The house was dimly lit and silent. The living room windows were wide open, and after nightfall the temperature dropped sharply, letting cold wind rush in unchecked.
Jiang Linye sat alone on the sofa, surrounded by piles of Jellycat plush toys. The entire house felt devoid of any human warmth, and it was only in this moment that he truly felt the chill.
“Tang…”
Beep beep beep beep…
He didn’t even get a chance to say anything.
She hung up.
Tang Ning stared at the steaming hot pot in front of her, so angry she felt like a furious little bird.
She set her phone down, thinking that ignoring Jiang Linye would make her feel better. But the heavy lump of frustration in her chest refused to go up or down. The moment she opened her mouth, heat surged into her eyes: “Xing…”
Tears broke free like beads from a snapped string, pattering down uncontrollably.
Sheng Xinglai jumped in fright and rushed over to stroke her: “What’s wrong, what’s wrong? Who bullied you? I’ll let the dog loose on him.”
“Jiang… Jiang Linye!” Tang Ning had been holding back her grievances for so long. Ever since waking up from the car accident, she’d wanted to cry. She couldn’t understand why she was so miserable—other people woke up with everything, but she woke up with nothing but money.
“He cursed at me wuwuwu…” The more she thought, the sadder she got. She cried until she could barely breathe, shoulders shaking, both hands clutching her best friend’s forearm, begging, “Go… go call your dog, have it bite off his little brother… preserve it as a specimen…”
Sheng Xinglai: “…”
Damn, she’s crying this hard and still thinking about neutering her husband.
She dragged the tissue box over, wiped Tang Ning’s tears while half-hugging her, gently patting her back: “My poor baby, so wronged… don’t cry, don’t cry, I’m right here, I’m right here… Is he still coming tonight? I’ll call the neighborhood security and tell them to get the electric batons ready.”
“I d-don’t know.” Tang Ning hiccupped with every word, big tears clinging to her cheeks. She looked utterly pitiful, stubbornly tugging Sheng Xinglai’s sleeve. “Forget the batons… prepare an electric fence. Zap him to death and be done with it.”
Sheng Xinglai: “…”
Sheng Xinglai found it a little funny inside, but as she hugged and rubbed her, the amusement turned to heartache: “Stop crying. Have I not held you in too long? How did you get so thin from crying?”
She asked: “What happened this time? Still about the cat?”
“No.” Tang Ning shook her head seriously, though her little chest still hitched with sobs. “I remembered… what happened when we got married.”
Along with it came a string of endless, unspeakable scenes she didn’t dare describe in detail.
In her memory, she seemed to have never cooperated much. Sometimes she really was too exhausted, but he would pin her down in all kinds of places anyway, unlocking every variation.
She truly couldn’t understand. “Xingxing, tell me—Jiang Linye used to have such a good temper. How did he turn into such an asshole now?”
Sheng Xinglai was surprised: “You remembered everything?”
“No, just one thing…” After venting, Tang Ning’s cheeks were still streaked with tears, but her mind gradually cleared. “Wait for me—I’ll bang my head on your wall lamp again. Maybe I’ll remember more.”
Sheng Xinglai laughed and cried at the same time, quickly stopping her: “Don’t be stupid.”
But at the same time, she felt a complicated mix of emotions: “I can’t really judge what Jiang Linye is like now… but back then, his temper wasn’t actually that good either, you know?”
“How could that be?” Tang Ning’s eyes widened like a small animal’s. “He was so gentle in high school!”
“…Probably only you thought so.”
To be honest, during their middle school days, Sheng Xinglai’s impression of Jiang Linye wasn’t great.
The boy carried too much arrogance. In front of Tang Ning he was willing to hide it, acting all radiant and gentle. But in front of everyone else, he made his impatience obvious—he couldn’t even be bothered to pretend. She didn’t like people like that.
Then came that one basketball game, which completely tanked her opinion of him to rock bottom.
The two classes were facing off. Jiang Linye and the class president were originally on the same team—minor bumps and collisions were normal. But whether intentional or not, every move he made targeted the class president.
The third time he was knocked down, the class president calmly took off his glasses: “You just want to fight me, right?”
Before the words even finished, Jiang Linye’s fist was already flying.
So during halftime, the two of them really did get into a fight.
