It was Saturday.
Shu Wan was sitting in her room working through practice questions when she noticed a thin layer of mist forming on the sliding glass door.
She wiped it with her fingertip.
A few white flakes drifted onto the balcony.
Only then did she realize it was snowing.
The first snow of the year had fallen on her eighteenth birthday.
Without realizing it, she had already been in Beicheng for more than half a year.
Shu Wan decided to treat Meng Huaijin to a meal as a small way of expressing her gratitude for everything he had done for her during these past months, even though she knew her thanks could never amount to much.
With that in mind, she began changing clothes.
She tried on more than ten outfits before finally settling on the plush coat and khaki snow boots Meng Huaijin had taken her shopping for a few days earlier.
When she finished getting ready and stepped out of her bedroom, she happened to run into Meng Huaijin coming out of his room.
He was dressed in a complete formal suit.
Shirt.
Tie.
Vest.
Suit jacket.
Trousers.
Black leather shoes with red soles.
His cashmere overcoat was casually draped over his arm.
The entire outfit accentuated his refined, distinguished appearance.
Shu Wan’s eyes immediately lit up.
Was he planning to take her out for her birthday?
Meng Huaijin was also momentarily stunned when he saw the carefully dressed girl.
“Going out with your classmates?”
The crystal bubble of anticipation Shu Wan had built up in her heart shattered instantly.
She forced a smile and didn’t bother beating around the bush.
“Today is my birthday. Are you free? I want to treat you to dinner.”
The calm expression on the man’s face froze for a moment.
After a brief pause, he took out his phone and tapped the screen several times.
Then he looked up at her expectant eyes and said in the most ordinary tone,
“Happy birthday.”
“……….”
He obviously hadn’t remembered that today was her birthday.
A moment later, her phone chimed.
A WeChat notification.
Shu Wan opened it and saw a transfer from her uncle.
The amount was quite generous.
The note simply said:
Happy birthday.
“Accept it and go have fun with your classmates.”
Meng Huaijin had already reached the door.
After a pause, he added,
“Don’t stay out too late. Ten o’clock at the latest.”
“I…”
The security door clicked shut before she could finish.
Shu Wan couldn’t describe the feeling that washed over her.
If her crystal bubble had shattered just moments ago, then now it felt like the entire sky had collapsed in a violent downpour, dragging everything down with it.
It was like an adult dressing up in their finest clothes and going out to enjoy themselves, while leaving you home alone.
And on your birthday, no less!
What was worse, she couldn’t argue.
She couldn’t ask where he was going.
Because that man had already told her—
His business was none of hers.
And she wasn’t allowed to ask.
Shu Wan’s eyelashes fluttered.
The expression on her face looked even worse than if she had been crying.
In an instant, the sky seemed dark.
Even the snow no longer looked beautiful.
She hurried to the balcony and stood there for a full minute.
Then she saw Meng Huaijin walking out of the apartment building.
Soft snowflakes drifted through the air, gradually covering everything in white.
The man seemed completely unaffected by the cold.
He still carried his overcoat over his arm.
His back was straight, and every step he took was confident and powerful.
Before long, a militarygreen offroad vehicle drove up to the entrance.
It slowly stopped beside him.
The driver, dressed in military uniform, stepped out.
He first stood at attention and saluted Meng Huaijin before opening the rear door for him.
Meng Huaijin returned the salute, bent down, and got into the back seat.
Within moments, the vehicle disappeared from the government officials’ apartment complex.
Shu Wan stood there in a daze for a long time.
She didn’t come back to herself until a bitterly cold gust of wind woke her.
She took out her phone and stared at the transfer screen she hadn’t closed.
In the chat box, she typed something.
Then deleted it.
Typed again.
Deleted it again.
Finally, she sent only:
“Be careful on the way.”
About a minute later, she received a single reply.
“Mm.”
Ahhhhh!
Shu Wan threw her phone onto the sofa.
Then she flopped onto it herself and rolled around several times.
