By evening, Ning Zhen had done three major things.
First, she angrily packed up all her belongings without leaving behind so much as a hair tie. Second, before leaving, she turned off the location-sharing permission she had enabled for Meng Xianwen. That feature had never done her any good. Third, she drove her new car to the entrance of Guo Xia’s neighborhood.
Guo Xia had been waiting for her. When she saw the white Rolls-Royce pull up in front of her, she covered her chest, beaming as she opened the passenger door. But when she saw Ning Zhen’s tense expression, she cautiously reined in her smile.
“Are you taking me for a joyride, or are you taking me to assassinate someone?”
Ning Zhen forced a smile. “A joyride!”
She didn’t know how many more chances she would have to drive this car. She had promised Guo Xia, and she had always kept every promise she made.
This time would be no exception.
While the car was still temporarily hers, she wanted to let her best friend enjoy it with her and take it for a spin.
Guo Xia fastened her seat belt. She knew Ning Zhen was in a foul mood, and pressing her probably wouldn’t get her anywhere, so she said, “Fine. Go wherever you want. Ah—I want to see the legendary starry-sky ceiling!”
The suffocating gloom in Ning Zhen’s heart eased a little.
“Let’s go eat something good!”
She started the engine, and the car merged onto the main road.
Guo Xia raised her phone and took countless selfies, along with plenty of videos. Finally satisfied, she began looking around at the interior. She suddenly noticed several stuffed toys strapped into the back seat with seat belts, protecting a small pot of cactus.
Curious, she asked, “Why is there a cactus in the car?”
Ning Zhen seemed to be picking a fight with someone who wasn’t there. She raised her voice and said, “I bought it, so of course I’m taking it with me. If I stop liking the sight of it, I’ll throw it away.”
Guo Xia glanced at her but said nothing.
How strange.
Still, she could more or less guess who had upset Ning Zhen. At the moment, the only person with that kind of power was probably Meng Xianwen.
Ning Zhen drove Guo Xia to a fried-chicken shop they had often visited during their university days.
Guo Xia had already eaten dinner at home and wasn’t hungry at all. After eating a chicken leg, she began studying Ning Zhen. Her complexion looked fine, and she still had an appetite, so Guo Xia felt reassured.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Ning Zhen took a sip of cola, looking dejected. “Am I the only unlucky person in the world?”
“You? Unlucky?” Guo Xia rolled her eyes. “You’re driving a Rolls-Royce. Get a grip!”
“What if I told you I don’t actually care about this anymore? Would you think I’d gone crazy?” Ning Zhen was speaking to Guo Xia, but also talking to herself. “I don’t know why. I’m driving the car I’ve always dreamed of, but I’m not happy at all. I was never this melodramatic before. Someone has influenced me! Damn it!”
Guo Xia nodded in agreement. “But I think you’re still less melodramatic than I am.”
“How so?”
“At least you can still eat. Last year—or maybe the year before—when Ye Chuyang and I broke up, I lost ten pounds!”
The word “breakup” caught Ning Zhen’s attention.
“Why aren’t you telling me to break up?”
Guo Xia gave her a look that plainly said, Please spare me.
“Even if Ye Chuyang held a grudge against you, all he’d do was grind his teeth in secret. But if your husband decided to make the Guo family disappear, what would I do?”
She knew Zhenzhen too well. If Zhenzhen really wanted to break up, no amount of persuasion could stop her. But did she look like she wanted to end things now?
“He actually has the nerve to hold a grudge against me!” Ning Zhen said, her brows shooting up as her attention was diverted.
Guo Xia burst out laughing. “Men are like that. They can be so petty.”
Ning Zhen was amused.
She felt much better, and her mood began to lift.
She thought that, really, none of this was a big deal!
Yet after they finished eating and drove around their familiar haunts, she restarted the car under the watchful eyes of Ye Chuyang and Guo Xia and drove away. The suffocating feeling returned, sweeping over her once more, as oppressive as the stillness before a storm.
