It must have been late at night when the rain started outside.
The rain pounded against the window, loud and sharp, as if it were about to break the glass.
In her sleep, Mu Wen pulled the blanket over her head and turned over. She accidentally bumped her “injured” ankle, frowned, and let out a small groan.
The aftermath of wearing high heels was not limited to her feet. Her whole body felt as if it had fallen apart, with aches everywhere.
Her phone rang together with a clap of thunder, startling her awake.
It wasn’t Xie Chong.
It was Chu Ling.
“Mu Wen, I’m back! The handle on my suitcase broke, and there’s a huge hailstorm outside… Mu Wen…”
“Where are you?”
Mu Wen jumped out of bed and hurriedly pulled on some clothes.
“I’m at the entrance of the community.”
“Wait for me. Don’t be scared. I’m coming right now!”
Mu Wen grabbed two umbrellas and ran outside.
Only after leaving the building did she realize that it really was hailing.
The hailstones were about the size of small pebbles. They fell from the sky, struck the ground, bounced, and rolled away.
Mu Wen opened the large umbrella and ran toward the entrance.
Rain soaked her ankle, and it hurt badly.
But she had no time to care about that.
Chu Ling stood under the bus stop shelter, hugging herself and looking completely helpless.
Mu Wen rushed over, draped her own clothes around Chu Ling’s shoulders, then tilted the umbrella to shield her from the hail.
“Are you cold?”
Mu Wen tightly held Chu Ling by the shoulders.
“Don’t be scared. The hail won’t last long. It’ll be over in ten or fifteen minutes.”
She had seen much worse hail in the pastoral area.
Once, the hailstones had been as large as eggs. They hammered against the sheep pen, frightening the lambs so badly that they crowded together, bleating.
Mu Wen had been pacing anxiously inside the yurt, wanting to help the lambs.
But the moment she pushed open the door, a violent gust of wind blew her backward.
Then a hailstone hit her forehead and immediately left a huge bump.
After seeing hail that large, these little hailstones were nothing to her.
“Thank you, Mu Wen. I was so scared.”
Chu Ling’s voice was trembling as if she were about to cry.
“I was perfectly fine when I got out of the taxi. But as soon as I unloaded my luggage, it suddenly started pouring. I tried to run home, but after a few steps, the hail started.”
Chu Ling had never seen hail like this before.
It came down so densely that she felt as if she were going to be beaten to death.
Her clothes were soaked, and the wind seemed to come from every direction. She was freezing.
“Don’t be scared, don’t be scared. I’ll make you a bowl of soup to bring you back to life later.”
Mu Wen brought Chu Ling home and told her to take a hot shower first.
She then made her a chicken soup with black fungus.
The soup had originally been served at the dinner banquet. One table had been missing six guests, but the dishes had still been served.
Before leaving, Mu Wen had asked the restaurant staff to pack the soup for her. She had planned to cook some noodles with it over the weekend.
Now she gave it a second life.
She added a little of the mushrooms Ge Yunqing had sent her, some vegetables, and noodles, then brought it to Chu Ling while it was still hot.
She asked Chu Ling how the advance work had gone and whether she had enjoyed the United States.
Chu Ling said everything about the advance work had been fun except for the exhaustion.
As for the United States, she hadn’t really had time to enjoy it because she had been working the whole time. Before leaving, she had only gone to the supermarket to buy gifts.
“Oh, and the athletes are all so healthy. Just like you!”
Mu Wen stood up and put her hands on her hips.
“Healthy like me?”
“Yes!”
Mu Wen’s phone screen lit up.
She quickly grabbed it.
It wasn’t anyone she was waiting for.
Chu Ling asked, “Are you waiting for a call?”
Mu Wen felt a little wronged.
“No.”
She didn’t know why Xie Chong had suddenly stopped talking to her.
She wasn’t exactly heartbroken, but it felt like a tiny hand kept scratching at her heart, loosening its grip for a moment and then tightening it again.
The feeling was completely unfamiliar to Mu Wen, and she didn’t know how to make it go away.
Fortunately, Chu Ling was back.
