Shu Wan had already fallen asleep.
She vaguely felt someone helping her sit upright against the sofa.
Then a large hand gently squeezed her cheeks and ordered her to blow.
Blow what…?
She went, “Huff, huff, huff,” and blew randomly.
But apparently, she had aimed in the wrong direction.
She had blown straight into someone’s palm.
Like an echo, the warm air bounced off his palm and returned to Shu Wan’s face, carrying a faint, clean scent from his hand.
It was warm.
And strangely pleasant.
The person seemed to pause for a moment before turning her head in another direction and ordering her to keep blowing.
After quite a bit of fussing around, she finally seemed to satisfy whatever requirement he had.
He stopped making her blow.
Instead, something was smeared onto her face.
It felt greasy, oily, cold, and slightly uncomfortable.
Later, Shu Wan had a very long dream.
In the dream, she was thrown into a tub of hot water fully clothed.
She soaked there for quite a while before someone pulled her out.
Then she was wrapped up in a blanket.
The sound of a hair dryer buzzed beside her, making her frown tightly.
Long fingers moved somewhat awkwardly through her hair as warm air blew through the strands.
Perhaps because he couldn’t quite control his strength, he tugged at her scalp and caused a little pain.
Shu Wan frowned even harder and let out a soft whimper.
“Ow~~”
She then felt the hands gradually loosen their grip.
After that, her wet clothes were pulled out from beneath the blanket one piece at a time.
A warm, fluffy set of dry pajamas was then roughly pulled onto her.
This part was done rather carelessly, almost as though the person was reluctant to do it at all.
It was certainly nowhere near as careful as drying her hair.
Finally, she was tossed onto the bed.
The person even remembered to stuff the large stuffed toy she hugged every night into her arms.
Then he pulled the blanket tightly around her, tucked the edges in, and left after closing the door behind him…
Shu Wan suddenly felt as though she couldn’t breathe.
She was on the verge of suffocating.
Her eyes flew open.
She lowered her hands from above her head and threw off the blanket.
Only then could she finally breathe in some fresh air.
“……”
She had actually suffocated herself by wrapping herself too tightly in the blanket.
A throbbing pain pulsed at her temples.
“Tsk…”
Shu Wan closed her eyes and took a moment to adjust before opening them again.
She stared straight up at the ceiling.
Then her pupils suddenly froze.
Meng Huaijin came back last night.
In her hazy, fragmented memories, she really did remember hearing that cool, oppressive voice.
Shu Wan got out of bed, put on her shoes, and opened the door.
The living room was empty.
She turned around and gently knocked twice on Meng Huaijin’s bedroom door.
No response.
She then checked the study.
Still no one.
It must have been a hallucination.
Definitely a hallucination.
He didn’t come back.
Shu Wan opened the refrigerator to get some water.
Then she came facetoface with a cake inside.
The cake was almost completely untouched.
Only the cream around the edge had a few slight indentations.
The girl instinctively touched her cheek.
So that cold, greasy feeling from her dream…
It was cream.
Shu Wan sucked in a sharp breath and closed the refrigerator.
Then she noticed a gift bag lying on the sofa.
It was crumpled, as though someone had yanked it forcefully.
A gift bags?
Shu Wan vaguely remembered it.
There should have been a scarf inside.
After the karaoke session ended last night, she had walked out of the entertainment complex with several classmates.
At that point, she still had a tiny bit of clarity left.
When she passed a shop window, she saw a men’s scarf that looked particularly nice.
She went inside and bought it.
But she couldn’t remember a single thing about how she had communicated with the salesperson.
All she knew was that she had bought the scarf.
Shu Wan opened her phone and checked her payment records.
Sure enough, the purchase had been made sometime after ten.
What happened afterward?
She checked her call history.
Well, well.
Meng Chuan had called her ten times that morning.
She hadn’t answered because her phone had been on silent.
But last night, she had called him a full fifteen times.
And he had kept his phone switched off!
Although she had been terribly drunk afterward, some part of her mind had remained clear enough that she hadn’t dared take a taxi.
She had probably navigated her way home herself.
Shu Wan opened the map on her phone.
Sure enough, her destination was the apartment.
It was two or three kilometers away.
Not particularly far.
But not exactly close either.
In weather like that, with such heavy snow…
If she hadn’t gotten sick, it must have been because of that hot bath and the dry clothes she had changed into.
Then…
Where had Meng Huaijin found her?
Or perhaps, when she had walked home, he had been sitting beneath the window as usual, tapping his watch?
Shu Wan didn’t dare think about it any longer.
She immediately called him.
The phone rang five or six times before he answered.
As usual, he didn’t speak first.
“Uncle…”
Her voice was horribly hoarse, as though it had been run over by a truck.
A familiar “Mm” came from the other end.
“Did you come back?”
She asked cautiously.
Another “Mm.”
“Then where are you now?”
“Working.”
