Mu Wen’s hug was so light and brief that it was almost as if it had never happened.
But Xie Chong could feel how warm she was.
She was a warm, real person. She had hugged him the way someone would hug a friend.
That had never happened in Xie Chong’s life before.
Xie Chong did not have many friends.
Especially not female friends.
He did not like making friends because, in his mind, friends were like the stubble that grew on his face every day. He could shave one batch off after another, but none of it would last.
His only true friend was Qian Song.
Qian Song was shamelessly persistent. He did not care about Xie Chong’s strange temper or anything else about him. He simply invaded Xie Chong’s time and personal space without hesitation.
And somehow, that was how they became friends.
Xie Chong had no female friends.
In his mind, Jiang Wu did not count as one. She was the kind of woman he had quietly liked since he was young.
He liked being alone.
But Mu Wen’s sincere, uncontrollably happy hug shocked him.
It had been a very, very long time since he had felt so certain that he truly had a friend.
His friend Mu Wen had no idea that the hug had been unusual at all.
At that moment, she was standing in front of him, grinning.
“Did you run until you couldn’t breathe? You look silly.”
After saying that, she ran to the horizontal bar, picked up her clothes, and put them on.
Then she handed Xie Chong his coat.
“Put it on quickly. The wind is picking up. It’s cold.”
Xie Chong simply let her fuss over him.
Every now and then, he looked at her.
Mu Wen was always smiling at him.
Now that she had thought about it, she began to worry that her friendly hug might make him misunderstand her.
She was afraid he might stop talking to her again.
But Xie Chong said nothing about it.
Instead, he started talking about something else.
He asked when she would repay the second meal she owed him.
She said,
“If I finish working early tomorrow.”
“Then call me when you finish tomorrow.”
“Okay, okay.”
On the way home, they chatted casually about this and that.
Mu Wen loved nights like this.
Walking beside the person she liked made even the air seem cleaner.
She was in a wonderful mood, walking with a light, bouncing step.
When they reached the entrance to her building, she said goodbye and walked away without looking back.
Mu Wen had originally planned to treat Xie Chong to his second meal the next day at noon.
But Lin Weisen suddenly took her to sing.
Lin Weisen invited Little Gu and four or five other coworkers to dinner and karaoke because that difficult client had finally signed the contract.
Mu Wen asked Lin Weisen whether that man had mentioned her afterward.
Lin Weisen replied dismissively,
“A person like that doesn’t spend much time on one person. If one doesn’t work out, he moves on to the next. He might even be dealing with several at the same time.”
“Why, Master? How can people be like that?”
Mu Wen could not understand such dark and complicated human behavior.
“You’re still young.”
Lin Weisen repeated what he had told her before.
“Give it a few more years. You’ll realize people like this aren’t even the worst.”
“It’s actually good that you encountered this now. The earlier you learn, the sooner you become aware.”
Mu Wen nodded thoughtfully.
They finished singing at two in the afternoon.
Mu Wen took the bus home.
She sat on the sunny side, rested her head against the window, and slowly drifted toward sleep.
Light and shadow kept passing across her face.
Bright.
Dark.
Bright.
Dark…
Just like life.
Good.
Bad.
Good.
Bad…
Of course, Mu Wen wasn’t thinking that deeply.
The bumpy bus ride and warm sunlight simply gave her a quiet sense of happiness.
But that happiness came to an abrupt stop when she got off the bus.
Her phone was gone.
Mu Wen had never lost anything before.
She treasured everything she owned.
Even a tiny hair clip or a single pencil would be used again and again until it was completely worn out.
She always tried to get the greatest possible use out of everything.
And the first thing she had ever lost was something as expensive as her phone.
She stood helplessly beside the road.
Her heart hurt so much that tears came to her eyes.
Why did I fall asleep?
Now look what happened. My phone is gone.
She thought about chasing after the bus to look for it.
Then she realized it was probably impossible.
Someone had stolen it.
She had no phone now, so she sadly went home.
Chu Ling was washing clothes.
When she saw Mu Wen’s miserable expression, she wiped the soap from her hands and came over.
“What happened?”
Mu Wen pouted.
“I lost it. My phone is gone. I’m going to Zhongguancun to buy a new one.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Chu Ling said,
“My coworker lost her phone a few days ago too. There have been a lot of phone thieves lately.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine.”
Mu Wen tried to comfort herself.
But how could it be fine?
She had lost so many contacts.
Fortunately, she remembered her parents’ phone numbers.
At Dinghao Building, the floor selling phones was packed with people.
They squeezed through the crowd and looked at different models.
But every phone seemed expensive to Mu Wen.
In the end, she decided to buy another 5300.
Xie Chong had been waiting for Mu Wen at home.
He waited until evening, but his “new” friend still hadn’t appeared.
He called Mu Wen twice.