The whole class was stunned. By the time everyone reacted and ran over to stop them, the winner had already been decided.
After school that day, Sheng Xinglai returned to the classroom. Everyone else had left. Only Tang Ning and Jiang Linye were still there.
The boy stood in front of the desk, posture tall and straight. His wide blue-and-white school uniform wasn’t zipped up, yet it didn’t look sloppy at all. A clean, crisp aura surrounded him.
Tang Ning sat behind the desk, head down, doing homework and refusing to look at him—clearly sulking.
“I got hit.” The winner was Jiang Linye. He only had a small scrape at the corner of his eye, but he lowered his gaze and said, “It hurts a little.”
—From that moment on, Sheng Xinglai thought this guy was too damn awful.
He was absolutely not some upright, honest person.
But Tang Ning seemed to be wearing some level-20 filter; she liked him for no reason at all. Sheng Xinglai had tried to remind her, but even in the closest friendships, you can’t say too much about something like that. Later, after Tang Ning got married, they drifted apart, and Sheng Xinglai had even less right to comment on someone else’s marriage.
So right now, she really wanted to shake her best friend awake: “He’s always been that kind of person. Snap out of it, Tang Ning.”
Tang Ning lifted her head, looking at her blankly. Her black-and-white eyes still held unshed tears, shimmering under the light.
“…Forget it.” Sheng Xinglai sighed. Seeing the meat in the pot had gone cold, she stood up to clear the plates. “I’ll cut you some fruit. Want yogurt?”
Tang Ning blinked in confusion: “What are you doing?”
“Didn’t you say you weren’t eating anymore? I’m putting the ingredients away.” There was still a lot of fatty beef rolls, beef, and lamb slices—perfect to save for the next hot pot session.
“No, no.” Tang Ning immediately wiped her tears dry. “I’m not full yet. Turn the heat back on—I want to cook some more fish tofu.”
“…” Sheng Xinglai laughed helplessly. “Not upset anymore?”
“How could I not be? Someone as sentimental as me would be sad for three whole days even if a dog treated me like that.” Tang Ning sniffled, her eyes still red at the corners. “But you reminded me of something. I just realized—I have so much money. Even if I divorce him, I can hire ten cleaners who look exactly like Jiang Linye to scrub my toilets. So why cry? Come on, eat some more too.”
Sheng Xinglai: “…”
After they finally finished that long meal, Tang Ning helped her best friend clean up the plates and pot, then curled up on the sofa with the little cat in her arms and started furiously beating up Jiang Linye’s little chicken (in her phone game).
Sheng Xinglai washed a basket of cherries for her. Worried she’d be cold, she also brought out the sofa blanket: “Do you want to sleep in my room tonight, or the guest room?”
Tang Ning didn’t even think: “I want to sleep with you.”
“Oh, cuddling services cost extra.”
Tang Ning puffed up proudly: “I’ve got plenty of money! When I’m old, I’ll sit in the living room every day ironing my cash!”
Sheng Xinglai burst into laughter. As she looked down, she noticed the well-behaved little fluffball in Tang Ning’s arms.
It was clearly a stray cat, but after grooming, its fur was surprisingly clean. Tabby cats already have big ears, but this one’s were especially large. When it lifted its eyes to look at people, its glass-marble-like pupils rolled around, giving off an almost pitiful, innocent vibe.
Sheng Xinglai guessed this cat had probably been abandoned. She felt like Tang Ning had picked up a treasure: “What are you planning to name your little cat?”
Jiang Linye’s little chicken had already been beaten away. Tang Ning lifted the soft, fluffy ball in her arms, squinting thoughtfully for a moment: “Its eyes are so big, ears too, paws look like they’re wearing little white socks, and there’s even a tiny patch of different-colored fur next to its nose—such a distinctive look. Let’s call it Mimi!”
Sheng Xinglai slowly typed out: “…?”
In the end, they settled on Yingying Monster.
Tang Ning loved giving non-yowling cats yowly names—who made her so rebellious 🙂
She’d probably cried herself out during dinner. After just a few words, she started yawning while holding the cat.
Sheng Xinglai glanced up at the clock—it was already past eleven: “Is your husband still coming over tonight?”
