasingly still.
He closed his laptop halfway and habitually glanced toward the cactus on his desk, only to find empty space. In that instant, he realized with a start that she was not in the house.
The feeling was strange.
Judging by the length of time he had lived there and his daily habits, Yuyuan should have left a far deeper impression on him than that ninety-square-meter apartment. Perhaps he had grown accustomed to the noise. He rose, left the study, and went into the master bathroom for a shower.
When he casually reached for a towel, he noticed, almost imperceptibly, that something was wrong.
Beside his gray bath towel, there should have been a pink one.
He could barely tolerate and accept these small changes. But when he lay down on the neatly made bed that Auntie Qian had prepared, he lasted only ten minutes before throwing off the covers and sitting up, his temples throbbing.
In truth, reason told Meng Xianwen that he should move out of her place.
It would be a good thing for him.
Even though he was losing control—had already lost control—deep down, he still hoped he could return to the rational calm he had once possessed. He should have moved out on the day the project launched. He had already delayed it by several days, which was unlike his usual way of doing things.
Pressing a hand to his forehead, he picked up the phone beside him.
The chat window still ended with the “Oh” she had sent.
She had always been carefree to the point of being heartless. She had acted reluctant to see him leave, yet once he had finished packing, she had urged him to hurry up and go.
At that moment, Meng Xianwen rubbed his thumb over the phone screen and stared calmly at her profile picture. If she sent him a message or called within ten minutes, he would let her off this once.
Ten minutes later, he was fully dressed and walked out of the room.
Hearing the movement, Xiao Ding opened his door and took one look at him. He hurriedly asked, “Mr. Meng, are you going out?”
“I’ll drive myself.” Meng Xianwen was silent for a moment. “If Zhenzhen needs anything, call me. Go straight to the office tomorrow. You don’t need to pick me up.”
Xiao Ding was bewildered at first, then understood.
He had been wondering himself how Mr. Meng and Miss Ning had gone from being perfectly fine to Mr. Meng moving out.
It did not look as though they had quarreled. Perhaps Mr. Meng felt that Miss Ning’s place was too far from the company and inconvenient.
Miss Ning certainly was not afraid of putting Mr. Meng through trouble.
Having him make the trip over in the middle of the night—what a hassle, and what a sweet one at that.
…
Ning Zhen had not even had time to be shocked by the message Meng Xianwen sent before she had already appeared at the door. When she looked through the screen of the fingerprint lock and saw that the person outside really was him, the unsettled heart she had been carrying all evening was steadied at once.
She was not actually as unconcerned as she had made herself seem.
How could she possibly be unconcerned?
He was a living, breathing person who had shared the same roof with her for so long. Recently, she had been falling asleep in his arms and waking up in his embrace. Now she was supposed to return to living alone. Freedom was freedom, but when someone was in the throes of love, who wanted freedom?
And now he had suddenly appeared at her door.
Ning Zhen’s heart pounded wildly. She thought she would never forget this moment.
Not caring whether it might disturb the neighbors at this hour, the moment she opened the door, she threw herself into his arms. He wrapped both arms around her, stepped inside, and spun her around once.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, though she obviously knew.
"Just passing by."
Ning Zhen nearly burst out laughing at those two words.
She really wanted to ask how, at eleven at night, he had somehow happened to pass by her apartment complex from Yuyuan Road, and then happened to take the elevator upstairs. But some things were better left unsaid. She had no desire to tease him back. She only wanted to hold him tighter.
"I'm going to take a shower." After holding her for a while, he let her go.
Ning Zhen nodded, trying not to laugh.
She scampered into the bedroom. Whether Guo Xia was asleep or not, she immediately launched a mental attack: [You'll never guess it. He came back again!]
Guo Xia was a night owl too and replied instantly: [Seriously? Is he moving in, or did he just go out for a little walk?]
Ning Zhen bit her lip. [He's playing hard to get.]