She didn’t know whether she was longing for the rain to come or afraid that it would.
Ning Zhen felt wretched.
While waiting at a traffic light, the silence of her phone only made her feel more stifled.
If this was his revenge, then she admitted he had succeeded. She lightly pressed the accelerator, driving around aimlessly. After finding a roadside parking space, she pulled over and buried her face in the steering wheel, sobbing miserably. Not crying made her feel awful, but why did crying only make her angrier? Her tears had to be too pathetic, too hopeless.
With blurred, tear-filled eyes, she picked up her phone from the center console.
She sent Guo Xia a message: 【Send me today’s photos.】
Guo Xia sent them over soon after. Ning Zhen wasn’t satisfied with any of the pictures, but she still picked out a few and posted them to her social feed.
Caption: 【A drive, fried chicken, happiness.】
Within minutes, the comments began pouring in.
Among the flood of complaints accusing her of poisoning everyone with late-night food, Lu Yuan’s string of question marks stood out in particular. It was almost funny. Even Lu Yuan, an outsider, cared more about this whole mess—and about her—than he did.
…
Nine that evening.
Finding the car stuffy, Xiao Ding had taken the elevator up to the twenty-third-floor refreshment area early to wait for Meng Xianwen to finish work. He had eaten his way through nearly every drink, pastry, and snack provided there, while inwardly grumbling that very few people came to the office to work overtime on a Saturday. At this hour, the entire Hengxing Building probably held only him, Mr. Meng, and the security guard on duty.
Although he had no idea what exactly had happened, he could make a fairly accurate guess: Mr. Meng was probably waiting for Miss Ning.
But there was a problem. Miss Ning was at home…
Several times, Xiao Ding had wanted to send Miss Ning a message or give her a call, but each time he was about to dial, he came back to his senses. He was Mr. Meng’s driver. Normally, he could enjoy watching his boss’s personal drama, but no matter what, he had no business interfering in his boss’s private affairs.
Xiao Ding made another trip to the restroom. On his way out, he took a detour and arrived at the office door. After drawing a deep breath, he knocked.
The door opened almost at once, practically the instant he knocked.
Xiao Ding would not have called himself particularly observant, but even he could sense Mr. Meng’s dark mood in that moment. He hurriedly explained, “Mr. Meng, you haven’t had dinner yet. I came to ask whether you’d like me to call Jingyuan and order something.”
“No need.”
Meng Xianwen raised his wrist to glance at his watch, as if only then realizing how late it was. His voice remained even. “Xiao Ding, you’ve worked hard today. Go home and get some rest. I’ll drive myself back.”
Xiao Ding opened his mouth, then understood. He nodded and agreed.
Before long, the entire twenty-third floor was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Meng Xianwen checked his phone, but her location had long since disappeared. He pinched the bridge of his nose wearily, switched off the lights, and took the elevator down to B3. Once he got into the car, he did not leave right away. Instead, he lowered his eyes to the photo she had posted on social media, smiling brightly as she leaned against her friends.
What a heartless thing. Out of sight, out of mind.
He locked his phone and tossed it onto the passenger seat.
The car pulled out of the Hengxing parking garage. At this hour, the roads were completely clear. A drive that took forty minutes during the day took only half an hour at night, and Meng Xianwen had already arrived at Jingyuan. He turned off the engine and glanced at the parking space beside him.
The white car was gone.
She was probably still out having fun with her friends.
He stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for his floor. As the elevator rose smoothly, he opened his chat with her. The last message was still the “Okay” he had sent. After thinking for a moment, he began composing another message as he stepped out of the elevator and unlocked the door:
【It’s late. Come home early.】
He had not yet typed the word “home” when he paused.
A few minutes later, he slowly walked into the master bedroom’s dressing room. All the light, soft, fragrant dresses had been taken from the wardrobe. There was hardly any trace left that she had ever lived in the apartment. He stood there expressionlessly for a while, the air around him turning cold and severe.
