Mu Wen could not stop running.
She desperately wanted to see Xie Chong. She did not want to be even one second late.
She ran out of the residential compound, ran up the pedestrian bridge, and did not even have time to look at the night scenery. She simply ran toward him.
He was standing there, in the same place where they had met the last time.
By the end of September, the night air was already cool. The breeze moved the hem of his black coat and tousled his hair.
He stood straight, looking ahead as he waited for her.
The hurried pedestrians around him seemed like fleeting shadows. Only he was clear.
A handsome man naturally attracted people’s attention, but he seemed completely unaware of it.
Mu Wen stood on the pedestrian bridge and happily waved at him.
“Mr. Xie!”
Xie Chong looked up and saw her standing above him, with the glittering night behind her.
He waved back and motioned for her to come down.
Mu Wen ran toward him.
The hem of her coat fluttered behind her as she ran. Only when she stopped did the coat finally settle down.
“The gift is so beautiful! Who painted the pictures on the wooden boxes?” Mu Wen asked with a smile.
“I did.”
Xie Chong said proudly, “I just make a few strokes, and they become works of art.”
“What about the writing? Who wrote that?”
“Do I need to find someone for that? Anyone with hands can write.”
He looked extremely pleased with himself.
“Those things must have been expensive, right? How much did they cost?”
Mu Wen wanted to estimate the price so that one day she could repay the favor.
“Two hundred for the whole pile.”
Xie Chong was obviously making it up.
Mu Wen certainly did not believe him.
She clicked her tongue and asked what he wanted to eat. She insisted that she would pay for everything tonight.
“How should we count this meal?” Xie Chong deliberately teased her.
“Does fried rice count as one meal? What if I eat something else too?”
He wanted to see how much money this little money-guarding creature was willing to spend today.
“Tonight, we’re eating in the back alley. No matter what you eat, it counts as one meal.”
Mu Wen pointed at herself.
“As long as you can eat it, I can afford it. Urban beauty Mu Wen has a little money now.”
“Then I won’t hold back.”
The two of them walked toward the back alley, one following the other.
Xie Chong wanted to try some of the food he had hardly ever eaten.
He tried fried stinky tofu and almost threw up. It smelled terrible to him.
He tried a large lamb skewer and complained that the meat was poor quality.
He tried a small bowl of hot-and-sour noodles and said the noodles tasted like plastic.
Mu Wen finally said,
“Then stop eating. You don’t even like it, but you’re forcing yourself to eat because you don’t want to waste it. You take one bite of the stinky tofu and nearly gag every time. Why torture yourself? Or just give it to me.”
“Or should we go to your place and cook?”
Xie Chong’s eyes were slightly watery, and his eyelashes were damp from the tears brought on by his earlier gagging. He looked unusually delicate.
“Go to your place and cook? Then this meal still counts.”
Mu Wen said,
“You were the one who wanted to come to the back alley. Everything you ordered was your own choice…”
“This meal counts.”
Xie Chong said it firmly.
He really could not eat anymore.
In the end, he bought an old-fashioned ice pop.
That, at least, tasted good.
It cleared away the greasy feeling and made him feel better.
The two of them walked along the road to let their food settle.
Mu Wen asked about what had happened in Jingdezhen. She wanted to hear Xie Chong’s “business tricks.” She imagined it must be as interesting as designing.
“You really want to hear?” Xie Chong asked.
“I do.”
“Then I’ll tell you.”
Xie Chong had arranged for a batch of goods to be produced in Jingdezhen and planned to sell them in the United States.
A businessman surnamed Chen heard about it and decided to steal the deal.
He found a factory that had a personal connection with his father.
Unfortunately for Xie Chong, that factory had already signed a production contract with him, so Chen’s interference delayed his production.
Fortunately, the factory was willing to pay compensation according to the contract.
Once the goods were finished, they had to be shipped out of Jingdezhen.
