Mu Wen's grievance bubbled up just a little.
She remembered that she hadn't done anything wrong, yet she had been given the cold shoulder by Xie Chong. Lin Weisen had privately asked her whether she had offended Xie Chong, whether she had made any inappropriate moves toward him. Mu Wen hadn't told her master that it was because of her "embarrassing state."
Who would want to show themselves in such a light? She felt she had suffered a silent loss that she couldn't discuss with anyone.
Mu Wen withdrew her gaze and bent down to take off the other shoe cover.
When she was truly upset, she didn't want to talk. She knew that even if she spoke, Xie Chong wouldn't understand.
She thought that her master would be back in a couple of days, and Liu Gong was the foreman who had worked with the company the longest. Xie Chong probably wouldn't need her to come again. They probably wouldn't see each other again after this.
But out of politeness, she still said goodbye to Xie Chong: "I've just finished communicating with Liu Gong. These next few days are demolition work, so there shouldn't be any major problems. My master will be back soon, so Mr. Xie needn't worry."
"Wishing Mr. Xie a smooth renovation and a speedy move into your new home."
Her attitude was distant. She clutched two shoe covers in her hand, a document bag slung over her shoulder. A bit of dust had gotten on her new clothes after all. She patted it off, then waved at Xie Chong: "See you!"
She turned to press the elevator button.
She felt her back burning, but she didn't turn around to check whether Xie Chong was watching her.
Why was this damn elevator so slow today!
Mu Wen urged inwardly, "Hurry up, hurry up." The elevator finally arrived. She stepped in and sensed movement behind her. She turned to look—Xie Chong had also gotten on.
"I'm leaving too," Xie Chong said.
"Oh."
She'd said her pretty farewell words too early, Mu Wen thought. She should have saved them for the elevator. How annoying.
"You didn't press the floor button," Xie Chong reminded her.
"You're closer to the panel," Mu Wen said.
Xie Chong glanced at her and pressed 1 for her.
"You didn't press B1," Mu Wen said.
"I'm not going to B1," Xie Chong replied. "I'm seeing you down."
Mu Wen looked up at him. He seemed to be holding back a smile.
Mu Wen finally couldn't help herself: "I have all my limbs intact—I don't need you to see me off. Your time is precious. Go on up."
"I'm sorry. That day at your company, I told Engineer Lin that he should contact me for anything going forward. I'm sorry." The elevator doors opened, and Xie Chong reached out to hold the open button, letting Mu Wen exit first.
Xie Chong's apology came so suddenly that the grievance Mu Wen had just suppressed began to grow again.
She walked out mechanically, with Xie Chong following behind her.
It was the transition between autumn and winter. A gust of wind blew, and fallen leaves tumbled down in a rush. In the blink of an eye, each of them had a leaf on their shoulder, and Mu Wen had one on her head too.
"I think I may have misunderstood something." Xie Chong was originally a straightforward person, and Mu Wen's cautious demeanor today made him feel ashamed. He realized once again that he had unconsciously used a so-called "superior" attitude to crush this young woman just starting out. He really shouldn't have.
"Misunderstood what?" Mu Wen was completely baffled. She couldn't think of what misunderstanding there could be between them other than the so-called "wealth gap."
"I misunderstood that you had feelings for me," Xie Chong said honestly. "Mu Wen, I'm afraid of complications."
"Huh?" Mu Wen's eyes widened. She liked his house and his car, she liked his refinement, but she didn't like his current self-righteous arrogance.
She also didn't quite understand what Xie Chong meant.
Even in the worst case, what complications would come from being liked?
Her eyes darted around, then landed on Xie Chong. It suddenly dawned on her: "You're afraid I'll swindle your money!" She covered her mouth: "Oh my god, how could you think that! Why would I swindle your money? If I became a con artist, my mother would break my legs! I still have to take care of my father…"
Mu Wen stopped there, realizing she was revealing too much. She waved her hand magnanimously and said, "Don't worry, I won't be a con artist."
"The complication I meant isn't that," Xie Chong said. "You're clever, but you wouldn't be able to fool me."
"Then what is it?"
Xie Chong shrugged: "Never mind, it's not important. Anyway, I'm sorry."
Mu Wen wasn't really concerned about what the complication was. She let out a long breath: "So, is there still a misunderstanding between us? You won't target me anymore, right?"
Xie Chong shook his head: "No. And I won't." He reached out and plucked the leaf from her head, his gesture perfectly polite, not even touching a strand of her hair: "Actually, after meeting you these few times, I think you're a rather lovely person. Of course I won't target you anymore."
Mu Wen extended her hand toward him.
"What?"
"Then you should pay a deposit! I can tell your personality isn't very stable. You say you won't target me now, but you might turn around and file a complaint against me. I can't end up with nothing after all my effort!" Her hand remained stubbornly extended: "Pay up! Right now!"
