“What is it?” Sheng Nianxi couldn’t remember for a moment.
“The thing about meeting my parents. They’ve come to Jingbei, and they really want to meet you.” Because of his urgency, Zhou Yanwen’s voice rose slightly.
The corridor was very quiet.
So quiet that, at the far end, the sound of a lighter’s lid snapping shut could be heard—a crisp, brief click, like something breaking.
Sheng Nianxi did not turn around.
Seeing that she had not answered, Zhou Yanwen added, “I just think you’re wonderful. Don’t overthink it. My parents happen to be traveling in Jingbei recently, and I thought it was a rare opportunity. If you think it’s too sudden, then forget it.”
Sheng Nianxi’s fingers tightened around the insulated bag.
At the end of the corridor, that tiny crimson cigarette ember continued to glow and fade.
She did not look, but she knew he was there.
“All right. You arrange it.”
There was an irrepressible note of delight in Zhou Yanwen’s voice.
“Okay! Then I’ll tell my parents!”
Sheng Nianxi nodded.
Zhou Yanwen became even more attentive. “I’ll take you home.”
At the other end of the corridor—
the crimson light suddenly dimmed.
As though someone had taken a hard drag.
Then the cigarette was stubbed out against the trash can.
Fu Shennian stood there, utterly still.
He had heard it.
Every word, clear as day.
“Meet my parents.”
“All right. You arrange it.”
He closed his eyes briefly, and his Adam’s apple bobbed.
He stood there for a long time, until cigarette ash had fallen all over the floor.
Then he turned and walked into the emergency stairwell.
His footsteps echoed through the empty stairwell, one after another, like heavy heartbeats.
At ten past seven, it was still dark.
Sheng Nianxi got into the passenger seat of Zhou Yanwen’s car.
Zhou Yanwen started the engine but did not drive off immediately. He turned on the seat heater first.
“Cold?” he asked.
“I’m fine.”
He reached over and adjusted the air-conditioning vent toward her.
The car drove out of the underground garage. It was a cold spell in March, and fog had risen outside. The streetlights glowed a dim yellow.
Looking out the window, Sheng Nianxi suddenly thought: Perhaps this was what being with Zhou Yanwen would be like.
Steady, gentle, without dramatic highs and lows or soul-wrenching pain.
She was twenty-nine. She should choose a life that would not hurt.
At the intersection ahead, a black Porsche Cayenne suddenly changed lanes from the right and cut in front of them.
Zhou Yanwen lightly tapped the brakes and honked.
“Is this person crazy?”
But Sheng Nianxi stared at the car’s license plate and froze for a moment.
It was Fu Shennian’s car.
The car did not speed away. Instead, it gradually slowed until it was driving alongside them.
The windows were darkly tinted, making it impossible to see inside.
They were less than a meter apart, yet she did not turn her head.
Zhou Yanwen turned the wheel and overtook it.
In the rearview mirror, the car veered unsteadily toward the side of the road, as though searching for somewhere to stop.
She looked away.
Her phone suddenly vibrated.
She lowered her head. A text message from an unfamiliar number read:
“Can we meet?”
There was no signature.
But Sheng Nianxi knew who it was.
She stared at the screen, her hand suspended above it for a full ten seconds before she pressed the delete key.
“Who is it, this early in the morning?” Zhou Yanwen asked casually.
“A junk message,” she said.
Meeting the parents was a nightmare for Sheng Nianxi.
When she first got together with Fu Shennian, she had thought it was a case of Cinderella meeting her prince.
But one day, the fairy tale shattered.
It was not that the glass slipper had fallen off. It was that someone had held up a magnifying glass and told her: You are not worthy of this shoe.
It had happened when she and Fu Shennian had been together for half a year.
Fu Shennian’s mother had invited her to have coffee alone at the most expensive hotel in the China World Trade Center.
Fu’s mother wore an exquisitely tailored qipao and a jade bracelet on her wrist. Her voice was gentle as she spoke, but her eyes were like a ruler, measuring Sheng Nianxi from head to toe.
“Xiao Sheng, I heard your parents work for state-owned enterprises?”
“Yes.”
“Which city?”
“Linjiang.”
“Linjiang…” Fu’s mother took a sip of coffee and smiled. “I have a university classmate who is the director of the Resource Management Bureau in Linjiang. Would you like me to say hello and help your parents get easier positions?”
Sheng Nianxi froze.
That was not kindness.
It was a reminder of the difference between their families.
“No need, Auntie. My parents are doing quite well at their jobs.”
“I see.” Fu’s mother set down her coffee cup. Her gaze settled on Sheng Nianxi, and her smile concealed contempt.
“Shennian has an older brother who has already taken over the family business. As for Shennian, he was spoiled from childhood and did whatever he wanted. His family never interfered with him. But there is one thing his family insists on: the person he marries must be worthy of him.”
The words “worthy of him” were like a basin of cold water poured over her from head to toe.