“I don’t know. Probably not.” Tang Ning had just shut her phone off. “But…”
She paused, buried her face in the blanket, and mumbled unhappily in a muffled voice, “If he doesn’t come, even better. I don’t want to see him.”
Seeing him would make her want to cry.
—But in reality, at this very moment, Jiang Linye was already standing at the entrance of the neighborhood.
After National Day, the temperature difference between day and night in North City had grown extreme. After dark, a fine rain had started drifting through the air—not a downpour, but dense and needle-like, countless tiny pins floating in the night sky. It made Jiang Linye inexplicably irritated.
He’d gone to some trouble to track down Sheng Xinglai’s exact address, but the security guard at the gate kept asking questions. No matter how Chen Liangjun explained, the guard refused to let them in.
“We’re really here to see a friend. Her surname is Sheng—she lives in Building F of Lanting Court, apartment 1803…”
“It’s so late—why don’t you have your friend call down?” The guard wasn’t being deliberately difficult; it was just that these two men, despite their refined presence, didn’t look like good guys at all. The one in the driver’s seat was manageable, but the passenger was terrifying—lips pressed tight, face dark like he was here for revenge.
“My friend turned her phone off.” Chen Liangjun couldn’t reach Sheng Xinglai either. He tried his best to explain: “If that doesn’t work, how about this—you come with us to the building. We’ll go downstairs and do a video call with my friend. Then you can ask the resident directly if they know us.”
He figured no matter how angry the madam was, if President Jiang was already at the foot of the building, she wouldn’t turn him away.
The guard thought for a moment: “Alright.”
It only took a few minutes to drive to the building, but by then the night rain had suddenly intensified.
Big raindrops hammered the windshield, splashing up huge sprays of water. Visibility dropped instantly. The air filled with hazy mist, making even the streetlights look unreal.
Chen Liangjun hesitated: “The rain’s coming in waves. It’ll probably lighten up again in a few minutes. Should we wait a bit?”
Any later and she’d be asleep.
Jiang Linye didn’t answer. Silently, he unbuckled his seatbelt, stepped out with his long legs, and got out of the car.
A gust of wind carrying moisture hit him in the face. In just a few steps, his shoulders were soaked. Chen Liangjun hurried over with an umbrella.
The guard stood at the entrance and dialed the video intercom. It rang three or four times before Sheng Xinglai slowly climbed out of bed, sleepy-eyed, turned on the wall light by the door, and pressed to answer: “Who is it?”
Jiang Linye stepped forward: “It’s me.”
Sheng Xinglai raised her hand to end the call.
Jiang Linye’s voice dropped low: “Let me come up. I need to see Ningning.”
“But she cried herself to sleep. If you come up now, you’ll wake her.”
Jiang Linye’s body stiffened. For the first time, he felt a little lost.
Tang Ning cried? How long?
From the time he called her until now—more than three hours had passed.
…Had she been crying the whole time?
“Then…” His voice turned hoarse. “Then help me pass on a message. Tell her not to block me again. I have something to say to her.”
“How am I supposed to control that?” Sheng Xinglai muttered, reasoning with him. “The sky decides when it rains, and she decides when she doesn’t want to see you… these things aren’t up to us. I can’t do anything about it. If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”
Chen Liangjun, standing beside him, heard this and felt completely thrown.
He and the boss had rushed over in the middle of the night, getting drenched in the rain, only to be denied entry and not even allowed to pass on a message. What earth-shattering fight had President Jiang had with the madam this time?
Jiang Linye pressed his lips together and said nothing. Lightning slithered through the sky like a green snake. In the sudden white flash, his expression looked frighteningly cold.
Since his mother passed away when he was fifteen, no one had dared hit him or lock him outside all night.
Later he’d crashed into many walls, his desire for revenge growing wilder with the wind. He’d sworn never to eat anyone’s closed-door treatment again.
The guard sensed something was off and asked: “Miss Sheng, are these two your friends? Should I just let them up, or should I leave you to talk here?”
Before Sheng Xinglai could answer.
The next second, a crisp voice came through the intercom:
“We don’t have this friend. We don’t know him.”
Tang Ning leaned close to the speaker, sounding like a gleeful little animal: “Security uncle, hurry up and bring out your big electric baton—let them see what it’s like. Quick!”