An accidental encounter? At a bar?
When he called her just now, he had said he was having late night snacks with his colleagues. How could he be at a bar instead? And playing Truth or Dare with Su Leqi?
Tang Luoqing’s breathing tightened.
She did not want to wrong Zhou Yancheng, so she nervously opened the comments.
The top comment had been posted by Zhou Yancheng just one minute ago.
[Don’t get too smug. I’ll win next time.]
But only ten minutes ago, he had called her and said he was too tired and was going back to the hotel to sleep.
So it had all been a lie?
Tang Luoqing stared at the screen for a long time. Before long, bitterness spread through her heart, leaving her chest feeling painfully tight.
After a long while, she took a deep breath and called Zhou Yancheng.
The phone rang almost until the end before he answered.
This time, the background seemed quieter, making it sound as though Zhou Yancheng really was in his hotel room.
“Baby? Why aren’t you asleep yet? Did you miss me so much that you couldn’t fall asleep?”
Zhou Yancheng smoothly slipped into his usual sweet talk. “I missed you too. I even dream about you.”
Listening to the familiar sweet words he said almost every day, Tang Luoqing, who was normally so easily moved by them, could not help wondering whether he really thought about her every day.
“Where are you?”
Tang Luoqing forced back her tears, her voice slightly choked.
“At the hotel. I just lay down and was about to go to sleep.”
Zhou Yancheng yawned, acting as though everything were completely real.
“What’s wrong, baby? Did you…”
Before he could finish, a clear female voice suddenly came from nearby.
“Yancheng, what are you hiding over there? Come over and drink. Stop dragging your feet. Luckily, you were the one who volunteered for this project, otherwise we wouldn’t have enough people tonight and this game wouldn’t be nearly as fun. Hurry up, everyone’s waiting for you.”
Volunteered?
Tang Luoqing closed her eyes, and a tear slipped down her cheek.
So it was not that Big Brother had forced this assignment on him. It was not an unavoidable work arrangement. He had volunteered for it himself?
Zhou Yancheng on the other end of the phone was obviously flustered as well.
Rustling sounds came through the receiver, as though he were covering the phone and walking somewhere quieter.
A few seconds later, Zhou Yancheng’s voice came through again.
“Baby, you heard wrong. She wasn’t calling me…”
“So should I go ask Big Brother whether he really arranged for you to go on this business trip?”
When Tang Luoqing said this, she thought her voice sounded calm. At least, that was what she believed.
But to Zhou Yancheng, her voice was already filled with uncontrollable sobbing.
There was silence on the other end.
Knowing he could no longer hide it, Zhou Yancheng changed his tone.
“Baby, I only didn’t tell you because I was afraid you’d get angry. You’re too good to me, and I was afraid that if you got angry, you’d leave me. Besides, I really wanted to prove myself by choosing to come here for this project.”
“But when did I ever say I’d be angry if you volunteered to go on a business trip?”
Tang Luoqing sniffed, her voice soft and low, making her sound especially vulnerable.
“I’m not unreasonable. If you had just told me the truth, I would have understood, but you…”
As she spoke, Tang Luoqing could not help remembering how Zhou Yancheng had repeatedly told her at home that his brother had arranged the trip, that he could not refuse, and that he wanted to prove himself, portraying himself as someone who had no choice.
Thinking about it now, Zhou Jinbai was rather unfairly blamed for something he had never done.
“I was wrong, but you know how much effort I’ve put into this project. I really care about it.”
Before Tang Luoqing could say anything, Zhou Yancheng continued in an even gentler voice.
“As for tonight, it was just a regular get together. I happened to run into Su Leqi. If it bothers you, I won’t go to gatherings like this again.”
Hearing this, Tang Luoqing gripped her phone without saying anything, her knuckles turning white.
Even now, Zhou Yancheng still did not understand why she was unhappy.
It was because he had lied to her.
The thing Tang Luoqing hated most was being lied to.
After a long silence, Tang Luoqing took a deep breath.
“Forget it.”
Before Zhou Yancheng could say anything else, Tang Luoqing hung up.