Fine. Let her do as she pleased.
Ning Zhen did not want to go anywhere.
After crying and posting on social media, she climbed out of the driver’s seat and moved to the back. She stretched out comfortably beneath the starlit ceiling and stared blankly upward, completely unaware of the passage of time. After a long while, once she had calmed down, she returned to the driver’s seat and drove home.
It was not until she entered the residential compound that she realized, belatedly, that it was almost midnight.
She yawned sleepily and got out after parking the car. She had packed quite a bit of luggage, but she was too exhausted to carry it tonight. After hesitating for a moment, she took only the potted cactus from the back seat and walked slowly through the silent compound.
The parking area was some distance from her building.
She forced herself not to check whether her phone had received any messages. Every now and then, she looked up at the moon or glanced at the shrubs. Just as she was about to reach the building, a blinding light suddenly shone toward her. She instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes. Once she had adjusted to the glare, she narrowed her eyes to look—and her breath caught.
It was a car she knew better than any other. The person stepping out of it was someone she knew better than any other, too.
He walked toward her, his expression calm and composed.
Without even realizing it, Ning Zhen did not rush into his arms in delighted surprise when their eyes met. Instead, she instinctively took half a step back.
Her hands tightened around the potted plant. She quickly recovered herself, pressed her lips together, and straightened her back. She knew how stiff she looked.
Perhaps she had already been pathetic enough in front of him—begging, pleading, and weeping. Now, she would rather stand rigid than show him the slightest weakness again.
Meng Xianwen’s expression was calm, as though everything that had happened today amounted to nothing more than trivialities. His indifferent gaze moved from her face to the pot of cactus, and he said evenly, “Is this how you deal with things? Packing your bags without a word, sleeping with me, and then trying to run?”
Who had given her the nerve?
She had charged ahead without considering the consequences, as if she were certain that no matter what she did, he would never have the heart to hold it against her.
His tone remained mild, but there was mockery in his eyes. “Dream on.”
Ning Zhen’s blood boiled.
She could hardly believe that this was his attitude.
No—she shouldn’t have been surprised. This was Meng Xianwen’s true nature. She had simply been fooled by him. Now that she had discovered the truth, he could not even be bothered to keep pretending.
“Yes, this is how I deal with things!” she sneered. “At least I dealt with it!”
“You wanted to run the moment you found out I’d regained my memory. If this is all the courage you have, you never should have taken that step in the first place.” He looked at her with cold sarcasm. “Is this your first day knowing me? After plotting against me and deceiving me, you still thought you could walk away unscathed?”
The taut string in Ning Zhen’s mind snapped. She lifted her chin to face him, her gaze refusing to yield. “You can do it, so why can’t I?”
“Haven’t you plotted against me? Haven’t you deceived me? You got your memory back, yet you kept pretending to have amnesia. Don’t you think that’s ridiculous?”
A pulse throbbed at Meng Xianwen’s temple.
He had lost all reason, repeatedly lost control, cast aside his principles and his bottom line—and in her words, all it amounted to was ridiculous.
“What could you possibly have that would make me go to such lengths to plot against you or deceive you?” he said coldly, more grave and serious than ever before. “Ning Zhen, think carefully before you answer!”
Every time he said “plotting” or “deceiving,” Ning Zhen’s anger became harder to contain. “Why are you yelling at me?”
What had she plotted? What had she deceived him about?
In the end, she was the one who had fallen for him, while he remained cool and composed—only to turn around and accuse her?
Clenching her teeth, she said, “Did you come here just to lecture me? Leave. I don’t want to hear it!”
She had truly had enough. Heard enough.
Whenever she thought about how she had waited at that house from afternoon until evening, then sat in her car from evening until late at night, only to be met with a furious scolding, she wanted to strangle him.
She felt so pathetic.