“I’m not saying that you’re not good enough,” Fu’s mother said with a smile. “You’re beautiful, well educated, and a good girl. But in a family like ours, marriage is not just a matter between two people. Think about it. In the future, at Shennian’s friends’ gatherings, the others will bring famous socialites and heiresses, while he will bring…”
She paused and did not finish.
But Sheng Nianxi understood what that unfinished sentence meant.
On the way home that day, she cried all the way through the subway ride.
She had never told Fu Shennian about it. She did not want to put him in a difficult position.
She had simply thought that perhaps if she became a little better and worked a little harder, she could become worthy of him.
So she worked desperately toward her doctorate, wanting to make herself better.
She had believed that as long as she was outstanding enough, the difference in family status would no longer matter.
Until, in the end, Fu Shennian told her to “go die.”
Only then did she fully understand: Just like his mother, he had always believed from beginning to end that she was unworthy!
Outside the car window, the fog grew thicker and thicker.
Fu Shennian waited for ten minutes, but there was no reply.
Chen Xuan called him countless times, but he did not answer a single one.
His eyes remained fixed on the text message. He refreshed the screen again and again, but no new message came in.
More and more pedestrians appeared on the streets, and his heart sank little by little…
Suddenly, his mother called.
He answered.
“Xiaonian, how could you treat Xuanxuan like that? She was injured, and you actually left her with the housekeeper and ran off by yourself. Have you forgotten what you said before?”
Fu Shennian pressed a hand to his forehead and slumped over the steering wheel, closing his eyes in anguish.
The image of Sheng Nianxi standing shoulder to shoulder with another man kept surfacing in his mind.
She had moved forward and begun a new life. The only person trapped by the past was him…
After returning home, Sheng Nianxi caught up on some sleep. When she woke, it was already afternoon.
She picked up her phone and saw a WeChat message from Zhou Yanwen.
The time and place had been decided.
Three days later, at the Wormwood Book House.
Her eyes trembled suddenly.
What a coincidence. They had actually chosen this place?
The Wormwood Book House was now a famous internet-famous check-in spot in Jingbei.
It combined a bookstore, a flower shop, and a café, with aviation elements incorporated into its décor.
The person who ran it was Chen Xuan.
The shop had originally been opened for her by Fu Shennian. At first, it had only been a small bookstore.
Chen Xuan was skilled at calligraphy, artistic and intellectual.
Sheng Nianxi had been jealous over it, but Fu Shennian had laughed at her.
“What are you thinking about in that little head of yours? Chen Xuan doesn’t like me. She has someone she likes.”
Sheng Nianxi had believed him.
Besides, Fu Shennian had treated her so well. A rich heir had learned to cook and do laundry for her.
During that period, he had even hand-washed her underwear.
So she had stopped dwelling on the matter.
“Could we change the place?” she sent in a message.
“What’s wrong? My parents chose it, and they’ve already made a reservation. It’s very difficult to get a spot there. If we don’t go, they’ll probably be disappointed.”
Sheng Nianxi bit her lip and told herself that if she had truly let go, she would not care.
After hesitating for a while, she finally sent a message:
“Okay. I’ll be there on time.”
Chen Xuan’s hand was injured, so she might not be at the shop.
But even if she was there, Sheng Nianxi was not afraid. There was nothing she needed to avoid.
Three days later, at the Wormwood Book House.
They sat by the window, beside an entire wall of bookshelves interspersed with freshly cut flowers. The fragrance of books mingled with the scent of flowers, creating an elegant, quiet, refined atmosphere.
Many pieces of calligraphy hung on the walls, their strokes vigorous and powerful, twisting like flying dragons and dancing snakes.
Every signature belonged to Chen Xuan.
Sheng Nianxi swept her gaze over them once, then looked away.
Zhou Yanwen’s parents sat across from her. Both wore glasses and carried an air of scholarly refinement.
She had heard Zhou Yanwen say that they had both taught at a key high school in a county town for their entire careers.
“Xiao Sheng, what do your parents do?”
“My parents both work for a local state-owned enterprise.”
“That’s good, that’s good.” Mother Zhou smiled and nodded, the satisfaction in her eyes almost spilling over. “Yanwen often talks about you and says you’re beautiful. But seeing you today, you’re more than just beautiful. You’re naturally lovely, well educated, and have a good job. That’s so rare.”
Sheng Nianxi felt a little embarrassed by the praise and lowered her head to take a sip of coffee.
This was good. She had found a social class suited to her.
Neither she nor her parents had been looked down upon.
The atmosphere relaxed.
Mother Zhou began talking about Zhou Yanwen’s childhood, saying that he had been sensible from a young age, had never required anyone to worry about his studies, and had been recommended all the way through school.
Father Zhou did not speak much, but his gaze toward her was gentle as well, and he occasionally added a few words.
As Sheng Nianxi listened, a trace of warmth rose in her heart. So this was what a normal life was like.
Being accepted, being liked, being treated as one of their own.
Just then, footsteps sounded from the second floor.
Along with a childish voice:
“Daddy, Mommy, I want to come down!”
Sheng Nianxi raised her eyes as though she had not meant to, and instantly froze.