Xie Chong actually pulled out his wallet from his pocket. Mu Wen saw that the wallet contained a thick stack of bills, and also a photo. She couldn't make out the person in the photo because her gaze was drawn to the cash—so much money. Did people really carry this much cash on them? She only ever withdrew 500 yuan at a time from the ATM.
Xie Chong pulled out some bills and handed them to her. She actually took them, carefully counted out five, and returned the rest to him.
"As long as you don't make things difficult for me, I'll return the five hundred yuan to you after you pay the full renovation cost."
"Is that all it's worth?" Xie Chong asked.
"Yes." Mu Wen nodded firmly. "It's worth exactly five hundred."
Xie Chong laughed.
He was usually a nitpicky person with a foul and stubborn temper, but bullying the weak wasn't something he did—it felt beneath him. After clearing things up with Mu Wen, he felt much lighter.
He had a nice smile.
Mu Wen squinted and mimicked his smile.
In that exchange of smiles, she felt that Xie Chong had given her respect, and her mood genuinely improved. Her happiness began to sprout in all directions again.
She waved goodbye to Xie Chong and said those words again: "Mr. Xie, you're truly a good person!"
"What was I the other day?"
"A bastard, what else could it be." Mu Wen pouted at him after saying this, then sprinted off.
Xie Chong watched her leave the neighborhood before turning back.
He had plans with Jiang Wu that evening.
They met at a revolving restaurant. Jiang Wu loved this place because it offered a panoramic view of Beijing's nightscape.
That day she arrived earlier than Xie Chong and waved at him when she saw him.
Xie Chong sat down across from her and noticed that Jiang Wu had put on makeup today. She never wore makeup when meeting him—in her own words: she showed Xie Chong exactly who she was.
"Why the makeup?" Xie Chong asked her.
"I went to an exhibition today." Jiang Wu cheerfully described the avant-garde exhibition to Xie Chong. He knew of that exhibition—it was garbage. He ran an art business himself and had nothing but contempt for that kind of attention-seeking show. But he said nothing.
If he spoke up, Jiang Wu would call him arrogant again.
After she finished, Jiang Wu said to Xie Chong: "You seem to be in a good mood today."
"Not bad." Xie Chong said. "The renovation on the house has started."
"That's great." Jiang Wu said. "How long until it's done?"
"About six months."
"That's quick." Jiang Wu said as she casually tucked her hair up, revealing her elegant neck. Seeing Xie Chong staring at her, she spread her palm to block his gaze: "Didn't we agree? Let's just be good friends."
"So what should I do? Gouge out my own eyes? Close them whenever I talk to you?"
"Xie Chong!" Jiang Wu stood up and swatted at him. "There you go again!"
Jiang Wu did like Xie Chong.
But Xie Chong was always like this—his words never let anyone off the hook, and he refused to lose at anything, anytime. Jiang Wu always said it was Xie Chong's family background that made him so arrogant, and Xie Chong would counter: "Family background? In Beijing, who do I think I am? You know Beijing is never short of rich people."
Xie Chong fell silent.
He had originally prepared a birthday gift for Jiang Wu, but just then she told him about a gift she really loved from a friend: a hand-carved ornament that had taken a long time to make. She felt it carried so much effort and meaning.
So Xie Chong didn't mention the gift. He knew that if he brought it out, Jiang Wu would say again: I don't like these flashy, impractical things. Just as he couldn't understand why Jiang Wu liked that terrible exhibition.
Jiang Wu genuinely didn't like such things, but the things she did like, Xie Chong genuinely couldn't make.
After dinner with Jiang Wu, he drove her home.
The two walked through the night, and when Xie Chong inadvertently moved a little closer to Jiang Wu, she extended her hand to measure: "One fist's distance, forgotten?"
Xie Chong refused to walk like that. He said to Jiang Wu: "Either you build me a railway track first, and I'll walk only within the tracks when I'm with you?"
"Fine." Jiang Wu said. "Then wait for me to build it!"
Xie Chong felt his good mood being completely ruined by Jiang Wu.
Every time before seeing her, he was happy; after seeing her, he went home with a belly full of frustration. And he was a stubborn man—the more Jiang Wu acted this way, the more he dug in.
The day's good mood had already dwindled to almost nothing.
In the car, Xie Chong didn't say a single word.
Jiang Wu noticed mud on the floor mat of the passenger seat and casually asked: "You had a passenger?"
"Yeah, someone from the renovation company." Xie Chong said. "Haven't had time to wash the car these days."
"What are you so busy with that you don't even have time to wash the car?"
"Making money."
"Alright." Jiang Wu moved her feet away from the mud on the mat and fell silent. When she got out of the car, Jiang Wu said to Xie Chong: "I'm not holding you back. You can go on dates with other people. We're just friends anyway, right?"
