The navigation app said they were still nearly ten kilometers from their destination.
Lu Yuan drove at an easy pace, enjoying this rare chance to take a leisurely drive. He chatted with Meng Xianwen about this and that, discussing both work and life. “You don’t seem to be in a very good mood. Did you and Zhenzhen have a fight?”
“Not exactly a fight.”
Meng Xianwen lowered the car window halfway. The cold wind rushed in, and the temperature inside the car dropped sharply. “She said I was too controlling. That I was annoying and exhausting.”
Some things, some feelings, were probably better shared with friends.
Lu Yuan laughed without the slightest bit of restraint. He didn’t offer an opinion, but his whole face seemed to say, “So, you finally got what was coming to you.” “I’m not particularly interested in the details of your fight. I’ll just ask you one thing: did you win or lose?”
“What do you think?”
Meng Xianwen smiled and tossed the question back at him.
“Couldn’t you use even a little of the debating skills you use with the guys?” Lu Yuan advised him. “What happened to the you who could argue Chang Yi into speechlessness, to the point where he even wanted to block you?”
“Is this really the same thing?”
“Is it that hard to admit you value romance over friendship?”
When they stopped at a red light, Lu Yuan glanced at him and continued to rub salt in the wound. “With your buddies, you can argue however you want. But with Zhenzhen, do you dare? When all’s said and done, isn’t it because you can’t bear to upset her?” He clicked his tongue. “How heartbreaking.”
What was even more heartbreaking was Meng Xianwen’s attitude.
His expression remained calm, and he silently accepted the accusation.
The two of them drove to the fried chicken shop near Beicheng University. At this hour, there were hardly any customers inside. While Meng Xianwen placed their order, Lu Yuan looked around the shop before leaning over and saying, “Order me a portion too. I’ll take it home for a midnight snack.”
Meng Xianwen added another order. “You’re eating midnight snacks now?”
Lu Yuan looked perfectly content. “It’s winter. Having one every now and then isn’t a big deal. I go home to an empty apartment anyway. When I’m not busy, I eat a little, have a drink, play some games, and watch sports.”
“Sounds pretty peaceful.”
Meng Xianwen sighed.
Before he had gotten together with Ning Zhen, he had lived that kind of life too. In fact, it had made up most of his life. But listening to Lu Yuan talk about it now, he felt as though that life belonged to a previous existence.
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow. “Jealous?”
“Not really.”
“…”
Lu Yuan shook his head and drew out his words teasingly. “No wonder you lost the argument. At least you know what matters.”
Meng Xianwen mulled over that sentence and suddenly smiled.
He knew what was important and what wasn’t quite so important. He could tell the difference.
“So, did you win?” Guo Xia asked.
In the cold wind, she took her hot milk tea and used a straw to pierce the lid before handing it to Ning Zhen. “Do you want a few sips? I waited in line forever.”
Ning Zhen waved her off. “I’ll stick with this. If I drink that at night, I won’t be able to sleep.”
“You’re not working tomorrow.”
Ning Zhen gave her a look that clearly said, You don’t understand. Unlike Ye Chuyang, Meng Xianwen’s body clock was absurdly regular. He also had a particular quirk: when he woke up in the morning, he never did so quietly. He always had to make some kind of noise.
“Did you win the argument?” Guo Xia asked as she walked beside her, cradling her hot milk tea.
“I probably didn’t!” Ning Zhen shrugged. “It just fizzled out. But I had a reason—I wasn’t at my best because of this cold.”
Guo Xia burst out laughing. “It’s not that you weren’t at your best. You just couldn’t bear to push him too hard.”
Ning Zhen kept a straight face for a moment, looking awkward. “You really do understand me. He probably thinks he was the only one making concessions!”
“All men are like that.” Guo Xia spoke with great significance. “They all think they’re the most innocent and the most noble. The drama just keeps coming, one act after another. It never ends. It’s unbearable to watch.”
Ning Zhen finally broke into laughter.
The words were far too familiar. Back when Guo Xia had been arguing with her boyfriend and threatening to break up, she had viciously criticized Ye Chuyang more than once, insulting him as though he were worthless. Now that the boomerang had come back around and hit her, all she could do was snatch Guo Xia’s milk tea away.
