Lin Shiyu draped an arm over Lin Yanbei’s shoulder as they walked into the elevator and swiped the keycard.
Inside the elevator bay of Century Huating Building No. 3, the button for the 34th floor, the very top, illuminated silently. The elevator doors closed, and the overhead floor indicator slowly climbed upward from -2.
Lin Shiyu reached out and smoothed Lin Yanbei’s hair, her face radiant with a wide smile: “Congratulations on smoothly passing your interview, Yanbeibei! Passing Jiang Ran’s test is no easy feat, as expected of you. But your little aunt has a flight tonight, so I won’t be able to help you celebrate. Get yourself settled in first, and I’ll make it up to you with a feast as soon as I get back.”
Lin Yanbei’s gaze swept across the elevator interior. It was spacious, its metallic walls subtly displaying golden dark patterns. The large elevator contained only the quiet sound of mechanical operation, lacking even common video display ads.
Century Huating stood directly across the river from the Century Center Building, situated in a prime location. In Jingdu, even if it wasn’t considered top-tier ultra-luxury, it was certainly high-end real estate. Could she, a mere intern, really afford the rent here?
The financially strapped intern secretly rubbed her fingertips together and asked hesitantly, “Little Aunt… am I really staying here?”
Lin Shiyu was familiar with that expression on her face and comforted her reassuringly: “It’s free of charge. This is company property, and Jiang Ran said you could use it as a staff dormitory for now.” Lin Shiyu stuffed the elevator card into Lin Yanbei’s hand.
Lin Yanbei gasped in astonishment: “A property with these conditions… used as a dormitory?”
“Mm. Before this, it was Jiang Ran’s dormitory, provided to her by the company. She was extremely busy during those years and worked a lot of overtime; this place is closest to the company, which saved her commute time. After the New Year, she moved into a new house, so leaving it empty would just be a waste anyway.”
The elevator responded with a chime and stopped at the 34th floor. Lin Shiyu took Lin Yanbei’s luggage and was the first to step out of the elevator.
The top floor was a private single-unit floor. Lin Shiyu pressed a series of numbers into the electronic lock, and the lock mechanism turned open. She pushed open the door, stepping aside to let Lin Yanbei inside.
“This is the only top-floor duplex in the building, around one hundred and fifty-plus square meters split between the upper and lower levels. Downstairs has a guest bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Upstairs is the master bedroom, along with a study and a walk-in closet, plus a small balcony. If you prefer the lower floor, the area behind the sofa where the console table and tea area used to be was converted by Jiang Ran into a free-form workspace; you can also place your computer here to use as a study.”
Lin Shiyu wandered around the living room on her own, introducing the space for quite a while without hearing any response from Lin Yanbei.
Tilting her head to look back, she saw Lin Yanbei standing right in the center of the living room, staring blankly at the super high-ceiling French floor-to-ceiling window before her.
The design of this floor-to-ceiling window was unique. It did not rely on the advantage of a high-ceiling duplex at all. It neither sought a vast, unbroken view with a giant single slab of glass, nor did it aim for the dreamlike styling of a sky garden.
Unconventionally, it was partitioned into long, narrow vertical glass panes. Each segment was no wider than 40 centimeters, with the narrowest dividers measuring only 20-some centimeters wide. It was the same horizontally, divided into fine, intricate fragments, yet arranged in a beautifully staggered rhythm.
The sunlight was just right at this moment. Light poured through the irregular window frames, casting shadows that stretched infinitely long across the floor, magically growing into countless lush tree shadows. The dry tree trunks crisscrossed and overlapped with one another; without any decoration required, it felt as though one were standing right inside a decayed forest.
Lin Yanbei walked through the forest of light, stepping into the magic of shadows and standing there in awe.
She had seen plenty of architecture that utilized light and shadow to the extreme. But this was merely a small top-floor duplex; a single high-ceiling, floor-to-ceiling window was enough to captivate her in admiration for a very long time.
“Is it special?” Lin Shiyu came to stand by her side. “Jiang Ran designed it.”
Jiang Ran… Lin Yanbei felt as though she had caught a glimpse of the designer’s unique soul.
Lin Shiyu added: “This house has a great orientation with very long daylight hours. When renovating, she only changed this single window.”
“You can take your time to appreciate it after you move in. But right now, your primary task is to unpack and settle down, and see if anything is missing so I can take you to the nearby supermarket to buy it all.” Lin Shiyu led Lin Yanbei around the house once more.
Whatever they realized was missing, they noted down in the memo app. Around noon, she took Lin Yanbei to the supermarket to buy everything on the list. After having a quick, simple lunch, they bade a hurried farewell.
Lin Yanbei preferred the first floor; she had already planned to buy a few broad-leaf plants to place in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, so she decided to stay in the downstairs bedroom.
By the time she finished unpacking all the bits and pieces, the sky had gradually darkened.
She went out to pick up a food delivery, sitting down by the tea table near the floor-to-ceiling window to slowly unwrap the packaging. The crimson evening glow spilled past the window frames on the southwest side, landing just perfectly on her inexpensive takeout noodles, soaking the plain broth into a beautiful tomato red.
