“Driver, I forgot to bring my phone.”
The taxi stopped in front of the hospital. Ning Zhen took a banknote from her wallet and handed it over. The driver accepted it with a cheerful smile, looking surprised. “These days, I’ve heard of people forgetting their wallets or keys when they go out, but you’re the first person I’ve met who forgot their phone. That must be terribly inconvenient.”
As she put away the change, Ning Zhen agreed with a troubled sigh. “Tell me about it. Not having my phone is driving me crazy!”
Just before leaving home, she had suddenly remembered that she’d given Meng Xianwen permission to track her location.
Even though he might not have the time to check where she was while he was working, what if he did?
Despite all her suspicions about him, and despite how much she trusted her own instincts, at the end of the day, everything was only her unilateral speculation. Until she had proof, she didn’t want him to know.
After getting out of the taxi, Ning Zhen took a deep breath and psyched herself up.
She had accompanied Meng Xianwen here several times before and was fairly familiar with the place. She took the elevator to the floor where Lu Yuan’s office was located. As luck would have it, a nurse working that Saturday recognized her. The nurse called the office extension and informed Lu Yuan that a friend surnamed Ning had come to see him.
Lu Yuan hurried over with a cup of iced Americano in hand.
After confirming that he wasn’t seeing things and had recognized the right person, he stared at her in astonishment. “Zhenzhen, you came to see me?”
As he spoke, he craned his neck and looked around. When he failed to spot Meng Xianwen, his confusion deepened. “You came alone?”
“Yes, I came alone!” Ning Zhen said in one breath, getting straight to the point. “Let’s talk in your office. I want to talk about Meng Xianwen. You should know what I’m referring to.”
Lu Yuan hadn’t even swallowed his coffee.
His first thought was that she had discovered the lie they had told at the Meng family’s old residence. In his panic, he choked and coughed several times, his face turning from green to red. “Ah, all right. Come on, let’s go to my office.”
Feeling guilty, he became especially solicitous. “Zhenzhen, why didn’t you tell me you were coming? What would you like to drink? I’ll have my assistant buy it for you.”
“I don’t want anything. I’m not in the mood.”
“…”
Lu Yuan cursed Meng Xianwen inwardly. Clearing his throat, he secretly reached into his pocket, intending to call the culprit.
Whoever created the problem should solve it.
Whoever’s girlfriend she was, he should be the one to comfort her.
Ning Zhen’s sharp eyes caught the movement, and she immediately stopped him. “Lu Yuan, don’t call him. Otherwise, I’ll tell Aunt Xiao and Uncle Meng right away that you deceived them both.”
Pain appeared on Lu Yuan’s face.
Sure enough, she knew.
But what did any of this have to do with him? He could only blame himself for choosing the wrong friends in a past life and becoming friends with Meng Xianwen. He begged for mercy. “All right, all right, I won’t call him. Happy now? I’ll take the bad luck.”
“I’m the one who’s had the bad luck!” she corrected expressionlessly.
Lu Yuan wore a miserable expression as he led her into his office and closed the door behind them. He then got her a bottle of water and sighed. “Let me make one thing clear first: at most, I’m an accomplice, and I was forced into it. If you want to blame someone, blame him.”
Ning Zhen twisted open the cap. In truth, she was also trying to ease her own nervousness. She took several gulps of water, then looked Lu Yuan straight in the eye. “I know. I didn’t come here to accuse you. I just want to know what’s really going on with him.”
“How am I supposed to explain this?”
Lu Yuan sat down on the single-person sofa beside her and irritably raked a hand through his hair.
“Just tell me!” Seeing his reaction, Ning Zhen’s heart sank halfway. “First, tell me why you’ve been calling him late at night all this time.”
Lu Yuan took several deep gulps of his iced Americano before letting out a long sigh. “That time, I agreed to cooperate with him. But we made a deal: once his project was released, he would cooperate with my treatment plan. He agreed, but that night—”
“What night?” Ning Zhen pressed, staring at him without blinking.
“The night the project was released, I received a message from him. He said something had happened and that he was showing signs of recovering his memory. He might need my help at any moment. I didn’t see the message until I’d finished what I was doing, and I immediately called him to ask whether he’d remembered anything. He said he had…”
Thinking about it, Lu Yuan felt helpless. He had aged several years over the past few days. “Then the next day, he came to my place and told me he wasn’t going to pursue treatment anymore. He said he had his own concerns. Zhenzhen, you really can’t blame me for this. Now that you know, go back and talk some sense into him. What is he playing at?”
Ning Zhen gripped the water bottle tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force.
