Since her aunt and Jiang Xi were also there, Huang Ling only introduced Liang Wenpei as a colleague when making introductions.
Huang Yue recognized him at a glance as the young man who had come looking for Huang Ling in Hangzhou. Hearing her daughter introduce him as a colleague, she held back a smile and didn't call her out on it.
Her aunt and Jiang Xi took the subway back, and the group parted ways at the elevator entrance.
Thinking about how her daughter had claimed just yesterday that there was nothing between them, and now today he was driving her to the high-speed rail station—these two young people whose combined ages barely matched hers were far too easy to see through.
It was unlikely a young person would come to the mall alone on a holiday, especially since delivery services were so developed now—almost anything you needed to eat or drink could be ordered online.
But seeing how indifferent her daughter seemed, Huang Yue had to break the ice herself: "Out eating with a friend? Is it too much trouble for you to drive us?"
"I was out eating with my sister—she made plans to see a movie with her friends this afternoon, and I was about to head back anyway." Liang Wenpei walked ahead and reached out to hold the elevator door.
Then he transferred a few thousand yuan to Pei Wenliang, telling her not to bother him for the next few hours.
After that unexpected encounter in Hangzhou, Huang Yue had later asked Huang Ling for a brief rundown on Liang Wenpei's family background, so she knew he had a sister four years younger, a father who used to be a teacher, and a mother who ran a chain of postpartum care centers. He'd attended one of the best universities in the country for law.
His looks and family background both satisfied Huang Yue, and before Huang Ling went abroad, she'd even asked how things had been settled between the two of them.
When she heard her daughter say they'd broken up, she'd felt a pang of regret.
Liang Wenpei first drove to the hotel to pick up Huang Yue's luggage, then took her to the high-speed rail station.
Who knew when they'd see each other next—and the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays were the busiest time for the hotel. Huang Ling watched reluctantly as Huang Yue walked into the station before turning back to get in the car.
But she pulled at the rear door handle twice with some effort and couldn't get it open.
The passenger window slowly rolled down at that moment.
Liang Wenpei: "Sit in the front."
Huang Ling shuffled over a couple of steps, opened the passenger door, and got in, buckling her seatbelt: "Take me back to where I live with Luo Shuang, thanks."
Liang Wenpei started the car and let out a light laugh: "Really treating me like a chauffeur?"
Huang Ling sat back comfortably in the passenger seat—she had to admit, expensive cars really were different: "Can't help it. I won, after all."
Liang Wenpei: "Keep me company for a meal. I haven't had lunch yet."
Huang Ling turned to look at him in surprise: "You haven't eaten? Then why were you playing delivery driver?"
"Already been called unfit to teach—if my gambling etiquette is bad too, I won't even have my dignity left." Liang Wenpei's tone carried a hint of grievance, and he sighed as if he were truly put upon.
"Then what do you want to eat?" Huang Ling glanced at the time—it was already past one, and restaurants would be less crowded at this hour anyway.
"Let me think."
Huang Ling let him take his time thinking. After all, he was the one driving and the one who needed to eat. With that thought, Huang Ling raised a hand to cover her mouth and nose as she yawned. The room near the elevator last night had made it hard to rest properly—the occupancy rate for those rooms wasn't high, but during peak tourist season, when the hotel was fully booked, guests would still end up in them. Huang Ling subconsciously started thinking of solutions, comparing in her head the cost-effectiveness of full soundproofing, low-season pricing to attract bookings, or low-cost soundproofing renovations.
She pulled out her phone and was about to contact the engineering department when she made a gritted-teeth expression. She really was born to work—she was on her day off and still thinking about the job.
She forced herself to empty her mind and not think about work. Thanks to Liang Wenpei's expensive car with its excellent shock absorption, Huang Ling drifted off to sleep without realizing it.
When she woke up, the car had just come off the elevated highway.
Huang Ling stretched: "Where are we?"
"West Ring Road."
Huang Ling looked at the street scene outside—they hadn't gotten far from the station. Sunday traffic was heavy, with constant stop-and-go, and they'd barely covered much ground.
So much congestion, so much wasted time. Thinking about it now, having him drive Huang Yue really had been impulsive—she owed him a favor now, and that sat uneasily with her.
Huang Ling raised a hand to cover her mouth and nose as she yawned: "Figured out what you want to eat? My treat."
"No upper limit?"
"Pull over for a second." Huang Ling tapped the car window.
Liang Wenpei laughed at that but kept driving: "Do you have instant noodles where you live? Make me a bowl of instant noodles."
No instant noodles, but there was a supermarket at the entrance to the complex. Huang Ling didn't let Liang Wenpei come along to buy them—the man was terrified of choices, and he'd take forever picking out just one thing.
