The night wind carried the rain and splashed it straight into his face; the water droplets hitting the ground near his feet were clearly visible.
Jiang Linye held back his temper and spoke in a low voice: “Ningning.”
Ningning ignored him.
“Be good.” Jiang Linye sighed, “You can’t stay here. Come back with me…”
Ningning hung up the video call.
Jiang Linye: “…”
The sky was dark and heavy, the rain pouring down in torrents. Chen Liangjun stood beside him holding an umbrella, frozen like a smiling statue, not daring to look at his boss’s expression.
After a long pause.
“Forget it.” Jiang Linye turned around, speaking without much emotion, “Let’s head back first.”
Just one night.
He refused to believe that Tang Ning would really not come back.
But Tang Ning really didn’t want to go back anymore.
She slept very well that night. Sheng Xinglai had changed her to fresh bedding; the soft sheets carried the smell of sunlight.
She originally wanted to sleep longer, but her little bestie got up around seven to go to work. The sound of the sliding wardrobe door wasn’t loud, but it still woke her.
The little fox rubbed her eyes, curled up in the blanket with only her two eyes peeking out, secretly watching her.
“Did I wake you?” Sheng Xinglai sounded a little apologetic, “Sleep some more. I already fed the cat. The congee is warming in the pot. I have a pretty important client meeting today, so I have to go. Once I finish work, I’ll come back at noon to eat with you.”
The bedroom was quiet for a while. Tang Ning didn’t speak for a long time.
Sheng Xinglai thought she had fallen back asleep and didn’t pay it any mind.
But just as she was about to leave the bedroom, Tang Ning suddenly called out: “Xingxing.”
“Hm?”
Right now Tang Ning felt like Sheng Xinglai was glowing with holy light. Clutching the blanket, she was so moved she was about to cry: “You’re single right now, and I’m about to be single too. Do you mind marrying a girl? I know you’re not short of money either, but my money has piled up so much I can’t even spend it all. I can buy you bags, diamond rings, yachts… You don’t know, really, I’ve been married for five years and I’ve never had such a peaceful, serene morning like this before… wuwuwuwu…”
Sheng Xinglai: “…Can you act normal?”
The little cat in the living room, who had just finished eating and drinking its fill, heard the voices and sensitively trotted over. It squatted by the door, rubbing and rubbing, meowing with its neck stretched up, begging to be petted.
“This one is way too well-behaved, oh my god.” Sheng Xinglai was melted by its little hums, happily picked it up and placed it on her shoulder, rubbing it. “Last night I told it not to go into the bedroom and it actually listened. Raising a cat is way less trouble than raising a human. If it were me, I wouldn’t get married either.”
The little whining creature softly collapsed on her shoulder: “Ying.”
“Of course. Don’t you see whose cat this is?” Tang Ning was very proud. “My skills at training cats and dogs are both top-tier.”
“Stop bullshitting so early in the morning… huh.” While rubbing, Sheng Xinglai suddenly noticed something. “Your little boyfriend hasn’t been neutered yet? I’m actually going to the hospital today. Want me to take him for a check-up on the way?”
The moment she heard that, Tang Ning was instantly wide awake: “They’re cutting his balls today?”
“Let’s see how he looks first.” Sheng Xinglai kept petting the furry child all over. “You coming or not? If not, sleep more. I can take him by myself, it’s fine.”
This was a major life event for her son—how could Tang Ning possibly miss it?
She scrambled up immediately: “Wait for me, I can get dressed and do my makeup in ten minutes.”
Half an hour later, the two of them were all cleaned up and headed out together.
It had poured rain all through the second half of the night, but this morning the sky had cleared again. A thin layer of sunlight spread over everything, warm and golden like honey dripping over the skin.
Sheng Xinglai was driving while Tang Ning held the little cat in her arms, petting him nonstop and cooing: “Today is your official first day moving into the Tang family. From now on, you’re officially a Tang descendant. I’m going to give you a present.”
The little whining creature blinked up at her with big, innocent eyes: “Ying?”
After she finished speaking, Tang Ning mysteriously pulled a thick stack of coupons out of her bag, slowly unfolding them, and whispered like a little devil: “Can you read? Look—free neutering coupon. And I’ve got tons more here. Enough to snip the balls off all your sons, grandsons, great-grandsons… oh wait, you won’t have any descendants left after this.”
The whining creature froze for a second, then started struggling desperately: “…Ying!!”
“Don’t tease him like that.” Sheng Xinglai burst out laughing. “Cats are super smart—they understand human speech. Keep talking to him like this and he might ghost you after the surgery.”