She didn’t feel quite as bad anymore.
Chu Ling had brought her lots of gifts—lipstick, face masks, refrigerator magnets, and more.
Mu Wen said they were too expensive.
Chu Ling simply said, “We’ll use them together!”
The two turned off the lights and lay on their own little beds.
Chu Ling’s schedule was completely messed up from traveling, and it would take several days for her to adjust to the time difference.
That night, unusually, she talked a lot with Mu Wen.
“I think I’m going to get promoted, Mu Wen. My supervisor talked to me and said they want me to become a deputy team leader.”
“There are two directions I can choose from: entertainment and sports. But I don’t want either of them. I want to work in current affairs.”
“Mu Wen, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future these past few days.”
“I keep thinking that maybe ten years from now, I’ll become someone really capable, someone who can run a program all by myself…”
“You can do it, Chu Ling.”
Mu Wen smiled.
“You’re such a good writer, and you’re so capable. Sooner or later, you’ll have your own program.”
The two continued talking.
By the time the sky was beginning to brighten, Mu Wen had fallen asleep without realizing it.
The next day, because she had to visit Mr. Liao’s villa, she didn’t need to go to the office, so she got up a little later than usual.
She put on a white shirt and jeans, stuffed her suit jacket into her backpack, and set off.
She had to travel all the way from Suzhou Street to Shunyi.
On the subway, she took out Mr. Liao’s floor plan and started studying it.
Her phone rang.
It was Xie Chong.
The little hand that had been scratching at her heart suddenly seemed to disappear.
Mu Wen happily answered.
Before Xie Chong could say anything, she blurted out,
“Xie Chong! Do you know how amazing I am? Yesterday, I signed an agreement of intent for a whole villa!”
It was the first time she had called him directly by his name.
She hadn’t thought about it.
His name had simply come naturally out of her mouth.
She desperately wanted to share her “achievement” with him, even though it might not have seemed like much of an achievement to him.
She called his name so naturally, so happily, so intimately.
There was silence on the other end.
Mu Wen called him again.
“Xie Chong?”
“You’re not calling me Mr. Xie anymore?”
His voice was very hoarse.
He had drunk quite a lot the night before.
Qian Song had taken his phone away and said that no one was allowed to look at their phones while drinking.
By the time they finished drinking, it was around three in the morning.
He had seen Mu Wen’s message and planned to call her the next day.
“Oh, right. Sorry, Mr. Xie.”
That strange, difficult-to-understand feeling returned to Mu Wen.
Her voice became quieter.
Xie Chong chuckled on the other end.
“You signed an agreement for a villa? That’s worth celebrating. How about this? Didn’t you say you wanted to treat me to dinner? Add another dinner to that.”
“Then you’ll have to wait. Until I actually sign the contract and get paid…”
“Okay.”
Xie Chong didn’t say anything else.
He still sounded as polite as ever.
“I’m just returning your call. Things ended too late yesterday, and I was afraid I’d disturb your sleep.”
Mu Wen’s signal was bad.
By the time she got her signal back, Xie Chong had already hung up.
There was nothing wrong with his politeness.
She couldn’t find a single fault with it.
But deep inside, she wished he wouldn’t always be like this.
She wished he could show a little more warmth, a little more human feeling.
Mu Wen didn’t like his politeness.
His politeness made the distance between them feel so very far.
Back in Yakeshi, if someone behaved like Xie Chong, people would immediately say:
“What are you pretending for? Do you look down on me?”
Even though Mu Wen had come to Beijing, she still preferred the way people from Yakeshi interacted.
When you saw a good friend, you ran straight toward them, punched them lightly a couple of times, or gave them a hug.
Then the whole atmosphere became lively and warm.
But Xie Chong wasn’t like that.
Mu Wen thought:
He’s not from Yakeshi. He’s from Beijing.
He won’t get excited about people the way I do.
Mu Wen didn’t want Xie Chong to disturb her thoughts.
There was only one important thing she had to focus on that day:
Mr. Liao.
Mu Wen didn’t know Mr. Liao’s full name.
