Jing Xuan looked away, fixing his gaze on the glass candle in front of him, and murmured a number.
Like a faint breeze, or a wisp of mist, it created a tickling sensation in her ear that made one want to shrink their neck. Mu Ning held back.
Her eyes wide open, she turned her head to look at Jing Xuan.
She hadn’t expected him to be this close—close enough to see the candlelight flickering in his pupils.
Her mind went blank for a moment. She held her breath, subtly straightened her body back to its original position, casually picked up something from the wooden tray, took a bite, and then said with a smile, “So, Teacher Jing, are you already financially free?”
“How do you define financial freedom?”
“Hmm… buying a house in Bincheng with full payment?”
“Not yet.”
“With a mortgage?”
“That’s probably doable.”
“Then did you buy a house?”
“No. I’m not entirely sure I’ll settle down here in the future.”
Mu Ning looked at him. “A lot of my classmates and colleagues really want to buy a house and settle down in Bincheng.”
“A city where Christmas can only be simulated with artificial snow from MixC World—does it really have that much appeal?”
Mu Ning laughed out loud. “Are you from the north?”
“Doesn’t my Baike entry say that?”
“No, it doesn’t. Neither your hometown nor your educational background.”
“Whoever edited that wasn’t very thorough.”
Mu Ning smiled.
Jing Xuan said, “I’m a local. So I’ve gotten a bit tired of it.”
“Then where did you go to university?”
“Also within the province.”
“There are two 985 universities in the province. Which one did you attend?”
Jing Xuan let out a chuckle. “You seem to assume I’m a top student.”
“You just look really smart.”
The cola in his cup was almost gone. Jing Xuan picked it up and glanced at it. As if feeling a little awkward, he took a small sip before answering, “The one with a relatively higher admission cutoff.”
Mu Ning wore an expression that said “See, I told you so,” then said, “If you’ve never left the province your whole life, it must feel a bit boring.”
Jing Xuan looked at her and asked, “What about you?”
“I’m from Chucheng, a small city in a central province capital. I went to university in Hunan.”
“How many 985s are there in Hunan?”
“Aren’t you also assuming I’m a top student?”
Jing Xuan chuckled softly. “So, are you?”
“My alma mater is a 985, but I don’t think I’m a top student. There were too many high achievers in my high school class—some went to Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan, Jiaotong, and they all had great prospects after graduation. Some got into the NDRC through the national civil service exam, others entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs…”
“You’re also great.”
Mu Ning froze slightly, instinctively biting down on her straw.
The cola wasn’t as cold anymore, but the bubbles were still abundant, leaving a tingling sensation as they passed down her throat.
The phone lying on the table lit up. Mu Ning quickly picked it up to check.
Someone in the tenant group was asking if anyone had mistakenly taken a package.
It had nothing to do with her, so Mu Ning ignored it, but out of habit she glanced at the time in the top-left corner: “Ah… it’s almost 11.”
She had work tomorrow. No matter how much she didn’t want the night to end, it had to come to a temporary close.
Jing Xuan also lit up his phone to check. “Should we head out?”
“Yeah.”
Mu Ning looked at the bartender. “Do you have a restroom here?”
“Yes. Over there on the left, go around the corner and all the way to the end.”
Mu Ning slid off the bar stool, patted her canvas bag and phone, and said to Jing Xuan, “I’m temporarily entrusting my life and valuables to you.”
Jing Xuan smiled faintly. “Okay.”
While washing her hands, Mu Ning also cupped some cold water to pat her slightly flushed cheeks.
When she came out, she saw Jing Xuan standing by the bar, his backpack already on.
Perhaps he had received a work message—he was looking down, replying. The backlight illuminated his face, like some kind of visual anchor that drew one’s attention involuntarily.
As if sensing she had come out, Jing Xuan looked up briefly, then turned off his phone and slipped it into his trousers pocket.
Mu Ning walked back to her spot and asked the bartender, “Where do I pay?”
“Already paid.” The bartender said with a smile.
Mu Ning immediately looked at Jing Xuan. “I said I was treating.”
Jing Xuan paused. “I can put it on my tab here.”