Still unable to vent her frustration, she grabbed Tiantian and gave the poor cat a vigorous cuddle.
“Meow…”
Tiantian gave her a stern look before struggling free from her arms.
“Even you are giving me attitude?!”
Shu Wan grabbed her again and rubbed her fur for a while before finally letting her go.
While Shu Wan was at school, Meng Huaijin handled most of Tiantian’s feeding.
That man often fed the cat three days’ worth of food in a single day.
Not only had he fattened Tiantian into a little pig, but even her personality had started to resemble his.
Cold.
Aloof.
And completely heartless.
He was so hardhearted that even reinforced concrete wasn’t onetenth as tough as him!
Shu Wan spent a full half hour complaining about him in her head.
Then the phone, which had fallen into the gap between the sofa cushions, suddenly rang with a muffled sound.
She dug around for quite a while before finally retrieving it.
The ringing had already stopped.
Then it rang again.
It was Meng Chuan.
“Uncle Meng Chuan.”
Shu Wan answered weakly.
“Little Shu Wan? Oh, no, that’s not right. Now that you’re eighteen, I should call you Big Shu Wan.”
“Quickly put on your hottest, sexiest little dress and come downstairs. Your uncle is taking you out for an adult birthday party!”
Meng Chuan honked the car horn.
Shu Wan could hear it clearly from inside the apartment.
She ran to the ninthfloor balcony and looked down.
Sure enough, it was that flashy Lamborghini.
Except this time, it had a roof.
A few minutes later, Shu Wan came downstairs.
Meng Chuan looked her up and down before tugging at her adorable hat, plush coat, and scarf with an expression of disgust.
“Where’s the hot little dress I told you to wear? You don’t have one?”
“It’s not that I don’t have one.”
Shu Wan looked at him.
“It’s that I don’t dare wear it.”
Meng Chuan thought about it.
Then shuddered.
“Forget it. I’m afraid Brother Jin will kick me all the way into the Pacific Ocean.”
Shu Wan smiled, opened the door, and got into the car.
Then, pretending not to know, she asked,
“How did you know today was my birthday?”
“Brother Jin told me. He asked me to take you out and have some fun.”
“He had to go out of town, so he might not make it back tonight.”
He might not make it back tonight…
Shu Wan leaned against the window and murmured,
“Uncle Meng Chuan, once you become an adult, can you really do a lot more things?”
Meng Chuan laughed.
“What do you want to do?”
She shook her head blankly.
Then she asked if she could invite a few classmates.
“Of course.”
Meng Chuan readily agreed.
“You can invite the whole class if you want. The more, the merrier.”
Shu Wan didn’t have that kind of influence.
In the end, she only invited five people.
One was her deskmate, Lu Siqi.
The other four were classmates who sat in front of and behind them, including both boys and girls.
Meng Chuan had booked a private room at a large entertainment complex along the Second Ring Road.
They arrived first.
Not long afterward, the five classmates arrived one after another.
Shu Wan asked the staff to bring plenty of food and drinks, telling everyone to eat and have fun.
They had been playing for a while when Meng Chuan suddenly said that he had a friend upstairs whom he wanted to greet.
He would be gone for a little while.
Then he left.
Shu Wan knew why.
He probably felt that the students would be too restrained with an adult around.
After all, there was quite an age gap between them.
And an even greater difference in status.
Meng Chuan was two years younger than Meng Huaijin.
He usually looked like a carefree playboy who never took anything seriously.
He had his own company, and it was doing extremely well.
“Shu Wan, why are all your uncles so amazing and handsome?”
Lu Siqi leaned closer and started gossiping.
They really were both impressive and handsome.
“Especially the one who often parks outside our school to pick you up.”
Liang Jing joined in.
“His presence is seriously intimidating. A few times I walked past his car, and before I even dared look directly at him, I felt this inexplicable chill and instinctively backed away.”
“What exactly does he do?”
“He…”
Shu Wan hesitated.