After a brief pause, he added calmly,
“Your medicine is on the dining table. Handle breakfast yourself.”
“I…”
“Beep… beep… beep…”
He had hung up.
“……”
Shu Wan took her medicine first.
Then she went back to her room, washed up, changed into warmer clothes, and prepared to go downstairs to the congee shop she often visited.
Inside the elevator, she called Meng Chuan back.
He answered immediately.
“Little Shu Wan, I’m sorry!”
“Last night, the moment I went upstairs, I… well, anyway, I couldn’t get away. Then I drank too much, and my phone ran out of battery.”
“You got held up by some beautiful woman, didn’t you?”
Unlike Meng Huaijin, Meng Chuan wasn’t strict with her, so Shu Wan felt comfortable joking with him.
He laughed heartily several times before letting out a dramatic groan.
“My brother gave me such a scolding this morning.”
“But I can understand him.”
“He worked so hard, patching and stitching you together until he finally turned you into this little padded jacket.”
“If I ended up losing you, I’d really have to die to apologize.”
A little padded jacket he patched and stitched together?
What kind of description was that?
Shu Wan covered her mouth and laughed as she stepped out of the elevator.
“I’m really sorry, Little Shu Wan.”
“Luckily, nothing happened to you last night…”
Meng Chuan was still talking when Shu Wan suddenly stopped listening.
Because she seemed to have spotted an alltoofamiliar figure inside the apartment security office.
“Uncle Meng Chuan, something came up on my end. I’ll hang up first.”
She ended the call and walked into the security office.
When she saw the person clearly, she called out in disbelief,
“Grandpa Chen?”
Chen Zhong turned around.
Seeing the girl he had expected to appear, he smiled kindly.
“Good girl, Wanwan.”
“Grandpa Chen, is it really you?”
Shu Wan excitedly grabbed his hand.
“What are you doing here?”
“Weren’t you…? I heard from Uncle that you…”
Chen Zhong immediately raised a finger to his lips.
“Shh.”
“After you left, I was originally only summoned for questioning.”
“But there were people who didn’t want me to speak.”
“So they pinned an enormous false charge on me and tried to have me killed.”
“So…”
“He saved you?”
Chen Zhong nodded.
“Sir had already begun investigating in secret several months ago.”
“After I was acquitted yesterday, he arranged for me to come here.”
“I’m working as a gardener now and keeping a record of the vehicles coming in and out each day.”
“Most importantly, I get to see our Wanwan every day.”
Several months ago…
That was probably around the time after National Day.
Yet Shu Wan had known absolutely nothing about it.
So that meant the formal clothes he had worn yesterday…
And that military vehicle…
His trip out of town had been for this matter.
Shu Wan remained silent for a long time before comforting the old man.
“There’s nowhere safer than here.”
“You can stay here without worrying.”
“This place really is the safest.”
Chen Zhong sighed.
“It’s just that this matter is far more complicated than it looks.”
“The waters run very deep.”
“Sir used quite a lot of connections just for an old servant like me.”
“I owe him this debt.”
“I’m afraid I’ll never be able to repay it in my lifetime.”
Shu Wan felt a complicated mix of emotions.
She comforted him, telling him that the most important thing was that he was safe now and that he shouldn’t think about it too much.
The old man urged her to go eat first.
They would be seeing each other every day from now on anyway.
There would always be time to talk.
Shu Wan nodded and left.
She first went to the congee shop and packed some food.
But instead of returning home, she hailed a taxi by the roadside.
The office door gave a soft creak.
Thinking it was caused by the wind, Meng Huaijin raised his eyes.
Instead, he saw a fluffy head…
And a pair of bright, sparkling eyes.
Shu Wan walked over and placed the packed congee and several side dishes on his desk.
Smiling brightly, she opened the containers.
“Eat something.”
“They’re all your favorites.”
The man’s expression remained unchanged as he gave her a sideways glance.
“Did you eat?”
She shook her head.
Meng Huaijin nodded toward the chair opposite him, signaling for her to sit down too.
Shu Wan sat across from him and handed him the chopsticks and spoon with both hands.
“Are you sobering now?”
Meng Huaijin accepted the utensils and casually asked the question.
What was coming had to come eventually.
The girl’s eyelid twitched.
“I am.”
“I got a little too excited playing with my classmates yesterday, so I drank too much.”
“I’m sorry…”
“First time drinking?”
The man asked without much emotion.
She nodded.
“Yes. It was my first time, so I didn’t realize how much I could handle.”
“You didn’t realize?”
“…Not exactly.”
“I was just so happy.”
Happy.
Remembering the girl’s tearstreaked, catlike face from last night, the corner of Meng Huaijin’s lips twitched slightly.
His voice remained cool.
“Let this be the last time.”
“Okay.”
Shu Wan sat properly, hands folded obediently.
After struggling internally for quite a while, she finally asked,
“Last night…”
“I didn’t say anything embarrassing while I was drunk, did I?”