Although she had mentally prepared herself from last night until now, she still trembled at this moment.
She didn’t know whether she was angry or frightened—or both. She couldn’t tell which feeling was stronger.
That bastard had really recovered his memories just like that?
Then why had he kept it from her? What exactly was he trying to do?
After explaining and complaining all at once, Lu Yuan looked at Ning Zhen. Seeing her displeased expression, he hurried to comfort her. “Although I don’t know what he’s worried about, I do know Xianwen. He must have his reasons, and he must have a plan.”
Ning Zhen paused. “Reasons? A plan?”
She had almost forgotten what a vindictive person he was.
His reason was her.
And his plan was probably still her.
“Why don’t you two go home and talk it out behind closed doors?” Lu Yuan seized the opportunity to persuade her. “But there’s one thing—after you’re done talking, could you have him come to the hospi—”
Ning Zhen abruptly stood up, startling him.
“I’m leaving,” she said.
Lu Yuan rose to see her out, but he couldn’t keep up with her. All he could do was call after her, “Have him come to the hospital!”
“That has nothing to do with me!”
Ning Zhen suppressed the anger and confusion filling her chest. Without looking back, she strode away.
She took the elevator down to the first floor and walked out of the building with unsteady steps, as though she were treading on clouds. Standing beneath the blazing sun, she let the scorching light dry up her shock, panic, and helplessness. In the end, her mind was left with nothing but blank confusion.
Lu Yuan returned to his office. After thinking it over, he decided he should still give his friend a warning.
…
Meng Xianwen leaned back against the sofa and dialed Assistant Wang’s number. The call was answered almost immediately.
“Little Wang, are you still at the office?” he asked in a low voice.
Assistant Wang quickly replied, “Mr. Meng, I’m still at the office. What can I do for you?”
After saying that, he was met with a brief silence.
He thought the phone signal might have failed. He moved the phone away and glanced at it—the signal was full. He was just beginning to hesitate when Meng Xianwen’s low voice came through the receiver.
“Has anyone come looking for me?”
The question sounded rather strange.
Normally, anyone coming to see Mr. Meng would make an appointment in advance. “Mr. Meng, no one has come by yet. Do you have a guest coming? Should I make arrangements in advance?”
“No need. You can get off work.”
After ending the call, Meng Xianwen fixed his solemn gaze on the other phone in his hand.
Where had she gone?
Had she accidentally left her phone at home, or was this… deliberate?
She hadn’t taken the car from the underground garage, either.
She was indeed absentminded and prone to forgetting things, but no matter how urgent or muddled the situation was, she would never forget to bring her phone.
While deep in thought, his phone rang. Seeing that it was a call from Lu Yuan, his eyebrows twitched, and he already had a premonition in his heart. Sure enough, after answering the call, Lu Yuan skipped the unnecessary words and got straight to the point, "Your Zhenzhen came to cause me trouble."
Meng Xianwen's eyes turned cold. "Where is she?"
"She's gone." Lu Yuan paused for a moment. "Anyway, I've said what needed to be said. I'm calling to remind you that you're going to be in trouble. If you had listened to me—"
"When did she leave?"
Lu Yuan endured it and replied, "Just now."
"Okay, I got it." Meng Xianwen said in a tense tone. "Contact me if there's anything else."
After hanging up the phone, he almost immediately got up and walked quickly towards the door. The sudden ringing of the phone made him stop in his tracks. Looking down, he saw the caller ID flashing on the phone screen—
[Senior Xu]
Meng Xianwen stared at the screen with a heavy look in his eyes.
Did she discover the clue from Xu Lai? Had they contacted each other in private? How many times had they contacted?
In fact, he shouldn't have been surprised by this result. As early as the day when he was irritated by Xu Lai's probing and went to the wedding dinner, he had already prepared himself for the fact that she would discover his recovery of memory sooner or later.
He still went.
Just as he wouldn't leave her, he believed that she wouldn't leave him either.
Just before the call was about to end automatically, Meng Xianwen indifferently answered it. His eyebrows and eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of frost. He even patiently listened to Xu Lai's opening remarks and said with a faint smile, "Xu Lai, it's me. Zhenzhen isn't here. Do you have something to talk to her about?"
It's really difficult to get around without a phone.
After leaving the hospital, Ning Zhen stood blankly on the street, in a daze. She couldn't help but be glad that she had left her phone at home. At least at this moment, there was still one thing that held her back, preventing her from having an entirely blank mind and not knowing where to go.
She reached out to hail a taxi.
It was the height of summer. The taxi was blasting cold air, making her shiver. "Sir, can you turn up the temperature?"