Xie Chong used a small but completely legal trick to delay his own shipment for a few days.
If he had followed the original schedule for sea transport, he would have missed the shipping window.
But although his goods left several days late, they still managed to sail out smoothly.
Mu Wen listened carefully.
“What was the legal little trick you used?”
Xie Chong smiled proudly.
“Returning his trick against him.”
“He stole my factory, so I paid more and took his transportation capacity.”
“Transportation around that area has been in short supply for the past two years. He needed to book vehicles in advance. I took the available vehicles, so when he needed them at the last minute, he couldn’t find any.”
Mu Wen’s eyes widened.
“You can do that?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Xie Chong said,
“Business is like a battlefield.”
“But although I call him a dishonest businessman, he does have some backbone. He seems to accept losing when he loses.”
“I told him I could ship his goods along with mine, but the shipment would have to be under my name.”
“He refused. He said he’d rather dump everything into the Huangpu River than let me do that.”
Xie Chong burst out laughing after telling the story.
Mu Wen also thought the man was quite amusing and laughed along with him.
She realized that Xie Chong’s work was very different from what she had imagined.
She had originally thought his work would be much more glamorous.
Maybe he would sit in a spacious office, casually make big decisions, and leave everything else to his secretary or assistant.
She had never expected him to handle everything himself and even fight his way through complicated business relationships.
“People can be terrible.”
Xie Chong said,
“Do you know what kind of person is easiest to take advantage of in business?”
“What kind?”
“Someone like you.”
“In other words, the old me was easy to take advantage of too.”
“We all want to make money. When someone can help us make money, we’re extremely polite to them.”
“Sometimes we ignore things that make us uncomfortable and think, ‘Forget it. As long as I get the money, that’s what matters.’”
“Isn’t that right?”
“No.”
Xie Chong shook his head.
“First of all, money that makes you pay such a price has already lost some of its value.”
“Do you understand what I mean?”
“Today, if you force yourself to endure humiliation just to get a project, even if you earn the money, part of you will still feel wronged. That damages you mentally.”
“And what about the other person?”
“Once they realize you’re willing to tolerate humiliation, they’ll keep making you tolerate more.”
“Money like that loses its value. And it creates a chain reaction.”
Xie Chong waved his hand.
“Forget it. Let’s not talk about this anymore.”
Then he gave her a thumbs-up.
“You’re impressive. You were willing to give up such a huge project just like that.”
“What else could I do?”
Mu Wen said,
“That man was disgusting. How dangerous would it be to renovate his house?”
Xie Chong smiled when he heard that.
Mu Wen was very smart.
After what happened with that bastard, whenever she wanted a client, she would first investigate their background.
If a male client acted mysterious and refused to reveal his real information, she would immediately become more cautious.
The two of them continued walking down the street.
Neither of them often had such a free evening.
It was late September in Beijing, around eleven or twelve degrees Celsius, with a gentle breeze passing through the streets.
They eventually walked into the People’s University track field.
There were many people walking and running laps.
A few groups were sitting in the stands, chatting.
“Have you watched Friends?” Mu Wen asked Xie Chong.
“The café by the east gate looks just like the one in Friends. I went there once with my roommate, and I loved it.”
“Then why don’t you go there now?”
“Because it’s almost closing time.”
“Where else do you usually go?”
Xie Chong asked.
“Are there other places around here where you can sit and relax?”
“Bifengtang, Diaoke Shiguang…”
“We go there sometimes. It feels like going back to our student days.”
“So you like Friends?”
“Who doesn’t like Friends?”
Mu Wen put her hands on her hips and imitated Phoebe singing Smelly Cat.
“Smelly cat, smelly cat, what are they feeding you…”
She could not help laughing as she sang.
She remembered how her roommates used to imitate Friends together at school.
Xie Chong widened his eyes and imitated Joey.
“Oh my God!”
“You’ve watched it!”
Mu Wen pointed at him.
“I knew you had!”
“Why?”