“Then next time it’s my treat. Don’t steal the bill again.”
“Okay.”
Pushing open the door, the slightly warm air rushed to meet them.
Jing Xuan handed her his phone, which already had the pickup location set on the ride-hailing app, and let her enter the destination.
The phone had no case—a blue titanium color, a 2023 model.
It felt like playing a real-life otome game—collecting clues, unlocking every piece of the male lead’s information bit by bit.
Her one and only “male lead X” in the real world had just unlocked a new attribute: “frugal and thrifty.”
It seemed she liked him even more.
The phone seemed to still carry a trace of warmth from Jing Xuan’s fingers. Mu Ning held it in her hand, looked at the ride-hailing page, then raised her head to look at Jing Xuan. “I live in XX Garden. Are we not on the same route?”
Jing Xuan paused, then said, “We are.”
“Then should we walk back?” Her heart swelled again, a strong sense of weightlessness like an elevator accelerating downward. “…To help digest?”
“Okay.”
Jing Xuan took the phone she handed back, locked the screen, and slipped it into his trousers pocket.
Mu Ning wasn’t great with directions. She opened the navigation app on her phone and asked Jing Xuan, “Where do you live? Let me see whether it’s better to go to your place first or mine.”
“It’s fine, I’ll walk you home first.”
The feeling of weightlessness hit her again, and Mu Ning nearly pressed down too hard on her phone, turning off the screen.
“Let me check the route,” Jing Xuan said.
Mu Ning entered her address, selected walking mode, and was about to hand over the phone when Jing Xuan stepped half a step closer, standing right beside her arm. He lowered his head like that, looking at her phone screen.
He reached out, using two fingers to zoom in on the map, dragging and swiping to take a look, then nodded and said, “Okay. I’ve got it.”
Mu Ning could barely breathe.
Only when Jing Xuan stepped back to his original spot did she let out a silent breath.
She could still catch it—the faint scent of clean soap lingering in the slightly warm air.
“…Then shall we go?”
Jing Xuan nodded, then extended his hand toward her.
Mu Ning was confused. “Hm?”
“Your bag.”
“…It’s a bit heavy.”
“That’s why you give it to me.”
A sudden, slightly damp evening breeze blew past her, then through him.
A moment of silence.
Mu Ning handed over the somewhat heavy canvas bag, and Jing Xuan hooked his fingers through the strap, slinging it over his shoulder behind him.
Mu Ning glanced at him, then quickly looked away. Fortunately, she still had a bag of merchandise in her hand, so she wasn’t left empty-handed and unsure what to do with herself.
They left the entrance of the small bar, walked fifty meters ahead, and crossed the road.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Ahead, on the curb and along the side of the road that should have been reserved for pedestrians, the entire area was now packed full of electric scooters.
They had no choice but to step down from the curb and walk around the cluster of scooters.
Jing Xuan quickened his pace half a step to position himself on her outer side, then glanced back, as if checking whether any motor vehicles were coming from behind.
After they made their way around, the two returned to the curb.
Perhaps she was a beat too slow—as Jing Xuan took his step, their arms lightly brushed against each other.
The word “sorry” never made it out as actual speech, because clearly that would have been far too formal for the occasion.
It wasn’t until they reached the next intersection that Jing Xuan spoke up. “Where were we in our conversation?”
“Oh… I was saying my classmates have great post-graduation prospects.”
“You’re doing great too.”
“…Don’t repeat that again.”
Perhaps sensing the embarrassment in her tone, Jing Xuan tilted his head down to look at her and asked, “Why?”
“I just said, my parents are both teachers.”
“Mm.”
“My dad is a history teacher in the liberal arts experimental class at the top high school in our area, and my mom teaches math in the rocket class at a highly ranked school. They’ve seen too many smart and hardworking students, so when they look at me, nothing measures up. Growing up… I don’t think I’ve ever been praised by them. Even if I did slightly better on an exam once, they’d say, keep it up, don’t get cocky. So when someone praises me, I get a bit…”
“Uncomfortable?”
“More than that… I can’t quite explain it. Maybe a little ashamed too.”