The driver smiled and agreed.
Ning Zhen stared blankly at the passing street scenes outside the window. She deliberately refrained from thinking or speculating about Meng Xianwen's reasons and plans. It was like taking a test in the examination room. After seeing the most difficult question, she subconsciously wanted to leave it until the end to solve.
The most urgent thing was what she should do now?
"Miss, we're here."
Ning Zhen was in a daze for a few seconds. Then, she belatedly took out some cash from her wallet and handed it to the driver for change. As soon as she got out of the car, the rolling heat wave hit her, and she finally regained some sense of reality. Looking up at Jingyuan, she didn't know why she suddenly had an illusion of having passed through a long time.
The taxi driver changed the sign back to "Available" and casually glanced out of the window. He caught sight of a Rolls - Royce parked under the shade of a tree not far away. He couldn't help but take a few more glances and then gently stepped on the accelerator to leave.
In a flash.
From the driver's seat, Xiao Ding watched Ning Zhen enter the community straight on and then picked up his phone to send a message: [Mr. Meng, Miss Ning got off the taxi and went home.]
On the twenty - third floor of Hengxing Group.
Meng Xianwen read this short message word by word. After a moment of thought, he replied: [Okay, thank you for your hard work.]
He put down his phone and turned his gaze to Xu Lai sitting across from him.
He never liked to ask for reasons when the facts were already clear, but now he wanted to pull out the thorn in his hand. After a moment of silence between them, he asked in a deep voice, "Since you didn't say anything before, why are you willing to do this for her without considering the consequences now?"
Xu Lai remained silent. Facing the overwhelming sense of oppression, he looked up and met Meng Xianwen's gaze. "Maybe it's precisely because I didn't say anything before that I want to do something now."
Meng Xianwen smiled faintly and fell into deep thought.
After a long time, he slowly said, "It doesn't matter what you've done, but things had better not get too complicated. From beginning to end, it's just a matter between her and me. I don't want her to feel that she owes someone a favor and keep thinking about it. Apart from me, she doesn't owe anyone a favor."
He didn't allow her to be moved.
Even less did he allow her to keep thinking about other people.
Xu Lai had been by Meng Xianwen's side for several years. He couldn't be so stupid as not to understand the subtext of this passage.
He slowly nodded. "Mr. Meng, aren't you going to tell her that you've regained your memory?"
Meng Xianwen savored this sentence carefully and suddenly smiled. His eyes were fixed on the photo of the two of them on the table. "I'm also very curious about how she discovered it."
Xu Lai was stunned.
He looked at Meng Xianwen in disbelief.
The expression on Meng Xianwen's face was so calm that it was almost cold. His voice had no trace of warmth. "Xu Lai, you should be glad that she didn't find out about this from you. This is the last time you'll ever dial her number in your life, right?"
...
As twilight fell.
Ning Zhen was sitting on the sofa on the viewing balcony. The vast sky outside became the background of this picture. From the scorching sun in the sky to the emergence of the sunset glow and then to the deepening twilight, the screen of the phone on the table lit up from time to time. Many people were chatting with her, even Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan sent several messages in a row: [Give me an explanation as soon as you two finish arguing!]
Arguing about what?
Ning Zhen's eyes were swollen and her heart ached. She couldn't help but laugh out loud on the silent balcony.
The chat window between her and Meng Xianwen still showed the single word "Okay" he had sent, with no further messages. When she checked his location, it clearly showed that he was still at Hengxing. She knew that as soon as she left the hospital, Lu Yuan had called him and told him everything.
How many hours had she been waiting?
She was so stupid to think that there would be a showdown and an argument today. How self - indulgent she was! Was this the result he wanted? To make her angry, make her confused, make her at a loss, and make her suffer alone and reflect?
In his wildest dreams!
If he wanted to watch, she didn't want to act anymore!
Dingling, dingling—
The ringing of the phone broke the dull and silent atmosphere in the room. Meng Xianwen was resting his head on his hand, eyes closed. He opened his eyes, and the slight ripple caused by the screen showing Lu Yuan's call quickly subsided. He answered the call in a flat tone, "I'm busy. What's up?"
"I'm really fed up." Lu Yuan was almost grinding his teeth. "You two are just playing around with me. Neither of you is replying to messages. Am I the only one who's anxious?"
Meng Xianwen was silent. His stiff words were tinged with exhaustion. "Sorry to trouble you with this. I'll give you a full explanation in a few days. I'm really busy right now."
Since he had said so.
Lu Yuan didn't call to complain but out of concern.
He sighed and asked, "What are you busy with?"
"Waiting for someone."