"What do you mean?" Xie Chong asked.
"I mean our personalities really don't fit." Jiang Wu said. "I'm unhappy every time I see you, and I don't know why. Unhappy means incompatible."
"Fine, I'll date someone else." Xie Chong said petulantly, then drove off.
He drove aimlessly through the city. There weren't many cars on the Third Ring Road late at night, so he rolled down the window, wanting to feel a sense of freedom—but rolled it back up in less than two seconds.
"Fuck, it's freezing." He cursed. "I'm such an idiot."
Beijing's winter had truly arrived with this kind of cold.
Xie Chong absolutely hated Beijing winters—bare, gray, and lifeless. He also didn't want to go to the house; it was all run-down and dilapidated, and looking at it made him feel miserable.
So he called Mu Wen.
Mu Wen was working overtime. A client wanted a renovation on an old, shabby, small apartment, saying the space utilization was too low and asking Mu Wen to figure out a way to "fold and store" everything.
Mu Wen was rearranging items on the floor plan, calculating dimensions, but it was too difficult. The bathroom was small—if they installed a glass door for the shower, the outward-swinging door would hit the vanity. If they put a drying rack on the balcony, the side cabinet door wouldn't open. The kid's picture books needed to be displayed, but there was no space for a bookshelf in the children's room.
This wasn't enough to stump Mu Wen.
She was just about to make progress when Xie Chong's call interrupted her train of thought.
Without even looking at who it was, she hung up directly.
On the other end, Xie Chong thought he'd dialed the wrong number, checked the phone again, and called back.
Mu Wen let out an annoyed "Ugh!" and had no choice but to pick up the phone again. Seeing it was Xie Chong, she went "Huh?"—Night Shura. Why is he calling me?
"Hello, Mr. Xie." Mu Wen didn't wait for Xie Chong to respond before asking directly, "Is something the matter?"
"…You just rejected my call."
"No, I didn't…" Mu Wen refused to admit it. "What's up?"
"How's the renovation going?" Xie Chong asked.
"We're chipping up the floor tiles," Mu Wen said. "Mr. Xie can go check it out yourself. Liu Gong was actually mentioning today that you haven't been there since we started."
Xie Chong said, "I don't want to go. It's too dirty inside."
"Oh." Mu Wen said distractedly, "I'll report to you after we finish at the site."
"Alright. Thank you."
"You're welcome." Mu Wen was eager to get back to her drawings, so she said directly, "Bye then!" and hung up without hesitation.
Xie Chong listened to the dial tone and thought: Have I been too nice to her? She dares to hang up on a client like that?
Two days later, in the evening, he went to the house.
As soon as he got off the elevator, he saw the door open and heard people talking inside. It was Mu Wen.
Xie Chong walked in and saw Mu Wen wearing a mask, crouching on the ground to check if the floor was level—she was practically pressing her face against the floor.
When she saw Xie Chong arrive, she jumped up. Her white mask was covered in dust, looking filthy. Unaware of this, she pulled a new mask from her pocket and handed it to Xie Chong: "Mr. Xie, put this on quickly. There's too much dust."
Xie Chong took the mask and looked around.
They really did good work. In just a few days, the walls that needed to be knocked down were gone, the floors that needed to be chipped were done, and the construction debris had been hauled away. The whole place was now empty, making it look even bigger.
"Satisfied?" Mu Wen's eyes, the only visible part of her face, looked at Xie Chong expectantly for praise.
"Not bad, I guess."
"Not bad?" Mu Wen was displeased. "How can such beautiful work be just 'not bad'?"
"Change your mask," Xie Chong said. "That one's dirty. It's hard to look at."
Mu Wen took off her mask, looked at it, and put it back on. "The inside isn't dirty." Then she started introducing the next phase of work to Xie Chong: "Once the space is all set up, we'll start running the wiring. You really should come see the lines Liu Gong runs—they're like art!"
Liu Gong chuckled from the side.
As they were leaving, Xie Chong asked Mu Wen, "Do you really love this job that much? Every time I see you, you're like you've had a shot of adrenaline."
"Of course! This job is so fun!" Mu Wen's face still had the imprint of the mask, and she rubbed it as she said, "How could anyone not like it? Building houses, renovating—these are all really fun things."
Xie Chong suddenly asked, "Did Lin Gong send you here this time?"
"No. Master's been too busy these past few days—no time. I live nearby, so I just came by after work." Mu Wen patted her chest. "Don't worry, you can trust us! We do solid work—you don't even need to supervise us!"
She was way too good at tooting her own horn.
Xie Chong smiled and glanced at his watch. It was almost 7:30, and the sky was completely dark.
"What are you having for dinner?" he asked. He wanted to thank Mu Wen—he hadn't expected her to care so much about his house, and it moved him.
