What she said was love.
Not merely simple liking.
Even someone as emotionally steady as Meng Huaijin was thrown off balance by her one shocking statement after another.
The man grabbed her wrist, opened the door, and walked out.
He asked the teacher waiting outside to give her the rest of the day off, then pulled the girl across the school field and put her into the car.
He rolled down the window and slowly lit a cigarette.
After taking a few drags, he suddenly remembered something.
He pulled another cigarette from the pack and held it out to her, raising an eyebrow.
“Want one?”
“…”
Shu Wan looked at him.
Then at the cigarette he was offering.
She shook her head repeatedly.
Even if she were given a hundred times more courage, she still wouldn’t dare take it.
Meng Huaijin shot her a hard look and threw the cigarette pack heavily into the storage compartment.
“Do you know what love is?”
He extended the cigarette outside the window so the smoke wouldn’t linger inside the car.
“And you dare make such a grand claim that you’re in love?”
Shu Wan stared at her toes.
“I know better than anyone.”
The man didn’t take her seriously.
After finishing his cigarette in a few drags, he drove away from the school.
“Last year, you said you weren’t dating early.”
“You said you didn’t know what it meant to like someone.”
“And now you’ve fallen in love.”
“You certainly fall in love quickly.”
Hearing the dismissive, almost contemptuous way he described it, Shu Wan felt a deep bitterness rising inside her.
She turned her head toward the window.
“Does falling in love with someone have to happen at a certain time?”
“It can happen in one second.”
“One glance.”
“One moment.”
Meng Huaijin glanced at her through the rearview mirror.
He gave a faint snort.
“No wonder you’re a liberal arts student. You’ve already become an expert.”
“Looks like you’re really in love.”
“What?”
“Are you this heartbroken because you love him, but he doesn’t love you?”
Shu Wan met his teasing expression in the rearview mirror.
Her eyes sharpened.
“Yeah.”
“He doesn’t love me.”
“He even slept with another woman.”
“He’s a bastard.”
“…”
Meng Huaijin pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek, his head beginning to ache.
The engine hummed.
The car sped up.
Zhou Zhenglin happened to get off work early that day.
He had just been preparing to go home and enjoy some peaceful family time when he saw Director Meng’s dark, stormcloud expression.
And beside him was a pitiful little girl.
“I didn’t get sick.”
Shu Wan insisted for the third time.
“I don’t need to see a doctor.”
“Shu Wan.”
Meng Huaijin turned around.
The careless expression he’d worn earlier was completely gone.
His eyes were sharp and decisive, cold enough to make her instinctively shrink back.
“While I’m still willing to talk to you calmly, I advise you to shut up.”
“You’ve been hanging around Internet cafés.”
“You’ve been smoking and drinking.”
“And you think you’re completely justified?”
“What are you going to do next?”
“Get a tattoo?”
“Or start fighting?”
“Hm?”
The sheer force of his presence silenced her immediately.
All she could do was blink rapidly as tears gathered in her eyes, trembling on the verge of falling.
“Hey, hey, what are you doing?”
Zhou Zhenglin hurried out of his office and stepped in front of Shu Wan protectively.
“Can’t you talk to her properly?”
“Why are you scaring the poor girl?”
“Give her a psychological assessment.”
Meng Huaijin stated it coldly.
Several months earlier, after Dr. Zhou had determined that Shu Wan’s psychological condition had mostly recovered, she had stopped coming to the hospital.
But she didn’t dare argue with Meng Huaijin now.
When he became stern, he was genuinely intimidating.
Even after nearly a year, she still feared him deep down.
So, she could only cooperate with Zhou Zhenglin and undergo the psychological assessment.
In the end, the results showed that everything was normal.
This only made Meng Huaijin find the situation even more baffling.
A rebellious teenage girl really was troublesome.
Zhao Heng’s words had practically become a prophecy.
When they returned home, Shu Wan waited for Meng Huaijin to unleash a furious lecture on her.
But he didn’t.
He only asked,
“Who is the boy?”
Shu Wan stared steadily at him.
Then slowly shook her head.
Meng Huaijin didn’t force her to answer.
Instead, he warned her in a deeply serious tone,
“Shu Wan.”
“This is the first time you’ve smoked.”
“I hope it will also be the last.”
That evening, Meng Chuan arranged a gathering.
It was just the three of them:
Meng Chuan, Zhou Zhenglin, and Meng Huaijin.
“Brother Jin, you asked me to find out who that bastard is.”
“I couldn’t find him at Shu Wan’s school.”
“But once I do, I’ll make sure to teach him a lesson first.”
“How dare he led our Little Shu Wan astray?”