“Why are my friends and my boyfriend all so vindictive? Each one is worse than the last!”
Guo Xia stopped beneath a tree strung with star-shaped lights. “Then perhaps you should do some self-reflection!”
The two of them exchanged a smile, only to choke on a gust of cold wind and start coughing at the same time.
…
Ning Zhen and Meng Xianwen arrived home one after the other.
She changed into her slippers and called out, “I’m home! Look what I got you—”
She hadn’t finished the sentence when all her attention was captured by the boxes of fried chicken on the dining table. She blinked in disbelief. Of course she recognized the shop: it was the fried chicken place near her alma mater, the same one she and Guo Xia had visited a few months ago.
Meng Xianwen came out of the bathroom.
He had just removed his wristwatch and washed his hands, and was leisurely drying them with a tissue. The instant his eyes met hers, his gaze dropped to the paper bag she was carrying, and he froze for a moment.
Ning Zhen raised the bag, her face lighting up with a smile. “I passed that famous wagyu sandwich place and bought you one.”
She deliberately emphasized each word. “I waited for more than ten minutes—in the cold—wind!”
Meng Xianwen’s expression shifted. He stared at her for several seconds, forgetting even to throw away the tissue in his hand. Then he slowly walked toward her and pulled her into his arms. One hand cradled the back of her head as he tightened his embrace, as though he wanted to press her right into his heart.
Ning Zhen hugged him back.
It seemed that only at that moment did the cold that had been tormenting her for days truly disappear.
—
Before long, the middle of the month arrived, and with it Ning Zhen’s twenty-fourth birthday. The only imperfection was that her birthday didn’t fall on a Friday or a weekend, so she had no choice but to discuss it with Guo Xia and a few other friends and move the celebration to Saturday.
She had started hyping up her birthday a month in advance.
Mostly, this involved muttering into Meng Xianwen’s ear every few days. Eventually, whenever she mentioned the number twenty-four, he would reach for the earplugs on the nightstand and stuff them in his ears, looking as though he had completely given up. She didn’t get angry. Instead, she would lean against his shoulder and shout into the ear with the earplug in it, “Just try brushing me off!”
On the last day of being twenty-three, she fell asleep in Meng Xianwen’s arms.
On the first day of being twenty-four, she woke up in his arms.
She threw back the covers and got out of bed, then walked groggily out of the master bedroom. Just as her hand pressed down on the doorknob, a flicker of confusion passed through her mind. The man who usually woke up earlier than she did didn’t seem to be in any hurry today. Before she could think about it further, she had already pushed open the bedroom door.
The living and dining area was filled with a gigantic bouquet. Her eyes were almost completely swallowed up by roses.
Ning Zhen’s eyes went wide. She rushed over in disbelief.
She still hadn’t recovered from the shock. After circling the bouquet twice, she covered her mouth and looked toward the man coming out of the master bedroom.
“Who sent me these flowers?”
Meng Xianwen leaned against the wall and lifted his eyes to her. “Tell me, how many candidates did you have in mind?”
She was actually asking who had sent them?
Who else could it possibly be but him?
“Oh my gosh!”
She was astonished by the size of the bouquet, but even more astonished that it had come from Meng Xianwen. There didn’t seem to be a single romantic bone in his body. In fact, he might even have been allergic to romance. The reason their first Qixi Festival had been so unforgettable was, in the end, mostly because of his ability to throw money at a problem. It had little to do with him as a person.
At least as far as she could remember, he had never given her a bouquet of flowers. Not even a single stem.
Fortunately, she didn’t care.
Flowers—or no flowers—didn’t matter. As long as she had money to spend, she was happy.
But now, looking at the roses that nearly filled the living and dining room, she almost jumped for joy. Her eyes were brimming with delight, and there were so many roses that she could hardly take them all in. One moment she was touching them, the next she was leaning close to breathe in their fragrance. Then she turned to him and asked in surprise, “How many are there?”
“Count them yourself.” Seeing how thrilled she was, Meng Xianwen’s lips curved into a smile.
“Should be nine hundred and ninety?” Ning Zhen wasn’t entirely sure. She had never received such a huge bouquet before and had no real sense of scale.
