The night deepened, the snow had stopped, and the air was thick with the chill of cold weather.
The restaurant Li Heyi had booked was at Flowing Years, over on Fulu Street—a fair distance from where Meng Qitang currently was.
She didn’t ask Li Heyi to pick her up. Instead, she drove herself to the KM Research Center first to collect Lin Linlin.
“Sss, Gangzhou is freezing…” Lin Linlin immediately began blowing on her hands against the heater vent the moment she got in the car. “Tangtang, you missed quite a show by not coming to the research center today.”
Meng Qitang had no interest in such matters. She didn’t need to guess to know it had to be something related to Ruan Yi.
Lin Linlin noticed no response and turned to look. The woman in the driver’s seat wore no makeup, her skin fair and flawless, her nose bridge elegantly high, her lips touched with a hint of red—like an ink painting rendered in soft, refined hues.
Plain enough.
Beautiful enough.
Meng Qitang rarely smiled much, and even when she did, it was never a bright, unrestrained laugh.
The cool, aloof air she carried naturally gave men who tried to approach her a sense of distance.
Lin Linlin couldn’t help but lose herself for a moment, then asked, “Tangtang, since you don’t like successful men like Li Heyi, what kind of man do you like?”
Meng Qitang furrowed her brows slightly, as if seriously considering the question.
Yet, unbidden, the image of the Peacock Deity in flowing white robes floated into her mind…
And him in her dream, disheveled, the corners of his eyes flushed red with desire, devoutly kissing the corner of her lips, his voice low and hoarse as he begged her to defile him.
“I don’t like men.”
Meng Qitang said it quickly—subconsciously unwilling to place herself and Yun Xubai in the same world.
The paths of humans and deities were different.
She knew she didn’t have the qualifications, nor the ability, to stay by his side.
“Huh?” Lin Linlin’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
She never would have guessed that Meng Qitang wasn’t interested in men.
“Oh my god, I never saw that coming at all!”
The car arrived at the bottom of Lin Linlin’s building. Only after Meng Qitang stopped the car did she slowly explain, “I’m straight.”
“Really?” Lin Linlin raised an eyebrow. She deliberately leaned in and planted a kiss on Meng Qitang’s cheek, her gaze tinged with allure. “Let me see just how straight you are, little sister.”
Meng Qitang: “…Straighter than you.”
Lin Linlin tossed her long hair. “You think I’m quite the tease too, right? So tell me, do you think I could successfully get a signature from Brother Bai out of Li Heyi?”
She had every right to say such a thing.
Lin Linlin was a quintessential snake-like beauty—an oval face, eyes with an inherently striking allure, a straight and prominent nose bridge—seductive yet never vulgar.
“Don’t mess around.”
To put it bluntly, if Lin Linlin really set her sights on Li Heyi, her success rate would probably be a hundred percent.
Meng Qitang pressed her fingertip against Lin Linlin’s forehead and pushed her away, then glanced at her wristwatch. “Zero-zero, go upstairs and get ready first. I’ll wait for you in the car.”
“OK,” Lin Linlin got out of the car. “I’ll be down in a flash.”
Flowing Years was one of Gangzhou’s top-tier upscale restaurants, with a five-figure price tag per person and reservations that were especially hard to secure.
Li Heyi couldn’t sit still in the private room—either pacing back and forth or gulping down water. Yun Xubai felt dizzy just watching him.
“Why don’t you just sit still for a moment?” Yun Xubai lounged on the sofa nearby, looking lazy, propping his head at an angle as he glanced over at him.
“Xu Bai, what do I do? This is my first blind date and I’m nervous as hell. Feel my hand!” Li Heyi said as he placed his hand over Yun Xubai’s.
A damp, warm sensation spread across the back of his hand, and Yun Xubai immediately flung the man several meters away.
“Sorry, that was a bit disgusting.”
Who in their right mind wipes their sweaty hand on someone else’s?
Yun Xubai picked up a wet wipe and cleaned his hand with slow, deliberate movements. “I don’t get it. Why do you need me at your blind date?”
He understood that single men and women in the mortal world went on blind dates, but he didn’t understand why someone needed a companion for it.
“To be my wingman!” Li Heyi grinned.
“Dream on.” The man gave him a cold, indifferent glance, then put on his mask and bucket hat. “I’m going back to sleep. I’m very tired.”
Li Heyi refused to let him leave, but no matter how he tried, he couldn’t grab hold of him.
“What the hell…” Li Heyi stood frozen in place, staring at his own hand in bewilderment. “Is it because I sweat too much, or are you part eel?”
In the end, Yun Xubai still managed to escape the scene.
Li Heyi hurriedly pulled open the door. “Xu—”
He looked up and saw Lin Linlin about to knock, her hand suspended mid-air.
Their eyes met, and the air fell silent in an instant.
Li Heyi stared at Lin Linlin’s captivating eyes—upturned at the corners like little hooks—and his nerves got the better of him.
Lin Linlin was the first to snap out of it. She knocked twice on the spot over Li Heyi’s heart. “Hello, President Li.”
Startled back to his senses, Li Heyi blinked. “You are… Miss Meng?”
He pulled out his phone, compared the photo of Meng Qitang with the woman before him, squinted his eyes, and finally reached a conclusion.
“Tsk, they really do say a girl changes eighteen times by adulthood. A whole new look every day, huh? Impressive!”
Lin Linlin: (/”≡ _ ≡)=
Call him dumb—he knew to pull out a photo for comparison. Call him smart—he couldn’t tell these were two different people.
…
After dropping Lin Linlin off, Meng Qitang found a nearby café and sat down.
The café was playing a popular song—one sung by Yun Xubai.
“Where the mortal world meets dreams,
Heartbeats like blazing flames adorning,
Lost, alone, cold and clear,
Wandering alone on the crossroad street,
Out of control, sinking, derailed,
At last finding the most fervent light…”
At that point in the song, Meng Qitang lifted her gaze to the window. Outside, the man raised his chin, his ink-black eyes meeting hers.
The Peacock Mark was tightly bound to Yun Xubai’s heart—the closer Meng Qitang was to him, the faster his heartbeat inexplicably became.
Just now in the private room, he had sensed that Meng Qitang was near Flowing Years, which was why he left early to come find her.
Since parting ways at Mist City, the two hadn’t seen each other for half a month.
As the Beginning of Spring drew closer, Yun Xubai’s dependence on Meng Qitang—both emotionally and physically—had grown far more severe than before.
So much so that only being by her side could ease it.
During the time he spent alone at Snow-Clad Plum Blossom, he had to think of Meng Qitang every night—her every smile and frown—before he could fall asleep peacefully.
Meng Qitang knew nothing of all this. Mindful of Yun Xubai’s special identity, she brought him into the car.
The man tried to take off his mask, but she reached out and stopped him.
“Keep it on. Safety first.”
“Nothing will happen to me…” Yun Xubai looked innocent. How could a mere mortal possibly harm him?
Meng Qitang frowned, her tone serious and firm. “I’m talking about my own safety.”
Yun Xubai’s lips curved into a deeper smile. As expected, being with her was always comfortable.
He felt the warmth radiating from her palm, traveling through his fingertips all the way to the tip of his heart, making it tremble involuntarily.
“Team Leader Meng, are you here for a meal too?”
Meng Qitang glanced at her own hand, then quietly withdrew it. “No, I’m here for a blind date.”
“A blind date?”