Guo Xia: [This man is definitely not a scallop.]
Ning Zhen: [Then he'd better be delicious.]
Guo Xia: [Aaaah, now I want barbecue too, but there's a giant pig at home who's trying to lose weight.]
A few minutes later, Ning Zhen replied: [[Photo] I ordered some for you. My treat. Tell what's-his-name he can look, but he is absolutely not allowed to eat. This is an imperial decree.]
Guo Xia: [Love you, babe. Oh, and he said, "As you command."]
Ning Zhen laughed so hard she could barely stop. Then she heard the bathroom door open. She hurriedly tossed her phone beside her pillow, reopened her tablet, and pretended to be absorbed in a variety show. Before she could even perform a casual turn of her head at the sound of his approaching footsteps, he dropped his bath towel over her head.
She froze for a few seconds before frantically pulling it off. "What are you doing?!"
Meng Xianwen gave her a perfectly matter-of-fact order. "Go hang up the towel."
"Why should I?"
"You tell me," he countered. "Zhenzhen."
Ning Zhen understood the implication. He was keeping score now, because he had come to see her tonight instead of her going to see him. If he hadn't come out, naturally he wouldn't have needed to shower again, and if he hadn't showered, there would be no towel to hang up.
Given that he had driven for dozens of minutes to get here, she decided not to argue with him.
After hanging up the towel, she returned to bed.
Meng Xianwen casually switched off the light and pulled her into his arms. Perhaps the darkness made it easier for him to stop hiding how he truly felt. He let out a soft sigh beside her ear, filled with an inexplicable sense of contentment.
"Couldn't you sleep either?" she whispered.
Without her by his side, was he not used to it too?
"Either?" He gave a quiet snort. "If I'd come ten minutes later, you'd have been asleep."
Ning Zhen punched him, but she still stubbornly protested, "Who says? I was going to call you, but you were probably working. I'm very considerate, okay?"
"I don't need you to be considerate."
"You really don't?" She drew out the question. "Then I'll call you while you're at work tomorrow, okay?"
"You're awfully talkative," he said. "Don't want to sleep?"
Ning Zhen promptly shut up.
She knew when to yield. If they messed around again tonight, he would definitely drag her out of bed a little after seven tomorrow morning. Bosses seemed incapable of tolerating employees slacking off or arriving late. Even though she worked for someone else, thanks to him, she had finally earned one of the rare perfect-attendance awards of her career.
As she drifted sleepily toward slumber, she heard him say in a low voice, "I'll pick you up after work tomorrow."
The corners of her lips lifted without her realizing it.
-
Monday.
What stood out in stark contrast to the listlessness of her coworkers was Ning Zhen’s exceptional energy.
She was in such high spirits today that even her boss, Fang Li, couldn’t resist teasing her. “A little elopement, and you come back looking like you’ve been injected with chicken blood.”
Ning Zhen took a sip of water and pretended not to understand. “Not at all.”
She said that, but the moment it turned six, she grabbed her bag and sprinted out of the office as if she were running a hundred-meter dash. When she reached the ground floor, she saw his car waiting. She slowed her pace and walked toward it with exaggerated calm. Xiao Ding was in the car too, grinning at her.
She opened the door and got in. Meng Xianwen was sitting in the back, dealing with emails. Without even looking up, he said, “Xiao Ding, you can go.”
Xiao Ding seemed inexplicably excited. “Yes, Mr. Meng!”
Ning Zhen was puzzled. “Where are we going?”
Meng Xianwen didn’t answer. He simply freed one hand, pulled her toward him, and settled her on his lap.
Less than five minutes later, she had her answer. Xiao Ding drove into Jingyuan Residences, a highly private development near Shengdu. Ning Zhen went from complete confusion to a vague suspicion. She turned to Meng Xianwen in astonishment, but his expression remained impassive.
The car came to a stop in the underground parking garage.