There were quite a few cars parked in the complex on a Sunday, and Liang Wenpei had to work a bit to find a spot.
As soon as she stepped into the building, Huang Ling caught a faint smell of cigarette smoke. Walking further in, she saw an elderly woman holding a leashed Teddy dog shooing a smoking man out of the elevator.
Huang Ling held her breath and hurried past the smoking man, only daring to breathe again once the elevator doors had closed.
The righteous old lady got off the elevator before them. The elevator climbed another three floors before reaching the apartment she shared with Luo Shuang.
Standing at the door before even opening it, Huang Ling could hear Da Shun whimpering inside.
But when she opened the door, she found no Luo Shuang—only an unfamiliar man. Da Shun's wagging tail immediately drooped, and then he barked and ran straight into Luo Shuang's room.
Liang Wenpei listened to the dog barking and clicked his tongue: "And here I thought I'd held you when you were a pup."
Huang Ling found a pair of disposable slippers in the shoe cabinet that Luo Shuang had once swiped from a hotel and handed them to Liang Wenpei. She walked inside, turned on the air conditioner, tied on an apron, and headed to the kitchen.
"The WiFi name is 'Not Found 404,' and the password is eight threes, all in pinyin," Huang Ling said as she poured water into a pot and waited for it to boil. "You can also watch a movie—Luo Shuang has a streaming membership."
Huang Ling took a large bowl from the cupboard and washed it. After cleaning it, she sprinkled seasonings at the bottom of the bowl. The water would take a while to boil, and the kitchen was a bit hot, so Huang Ling kept track of the time and stepped out to wait.
In the living room, the curtains had been drawn. Liang Wenpei was holding the remote and scrolling through movies, his face set in a serious expression, as if he were undertaking a very solemn task.
Huang Ling didn't help. She just stood to the side with her arms crossed, watching him.
The remote buttons were being pressed so frantically they were practically about to spark, and Liang Wenpei still hadn't decided what to watch.
"I've narrowed it down to two—one fantasy film and one horror film." Liang Wenpei asked her to decide. "Which one do you think I should pick?"
The sound of his voice snapped Huang Ling back to reality, and she estimated the water had boiled. She walked back to the kitchen: "The fantasy one."
The noodles went into the pot and were soon cooked.
By the time Huang Ling walked out carrying the noodles, the movie had already been selected. The opening of the film was shot in a very subdued, plain style.
Liang Wenpei noticed her gaze and a mischievous glint flickered in his eyes. "Guess which one I picked?"
"Horror." Huang Ling answered without hesitation.
Hearing this, the amusement in Liang Wenpei's eyes vanished, but he quickly hid his reaction, then shook his head. "No, I listened to you—I picked the fantasy one."
Huang Ling handed him a bottle of ice water. "You're not that obedient. And I only said fantasy because I knew you'd do the opposite of what I said. I've been wanting to watch a horror film for a while now, but Luo Shuang wouldn't let me. Thanks."
In one day, she'd scored two victories over him. Even though she had to go back to work tomorrow, she was still feeling pretty pleased.
She flopped onto the sofa and settled in to watch the movie contentedly.
She propped her legs up on the back of the sofa—not the most graceful pose, but comfortable.
Liang Wenpei: "That's just mean."
"All's fair in love and war." Huang Ling wiggled her feet where they rested on the sofa. At that moment, her phone buzzed—a text message from Huang Yue.
She'd already passed through the ticket gate and boarded the high-speed train.
Huang Ling started typing a reply, but before she could send it, Huang Yue sent another voice message.
Huang Ling converted the voice message to text.
「Lingling, you're not getting any younger, and I don't want to interfere too much in your decisions. But I can tell that boy still likes you. If you don't plan on getting back together, make it clear to him as soon as possible—don't string him along.」
Looking at the word "likes" formed by those black pixels in her mother's message, Huang Ling's gaze lifted from her phone and drifted toward Liang Wenpei, who was sitting on the adjacent sofa with his bowl of noodles.
The man eating noodles while watching the movie had a focused expression, his eyes fixed on the projection screen. His concentration had always been strong—she'd noticed that back when they used to date and spend hours together in the library.
When Luo Shuang had bought the projector, she'd gone for the cheap option, so the picture wasn't very clear unless the curtains were drawn. Right now, the room was half-dark, with only the faint glow of the screen casting light. The shifting play of light and shadow accentuated the sharp bone structure of his profile.
Huang Ling was about to look away when the man eating his noodles spoke up out of nowhere: "What are you looking at? Want some?"
"I'm looking at the wound on your forehead." Huang Ling lied. "How'd that happen?"
Liang Wenpei instinctively raised a hand to touch his forehead, then pursed his lips. "You only ask now? It's almost healed already."
