It was hard to imagine that there was such a small alley hidden behind the tall buildings along the North Third Ring Road.
Once you passed through an iron gate, it felt like stepping into a completely different world, full of everyday life. Food carts stood one after another, selling grilled cold noodles, cold rice noodles, fried flatbread, Chinese crepes, and more. There were also small stalls selling spicy hotpot skewers, lamb skewers, daily necessities, and all kinds of other things.
Mu Wen loved this place.
Whenever she wanted to try a little of everything, she could simply buy a small portion of each without worrying about spending too much money.
She had always been a big eater. Her father, Mu Dechang, had started driving long-distance trucks years ago so he could support the family and raise her well. Her mother, Ge Yunqing, ran a small steamed-bun shop and got up before dawn every day to knead dough and steam the buns.
Mu Wen often sat beside the flour-covered worktable, holding a bun in one hand and quickly doing her homework with the other. Once she finished, she would throw down her pen and help her mother.
Winter in Inner Mongolia was long. There were only yams, cabbage, and heavy snow. Yet Mu Wen had never gone without good food. Her father always found ways to bring food from different parts of the country back to their lonely little city in Inner Mongolia. Then her mother would use those ingredients to make something delicious and put it straight into her daughter’s hands.
Later, Mu Wen passed the entrance exam and left her hometown to study in Tianjin. On her very first day at school, she stood inside the main cafeteria and was completely stunned.
Oh my goodness! How can the world have so much delicious food?
That was exactly how this little street made Mu Wen feel.
The world is just too delicious!
Chu Ling loved food too.
She had already bought a large lamb skewer and was standing there waiting for Mu Wen. Mu Wen, meanwhile, ran over carrying a bag of freshly cut sauce-flavored flatbread.
The two of them went into a spicy skewer shop. The owner was from Sichuan. As soon as she saw them, she smiled and called out,
“Girls, you’re here!”
The seats around the large pot were already full. Mu Wen and Chu Ling squeezed into a small spot together.
First, they shared the lamb skewer, taking turns biting into it and eating greedily.
Mu Wen said, “Come home with me for New Year. I’ll treat you to Inner Mongolian lamb skewers.”
Chu Ling told her about how their team leader had criticized her that day.
“I wasn’t careful enough when proofreading. I almost let a typo make it onto the homepage!”
Mu Wen giggled.
“I didn’t get scolded today. But I went to meet a client!”
She spread her thumb and index finger apart to form a rough eight shape and whispered,
“Eight hundred thousand.”
“What?” Chu Ling asked.
“The client I met today. Just the basic renovation budget is eight hundred thousand yuan.”
Mu Wen remembered how casually Xie Chong had said “eight hundred thousand.”
“Eight hundred thousand! That’s enough for my mother to sell steamed buns for twenty years!”
“Eight hundred thousand!” Chu Ling exclaimed as well. “That’s so much money!”
Mu Wen nodded repeatedly and stuffed another piece of flatbread into her mouth.
“Boss, two portions of vegetables and one portion of glass noodles!”
Then she continued, “The important thing is, this client is so young.”
So young, so rich, so refined, and so handsome.
“That’s nice,” Chu Ling said. “I’m most afraid of arrogant rich people. Sometimes our program team does interviews, and I help out on the side. I’m always worried that I’ll embarrass myself.”
“Me too. I didn’t dare say anything,” Mu Wen said. “I didn’t say a single word from beginning to end. I was afraid that if I opened my mouth, I’d ask some strange question. My master told me to keep quiet and learn properly.”
The Sichuanese owner smiled as she glanced at the two girls. She placed the cooked vegetables and glass noodles onto the round plates in front of them.
That immediately made them forget the sudden feeling of inferiority they had just experienced.
Mu Wen couldn’t accurately describe whether that feeling was inferiority or something else.
It was like when she walked along the street and a luxury car came toward her. She would instinctively straighten her back.
Maybe the person inside the car would notice her.
Or perhaps, through that posture, she was trying to find some sense of “equality.”
“Chu Ling, I realized something today,” Mu Wen said. “There really are invisible social classes between people. If that’s what you want to call them.”
After eating their spicy skewers, they held hands and went to the supermarket across the street.