"I'll go eat behind the dorm later," Mu Wen said. "There's lots of good food there." She didn't realize Xie Chong was trying to invite her to dinner, and continued on her own: "I need to eat a lot today. I was too busy during the day to eat."
"What I mean is, I can treat you to dinner." Xie Chong sighed. "Can't you understand that?"
"Huh?" Only then did Mu Wen catch on. She waved her hands with a flattered, almost overwhelmed look. "No need, no need. This is all just part of my job."
Seeing Xie Chong growing impatient, she quickly said, "Then how about you just come with me to grab a quick bite in the alley?" She didn't feel right accepting favors without earning them, and didn't dare actually let Xie Chong treat her to a meal. If she ate, she'd have to think about repaying him, and with her meager funds, she couldn't afford to owe Xie Chong that kind of favor.
She kept mentioning an alley, but Xie Chong had no idea such a place existed. He was curious, though, so he said, "Fine, let's go."
Mu Wen insisted on taking the bus, saying it would save time looking for parking and let them eat sooner. She must have been genuinely hungry—she was nearly squished flat on the bus. Xie Chong hadn't ridden a bus in years, and now he stood there, a tall figure crammed in, getting elbowed in the ribs one moment and stepped on the next.
Seeing this, Mu Wen felt a secret satisfaction: You finally know how it feels!
But she was a good person at heart. She reached out and pulled him over to her spot, then turned to face him, holding the back of the front seat with one hand and the vertical pole with the other, creating a relatively clear space for him.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it," Mu Wen said. "It's only a few stops."
Xie Chong had never been protected like this before. He felt that he must look "pitiful" and "helpless" right now. The thought made him want to crawl into a hole.
Fortunately, they got off soon.
Following behind Mu Wen, he passed through a small gate, made a few turns, and found a hidden gem. The back alley she'd mentioned was a small night market, packed with everything and crowded with people.
Xie Chong had never liked crowds since he was young. The moment he entered such an environment, he unconsciously grew irritable. It was like dining—if a restaurant made him queue, he'd turn around and leave.
Mu Wen took Xie Chong straight to eat boiled skewers.
The Sichuan proprietress noticed the extraordinary man beside Mu Wen and asked her, "Bringing a friend to eat?"
"Yeah, my client!" Mu Wen introduced enthusiastically, pulled out a chair, and directed Xie Chong to squeeze in and sit with her.
Xie Chong's arm pressed against Mu Wen's arm, his knee touching hers. He felt it was impolite and shifted aside—only to bump into a stranger. So he moved back, afraid the stranger might think he was a creep.
The hot pot steamed, and Mu Wen's eyes gleamed with "greedy" light. She ordered skewers with practiced ease, then turned to ask Xie Chong what he wanted. Xie Chong said, "Anything's fine."
"Then just pick from the pot yourself."
"Okay."
There was no privacy here at all—Xie Chong could hear every word from the people beside him. He also worried about someone's spittle flying into his dipping sauce, so he kept one hand shielding it, like a mother hen guarding her eggs.
Mu Wen ate while stealing sideways glances at him. Somehow, seeing Xie Chong like this made her heart nearly burst with glee. She even pretended to care and asked him, "What's wrong? Is it not tasty?"
Xie Chong ignored her and picked a few skewers from the pot to eat.
This stuff wasn't good either. He couldn't understand why Mu Wen was eating it so happily. The steam irritated him, making him restless—he just wanted to leave quickly.
Fortunately, Mu Wen wolfed down her food fast. He quickly paid the bill and went out first.
The Sichuan proprietress quietly said to Mu Wen, "He has such a small appetite." She didn't suspect at all that he thought her food was "not tasty."
Mu Wen nodded: "Exactly, such a small appetite!"
After going out, she asked Xie Chong if it was good. She even said she'd seen in idol dramas that rich people loved this kind of down-to-earth place! Xie Chong asked her, "Do you want to hear the truth?"
"Sure."
"I think it's only good for filling your stomach." Xie Chong recalled the loud burp from the person beside him and felt nauseous again.
He deeply regretted offering to treat Mu Wen to a meal.
Mu Wen was a very nice person, but they really couldn't eat together.
"I'll walk you to your building."
"No need, no need." Mu Wen waved her hand. "Don't bother, goodbye!"
Xie Chong said nothing, silently heading toward Mu Wen's place. At the entrance, he told her, "Go on up. You worked hard today."
"Bye."
Mu Wen waved goodbye to him.
She quickly ran upstairs, reached the small balcony, and looked down from above.
She spotted Xie Chong with difficulty among the crowded crowd under the overpass—he seemed to be hailing a taxi. But when a car came, someone else snatched it first.
This was a rare moment of clumsiness for him, and Mu Wen let out a snicker.
"What are you looking at?" Chu Ling asked her.
Right, what am I looking at? Why did I rush up here to watch him?
Mu Wen felt confused.