When Guo Xia was dating, even the tiniest thing that annoyed Ning Zhen would have had her telling Guo Xia to break up immediately.
And now?
She could not even bring herself to say those two words.
Because he had regained his memory, and they were no longer in that kind of relationship. All she could say was, “I’m not going through with the agreement anymore!”
Without sparing him another glance, Ning Zhen slipped past him and ran into the building.
Beneath the dim yellow streetlamp, Meng Xianwen held his temper in check, his face dark and grim.
…
Ning Zhen unlocked the door with her fingerprint and set the cactus on the table. At that moment, all she wanted was to take a long, satisfying shower. She did not even sit down to rest before stripping off her clothes one by one and standing beneath the spray, tears slipping down her face.
The water was just the right temperature. Before the hot water had even fully soaked her, the door burst open with a bang.
Startled, she turned around.
Meng Xianwen stood there, his eyes dark and unreadable as he stared at her without blinking, then stepped inside.
Water pattered softly.
His impeccably pressed shirt was soaked through, clinging to the smooth lines of his muscles.
“What did you just say?” He advanced on her step by step.
“I—”
The moment Ning Zhen opened her mouth to curse him, he silenced her without a word. He was the one who had told her to speak, and now he was the one seething with rage.
He wanted to strangle her, too.
He bit at her lips and the tip of her tongue, kissing her hard and brutally, his breath scorching.
Ning Zhen was furious. She bit back just as fiercely. The faint taste of iron spread between them. Someone knocked into the shower handle, switching the hot water to cold. She shivered, and her mind cleared a little. She reached out to push him away.
Perhaps he found the shower inconvenient too. He raised a hand and turned it off, pinning her against the cool tiled wall. The only thing she could cling to, the only thing she could rely on, was him.
It was as though her entire body was suspended from his.
The floor was a complete mess.
His shirt and trousers were already drenched through, and she had no idea where he had taken off his watch.
He made her understand just how forceful he could be now, after having been so gentle before.
The impacts came fast and relentless, without a moment’s reprieve.
Ning Zhen could barely catch her breath, as if her breathing itself was about to be shattered. Strands of wet hair clung to her neck and collarbone. She endured it, biting down hard on his shoulder, refusing to make a single sound that might please him.
She wanted nothing more than to bite him until he was bloody and torn.
The pain in his shoulder only stoked his anger, and his movements grew increasingly out of control.
…
In the end, Ning Zhen was wrapped in a bath towel and carried back to the master bedroom. She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to say a word. Every last bit of moisture had been drained from her; she could not even shed a tear.
She pulled the blanket over herself, turned over, and faced away from him.
He stood beside the bed, staring at the marks on her back for a long while. At last, he sighed, lay down beside her, and drew her into his arms, stroking her gently with his warm palm again and again.
Hypocrite!
Ning Zhen snorted inwardly. Then, remembering that she had left her own marks on him too, she felt a little more balanced.
Half-asleep, she drifted into dreams. It seemed as though she heard a phone ringing. Just as she tried to answer it, a low male voice sounded—it was his phone.
“What is it?” Meng Xianwen threw back the covers and sat at the edge of the bed, his expression irritated. “All right. I’ll be there right away.”
He got up, opened the wardrobe, and changed into clean clothes, covering the bite marks and scratch marks across his chest, shoulders, and back. Just as he was about to shut the wardrobe door, he remembered how she had once slipped away without a word. He turned and looked at the figure curled up on the bed.
She was perfectly capable of running the moment he walked out the door. She had done it before.
Ning Zhen felt someone turning her this way and that. Again???
He had spent the entire day leisurely resting in his office, while she had been running around all day. How unfair.
Annoyed, she opened her eyes—then froze.
She was already wearing a dress, and he was pulling up the zipper for her.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
The moment she spoke, she realized her voice was hoarse.
Meng Xianwen’s expression did not change. “I need to take care of something. You’re coming with me.”
-----------------------