At this time of day, many things in the supermarket were discounted. They would join the line of elderly shoppers and buy yogurt, bread, and fruit.
They had to cross a pedestrian bridge to get there.
They always stopped on the bridge for a while, watching the lights of the endless traffic below. The stream of headlights looked like a galaxy, stretching all the way toward the Fourth and Fifth Ring Roads and disappearing into the distance.
The night view of Beijing was beautiful.
Whenever this happened, Mu Wen would sigh dramatically.
“Traffic jams are so beautiful! Driving is so troublesome! I wonder if my eight-hundred-thousand-yuan client is stuck in traffic here too?”
Because Xie Chong was the first client she had ever met, she casually used him to complete her joke.
She had no idea that Xie Chong’s car really was one of the countless cars trapped in the traffic jam.
He was on the phone.
“Yes, we’re less than one kilometer away. You guys eat first. I’m not drinking.”
“I don’t like the roast duck at that place.”
“I don’t want to watch that awkward performance either.”
“Can’t we just eat? Why do they have to make such a big show out of everything?”
“And it’s hard to park there.”
He was already annoyed from being stuck in traffic. Knowing he was about to eat such unappealing imperial-style cuisine made him even less interested.
His friend could hear the irritation in his voice and tried to coax him.
“All right, all right. Just bear with it. We’ll go somewhere else after we’re done with the business dinner.”
“Mm.”
Xie Chong answered with a quiet hum.
Then Jiang Wu’s call came in.
He hung up.
She called again.
He hung up again.
“Are you still angry?” Jiang Wu sent him a message.
“All right, I’m sorry. Next time I’ll definitely go with you to discuss the renovation plan, okay?”
Xie Chong’s anger eased a little. He finally answered her call.
“Jiang Wu, do you know something? The things you don’t care about are things other people can only dream of. You don’t care about money. You don’t care about Wanliu. But there are people who do.”
He suddenly thought of that little assistant.
He remembered the “eight hundred thousand” she had carefully circled in her notebook and the way she had tried so hard to appear calm.
The difference between people was right there in front of him, impossible to ignore.
“What? Someone has their eyes on you again?” Jiang Wu laughed on the other end. “Then you’d better figure out whether they want your money or you.”
Xie Chong suddenly didn’t feel like talking anymore.
Jiang Wu was always like this.
Money meant nothing to her.
She liked Xie Chong, but she looked down on his wealth.
“Are you still there?” Jiang Wu asked.
“No.”
Xie Chong hung up the phone.
The place where he was meeting his friends was right beside Suzhou Street.
Young servers dressed as palace maids and eunuchs stood outside a traditional-style entrance. Instead of saying, “Welcome,” they greeted guests with, “Greetings, Your Highness.”
Someone would then carry a lantern and lead the guests through a quiet path into a place designed to look like an imperial garden.
A stream wound through the courtyard, with colorful carp swimming hard in the pond. One or two even tried to jump onto the bank, creating the illusion of “a carp leaping over the dragon gate.”
As soon as Xie Chong entered, a “palace maid” reached out to take his coat. Another led him to his seat.
Xie Chong immediately put on a completely different expression.
Before he even reached the table, his voice came first.
“Sorry I’m late. I’ll punish myself with three drinks.”
Everyone stood to welcome him, but he didn’t sit down.
The wine was already poured into a special serving vessel. He picked up a small cup and drank three cups in succession.
Only after everyone applauded did he sit down.
Naturally, the conversation at the table was about business.
Xie Chong connected buyers and sellers in the domestic and international art markets. From time to time, he also discussed futures, stocks, and large-scale import and export deals.
With glasses constantly being raised and business discussions going back and forth, things gradually began to take shape.
While he was still clear-headed, he suggested ending the dinner and invited everyone to continue to the next place.
The next place was more elegant—a private winery with a collection of privately stored wines.
Spending more than one hundred thousand yuan in a single night was nothing unusual there.
For business, Xie Chong was willing to spend whatever was necessary.
He had his parents to thank for that. From childhood, they had taken him along and helped him build a substantial family fortune. They had also taught him certain principles for surviving in the world.
By the time he got home, it was almost midnight.