Even on the agreement of intent, he had simply written “Mr. Liao.”
She also didn’t know what kind of work he did.
She didn’t dare ask too many questions because she was afraid he might think she was being nosy.
When she arrived at the entrance of the community, she saw Little Gu was already there.
Little Gu had driven her husband’s old Jetta that day.
She had originally wanted to pick Mu Wen up, but Mu Wen didn’t want her to make a detour.
Little Gu looked exhausted.
She told Mu Wen, “My little one threw up several times last night. We went to the emergency room, and they said it was food poisoning.”
“Then you didn’t need to come!”
Mu Wen said, “I can measure the house myself. You can secretly go take care of the little one. I’ll send you all the measurements, and you can just enter the data later.”
“No.”
Little Gu shook her head.
“You can’t measure a house alone. What if something happens? Some people are strange. If something happens to you, you might not even know how to explain it.”
Mu Wen stepped forward and hugged Little Gu.
“Little Gu, you’re so good to me. Why are you so nice to me? I like you so much.”
Little Gu laughed.
“If Mr. Liao signs the contract, will you treat me to dry-pot duck heads?”
“Five whole days of dry-pot duck heads!”
Mu Wen met Mr. Liao again.
He had specifically come from the city and had just arrived himself.
He had prepared bottles of mineral water for Mu Wen and Little Gu.
The two women bent down to put on shoe covers.
Mr. Liao said, “No need. You don’t have to wear them. The place is going to be renovated anyway.”
They put them on anyway.
Mr. Liao showed them around the house.
It was a huge detached villa with one underground floor and three floors above ground, surrounded by a yard of about 300 square meters.
Mr. Liao said this was going to be his wedding home.
He and his fiancée planned to get married the following year.
Mu Wen sincerely congratulated him.
Then she asked if he had any other requirements.
“My fiancée doesn’t want to get involved in these things,” Mr. Liao said. “She likes the American country style. Some slightly distressed wooden furniture, a few small patterned tiles, things like that. Basically, she wants it to feel more relaxed and free.”
“Okay.”
Mu Wen wrote down his requirements in her notebook.
After finishing, she looked up and realized that Mr. Liao was watching her.
“You look a lot like one of my friends,” Mr. Liao said.
“Like an old friend of mine.”
“Really?”
Mu Wen smiled.
“Then that’s an honor.”
“I’m usually very busy. In the future, I’ll probably only have one or two hours at lunchtime or after work to discuss the renovation in person.”
He looked at her.
“If you’re available.”
“I’m available.”
Mu Wen smiled.
“We can work around your schedule, Mr. Liao.”
She thought Mr. Liao was very easygoing and friendly.
He kept smiling at her.
Sometimes when he couldn’t hear what she was saying, he would lean a little closer.
His eyes were always on her.
Mu Wen tried changing the subject several times to avoid the awkwardness, but it didn’t work very well.
Fortunately, she managed to keep things from becoming too uncomfortable.
Little Gu talked much more than usual that day.
Every now and then, while measuring, she would call out:
“Engineer Mu, could you check this? It looks slightly angled to me from the right side.”
“Engineer Mu, I’ll make a note here. The wall is cracked.”
“…”
Even though she interrupted several times, Mr. Liao didn’t seem annoyed.
Mu Wen’s impression of him improved a little more.
After leaving Mr. Liao’s house, Little Gu offered to drop Mu Wen at the subway station.
On the way, Little Gu told her a story.
“There was a very beautiful female designer at the company. She became very close to one of her clients. Then one day, the client’s wife showed up at the company.”
“The whole thing became a huge mess, and the designer eventually left.”
Little Gu stopped there.
Mu Wen understood.
She was warning her to be careful about her relationship with Mr. Liao.
“He has a wife!”
Mu Wen said.
“Besides, I don’t like him.”
“Some men don’t care whether they have a wife or not.”
Little Gu looked serious.
“Engineer Mu, you just graduated. Everything still seems new to you, and you think everyone is a good person.”
“Sometimes those smiling, friendly-looking people are actually dangerous, and you can’t tell at first.”
