Mengmeng: So why didn’t you just ask for his WeChat?
morning: Wouldn’t that make my intentions too obvious?
morning: I was planning to ask for it when he returned my charger.
morning: How was I supposed to know…
morning: Half an hour! Just half an hour! And he was already gone!
morning: It was the original charger, too! Those things are expensive!
Mengmeng: Hahahahahahahahaha!
Mengmeng: Don’t you work in the same office park? Why not put up a missing-person notice and see what happens?
morning: Wouldn’t that embarrass him to death?
morning: Forget it. I’ll just wait until we run into each other again.
Mengmeng: Good luck!
morning: sobbing uncontrollably
Mengmeng was Meng Jiayin, Mu Ning’s classmate during graduate school. After graduation, both of them moved to Bincheng for work. Mu Ning joined a game studio as a copywriter and content planner, while Meng Jiayin went to work in public relations at a mobile phone company.
They initially shared a rented apartment. Later, Mengmeng’s company relocated its entire operation to a separate office building, making her commute much longer. Living together was no longer convenient, so they each found a new place to live. With their exhausting 996 work schedules, they were willing to do whatever it took to squeeze in an extra thirty minutes of sleep.
A laptop was indispensable in the life of an office worker. After all, there was no telling when a manager might suddenly drop some ridiculous task into a Feishu group chat and demand that it be completed within half an hour.
The 996 work schedule was hardly the limit of what employers could demand from their workers. It merely described how long their physical bodies had to remain in the office.
Mu Ning’s iPad and laptop shared the same charger. Her phone charger could technically charge them, too, but it was painfully slow.
Three days later, she finally gritted her teeth and ordered a new charger online. It wasn’t an original-brand charger, but one from another brand she had been eyeing for a while. Its charging cable could retract into the body for easy storage, making it much more convenient than the original.
If she never ran into X again, she would generously give the new charger to him.
A month passed.
Mu Ning had grown accustomed to her new charger. She only occasionally remembered that X still had her old one.
She had revised her résumé again and again but still couldn’t bring herself to submit it anywhere. Valerius’s birthday was coming up, and she needed to finish his birthday card project first. After that, if she stayed at the company for another two months, the end of the year would arrive. Considering the year-end bonus, she could probably endure her job a little longer.
She attended a meeting in the morning and spent the afternoon putting together the requirements document for Valerius’s birthday card.
A requirements document translated the original visual concept for the birthday card into detailed written instructions that the art team could follow directly. It covered everything from clothing, poses, and facial expressions to the setting and overall atmosphere.
She sent the document to the new copywriting team leader, who went by the nickname Sister Gua, for review.
It wasn’t until eight thirty that evening that Sister Gua finally sent her feedback: a voice message lasting more than fifty seconds.
Mu Ning took a deep breath and used the speech-to-text function.
Sister Gua: “I’ve looked at the reference images. I think the concept of a ‘dark-night formal outfit’ is a little too ordinary. Remember what the operations team said in this afternoon’s meeting? Revenue has been under a lot of pressure lately, so Valerius’s birthday event and solo character banner are extremely important. Think it over and make his outfit more luxurious…”
Mu Ning fought the urge to curse and replied:
Mu Ning: “Sister Gua, here’s the thing. The birthday cards for all the male leads are designed as a coordinated set. If we make Valerius’s card noticeably more luxurious than the others, fans who support the other four characters individually will definitely complain that the treatment is unfair.”
Sister Gua: “Just make one version according to my requirements first. Keep both versions for now. I’ll discuss them with the operations team tomorrow before deciding which one to use.”
Mu Ning: “Okay.”
Muttering curses under her breath, Mu Ning angrily entered her expected salary into her résumé. She took a gulp of coffee, copied the requirements document into a new spreadsheet tab, and began another round of overtime.
She worked until ten before sending the document to Sister Gua, who replied that she would provide feedback later.
Mu Ning couldn’t be bothered to waste any more time waiting. She packed her things and left.
She crossed the now-quiet central courtyard of the office park and let out a long yawn.
She ducked into a convenience store, hoping to buy herself a little treat. But when she looked around, she realized she had no appetite at all, so she left empty-handed.
Mengmeng sent her a message on WeChat suggesting that they have a meal together. Mu Ning slowly descended the steps at the entrance of the office park, typing her reply as she walked.
After a few exchanges, they settled on a time.
The moment she turned off her phone screen, she heard footsteps behind her.
A second later, a voice as crisp and refreshing as unsweetened lemon water with ice sounded behind her.
“Hello.”
Mu Ning stopped in her tracks and turned around in astonishment.
Under the dim yellow streetlights, a man wearing a black T-shirt entered her field of vision as if he were appearing in a slow-motion shot from an art-house film.