“Really?” Tang Ning immediately turned serious. She pulled up a photo of Jiang Linye on her phone and seamlessly switched into full melodrama mode. Tears sprang to her eyes on cue: “I’m sorry, baby, Mommy doesn’t want this either. If you’re going to blame someone, blame Jiang Linye. There’s a head to every injustice and a debtor for every debt. Look—look at him hard! This ugly, evil man right here is the one who wants to take your balls!”
The little whining creature leaned in close to the phone, big eyes wide open, staring face-to-face with the expressionless man on the screen.
Three seconds of silence.
Then it smacked the screen right across the man’s face with one tiny paw and let out an angry kitten roar: “Ying!!”
At the same moment, Jiang Linye, sitting alone eating breakfast in the empty, echoing mansion, suddenly felt a sharp pain in his teeth.
He frowned slightly, opened his mouth, and spat out a small piece of animal bone.
There shouldn’t be anything like that in a chicken sandwich—probably the chef’s mistake—but today he was too irritated to bother pursuing it.
He hadn’t slept well last night.
It wasn’t like he and Tang Ning had never fought before. In fact, after their marriage, their arguments were too many to count. But the twenty-five-year-old Tang Ning had long since stopped turning to anyone outside for help. She had no friends, wouldn’t go cry to her little bestie, and it was even less likely she’d run off to stay at someone else’s house.
In recent years, the thing she said most often was that she didn’t like him. Later, when she found out about the things their parents had done and he kissed her, she would sob and choke, red-eyed, demanding: “Jiang Linye, don’t you think you’re disgusting?”
“How could I?” The first time Jiang Linye heard that question, it hurt. But after a while, he stopped feeling anything. His own mother had cursed him plenty; this was just returning to the same isolated, helpless state he’d known as a child. It wasn’t scary at all.
So at home, he always did far more than he said. Since she disliked him so much, he would just leave even more of his marks on her body. “Didn’t you used to say you liked me? Now we’re finally together—shouldn’t you be a little happy?”
Morning light slanted through the courtyard into the house. Outside the window, the flower beds faced the sun.
Several gardeners were watering the plants right outside. Mist climbed up the floor-to-ceiling glass. Through that thin barrier, Jiang Linye could see them smiling and chatting, but he couldn’t hear a single word they said.
The house was very quiet. Not a sound at all.
He suddenly lost his appetite. He opened his phone—the messages page was still completely empty except for the ones he’d sent Tang Ning yesterday.
[Are you coming home for dinner tonight?]
[It looks like it’s raining. Are you still at Sheng Xinglai’s place?]
[Do you want me to come pick you up?]
[You can’t stay overnight at her house—you’ll get an allergic reaction. Be good.]
[Ningning, reply to me.]
……
She hadn’t replied to a single one.
But the people he’d sent to keep watch had clearly reported that early this morning she’d left holding the cat in her arms, together with Sheng Xinglai. Before they drove off, she’d even sat in the car playing on her phone for a while.
She’d seen the messages. She just didn’t want to deal with him.
After a long silence, Jiang Linye felt somewhat exhausted. He called Chen Liangjun.
“Help me book a session with Lin Zhi for psychological consultation. I need to see her today.”
Of course Tang Ning had no intention of replying to Jiang Linye.
For one thing, she couldn’t even be bothered to look. For another, right now all her attention was glued to the fluffy army at the hospital.
Xingchuan Pet hadn’t been around for many years, but with the massive backing of the Sheng family, in the last couple of years it had become a real hot name in the industry. They’d rolled out high-end services tailored to different client tiers, so a ton of celebrities and rich ladies loved bringing their pets here for check-ups or boarding.
Tang Ning stared at the little animals they’d left here, so envious she couldn’t even walk straight:
“What’s that? A pet ferret? When it grows up, can you turn it into a scarf?”
“Aaaah someone actually owns an alpaca! It’s too cute wuwuwu can I take it out and hug it?!”
“Duan Baiyan’s African mini hedgehog! I want one too! I’m stealing this one!”
……
Sheng Xinglai: “I told you ages ago—you want everything you see.”
She changed into her white coat, handed the whining creature over for his check-up, then carried another cat out from a small room: “Come here, let me show you my VIP client for today.”
Tang Ning leaned in and gently poked the sultry little cat who was stubbornly burying his entire head in the pretty girl’s chest, refusing to move. The fluffy ball froze for a second, then slowly turned around. Around his neck was a small collar with a metal tag engraved with a tiny character: “Xia.”
Their eyes met. Tang Ning was stunned, instantly overwhelmed with emotion and speechless: “Xing… Xingxing, you’re way too good to me.”
Sheng Xinglai: “Huh?”