Mu Wen seriously thought about what Little Gu had said.
She was someone who listened to advice.
She felt Little Gu was right.
“Then can you come with me every time I meet Mr. Liao?” she asked.
“As long as I have time.”
Mu Wen didn’t want to delay things.
She planned to prepare a design proposal immediately so that nothing unexpected would happen.
She intended to work overtime over the weekend, finish the proposal, and contact Mr. Liao on Monday.
That evening, everyone in the office had already left.
The air conditioning had also been turned off.
Mu Wen’s long hair stuck to the back of her neck, making her extremely uncomfortable.
She casually tied it up into a messy topknot and turned around to open the window.
The night outside made her feel strangely dazed.
It had rained the night before, and the buildings looked as if they had been washed clean.
The Central Television Tower reached straight into the clouds.
Brilliant lights glittered everywhere.
Mu Wen leaned against the windowsill for a while and let the wind blow over her.
Then she thought of Xie Chong again.
She was thinking about him more and more often.
She remembered Xie Chong pushing open the door and walking toward her with long strides the day before.
She remembered the way he had fallen asleep on his sofa.
She remembered him paying her for making the dumplings that night.
Was Xie Chong the kind of person Little Gu had been talking about?
Was he the kind of bad person who took advantage of her because she was inexperienced with the world?
No.
He wasn’t.
Mu Wen felt certain of that.
Because he was polite to her, but distant.
He wasn’t like Mr. Liao.
If anything, Mr. Liao seemed more like the dangerous type.
Whenever he spoke, he deliberately leaned closer to her, making her uncomfortable.
Mu Wen wanted to call Xie Chong.
But she didn’t know what excuse to use.
After thinking for a long time, she decided to call him under the excuse of following up after the dinner.
There was music playing in the background when Xie Chong answered.
“I’ll call you back later.”
Then he hung up.
Xie Chong was watching a concert with Qian Song, Jiang Wu, and several others.
Qian Song had gotten several tickets and invited the people who had once studied horseback riding together to come.
There were both men and women in the group.
Except for Jiang Wu, they were all wealthy second-generation heirs.
But Jiang Wu had absolute authority among them because they were all afraid of her.
Back then, Jiang Wu had worked as her father’s assistant in teaching equestrianism and had yelled at them plenty of times.
That intimidation had lasted until today.
That day, they had arranged for Jiang Wu and Xie Chong to sit together.
When Xie Chong quietly answered the phone, Jiang Wu glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
The caller’s name in his phone was unusually long.
She couldn’t make out exactly what it said, but she felt that the person calling might be someone special.
At the very least, Xie Chong didn’t dislike that person.
Jiang Wu and Qian Song both knew that Xie Chong saved the names of people he disliked in his phone as things like “S-Whatever-B.”
After the concert, Qian Song suggested they get together somewhere.
Jiang Wu said, “Another day. Someone is coming to pick me up.”
Then she walked toward a luxury car parked by the roadside.
She got into the car without looking back.
Xie Chong stayed behind and drank with the others.
His mood was bad.
After just one glass, he already felt dizzy.
Drinking required the right mood and the right circumstances too.
He refused to drink anymore.
“That alcohol tastes awful. It makes me sick.”
Seeing him like this, no one dared provoke him.
He was rarely in such a mood.
“I’m leaving.”
Xie Chong dropped those words and walked away.
The driver asked where he wanted to go.
“Home.”
That night was strange.
No matter how he tried, his key wouldn’t open the door to his own home.
So he called Mu Wen.
“The door lock you provided is broken.”
“We didn’t provide that door lock,” Mu Wen said.
“You did.”
Xie Chong insisted.
Mu Wen could hear that he seemed to be in a bad mood, so she stopped arguing.
“Wait a moment. I’m on my way home. I’ll come over and take a look for you first.”
When Mu Wen arrived, she saw Xie Chong sitting against the door.
When he saw her, he rubbed his eyes with his palm.
“Is this Engineer Mu, the one who signed a villa project?”
“Yes.”
Mu Wen reached out her hand.
“The incredibly amazing, universe-famous designer Engineer Mu is here. Give me the key.”