Meng Xianwen quietly watched her for a while.
One minute passed.
Then five.
Unable to hold back any longer, he reminded her, “Go wash up first. You can look at them all you want after work.”
Ning Zhen didn’t hear him at all. Her entire heart was focused on the roses, while the man who had given them to her was completely ignored. She even automatically tuned out his voice. Helpless, Meng Xianwen walked past her into the bathroom, though the faintest smile still lingered on his face.
As he wiped his face with a towel, she came bounding over and wrapped her arms around him from behind.
At last, she remembered there was another living person in the room.
Every breath she took and every word she spoke was filled with undisguised joy and excitement. “There really do seem to be nine hundred and ninety. Do you usually not give people flowers? And when you do, you give them the whole year’s supply at once?”
“Good idea. We’ll do it your way.”
“Hey!”
She punched him on the back, then happily pressed herself against him again, rubbing against him this way and that, as if it were the only way to express how she felt. The two of them ended up fooling around in the bathroom and left nearly twenty minutes later than usual.
After watching Ning Zhen enter Shengdu Building, Meng Xianwen lowered his head and glanced at his watch, making a note to himself.
Next year, he would send the flowers in the evening.
At least that way, they wouldn’t interfere with anything important.
At the office, some of the colleagues who knew it was Ning Zhen’s birthday ordered her milk tea, while others sent over small cakes. They were all thoughtful gestures. Her boss, Fang Li, sent her a lucky red envelope in a private message, and she received so many transfers that her hands grew tired from accepting them.
As soon as lunch break arrived, Ning Zhen hurried downstairs with her phone.
Her parents’ car was parked outside. When she opened the door, she immediately spotted the birthday cake on the back seat, and her eyes lit up with a smile.
In previous years, whether she had been working or off, she always went home for a while on her birthday. This year, before the day even arrived, her mother had called to tell her not to make the trip back and forth. The three of them would have a meal together during her lunch break and treat it as a birthday celebration.
No workday had ever seemed as long as this one.
Ning Zhen watched the time crawl by. Every now and then, she would sneak a look at the location on her phone. Starting at five, his location gradually began to move. He left Hengxing and headed in her direction. At five forty, he stopped downstairs.
She knew the building was tall, and in winter the sun set early—by six o’clock, it would already be dark. Even so, she pretended to casually walk over to the floor-to-ceiling windows and wipe the leaves of the money tree, sneaking a glance downward in the process.
Of course, she couldn’t see anything.
Even if she had been able to see his car, she didn’t have X-ray vision and couldn’t see him sitting inside it.
Still, her spirits were high. The moment six o’clock arrived, she once again became the first person in the entire company to clock out. She rushed downstairs as fast as she could. Usually, Meng Xianwen was the one sitting in the car waiting for her. Today, for once, he was standing beside it.
She ran toward him.
He opened his arms and caught her.
Xiao Ding sat in the car, secretly peeking outside at the couple embracing.
“Time is limited.” After they got in, Meng Xianwen turned the face of his watch toward her. “You can think about what you want to do after dinner.”
Ning Zhen shot him a sideways look.
A perfectly good date sounded so official coming from him.
And what did he mean, time was limited?
Was he in a hurry? Was he rushing home to work overtime?
It was only because she was kindhearted—and because it was her birthday—that she let it go. Otherwise, with that attitude and tone, he definitely wouldn’t be getting off so easily tonight!
After thinking it over, Ning Zhen chose a movie over shopping.
Shopping with Meng Xianwen was boring. His only function was to swipe his card, and she could use his card whenever she wanted anyway. She preferred shopping with Guo Xia. As for going to the cinema, she and Meng Xianwen had hardly ever gone together. The last time they had, things hadn’t gone very well.
There were always too many people and matters looking for his attention.
A movie lasted two hours, and he had gone out to answer two or three phone calls.
Ning Zhen wasn’t the sort of person to stew in silence. After the movie, once they were back in the car, she gave him an earful.
“I want to watch a movie.” When she met his gaze, she quickly added, “I want to watch an entire movie from beginning to end.”
Meng Xianwen paused, then nodded. “All right. Give me your phone.”
Ning Zhen let out a satisfied huff. “That’s more like it!”