“This is the exact tricolor cat I fell in love with at the Asian Pet Expo last time! You knew I liked him and secretly adopted him for me—I know you wanted to surprise me… wuwuwu Xingxing, let’s get married, I’m serious, don’t worry too much about what society thinks—”
“No.” Sheng Xinglai ruthlessly cut her off and dodged the clawing hands reaching for her. “This is someone else’s cat. They just sent him here for a check-up and vaccines. I’m not your little lover—I’m not bored enough to prepare cute little surprises for you.”
“…”
While the whining creature was getting his check-up, Tang Ning wandered around the hospital.
Xingchuan Pet had opened many offline branches in the city, and this one was the flagship store—its footprint was ridiculously huge. The corridors were decorated warmly and cutely, but they stretched on forever like they had no end. Tang Ning got tired after just a few steps and casually found a spot to sit down.
As soon as she sat down, she overheard two young girls nearby whispering furiously, faces flushed red:
“How could he possibly be a bottom? Xiao Xia is clearly the top! He’s handsome, gentle, super smart… Did you even watch last season’s show? He defended his title from episode one all the way to the finale!”
“Of course I watched! I think Xia Fangjue is hot too, but that has nothing to do with whether he’s holding the throne or not. You only think he’s a top because you’ve never seen his brother! President Xia is the real top material! An absolute peerless gong! Every time I see them on screen together, I can brain-brew thirty thousand words of big-brother-little-brother forbidden play.”
“I can brain-brew too, but I’m betting this pair of brothers is definitely a year-Younger dynamic!”
“No way. Xia Fangjue is absolutely a bottom! Ab-so-lute-ly!”
Tang Ning: “…”
The two girls were arguing heatedly over whether their male god was a bottom or not. She cautiously peeked over and glanced at their phone screens—sure enough, there was a familiar, refined, smiling face.
Her high school class president: Xia Fangjue.
The guy who clearly studied something as unrelated to entertainment as astrophysics, yet blew up this year as the most talked-about non-celebrity star thanks to an international knowledge competition show. Later, when netizens dug up his terrifying family background and scary academic credentials, they all knelt in awe—while sharp-eyed girls spotted the real juicy point: he actually had an elusive CEO older brother.
That combo was explosive.
The warm, intelligent scholarly little young master + the dark, serious, no-nonsense president big brother—who doesn’t love shipping a pair with built-in taboo vibes? Even Tang Ning could churn out a hundred thousand words of fanfic. No wonder Xia Fangjue had blown up like this.
But still…
She was curious: [When did Xia Fangjue come back to the country?]
Sheng Xinglai: [Not long ago. Didn’t he just finish his PhD this year?]
Tang Ning thought for a second, about to say more, when Sheng Xinglai messaged again: [Where did you wander off to? Hurry back—the whining creature’s check-up results are out! Come quick, come witness your son’s historic moment!]
Tang Ning grinned, immediately wagging an imaginary huge fox tail, and happily scampered back.
The whining creature was perfectly healthy and could proceed with the “cut-off-descendants” procedure right now.
While filming a video on her phone, Tang Ning delivered a heartfelt performance, tears streaming (fake): “So pitiful… You’re about to become a ball-less little guy. It’s Mommy who couldn’t protect you. Blame Jiang Linye—it’s all his fault. Who told him to have two balls just like you wuwuwuwu…”
The whining creature had just finished the check-up and still hadn’t fully processed everything.
It looked a bit dazed, pinned down by another vet, struggling desperately to run back into its old mother’s arms: “Ying… ying!”
The old mother Tang Ning remained unmoved, wiping away completely nonexistent tears with fake sorrow: “Wuwuwu Mommy’s poor little baby, I couldn’t protect you… Mommy is too useless…”
Until the vet finally carried the whining creature into the operating room and shut the door, completely cutting off her endless babbling.
Tang Ning took a deep breath, trying to collect herself—when a clear, smiling male voice sounded behind her head: “Tang Ning.”
The voice was low and very familiar. She froze, turned around in disbelief, and met the eyes of a tall young man.
He wore a black hoodie, the same black baseball cap, and a mask covering his entire face. His nose bridge had a beautiful curve, and his eyes sparkled with tiny points of starlight.
He stood very close—like a tall plant—and Tang Ning had to tilt her head up to see his face. She wasn’t entirely sure: “You…”
“So many years, and you haven’t changed at all.”
The next second, Xia Fangjue pulled down his mask, revealing a clean, strikingly handsome face. He smiled softly and said in a low voice, “Still as cute as ever.”
Since she had to wait for the whining creature’s surgery, Tang Ning simply took Xia Fangjue to a nearby coffee shop.