Meng Xianwen took Ning Zhen’s hand and led her out. They rode the elevator up to the thirty-first floor. When the doors opened, they were greeted by an elegant entryway. Ning Zhen looked around, taking in everything with undisguised curiosity, and followed him to the front door.
“The password is your birthday.”
He hadn’t registered his fingerprint. Instead, he pressed the numbers one by one.
“Why use my birthday as the password?” Ning Zhen asked with a mischievous laugh.
“Fine. I’ll change it later.”
“…Go away!”
The door opened, and they went inside. Ning Zhen worked nearby, so she often passed this residential complex. It lacked the imposing grandeur of Yuyuan, but its privacy, security, and convenient location had earned it the favor of many wealthy residents.
They passed through an art gallery and came to a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides. Beyond them was a scenic balcony, where the evening breeze stirred the sheer curtains. The faintest glimpse of the sunset could be seen outside. Even without the lights on, the entire apartment was bathed in a soft glow that looked like scattered gold.
“This is your place?”
After admiring the view from the windows, Ning Zhen asked, her voice full of envy, jealousy, and resentment.
“Not yet.”
Meng Xianwen took a bottle of water, twisted off the cap, and handed it to her. He owned several fine properties in Beicheng, but it would have been too much of a coincidence for one of them to be located near her office. “I’m planning to live here for now. If you like it—”
“I like it!”
Ning Zhen cut him off immediately.
If he bought it and gave it to her, she would like it even more!
Hearing the eagerness and resounding certainty in her answer, Meng Xianwen wasn’t surprised in the least. Greed was only human nature. But someone who wore all her desires so plainly on her face, who pestered him for this and that whenever the slightest opportunity arose—he had encountered only one person like that in his twenty-nine years of life.
Even before he lost his memory, she had always muttered in his ear.
One moment, she would claim that she was his girlfriend and that having to take a rideshare to work made him look bad, so he should provide her with a car and a driver. The next, she would say that the money he had promised her should be paid in installments, because she was worried the bank would impose a transfer limit when the one-year term was up—and because signing a check would make his hand tired.
Whenever he rejected her, she never became discouraged. She would simply wear an expression that clearly said, “I’ll try again next time.”
Being greedy without becoming annoying was a talent in itself—and at the moment, she was the only one who possessed it.
“Then come by often,” he said.
Ning Zhen knew there was more behind his words. She also knew exactly what he was scheming, yet she still felt thoroughly choked by the remark.
She shot him an angry glare, ignored him, and walked straight toward the balcony.
Meng Xianwen followed at an unhurried pace.
She leaned against the railing, partly to get her bearings in the direction of Shengdu and partly to look for the direction of her own home. The evening breeze stirred her hair, sending it fluttering lightly around her.
He came to stand beside her. “Yuyuan is too far from Shengdu. From here, you can walk to work.”
Ning Zhen gave a soft snort.
After all that pointless rambling, this shameless man had finally gotten to the point. She was practically over the moon, but still put on a stubborn front. “It’s far from Yuyuan, but it’s also far from Hengxing.”
“So, consider it my accommodation for you.”
Ning Zhen turned to look at him, once again stunned by the sheer thickness of his skin. “What? You accommodating me?”
That counted?
Meng Xianwen answered with a calm look that clearly said: Of course it does.
Ning Zhen thought it over. Fine, she supposed it barely counted as him accommodating her. For a workaholic who valued his time above all else, spending an extra hour commuting to and from work every day really did qualify as preferential treatment reserved for true love.
She turned her head to look at the scenery on the other side, unwilling to let him see the smug smile spreading across her face.
“So what exactly do you mean by this?” she asked, barely suppressing her laughter. “Didn’t you already agree to my parents’ request?”
Meng Xianwen also looked in the opposite direction, his voice calm and matter-of-fact, without the slightest change in tone.
“I agreed to your parents that I would move out. I never agreed to move out alone.”