Huang Ling knew his tsundere act all too well, so she used a little provocation: "Then don't tell me."
Liang Wenpei was stumped. He pressed his lips together, then chose to ignore her last remark and only acknowledge her concern: "The plaintiff's mother hit me."
"Did you countersue?" Huang Ling asked.
"No." Liang Wenpei had finished his noodles, and fine beads of sweat had formed on his forehead and the tip of his nose.
Huang Ling was puzzled: "Aren't you a lawyer?"
Liang Wenpei shrugged. "But she's almost ninety. I know the law, but she's got the high ground."
"Then being a lawyer must be pretty frustrating sometimes." Huang Ling saw he'd finished eating and urged him, "Since you're done, you should head out soon."
Liang Wenpei leaned back into the sofa. "What's the rush? The movie's not over yet."
The film was fairly mediocre—it relied entirely on sound effects and editing to create the horror, and the plot was pretty formulaic. Huang Ling had guessed the general direction of the story just from the opening, and drowsiness gradually piled up inside her. Before she knew it, she'd drifted off to sleep.
When she woke again, it was to the sound of Luo Shuang coming back. She turned over on the sofa, and her phone slipped off, hitting the floor with a thud.
"Why are you sleeping on the sofa?" Luo Shuang asked, steadying herself against the doorframe as she changed her shoes.
Liang Wenpei was nowhere to be seen in the living room. Huang Ling's mouth felt dry as she woke up. She got up from the sofa and padded to the kitchen to pour herself some water. "Sun Qi arranged an elevator-facing room for me. It was so noisy, I didn't sleep well last night."
Only after gulping down several mouthfuls of water did Huang Ling's throat feel better. Her gaze drifted, and she spotted the clean pots and dishes on the drying rack.
He had washed them all before he left.
"The hotel was a madhouse today." Luo Shuang hugged Da Shun, burying her face in his fur.
As if the dog had some kind of purifying power that could cleanse away the smell of work and the exhaustion clinging to her.
"What happened?" Huang Ling picked up her phone to check her messages. Huang Yue had already arrived in Hangzhou.
After a brief exchange with her mother, she heard Luo Shuang start venting.
"All sorts of little things. I didn't stop all day. Zhao Bing's back, and our department hired four more people. I feel busier than when we had fewer staff." Luo Shuang held Da Shun's snout, planted several kisses on it, then set the dog down, spat out a few stray hairs, and commented, "Son, you've been smelling pretty rank lately."
"Plus working back-to-back shifts, and they even swapped shifts with me." Huang Ling leaned in. "What do you want to eat? Dinner's on me."
"That's so embarrassing." Luo Shuang said, then cupped Huang Ling's face and planted a kiss on her cheek. "Love you for ten thousand years."
Appetites were meh in the summer.
Luo Shuang and Huang Ling ordered two bowls of cold noodles and a roll of seaweed rice.
After dinner, Huang Ling went to shower. Even a summer shower left her drenched in sweat. When she opened the bathroom door and passed through the living room, she saw Luo Shuang holding the dog, grinning at her with a mischievous look.
"What are you smiling about? Did you get another raise?"
Luo Shuang turned her phone around, screen facing Huang Ling. "I just found a pink leather strap next to Da Shun's dog bed. I searched everywhere for what it belonged to, so I checked the surveillance footage… You brought Liang Wenpei back?"
Before they moved in together, Luo Shuang had told Huang Ling she had a dog, so the apartment had a pet camera installed.
In the afternoon, Huang Ling had completely forgotten about the camera. But luckily, nothing unspeakable had happened between her and Liang Wenpei. Her guilt lasted only a few seconds before she became perfectly composed.
"I ran into him at noon. He helped take my mom to the high-speed rail station. Only after seeing her off did he tell me he hadn't eaten lunch. He said he wanted instant noodles, so I cooked him some." Huang Ling said, "Oh, and that horror movie you refused to watch last time—good call. It wasn't good at all. I fell asleep not long after I started watching."
Tossing her dirty clothes into the washing machine, Huang Ling urged Luo Shuang.
"Hurry up and shower. I still need to do laundry after."
Luo Shuang had been her college roommate for four years, after all. She squinted at Huang Ling. "Ling Ling, the more flustered and guilty you feel, the more you talk."
"Why would I feel guilty?" Huang Ling insisted stubbornly. "There's nothing going on. If you keep dawdling, you're doing the laundry and hanging it out yourself. I'm going to rest."
With that, Huang Ling returned to her bedroom.
Flopping onto the bed, she replayed the afternoon in her mind. She felt she should have been more assertive just now. The sounds outside gradually faded—Luo Shuang had probably gone back to her room.
Huang Ling plugged in her phone and noticed Luo Shuang had sent her a message while she was in the shower.
The message was a video from the surveillance camera.