Without making a sound, Mu Ning tightened her grip on the strap of her canvas bag. Her breathing became slower and deeper.
“…Hello.”
“Do you remember me?” X asked as he descended two steps and stopped on the same level as her. “Your charger…”
“Of course! I remember!”
“Sorry. Something urgent came up that day, and I had to return to the office. I couldn’t find you in the store, and I didn’t feel comfortable leaving your charger with the shop assistant to pass on to you, so I took it with me first.” X explained. “I went back to the store after dealing with everything, but we still didn’t run into each other.”
“Ah… I’m sorry, too! I had something to take care of, so I went back to my apartment first. I thought you wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. By the time I returned, you had probably gone back to the office.”
“Bad timing.”
“Yeah… It really was.”
Mu Ning couldn’t manage a natural smile. Even her breathing seemed to have malfunctioned, becoming irregular and unpredictable.
X was much taller than her, so he had to lower his head slightly whenever he spoke to her. At such close range, his handsome face had an overwhelming impact on her senses.
“About the charger…” Mu Ning finally spoke.
“It’s in my office. If you don’t mind waiting, I can go upstairs and get it for you now…”
After all, Mu Ning spent her working days racking her brains to create heart-fluttering romantic scenarios for female players. Although she had absolutely no practical experience herself, her extensive theoretical knowledge still allowed her to quickly identify the best solution to the current situation.
Of course she couldn’t agree to that!
Otherwise, there was a good chance this would be the last time they ever interacted.
“Sorry, I checked the security camera footage, and my cat knocked over its water bowl this morning. It hasn’t had any water all day, so I need to hurry home and give it some.” Her heart was beating so fast that she hoped he couldn’t hear it. “Which building do you work in?”
“Building F.”
“I’m in Building C. They’re not too far apart. Would it be convenient for you to return it to me sometime tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
“Then…”
Her words seemed to get stuck behind her pounding heartbeat, and no sound came out.
Mu Ning paused, cleared her throat, and was about to speak again.
X beat her to it.
“Then let’s add each other on WeChat.”
The screens of their two phones lit up, casting a faint white glow. They looked like tiny portals leading into two separate universes.
Mu Ning scanned the QR code on X’s phone, and the friend request screen appeared.
His WeChat name was JX, and his profile picture was a watercolor painting of a creature that looked like a cross between a large dog and a vulture.
What a coincidence. What an incredible coincidence.
She knew exactly who that character was.
And there was an even bigger coincidence. If her guess was correct, JX was an abbreviation of his name, using its initials.
His name really did begin with X.
Mu Ning sent him a friend request and said, “…I like it, too.”
“Hmm?” X lowered his head a little further.
“The Last Guardian.”
His profile picture featured Trico, the giant creature from the game, with the body and face of a dog and the wings and claws of a bird.
X nodded. “Yeah. It’s a good game.”
Mu Ning had already noticed that although he was very polite, his overall manner was rather distant.
Simply sharing a love for the same game probably wasn’t enough to serve as a key to getting closer to him.
But it was enough for now.
Her achievement tonight was already more than sufficient to keep her awake until three in the morning out of sheer excitement.
“All right, I won’t keep you any longer.” Mu Ning smiled and pointed toward the apartment buildings. “I should get going.”
X nodded.
They stopped talking and descended the final step. Mu Ning headed east, while X walked west.
It wasn’t until she reached the next streetlight that Mu Ning finally looked back, feeling slightly dizzy.
The man with the black backpack slung over one shoulder was already far away. His black-clad figure, bathed in the warm yellow glow of the streetlights, looked like a still frame pulled straight out of a dream.
When she got home, Mu Ning washed up and got ready for bed.
She lay down and nervously tapped X’s profile picture to open his WeChat Moments.
His cover photo was the default one, and he hadn’t set a personal signature. Fortunately, his profile wasn’t completely empty.
He hadn’t restricted who could view his posts, but he rarely shared anything. He seemed to post only once every six months or even once a year, with fewer than ten posts in total. She could scroll all the way to the bottom in no time.
His posts covered a variety of things: screenshots of completing a game, photos of snowy mountains and skies from a trip, and collections of cats and dogs.
It was as if he occasionally remembered that WeChat Moments existed and suddenly felt like posting something.
The very first post, at the bottom, dated back six years.
It appeared to be a company team-building activity. Around a dozen people were standing on a grassy field for a group photo.
X stood third from the left of the center. He was still wearing his trademark black T-shirt. Taller than everyone else, he had a slender build and a relaxed, slightly detached air about him.
Mu Ning saved the photo and forwarded it to Mengmeng.
Mengmeng: “Which celebrity is this? And who are all these ordinary classmates I don’t recognize?”
morning: “It’s a photo of X.”