She hugged Little Milk Candy and buried her face against the little cat’s soft belly. A wave of bitterness filled her heart, and tears began falling uncontrollably.
Two more missed calls from Zhou Yancheng soon appeared on her phone, but Tang Luoqing did not want to answer them.
The next day, she could not summon any energy at all.
Tang Luoqing sat at her desk and stared blankly at the drawing paper for the entire morning. She drew, erased, then drew again, but nothing looked right.
One moment, she saw the photograph from Su Leqi’s Weibo in her mind.
Next, she heard Zhou Yancheng’s voice when he had lied to her.
Everything was a tangled mess that she could not sort out.
It was at this moment that her best friend Shen Baiyan called.
“I’m in Jing City on a business trip. Surprise!”
Shen Baiyan’s loud, energetic voice came through the phone.
Tang Luoqing froze. “Where are you?”
“I just got to the client’s company. I should be finished around six.”
Shen Baiyan continued from the other end, “Let’s have dinner together tonight, then go sit at a riverside bar. What do you think?”
Tang Luoqing instinctively wanted to refuse. She really was not in the mood to have fun, but Shen Baiyan had come to Jing City all the way from somewhere else, so she could not turn her down.
Besides, staying home would only make her overthink things. She might as well go out and clear her head.
“Okay.”
At six that evening, Tang Luoqing and Shen Baiyan went to a Jiangnan style restaurant for dinner before heading together to a bar by the river.
The place was near one of Jing City’s iconic landmarks. The river stretched wide before them, dotted with dim lights as a gentle breeze swept across the water. It was slightly cooler than other places, offering a rare sense of comfort amid the fast pace of a major city.
Inside the bar, warm yellow lights illuminated the room while the resident singer sat on stage with a guitar, singing a slow song in a gentle voice.
Shen Baiyan wore a red strappy dress that made her look bright and striking, while Tang Luoqing wore a simple white dress that made her look soft and sweet.
Together, the two women were enough to attract attention simply by sitting there.
After Shen Baiyan rejected another man who came over to flirt with them, she took a photo of herself and Tang Luoqing together and posted it on her WeChat Moments.
Before long, the post received a flood of likes.
Shen Baiyan glanced at the post, then turned to Tang Luoqing.
“What exactly happened? I noticed something was wrong with you while we were eating.”
“Did that brat Zhou Yancheng bully you?”
Tang Luoqing shook her head. “No. I’m just a little tired.”
“Tired my ass. That bastard definitely made you angry.”
Shen Baiyan rolled her eyes and pushed a pink drink toward Tang Luoqing.
“Try this.”
Tang Luoqing took a sip. It was refreshingly sweet, with a faint peach fragrance and a light taste of alcohol. It was actually quite good.
Curious, she took another large sip, but she drank too quickly and choked, coughing several times until her face turned bright red.
“Slow down. No one’s going to steal it from you.”
Shen Baiyan patted Tang Luoqing’s back, both amused and exasperated.
“You’re just too well behaved. You don’t even know how to drink. Come on, tell me. Did you and Zhou Yancheng have a fight?”
Tang Luoqing coughed for a while before finally recovering. She shook her head.
“Not exactly a fight. It’s just… he lied to me. He said his brother arranged the project, but actually he volunteered for it himself. He also lied and said he was busy with work, but he was actually at a bar hanging out with friends.”
“I told you he was no good. That guy has all kinds of tricks up his sleeve.”
Shen Baiyan slammed her hand against the table in anger.
“I told you before that a young master like him couldn’t be trusted, but you refused to believe me.”
Tang Luoqing said nothing.
Yes, everyone had told her that Zhou Yancheng was a playboy who would never give his heart to anyone.
But she had seen his sincerity herself.
“Enough, let’s not talk about him anymore. He’s ruining the mood.”
Shen Baiyan smiled. “We finally get to see each other. Let’s talk about something happy. Let me tell you…”
Shen Baiyan launched into one amusing story after another about things that had happened at work, while Tang Luoqing listened absentmindedly.
The music in the bar was soft, and the lights were warm, but her heart still felt heavy, as though a stone were pressing down on it.