She answered the first call but said nothing and quickly hung up.
The second time, her phone was turned off.
Xie Chong thought,
I knew it. You really can’t make friends.
Friends are too unreliable.
He turned around and left.
After buying her new phone, Mu Wen hurried to Xie Chong’s home.
She wanted to explain in person why she had broken her promise.
But no one was home.
He had not been waiting for her.
That was actually good.
At least her guilt became a little lighter.
Her National Day holiday was completely filled with clients.
Their industry also followed the saying “Golden September and Silver October.”
This was Mu Wen’s first year experiencing the busy season.
At the same time, the property market was beginning to show signs of a major boom.
So she spent the entire holiday rushing between measuring houses and preparing proposals.
Measure a house.
Prepare a proposal.
Measure another house.
Prepare another proposal.
Mu Wen kept working without stopping.
When Ge Yunqing called, she told Mu Wen that Yakeshi had already received its first heavy snowfall.
The road to Hailar was completely white.
“Your father took a family tour group this National Day. He should have reached Manzhouli by now.”
Mu Wen loved listening to her mother talk about these things.
She studied floor plans while chatting with her mother.
Ge Yunqing asked whether she could come home after the holiday.
Mu Wen had not returned home since leaving after New Year.
She missed home too.
But plane tickets were too expensive, and her holiday was too short to make a round trip by train and bus.
After hanging up, she felt sad.
She took out her bankbook and calculated her money, wondering whether she could save enough for a trip home.
She couldn’t.
She had just bought a new phone.
She also needed to replace her work computer soon.
Then there was rent to pay.
She simply did not have enough money.
When will I finally have enough money?
Mu Wen sadly put away her bankbook.
Make more money.
She decided to work more overtime.
She would not take her post-holiday days off.
Instead, she would save them all for New Year and take one long break.
She always had a way of comforting herself.
Once she found a way forward from a bad mood, she immediately had plenty of energy to keep working.
She stayed busy without stopping.
So busy that she completely forgot about Xie Chong.
During this period, she signed one detached-villa client, two townhouse clients, one large apartment, and one old, run-down apartment in Xicheng District.
Her results were outstanding.
Her progress was incredibly fast.
She had already far exceeded the company’s expectations for her.
Even Lin Weisen began wondering whether she had some unusual way of getting clients.
One day, as he was leaving work, he stood beside Mu Wen’s desk for a while.
“Working overtime again? Aren’t you going out on a date?”
“A date? With who?”
Mu Wen looked up in surprise.
Lin Weisen lowered his voice.
“You’re not dating anyone?”
Mu Wen was confused.
“No.”
Lin Weisen tapped her desk as if reminding her to pay attention to something, then turned and left.
Mu Wen was puzzled.
She felt that Lin Weisen’s reaction had been strange.
So the next day, she asked Little Gu.
Little Gu looked uncomfortable.
“Mu Gong, the main reason I didn’t want to tell you is because I don’t think any of this matters. It could mess with your thinking. There’s really no need to worry about it.”
“What do you mean?”
Mu Wen said,
“It’s okay, Little Gu. Just tell me. What happened?”
Little Gu sighed.
“Mu Gong, people have been saying that you got all these projects through improper means.”
“Some say you’re dating a rich man. Others say you’re someone’s mistress. There are all kinds of rumors.”
“Basically, your performance has been too good for a newcomer…”
Mu Wen understood.
She had just arrived in Beijing.
She had no money.
No connections.
Nothing.
How could someone like her achieve such results in such a short time?
People assumed she must have someone powerful backing her.
Then Mu Wen remembered the time she had lied to that bastard Gao and claimed she had a powerful background so she could scare him.
She had never expected people to twist that into something like this.
Ridiculous.
That was her first reaction.
Then an overwhelming sense of hurt washed over her.
Before, Mu Wen thought she didn’t care what people said about her.
If coworkers thought she was stingy, she didn’t care.
If they called her a workaholic, she didn’t care.
But that day, she finally understood why she had never cared before.
Those things had never insulted her character.
Now they were insulting who she was as a person.
Mu Wen wanted to hit someone.
But the office was already empty.
Since returning to Beijing in July, she had spent almost every weekday night working here until midnight.
Even on weekends, she had hardly taken a proper break.
Their industry was supposed to have weekends off, or allow employees to take compensatory leave.
But Mu Wen did not want to rest.
She was afraid that if she rested, she would miss a client.
She always thought:
I’m still young.
I can handle it.
I’m not afraid of anything.
She believed that the only thing capable of stopping her progress was herself.
I don’t care about them.
I don’t care about them.
She forced herself to return to her drawings.
Then her client, Ms. Li, called.
“Don’t prepare the proposal for now. Let’s pause our cooperation.”
“May I ask what I did wrong?”
Mu Wen asked carefully.