The timestamp in the upper right corner showed 3:30 in the afternoon. Huang Ling watched herself asleep under the camera's gaze. Liang Wenpei was nowhere in the living room. Then, the next second, the kitchen sliding door was gently pushed open. Liang Wenpei seemed ready to leave, but the figure in the frame stopped by the sofa and made no further move.
If not for the constantly changing timestamp in the upper right corner, Huang Ling would have thought the footage was frozen.
Time stretched on endlessly, until the video unknowingly looped back to the beginning. Only then did Huang Ling exit out of it.
Luo Shuang asked her whether Liang Wenpei was trying to get back together.
Huang Ling thought for a moment, then typed a reply to Luo Shuang: I don't dare ask. If he finds out there's a camera, he might dig up some law and sue us for a Porsche—he drives it Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we drive it Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and on Sundays the court sentences us to community service as his human rickshaw pullers.
It wasn't really that she didn't dare ask. It was just that Huang Ling didn't have the energy to think about matters of the heart right now.
As her mother had said, if you haven't fully made up your mind, it's better not to waste someone else's time.
Luo Shuang didn't pry further either. She was busy duo-queueing with Lu Ming in a game.
Having taken an afternoon nap, Huang Ling didn't fall back asleep until nearly 11 PM.
She slept soundly through the night and woke up three minutes before her alarm went off. Not being jolted awake by the harsh ringing put her in a better mood.
After washing up and heading downstairs to hail a taxi, she spotted a black Maybach driving straight toward her from a distance.
She glanced at the license plate, 914, and stopped under the camphor tree. A black Maybach pulled up beside her, and a man in a suit with white gloves hurried from the driver's seat to open the door for Huang Ling.
Inside the car, Lu Yunli sat with his legs crossed. His flight had landed in Xunchuan that morning. There was a faint trace of fatigue on his face, and a few red marks along his cheek.
"What happened to your face?" Huang Ling asked as she got in. The car was carpeted with cashmere, soft underfoot.
Lu Yunli rested one hand on the door, propping his head up, and let out a long, weary sigh. "I tried to kiss Meng Jingyi, failed, and got slapped for it."
"Oh." Huang Ling's tone was flat. Then, as if remembering something, she opened her phone and scrolled through her chat history, saying nothing more.
Lu Yunli tilted his head, his gaze fixed on Huang Ling. Seeing that she had no reaction to his answer, he pouted in displeasure. "So dull? Say something nice and make your boss happy."
Huang Ling shot him a look of disdain.
Lu Yunli clicked his tongue and smiled, threatening, "If you don't cheer me up, I'll dock your pay."
A capitalist is a capitalist.
In a second, Huang Ling's face broke into a fawning, sycophantic smile.
"Getting off with just a slap for being a pervert is a bargain. But was it just a slap? No—what came before the slap was a palm breeze carrying Miss Meng's fragrance." Huang Ling spun nonsense with a straight face. "Happy now?"
Lu Yunli said nothing, just stared at her, his gaze a mix of scrutiny and playful curiosity.
Since he didn't respond, Huang Ling took it as passing the test. She had no time to waste on such matters anyway. Glancing at the driver, she forwarded the file she'd just found to Lu Yunli. A "crown prince" without real power—who knew if the driver might be an informant for his stepmother.
Seeing her caution, Lu Yunli reached up and pressed a button beside him, raising the partition in the car. He then activated the privacy sound shield. "You can talk now."
"Zhao Bing recently came up with a disgustingly strict deduction standard. I think it's only a matter of time before it blows up." Huang Ling showed him the room-cleaning deduction standard table that Zhao Bing had posted in the work group. "The staff used to get commission per room, but now it's hard to earn, and they're facing deductions on top of that."
Lu Yunli listened to Huang Ling's report while flipping through the deduction standards Zhao Bing had drafted. "Has he done anything else strange lately?"
Huang Ling thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Nothing else I've noticed so far. Aside from that awful deduction standard, he's been pretty dedicated to his job. He's been back less than a month and already pulled twelve night shifts."
Lu Yunli nodded thoughtfully. "Got it."
The car drove steadily toward the hotel. Seeing that he'd fallen silent, Huang Ling held out her hand. "Didn't you say you bought me a gift? Where is it?"
Lu Yunli tilted his head, took Huang Ling's hand, and placed it against his own cheek. "Isn't having such a great boss back the best gift you could ask for?"
Hearing this, Huang Ling closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
She wondered if Meng Jingyi's slap had been hard enough—hopefully it had done some damage on her behalf too.
Seeing her close her eyes, Lu Yunli feigned heartbreak. "Seriously? So mercenary?"
"Can't help it. That's what happens when you pick a poor person as your comrade." Huang Ling shook off his hand.