Mengmeng: “…The most handsome one?”
morning: “Yes!”
Mengmeng: “!!!”
Mengmeng: “That makes perfect sense.”
morning: “Hahahahahahaha!”
Mengmeng: “How did you get this photo?”
morning: “I added him on WeChat. grinning foolishly”
Mengmeng: “!!”
Mengmeng wasn’t satisfied with getting the gossip through text messages. She immediately called Mu Ning and demanded all the details.
More than ten minutes later, after they finished talking, Mu Ning was so excited that she felt as if she’d overdosed on caffeine.
Unable to sleep, she went through X’s WeChat Moments all over again.
Whether he had an excellent sense of privacy or simply couldn’t be bothered to share anything, his posts revealed absolutely nothing about his personal life. His age, university, and employer were all unknown.
The good news was that there were no signs of a girlfriend, either.
Of course, she couldn’t completely rule out the possibility. Some people simply weren’t fond of showing off their relationships online.
He was truly an unsolved mystery.
A complicated equation that practically begged her to work out the final answer.
The next day at work, Sister Gua sent her feedback on the requirements document, along with a long list of tedious revisions that Mu Ning had no choice but to follow.
Mu Ning grew increasingly frustrated as she made the changes, frequently checking WeChat in between.
Their conversation had stopped at ten that morning.
morning: “Would it be convenient to meet at the entrance of Building F at noon?”
X: “Sure.”
Mu Ning had finally fallen asleep at two in the morning after spending hours trying to decipher which two Chinese characters the initials JX might represent.
For the surname beginning with J, there were plenty of possibilities: Jiang, Ji, Jin, Jing, Ju, Jian, Jiao, and others.
As for the X in his name, there were far too many possible characters to narrow it down.
At last, eleven forty arrived.
Mu Ning went to the restroom to straighten herself up, grabbed her employee ID, and headed downstairs.
It was lunchtime, the busiest period for the elevators. She had to wait through two rounds of elevator traffic before finally making it downstairs.
She hadn’t even reached Building F when she spotted a familiar figure standing at the entrance in the distance.
He was wearing the black T-shirt that had practically become his defining feature. Under the bright sunlight, his skin was so pale that it almost looked overexposed.
His head was lowered, and he held his phone in his right hand, scrolling slowly with his finger. Judging by his pace, he wasn’t browsing social media. He was probably reading a long article.
In his other hand was a black paper bag, which most likely contained the charger she’d lost track of for so long.
Mu Ning quietly steadied her breathing and walked the final few steps toward him at an unhurried pace.
“Hello!”
X looked up at the sound of her voice.
When Mu Ning stopped in front of him, he held out the bag and said, “Your charger. Thank you.”
Mu Ning accepted it and glanced inside. Besides her charger, there was also a triangular slice of cake.
“What’s this…?”
“To thank you.” X paused, then added, “And to apologize, too.”
Mu Ning smiled. “It’s fine. You didn’t have to.”
Her fingers tightened around the paper bag’s handles.
The awkwardness unique to two people who were practically strangers fell over them, leaving them in a brief silence.
The normal thing to do would have been to exchange a few polite words, say goodbye, and then, sometime in the future, quietly delete each other from their WeChat contacts.
Mu Ning took another discreet breath. She knew that was how these things usually went, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to follow the usual script of politely parting ways.
As the silence dragged on, the awkwardness became impossible to ignore.
She noticed X open his mouth slightly, as if he were about to say something.
Mu Ning spoke first, cutting him off.
“Echoes of the Ruins was developed by your company, right?”
X lowered his head and followed her gaze.
She was looking at the employee ID card that had flipped around in his hand. Its dark blue lanyard bore the logo of Spirit Whale Interactive.
“Yeah. It was made by Echo Studio, a team under Spirit Whale.”
“I really liked the ending of Echoes of the Ruins.”
“Which ending?”
“The hidden ending.”
X paused and looked up at her. “Did you follow a walkthrough to get it?”
“No. I’d preordered the game before the public release. I bought it as soon as it came out and spent two entire nights over the weekend playing through it. There weren’t any walkthroughs online back then.”
“How did you unlock the hidden ending?”
“I really liked the character Nova, so I talked to him more than anyone else. I never expected that to trigger a clue about the secret room. In the hidden ending, Nova hides in the secret room and survives. I was so happy when that happened.”
X’s gaze lingered on her face for a long time, but he didn’t say anything.
He remained silent for so long that Mu Ning began to feel stiff all over, her expression growing frozen.
Finally, X spoke again.
“Have you had lunch yet?”
“Not yet… I was just about to go.”
“If you don’t mind, would you like to have lunch together?”