“Because you look a lot like Joey.”
“You’re both handsome, both completely ridiculous, you both…”
Mu Wen wanted to say that they both looked like big idiots.
But Xie Chong was already glaring at her.
She immediately stopped talking and looked away.
Someone ran from behind and almost collided with Mu Wen.
Xie Chong quickly extended his arm to block the person.
Then he placed his arm behind Mu Wen and guided her toward the innermost lane of the track.
The night grew deeper.
The field became quieter.
They walked up into the stands and sat with one seat between them.
Mu Wen took out her earphones and handed one earbud to Xie Chong.
The cable was too short, so Xie Chong moved one seat closer to her.
Mu Wen played some music for him.
The melody flowed softly through the earphones.
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you…
Life was such a strange thing.
The song she had listened to for years was also a song he had listened to for years.
He often sat quietly by the window on peaceful nights, letting the breeze pass over him as he listened to this song.
If he happened to see a bird flap its wings and fly into the sky, giving the music a picture to accompany it, he would probably say:
“What a wonderful world.”
“Play it again.”
When the song ended, he asked her to play it again.
“You like this song too?”
Mu Wen was surprised.
“This is the first time I’ve met someone who likes it.”
“Maybe you just don’t know enough people.”
Xie Chong teased her.
“Now you know me.”
Mu Wen took out her phone and played the song again.
Her phone had already been used for a long time.
Technology was developing so quickly that phones were constantly being replaced.
Her old 5300 still looked almost new.
After the song ended, Xie Chong watched her carefully wind up the earphone cable.
The white cable was wrapped around the phone in neat circles before she put everything into her canvas bag.
Yes.
When she went to work, she carried a heavy backpack with an even heavier computer inside.
Designers like her needed computers like that because ordinary systems could not handle their software.
On nights like this, however, she simply carried a single-strap canvas bag with a few personal things inside.
She slowly put her phone into the bag.
Mu Wen noticed Xie Chong watching her.
“What is it?”
“Mu Wen, I don’t have many friends.”
Xie Chong said,
“What about you? Do you have many friends?”
“Me?”
Mu Wen counted on her fingers.
Not that many.
In high school, she was always studying. Before she had time to make many friends, she was already taking the college entrance exam.
In university, she had gotten along very well with her classmates.
But after graduation, some went to graduate school and others started working.
Only four of her classmates came to Beijing, and she was not close to two of them.
After she started working, most of the people she met were clients.
Little Gu counted as a good friend.
And there was Chu Ling.
That was all.
“I don’t have many friends either.”
Mu Wen said,
“It’s such a shame. I’m such a nice person, but I’ve never had enough time to make friends.”
“Do I count as your friend, Mu Wen?”
Xie Chong looked at her seriously.
He wanted to know her answer.
There had been one time when he was certain she liked him.
But she had never taken the initiative to contact him.
After their unpleasant encounter, he had gone to Jingdezhen, and she had never contacted him again.
Now Xie Chong wondered if he had simply misunderstood that look.
Mu Wen did not answer immediately.
She was not good at lying.
How much she wanted to say:
You’re not my friend.
You’re the person I like.
But she felt that if she said something like that, Xie Chong would probably stand up and leave immediately.
He really was afraid of trouble.
At least, that was what Mu Wen believed.
“Of course you count!”
Mu Wen pretended to sound relaxed.
“I think of you as my best friend! You know I don’t have many friends in Beijing.”
“I really like spending time with you, Mr. Xie.”
“Xie Chong.”
He corrected her.
“Xie Chong. Have you ever heard someone call their own friend ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms.’?”
Mu Wen smiled.
This time, she could slow down and say his name.
“Xie Chong.”
“Xie Chong.”
“Xie Chong.”
“Finally, I can say it naturally!”
Mu Wen stood up and turned toward him.
“Want to race?”
“Race what?”
“Running!”
Mu Wen said.
“Do you dare?”