…
They watched the entire movie in peace.
By the time they came out, it was already past ten. Ning Zhen looped her arm through Meng Xianwen’s and sighed contentedly. “My birthday was a little rushed and uneventful, but this is what life is supposed to be like. I feel especially at peace.”
Was this the difference between being twenty-four and twenty-three?
Her birthday the year before had been full of excitement. For one thing, it had fallen on a weekend. For another, Meng Jiaran and several of his friends, who also got along well with her, had reserved an entire bar. There had been a crowd, and they were all flamboyant people. The celebration had gone on until the early hours of the morning.
But this year…
Meng Jiaran was still miserably stationed in the neighboring city.
At the mention of a certain word, Meng Xianwen’s brows furrowed almost imperceptibly before quickly returning to normal. He gave a quiet “mm” in response.
They went down to the parking garage. Xiao Ding hadn’t accompanied them on this birthday date because someone needed to drive, and Meng Xianwen hadn’t touched any alcohol during dinner.
Ning Zhen had drunk half a glass. Once she got into the car and the warm air brushed against her face, she adjusted the seat and leaned back. Only after they had left the garage and driven for a while did she sense that something was wrong. She turned her head and asked, “Did you take a wrong turn? This isn’t the way home.”
Keeping his attention on the road ahead, Meng Xianwen replied calmly, “It’s not far from the office. I need to pick up a document.”
Something similar had happened before, so Ning Zhen didn’t think much of it. While they waited at a red light, she stretched and deliberately bumped her fist against the side of his face. When her prank succeeded, the entire car filled with her triumphant laughter.
She loved playing little tricks like that.
Usually, Meng Xianwen would laugh and tell her to stop fooling around.
But today, he seemed somewhat distracted.
The shopping mall where the cinema was located was indeed very close to Hengxing, less than three kilometers away. There was little traffic at night, so before long, Ning Zhen, who had been looking down at her phone, felt the car come to a smooth stop.
She raised her head and looked through the windshield, her expression briefly dazed.
They hadn’t reached Hengxing yet. Why had he stopped?
She withdrew her gaze and looked at him in confusion. Before she could ask what was going on, he had already gotten out of the car. He then came around to her side, opened the door, and silently helped her unfasten her seat belt before pulling her out with an arm around her.
There was a sharp difference in temperature between inside and outside the car. The biting winter wind blew over them, and Ning Zhen shivered.
The next moment, Meng Xianwen bent down and wrapped her scarf securely around her neck, covering nearly half her face.
She simply stared up at him in a daze, looking almost foolish.
Although she had no idea what he was doing, she could guess that he had prepared a surprise.
“You…”
She had only just uttered the first word when—
He reached out and clasped her shoulder, slowly turning her around. She went from facing him to having her back nestled against his chest. At that moment, as if he didn’t need to remind her, she instinctively looked ahead—to the tallest skyscraper.
Hengxing.
Some of the buildings around them were pitch-black, while others had their floodlights on.
But now, only the glass curtain wall of the Hengxing Building suddenly came alive, countless lights blooming and spreading across it, forming a flowing painting. A shower of fireworks illuminated her eyes. She watched, holding her breath, not daring to blink for fear of missing even a second.
Meng Xianwen wrapped his arms around her from behind, shielding her from the wind and keeping her warm.
The light show on the Hengxing Building alone was bright enough to illuminate the entire area. Cars speeding along the broad road slowed down. Some drivers lowered their windows, while the handful of cyclists and pedestrians stopped as well, all turning to look at this unexpected shower of fireworks that had appeared in the dead of night.
In the blink of an eye, the dazzling lights shifted and transformed.
The fireworks continued to gather, forming a birthday cake, with candles that seemed to flicker in the breeze.
“Blow out the candles.”
Meng Xianwen’s voice came from above her head. Ning Zhen had never seen anything like this before, and her head had been chilled stiff by the cold wind. Whatever he told her to do, she simply obeyed. In a daze, she pulled off her scarf, puckered her lips, and blew at the air.
He let out a muffled laugh.
Only then did she realize what was happening.
That jerk—he was teasing her again!
In the blink of an eye, the curtain wall flashed today’s date, before finally freezing on a single line of text:
Happy Birthday