The place wasn’t crowded at this hour. The hand-grinder slowly milled coffee beans, filling the air with rich fragrance. The background music was slow and soothing—a Corrinne May song, unhurried.
“How long have you been back?” Tang Ning really hadn’t expected to run into Xia Fangjue here. She was super curious. “Do you have a little pet too?”
“Not long—just got back last month.” Xia Fangjue nodded, voice gentle. “Yeah, I picked up a cat at the Asian Pet Expo and brought it here for a check-up.”
Tang Ning paused, suddenly remembering the “Xia” character on that tricolor cat’s collar. Her eyes lit up with delight: “So you’re the one who took that tricolor!”
“Yeah, the one I adopted is a tricolor…” Xia Fangjue finished, then pretended to be surprised. “How did you know?”
“Because I was at the Asian Pet Expo that day too! I had my eye on that cat, but you beat me to it.” Tang Ning found it unbelievable. “This is way too much of a coincidence.”
“Really? There’s such a thing?” Xia Fangjue smiled ambiguously, eyes curving slightly, light sparkling inside them. “That really is quite the coincidence.”
Once cats were mentioned, Tang Ning got excited and the sense of distance between them melted away: “What do you do now?”
“Working in the Mathematics and Astronomy Department at A University—doing physics research.” Xia Fangjue noticed she preferred talking about cats, paused, and smoothly circled the topic back. “I was at the CEO summit during the pet expo that day. I think I saw you.”
He’d seen her running out of the lounge in very high, thin heels, practically on the verge of tears.
He’d wanted to say hi, but ultimately held back.
Tang Ning thought he was referring to that trending topic and guiltily rubbed her nose: “That was an accident…”
“If it was an accident, then let’s not bring it up.” Xia Fangjue smiled, suddenly thought of something, leaned forward, and pulled a small gift box from his tote bag. “Oh right—this is for you. I prepared it a long time ago but never had the chance to give it. I hope you like it.”
He didn’t open it. Tang Ning glanced casually and recognized the Patek Philippe logo. Judging by the box size, it was probably a pair: “What is this?”
“A very belated wedding gift.” Xia Fangjue’s smile was warm and gentle. “Even though it’s been a long time, I still want to wish you a happy marriage.”
It really was quite belated…
So belated that she was already planning to divorce.
Tang Ning had no intention of accepting: “Let’s skip this one… Thanks for the thought, but if I take it, when you get married won’t I have to return the favor with a sea-view apartment?”
“That won’t be necessary.” Xia Fangjue’s smile grew brighter. “Just give me the flat you’re living in now. I’ve actually been thinking of changing places—my current one is too far from campus.”
“You mean Mingjun Mansion?” Tang Ning was shocked. “How do you know I have a place there?”
“Sheng Xinglai told me.” Xia Fangjue didn’t hide it. He opened the box for her; the watch face gleamed softly under the sunlight, blue stars twinkling like the night sky. “Also say hi to your husband for me.”
Tang Ning blinked, still shook her head: “Thanks, but my husband…”
She lied, “…he doesn’t wear watches.”
Three strikes and he was out—Xia Fangjue didn’t push: “Alright then. Next time I’ll bring you something else. But it’s probably about time—want to head back to the hospital and check?”
Tang Ning suddenly remembered her son and jumped up: “Go go go.”
As they left the coffee shop, bright sunshine poured down outside.
Tang Ning remembered the tricolor again: “That little collar it was wearing—did you have it custom-made?”
“No, I made it myself.” Xia Fangjue chuckled. “Does it look bad?”
“No no no.” Tang Ning quickly shook her head. “I was just thinking—if you ever need anything else, come find me next time. Our company launched smart collars with real-time tracking before, and the market response was great. Next month we’re holding the launch for the third-generation upgrade. I’ll have my assistant send you an invite—if you come, I’ll give you a discount.”
Xia Fangjue nodded slightly, smile gentle: “Sure.”
The two reached the hospital entrance. Before they went in, Tang Ning suddenly sensed something off—a faint, dangerous vibe in the air.
She spotted a familiar Maybach.
Tang Ning instantly turned calm, spun around: “I suddenly remembered there’s an urgent issue at the company. Xia Fangjue, you go ahead. Don’t worry about my cat—Sheng Xinglai will help me take him home. Thanks so much, see you next time.”
She turned to bolt.
Xia Fangjue paused, about to speak—when a cool, low male voice came from behind.
“Ningning.”
Jiang Linye opened the car door and stepped out, slamming it shut with a bang.
The tall man strode over, grabbed her wrist. His voice was a little hoarse, emotionless:
“Where do you think you’re going?”