After washing up, he was surprisingly wide awake, so he simply went out to have breakfast.
Xie Chong and Mu Wen had completely different kinds of nights.
Just as Mu Wen had said, everyone talked about equality, but there was still a gap between people that was incredibly difficult to cross.
Mu Wen stayed up for most of the night again, yet the next morning she went to the office full of energy.
She walked around Lin Weisen’s desk several times, thinking about how to bring something up with him.
“What is it?” Lin Weisen asked with a smile. “Why are you walking around my desk? That’s not like you.”
Mu Wen gave a small, embarrassed laugh and leaned toward him.
“Master, I want to take someone to Mr. Xie’s house and measure everything again.”
“Did we measure something wrong?” Lin Weisen asked. “That can’t be.”
“No, no!” Mu Wen quickly waved her hands. “I just want to go again and get a better feel for the place. Didn’t you say I would be responsible for the preliminary design? I don’t have enough of a feel for it yet.”
Lin Weisen looked up at Mu Wen.
There was no way to hide anything on the young woman’s face.
The first truly “beautiful home” she had ever seen had captured her imagination. She even seemed to have developed a strange little sense of wanting to possess it.
Lin Weisen understood that feeling very well.
Whenever he saw a house he really liked, he would also think, How wonderful would it be if this were mine?
Besides, Mr. Xie had a charm of his own. It was easy for a young woman to be attracted to someone like him.
“Go ahead. Take Little Gu yourself. You can also ask the client if he has any other requirements.”
Mu Wen happily jumped once.
“Thank you, Master!”
The previous night, whenever she closed her eyes, she saw the sunlight coming through the windows of that house, the bright and open layout, and every detail she had loved.
She called Xie Chong.
The moment the call connected, she suddenly stammered.
“Hello, hello… um, hello…”
She didn’t know why she had suddenly become nervous.
She covered the receiver and took a deep breath before speaking again.
“May I ask if this is Mr. Xie?”
“Yes. Who is this?”
“I’m Lin’s assistant, Mu Wen. We measured your house yesterday, and I’d like to come back today and take the measurements again. Would that be convenient for you?”
Xie Chong arranged a time with her.
Before hanging up, he repeated her name to himself, wanting to avoid the awkwardness of forgetting it when they met again.
Mu Wen.
That evening, the wind finally stopped.
If there was no wind, autumn in Beijing became an entirely different kind of beautiful.
Mu Wen could finally let her hair down. Afraid it would fall across her face whenever she lowered her head, she clipped a small decorative hair clip with a flower beside her ear.
She walked through the autumn air, stepping on the occasional fallen leaf.
Whenever a breeze lifted her hair, she let it move with the wind.
She felt bright and carefree.
Little Gu asked her why she was so happy.
“I don’t know,” Mu Wen said. “It feels like I’m going home.”
Little Gu had only recently finished breastfeeding and was earning a very low salary. She accompanied designers to different homes to take measurements and had long since lost the kind of excitement Mu Wen felt.
But that day, when she saw the light in Mu Wen’s eyes, she unexpectedly understood her.
“Yes. This place has a great location, a nice neighborhood, and a good layout. Even the homeowner looks pretty good. If I were a few years younger, I’d definitely be as happy as you are.”
Mu Wen burst out laughing.
She affectionately linked arms with Little Gu, and together they went upstairs.
The door was still open.
Xie Chong had arrived first.
He stood by the door waiting for them while they put on their shoe covers.
Mu Wen bent slightly as she put hers on.
Xie Chong noticed the flower-shaped hair clip in her hair and the slightly curled strands falling over one shoulder.
When she straightened up, he had already looked away.
“Thank you for your hard work, Miss Mu,” he said. “Your company is the only one that came back to measure again so quickly.”
His tone was calm, and it was difficult to tell what he really meant.
In fact, he was saying it specifically for Mu Wen.
He had already realized that the reason for this second measurement was because the woman standing in front of him had become fascinated by the house.
Mu Wen froze for a moment.
All the opening lines she had prepared before coming here disappeared from her mind.
Fortunately, she reacted quickly and immediately smiled like warm sunlight.