After sitting there for about half an hour, Shen Baiyan wanted to use the restroom.
“I’m going outside to get some air. I’ll come back in a while.”
Tang Luoqing glanced toward the riverside outside the window.
Shen Baiyan looked at her and nodded. “Sure.”
The two women walked in different directions. Shen Baiyan headed toward the back of the bar, while Tang Luoqing pushed open the glass door.
The river breeze swept over her face, cool and soothing.
There were very few people by the railing along the river, making the area unusually quiet. The only sounds were the water lapping against the shore and the distant horns of passing boats.
Tang Luoqing leaned against the railing and stared at the reflections of the lights on the river.
One by one, the lights and the tall buildings were reflected in the water, their images broken apart by the rippling current, just like her emotions at that moment.
She did not know what Zhou Yancheng was doing. Was he drinking with Su Leqi and the others again, or… was he laughing and chatting with another woman like he had done in the office that time?
Tang Luoqing rubbed her temples and closed her eyes in frustration.
What she did not know was that Zhou Jinbai was sitting in a window side booth on the second floor, holding a glass of wine in the shadows.
Lu Yu sat across from him, talking incessantly about the cultural and creative exhibition planned for the second half of the year. He had been talking for nearly half an hour. Zhou Jinbai responded every now and then, his gaze resting unfocused on the river outside the window.
He had not wanted to come in the first place.
It was already past eight after his evening meeting. Lu Yu had insisted on dragging him here for a couple of drinks, complaining that his grandfather had scolded him again for ruining art.
Unable to get out of it, Zhou Jinbai had no choice but to come and sit for a while.
His gaze casually swept toward the riverside outside the bar downstairs, and his eyes paused.
He saw Tang Luoqing leaning against the railing, wearing a simple dress.
Her hair had been slightly tousled by the wind, with several loose strands clinging to her cheek.
She was looking down at the river, her side profile devoid of expression.
Her entire figure looked listless, like the little cat in the drawing he had seen before that had nearly been caught in the rain, looking completely dispirited.
Zhou Jinbai’s grip on the wine glass tightened slightly before returning to normal.
He withdrew his gaze and continued listening to Lu Yu, his expression calm, as though that glance had merely been accidental and he had not even seen clearly who it was.
Yet he lifted his glass and drained the rest of the wine in one go.
The sharp alcohol slid down his throat, burning all the way.
Zhou Jinbai closed his eyes, but the image from that fleeting glance surfaced in his mind against his will.
Was she unhappy because of Yancheng? Or had she encountered a bottleneck with her drawing?
A string of questions surfaced, only to be forcibly suppressed by Zhou Jinbai.
Why was he thinking about this?
She was Yancheng’s girlfriend. Whether she was happy or unhappy was not something her boyfriend’s brother had any business worrying about.
Lu Yu continued talking across from him. Zhou Jinbai responded occasionally, his fingertips tapping lightly against the wine glass.
Each tap was half a beat slower than usual.
He drank one glass of the harsh liquor after another, yet it seemed to have no taste at all.
After what felt like a long time, or perhaps only a few minutes, Zhou Jinbai’s fingertip tapped the glass one final time. His knuckles curled slightly as he set the glass down.
He raised his eyes and glanced toward the slender figure by the railing downstairs. His prominent Adam’s apple moved subtly once, and then he pushed himself to his feet with his long legs.
“I’m going to the restroom.”
The man’s deep voice sounded completely normal.
Zhou Jinbai walked out of the private booth, his steps steady and perfectly controlled.
His eyes were lowered, his long lashes casting shadows over the emotions hidden within them, while the fingers tucked inside his trouser pocket tightened into a fist.
As he reached the first floor, the entrance of the bar came closer and closer, and the figure outside the glass door became increasingly clear.
Zhou Jinbai’s gaze unconsciously darkened, his jaw tightening almost imperceptibly. Yet his pace remained unhurried as he walked steadily toward the riverside railing.
But just as he was about to step out of the bar, a black figure suddenly ran over from the distance and wrapped his arms around Tang Luoqing from behind.
It was Zhou Yancheng.
Zhou Jinbai stopped in his tracks.