It looked much more appetizing now; Jingdu’s generosity manifested in all its aspects.
Lin Yanbei began to like it here. She took a photo of her dinner and posted it to her Moments feed. The caption read: Thankful for the tomato noodles gifted by Jingdu.
After enjoying her dinner, a few likes and comments appeared on her Moments.
After replying to the warm inquiries from her grandmother, grandfather, and grandmother, Lin Yanbei’s eyes landed on Shu Yang’s name next to the heart icon, and she tapped into her profile feed.
The very first post was a 9-grid photo set of an island sent just moments ago, recording a loving couple’s newlywed honeymoon trip. The likes from their mutual friends were practically spilling past the third line.
“Ding-dong.” The WeChat notification sound rang out. Lin Yanbei exited Shu Yang’s feed; Sister Lion’s avatar was flashing with a 30-second voice message. Tapping it, a booming voice immediately burst through the speaker:
“Holy shit! Yanbei, did you see that?! How dare she like your post! What a nerve, what absolute nerve! Does she still want to keep you on the hook? Is she really that free on her honeymoon?! Not only keeping tabs on her ex’s Moments all the time, but even liking the post! Is she some kind of time management master?!”
The prickling irritation in Lin Yanbei’s heart was dissipated by Sister Lion’s voice, and she couldn’t help but burst into a laugh.
Lin Yanbei replied to her: 【I saw it.】
Sister Lion immediately dialed a video call over.
“Lin Yanbei, were you thinking about liking her post back?!” Sister Lion’s face and finger looked as if they were about to poke right through the screen at Lin Yanbei’s forehead.
Lin Yanbei was startled for a moment, pulling her phone a bit further away as she answered with a smile: “No, I just saw it while casually scrolling through. I didn’t press like.”
“Not paying attention to her is the right move,” Sister Lion nodded. “The two of you were an absolute ill-fated knot. You’ve already run all the way to Jingdu; don’t even think about lingering connections.”
Lin Yanbei reiterated: “She just left a like; there’s nothing more to it.”
Sister Lion raised an eyebrow, wide-eyed: “What do you mean ‘nothing more to it’? Are you still hoping for something more to happen?!”
“No, I’m not.” Lin Yanbei shook her head.
Sister Lion continued: “That’s more like it. Focus on making a fresh start in Jingdu. Speaking of which, how did your interview go today? Was it smooth?”
Lin Yanbei smiled and said: “It went pretty well. Let me show you.” She flipped the camera around, panning it in a wide sweep across the high-ceilinged duplex.
Only Sister Lion’s exclamation could be heard: “Holy shit, Lin Yanbei, did you inherit a family fortune as a rich second-generation?!”
“Wait, that’s not right! Your parents passed away so long ago; where would any inheritance come from? Did you sell your soul and body?! Did you get so hurt by Shu Yang that you learned from her and found a sugar daddy?!” Sister Lion rambled without filter.
Lin Yanbei wasn’t annoyed either, explaining patiently: “I received an offer from D&A today. This is the company dormitory, and I can stay here temporarily for a while.”
She stood up, expanding the distance between the camera lens and the floor-to-ceiling window. “Look, isn’t the design of this curtain wall very unique?”
Lin Yanbei hadn’t turned on the lights. The faint moonlight and the newly lit city nightscape were framed by the floor-to-ceiling window, delivered right before Sister Lion’s eyes via the phone video.
Sister Lion was instantly struck by the beauty, marveling: “This is actually a dormitory?! As expected of D&A, their employee perks are so high! What position did you get?”
Lin Yanbei subconsciously recalled a pair of clear, delicate eyebrows and eyes, her lips curving up uncontrollably: “Jiang Ran’s assistant.”
“Who?” Sister Lion made a gesture as if picking at her ear.
Lin Yanbei said: “Assistant to Jiang Ran, the Chief Executive Architect of D&A.”
Sister Lion visibly swallowed her saliva: “Lin Yanbei, you’re about to take off! That… is… Jiang Ran! My idol! You became her assistant! You actually became her assistant!”
“Lin Yanbei, you deserve good things, but not this insanely good! Ahhhhh! You must work hard and cling tightly to Jiang Ran’s leg! Your sister here will be waiting for the day you return triumphantly to Yangcheng…”
Even after hanging up the phone, Sister Lion’s screaming “ahhhhh” sounds were still ringing in Lin Yanbei’s ears.
She felt fortunate to have a close, trusted friend like Sister Lion, someone she could vent to now and then.
She curled into the large, comfortable sofa in the living room, scrolling through all 18 of Shu Yang’s honeymoon photos. She cleared their mutual chat history, deleted the dedicated photo album from her phone, and cleaned it all out piece by piece, just like that afternoon when she had pieced together that complete ultrasound report fragment by fragment.
Lin Yanbei had never expected her first love to end in such a chaotic and embarrassing mess. Now, looking at her fresh and clean phone memory, a trace of relief surprisingly emerged from the lingering melancholy.
She lowered her phone, and in the evening, as the sunset glow faded into the rising stars and moon, she began visualizing the life in Jingdu she was about to start.