“I’m not trying to force you to continue working with me. I just want to know what I did poorly so I can keep improving.”
Ms. Li hesitated for a few moments before hanging up.
That evening, Mu Wen heard that Ms. Li had been reassigned to another designer.
The designer had transferred from another company.
Mu Wen couldn’t understand.
She went to Lin Weisen.
He told her directly,
“Ms. Li originally had a good impression of you. But somehow she heard that you get too close to male clients, so she asked for another designer.”
“Who told her?”
Mu Wen asked directly.
“Who in the company even has contact with Ms. Li? Didn’t you say that once a client is assigned to me, I’m the only one who can develop the relationship?”
She wanted to understand why.
Lin Weisen advised her not to pursue it.
“It’s only one client. There are plenty of clients out there. Don’t let one client affect your relationship with your coworkers.”
Mu Wen had never expected him to respond this way.
She became angry.
“Master! This is unfair competition! They’re spreading lies about me!”
“How is this unfair competition?”
Lin Weisen became angry too.
“Who doesn’t have rumors spread about them? Isn’t this normal?”
“You’ve taken other people’s clients before too.”
“That was because the clients complained, and the company assigned them to me! I didn’t steal them!”
“What difference does it make? They’re both clients who complained.”
“I…”
Mu Wen’s face turned red with anger.
She wanted to reason with him.
But Lin Weisen had already stood up and begun packing his laptop.
Before leaving, he advised her,
“Relationships with coworkers are important.”
“You spend all your time working. You’ve been here for so long. Have you ever treated everyone to a meal?”
“Other than Little Gu, are you close to anyone?”
“If you don’t maintain relationships with people yourself, can you really expect them to speak well of you?”
Lin Weisen pointed at his head.
“Use your brain.”
“Your master isn’t trying to hurt you.”
Mu Wen bit her lip and returned to her desk.
In the end, she was still a newcomer who had only just graduated.
This was the first time in her life she had faced so much overwhelming hostility.
She felt terrible.
Usually, everyone was polite and friendly when they met.
They talked about the weather, their hobbies, and their daily lives.
They looked like friends.
But the moment they turned around, they became completely different people, throwing the most baseless suspicions and cruel words at her.
Mu Gong decided she was not working overtime tonight.
She didn’t need to anyway.
Ms. Li was afraid that Mu Wen might try to get close to her husband and had demanded a new designer.
The ridiculous part was that Mu Wen had never even met Ms. Li’s husband.
She walked out of the office building.
A wave of cold air swept over her.
Only then did she realize it was already mid-October.
She stood in front of the building for a while, wrapped in her clothes.
She was angry, but hunger had not disappeared just because she was upset.
The food stalls beneath Baishi Bridge were already open.
She checked the time.
The buses had stopped running.
Taxis were already charging the nighttime rate.
Forget it. I’ll eat first.
She lowered her head and walked toward the jianbing stall.
The confidence she usually carried was gone.
Even her steps seemed slower.
She bought a jianbing first.
The stall owner asked,
“Still two eggs?”
“Two. Thank you.”
The woman spread the batter while looking at Mu Wen through the glass.
“Are you feeling unwell?”
“Huh? No.”
Mu Wen answered.
“Good. If you’re not feeling well, you should rest. Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“Thank you.”
Mu Wen took the jianbing and bought hot-and-sour noodles.
Then she sat on a low stool and ate while the autumn wind blew around her.
It was already very cold.
But there were still people at the stalls who had just finished work and couldn’t be bothered to go home and cook.
They simply ate here.
Mu Wen ate quickly.
As she ate, she thought of the huge steamed buns her mother, Ge Yunqing, used to make.
When she was little, she had always been impatient.
She would want to lift the lid and see whether the buns were ready.
She would climb onto a little stool and lift the lid of the steamer.
Then Ge Yunqing would shout from nearby,
“Oh no, oh no! They’ll lose all their air!”
The buns inside would immediately collapse and lose their softness.
Ge Yunqing would tell her,
“When you’re steaming buns, you can’t be impatient.”
“Don’t care how much anyone rushes you. You must never open the lid early.”
“You have to be patient and let them cook properly. Only then will you get good steamed buns.”
I’m being patient too.
Mu Wen thought.
My batch of buns has only just started cooking. It’s still a long way from being ready.
After she finished eating, she felt much better.
She walked along the road toward home.
She planned to walk until she was exhausted before taking a taxi.
That would also help her digest her food.
Chu Ling had gone to Wuhan for an editors’ forum.
Mu Wen did not need to work overtime tomorrow either.
A rare free weekend had suddenly arrived.
She had no idea what to do with it.
Her feet stepped on fallen leaves.
The dry leaves cracked beneath her shoes.
The sound reminded her of autumn in the Greater Khingan Mountains.