“This is my first time doing the preliminary design, so I’m afraid I’ll make a mistake.”
She was completely honest.
She didn’t even try to come up with some polished excuse.
That actually pleased Xie Chong.
As a businessman, he hated dealing with people who said one thing but meant another.
The simpler someone was, the more he liked them.
Little Gu had already gone to measure the rooms.
Mu Wen took out her notebook again, preparing to talk with Xie Chong about the design.
But Xie Chong thought to himself, Here we go again.
He hated repeating the same things over and over, so he said directly,
“I already told you all my requirements yesterday. I have nothing to add.”
Mu Wen suddenly realized that the kindness and politeness he had shown yesterday had only been a layer he wore in public.
Privately, he was probably a very difficult person to deal with.
Since he clearly didn’t want her asking more questions, she stopped.
She put her notebook away.
“Then I’m sorry. I originally wanted to understand more about your preferences because it would help us with the design.”
“For example?” Xie Chong asked. “What else do you want to know?”
“Style? Preferences? Or something else?”
He smiled.
“Those things would take a long time to explain.”
Then he held out his hand.
“What?” Mu Wen asked.
“Your phone,” Xie Chong said. “Give me your phone.”
Mu Wen took out her phone.
It was a red-and-white phone she had been using for three years, worth about 5,300 yuan. It contained all the music she liked, and the white earphone cord was neatly wrapped around it.
Xie Chong untangled the earphone cord, opened the sliding cover, entered a number on the keypad, and called his own phone.
“If you run into any problems during the design process, you can call my private number.”
As he spoke, he neatly wrapped her earphone cord again and handed the phone back to her.
This was the first time in Mu Wen’s life that a client had given her his personal number.
She was a little overwhelmed by the honor.
There was also a small, secret happiness inside her, though she didn’t know where that feeling came from.
“Have you always been someone who doesn’t like talking?” Xie Chong suddenly asked.
Yesterday, she had been lively downstairs, and she had also been cheerful before coming upstairs.
He had seen it all from above.
Yet once she was in front of him, she became so quiet.
When he asked this, Mu Wen immediately became energetic.
Like someone who had been wronged, she muttered,
“Because from the moment I walked through the door, Mr. Xie hasn’t given me a chance to say anything!”
Xie Chong suddenly laughed.
She’s really interesting, he thought.
And she actually feels wronged.
He was a rather intimidating person by nature. Without realizing it, he often put pressure on others.
If you can tolerate it, then stay. If you can’t, then leave.
That was always his attitude.
Because of this, women were often both afraid of him and attracted to him.
This was the first time he had heard someone complain so naturally that he never gave others a chance to speak.
The young “poor” woman standing before him had clearly been envious of everything he possessed and made no effort to hide her admiration.
Yet at the same time, she could honestly express her dissatisfaction with him.
She was the complete opposite of Jiang Wu.
That gave him a little sympathy for her.
“Where do you live?” Xie Chong asked, casually finding another topic.
“Not far from here. On Suzhou Street.”
“Where on Suzhou Street?”
Xie Chong really couldn’t think of anything else to ask, so he continued.
“Across from the big supermarket.”
“Is the rent expensive?”
“Three hundred and fifty yuan for a bed. I sleep on the upper bunk.”
Mu Wen answered openly.
She even couldn’t help spreading her arms and legs apart on the floor to show Xie Chong just how big her bed was.
This big.
Then she looked up at him and smiled.
“It’s enough. Those of us who draw for a living often work through the night. Home is basically just a bed to us.”
Xie Chong suddenly understood what she had been talking about with her master downstairs the previous day.
So she had been comparing her own bed with his entire home.
“Is it clean?” he asked again.
“…It’s very messy. There are lots of things. There are suitcases and all kinds of stuff piled up in the living room and on the balcony…”
Xie Chong finally stopped asking questions.
His eyes first fell on her hair clip.
Then he met her gaze.
Mu Wen was surprised by the way he was looking at her and nervously looked away.
“One of the flowers on your hair clip has fallen off,” Xie Chong said.
She reached up and touched it.
Her fingers found the broken hair clip.
A nameless irritation rose inside her, but it disappeared just as quickly.
“It can still be used!” she said.