Jing Xuan’s gaze settled on her face. “Then you need to hear even more praise, so you can build up a tolerance.”
“…I don’t really have much to be praised for.”
“How could that be.”
Their shadows shifted from in front of them to behind them, then back to the front again, but Jing Xuan’s voice remained floating above her right side the whole time, like a cool cloud that could be grasped in one hand if she just reached out.
“…Very diligent, very responsible, writes plots really well, the character you created is the popularity Top, you’re fun to talk to…” His voice paused for a moment, and Jing Xuan fixed his gaze on her face. “Very…”
His eyes at that instant were brighter than the streetlights, and more shimmering too.
…Thank goodness her hair covered her ears, so he couldn’t see how red they were right now.
Mu Ning couldn’t speak, and naturally couldn’t ask what came after that final, cut-off “very.”
The only thing she could say at this moment was probably “help.”
She suddenly remembered how Meng Meng had said before that, regardless of gender, taking a walk could quickly heat up the relationship between two people. Once, Meng Meng had gone on a walk with her crush, chatting for two hours, and under the streetlights near the neighborhood, her crush had suddenly just kissed her.
…This kind of sudden, ill-timed association was truly deadly.
Mu Ning pulled her thoughts back and casually found another topic. “What do your parents do?”
“My mom is a manager at a local bank, and my dad is a civil servant—a section chief in the district.”
“Is your home close to where you work now?”
“No, it’s in a fairly distant district, so I rent a place nearby.”
Mu Ning nodded, then said, “Did you major in computer science for your undergrad?”
“Mm.”
“Then as a producer with a technical background, do you have a more harmonious relationship with the programming team?”
“No. Precisely because I studied it, I know exactly where their limits are when it comes to squeezing work out of them. They all hate me.”
Mu Ning laughed out loud. “What do they call you at the company?”
“In our industry, people usually address the lead designer or producer as so-and-so ge.”
“So they call you Xuan Ge?”
“Mm.”
“What about someone older than you?”
“I call them that too.” Jing Xuan suddenly turned his head to look at her, as if anticipating what she was about to do. “…You don’t have to call me that.”
“Why?” Mu Ning asked with a smile.
“Too much of a work vibe.”
Mu Ning basically wore a sour face at work most of the time. She felt that she had used up a whole month’s worth of smiles today.
“I won’t call you that,” Mu Ning said. “Clearly ‘Teacher Jing’ suits you better, right? Or…” She paused for a moment. “…Jing Xuan.”
The first time she called his name to his face, it was like a clam spitting out a lustrous pearl.
Jing Xuan stopped in his tracks.
The reason a name matters is because it is a coordinate, an identity; a declaration of war, a plea for peace; a bold move, a cautious step.
It is the special favor that sets you apart from everyone else.
Unlike earlier at the tavern, on this stretch of road, there seemed to be more unsaid words hanging between them.
It felt like they hadn’t been talking for long before the entrance to the residential complex appeared in Mu Ning’s view.
“…I’m almost there.” Mu Ning pointed ahead.
“…Mm.”
Without another word, the two walked the last two hundred meters in silence.
Stopping at the entrance of the complex, Jing Xuan took off the canvas bag and handed it back to Mu Ning.
“Ah…” Mu Ning suddenly remembered something.
Jing Xuan looked down at her.
“We seem to have forgotten the main thing.”
“What?”
“…Practicing the signature.”
“I’ll take it back and sign it, and give it to you next time.”
Mu Ning took the colored paper out of her bag and handed it to Jing Xuan with both hands. “Please, Teacher.”
Jing Xuan curved the corner of his mouth.
Then, another silence.
This kind of silence usually appears at the moment of parting—when there’s still so much left unsaid, yet no excuse to continue the night.
“Then I’ll head in…” Mu Ning shifted her body slightly toward the direction of the complex gate.
“Alright. Get some rest early.”
“Mm… You take care too.”
Jing Xuan nodded.
Mu Ning was about to turn around when she suddenly stopped, unable to control the racing of her heart, and her voice seemed to blur: “The apple tea you ordered for me yesterday—was it because you knew there was lemon leaf in it?”
“…Yes.”