Xie Chong stood up and took out his keys.
He thought the alcohol he had drunk that day must have been fake.
Otherwise, why couldn’t he stand properly?
He reached into his pocket several times but couldn’t get the key out.
Mu Wen stepped forward and held his arm.
She really was strong.
She supported him easily.
Then she reached into his pocket, found the key, and unlocked the door while suggesting,
“Seriously, you should get a fingerprint lock. Fingerprint locks are going to become more and more common.”
“I don’t like fingerprint locks.”
Xie Chong said, “Then what’s the point of opening the door?”
“The point is to open it. What else is there?”
“You don’t understand.”
Xie Chong rested his head against the door and spoke softly.
“Isn’t it fun when this key opens this particular lock?”
After saying that, Xie Chong looked at the lock as if he were thinking about something.
It sounded like an ordinary sentence, but there seemed to be something deeper behind it.
Mu Wen didn’t understand what he meant.
She was too busy opening the door.
As she worked, she thought:
How could this door lock be one of ours? I made the quotation myself.
Could it have been added as a gift later?
The door opened.
Mu Wen took Xie Chong by the arm.
“Come on. Let’s go home.”
Seeing that he wasn’t reacting quickly enough, she pulled him hard and dragged him inside.
Xie Chong stumbled.
“You’re so fierce.”
“Huh?”
Mu Wen looked confused.
“When was I ever fierce to you? I came all the way here to unlock your door, and you’re saying I’m fierce?”
“You are fierce.”
Xie Chong took off his shoes and turned on the lights.
The light was too bright.
He raised a hand to shield his eyes as if they had been stung.
He walked farther inside, then noticed there was no sound behind him.
He turned around.
Mu Wen hadn’t even changed her shoes.
She was already preparing to leave.
“Are you afraid of me?” Xie Chong asked.
“Why don’t you come in and sit for a while?”
He looked at her as if he was certain she wouldn’t leave.
“No.”
Mu Wen shook her head.
“It’s too late. Go to bed early. Good night.”
She turned and left.
Once she stepped outside the building, she felt a little dazed.
She checked her phone.
There were no more buses.
She had already spent too much money that day.
Then she suddenly remembered.
She had forgotten to ask him to sign the service form.
If he signs the service form, I can get reimbursed, Mu Wen thought.
Just then, she heard the entrance door open behind her.
Xie Chong called out:
“Mu Wen?”
She turned around.
He didn’t look happy.
It was strange.
He hadn’t said anything, but somehow Mu Wen knew he was unhappy.
She didn’t ask why.
She only said,
“Why did you come down?”
“I’m taking you home.”
Xie Chong looked at her.
“It’s too late. Don’t let anything happen to you.”
“This is Beijing. What could happen?”
“Beijing has plenty of strange people.”
Xie Chong said,
“Come on. I’ll get you a taxi.”
“I can get one myself.”
“You won’t, Mu Wen.”
Xie Chong sounded completely certain.
“I know you too well. You won’t take a taxi. You’re a money-guarding creature.”
He looked calm, as if he were simply joking.
If it had been before, Mu Wen wouldn’t have thought much of those words.
But that night, she sensed that he had said them deliberately.
It seemed as though he needed to say something like that to release whatever emotion was building inside him.
Mu Wen walked up to him and held out her hand.
“Give me money.”
“What money?”
“Fifty yuan for coming over to unlock your door.”
Xie Chong would never simply give her money.
Instead, he said,
“Watch this. I’ll show you a magic trick.”
Then, right in front of Mu Wen, he threw his wallet into a tree.
It was late August in Beijing, and the tree was still covered in thick green leaves.
The wallet landed among the branches, making them shake as if the tree were welcoming it.
There probably wasn’t much money inside.
Otherwise, the wallet wouldn’t have stayed there.
Mu Wen was genuinely angry now.
“I don’t care why you’re doing this, but you can’t treat me like this.”
Her eyes were about to fill with tears.
She sniffed and forced herself to hold back the sadness.
“Get lost.”
After saying that, she turned around and ran away.