“He runs a company.”
She didn’t dare tell them the truth.
That wasn’t something she could casually talk about.
“Then why didn’t he celebrate your birthday with you today?”
“…He’s too busy.”
Shu Wan quickly changed the subject.
“Don’t just talk about me. Come on, eat something. Drink some beer. Sing!”
“Shouldn’t the birthday girl be the first one to set an example?”
Lu Siqi handed her an opened bottle of beer.
“Birthday girl, drink!”
“Birthday girl, drink!”
“Birthday girl, drink!”
“You’re eighteen now. You can drink. Don’t be scared.”
Scared?
Not at all.
Shu Wan decisively took the beer and tilted her head back, gulping it down.
That’s it?
It wasn’t anything special.
It wasn’t sweet or sour.
Why had her parents never let her drink when she was younger?
And later, why had that coldfaced demon never allowed her to drink either?
The bottle was soon empty.
Everyone stared at her in stunned disbelief at how fearless she was.
Then the party continued.
Shu Wan sat in the corner of the sofa and lowered her eyes to glance at her phone.
There were no unread messages.
Another classmate suggested a toast.
Shu Wan picked up her drink again and joined them.
After drinking, they sang.
She sang until she was practically screaming her lungs out.
And Meng Chuan…
Who knew whether he had fallen into some beautiful woman’s gentle embrace upstairs.
He never came back.
Shu Wan had left home around noon.
They continued playing until after nine that evening.
Since it was her first-time drinking, she got drunk the worst.
She hugged the toilet and vomited three times.
Her stomach and throat burned like fire, as though they had been scraped raw with a knife.
Even swallowing hurt.
It was a miserable feeling.
At ten, everyone finally went their separate ways.
Meng Chuan still hadn’t returned.
In her hazy state, Shu Wan vaguely remembered calling him.
His phone was switched off.
Sure enough…
The saying “A man’s words are the biggest lies” was becoming more convincing by the day.
Shu Wan had no idea where she had wandered.
When her memory became a little clearer, she seemed to be sitting on a bench by the roadside.
Under the streetlights, heavy snow fell from the sky, swirling and dancing through the air.
The night was wrapped in a strange, deepblue beauty.
Shu Wan took out her phone and squinted at the screen.
There were still no unread messages.
Her fingertip slid down the screen.
Then stopped when she reached the chat labeled:
Mom and Dad.
In an instant, her hand began trembling so badly that her fingertips went numb.
For so long, she had never once dared to open that conversation.
Because the moment she thought about those messages being farewell messages…
Messages that would remain there forever…
Her heart would ache again and again.
Why?
Why had they abandoned her?
Why had they left her all alone?
Why had they chosen to end their lives in such a cruel way?
Getting shot and taking their own lives… did it hurt?
It must have hurt terribly.
After all, their bodies had been left covered in blood.
In the end, Shu Wan still opened her mother’s chat.
The final message read:
“Wanwan, bring Mom a cup of coffee when you come back.”
Such an ordinary message.
Yet it had been their final goodbye.
Shu Wan opened Meng Xian’s Moments.
Her mother’s pinned post was a video from Shu Wan’s birthday the previous year.
In it, Shu Wan was wearing a blue dress.
Beside her were her best friends and the family members who loved her most.
Back then, she had been surrounded by love.
She had been the center of everyone’s attention.
Today, she had turned eighteen.
She was officially an adult.
But they were already gone.
Shu Wan didn’t dare look at anything else.
She quickly closed the app.
She had promised herself she wouldn’t remain trapped in the sadness of the past.
She had to keep moving forward.
Keep moving forward…
Suddenly, a pair of black men’s leather shoes appeared in front of her.
They stepped firmly onto the pure white snow.
Shu Wan slowly raised her head.
At some point, tears had already covered her face.
Through her tearfilled eyes and the curtain of falling snow, she could vaguely make out a familiar face.
Sharp.
Cold.
Yet impossibly handsome.
It was him.