“How far?”
Xie Chong asked.
“Three kilometers!”
Mu Wen said it without hesitation, as if one hundred meters, five hundred meters, or eight hundred meters did not even count as running.
Xie Chong curled his lips.
When he was in middle school, he had trained in middle- and long-distance running and had even placed in city competitions.
Later, he stopped professional training because of a sports injury, but his foundation was still there.
Xie Chong did not usually brag.
But on this track, finding someone who could outrun him would be very difficult.
He decided to teach Mu Wen a little lesson.
“How about this?”
“I’ll let you start twenty seconds ahead.”
“Otherwise, it’ll look like I’m bullying you.”
“Also, there has to be a winner and loser. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
“What should we bet?”
Mu Wen asked.
“Two hundred yuan.”
Xie Chong said.
“Any more than that and you’ll feel bad about losing it.”
“Fine.”
Mu Wen hung her canvas bag on the horizontal bar and took off her coat, placing it beside the bag.
Seeing that she was serious, Xie Chong did not hold back either.
He took off his black coat and placed it beside hers.
Underneath, he wore a high-quality dark T-shirt that showed off his well-proportioned figure.
He was neither too thin nor overly muscular.
He simply looked healthy and fit.
Mu Wen walked over and covered his coat with hers.
“I’ll hide it for you. Your clothes are too expensive. It would be a shame if they got lost.”
Xie Chong glanced at her and pointed toward the track.
“Let’s go.”
He let Mu Wen start first.
She did not hesitate.
The moment she started, she shot forward.
Xie Chong regretted his decision the instant he saw her first step.
This girl really was a hero from the grasslands.
Her running form was smooth and professional.
Twenty seconds might be harder to make up than he had expected.
So he started chasing her at nineteen seconds.
It had been many years since Xie Chong had felt this kind of competitive excitement.
A school track was different from a road or a stadium.
As he ran at full speed, he felt free.
His “friend,” Mu Wen, was practically a long-legged antelope running happily ahead of him.
Xie Chong kept chasing her.
But catching her was easier said than done.
She was strong and healthy, a formidable opponent.
Her legs moved rapidly through the darkness as she passed one runner after another.
Xie Chong kept chasing her.
But catching her was not easy.
She felt as if she had returned to the familiar grasslands beneath a sky full of stars.
She ran without holding anything back.
She did not care about anyone around her.
Her hair came loose, but she did not bother fixing it.
Mu Wen was so happy.
She loved running.
It was as if, as long as she ran fast enough, she could leave everything behind.
Including Xie Chong.
But Xie Chong was not someone to underestimate.
Mu Wen noticed that he was following her at a steady pace.
She looked back and saw that every step he took showed years of training.
He was no worse than the long-distance runners at her university.
Oh my God.
So that’s why he gave me twenty seconds!
What an old fox!
Mu Wen’s competitive spirit grew stronger.
She pushed herself harder.
Xie Chong also increased his speed and stayed close behind her.
With only the final hundred meters remaining, he finally reached her side.
He did not really want to win or lose.
He simply felt that running like this was wonderful.
The old things and negative emotions trapped inside him seemed to escape through every pore as he ran.
It felt like an old illness had suddenly disappeared.
His whole body felt light.
Neither of them spoke.
Sometimes they looked up at the sky.
The city was brightly lit, but the stars had disappeared.
The sound of the other person’s breathing was clear.
Their breathing rhythms were almost perfectly in sync.
They ran all the way to the finish line.
They looked at each other.
Then, at the same time, they burst out laughing.
Their hair was both completely messy, as if they had just crawled out of a sheep pen.
Mu Wen remembered how she used to celebrate after running with her roommates.
Whenever they finished a run together, they would lightly put an arm around each other’s shoulders to celebrate making it to the end.
This time was the same.
She jumped in front of Xie Chong, wrapped her arms around his arm, and gave him a light hug.
Xie Chong froze where he stood.