Meng Chuan was furious on her behalf.
“Could he be someone from outside the school?”
Zhou Zhenglin asked.
Meng Chuan immediately cursed.
“Damn.”
“Don’t tell me he’s one of those delinquent guys with bleached hair?”
The sound of a pipa drifted leisurely through the old residence.
Meng Huaijin sat before a solidwood table, slowly turning an empty wineglass between his hands.
His features were partly hidden in the interplay of light and shadow.
Even the coolness and darkness in his expression seemed to disappear into it.
“I’ll have someone investigate again.”
His calm voice made Meng Chuan inexplicably shiver.
He thought to himself that if his brother really sent people to investigate, not even a mouse would be able to escape.
Zhou Zhenglin patted Meng Huaijin on the shoulder.
“Hang in there, brother.”
“There’s only a little over twenty days left until the college entrance examination.”
“She’s a protected species right now.”
“No matter how angry you are, you absolutely cannot take it out on her.”
“Besides, adolescence is exactly the age when people first start developing feelings for someone.”
“Having someone you like is perfectly normal.”
“What we elders need to do is guide her properly.”
“She’s always been obedient and sensible.”
“She knows what’s important.”
“She definitely won’t go down the wrong path.”
Obedient.
Sensible.
Meng Huaijin remembered the stubborn, hedgehoglike girl he’d seen earlier that day.
She had looked completely fearless, as though nothing in the world could possibly scare her.
His perfectly smooth brows immediately drew together.
After leaving the tearoom and getting into the car, Meng Huaijin received a call from his mother.
“Son, when are you coming home?”
Mrs. Meng asked.
Meng Huaijin put the freshly repacked food into the trunk.
“I don’t have time lately.”
“Oh, my dear Director Meng.”
“I really don’t think you’re worried about your own life at all.”
“You don’t seem the least bit anxious about getting married.”
Meng Huaijin remained unmoved.
“What do I have to be anxious about?”
“You’re all so eager to arrange everything for me.”
“We can arrange your engagement.”
“We can arrange your wedding.”
“But are we supposed to arrange your wedding night too?”
Mrs. Meng spoke earnestly.
“Jiang Jie is such a good girl.”
“Her family background, position, connections…”
“Look at all of Beicheng.”
“Who else could you possibly find?”
“Son, this isn’t the military region.”
“Now that you’re in your current position, it’s both an honor and a test.”
“You know better than anyone how many people are watching you, waiting for you to make a mistake.”
“With our family background and position, you can’t only think about yourself.”
“Your father and I have been through all of this before.”
“Do you understand?”
The cigarette between Meng Huaijin’s fingers burned all the way to the end.
The heat suddenly stung him.
He flicked the cigarette butt into a roadside trash can.
Then he answered without much emotion,
“For the next month, don’t discuss marriage with me.”
Only after he finished the call did Zhao Heng slowly start driving.
“Earlier, you said your younger sister was going through a rebellious phase.”
“How is she now?”
The captain’s slightly tired voice came from the back seat.
Zhao Heng immediately became alert.
“Much better now.”
“How did she get better?”
“Spending time with her.”
“Showing her care.”
“And that period happened to coincide with the critical stage before the college entrance examination.”
“My parents stayed with her every day.”
“They listened to what she was feeling.”
“They tried to understand her.”
“They supported some of her strange ideas instead of immediately rejecting them.”
“Once she got through that period, she became much more sensible.”
“Basically, you can’t stop a flood by blocking it.”
“You have to find a way to let the water flow.”
Meng Huaijin said nothing.
He seemed deep in thought.
When they returned to the apartment, Meng Huaijin noticed that the light in his study was still on.
He walked over and looked inside.
The girl was already asleep with her head resting on the desk.
Under her arm was a mathematics paper covered from top to bottom in writing.
Beside her sat a thermos filled with hangover soup she had prepared for him.
Steam was still rising from it.
The rebellious teenagers Meng Huaijin knew usually weren’t exactly fond of studying.
But this one was different.
She never skipped the questions she was supposed to do.
Her grades hadn’t noticeably dropped either.
She simply had a habit of occasionally doing something outrageous, as if constantly reminding him that there was still a spoiled young lady living under his roof.
Meng Huaijin gathered the books and test papers from the desk and casually stuffed them into her backpack.
Then he picked up the thermos and drank the hangover soup in one go.
Afterward, he bent down and lifted the sleeping girl into his arms.
He carried her toward her bedroom.
Using the tip of his foot, he pushed the door open.
He was just about to place her onto her soft, fragrant bed when he heard a voice as light as a feather.
“Do you want to know who the person I love is?”