There, thick, soft pine needles covered the ground like a carpet.
Walking on them felt almost weightless.
She suddenly understood why her father had refused to work at the repair factory in Qiqihar years ago.
He had said there were too many people in Qiqihar.
Her father believed that places with too many people were exhausting.
Mu Wen suddenly felt that crowded places had mouths everywhere.
One person said something.
Another added something.
And before long, they could twist someone into a completely different person.
She became tired and squatted beside the road.
She wanted to pick up a pretty leaf.
She looked through several, but none seemed quite right.
Then she heard footsteps approaching.
She immediately raised her head cautiously.
And there, standing before her, was Xie Chong.
After losing her phone, she had gone to look for him twice.
But he had not been home either time.
One day, she even called his work number.
The company had his work number, but he didn’t answer.
After that, she became too busy.
Busy with life.
Busy making money.
Busy saving for her trip home and paying rent.
So she stopped looking for him.
She had once imagined that maybe, someday, when she had everything she needed and was no longer struggling so badly, she would be able to wait outside his home for longer.
She could wait until he came back.
Until she could see him again.
She hadn’t reached that day yet.
But he had appeared.
In an instant, Mu Wen’s heart filled with gratitude.
Thank goodness.
On the day when I feel the worst, the person I like has come.
The Xie Chong I like is standing right in front of me.
She slowly stood up.
She wanted to greet him, but she was afraid that the moment she opened her mouth, she would cry.
She had so many grievances bottled up inside.
Xie Chong walked up to her.
“What happened to you?”
Mu Wen’s lips trembled slightly.
“I want to walk for a while.”
“Then I’ll walk with you for five hundred meters, and then I’ll turn back and get the car.”
Xie Chong said this and turned around.
Then he suddenly remembered that Mu Wen had broken their promise.
His anger returned.
He stopped and wanted to say something to her.
He wanted to ask why she had promised to meet him, only to completely forget about him.
But Mu Wen suddenly said,
“I want to sit in a bar. I want to have a little alcohol.”
“Don’t try to use a bar to get out of it. You promised to come to my place and cook…”
“No, I won’t.”
Mu Wen spoke softly.
“Xie Chong, I lost my phone…”
“It’s fine.”
Xie Chong said,
“Don’t explain. It’s okay.”
He drove her to a bar.
Mu Wen looked at the drink menu and immediately felt heartbroken over the prices.
She allowed herself only one drink.
Xie Chong said,
“Drink. Have as much as you need.”
“Are you drinking?”
“No. I’m driving.”
“Oh.”
Mu Wen really started drinking.
The cocktail she ordered was not as strong as liquor.
It was sweet and sour and easy to drink.
After one glass, she felt light and floaty, and most of the unpleasant things at the company faded from her mind.
So she ordered another.
After the second glass, she became cheerful again.
She started laughing like she used to.
She wanted another drink.
Xie Chong said,
“Last one.”
“Okay. Last one.”
Mu Wen agreed with a silly smile.
She had forgotten all the things that had been bothering her.
Now, all she could see was Xie Chong.
The bar was dim.
Xie Chong sat quietly across from her, keeping her company.
She rested her head on the table and looked at him.
She felt that he was different from everyone else in the bar.
He was so unique.
Mu Wen thought about how wonderful he was.
Liking him was such a beautiful yet hopeless thing.
She could enjoy all the excitement and imagination that came with liking him, while at the same time having to endure the sadness of knowing they could never be together.
Yes.
She felt regret.
When Xie Chong saw that Mu Wen looked like she was about to cry, he took away her glass.
“No more. Let’s go.”
It was two in the morning.
Mu Wen stumbled with every step.
Xie Chong had no choice but to hold her firmly to keep her steady.
The little bit of sobriety she had left gave her an opportunity to act stubborn.
“I can’t walk. I can’t walk…”
She started lowering herself toward the ground.
Xie Chong quickly grabbed her and pulled her into his arms.
Mu Wen wrapped her arms around his waist.
He was so warm.
It felt like standing beside the steamer when her mother was making buns, surrounded by warmth from every direction.
Xie Chong’s hands stiffly stayed raised, carefully avoiding making things awkward, and he simply let her hold him.
Mu Wen felt so wronged.
Why won’t he hold me?
Why does the world have to be so complicated?
Why are beautiful things always so difficult to have?
Then, while she was in his arms, she let out a quiet sob.
Xie Chong became startled when he heard it.
He lowered his head.
“What happened?”
Mu Wen looked up.
She rose slightly onto her toes, and her lips briefly touched his.
His lips were cool and soft.
Mu Wen had never kissed anyone before.
She did not know that being close to the person she liked could feel like this.
She stopped breathing.
She wanted to cry.
Her hands tightly gripped the front of his coat.
When she sensed him trying to move away, she instinctively followed him.
And their lips met again.